240ZBUILTBYME

Agreed! Life is certainly more full of love with them around

And shell is now in 2K Epoxy! how exciting...

Progress pics of the blasting

Cheers for the words of encouragement! Kids are the biggest time vampires...

My car has been booked into the blasters for 6 months now I was supposed to get a few things done before sending it off, however my son recently started Kindy and the hours are much less conducive to working on the car. Resulting in me not quite finishing what I wanted to before it left. Castor wheels were installed LHS rear quarter was removed If you recall i had trouble finding the spot welds on the window sill, i didnt have any success in unccovering them so i cut around the area i knew they were and ill have to patch it later. I would like to get some new quarter panels from KFVJDM but the shipping to get it to Australia is extortion. I have heard fit is not the best as well. Some rust I didnt know about hiding behind the rear wheel well I ended up cutting out the dog leg and front of the outer rocker on the LHS to give more access to the blaster, as you can see theres not much left of it! I wanted to remove the RHS rear quarter as well but ran out of time unfortunately Car was loaded onto the truck and off at the blasters with no issues, Im both excited and nervous to see what comes back. Couple of weeks and it should be ready

Its been a while since I've posted, I've been very slack on all platforms lately During the black friday sales I picked up a few goodies as i do each year got some new rear tail lights and OEM rubber seals, beautiful units. I recently got a new job based in Perth so no more Fly in FLy out! So i bought myself a present to celebrate. A few things from the lonely drivers club catalogue, have long been a fan of his work. Pedal covers, engine blank plates, door pulls, plug wire holders Also picked up the vintage connections 240z kit for when i refurb my wiring harness, probably not the most cost effective way to buy them but definitely the most convenient! got a shrinker stretcher for when the metal work starts

thats a good idea, might give me some sort of indication

Thanks! Yes this does help! somewhat anyway, they're very difficult to see for some reason, its going to be fun trying to find them...

Continuing on with panel removal I started on the LHS rear quarter panel, before starting I decided to strip the paint, Im undecided if Im going to reuse this quarter panel, I have all the necessary replacement panels to patch it (tabco rear wheel arches, KFV lower rear section and my spare roof has healthy looking pieces around the rear quarter window i could use )but would be much easier to just replace the full KFV quarter panel. but cost of shipping is beyond ridiculous. was quoted $4167USD including shipping..... more than i paid for the car! Surprisingly besides the rooted doglegs, wheel arches and rusted out quarter window sections its a very clean panel, one minor bit of dodgy patching on the very corner but otherwise clean. check out the more than inch worth of bog in the rear arch.... some real artisans worked on this car... The arches are pretty much non existant so i stripped until i found the rust and decided to leave the bog and cut around it, same with the dogleg. Ive drilled out majority of the spotwelds, only the C pillar/rear quarter window area to go. One question i have is does anyone know if there are any spotwelds in the below location onto the underlying panel that creates the curve of the rear window?

Short video on me going to build the rear rotisserie mounts but then changing plans to repairing the rear valance but then changing plans to removing all the panels. Gotta go with the flow I guess….

Just a short video on my dashboard tear down. If you’ve done the job before don’t bother but may make a good reference for some who haven’t. This footage is over a year old now, finally got round to editing, amazing how much two kids and a wife can bleed you of spare time. I’m trying a different style of video with better editing and less talking in front of the camera (which I hate) and more narration. Similar to jethro bronner who does some very nice Alfa Romeo videos. It allows me to get more work done as I don’t have to do 100 takes trying to articulate something and I can write out a script of what I want to say in the editing process instead of trying to make it up on the spot. Any constructive criticism is welcomed.

Your dash looks pretty cracked, why not remove and have it reskinned? big job though if you arent doing a full restoration.

yes there's the intake for the blower motor and also the cowl drains you would need to block and not sure if media would get into the side air plenums too. Pretty difficult with the dash still installed, might be able to block from the top. To properly blast, coat and seam seal that whole area you'd need to remove the whole top cowl panel, which is a pretty involved process. anything less would be a band aid treatment, but if theres not too serious rust you could do what you can with wire wheels and then use something that converts the rust and coats at the same time. I think eastwood has a few products

awesome project grannyknot, you are one talented fellow, if i had 25% of your skill id be stoked!

Ive spoken to the owner of KF vintage JDM and he has S130 patch panels in the pipline, timeframe unknown unfortunately.

