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My Swiss 1972 S30 240Z rebuild project


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  • 2 months later...
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It has been a while, since i updated the 240Z project here. It's not dead at all, i'm just super busy with some once-in-a-lifetime projects that have to be adressed first.
I was a bit bummed that my bodyshop guy was so busy as well and couldn't work on it either. However yesterday and today i got some updates totally unexpected and was more than happy :)
1) Tabco rear inner wheel well was finally welded in and painted in some protective paint:
IMG-20170807-WA0019-Kopie.jpg
 

The wheel arches are coming along nicely...
IMG-20170807-WA0018-Kopie.jpg
 

Todays update contained the rear lower piece of the RH side lower door sill area. Before:
WhatsApp-Image-2017-08-08-at-13.15.24-Ko

After:
WhatsApp-Image-2017-08-08-at-13.15.25-Ko

Let's see what's up next :)

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Today finally some progress on the Z from my side as well :)
After removing the Breather vent:
SAM_0322-Kopie.jpg

I had serious trouble to get out the speedo pinion carrier from the transmission. Thanks to my close friend Stefan and some brute force, it finally gave up and came out nicely:
P1190014-Kopie.jpg

He also managed to move the "tube" that holds the gear selector in place, intwards the transmissino housing:
P1190019-Kopie.jpg

So i was able to remove the gear selector.
P1190015-Kopie.jpg

It's currently at my other buddy Stefan for some rework (more on that soon)
P1190018-Kopie.jpg

After i finally have disassembled the transmission as far as i want to go myself, i had to make an "exploded" view shot, just for fun's sake :)
P1190037-Kopie.jpg

Next step was masking the transmission housing parts with duct tape for glass-bead-blasting and to prevent glass beads ending up in the transmission..
P1190039-Kopie.jpg

The previous owner once decided to paint it all in silver, but i will get rid of the peeling-off paint again and have it back in all it's original aluminum glory. Now only waiting for that one part back from rework, then will have it all blasted. All the other parts are ready :)
P1190042-Kopie.jpg

 

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  • 1 month later...

In my last post about the 240Z you could easy see how the gear selector was worn out and had some concave marks where the balls meet the selector.
Since it's a Cast iron item it's a bit tricky to weld. And if you've been following me for a while you know there's only one superhero for me when it comes to metal and welding:
My buddy Stefan Schär - who own's an awesome little collection of beautiful Nissan's and Datsun's by the way - So i sent him that thing to fix it:
Before (Clearly some "holes" visible):

21733434_10213863009199721_358009963_n.j
 

After some pre-treatment and cleaning the holes got welded up:
21729443_10213863009119719_359749169_n-K
 

and then ground back to originale flatness:
21729318_10213863008479703_53800243_n-Ko

Surface is way smoother than it was from factory. Now those shifts should be direct as New again. Maybe even better :)  
P1190219-Kopie.jpg

Next it's going off to Glass-bead blasting, then the transmission is ready for assembly again :)

For Stefan, he opened up his own business "Cagedude" lately, specializing in rollcages, but doin' basically anything that involves some metal and welding (and cars maybe) :)
Check out his facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/cagedude/ for some examples.
His stuff is really work of art, and i have the highest praises for all the stuff he's done for me so far. And he's a super nice guy too, with a lovely little family. Check it out and support Stefan / Cagedude, you won't regret it :)
20264544_307403086391925_354888482970346

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  • 2 weeks later...

Last week i brought my transmission housing parts and some smaller bits to the local blasting company. The guy made a serious appearance and explained how Aluminum parts like these normally will be treated with class-triangles to break-up old paint and remove it. and then treated with glass-beads (pearls) to increase the surface density. He even told me  he's gonna paint the cast-iron parts with a clearcoat to prevent it from rust...
This is how it looked before:
P1190228-Kopie.jpg

Clearly old silver paint peeling off is visible:P1190229-Kopie.jpg

Today i picked it up. and the first thing i noticed how "raw" and rough everything looked. It reminded me of sandblasted items. Sand-blasting is corrosive and will remove small spots in the surface of aluminum (like the transmission part) and give it a rough feel.
While the aluminum is thick enough to handle it, it just doesn't look as smooth as a factory-fresh unpainted transmission should look in my opinion:
P1190233-Kopie.jpg

But since i don't have a lot of experience, i returned home. What made me even more curious was the fact that sand came out of various spots of the transmission. Its clearly not glass-bead, nor is it any other glassy. I guess this is the "sand" they use for sand-blasting..
The guy even told me how hard it was to remove the paint from the previous owner. so i guess they switched to sand at some point.P1190232-Kopie.jpg

