mikeatrpi

I'm considering buying a portable garage from harbor freight to store my Z for the winter. I hope to also use it as a paint booth. Right now the car has been primered with epoxy primer, but since I store my Z outside year-round, I'm planning to spray color in the spring. If the portable garage is a good idea, I can paint now and not worry about the car over the winter. I live in the northeast, and yes it will snow on the portable garage. The alternative is what I've been doing up to now... covering the car with a heavy duty tarp. Its never had a great body until now... so it didn't matter. I'm worried the tarp will damage my new paint. Thank you for any advice you might have.

"Just" sand it off or wipe with solvent isn't as easy as it sounds. It took me a long time to remove all that crap (I had as much as 2-3 layers of it). Based on my experiences, I would 1) use a waterproof filler on bare metal, such as where you weld up patches. 2) spray each piece with at least one coat of epoxy primer. Its not that expensive, and also waterproof. 3) Then later when you're into final body work, use rage gold filler instead of bondo brand... I've heard rage gold is a finer compound. Do it on top of the epoxy primer. Then spray more epoxy primer to seal it. X also recommends a high build primer. I haven't decided yet if I'm doing to buy some or not. Depends how it looks wet sanded. One step at a time. Right now, I have between 3 to 5 coats of epoxy on the car.

Due to some delays, I didn't get to spray until Saturday. Sure enough, everywhere there were hidden traces of rustoleum the primer lifted. As a result I only have the hood, one door, and shell in primer. Next weekend I'll be able to finish the rest of the parts. It was a little too windy for my spray "booth", because some of the plastic blew into the wet primer and was a B to get off... I did this in the open.

Thanks Phil and RacerX. I had some issues setting up my "paint booth" today, so I'm slightly behind schedule. I'm going to be doing sanding, sanding and more sanding for the next couple of days- probably won't spray anything until Friday. I will talk to the people at the paint store and see if I should swap the MP170 for MP211 or use it in addition to the epoxy.

Alrighty- so the frame, floor, welding, fiberglass, etc work is done on the car! I took this week off work to paint it. I bought PPG MP170 epoxy primer (with the mp175 catalyst). The data sheet says 1 coat- can I do more? Also it says non-sanding...? I would like to spray 2 coats of epoxy primer, block the car with a guidecoat, and then do one more coat of epoxy primer, and wet sand it smooth. Is this ok? I also bought MAE acrylic enamel, to go on top of my epoxy primer. I'm planning for three coats. It gives various drying times- dust, tack, tape, polish. Do I remove the masking at the "tape" time (4 hrs)? Do I need to polish the car? I have a power buffer but I've never used it before. I know I have a lot of questions, so I'll keep searching and reading. I will post pictures when its done Thank you very much!

Good luck!

Ditto. Sawzall is sometimes difficult to get into these areas.

Thank you for the tips. I'm getting ready to go outside and cut out part of the subframe. I made the patches yesterday... today I cut 'n weld. I will go to the paint store and ask about the spray guns, and I will definitely remove the aerosol primer. The floor is nearly finished welding, but I won't paint it all until I'm done welding the subframe. I will post pictures when I get the car painted. I usually update the web site on Sunday nights if anyone wants to follow along

Hi all, I'm pretty new here and usually just lurk in the shadows. I'm finally finishing up the metal work and will be ready to paint my 82 280zx soon. I plan to use PPG Omni, black, with epoxy primer. 1) I've been doing body work on panels and spraying aerosol primer as I go. Paint guy at the store says I don't need to sand it all off... is that true? I used rustoleum and cheapo primer from Autozone. 2) I have the stock 82 plastic bumpers. Can I sand them before painting? Do I need an adhesion promoter? Do I use any specialized paint? 3) I wish to paint my floor with rustoleum... in places where the rubber mat didn't lift easily can I just paint over it? Or should I dry-ice it and remove all the rubber mat? In some places its still in really good shape... I'd rather keep it if I could. 4) I have a craftsman cup gun to shoot the primer. Should I use it for the color too, or would it be worth it to buy an HVLP gun from harbor freight? Here is a link to my progress pictures: http://z.modeltrainguide.com. Tomorrow I'm welding up the floor and making patches for the subframe rails. Oh yeah! Thank you in advance.

The plate says GVWR doesn't it? Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. Its the maximum total weight of the car including all the stuff you can put inside. Its not the Net weight of the car. With your example, the GVWR is 3600lbs, net weight is 2500lbs, therefore you can pack about 1100lbs of stuff into the car before you exceed the weight rating. http://www.rvsafety.com/gvwrworksheet.htm

Open on the end, like into the wheel well? I'm going to fiberglass mine. I figure its non load bearing and barely visible. I just don't want pebbles and mud collecting in there. Oh yea, I finished the body work on mine. I'm not sure if you ever went back to my link. I started on the floor now...

What are you going to treat the rust with? Rust Bullet or por-15? I have a zx, and our panels are very different there, so I can't tell you if you should cut more or stop where you are. Either way, I'd say you're approaching half-way done with the repair. Treat it, weld on the patch, body work, beer.

Wow that looks fantastic! Great job!

Generic Ospho called "The Right Stuff" sells for $5 / qt at Advance Auto. Works great!

I'm in the same boat as you- body straight, bondo, rattle can primer. Just have a rocker and the hood left. For what its worth, I found PPG Omni epoxy primer and base for under $200 locally- paint, primer, catalyst, hardner, reducer. I'm going to keep an eye on this thread.

Doglegs? I'm currently repairing those on my zx right now. Basically I cut all the rust away, made a cardboard template, then made my own patch out of sheet metal. I used an offset tool (similar to forming a backing strip like in your link) and punch to align and weld the panels together. I've been using ospho to protect the metal, and rustoleum on all concealed (backsides, etc) of the patches. Here are pictures- I finished welding on the outers earlier today. I hope to have them finished by the end of the long weekend. I'll put up new pictures then. http://z.modeltrainguide.com/gallery/album17?page=1 If you wander around my site you'll find other welding pictures.

Wow man, I'm sorry for your loss. I'd invest in a very beefy steel fence before I did anything else...

Well... you're about to learn a whole lot! A Z is a great car to learn to work on. Remember to have fun even when things get frustrating. For the body work- anything rusty you'll want to replace. Sometimes if its small you can cut out the rust and fiberglass a patch. If its big, you want to cut it out and weld on some new metal. Even if its small but structural- use steel. Anyway, you should buy the book Restoring your Datsun Z car by Wick Humble on amazon. Its only like $14 or so. He goes through pretty much everything. I'm going to send you a PM too.

I don't think its worth $200 for infinite voltage adjustment. You can get the same effect by varying the stickout. Besides, less settings to screw with when you're new will keep you learning proper technique instead of dialing knobs. FWIW, I bought my refurb Lincoln SP-100T from weldingmart.com for $370 shipped.

Looks really good! I plan on using that primer on my 280zx. Can I ask what you paid, and how much (quantity) you used? I was quoted $70 for a gallon with a quart of activator.

I bought a refurb Lincoln SP-100 from weldingmart.com for $370, free shipping no tax. I got a bottle from EBay (Indiana Oxygen Co, $86) and a fill ($30 from a local shop). That was everything I needed, except gloves. It works great, but as others have pointed out the heat settings are not infinite. I wanted to save some money, so I made the sacrifice. Have fun!