hi ALL! currently working on my 11/71 '73 240z has lots of rust but most of htem are only surface rust, wel my question is i was planning on sandblasting the whole shell, but i do not know what kind of grit or material to use i've looked online and there seems to be a bunch of them:GLASS BEAD,ALUMINUM OXIDE(imported/domestic), SILICON CARBIDE, GARNET, NUTSHELLS....ETC. anyone have any suggestions on waht i should use? i wanthte shell bare metal

i have attached some pics so you guys can see some of my problems, the pics are before i stripped most of the car i will post my whole project soon on my website

rocker panel

passenger side floor

I started with glass bead. But it went way too fast and at 30$ per 50lb, it's too expensive. I picked up some play sand at home depot (look in the building materials section and not gardening if you want the dry stuff). I bought a strainer from the grocery store with the smallest holes I could find. So far I haven't had any problems with it. You have to rock the blaster every once in awhile if it sticks but nothing bad. The only down side is it's REALLY REALLY dusty compared to glass bead. But at 2.50$ for 50lbs I can deal with it. I just push the car out in the driveway. Here's how it looks after some blasting (pass side floor) http://www.utdallas.edu/~perdue/sandfloor1.jpg

Good luck!

Michael

mperdue,

I looked into my english-german diktionary but I couldn't find out what a "strainer from a grocery" could be, especially not in connection with sandblasting. Would you please give me an explanation or sent a pic. Thanks!

Rolf

hahah just a screen to filter out the rocks you get in the play sand. I think it was actually an oil splash guard you put on top of a frying pan to keep the oil splashes in. A window screen might work too, or any kind of screen with small holes. The smaller the better so you don't block the sandblaster lines or nozzle.

Unfortunately sandblasting is going to be the easy part of the job.

The dog leg is completely gone as is the inner fender panel that seals the dog leg area to the open end of the rocker panel.:sick:

Floor looks to have a good bit of rust as well, and that hole in the roof looks scary as well. The floor and rocker panel will be fairly easy to repair as repair panels are available as well as the inner fender panel to repair the dog leg.

The hole in the roof is going to be the most difficult as it looks like the rust has come from under the windshield gasket and I wouldn't be surprised if after taking the windshield out, you are going to find even more rust. This is going to be one very dificult area to fix as it is where the roof panel meets the windshield header....It is going to take a lot of welding and filling to make get this right and have it look right and not leak water into the interior.....

With the damage shown, I would be surprised if there aren't other rusted out areas that haven't been found yet.:disappoin

Dude, youve got some serious rust goin there. It may be easier to get a new shell. I've seen some rust free rigs at the junk yards, I wonder if they would sell you one?

Best of luck!

Dave

yea i was thinking of jsut using the car for parts and looking for another shell but i decided to stip the car first and see waht i come up with, i'm having a body shop that does vintage cars and such for an estimate(when i'm done stripping the car), should be farely cheap since i'm going to supply most of the parts that they'll need...

Let me ask bluntly: How much money do you have, and are you willing to invest it with a very low return?

This car has some serious cancer. It CAN be repaired, but the question isn't whether it can or can't, it is how much money do you want to invest.

If you have your own MIG welder, Acetylene Torch, Body Working tools, shop where you can do the work, and most importantly tons of time AND money, you can fix it. If you have more money than time, then you can have a few things done by others.

But the bottom line is simply this, HOW MUCH MONEY ARE YOU THINKING OF SPENDING!?

At a WAG, I would say that you have at least a couple thousand in just the areas you've shown. Your floorpan shows that there is some serious rust there, which says that it's progressed beneath the tar mats. Also the inner part of the rocker panel is bound to be rusted. The dogleg behind the rocker panel is gone, which means you have 3 different pieces of sheet metal to replace there, which tells me that your rear wheel fender lips are bound to also be shot and needing work. The roof rot, as has been mentioned may be isolated, but in fact may be the whole top edge of the roof. All those add up and I would not be surprised to find out that your sheet metal repair ALONE will be in the vicinity of 3-4 thousand. And that's before you start replacing carpets, vinyl, seats, dash, emblems etc etc.

All of these ARE repairable, but from what I see, you're going to be into it for at least 3-4 before you get to the next phase, and then you're looking at another 2-3k. Now mind you, I'm presuming YOU are going to do the work. If you have others do it, multiply by about 3 whatever estimate you have now.

You might definitely be better off buying a rolling shell in good condition and take the parts from this car that are good and transplant them.

FWIW

Enrique Scanlon

Originally posted by EScanlon

Let me ask bluntly: How much money do you have, and are you willing to invest it with a very low return?

This car has some serious cancer. It CAN be repaired, but the question isn't whether it can or can't, it is how much money do you want to invest.

If you have your own MIG welder, Acetylene Torch, Body Working tools, shop where you can do the work, and most importantly tons of time AND money, you can fix it. If you have more money than time, then you can have a few things done by others.

But the bottom line is simply this, HOW MUCH MONEY ARE YOU THINKING OF SPENDING!?

At a WAG, I would say that you have at least a couple thousand in just the areas you've shown. Your floorpan shows that there is some serious rust there, which says that it's progressed beneath the tar mats. Also the inner part of the rocker panel is bound to be rusted. The dogleg behind the rocker panel is gone, which means you have 3 different pieces of sheet metal to replace there, which tells me that your rear wheel fender lips are bound to also be shot and needing work. The roof rot, as has been mentioned may be isolated, but in fact may be the whole top edge of the roof. All those add up and I would not be surprised to find out that your sheet metal repair ALONE will be in the vicinity of 3-4 thousand. And that's before you start replacing carpets, vinyl, seats, dash, emblems etc etc.

All of these ARE repairable, but from what I see, you're going to be into it for at least 3-4 before you get to the next phase, and then you're looking at another 2-3k. Now mind you, I'm presuming YOU are going to do the work. If you have others do it, multiply by about 3 whatever estimate you have now.

You might definitely be better off buying a rolling shell in good condition and take the parts from this car that are good and transplant them.

FWIW

Enrique Scanlon

i'm actaully thinking fo doing most fo the work myself since i have most of the tools, and i have some friends with welding equipment that can help me..as far as money is concerned i don't have much but i get by that i can afford contracting some fo the work out..and as for time...i'm in no rush i have 2 other cars i can use this car is just for my pleasure to build up for a street/race use i'm only 21 so i think i have all the time i need

i would have resold the car and bought a better one but i already started stripping her so i don't like starting something and not finishing it...

oh yea and i'm getting the RB for free so that's no problem either