Patcon

Yes, I would agree with that

There is very little room between the rear valance and the tank. It would be difficult to make anything substantial enough for reinforcement to the rear and still be able to get the tank in and out.

I have not. It would be interesting to know how in order to refresh hem. Provided it could be done without compromising them

I don't think I have what you need but I have found that is a difficult place to put back right. There is a lot of really solid metal right there. My car took a similar shot but less and I have had a hard time making it right. You will want to pull the tank or have the shop do it to have a good shot at getting it back the way it needs to be Look on "Car-part.com" and find yards with the right year cars. Then call them and tell them what you want. I wouldn't search for the rear valance. I would search for rear quarters. If they have good quarters they most likely will have a good rear pan. Might take some leg work but you should be able to find one

That's actually not a bad idea. Many people get the cart before the horse when they get the extra horsepower before they get the extra braking. Much wiser to improve the braking then improve the "Go"

Thank you from one who would know!

I think I agree. It's much harder to make a crooked hood straight. If the rust is bad enough I might actually weld in a patch, but you would have to be really careful and keep the heat low.

Why would any good sane individual run for public office and step up for the abuse of you and your family to run for a job that pays $150k to 400k. There are a lot of easier ways to make money. If you're honest and don't intend to abuse the system there's no money in it! Why would you step up for that and have people accost your wife or kids in public. Drag people up out of your past that may or may not be telling the truth. The system is built to protect itself now. It's a leviathon that wants to be fed. Don't get in the way or you might look like a meal! Rich kids have the connections to keep a lot of this off of themselves. When was the last time you saw a newspaper run a crushing ad on a car dealership. They don't because that is one of their main sources of ad revenue.

I ordered an oil gutter for the 5 speed. I will have more info when it gets here. We plan to clean the 5 speed, reassemble and run it to see how it does. On another note Cody has decided he hates body work and wants to find a shop to finish his car. That's fine with me because it will free me up and he will pay most of it. It also gets his car finished sooner. We found a guy by talking to a couple of shops and he works out of his own garage at home, but the finished work appears to be good. We'll see... On a related note, I need to source an antenna for his car. The one mounted to the windshield pillar. Does anyone have one? @zKars Even if I have to make it from a couple of different ones. The one on his car now is after market and doesn't use the proper holes. I need to source one before we can get his car in to do paint, so that we don't paint the car and then have to fix extra holes.

You will be dealing with a great guy, BTW

So I did some more blocking tonight. Also worked on getting the new mirrors mounted. I bought a kit with an assortment of metric rivnuts. I also ordered some oval head 5mm SS screws from Ebay. Matched up the rivnut diameter to a step drill and enlarged the holes in the door. Then made an attempt with a self made tool, and the result The nut I had on the bottom was a different diameter and pulled some of the threads up. So I drilled that one out and redid it. I used a small washer with a larger one on top to make it easier to tighten down the 5mm nut. So I ended up with this, by using a ratcheting wrench and a socket You need to apply a good bit of downward force to keep the rivnut from spinning in the door. Once it starts to expand it gets easier. A new door mirror mounted up I like these mirrors. I sourced them off Ebay a number of years ago, but what I like about them is the passenger mirror is a wide view mirror and the drivers side is normal. I haven't seen them again

I think pictures would be excellent. I would love to learn the how's and why's...

Excellent. I don't remember what I ate yesterday...

My apologies if we covered this somewhere else, but I don't like to hang the car with all the suspension on it. It nearly doubles the weight of the car and adds a lot more stress on the attachment points. My 2 cents

Practice is good. You'll get it

I totally understand all of this from my own experience I have used the Omni epoxy in the past. The only issue I had was, epoxy shouldn't come off with lacquer thinner after it's cured. I was able to wipe some Omni off many years ago. Now I don't know if that is my fault or a product issue. One of the issues I always have with my paint is the catalyst get bad over time and I use them slowly by industry standards. So it may take me 2 years to use a full gallon of epoxy or primer or what ever. So it may be the catalyst I used in the problem Omni was bad and just didn't cross link. I use Nason products now which are basically the PPG products of say ten years ago. PPG develops a new better product then repackages the current PPG into a product for the Nason line. A body shop guy told me that just last week. PPG makes good product, albeit not cheap. If you DIY though you have a lot more room to by materials because you save so much on the overall cost of a paint job. I have had good luck with Eastwood products. Although I have 2 complaints about them. One is an Echo. In these days of Amazon Prime, I would like to see my product arrive faster than it does. The second is that their product is fairly expensive. I have been using their "After blast" for bare metal protection. It is an acid based product that converts light rust to phosphate and protects the panel from flash rust. For concealed areas I have used the "Internal frame coating" I buy the cans with the long hoses on them and I filled every concealed space on the z before I got very far along into body work. It is runny and will seep out of all the seams and drip everywhere. Don't buy the bulk can because you will never be able to get it to spray out of anything. It just dries way too fast to spray it out of an undercoater gun. Also the cans of internal frame coater don't store well. Buy them when you need them and use them. I had 2 cans that sat for a while and were dead when I tried to use them. They are too expensive to have them be dead from sitting. I do like their 2k satin black for matching the Datsun chassis black and black out areas. I made my own sating black for a while by using a flattening agent but I get more consistent results in finish using the Eastwood product. I try to use Evercoat products for fillers, and I am using sort of middle of the road Devilbiss guns. I have multiple tips so I can match the product. Have you ever looked at the P sheets for the products you use? I have a 1" 3 ring binder I keep in the shop with copies of all the P-sheets for the products I use. That way I don't have to remember mix ratios or recommended grit levels for each product. They will have little details that make using them easier. I however live in the deep south and I run a dehumidifier 24/7 in my shop to keep humidity at bay. If I don't run it, stuff rusts up pretty quick and mold starts growing on everything. Sorry for the novel...

Beautiful!

I would love to know what epoxy you're using. I don't think it will hurt the product reputation at all, since it seems to be bonding. I have used Nason epoxy on bare metal that I had treated. Now we sand everything pretty good after we treat it, and I have had no bonding issues from that. The only paint failures I've had are from active rust under the new paint. I do know that they don't want you to acid treat metal before epoxy, but I have done it successfully so far. Most of the body guys I've talked too tell me I need to paint bare metal the same day. That I can't let it sit without painting it. It's just not really feasible for me to do that sometimes. I keep the humidity in my shop pretty low so the metal doesn't really surface rust when it sits.

Don't you hate it when you do that! I have a roll pin I took out of something. Put it in a conspicuous place in the shop so I wouldn't lose it. I still have it, but I forgot what it came out of....

I also found it to be a standard thread and not metric. I found that odd but didn't fight it.

Do you run that through a MIG? The silicon bronze not the silicone bronze...

I would disagree on this. Rebadging to me is no different than blacking out window trim or different bumpers or different wheels. It looks different and has different exterior details, but nobody is suggesting it is a factory made Fairlady as re-Vinning implies

The other problem with autonomous cars, is someone has to decide who dies and right it into the code. Sort of the iRobot conundrum. Do you hit the pedestrian or the oncoming car? Do you save the injured cop drowning or the little girl?

I had other theories: didn't want to weld everything solid or it was easier to shape down the excess weld Thanks, Wheee!

Why silicone bronze?