While i'm all fine with that, i guess they didn't glass-bead blast if after that. Somehow it gets a bit more shiny / glossy after glassbead-treatment and this sure looks like just sandblasted to me.P1190234-Kopie.jpg

Also the cast-iron small pieces didn't get the promised clearcoat...P1190236-Kopie.jpg

Not sure yet. Don't want to blamy anybody and it would clearly do the job. but i want to have it perfect. Either i bring it back or i bring it to another company to have it checked and re-done... have to think about it.
Or maybe it's just me and the "gloss" will come back once it's slightly corroded? not sure...

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Ugh, they used duck tape to mask off the machined surfaces? And they left silica dust pouring out of every orifice? Eh, I'd settle for finding a high durability paint and paint the transmission. No one is going to fault you for using a factory appearing silver/aluminum colored paint. Unless your goal is Concours judging, in that case, don't listen to lil' old me. ;)

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they suggested me to put the duct-tape there. I thought it wasn't a problem since they won't blast on t hese sides anyway..
I'm not into concours restauration but just like the factory look of raw, shiny aluminum. and since the previous paint peeled off on all parts that got hit with stones i decided raw aluminum might last longer and looks more original in the same. the glass-bead surface-treatment should give it a bit of extra strength at the surface too :)

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I read the whole topic by one stand, your build is amazing. Those Bride seats and all just WOW! I wish that i could have as good metal working skills as you have.

 

Will follow this project to the end for sure! One more time, WOW!

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I'm not sure how humid it is in Switzerland, but the bare aluminum might start to corrode on the surface if not coated in someway. :/ Just a thought. 

 

Regardless, great dedication on the resto so far!

 

~Peter

No problem as long as it looks like OEM-style corroded :D It's alluminum after all so it will not "rust-through" as iron or other metal will ;)

Thanks for the nice words :)

 

I read the whole topic by one stand, your build is amazing. Those Bride seats and all just WOW! I wish that i could have as good metal working skills as you have.

 

Will follow this project to the end for sure! One more time, WOW!

Thanks mate. Really appreciate some kind words every now and then to motivate me :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

In my last post, i wrote about the fact that the transmission looked wrong after the "glass bead blasting". Many readers pointed out it seems to have been just sandblasted. I contacted the blasting company again and asked what happened. He excused himself a hundred times and told me that his guy somhow missunderstoud somthing and that it was only blasted. but not sand blasted as you thought, but blasted with "broken glass". this is softer and won't attack the surface of the Aluminum. It's less corrosive than regular silicat-sand used for blasting. At least that was good news. He promised me to immediately fix that. Today i was able to pick it up again:
P1190241-Kopie.jpg

They glass-bead blasted everything and the surface now looks and feels a lot smoother and got this slight "satin gloss" finish. just as it should be. The sense of Glass bead blasting is to improve the surface density of aluminium. Like that it's much stronger and will keep the appearance for a longer time when used unpainted in a car.
P1190244-Kopie.jpg

While it doesn't have the super-glossy OEM-like finish it's what i was aiming for. I got told for the glossy finish it should be soda/vapour/fluid blasted. But for me it's perfect as it is. it's not going to be a concours build anyway and it seems much fresher again. Also they clearcoated the cast-iron bits as promised, to protect it from corrosion:
P1190245-Kopie.jpg

This is how the gear selector looks after the protective tape was removed. Still needs a bit of cleaning though but looks perfect. just as i wanted it :)
P1190246-Kopie.jpg

Super happy with the result. and while it took me a few extra hours to bring it back again and pick it up. the good thing is they felt so sorry that the extra-work was for free. They only charged me for the first part of the work. which is awesome and came out on a budget :)

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Nothing big here. just spent two hours cleaning all the transmission parts after the glass bead blasting. Removed some leftovers from the masking tape and blew away all the leftovers from the blasting from all the small corners, etc. Since i forgot my cam at home you only get some crappy mobile-phone shots:
DSC_1696-Kopie.jpg
When done i started going through the small parts and decided i could clean them too. so the trusty green scotch-n-brite came in handy again to clean all the small pieces:
DSC_1697-Kopie.jpg
Then decided to make a little test-assembly with the new PU shifter bushings (red), since the old ones were quite worn-out (black):
DSC_1698-Kopie.jpg
This is how it all goes together:
DSC_1699-Kopie.jpg
And this is the result. quite happy. Will remove it all again, grease the rubber with some bushing-grease from the energy-bushings kit and have the washers and nuts zinc-plated alongside all the other nuts and bolts from the transmission before the final assembly:
DSC_1700-Kopie.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Had a bit of spare-time today and decided it's time to get some stuff done for the car once again. Wanted to have some parts replated (yellow zinc) so i grabbed everything that seemed to be worth replating. Here are all the small transmission parst that will go for replating (not all of them)
All-overview-Kopie.jpg

