OldAndyAndTheSea

Body work continued this evening a little bit. Nothing major. I spent only a couple minutes out there. Proceeded to begin stripping the body one last time. Once again, tail lights out. and a little primer. It's the weekend. That means a couple solid days of work. Hopefully I make leaps and bounds.

More random body work today...Some dents, some wet sanding, some filling, the works. Even a little stud welder action. Working my way around the car, assessing and fixing appropriate areas. My goal is to bring at least one panel into work tomorrow to spray once the day is over. Waiting for filler to cure, then I'll head out and continue the process.

Just returned from town, I picked up my 2 quarts of Anthracite basecoat. ($74 after tax) It's pretty much impossible to get a good picture of the color currently. But I intend to hopefully spray at least one panel tomorrow after work. So results, hopefully soon. Today I get the prep done. About to head out there now.

Thanks, I'm pleased, it's really nice for what it is. And yeah, the downpipe, and midpipe are the OEM versions. I didn't want to take the engine apart, so I chopped the old midpipe at a straight section, and I tossed an extra 2.5"-3" ID adapter to run the 3" Luckily, at least from what I can tell, there were no, to minimal, exhaust leaks upstream of the new piping. If that changes, I have an extra manifold gasket. Here's one of the pictures when I was first working on the car, pre patch fest. I cut it right where you see the break in the pipe.

Tossing Hammerite into the mix. I've had equal, to better results than POR-15 I've also found it to be much more user friendly. And less prep intense.

Boy is it frigid out there tonight. It'll be sub-zero before the night is through... Tomorrow though, the temperature is supposed to hit the low to mid 40's. And I have the day off. I'll be picking up my paint. Jupiter Gray made the paint computer freak out, so we tried Anthracite (L469) instead, and it worked. Then upon my return, I will be body workin' all remaining day into the evening. Tonight, I did a little prep, so it's just a couple less things I have to do tomorrow. Like welding the side molding trim holes, and the fender emblem holes. And I began going through my accumulated paint from various jobs over the years. I've discovered that I have a little over 2 quarts of clear, and the appropriate hardener. Which I am ecstatic about, because this means the cost of painting the whole car will be the cost of those two quarts of paint I buy tomorrow (Around 65 dollars) haha. -Cheapest paint job I've ever done. Gotta love multiple quarter-half full clearcoat cans! Days worked on project to date: 28 Total money spend on project to date: $815

Yeah, we still haven't been that lucky here lately. It's still pretty damn cold for the season, that's for sure. This morning it was 12 degrees outside. I forgot I didn't mention it in my build thread, but in the RPM signal lost thread I explained that once I retested Megasquirt for a cranking RPM signal, which I was reading before, it is now gone. I later confirmed that the optical sensor in the distributor stopped functioning properly. So, I'm going EDIS. I'm currently waiting on my tax return to start sourcing out Ford ignition parts, and my 36-1 crank pulley. So that kinda sucks, but the car has become too special to just try to cob something together to make it run. But in the meantime I've been putting in lots of time on the 280zx. Which will be painted within a week or so, and driving once the giant snowbank in front of my garage melts a little. So that will scratch my itch in the meantime, until I get this car running. It also allows me to source out coilovers, rear end, and rear disc stuff. I'm about to head out and work on the POS car now.

Thanks! I'm loving this build more and more each day. Especially now since I'm done cutting out rust. Haha, I couldn't be more excited. I didn't work tonight, but I did sit in the car; just playing around shifting through gears making racecar sounds. Same thing I used to do when I was 8 in my first rotted out z. That said, I am buying paint tomorrow. I'll call my paint guy up in the morning and see if he can mix me up 2 quarts of L225 basecoat. Then, the final bodywork stage starts tomorrow evening. Making it straight-ish should take a couple decent days of work. Despite being rusty, luckily the metal was pretty straight, so at least I have that going for me. How I am going to paint the car. -Fenders, hood, doors and hatch will be sprayed off the car, most likely 2 pieces at a time a day, at work, after hours. -I'll then spray the jams, and unibody in my garage. -This process will most likely take the better part of a week. Once desired body work is achieved. Add in the variable of temperature in my garage for the unibody spray, and it may prove to be a challenge. Tomorrow I start to make it straight and make it smooth. And with any luck I'll have some paint to swirl around and take pictures of. Stay tuned.

