repainting my '71 240 (carbon fiber hood/hatch)

[zredbaron]

i should have started this thread months ago. oh, well.

 

the project's initial intent was to purchase john coffey's carbon fiber hood and hatch and to

get the two panels painted "a close enough match" to the rest of the car.

 

i obviously was looking to lose some weight for autocross, as opposed to infusing a bling bling

look into a car from the 70s. not now, not never. no way. (who's chair is that!?)

 

here are the parts as they were shipped from JohnC (ie Beta Motorsports):

 

 

 

 

 

 

these parts truly are incredible, btw. the two combined, including the lexan window, weigh

in around 10 lbs.

 

the stock hood and hatch (with glass) weighs in at a combined weight of about 95 lbs.

one hell of a difference...

[zredbaron]

i suppose i should include the most recent "before" pictures:

 

 

 

[be forewarned it may or may not be hard to stomach pictures of this paint utterly destroyed]

 

now i'm sure most of you are asking yourselves what kind of idiot would want to destroy such

a nice paint job!? i've asked myself that, too.

 

the truth of the matter is i had a slight boo-boo. and by that i mean my bumper and hood got

in a fight with a shrub, and the shrub won. the hood was repairable, the bumper was not.

 

yes, the paint was very nice for the most part. but let's face it, the paint was about 15 years

old, believe it or not. there were rust spots under the paint. the corners were chipped and cracked.

there were minor scratches, dents and dings all over the car. all rubber on the car was at the end

of its life cycle (the rubber was not removed when the car was painted red, so there were imperfections

from the painter taping off).

 

i had been eyeing john's carbon fiber parts for some time, but it had always been filed away in

some fantasy time period where i had nothing left to do but lighten the car.

 

now i found myself wanting a new hood. i decided to go with john's hood.

 

it was right about here that the "while I'm at it drug" was injected directly into my neck. as you already

know, i decided i wanted to get the rear hatch at the same time.

[zredbaron]

stage 1.

 

after deciding on a shop, the painter utterly refused to paint "just the new parts." he

basically told me he didn't care what i paid for, he's going to blend into the fenders.

 

he decided shortly after that to paint the whole fenders.

 

i later came into the shop the and saw this:

 

 

the circles are pointing out imperfections in the body/paint that the shop would of course

not be responsible for.

 

at this point, i'm looking at the car with the shop's body guys and the painter, and the painter

of course suggested "dude, all thats left is the doors and the top, you might as well paint the

whole car."

 

i go to the office and respond with "make me an offer I can't refuse" but of course the

while-i'm-at-it-drug had already dictated that i'd be painting it all.

[zredbaron]

stage 2.

 

here's the new hood after it had been fitted using the oem hinges.

 

i took john's advice and elected to use hood pins to fasten the top of the hood. i wanted to

keep the stock look, but the aluminum braces over a plastic rear window isn't exactly

subtle. the air dam, rims, and brakes aren't exactly a stock look either. time to give it up, mark...

 

 

as you can see, the hood has a perfect shape. very impressive for something that's hand-made.

quality product, john!

[zredbaron]

stage 2.5.

 

damn while-im-at-it-drug...

 

the set of new koni struts and stiffer springs that have been patiently waiting back in my

garage got me wondering if i could fit just a bit more rubber under my fenders.

 

oh, what the hell... let's cut the fender lip.

 

here's what i had them do: cut the lip right where it makes that turn in towards the tire,

and instead of have a knife edge cutting my tires, they tack-welded steel brake line onto

the edge. the brake line was slit open with a cutting wheel, leaving a nice rounded edge

on the bottom side.

 

 

 

then they put some fiberglass over the weld:

 

 

which leaves a very subtle, but open/aggressive look that likely won't be noticed, but

leaves more room for rubber nonetheless.

[zredbaron]

stage 3.

 

the body is fully prepped and primered:

 

[zredbaron]

stage 4.

 

all windows, doors and rear hatch are removed. jams are gutted and prepped.

 

 

 

rear hatch weather stripping being pulled out. the nearly 40 year old oem glue was quite

hard to get out.

 

 

 

i still don't know what they were thinking with the burnt gold color akin to the 70s. full

on bright orange looks beautiful, but burnt gold? bah.

 

 

 

i really admired the attention to detail back in the hinge area. the painters hands were all

scraped up from jamming bits of sandpaper in tight quarters.

 

 

 

they even drilled out the riveted manufacture plate in the door jam. this may or may not

be standard for this quality of a job, but i was impressed nonetheless.

 

 

 

the rear hatch jams cleared up quite nicely. this is a preview of some of the custom

mounting required for the carbon fiber rear hatch. nothing too serious, but that's why

it's scraped out the way it is. no idea what the math is.

