ballin280z

yes sanding metallics cuts the flake and yes it will look horrible if you leave it but i wrote to repaint backover it and blend it back out to bring it back and then continue and if done correctly its a no harm no foul correction. by no means sand it and clear it...

regatta red comes up for 85-86 nissan's as code 013. My color bank doesn't have an option for the 280zx's for that year, sorry but when i search over all nissans for the 80's i pull up a regatta red for 85-86. hope this helps. cheers

enamel is very durable and about half the amount per gallon than single stage urethane, the one down side is that unless you're a highly experienced painter it doesn't lay out as easily as urethane or lacquer for that matter. in the long run it's a track car, and i mean nothing bad by it loke you said it'll see some damage, and it'll see wear and damage that most cars won't so i would go with an enamel for track purposes, but for looks i'd go urethane. it's durable but not as much as enamel but urethane is much easier to get the gloss and layout and still keep quite a bit of durability. and even with a little bit of orange peel you can buff out urethane much easier than enamel. painting enamel over a primer is fine, as long as you double check to make sure the primer you are using is compatible with the enamel paint line you are using...i always recommend using a primer/sealer surfacer to help hide blemishes in body work. i had to come back and edit how much you'd need. if you pick enamel you should be able to cover your whole Z with two coats no sweat so a half gallon maybe 2.5 qts. If urethane, i painted a subaru justy today, about the same surface area as a Z, i used about 3 qts. but it was a taxi yellow and a color that doesnt cover very well. a very close barrier coat like a non catalyst sealer helps those hard to cover colors cover better so you're not putting on 6 coats to get it to even all out in case you burned through your primer anywhere or have fiberglass, bondo, metal, previous paint etc spots showing anywhere. I've sprayed Starfire Enamel and had great turn outs with great shine. a gallon sprayable is 71 bucks so it's quite unbeatable. you can check out trinity 1945 products and such and other colors at the link below, the link is for a silver gun metal enamel. http://www.paintforcars.com/kits_gunmetal.html good luck with your track car, i'd love to see pictures when you're done painting it which ever way you go cheers

wet 600 by hand is okay on a primer as long as there is a pad between your hand and your paper to avoid grooves your hand can make while sanding, a stiff foam block works best, your local paint store will have a few different types of these. if using a DA (dual action sander) with an interface pad 400 grit dry works too. IMO 1500 is over kill, on a 2K primer you'd be there for days trying to flatten that surface. I paint B/C over DA'd dry 400 grit primer every daynwith no problem and have terrific turn outs. Avoid dry sanding by hand on primer though, your hand creates heavier pressure on the primer and digs deeper into the primer and you will see those scratches in the basecoat. As for wet sanding basecoat... never dry sand B/C....NEVER. You can WET sand an imperfection (i.e. drip, run, large dust specs, bugs (yes I've run across this) etc.) with a minimum of 1200 grit sand paper. 3m Trizact paper is an amazing friend when you run into an imperfection, but always wet and be sure you try not to burn through the b/c and when repainting the sanded area fog the b/c out far around that spot to blend the b/c back together. a word of caution, metallic b/c is much harder to fix an imperfection on than a solid base, but it is very do-able. hope this helps any who read. cheers

mica is a very fine flake such as your pearls and what not....metallics come in all sorts of fine, coarse, medium, large size flakes.

the downside to putting flake in the clear is 1: overlap is crucial to even layout of the flake so you dont get clusters of flake and 2: after you've achieved the consistancy of flake you want then you have to bury that flake under multiple coats of clear in order to longer feel the flake and be able to cut and buff your topcoat for your shine and not to damage the flakes that are on edge and stick up..... i work at a body shop and we've done numerous flake jobs on base/clear and single stage jobs...your best bet in a base/clear setup is to use a transparent basecoat to carry just the flake and no color and spray it very sinilar to a candy/tri stage setup so you save on clear and time in the process...and transparent base is fairly inexpensive... as for the mica met. difference i'll find out tomorrow the difference i have an idea but i wanna get it straight first... hope this helps happy painting

looking to see if anything more has been done since july?

Does anyone know the purpose of the S30 vent holes in the rear quarter panels? I tried searching for a purpose for them but found nothing, so if anyone knows I'd love the input.

i had the same problem with my 280 when i got her a new battery, i dont know how long yours has been sitting but here's what i did to fix mine. 1. pull all your glass fuses and clean the contacts extremely well and double check you dont have any that are toast. and check to make sure all your fusible links on the pass wheel well have all good contact as well...that solved my headlights, 2. my turn signals were because of a burnt out bulb...one shot bulb wipes the whole blinker system and you get nothin....try that, just a suggestion from someone who had a very similar problem recently.