Mhm SPI is very nice quality for the cost. Would recommend.

I spent more money on the car today..Fifteen all mighty dollars. Bought a 2.5" exhaust clamp, for where the adapter meets the existing downpipe midpipe, and one 3"-3" ID coupler to accommodate removal. Here are the assorted pictures of the rear section fabrication, fitment, and random geometry angles. And oh yeah. How could I forget Enjoy the sounds of my 145 dollar 3" exhaust system. Taken during warm up. Car is around 1500 rpms at the start of the video for reference. (Don't mind the slight stumbles etc, the car hasn't been started in 4 months, and it's 20 degrees outside. It needs to be driven.) Go back to page one for the link to the exhaust note when I first bought the car. Compare and decide if this is an improvement. Well, despite working until 1am, tonight was a GOOD night. I go to bed smelling of exhaust fumes. I welcome the aroma. Total days worked on project to date: 27 Total money spent on project to date: $815 +15

I have pretty much finished the first half of the exhaust. Tomorrow I start the second half. Luckily I am able to make the exhaust a 2 piece, instead of my original 3 piece thinking. So instead of a coupler, where I mentioned before, I was able to butt them together instead. Much easier to manage now. I'm happy with the fitment at this point. The welds are a little scraggly, but they aren't bad. Overall, pretty satisfied. A fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon, I certainly enjoyed myself. Hopefully the pictures show that. Finally you can start to see how I am routing the piping in the car. And the required bends needed to do so. Welcome to the underside of the car. My Hell. I have a couple bends left. Then it's exhaust hanger time. I'll hopefully be 90% done by the end of the day tomorrow. After work, of course. Until then... Days worked on project to date: 26 Total money spent on project to date: $800

Exhaust!!!! Okay so here's the layout. Downpipe ---> 2.5"-3" adapter ---> 3" pipe --> Dynomax straight through muffler The geometry of the bends is actually pretty complex. So that's where I started. The pipe not only bends, but also twists as it has to be routed over top of the rear end, and subsequent cross members. Hopefully the pictures do better explaining. I will also have to make this a 2 or a 3 piece exhaust due to those bends. So I'll have to either make, or source out some 3"-3" ID couplers. I'll say this though......It's really nice doing some clean fabrication work. Such a relaxing change from rusty garbage repair. I'm having a ton of fun building this. Here's what I've accomplished so far. First section. Coupler will go here. All bendy twisty over rear end suspension stuff. I'm all fueled up with some potato leek soup. It's time for round two. More tonight...

Loved it. Such cool guys, I remember watching some of their stuff before, but I fell out of it for some reason...Thanks for reminding me of these guys. Had a smile on the whole time.

Awesome! Looks so good, especially at that price point.

Thanks! Good luck with your floors. I'm REALLY glad mine are behind me now. Patch-Fest 2014 has officially come to an end! The car is as closed up, and strong, as I care to make it. Here's what I got done today: -Finished welding, painted, and seam sealed the driver's wheel well. -Some more random body work -Driver's interior mocked back in place (mainly so I could just sit in it, play with my new floors a bit, haha) -Fender placed back on the car. Some teaser shots for myself. And the car now. Same angle as always. Tomorrow, after some errands, I will begin cutting the exhaust, and once again start working the body....... FINALLY! Days worked on project to date: 25 Total money spent on project to date: $800

