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I didn't give a primer on car painting becaouse I the article on Parts Edging in Autorestorer I referenced addressed the original question posed in this thread, whether to leave the panels off or reassemble to paint. Check outy the article, it nails the question! Given proper masking techniques, it has been my experience that shooting any light color low pigment translucent metal flake or pearl paint will respond wonderfully to the multi layer process, Each layer(starting from a different location on the car) has the suspended reflective particles oriented a different direction, creating several times more "action" or "electricity" in the paint with out adding the distraction of actually seeing the flakes(like looking at a .41 dot pitch monitor instead of a .24 dot pitch, thje picture is the same, but the eyestrain is completely different) The more action is in the paint, the more a huge difference is clearly made-unless the process is not done correctly The gloss benefits from the color sanding, but the transparent layers of suspended reflective surfaces is what really livens up the paint, and allows it to fade without affecting a color change as noticeably, or as quickly. Shooting paint that is a solid color with a high pigment density the same way is pointless. It is like a front surface mirror, there is no depth. When I want to shoot a dark color with metal flake or pearl, I shoot a base color coat first, then for a second coat, thin out the base color substantially with clear, mix in the additives, and shoot-atleast one more coat. This process brings out a depth unachieveable any other way-regardless of the paint system used. The key to the depth is the clear-even 1 coat will do, but, the key to the "electricity" is the layers of the reflective additives all slightly colored by the low density of the pigmnet layers in the paint. Will PS. if we all did everything the same way, there would be no differences in our cars-or us-what fun would that be?

Jon, Thanks for the info! I will hunt down that article this evening. I am going to remove the perch weld on a lathe, and probably could just use a parting tool to cut the strut, re-thread the remaining strut tube, and re-position and weld the perch-alleviating the need for tube allignment. Thanks again, Will

When I have sprayed metalflake, I shot the cars twice, once off the car for total color change coverage, and once when the panels were back on-after color sanding, to keep the deposit angle of the flake aligned-just as Enrique pointed out. The two covers actually made the paint appear really "deep", and massively slowed down the fading of light blue(fades the worst). Will

The new issue of Autorestorer has a discussion of this very subject, and some great paiting tips. Will

I have a full set on order form Charley Osborne at Zedd Findings, They are not listed on the Web site, but he has them. You could cut out the rust and weld a patch panel in-but I want the area to be right! http://www.datsunzparts.com/start.htm Will

The metal recycler will come an pay cash for it-they come faster if you have more than 2. Will

when this comes into the time to do it, I will write up a technical article with all of the specifics needed by a newbie to reproduce my results. Will

There is doccumented use of Toyota MR2 shocks and Volkswagon Rabbit shocks in the modified struts. I know they work, and my real quandry is on the ride height. I will make a set of the 240Z Tokico springs work despite the strut modification. I am considering using a moveable perch, and a trimmable sleeve over the strut to locate it to find the best ride height. Will

What do you expect Bill! He was intimidated, and thought you were making pity conversation... An old rust bucket Porsche is just no match for an old rust bucket Z car. Will

Parts, parts, parts, and you let them get a way-I bet you won't get a fishing or hunting invitation after that! Good used parts are getting harder to find. For $5, add $40, arrange a tow dolly from uhaul, tow it to your house for the afternoon, take off the doors, hood, fenders, interior, and store or ebay them. Call the recycler-we get $75, and the metal yard will come and get the remains. Even if you don't sell part one, you come out $30 ahead! Will

That's Z related, something to pull other Zs home with!!! Will

Opps, I did it too, I have no wall paper, the complexity of the background adds to windows overhead, and for rendering, every bit of available resource-even with 2 gigs of ram and a current processer high end-helps. That damned daytime job gets in the way of my fun again! Will

Alphadog, I can't type, my fingers were out of sync with my brain Photoshop defaults to 72 dpi, and the "Picture Info" menu item is where my info was taken. WIll There are several shareware programs that allow you to make a slideshow for earlier versions of windows, XP has it built in...

I have seat mounts comming from Charley Osborne as we speak! I am working on a video, but the new camera was back ordered at the time of the removal of the floors, maybe I will have to find some one close in-say Fla with need of a weekend of mig, tig, and plasma cutting-oh yea, we already have been there! Will

Come to think of it, any marine supply or boat supply place will have them and so will most 2 cycle repair shops. All simple carbureators use them... Will

Carl, I had to shrink it to upload it, My Kodak Digital camera has higher color depth than the software used by this site expects. the original is 1792X1200 pixels a little over 6 megabytes, and 24"x 17" if shown in actual pixels at 67(standard Monitor resolution)ppi. Will

The file you are trying to upload is too large-the 1182 pixel guideline is correct only below a certian color depth, make the pictue smaller, and it shoud work. Will

Sunroofs are terrific for other cars-To put one in a Z is punishable by sacrifice of the car to the rust god. Which just to remind everyone, is a slow and painfull death. Will

Here is one of my favorites. I have a slide show of my own pictures of sunrises, sunsets, and my Zcars in various stages of undress-a pair of sisters, but No twins yet! This is not one of the best pictures, but It was the first one I came to. Will BTW Carl, according to my proctologist, that infrared picture doesn't look anything like my anus!

It was my poor attempt to add levity by drawing a parallel between protecting our posted photographs, and protecting our pennies. I appologize for not being more clear. That wasn't aimed at anybody except those who deface pennies! It was only a reference to another law that is not enforceable. There is a law to protect pennies, but nobody is watching! There is a machine that squishes them in public and they are sold as rolled pennies-even though it is illegal-it happens. I didn't mean to poot upwind... Will

Zkiid is right on! Check out my gallery, there are some shots of before and after peeling the floor from the rocker. Will

Most banjo fittings use copper gaskets 1/16" thick or so. Home Depot and Lowes cary them here in Savannah, but I have had to "punch" my own using sharpened pipes before. Heat the copper until it changes color(annealing), then punch it. Don't use a penny-it is illegal to deface government issue coinage-I bet you used someone elses pictures wrong too! (Unless it is dated before 1942, pennys are not solid coper anyway) After you have annealed a suitable sheet of copper, it can actually be punched with a leather punch easily, or cut by hand. Will

Shortening the shock could accomplish the same thing, but it would also void its warranty. Also i plan on using Illuminas, and I would not want to complicate matters by having to address shortening the adjustment setup. There is no warranty on a30 odd year old strut housing... WIll

I would remove all the rust with Metal Ready, Ospho, or some other variant of phosforic acid. Then undercoat. Will

The city won't allow ay modifications to the roadway without more red tape and inspections than there is rust on #27! The real problem is an Oak tree root. But here in Savannah, the City ownes all Oak trees. Only the city or its licensed representative may alter, prune, or remove an oaktree. The root is pushing up the street end of the last slab of my driveway-which is also a piece of sidewalk that the city also ownes... There is more, but it is too much like "road is wet durring rain"! Actually what I am after is to have the ride height be at the middle of the shock travel.. When you lower a car what you have done is also to reduce the allowable downward travel of the shock by the amount of lowering. I have all of the tools to do this, but not the experience to know what the deflection of the springs will be. Will