Rainman

So the 260Z is sealed in two part epoxy primer! After ten days of media blasting, a little rust repair and plenty of metal massaging, the A-Team at Ferguson Fabrication is nearly finished with my car. Will bring it home tonight, closing this chapter in the refresh until I my next time off period beginning next month. Still need to figure out a solution to fitting the fiberglass 240Z bumpers to the car... So I may take it back to them for a few days next month to sort that out. Will take some pictures of it on the trailer, so one more post before I go back to work.. Here are the photos, as always there are more at my photobucket account as noted earlier.. Enjoy.

I can't go more than a few days without visiting my car, so here is an update after a visit to Ferguson's last night. Most of the repairs are complete now and the chassis is nearly done with the media blasting. The pros at Ferguson's have 'massaged' the areas of one of the doors and one of the fenders where some old repairs had been made, filling holes and pulling areas that had previously held lots of filler. Have a little of that to do on the rear of the body as well.. Overall it looks awesome!! Pics start with a couple of the mess I made in my garage removing as much of the old paint from the unsupported areas of the hood and doors prior to the media blasting. I'm still cleaning up after that business!! Next time I'll use drop cloths to cover the busier areas of the garage... except there won't be a next time.. With any luck that is!!! I received another bunch of parts including a urethane kit from Energy Suspension, new set of rear bearings, lower control arm bolts, a reman steering rack with inner and outer tie rod ends and new lower ball joints. Also have new windshield and rear hatch glass weather stripping. Thanks for the replies everyone, your enthusiasm is much appreciated!! Greg, not sure the rotisserie owners will allow it to stray all the way to Portland but you could ask... Worst they could say is no.. PM me with your email address and I'll pass it on to them. Thanks for reading... Here are the photos. Enjoy...

Thanks Kenobi, keep checking back as I continue this project.. I hope to get the 260Z back with all the repairs finished and in primer by the end of the week. More pics will follow of course! Take care... Tom

Thanks Esmit! I really lucked out on this rotisserie thing... some guys in the Z Club of Southern Oregon loaned it to me.. Your 3/72 project looks like a handful but you are coming along nicely! I ended up using an electric random orbital palm sander with 80 grit pads to get the paint off the large, unsupported metal areas before taking it in for media blasting. The guy that's doing that work for me said the media (or sand) can warp the metal, especially in areas that I mentioned above. So I made sure the roof, hood and larger areas of the doors were stripped prior to the blasting. Keep up the good work with you 3/72 project, I'll keep an eye on your thread and will look forward to more pictures from you! Never give up!

I spent the last week removing all the undercoating. Started sanding the paint off the bigger areas of the car but ran out of time before it was scheduled to go to Ferguson's Fabrication in Merlin, Oregon. They have the car now for rust repair, some filling of various holes in the body and finally media blasting. Still need to get the hood, doors and grille up to them today, that stuff wouldn't fit in the truck on the first trip... Everyone at Ferguson's is great and they are making great progress as you can see by the photos they sent me last night after one day at work. Should start media blasting soon. More pictures at my photobucket account if you're interested.. I think I posted it earlier.

It's been a while with much activity on the project so here are the Cliff Notes version... The car was completely stripped of ALL parts and put on a rotisserie.. Over the past ten days, I scraped off all the undercoating.. Started removing paint.. And now the great people at Ferguson's Fabrication in Merlin, Oregon have her for rust repair, filling of side marker lights and many screw holes in the engine compartment.. Still need to get the hood, doors and grill up to them because the media blasting will begin shortly! Will be working on prepping the suspension components for powder coating over the next week while the media blasting is being done.

Removed undercoating!! Almost have half the underside of the car done after three days of work..

My vote is cast... Good Luck Brent!