And than i found some other stuff that had to be disassembled first like the side marker / Turn signal lights:
P1190291-Kopie.jpg

Engine compartment repair light (Early version with the toggle type switch). before:
P1190292-Kopie.jpg

After ( I cut the wires since i will replaced them with new cables. the old ones are quite brittly and Nissan had a person with bad soldeirng skills for their soldeirng work *lol*):
P1190302-Kopie.jpg

Then the hood stay / lock mechanics:
P1190311-Kopie.jpg

So here are all the parts ready for replating. Still need to remove old paint (will do that tomorrow) before sending them. In case if you wonder how i remember where all the parts belong - What you see on this blog is actually just a small fraction of the pictures i make. I like to make all kind of "exploded view" shots like the ones above to remember the order they came in (FSM is wrong sometimes, or a bit unclear). And i also mark my pictures as seen here. When the parts return i will put them in the boxes again which belong to each part of the car :)
P1190312-Kopie-Kopie.jpg

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Very nice. Way beyond my organizational skills.

Haha thanks. maybe you have a better workflow of reworking single units and not disassemble the whole car at the same time, like me :) have way too many single bits and bolts and no clue where they go, thats why i invented this organization system at an early stage of the project :)

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Spent some more time disassembling parts to get them ready for zinc-replating.
Thought while at it, i could take the brake-parts for a replating as well. So i started with the disassembly of my Sumitomo MK63 Solid disk type Ex-works type calipers:
P1190323-Kopie.jpg

First got the old pads and shims removed. still looking quite good to be honest:
P1190321-Kopie.jpg
 

Then spent an hour or so at the garage and disassembled the rest of the calipers. With the help of my trusty little air-compressor and some redneck-skills i managed to get 7/8 cylinders out of the calipers without any damage to me, tools or the calipers.
However the last sucker doesn't want to come out. Even brought it to a local garage and he used a torch to heat it up but wasn't able to remove it. we'll see how i can do that. Any inputs? Otherwise i'll try another two days having it soaked in WD40, and if that doesn't work i'll bring it to a machine shop or so...
P1190334-Kopie.jpg

Otherwise i was quite successfull, the brakes are in great condition and by the way even learned a lot about brakes (first time working on some brakes so that was quite some fun). 
After that i took all the bits from the brakes plus some other i found in my garage and put them in the "re-plating box". Still need to clean all of this stuff for a few hours before i can send it there (they prefer old rust, grease, rubber-leftovers and paint to be removed.
P1190338-Kopie-2.jpg

Hope i find some time again soon..

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While i can't show you much, i've been busy lately completeing a lot of stuff i've started but never really finnished.
1) Thanks to the input of some readers i was finally able to remove the last cylinder from the brake caliper. The solution was easy. install the allready-removed cylinder again and fix it with a c-clamp. add some air-pressure again to the brake-fluid channels and it would pop out easily (It doesnt look like the cylinder is aligned properly but i fixed that)
P1190346-Kopie.jpg
 

Since sunday my Rattler / Vibrator / Tumbler / Spirator / Whatever you call it, has been working in full force to remove all the rust / Paint / Dirt and grease from all the parts i will send for re-plating. It's maybe not the fastest solution but it comes out quite handy and you don't have to do anything except of waiting :)
P1190349-Kopie.jpg
 

Guess it will take another week or so until all the parts are ready andsome of them even might need a bit of manual cleaning, but the first bunch of parts are allready looking shiny and have a super-smooth surface :)
P1190348-Kopie.jpg
 

Then i got some new (used) turn signal switches from my mate Patrick (Thanks for that!) to complete that job too.  
P1190350-Kopie.jpg

That's it for now hope for more updates again soon :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Was quite busy this week with the Z's small projects that have been going on. I've been cleaning and exchanging the partsi n my tumbler almost daily and today i finally had them completed:
P1190386-Kopie.jpg