Tonight I worked on the driver's carpet a little bit. I fixed most of the holes, obviously the color doesn't match, but it's at least nice so you can see what areas needed to be repaired. I'll decide whether or not I paint the carpet afterwards. The process: -Back patch the areas with fabric tape (Gorilla tape, and even duct tape work well enough) -Using a razor blade, shave matching colored carpet from a healthy area of the car. -Dab of super glue into the repair area. Shortly followed with application of the razor blade carpet shavings. Applied by tapping. It's fun. Here are the pictures. Before: As you can see, if the carpet you're patching isn't all stained and junk, you can make some pretty gnarly tears virtually disappear. We'll see if I can get it to clean up. Either way. No holes trumps holes any day of the week. Progress! Days worked on project to date: 24 Total money spent on project to date: $800

A couple reasons. First being, I had the resin, and polyester resin is ALWAYS in a state of curing, so I needed to use it. Second being an attempt to seal out the moisture from the top down. Seam sealer on the underside will do the same for the reciprocal. Plus I figured it couldn't hurt. It's defintiely not for strength. That's in the repair. This is mainly to keep the water from my shoes off the metal below. So far today.. Got home from work. Went out, prepped, and painted the floor. Bottom is sealed. Grabbing a bite to eat, then heading back out. It's the weekend. It's car time!

Didn't get to work out in the garage very long tonight. Put an hour in or so. Laying in the chopped strand mat, confirming size. And some polyester resin later...Somewhere mid laminating. Tons of air. Again, we're talkin' quality here Tomorrow I paint the floor and continue with the last few remaining spots left to patch up. I feel the hard stuff is now behind me. Days worked on project to date: 23 Total money spend on project to date: $800

Haha, thanks, that's the point of this build. Spend NO money, while using up the sheetmetal scraps, and spare parts I have laying around the garage collecting dust. The only downside to this build is that if people see this project BEFORE they see my 240z project. I don't want people to think this is how I SERIOUSLY work on a project car, haha. I'm about to head back out and work some more. Updates will surely follow.

A little more tweaking this evening after work. Pretty much there. Ugh..The end is in sight! Days worked on project to date: 22 Total money spent on project to date: $800

After work today. Got to a good stopping point. Lots of work left to do. I'm tired. I'll try to finish it up tomorrow evening. Goodnight. Days spent on project to date: 21 Total money spent on project to date: $800

Tonight I was tired, but I managed to strip some of the drivers floor sound deadening. The driver's floor, as to be expected, was a little more worse for wear than the passenger's. However the driver's rocker panel is in tact, so I don't have to fix that at least.

Love it. Keep it up. I'll be watching.

Thanks, yeah, this one is pretty rusty. Luckily I've got nothing better to do in my spare time during the winter. I'm excited to daily drive the car in the spring. It should scratch my itch to drive a Z, as it's been a couple years since I've had one going on the road now. Thanks again for the encouragement. I appreciate it. Today I went out to buy... "Seam sealer" 3.50 a tube. I bought two. Have used one. $7.00 Here's some pictures of today's patch o rama. Using up every last bit of scrap I can manage. It's kinda funny. Then after a little seam sealer was applied and allowed to do it's thing. I got to put together the passenger interior, sans door jam trim pieces. It's a nice change from the last couple days. Tomorrow, I start the driver's side. That'll begin the final stretch! exciting! Days worked on project to date: 19 Total money spent on project to date: $800 (+$7)

Yeah, all liquid coatings like to have something to attach to. Bare metal isn't the greatest in terms of bond strength, when talking about adding paint only. Always prime if you wan't proper adhesion and relatively decent asethetic finish. This DOESN'T have to be a filler primer or a primer surfacer. Etch primer was designed for this purpose entirely. Introducing bare metals to liquid coatings. Lightly etch the area (does not go on like a build primer, it likes to go on "dry").... Then paint. I assume the VHT paint doesn't call for primer as it is for exhausts/super high heat, and finding a 1500 degree primer is basically impossible. Not to mention the paint is pretty much designed to fade and become less glossy as it dries/is heated. It kind of reminds me of anti fowling bottom paint (for boats).