Patcon

If you can sell it for 35k as it sits or spend 60k and sell it for 95k then why bother? It's the same net cash either way. In my opinion it is impossible to get a quality paint job without stripping the car

I would never repaint a car like this with out removing the glass. It leaves rough areas around all the seals and the paint tends to peal from those exposed edges If it were me, I would try to sell it as is. Put a reserve on it and see what it does i would not be surprised to see a bill of 60k to fully restore a car like this

Thanks GK That is the orientation I used. I did that, with the seals. I used some of the Honda rubber treatment I learned of here on the site and got the seals laying down flat. Unfortunately the weather is cooling off, so I don't know how much memory they will acquire

Welding is slow work, that's why it costs so much to pay someone to repair a rusty Datsun! You're making good progress!

Maybe the vacuum switch halves are loose. Touching it changes the way the halves meet each other?

Im already there!

Yes.

I had the same thought about generator

We lost power for part of the day today due to high winds. Worked on an electrical rough in with headlights for part of the day

So we have made some progress. Some of it two steps forward one step back. We got the headliner done but it looks like "Fido's hindend". It fits poorly, is too thick and was coming loose a day or two after we got it home. So we are gonna cut our losses and redo it ourselves. I ordered one and it was supposed to be here Monday but who knows where it is now! He has 3 out of 4 doors on the car and those are mostly assembled and gasketed. Have I stated recently that weather strips suck!! I hate em!! Trying to get them on in the right place and working properly is such a pain! Part of our slow down is I have been hurt for about 3 months now and Cody is working 50 hr weeks and taking classes at night. He gets about 10-12 hours of sleep during the 5 day week. I have a problem that I need some help with. Actually two... I installed the door seals like this. This seemed the intuitive way to do this The first problem is the seals don't close the way I would expect them too. I would expect them to lay down against the body like this but right down the end of the door where the hinges are they tend to bunch up instead of laying down against the body. We can flip the seals out so they lay right but they dont do it on their own. So do other people seals lay properly against the body or just crumple up. They look sealed either way but are harder to close when they crumple up. @zKars @grannyknot The second problem is the rear hatch. I'm not sure how to run the inner hatch seal. I may need to make some better pictures but the seal seems to only fit one way. On 3 sides of the hatch it makes sense. On the bottom, not so much. Either the orientation needs to change or I have to deal with the extra rubber on the seal

You already have at least two other threads with this issue. Why don't you try sticking with those instead of cluttering up the forum. You won't get any better response this way. Maybe less...

Is it me or should the slam panel not be totally flat in that picture?

Yeah, the vin location is weird! Covered in bird guano...

Yup A good tip about cutting at an angle. Remember too, that old truck bed is much thicker than datsun steel. So not as affected by heat or air cooling

That why heat wrap is asbestos!! Proceed with caution...

Also the shape of the S30 Z cars requires that all of the seals on the rear half of the car be in good shape or your gonna get lots of fumes

Love the reflection in the rear valance!!! Thats a hard panel to get that smooth!

Oh, I agree, single stage is the more authentic looking paint but not as forgiving. BC/CC is more forgiving and easier to touch up. I will be running BC/CC on my Z for that and other reasons

I agree with Namerow, and his excellent explanation. If I am understanding the OP correctly, he is talking about removing the lower sections on each side of the engine bay (that we call frame rails). If the car is stripped and not rotten as swiss cheese, there just isn't a lot of weight up there to cause distortion. Floor pans and rocker panels is a different thing. With different tactics...

I would be surprised if any repaint was the same thickness as the factory paint even on bare metal. The first reason being is many people run base clear on their repaint. So you have at least one extra layer of paint. Painters also tend to stack layers of clear so there is room to cut and buff the car. Also most decent painters spend a pretty good amount of time trying to get the car straight and smooth. That means lots of buildable primer and filler which adds thickness really quickly. These cars never had paint stacked on them in the factory like that. It would be interesting to get some readings off of cars like mine (if I ever get it sprayed) or Wheee's or Grannyknot's if it was bare metal to see what our finished paint thickness is

Wow!! Now that image is gonna be hard to scrub away

Me too!!

If the upper structure is good and the car is supported properly under the rockers, I dont think I would add any bracing to replace the frame rails

Yes, that is the basic idea. I use a heel dolly to shape them because it has a similar radius to the factory floor pans

I think the bigger the panel and the longer the seam the more chance for problems. Small patches are a great way to learn because they are reasonably forgiving