Project Boondoggle (or, so I went and bought a Z!)

[Captain Obvious]

34 minutes ago, charliekwin said:

I found that THIS happened to my other car in the parking lot.

I hate people.

Glad the Z is looking like it wasn't all that serious.

[charliekwin]

The Z accident is a bummer, but I'm not really angry about it. That kind of thing happens; we're all human.

The G tweaks me. No note or anything, there was *plenty* of space, and I'll probably be out a $500 deductible to get it fixed. Lots of things I'd rather spend that money on.

[charliekwin]

Some movement: the insurance company estimated repairs for the Z at ~$1900. After the deductible, I got a check for $900. I like knowing that I've done all the work on the car, and there's no way I'm finding a shop to repair it for $1900 (let alone $900) so it's DIY job. That check should cover parts and materials, plus labor ...at about 10 cents/hour. 

I got the fender support mostly straightened out and haven't given up on the fender itself. They're harder to find and none are for sale locally right now, so I'm seeing what I can do. 50/50 right now. Headlight bucket is a goner.

Meanwhile, I got this:

It popped up on Craigslist, was close, and low priced. L28s, like everything else, seem to be going up in value, so I grabbed it even though nothing will happen for a while. According to the seller, it's from an 82 or 83ZX that he was going to swap into his car until it was totaled (fun coincidence: the vacuum tank and thermostat housing I picked up from the junkyard a few years back came from the seller's totaled ZX). The engine sat for a couple years, but it turns over freely and has everything. I figured if it turns out to be junk, I could probably sell off enough stuff to make up most of what I paid for it.

Disassembly so far has been painless. Not a single stuck nut or bolt. All the accessory pieces still spin. The exhaust manifold has a big crack, but that's the only part so far that's properly damaged. I pulled off the valve cover and oil pain and the internals I can see look good to my relatively unknowing eyes. The head looks better than the one in my own car.

I have a pile of stuff here that's pulled off. The stuff on the right is headed for the trash. Most of the stuff on the left I don't really know what to do with. Is there any market or interest out there for things like an alternator, AC compressor, injector blower that aren't seized but may not work? I don't want to throw things out that are valuable (or even useful) for someone, but garage space is at a premium and I don't want to fill it with junk, either.

[charliekwin]

Well folks, it's 9 months later, and I have a whole car again. It was slow going: no driving because of the pandemic meant no real urgency, some anxiety about my ability to do the job well didn't help, but mainly it turns out that it just isn't as fun the second time around.

Photo dump (of the things I remember to photograph):

Here were the earlier days. The hood edge was crushed a bit and there was no hope of pulling it out and I wasn't going to just use filler. So cut and welded first, then filled. I probably applied and sanded off filler 8 times trying to get the curves right, but (spoiler alert) it just wasn't cooperating. Got lucky and found a nice headlight bucket on eBay for a very reasonable price. Couldn't find a fender, so I beat it into the best shape I could and welded the sugar scoop to it. The coat of epoxy showed just how much work I still had to do. A ton of sand-fill-sand on the fender, but it got there in the end. The wheel arch and the curve where the fender/headlight come down to the air dam were the biggest challenges.

Time jump to late March, and I was feeling pretty good about the progress so sprayed both the hood and fender with epoxy to get ready for some final block sanding. Put too much paint on at one time, so I had to clean that up and do some touchup work on the wheel arch. Worse: after spraying the hood, I could see a flat-ish spot that I had felt when sanding, but talked myself into thinking it wouldn't be so bad. It was, so I stripped it all off and started over. Realized part of the problem is the hood on that side had kind of collapsed, so I shimmed it with pieces of steel bar (I had to do something similar on the other side a few years ago -- my poor hood is kind of a horror show). A few more rounds filling and sanding, and it finally came together.

Let's talk paint. The guy I bought the paint from originally no longer sells that brand, so he had to try to match it. It wasn't great: I had to go back a second time to and have him tweak it, and I still wasn't confident in it. He gave me some extra black so I could adjust the tint myself. Tested on the old headlight bucket (good thing I saved it!). The dark half on top original, the light is what he gave me, and the blotches are my continued adjustments. Fortunately, I also had just enough of my old paint for one coat at the end. Still, there was a lot of hand wringing on my part about the color and a real concern I'd have a hood and fender that didn't match the rest of the car. Did a pretty okay job putting the paint on, though!

Quick break for a "while I'm at it" job. The detent roller pin on the door hinge popped off a couple years ago. Not a huge deal, but an annoyance, and I already have the car apart so I should fix it now. Turns out you can't buy a replacement pin and I didn't want to get a whole new hinge if I could avoid it. Went to the nuts and bolts section at Home Depot and found a stainless bolt that fit the roller. Ground down the old treads enough to get the die to fit and cut new threads, then tapped the hinge. I don't know about longevity, but it works for now and only cost about $1.50.

And finally the bumper. It twisted and buckled in two places in the collision. I used a bottle jack and 1x1 to get it back to the mostly-proper width, then wedged it under my engine hoist to fix the twist. It still needed more convincing, and I figured I had nothing to lose, so I beat the bejeezus out of it with a hammer to do the rest. Did a lot of hammer and dolly work, filing, and sanding to fix it, and had a couple spots that I just couldn't correct. So I turned the bumper upside down and now they're on the bottom. Had to weld in a couple of new nuts to make it fit right against the car. Polishing was a Sisyphean ordeal and I got to the point where I was only making the things I was trying to fix worse. So I called it. 

The finished product:

Edited July 15, 2021 by charliekwin

[Yarb]

Nice Work!!

[siteunseen]

Absolutely fantastic looking car! You did a great job. Paint color is wonderful too. 

The worst title also. 

Sarcasim, I love it! You win!

 

Edited July 15, 2021 by siteunseen

[grannyknot]

Hey congrats on the fender/sugar scoop blend, that's the way it should be done, just one clean reflection right through the seam. It's a lot of extra work but looks great if done right.

[Patcon]

The repairs look great!

[charliekwin]

Thanks for the kinds words y'all. As is often the case, perseverance pays off! I definitely underestimated how much more difficult it is to deal with a properly damaged panel vs simply fixing dings and dents.

[Patcon]

3 minutes ago, charliekwin said:

Thanks for the kinds words y'all. As is often the case, perseverance pays off! I definitely underestimated how much more difficult it is to deal with a properly damaged panel vs simply fixing dings and dents.

Crash damage is a whole different thing. Sort of have to remake it with pressure the opposite to it being hit. Really gets easier with the right frame tools and hooks

[charliekwin]

Fun morning today. Took the Z down the street to Carcadia at Route 66, the local cars and coffee event here. It was my first time going (naturally, I took zero pictures) and the first time taking my car to an event like this. Mine was the only S30 there this time, though a couple of roadsters padded the Datsun ranks, and I chatted with their owners for a bit. A lot of people had nice things to say about the car, which was very gratifying. No less than 5 asked "who did the paint?" (I guess this is just one of the standard car questions to ask) and being able to say "me, in my garage" sure makes all the time and effort worth it.

[grannyknot]

19 hours ago, charliekwin said:

No less than 5 asked "who did the paint?" (I guess this is just one of the standard car questions to ask) and being able to say "me, in my garage" sure makes all the time and effort worth it.

Ah come on man, give yourself some credit, they asked about the paint because you did a damn fine job on it.