True enough but another law was passed in 2009 exempting Premium Unleaded from the ethanol requirement. The law took effect in January 2010 and you can find high octane 'clear gas' at some stations. In Medford, there are 6 locations where you can buy it. I only run clear gas regardless of manufacturer recommendations. http://domesticfuel.com/2009/07/27/ethanol-free-fuel-in-oregon/

This is a great country!! You can spend YOUR money any way YOU want to and nobody can say a word about it.. Yes, people may call you crazy but hey, in the end it's your money. FWIW, here's a consideration... One can buy the latest BMW M-something (insert number here) coupe with the big V-8 high output engine for about $100k (give or take a couple grand). Anybody can walk into any BMW dealer anywhere and get the same car for roughly the same money, in the color of their choice. On the other hand, if one would rather have a classic 240Z in lime green, which is built such that the performance is comparable to the Beemer AND there isn't another like it.. then this may be the right car for that person. In the end, everything is relative to the person holding the cash. There may be someone out there that has to have this car, then again maybe not. There are more than a few of us with this Z disease! For me and the early 260Z that I am prepping for paint... If I can make it "like new" for $10-15k less than I'd spend on a brand new Subaru or Toyota 'belly-button car' (everybody has one), I consider myself ahead of the game. Wish me luck!!

Hey Rich, Just a quick comment about all your great work! I've began the total refreshtoration (to borrow your description) of my early '74 260Z. It's on the rotisserie and I will begin the long process of grinding/sanding it to bare metal when I get home from work next month.. (I work overseas) My plan is to have the body media blasted, fix a couple small areas of rust, powder coat applied two stage primer and finally paint. I've got the fabrication shop all lined up for all the mentioned work. I'm very anal retentive as well and have been searching for a way to get the plating finish back on the small pieces without completely breaking the bank at a plating shop. You are spot on about the budget rising without control when the old parts just won't look right on a freshly painted car!! Thanks so much for the pics and information on the plating system that you used!! I'm excited about getting home and starting the process myself. Fantastic thread.. just fantastic!! Thanks again!! I'll be watching as you finish this beautiful '73! Tom

Thanks for the reply Andrew! The color choice is looming and I'm beginning to waffle.. I'm sure the 260 will look great in every color I see. The same charcoal gray as my Subaru? Sure! It's going to be a tough choice!!! Thankfully I don't have to choose right now... The good news is the body is on the rotisserie and it's nice and stable. I'm taking apart the doors now and need to get the suspension pieces torn apart and all the hardware over to a friend's place. He's got a cleaner/polisher for all the nuts and bolts. That'll be great! The bad news is I leave for work soon and won't be able to work on it again until near the end of January. Oh well, it's good to have a job and I'll be able to really go to town on it when I get home!!

Thanks for the input Arne, I'll have to research that.

I have a set of over riders that I just took off my early 260Z if you're interested, send me a PM and I'll get you some pictures. They are probably average condition considering the age, etc. I'm going to switch to the 240Z style bumpers during my paint project so won't need them anymore.

Thanks for the replies Richard and Andrew!! Yes, the tear-down is the easy part for sure though the rear suspension gave me fits and would've been easier with some type of transmission jack... My little floor jack didn't quite make the grade! All the major components are off the car now. Still need to remove the e-brake hardware, hard fuel lines and brake lines before I go back to work on Thursday. That'll be easy once it's firmly on the rotisserie.. Famous last words!! As for the color.. I'm leaning toward a blue of some variety. Nissan offers a metallic blue (B17) on the current line that would look good... BMW has some nice shades as well. This choice may be tougher than putting the car back together!! Wish me luck!!

Thanks for the info Arne!! Just my luck, I just place a big dollar order for parts with MotorSport as I am (finally) prepping my 260Z for a very thorough paint job.

