My Swiss 1972 S30 240Z rebuild project

[JDMjunkies.ch]

yeah it's cheap but i think it works well for those two times a year i need it :)

[Wide14u]

maybe 3 times even i think it well last a long time :D

[JDMjunkies.ch]

ah not too much progress at the moment - i know. im teaching some apprentices at the moment so i have a lot of other stuff to do now :D but anyway, the project still continues and is on my mind daily :D

 

sometimes you just have to make some desicions even if you might be wrong. and that's what i did! i decided to wether sandblast the car nor give it a bath. because both versions are really complicated, expensive and both have bad aspects in the result and i can't do it on my own, so a friend of mine (expert in restoring cars) recommanded to get the paint of with some 3M CSD-Disks. and that's what i will do at least particular now.. and then i'll see how it turns out. the 3M CSD Disks are specially designed to remove paint, rust etc but not scratch the surface of intact metal. we'll see how it works :D

 

i bought one disk for testing-purpose today and hopefully my friends return from their vacation soon so then can help me get the eingine, transmission and suspension out so the car is ready for some more work :D

[Laecaon]

Awesome work! Keep up the motivation!

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Saturday = Car's day

So i did what most of you do - spend a few hours in the garage :)

 

Completed the assamly of my Engine hoist:

 

Next step was to contiune with the e-brake assambly so i started unplugging the e-brake lines:

 

and then the hooks and braket that holds the whole system:

 

and finally - bracket and e-brake lines out:

 

as the stabilizer/rollbars are out now i decided to get the jackstands under those rails so i'll be able to remove the rear subframe easier in future:

 

now of course i had to try my new tool - the 3M CSD-Disk. worked pretty fine, but needs a whole lot of time to get the whole car done with this, but it's so much fun seeing the paint coming of.

Here you can see the different layers of bondo, Primer and paint used on the taillight-panel:

 

the whole process produces quite a lot dust, so i decided to not continue without having a mask protecting my lounges :)

 

that's it for today - more to come soon :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Well i have some news, some sad ones and some really great ones :)

 

1) Let's start off with the reason why there wern't many updates in the last two weeks or so:

 

- My friend who usually helps me with the things i don't understand was out on vacation for two weeks now

- I was off for snowboarding a few days

- I really had to figure out first how to continue with the project, as i had now idea and don't wanted to start off with things that might be wrong at the end..

- Some dude crashed into my daily driver and i had (And still have) to handle that so i get the money from his insurrance company and get my car fixed again...

And before you ask - this was NOT my RHD JDM EK9, it's just a low-powered daily civic :)

 

2) But now the good news:

- my friend is back and hopefully we'll be able to pull out the engine and transmission soon :)

- I just called a industrial-coating and painting company near me (recommanded by many friends) and decided that he'll be the guy who paints my car.

That guy will come here next monday and check the car so we can do a plan what's the best procedure to remove paint and how to contiune. as soon as i know

I can proceed with the body paint removal and probably rust repair. this well be great.

 

that's it for the moment. have to check for spareparts for my daily now :/

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Well, i decided it's time to get some stuff done again and after about an hour of work i finally got those "wrong" taillights at least particulary out.

 

1) old housings out:

 

2) Genuine mounting holes drilled back into place (i still need to get the placement for thw inner two holes..)

 

3) a random shot of the actual state of the project:

[Wide14u]

sorry about your dd. i think your progress is going just fine

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Just a short picture of today's work. took me about 1,5 hours, but turned out quite well i think. my skills with the CSD disks are getting better :D

 

[Wide14u]

your skills look good to me keep it coming

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Just a short update without pictures:

The paint-guy just was here and i asked him a lot of questions how to proceed with removing paint and thing how the whole painting process will work.

 

i think it's a bit too complicated to explain the whole process, but you'll see. i've written down everything so i don't forget :)

 

the good things are:

- i can do pretty a lot things by myself. like adding the primer, etc..

- i can tear down the car even more at the moment. means get out suspension and footworks..

 

 

the "bad" things:

- i definitly need a rotisserie, well i think i need to have one built

- the whole process is definitly much more complicated then i thought, but at least i can do most of the things alone at home - great :)

 

i'd like to thank bruno schweizer from Schweizer Auto design, who was very helpful and even told me to get me the needed stuff (like coats, etc..)

And show me how to use it. I will definitly bring the car to this guy to get it painted at the end.

 

but will be a long journey until then... but now i know how to do this and im ready to go :)

 

 

 

[Wide14u]

we are still pulling for you

[Dirk Diggler]

With the amount of work you are putting into this car it should come out great. As for the rotisserie, I don't think you need one unless you have some bad rot and are replacing floor boards and wanting to do a sealer or paint the under body.

