What did you do to your Z this week?

Bazzateer

Bazzateer

Club Member
Discovered my washers were inoperative the other day.
Checked the fuse: All good
Checked the wiring: All good
Pulled the motor and tested it: Not working.
Opened it up to find:
20210715_175418.jpg

Yeah, that'll be it. So, looked on eBay and found an exact replacement, delivered today.

20210715_175311.jpg

Fitted it and normal service resumed. Being a Lucas badged product I suppose I'll need to keep an eye out in case it lets the smoke out!
 
Mr.G

Mr.G

Club Member
richiep said:
Had a play with a new toy at lunch.

Firstly, no real Dixie updates - the rear hatch is ready for a sealer coat of epoxy after getting the skimming work complete (I used Evercoat Easy Sand for this - expensive but me likey).
c2eqT6h.jpg

(The photo also shows the new lip spoiler for the Celica that arrived from Japan a few days ago.)

Rather than get another can of the 2k epoxy by Mipa/Upol/Spraymax (the same stuff), this weekend I’ll be transitioning over to my 4-stage turbine HVLP setup and shooting this stuff for the first time:
yLoELJG.jpg

Should be more economic than the cans.

I’ve been gradually working on the Star Shark wheels I got for the RA25 Celica. They were pretty oxidised and have needed much cleaning up and sanding/polishing to get the deep lips free of marks and in a state suitable for 2K clear. I’ve still only done one to the standard I’m after:
gdMrPsN.jpg

Obviously, the centre is still in need of attention on that one. That’s where the new toy comes in, and another wheel was used as a test subject:
BEq3CTe.jpg

Bought one of those smaller soda blaster guns (with a suction cup). Pretty effective, although it is very greedy with the media and I ended up looking like I’d taken a bath in cocaine. A chunk of the garden looked like it had been snowing too (and I notice some of the weeds have started to go black and die thanks to the soda!). Still, biodegradable and all that. Keep tasting salt though...
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Need picks of the soda aftermath !! :)

Wheels will look great.
 
Bazzateer

Bazzateer

Club Member
You can't go far wrong with Michelin tyres. In a previous life I was a tyre fitter and they were the best made tyres on the market requiring very little weight to balance them.
 
Mark N

Mark N

Club Member
I've got Pilot 4 on my 360 and they certainly provide decent grip, despite the fronts being fairly skinny-ish at 215.
Mind you, that was in Cyprus with a warmer, drier climate than the UK and not driven much in the wet.
 
Woody928

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Wally said:
Now I'm back from working away I can get cracking with the Z again. Finally got tyres put on the new wheels. Ended up with Mitchelin Pilot Sport 4. View attachment 46105
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Great all round road tyre in the wet and dry, you'll be very happy I'm sure. I'd love to see what they look like fitted as they could be on my list in the future for the Z.

Sadly the Yokohama AD08R I'm currently using has been discontinued and replaced with the RS which has awful reviews from multiple sources....
 
Wally

Wally

Club Member
Woody928 said:
Great all round road tyre in the wet and dry, you'll be very happy I'm sure. I'd love to see what they look like fitted as they could be on my list in the future for the Z.

Sadly the Yokohama AD08R I'm currently using has been discontinued and replaced with the RS which has awful reviews from multiple sources....
Click to expand...
I was looking at the AD08R as my top choice but heard the bad stuff about the replacement which put me off.

I’m finishing off the suspension next week and trial fitting the wheels ready for the car being moved to its new home in Edinburgh. That's if I can find somewhere to store it. No arches fitted yet so I'll have to raise the suspension to make room for the wheels. I throw a picture or two once they are fitted.
 
Woody928

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Calling all of our metal work experts on here.

I've just been gifted this MIG Welder through a contact on the farm where I work, its rather sadly been passed to me as part of a dead mans chest as I'd previously expressed an interest in learning to weld before. The PO's wife just wanted all of his tools to go to good homes and be used, so we're just making some charity donations by way of a thank you.

Can anyone tell me exactly what I'm looking at and what kind of work its suitable for performing?