Hi Phil! Great work on your Z and thanks for all the pics, your Z looks great! My 260Z is just going on the rotisserie now for similar treatment, it was originally silver in 1974 and will be some version of blue early next year. My 260Z sat for 11 years before I woke her up in 2006 as well, and I've loved being able to drive it for the last four years but it needs new paint badly... About the cover, check with the parts shop of your Nissan dealer.. I'm sure you know those guys and have a great relationship with them after all the work you've done. Anyway, a couple weeks ago the parts manager at the Nissan dealer here in Medford, Oregon mentioned that Nissan is selling a complete line of covers for all Z cars, even the 240Z, in all thicknesses... From the thin veil for indoor dust protection to the thick, waterproof model. All designed to fit the individual model(s) specifically. If you have any trouble let me know and I'll put you in touch with my parts guy! Best of luck and enjoy that beautiful car, you've waited long enough!! Take care and all the best.. Tom

Hello All!! I haven't posted in a very long while but am starting a complete refurb on my early 260Z.. I've had the car for 17 years and it's looked the same ever since I bought it in 1993. It quit running in 1995 and sat for 11 years until I woke it up in 2006. I've enjoyed driving it for the past four years and done a few mods, adding new headers and a Rebello 3.1L stroker in 2008. Now it's time for new paint.. Here's a before pic.. Started tearing her apart on November 21st and made good progress with the help of a great friend from Lithia Nissan and my Brother-in-Law, Steve. I've got a rotisserie that was loaned to me by some very generous and helpful 'Z Car Club of Southern Oregon' members (Thanks Steve and Ken!!). In the past eleven days or so, all that remains on the car is the rear suspension and drive train. Steve helped me get the engine and transmission out and all the parts transferred to the storage unit over one very long day. My Dad helped me get the asphalt floor board insulation and the remainder of the interior out of the car while he was visiting over the past few days. I had to rearrange my garage to accommodate the car with the rotisserie attached and thankfully, it will fit in the garage. The rotisserie is attached to the car but I have yet to true it up and tighten all the hardware. I also removed the front suspension from the car yesterday with the exception of the front sway bar which has a broken nut inside the frame rail. Bummer!! So here are a few pics of where I'm at now... No more of that nasty insulation on the floorboards... There is a little rust that will need to be repaired... Looks good other than that... I will keep updating this as I make more progress.. You can also check out all the photos on my photobucket site, linked here... http://s286.photobucket.com/home/Rainman6801/index Thanks for reading!!

It has been a long time since I've done anything to my '74 260Z. I woke it up from an eleven year nap in 2006, did some exhaust work in 2008 and just enjoyed driving it for just over two years. It has needed new paint ever since I bought it in 1993 and now it's gonna get it in spades. I have access to a rotisserie thanks to some very generous and helpful Southern Oregon Z club members here in Medford, so I'm going to strip it down to the bare bones, turn it upside down and make the underside pretty as well. I've got more work to do today but it should be "in the air" by the end of the day. I started the project on November 21st.. here is a picture of the car at the beginning... I was fortunate to have the assistance of one very good friend from Lithia Nissan and my Brother-in-law, Steve helping out on the first day. We made good progress but there are a ton of parts on a Z Car!! See the damage at the end of the first day... And all the parts... You can see these pics and more on my photobucket account... http://s286.photobucket.com/home/Rainman6801/index Thanks for reading!!

I'm an ex-sailor as well and like Justin, I was an aviation electronic technician (AT) and I was assigned to the airwing of the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) from 1993 to 1997. I completed two western pacific deployments as well as the work-ups before each deployment. When the air wing wasn't on the ship, I worked on F/A-18's at NAS Lemoore, CA as an intermediate level comm/nav repair tech. I know that won't mean much to most of you but let it suffice to say that I worked on the black boxes from the airplanes, not the aircraft themselves. The Navy had it's place in my life and wasn't all good but it wasn't all bad either. I made a bunch of great friends but was happy to get out when the time came. I can't say the sea ever got it's hooks in me.. never cared for it much and still don't but that's just me... I do use my 'ex-sailor' status as an excuse to swear on occasion though!! For what it's worth... Anchors aweigh or something!!

Ooooohhhhhh Noooooo! I'm so sorry.... Make the best of it though, I'm sure you'll learn a lot.

Sounds like you'll have a lovely ride through the armpit of CA then. I went down through there on my way to the West Coast Z Car Natl's. From the looks of the pics, thought you might be starting out a bit further north. Maybe next time! Have a safe drive!