 

I'm not sure if there are any discount paint shops over there, but in the US there are places like MAACO that are good for a budget. I was quoted $250 for a single stage paint job. I will have to do all of the prep to get it ready, they just spray it. They don't do the best paint jobs, but I plan on sanding down what they do to get out any orange peel or fish eyes.

 

Whatever you decide I know will look good. Do you know what color you are going to paint it?

[JDMjunkies.ch]

HI Dirk :)

well i don't know any discount paint shops over here and even the good ones are hard enough to find ( i mean those really who know what they're doing :D). well i decided to get the underbody completely down to metal and repaint it. it's the only way to find all the rust spots and i have big pieces of coat chipping away when i work underneath it so the previously done restoration was really bad and i want to do it better :D

 

i can do all the primaring and underbodypainting myself he told me. he then will sand it down and do the real paintjob. sounds good to me, but i think it will cost at least 2k or something if it's done right with alle the layers and things..

 

the plan is to get the car back to it's original white (not sure which paint code it is..) and then add black bumpers, fender mirrors, ducktail wing, and probably even got some black overfenders and a black hood. but im not sure on those overfenders and hood now.. so i have to see.. but the car will definitly get it's old white (like all of my cars :D) back..

[Laecaon]

You can get this stuff called aircraft remover here in the states. It is a gel consistency and you spread it on. Give it 15minutes and you can scrape the paint off really easily. Look at the recent pages in Philcas' thread.

[SoCal521]

.

[JDMjunkies.ch]

@ leacraft: Have seen a lot use of that aircraft paint remover on american builds, but i think i will save this stuff for smaller parts like doors, hatch, etc, where i can use it outside. not sure if this is ok to use on the whole body inside my garage. also not sure if it's acid maybe and will attack the metal maybe. but we'll see..

 

Back to work:

So, after the paint-guy told me it would be wrong to leave de-painted metal without any coating (it would start to rust immediatly) and after i now know i can removeo thw whole suspension and everything i decided to get the car stripped down totally first, before i contiune with the metal-repair and paint removing...

 

wanted to remove the front axle and suspension assembly today, but then found out the engine is actually sitting on the front suspension bar, so i cant' remove it without getting the engine out first. argh.

but well i prepared a few things so it will go easier and faster when it's time for the front axle removal.

 

1) started to remove the front brake lines from the assembly.

 

2) then started to remove what they call "compression bars" in the service manual:

 

3) Finally both compression bars out:

 

then i got a little inspiration. a diecast model. mine will be exactly like this one, except those totally wrong wheels and a different colour. beautiful :)

 

also i'm currently thinking of how to build a rotisserie, but more on t hat another day :)

[Dirk Diggler]

For the rotisserie, pm the510keeper. he does amazing paint work and can probably guide you in building one

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Thanks for your input man - always apreciate it!! :thumbup:

 

Well after i read a lot the last past hours about the usage and builds of rotisserie's and how easier it made work and how much you can't do a professional build without one - i decided i need one :D

 

But after i checked prices and delivery of those few avialeble i decided i need to build my own one. there are a lot of different types, but the base-idea is always the same.

 

I have not really planned the details yet, and i need to do some drawings and calculations and find someone who can show me how to weld (yeah i can't so far :P) but then i found this:

 

If you're looking for something similar, check this page, brilliant selfmade (or self-modified) rotisserie for the S30Z chassis. Also i've been told that the rear bumper suppor mounts are strong enough to hold the car there.

http://www.zparts.co...ges/slide01.htm

 

then after i looked a bit more at the pages of that selfmade-rotisserie i decided it might be a bit too simple and now the idea is to build something between the one above and this a bit mor professional one

[Wide14u]

i think i would modify some engine stand to do it

[JDMjunkies.ch]

well sounds like a good idea, but i think you'd need to modify so many things so at the end you could easily bould yourself one :D the next problem is i need the engine stand to keep my engine on :D

here's another picture of one i like:

[Wide14u]

something about this one doesn't look right it doesn't spine in the middle of the car or is it just me

[JDMjunkies.ch]

that's how it should be :D because if you had the spinning-point at the height you would mount it at the chassis (subframing) then you would be totally of with weight-balance (top and low end) and like this the center of gravity is right in the spinning-center. also you can acces it quite easier when it's upside down. if you look around all of dem are done this way :cool:

[Wide14u]

i think its mounted in the where the bumper are

[Laecaon]

It mounts to the bumpers, but the bumpers are not at the center of gravity. This last design allows the weight to be shifted so the center of gravity is lined up with the spinning axis.