Patcon

I agree with Mark unless you want them totally restored. Then your best options are the two you already mentioned...

Thanks I watched several of those videos, but the trim they are working with looks multiple times thicker than what these Datsuns used. You just don't have much thickness to work with. It has to be very close to perfect before you start removing metal or you will cut through.

I thought that might be the case too on whether it will rust or not. I don't know why that is but I have heard of that. I guess some of that depends on what alloy is used I sort of had the same thought. No where but up from here...

That car is perfect!!!!!

That's unfortunate, but repairable...

On the chrome frame?

That's great. Glad it worked out so well. If only all PO repairs were this easy to set right!

Tomorrow we will probably try to get the glass into the hatch. Hope that gets 2018 off to a good start...

Those are nothing but a big razor blade spinning around!!! I bought a new dual speed Eastwood buffer 1800/3600 rpm. The low speed allows you to buff plastic lenses. It also allows you to buff stuff like this at a lower speed. I should have turned it down sooner. You do have to be careful! I read on another forum that a member let a piece of trim get away from him and it basically took his nose off! I tend to avoid the 510 forums. They tend to be really course! and sometimes stupid cheap! The realm isn't too bad but Ratsun seems to be more so. Anyway I stewed over this for a while and read a bunch of threads on other forums. One of the problems is that the trim is really thin! Unlike the trim on other classic cars which tends to have some thickness which makes repair easier. So at this point I have a 10 -15 degree bend in the trim about 6" from the end. It's bent in the flat direction not the easily corrected thin direction. So I figure it's trash any way so how can I mess it up??? So we broke out the MAP gas. I had already tried shrinking the bulging area to straighten the piece to no avail. So I clamped the short end in the vise and heated it cherry red and stretched it down to straighten it Took 4 or 5 tries and I ended up with this Now these pieces are stainless so they can be buffed out. The profile of the piece is sort of like a "J" with the hook of the J going in a groove in the weatherstrip. The leg of the J lays flat over the face of the rubber seal with a metal hem on the outside edge to finish it. It is easiest to slide it in and the corner pieces act like sockets to connect all the corners This is what the repaired piece looks like now. Serviceable but not pretty. Ok at 10 feet. I will keep my eyes open for some better trim. If I had the rights tools I probably could make it perfect. You just need a trim anvil, a lot of jewelers hammer and a lot of time Much happier now. Happy New Years!!!!

That's cheap as long as it's not loaded in rust!

Well now I'm mad!!!!! I was buffing a piece of rear glass trim for Cody's hatch. Buffer took it and bent it. I don't have the skills to straighten it... Haven't been able to even find one for sale yet...

Thanks Steve I will look into another one

Yes, I am using a submerged aquarium pump. Although it could be possible I need more agitation, but the surface of the liquid does move That is all good info. Would more current reduce the edge highlighting effect? My tank is a 5 gallon bucket with two 6" wide plates extended all the way to the bottom on opposite sides. I may eventually make a plating barrel, but it will have to wait for the next car. There were a couple of threads on the Caswell forum that mentioned getting almost a chrome look from a plating barrel but being unable to get it when hanging parts. The centers of those parts basically look unplated. That is why they didn't chromate....

Goat's milk...

Yes, absolutely!

Car was a salvage flood car out of Miami. Water probably came in through the vent tube. The sad thing is if the car got dewatered faster it would be easier. It sat at the auction for awhile before it came up for sale.

Good find. That wire got a little warm...

I don't know. The only time I have seen someone use alcohol was to dry the part at the end of the process

Oh, and Cody told me this is his new favorite mug @Zup @S30Driver

I also had some issues with this carb shaft. I was getting what I thought was heavy shadowing. So I reran it... Now it is entirely possible I didn't get it clean enough. So I bead blasted it again and degreased and hung it so as to expose these areas better to the plates. This is what I got. It came out really good. As an aside I had this piece not turn out. Evidently after bead blasting there was no circuit into the swivel part of the choke linkage. The bar plated but not the connection. I stripped it and when I restrung it I added a wire through the barrel and it came out fine...

So I did a lot of plating. Mostly little carb pieces and such. Got pretty good results. I found a source for zinc. I bought a 12x12 plate from Fisher Science. I cut it in half and made 2 large anodes. I folded some tabs on the plate, but I beat them flat, which is a mistake. The zinc is so brittle the tabs will just crack off Then I started on the line insulator pieces. That didn't go so well... By the way is this line bracket 280z specific? so I backed up and was figuring I was having a connection issue at the part. The hanging wires were plating beautifully T Those are both raw zinc, no chromate So I took 4 pieces all the same and wired them all differently. 2 with heavy wire and 2 with lighter wire I degreased them and put them in the pickle until they quit bubbling.. Then I plated all 4 in the tank at the same time. I rechecked my areas and plated at 0.14 amps/inch The one on the far left had a heavy wire tied top and bottom and it did the best. Second best was the other heavy wire 3rd from the left. Then the two lighter wires. I am emailing with Caswell and got this advise: After plating, try dipping in a very weak muriatic acid dip, about 2 seconds, then rinse and dip again in rubbing alcohol for 5 seconds, rinse and go in to the chromate. Let me know if that helps I will try that, but these results seem to suggest a connection problem and maybe a not enough current. Thoughts?

That was a first for me. Pulled the dipstick to see if there was water in the oil and water started pumping out of the dip stick hole... Dohhh!!!!

We have gotten the motor to turn over with a ratchet. I have worked on disassembling the SU's. Wow! I had a fit getting this piston out... The issue I have now is getting the throttle plates to move. If I could get them to move I could probably salvage these, believe it or not. But right now the plates don't even wiggle. Might try some heat tomorrow to try to get some movement...

I am pretty sure it's not supposed to do this...

This is how they sit at the moment. Plated all the hardware and polished the overflow tubes. They will need some straightening. The buffer took them away from me a couple of times. Sourced the heat shield from Z therapy and a few other parts. I am still missing a few things. Throttle return springs and the hex head screws for the choke cable ends... If I set the float heights, I think they would be ready to go on. Don't know if I have what I need for linkage...