240Z resurrection

tyroguru

Club Member
Great work Jon!

I think the welding on the braces looks excellent :thumbs: But I think I would have gone for angle rather than bar EXTRA:)

Thanks Phil for being very generous :) .

Re: the bar. Yeah, it was one of those things where I had convinced myself that it would make for an easier job as the access for the weld would be better and I need to make things as easy as possible. However, after having done it, I think I should have gone with angle for everything as you say. I think it's strong enough with the bar though and I can always make another if I want more practice!
 

tyroguru

Club Member
Some photos of the passenger side sill area and inner dog leg area (I really must find out what the section is called). The inner sill itself is in very good condition so I'm pleased with that.

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The inner dog leg is in a poor state and there is corrosion at the bottom of the outer wheelhouse half. The cutting damage to the inner dog leg you can see was done by me as I wanted to see what the metal was like behind it (it's got to be replaced anyway...).

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tyroguru

Club Member
I finally managed to get doing some work on the car today after a break of nearly 3 months as a number of things have got in the way - some of them were actually to do with the long term progress of the car itself though...

At the start of June I went to see Phil's (Rushingphil) home blasting setup and I liked what I saw so I made the bold, probably stupid, decision that I'm going to blast the car myself. I think it's really just an excuse for me to buy lots more toys :) . I decided I was going to pretty much copy what Phil has done as I have no idea what I'm doing really so before I could get a behemoth of a compressor I needed a beefier power feed to my garage as I only had 20A installed. Owing to COVID-19 the compressor took a while to arrive but eventually it got here and I foolishly thought I'd have it installed in a week or so but that week turned into a month! I've not done much plumbing at all and zero compressed air stuff but it's completely bonkers how many different types of fittings and connectors there are out there! I swear that in the end I've ordered over twice of what I actually used just to get the bits I needed and most of the excess stuff I'll never use. I guess most people know what they're doing so it's probably more of an issue for me than most.

Anyway, FINALLY, I have a working setup and I'm really pleased. The compressor is the FIAC 2 x 3HP 250 litre one that RTech sell which is rated at 28CFM with a FAD of 18CFM:

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(I know I need to tidy cabling up - the shame of it...). Amusingly I have the anti-vibration feet which are fully adjustable but obviously you can see that it's on tiles to level it up :) . Embarrassingly I haven't got a spanner that fits the nuts to adjust the feet. Writing this up reminded me that I need to buy one.

I haven't got my blaster yet as I'm trying to get a suction/vacuum blaster the same as Phil's so that it isn't hugely messy. However, these things are like Unicorn tears at the minute and the only UK importer (sandblasters.co.uk) have been out of stock for months and are currently saying October/November. I have however located a company in Sweden (Pela Tools) who have one and it's supposedly travelling over land and sea as I type.

So, with my first day with a working compressor I thought I'd do a bit of engine bay prep and started removing the various clamps and brackets that are in there. These are spot welded in and I couldn't stand the thought of drilling them out so I got a 10mm belt sander as a few of you on here recommended to me and it's fantastic! Really great at getting these things out. I got the Sealey SA35 and so far it seems to be excellent. However, I only got less than half the bay done as I ran out of belts :) . In the photo's below the ones at the top of the firewall that have been removed haven't really been sanded down much because of running out of belts.

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moggy240

Insurance Valuations Officer
Staff member
Club Member
The compressor looks very impressive.
When me and my mate did ours we blasted a full shell in one day but it took 2 of us to do it and then epoxy primed it the next day,it took ages trying to get all the grit out.
 

tyroguru

Club Member
Started blasting this weekend and began with the engine bay. I thought this would be a reasonable choice because it offers some straight easy stuff such as the firewall but also a bunch of awkward angles and contours so I'd be able to get a feel for what blasting will be like. The blasting unit is one of these suction/vacuum type things which suck unused and waste back into the media for filtering and re-use:

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Things went OK but it quickly gets messy with accessing areas you can't get the head onto - not a surprise really. Progress was OK but I had to keep stopping to fix the gun as it's got a hideous design defect where grit gets into the mechanism and it sticks open leaving you blasting abrasive everywhere while desperately trying to shut the air off! I guess I shouldn't expect too much as it's a pretty cheap unit but it's pretty poor.

For interested parties I'm using 60 Mesh Brown Aluminium Oxide at a smidge under 100 PSI.

Not too much has come up so far to surprise me as the battery tray area is rotted and needs replacing and you'll see from the photo's that the rust covers a reasonable sized area in that area. The rot has spread through into the chassis rail but I haven't blasted those yet (although the passenger side rail is visibly holed in this area). It's also spread several inches into the firewall as well.

After blasting I wiped everywhere down with some Tetrosyl Pre-Wipe Degreaser and low tack clothes before priming:

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I primed using SprayMax 2K Epoxy and Im using cans which is not particular cheap especially when you have to start a new one for about the last 1/4 of the job - hrmph! I have left the battery tray area though (apart from overspray) as there seemed little point wasting good primer on that. The SprayMax does seem to give a nice finish even in my hands.

