240ZBUILTBYME 1971 240z HS-001063 Project Sheena

[240ZBUILTBYME]

On 5/1/2022 at 11:40 PM, Namerow said:

Given that your location in Darwin is a bit off the beaten path, I'm curious to know who you used for the dash restoration work.

I’m actually in Perth. I used a local classic car parts store who also do dash restoration 

[240ZBUILTBYME]

So got the dash back from reskinning, what an awesome job they did! 

Before: 

 

After:

 

[Namerow]

Perth!  Well then, that explains everything

Your dash surface was pretty badly damaged.  It looks like the shop did an excellent job.  A bit of a head-scratcher, though, because this type of work typically requires a large vacuum chamber with heat treatment (steam, IIRC) in order to pull the new vinyl overlay down onto the restored form.  Did you get a chance to look at the equipment they use?   

[240ZBUILTBYME]

Very excited about this one…

so stumbled upon some rare as rocking horse $^!# NOS 240z door cards 

i couldn’t say no. 

I was going to do some fancy upholstery work on my current door cards but these are too cool. 

[240ZBUILTBYME]

Back in business.

my shitty cigweld 135 would not weld properly anymore, after several sessions of trying to get it to work I bit the bullet and upgraded to a unimig 185. I think for my budget it seemed the most sound choice, online reviews were all very positive.

Every single component of the unimig is far higher quality than the cigweld and it welds amazingly in comparison. Runs much hotter welds than the 135.

got a few hours in today and finished up the base of the rear rotisserie stand. still getting used to the welder, some welds were good some were bad… I’m keen to use up the last of this gasless wire….

 

Edited July 21, 2022 by 240ZBUILTBYME

[240ZBUILTBYME]

I have a blaster coming to look at the car this week that was recommended by a restoration shop. He’s going to assess the undercoating and if he can remove it with blasting, otherwise I will have to strip it. 
he has said he can blast the car while it’s on the chassis frame which is awesome. He can lift the whole thing with chain blocks to access underneath. Downside is he’s booked till march next year…..

 This whole time I have just been trying to work towards just getting this damn thing blasted and in epoxy! and with the severity of the rust and lack of structural integrity  I wasn’t confident putting it on a rotisserie until some of the more structural rust was repaired. 

I have decided to pull all the panels off to expose all the interior sections that I know will be rusty as hell. I’ll remove the entire rear valance, rear quarter panels, roof skin. I have a few other panels I’m considering too like the front panel of the tool compartment and top wiper cowl panel. There’s a lot of rust in both those sections. 

I started experimenting with a few mechanical ways of removing undercoating 

used a oscillating multi tool with a scraper attachment on my undercoating it was not overly effective.  First photo was just the tool and second was tool followed by a knotted wire wheel.

 

most effective way proved to be a strip it disc, makes quick work of it.

the oscillating multi tool and scraper worked well on some of the sound proofing sections.

but not so well on other parts

yay more rust….

while I had the strip disc out I wanted to see what was under the paint on the rear quarters……there were lots of layers and much bog (bondo for you guys), I dared not do more….

 

started stripping the rear slam panel as I will need to unpick it, some quality repairs from previous owners. Just a couple of tacks and she’ll be right….

Also managed to knock off the rest of the second rotisserie frame. Now just need to finish the rear mounting assembly and the rotisserie will be done and ready to use when the time comes…

[240ZBUILTBYME]

Meeting with the blaster went well, he can take care of the undercoating for me. I just have to remove the sound proofing from the trans tunnel and rear cargo space. 

he only blasts cars and is a huge car enthusiast himself so this pleases me. He’s booked out till march which is a bummer…. But has mentioned if I get the car ready to go if someone else isn’t ready he can slot me in early. So now I have to get the car ready to go. She’s waited long enough….if I wait any longer there won’t be a car left to restore….

I want to remove the rear quarter panels, remaining rear valance and roof skin and a portion of the outer rockers so the internals can be blasted. So first I’m going to add some bracing so that A) movement is restricted as I remove body panels and when the car is lifted up for the underbody to be blasted there’s a bit more structural rigidity to prevent any bending of the chassis. This thing is rusty AF and I just don’t trust it. I’m probably being over cautious. 

First I decided to ditch the gasless wire and start learning with gas. I wanted to practice on 1mm first and then practice welding my 25x25x3mm shs bracing onto 1mm sheet. Was very happy with the results for my first time. Turns out watching all those YouTube videos may have helped…

first tacks

My unimig for some reason has no setting guide for 0.6mm solid wire so I had to guess the settings. I ended up finding 14 volts and 4.5 m/min worked well. Does this seem about right? And can anyone tell me what the brown discoloration is?

 

all stitched up

rear of the join, seem to be getting penetration, does this look right? 

 

and after some dressing. I got warpage as I wasn’t trying to manage heat, but not too bad for a first go me thinks…

Next welding 25x25x 3mm thick shs to 1mm sheet. no blow throughs, great success…

I felt ready to weld in some bracing. Decided to go from the rear strut towers to the dash. 

the welds weren’t pretty, they were awkward spots though, didn’t want to do full welds as I wasn’t confident I could remove the bracing later without damaging something so I went with decent sized tacks. Seems to be enough strength in the tacks as the bracing feels solid. 

any feed back and thoughts on what I’ve done are welcomed. I really have no clue what I’m doing lol 

I’m planning to tie in the roof to the bracing and I think that should be enough?

[Patcon]

I think you're doing fine. I agree most of that bracing is unnecessary but if it helps you sleep at night...

[240ZBUILTBYME]

5 hours ago, Patcon said:

I think you're doing fine. I agree most of that bracing is unnecessary but if it helps you sleep at night...

You’re probably right. But it does help me sleep….

[dutchzcarguy]

19 hours ago, 240ZBUILTBYME said:

I’m planning to tie in the roof to the bracing and I think that should be enough?

Not necessary, only when you see/think that it comes back from the blaster with half a roof or so??  It's more important to check if the doors and windows fit before going to work on any paintwork and... thats not happening this year i guess..

Your bracing is good, but don't exaggerate it.. 

Nice to see you working on it again! 👍

Mart

[dutchzcarguy]

When you want to weld something, clean it thoroughly on both sides.. (in one of the last pics i see you did not clean the blue part..)  It's not just that you can weld it much better, the fumes are toxic and you only have one set of lungs .. Never inhale those fumes of welding, aluminum is even (much) worse than stealwelding.. you really need a extractor hood.

I often blow some compressed air over a weld when it's cooled down a bit, ( get some "clean" air at your workplace)  always good to have the compr. air at hand... when something gets on fire you simply blow it out. Also always a fire-extinguisher at hand is standard. (at least a bucket of water.) 

And don't do it like this guy, welding near or under flammable stuff...

WOW !! 

 

[240ZBUILTBYME]

This week I removed the sound deadening/tar mat from the car as preparation for blasting. To be honest I was really dreading this job but in the end it was actually not that bad! 

I ordered 5kg of dry ice for the occasion.

This worked an absolute charm for the boot area. Leave the ice on the matting for a couple of minutes and you can start to hear it cracking. Then use a scraper and it comes off in big slabs.

the transmission tunnel area is much more difficult, dry ice can be used on the top flat surfaces but doesn’t work on the sides, I tried hanging plastic bags with dry ice in them but it just doesn’t get as cold…

for the sides of the transmission tunnel a heat gun and scraper worked great for me, trick was to get it hot enough to lift off the metal but not so hot that it melts completely.

and end results…

still finishing up the bracing, only managed to add a cross brace for the rear of the car as I’m going to remove the entire rear valance.