I'm assuming there will likely be a spool of wire somewhere inside and I will obviously need to acquire a gas bottle to get started. Any advice or input would be gratefully received!

IMG_6738.jpeg
IMG_6737.jpeg
 
Rob Gaskin

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Woody928 said:
Calling all of our metal work experts on here.

I've just been gifted this MIG Welder through a contact on the farm where I work, its rather sadly been passed to me as part of a dead mans chest as I'd previously expressed an interest in learning to weld before. The PO's wife just wanted all of his tools to go to good homes and be used, so we're just making some charity donations by way of a thank you.

Can anyone tell me exactly what I'm looking at and what kind of work its suitable for performing?

I'm assuming there will likely be a spool of wire somewhere inside and I will obviously need to acquire a gas bottle to get started. Any advice or input would be gratefully received!

View attachment 46131
View attachment 46132
Click to expand...

Hi Mark, I think it's an Arc welder not a Mig welder. It will use welding rods not a motorised spool of wire and it won't used an 'inert gas' (IG in MIG) to reduce oxidisation. Not a good tool for thin metal found on cars. I may be wrong about it.
 
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Wally

Wally

Club Member
Rob Gaskin said:
Hi Mark, I think it's an Arc welder not a Mig welder. It will use welding rods not a motorised spool of wire and it won't used an 'inert gas' (IG in MIG) to reduce oxidisation. Not a good to for thin metal found on cars. I may be wrong about it.
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Rob I think the name has thrown you. It's definitely a mig.

Mark, it's a 160amp mig so perfect for thin sheet metal like the datsun. As it's only a 160amp mig you'll be fine plugging it into a normal household socket. There should be a spool of wire inside and you'll definitely need gas and protective gear as arc burn is not good for you.

This link will probably get you started and give you the info you need.
https://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/support
 
tyroguru

tyroguru

Club Member
Woody928 said:
I'm assuming there will likely be a spool of wire somewhere inside and I will obviously need to acquire a gas bottle to get started. Any advice or input would be gratefully received!
Click to expand...

I'm sure you won't cheap out on anything Mark but get good PPE. I've found the difference in visibility and adjustability between a cheap helmet and a medium priced one is significant and it makes things a lot easier. I don't think you need to spend a lot - I have a Parweld helmet that was around 50 GBP and it's great for me so far.

Also, with thin gauge metal you'll want 0.6 wire so just check what's in the machine.

Re: Gas. Probably not the cheapest option but I have a Hobby account with BOC and I pick the bottles up myself from Slough as that's the closest to me for pickup. I use their Argoshield Light for MIG and I think their Y size bottle is approx. 60-70 GBP per year for rental and 40-50 for a refill. Somewhere in that region anyway but I don't pay too much attention to the costs :) . Obviously you'll need a regulator and I also use the argon flow meters from rtech (https://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/argon-flow-meter/) although that's not at all essential.

Mark - you are more than welcome to come around to mine to have a go on some different gauge metals and get a feel for what my setup is like. You can have a look at my new TIG setup while you're here :) .
 
richiep

richiep

Club Member
The main thing you'll want to assess with that welder is if its fully operational and working smoothly. Before I forked out and bought a brand new R-Tech Mig-180, I had a couple of older used ones (a Clarke and a Cebora/Snap-on) and both were useless to learn on as getting controllable power delivery and consistent performance was pretty much impossible. The R-Tech in comparison is a beautiful thing. Very forgiving and easy to get a feel for due to its consistency. I used 0.6mm wire when I was doing stuff like the arch cutting and welding and bulkhead modifications, but for the heavier duty welding of floors and chassis rail, etc., I switched to 0.8mm and didn't switch back. Technique and feel for the settings and gun movement becomes a factor, and you can get away with running higher settings than advised for the thickness of the material once you get a feel for when to "get out of there" so to speak.
 
Mr Ex Jnr

Mr Ex Jnr

Club Member
Also when welding have some water

Or airline if you have a compressed

Only takes a few welds and bit of old sealer etc to catch

No need to panic if you think like that :)
 
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