 

 

 

the lower hatch area was one of the only rust places on the car. water pooled up at the

bottom of this area as well as a comparable area in the door jams, resulting in some

pitting. the new hatch won't be weatherproof, so my Z will likely never see rain again

anyways.

[zredbaron]

stage 5.

 

 

the jams are primed.

 

 

 

very clean.

 

 

 

 

finally getting somewhere!

[zredbaron]

stage 6.

 

 

inside of doors and underside of hatch are painted and clear coated.

 

 

 

an impressively deep clear coat. makes me wonder what the body will look like!

 

 

 

 

he did a great job cleaning up the belly of the hatch. the outside of john's advertised

"race parts" were quite clean, but the undersides weren't nearly as smooth. that said, my

painter has some serious skills making this composite part look like smooth metal...

[zredbaron]

stage 7.

 

 

door jams, hatch area, and underhood are painted red and clearcoated.

 

 

 

underhood is prepped. i didn't ever catch it in the primered stage.

 

 

 

the paint booth was big enough to fit 18-wheelers, so i asked if i could hang out in the

corner and watch one of the stages of paint. very cool.

 

 

after the red, before the clearcoat. still wet.

 

 

i snapped a short video of him in action:

 

 

and this is where we're at as of Nov 8th. i dropped the car off at the shop on july 1st, so

as close as i am, i'm still at least a few weeks out *at best* given the pace of the project.

[zredbaron]

stage 8.

 

doors, headlight lenses, hood, hatches are re-attached to the body.

 

 

 

 

 

[zredbaron]

stage 8.5

 

side project: restoration of my rear bumper.

 

 

copper stage. this was just too cool to see and NOT take a pic of. after this coat came the

zinc and then of course the chromium. [yes, those are rust pits, but they are under the

rubber parts so i told them not to worry about making it smooth.]

 

 

after all parts are replated.

 

 

all new mounting hardware.

 

 

 

after assembly. MSA evidently stocks original nissan horizontal rubbers. their vertical

over-rider rubbers are crap though (they dimple when tightened, you can see in the pic).

don't get them! i also found original nissan chrome bolts and original mounts. lucky me!

[zredbaron]

stage 9.

 

blocking.

 

not much to see. been rather disappointed with the lack of progress over the last month. all

that's really happened was some blocking and a bit of sanding. most attention was obviously

given to the composite hood. the structural support requires some resurfacing. hopefully the

first summer heat won't warp it too much...

 

 

side note: i find this image reminds me of the 240z road racer look, with the front end

and headlights closed off.

[zredbaron]

stage 10.

 

RED!!!

 

 

i returned from a holiday family visit to CA fully expecting to see a shiny red datsun, and i did!

 

 

the lighting is obviously way off, but you can at least get the basic idea here. i assure you it isn't a dark red like these pics show; it's brighter once it's out of the fluorescents (chrysler's radiant fire red).

 

 

the non-flash pics show the texture / reflectiveness off a bit more. i really admire the

subtle difference that cutting the fender lips has had on the purpose-built appearance

aspect. it's subtly aggressive, and i like.

 

 

these are still in the "crude" curing stage. there are numerous imperfections waiting to be

buffed out. the wet-sanding will be in 3 more stages: 1000 grit, 2000 grit, then 3000 grit.

 

 

you can't really tell in this pic, but the hood needs to be redone. the fwd left area didn't

quite block out all the way (you can see the support framing). if you look for it, you can

tell that the hood is carbon fiber. i was warned, but luckily my painter claims he can make

it smooth, at least until it gets hot and re-settles again. sigh.

 

 

if it's this reflective *before* the wet-sanding/buffing/first wax, then man, am i in for a surprise!

perhaps it will be worth the 6 month wait after all...

[zredbaron]

stage 11.

 

wet sanding begins, hood is repainted, air dam is painted, windshield installed.

 

after a gentle nudge with the general manager of the shop, the painter has been directed to

work on my Z every day until it's out of the shop. had an initial twitch that hoped he would

still be just as meticulous, but after seeing his progress after a few days the concern was

put to rest.

 

 

this air dam already looks 10x better than how it did before. his paint looks better before sanding and buffing than many shops' final product.

 

 

 

hood was sanded down and resurfaced, then repainted. i suspect it's only a matter of time

before the sub frame is visible again. composite part, after all.

 

 

 

windshield was installed. unfortunately, it wasn't noticed that i supplied them with a brand

new set of OEM windshield trim. the glass man will have to come pull it all out again and

use the new trim instead of the 39 year old trim. it happens. also, you can't really tell in this

pic, but the driver door and rear left fender have been wetsanded down to 3000. hasn't been

thoroughly buffed out yet.