Racer let me know if you can see this post ok? Another long day of drilling out spot welds on the roof skin. I can see why metal works are the most expensive part of restoring a car, it’s so time consuming. can anyone tell me about the joint between the rear quarter and roof skin? Mine seemed to be oxy welded or brazed together, is this factory? There was lead wiping which I burnt off, I ended up cutting the joint with a grinder but wondering if there’s a better way. I also found the front corners were welded in, there was no other way so I just cut joint and part of the skin with my 5 inch, I really must get so Roloc attachments and small cutting discs for my die grinder. I managed not to damage any structures underneath. i found the front and rear of the roof skin easy to unpick, the LHS was just cut as there was barely anything left, I found the RHS rain rail joint extremely difficult to unpick, I came close to just cutting it with a grinder on more than one occasion, but I persevered and I’m glad I did. There is just no room to work, I tried modifying my scraper blade so I could hammer it along as I went, but that wasn’t effective. In the end I used a sharpened flathead screwdriver to break the joints after drilling. there was a small amount of mangling which was unavoidable but overall very happy with how cleanly I was able to unpick the roof. I’m hoping to sell the skin to someone who needs to fill in their sunroof hole as the center of the skin is excellent. Was surprised to find the RHS to be very clean, some pitting at the rear quarter joint but overall a good result. the LHS is a $^!# show, as expected, it’s going to take a lot of work to rebuild the whole structure, rear quarter join is completely gone.

I think it’s one of the best bang for your buck mods, it made a huge difference to the rev speed. It’s nearly 10kg lighter than the stock flywheel, that’s a huge reduction in rotating mass!

Mart the 280zx is brilliant! I did the manual swap, installed a fidanza aluminum flywheel while I was in there, completely changes the car having the manual and the flywheel makes it rev much more freely. I’ve been driving it at least once a week and I love it. also installed the recaro LX. Makes a huge difference to spirited driving as I’m not struggling to stay in my seat anymore! If the 240z defeats me I’d love to do a turbo build on the zx. It’s just such a great car, just needs more power to overcome the extra weight!

Yeah lol ita because I’m copying it from the Aussie forum. So it’s rich text. I’ll try to remember to write my posts on here first. As there’s no dark version on the Aussie one.

You’re right patcon they are rare over here and even more so in Western Australia. good news though is I already have a donor roof! I have thought about buying another one but any car I buy will probably be restored, not many survivor cars this neck of the woods, and so I will have no idea what’s under the paint or the quality of the repairs and just find myself back where I started. With a rusty Datsun. Plus I would be spending a minimum of 40,000 to 50,000. The cheap unfinished projects are extremely rare in my state.

Yes you’ve mentioned this, I must remember to type my post out here and then copy to my Aussie forum. But surely this is an easy fix for whoever is managing the site?

Progress has been steady lately, but the deeper I get into this the more I feel like throwing in the towel… you will see why shortly… unpicked the beaver panel today, all went well with no surprises. Now I will have good access to repair the box section behind it. couldn’t resist putting the replacement piece on to see moved onto the roof skin next. As I began I felt a sense of impending doom… wire wheeled the rain rail to reveal the spot welds. before after ah no, Your eyes do not deceive you, that is a giant frickin hole over the A pillar. Gazing into the darkness of this chasm I felt like my soul was being pulled from my body along with all my motivation for this project…. it was like gazing into the eye of Sauron himself…. Where the roof skin joins the rear quarter was also a huge hole. I’m yet to perform the archeological dig to extract the bog artifact from its resting place I didn’t even bother trying to unpick the spot welds, I just cut what little metal was left. Then I did a lot of swearing, bird flipping and inanimate object abusing. then I unpicked the rear of the roof skin. I used a 25mm scraper blade to help check if the panels were separated and to separate the last bits that were holding on, this allowed me to do minimal damage to either panel. I found it incredibly useful. I found the roof skin was tacked the roof structure in the corners where they couldn’t get the spot welder, I believe this is from factory if anyone can confirm. so halfway to having the roof off now, should knock it off next session, then start tackling the rear quarter panels. I feel like Captain America, I keep getting beat to the ground by this car, but somehow I manage to pick myself up and utter “I can do this all day….” But lately I’ve been getting ever so close to throwing in the towel.

even cars from dry states that dont have much visible rust are rusting on the inside, so for me i want to ensure the internal structures are done, i don't want to take shortcuts and then have rust pop through my new paint job a couple of years later.... do it once, do it right.

Im planning to remove the roof skin, both rear quarters, complete rear beaver/valance panel, and I will be cutting majority of the rocker panels open, not that theres much left to cut.... this way internal structures can be blasted and coated properly. Im planning to hopefully get brand new quarters from KFVJDM, i will need to get a mortgage for shipping to australia......😬

I don’t think so, I believe they are the original floors, the line you see is the line where the sound deadening finished