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I may mix it up next with some removal with my MBX tool as I see that Howard is doing well on his with that. Anything to mix up what is a pretty tedious job at times!
 

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Rushingphil

Club Member
Looking really good Jon!

Quick question re the MBX - does it give a good enough finish I.e key, to spray straight on, or do you need to go over the surface again with a sandpaper etc. ?
 

tyroguru

Club Member
Thanks Phil!

They have different types of belt fir different finishes and some are categorised as “sand blast” finish and others are not. I have the coarse (black) and green (fine) and I think the coarse are sand blast finish but not sure about the green.
 

moggy240

Insurance Valuations Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Be careful with the mbx wheel as the wire wheel can actually polish the metal which would mean the paint will not stick. All metal done with the mbx wheel ideally wants to sand blasted for the best adhesion of the paint. There should be a data sheet for any paint you are using saying what the minimum requirement of prep is needed for maximum adhesion.
 

uk66fastback

Club Member
Good work. I did my Mustang years ago myself, but not with such great kit as you have. It’s a tedious process and hard work but ultimately satisfying.

I’d do as much as you can of the fiddly bits with the grit but do the paint on the exterior using an angle grinder with the special wheel you can get for paint removal. You only need to blast where the rust is eating the metal imo. That epoxy primer sounds Like good stuff as well ...
 

tyroguru

Club Member
Good work. I did my Mustang years ago myself, but not with such great kit as you have. It’s a tedious process and hard work but ultimately satisfying.

I’d do as much as you can of the fiddly bits with the grit but do the paint on the exterior using an angle grinder with the special wheel you can get for paint removal. You only need to blast where the rust is eating the metal imo. That epoxy primer sounds Like good stuff as well ...

Thanks Mike. Yes, I think that I'm probably going to look at that route and experiment a bit. I'm fortunate that I do have quite a few toys and bits to play around with. I don't really mind it taking a long time as it gives me longer to figure it all out but I really need to minimise the mess that the garage ends up on if possible!
 

tyroguru

Club Member
Be careful with the mbx wheel as the wire wheel can actually polish the metal which would mean the paint will not stick. All metal done with the mbx wheel ideally wants to sand blasted for the best adhesion of the paint. There should be a data sheet for any paint you are using saying what the minimum requirement of prep is needed for maximum adhesion.

Mike - on Monti's data sheet for the different wheels you can get they claim the coarse black wheel gives a "sand blast effect" but it looks like that's the only colour wheel where they claim that. Do you have any experience prepping metal with the different colour wheels?
 

moggy240

Insurance Valuations Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Sand blast effect is not the same as sand blasted.
The data sheet for the paint is the important one.
I have used the black wheels before and then sanded the metal with 80 grit DA sander
 

bigh

Club Member
Jon, I have been using the 'medium' wheel on the interior, floor etc. (As I have run out if the coarse belts). The surface of the metal is very rough, and although I haven't checked the Monti data sheet, I would be very surprised if the primer didn't adhere to such a rough/stippled surface. Obviously with the correct degrease & prep routine before painting.
 

tyroguru

Club Member
Jon, I have been using the 'medium' wheel on the interior, floor etc. (As I have run out if the coarse belts). The surface of the metal is very rough, and although I haven't checked the Monti data sheet, I would be very surprised if the primer didn't adhere to such a rough/stippled surface. Obviously with the correct degrease & prep routine before painting.

I guess it depends upon what Primer you're using Howard and without confirmation of what (if any) equivalent grit level the Monti wheels give I'd be very hesitant about not applying the appropriate sanding regime as specified by the data sheet for the primer. It would be awful for the primer to fail after all this effort wouldn't it! Mike (moggy240) seems to know his onions with this stuff and his pretty definite on the black wheels needing sanding afterward.

The data sheets are interesting though. For Upol Acid 8 Etch which is a 1K primer that I've used on some stuff the data sheet says to sand with 180 - 240 grit paper. However, for the SprayMax 2K epoxy that I have the data sheet just says "Steel (cleaned and sanded)" under the Substrate section! Unless I'm being very stupid it doesn't give a grit rating for substrate prep (but it does for prep for top coat though). As if it isn't all complex enough as it is!
 

moggy240

Insurance Valuations Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Yes some technical data sheets can be a bit vague but I found one for a similar product to give you an idea of minimum prep. I don't generally degrease as some degreasers leave residue if not cleaned properly and I wear gloves so I don't contaminate the surface with finger prints etc. I hate it when people touch panels that I have prepped. Screenshot_20200914-003043.jpg
 

tyroguru

Club Member
Thanks for the input Mike. Interesting that you don't generally degrease - you must be fastidious in your cleanliness with the metal you're working with. I'd just finished stripping the passenger side rear quarter panel the other day and my wife came into the garage, commented how clean it looked and started touching the panel!! I guess we've all got to learn :) .
 

moggy240

Insurance Valuations Officer
Staff member
Club Member
There is nothing worse than greasy finger prints on panels. I do degrease for top coats but always make sure to wipe on and wipe off,dont let the degreaser air dry on the panels as the residue can react with the paint.
 
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