 

 

 

i walked in on him wet-sanding the passenger door panel and rear quarter. he was at the

2000 grit stage.

 

 

this next part is pretty damn cool. i was quite pleasantly surprised. at one point i walked

in on him blocking the car (in the primered stage). he demonstrated to me how he slightly

"sharpened" all of the car's lines. i was fascinated, of course.

 

the rear quarter's sharpened lines really caught my eye:

 

this angle particularly exaggerates this sharpened line. in person it isn't quite so loud.

 

 

this one is more natural:

 

many Z owners might not even notice that the lines have been sharpened. it will hopefully

simply be a sharp looking car that doesn't dare you to analyze why.

 

 

see? looks normal in this view. it's subtle, but sharp, depending on your eye and your

viewing angle. if you scroll up and look at the wet sanded panels again, the non-reflective

texture lets you see the sharp line easily.

 

i'm also particularly pleased with this pic. notice anything missing? antenna, perhaps? i

can't even tell that the panel's hole had a plate welded over it.

[zredbaron]

stage 11. [still.]

 

just once in my life, i'd like a car project to come within 25% of the projected timeline. just once...

 

sigh...

 

here, it waits. only this time, it's my fault.

 

 

see, the way it happened was, when I came and saw all the re-assembly parts laid out,

that's when i noticed that the door handles and gas panel knob would stand out like sore

thumbs on this shiny new restored exterior. i took them off to be rechromed, delaying

reassembly about 3 weeks. or so i think and hope.

 

in other news, the rear hatch and front hood have both been completely resurfaced

*again.* and no, not by my request. painter wasn't happy with how they turned out. i

really didn't mind that much this time since i had already caused a concurrent delay.

 

but damn, it's only been what, 7.5 months now that the shop has had my car?

[zredbaron]

stage 12, aka stage 9.5 revisited.

 

[man, is it me or did HybridZ change? can't quite put my finger on it...]

 

i came in one day while waiting on the door handles to come back from the chrome shop and found this:

 

i love this picture. the lines are highlighted by the paper and tape... it just accentuates how

sexy the curves of datsun's original design of this car were.

 

i'm not sure what he saw that wanted to redo, but obviously 99% of the work was taping off the car.

incredible how much labor this was for the slightest amount of touchup. there's hardly any overspray

at all, showing how little red was actually resprayed.

 

 

 

surprising, huh? i keep meaning to ask him what he did, but i keep forgetting.

Edited March 17, 2010 by zredbaron

[zredbaron]

stage 13.

 

window seals, door assembly and rear hatch attached.

 

finally getting somewhere again! after a hiatus, the shop has put my Z back on the front

burner. the windshield guy came by and redid the seal with the new stainless trim he was

supposed to use last time.

 

 

 

 

the caked dust just has to be shared:

 

 

 

 

good luck making all that junk look like an interior again, guys.

 

 

 

 

before (fresh coat of elbow grease admittedly):

 

 

 

 

after (elbow grease would be an epic fail):

 

 

it's hard to look and realize that it never would have gotten dirty like this had it not

been in the shop for 8.5 months at this point. looking at the before pics and going in and

seeing my Z like this feels like witnessing a crime against humanity.

 

 

 

the rear quarter panels are reinstalled with the new rubber. pretty damn good fit, i'd say.

everything's 40 years old, after all.

 

 

 

 

looking like a real car again. finally. the hatch still blows my mind. my pinky lifts it as

if it were a pencil: the hatch without the lexan window weighs in at a mere 2 lb, 3 oz., with

the pivot point holding up the "weight." unreal.

 

 

god, i think i'm going to love the subtle, hot rod fender lips. and by lips i mean lack thereof.

visually, the ride height needs to be raised just a touch though. hopefully the suspension

geometry agrees. seems to me i was a tad on the low side and needed to adjust anyway. if it wasn't

nearly a year ago i might remember...

Edited March 17, 2010 by zredbaron

[zredbaron]

nothing's new, but i did arrive to see a very clean and still wet little red 240 outside.

 

the hood and hatch are still at an in-between stage of wet-sanding from weeks ago, and therefore appear a different shade of red.

 

 

 

looks like a real car, though. you know, one that you can get in and drive and stuff.

 

 

 

 

and then we get a little closer and see the finish...

 

 

 

as i was admiring it, rich, my painter, bragged something to the effect of "it's not even shiny yet it still hasn't been wet-sanded with 3000 grit or had the final buff."

 

say again?

[drifterZ_74]

looking good!