Now all is packed up and ready for zinc re-plating and yellow passivating. Which means i have to wait for the parts for approximately one week before i can continue.
Pretty happy with the result by the way. The Tumbler was well invested money. just took me some years to figure out how to use it properly :)
P1190388-Kopie.jpg

During preparation process i also fixed some parts which where slightly worn out.
Like this one. Before:
P1190382-Kopie.jpg

Straightening it out in the little vice:
P1190384-Kopie.jpg

and After. Much better :)
P1190385-Kopie.jpg

Oh and then got some new parts, like the replacement repair-lamp bulb cover. I know it's not 100% the OEM colour, but it looks pretty good. still might try to clean the original one.
P1190351-Kopie.jpg

Oh and some new door switches by the original manufacturer:
P1190381-Kopie.jpg

And greased and packed all my brake-stuff to prevent them from rusting.
P1190359-Kopie.jpg

Oh and started disassembly and cleaning of the ignition switches:
P1190377-Kopie.jpg

Next step: Ordering some parts (will do that in a minute) and then complete some other bits next week.

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This week has been the most busy one car-wise in a while :) Well. I guess that's good?!
Thist itme i've cleaned the ignition switches again thoroughly and assembled them back. Tried to keep the original patina but clean it. And made sure all the contacts are fine.
P1190393-Kopie.jpg

Then installed one of them directly to the previously finnished steering column:
P1190394-Kopie.jpg

Really fun to start putting completed parts together to even bigger completed parts :)
Had the covering ring cleaned, since the old paint wasn't nice anymore:
P1190389-Kopie.jpg

Resprayed it with some rattle-can car-paint in flat black and had it drying under the lamp for a day: 
P1190396-Kopie.jpg

And then put it back to the switch:
P1190406-Kopie.jpg

And then got a package from Poland. Have to Thank Jakub Nurzaj a lot for his support and digging in some old stock to find me this US-Spec Corner valance with the factory cutout for the american turn signals. Cheers mate for the great service!
P1190400-Kopie.jpg

Also thanks for the free datsun europe stickers!
P1190401-Kopie.jpg

So now i have another shipment ready to get rust and paint removed at the alcohol dipping company. Body-parts are now officially complete. Hope i can push my bodyshop to hurry up a bit with the chassis... Progress is awfully slow at the moment...
P1190407-Kopie.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Since i have all of my body panels together, i wanted to have a look at the last possible "unknown" area.
The front grille. I never had a close look at it and wanted to make sure it's OK. Well it's not (of course :D).
Started like this. It seems like there are various versions of the grille around, but it apepars that this is a fulyl original one. the middle finis shorter, which also seems to be original.

P1190412-Kopie.jpg

Everything is just plugged together and then secured with four long and thin bolts on the back of the horizontal fins:
P1190417-Kopie.jpg

Onfortunately it's all just made out of cheap and thin sheet metal, so quite prone to bending:
P1190419-Kopie.jpg

Luckily the most delicate parts (the fins) are ok, and the rest is quite easy to fix or make on my own (i guess). the rest of the parts are just riveted together, so i probably give it a try and make my own grill.
Need to think about it and see if i'm able to find the horizontal U-shaped fins in the correct size.. :) guess i will send the available parts for rust and paint-stripping and then see what i can do :) seems to be a fun DIY project :)
P1190420-Kopie.jpg

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So yesterday i got the box with parts back from the plating company. Everything got cleaned, zinc plated and yellow passivated. The colour is slightly different then last time (more redish). Probably due to the changed regulations for the mix of chemicals used for this procedure.
P1190422-Kopie.jpg

Still quite happy with the result. Took me a while to sort through all the parts, but mostly figoured it out by now :)
P1190424-Kopie.jpg

Started with the re-assembly of some parts. From this...
P1190426-Kopie.jpg

To this (Hose brackets)
P1190427-Kopie.jpg

From this...
P1190428-Kopie.jpg

To this (hood closing mechanism..)
P1190429-Kopie.jpg

This (the other part of the hood closing mechanism... (x2)
P1190430-Kopie.jpg

And then finally got all the parts ready to re-assemble the shifter with the new bushings and some bushing grease. Before...
P1190431-Kopie.jpg

After.
P1190432-Kopie.jpg

And because fun, i decided to test-fit the Kameari Z-Shift knob as well. Thiss will be a perfect match once it's in the car :)
P1190433-Kopie.jpg

Still have some parts to sort through and a lot to assemble. but need some pre-work on some parts first...

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