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Heavy Duty frame rails and connectors


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I made an appointment to media blast my z this Saturday.   Rented a Ford F350 with 15 foot flatbed and lift gate for $130 per day.   Unbolted

the four 3" casters on the rotisserie and tack welded them to the frame rails.

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Side view of casters

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 The casters were transferred to allow easy movement of car to the rented flatbed truck.   With help from my neighbor and the liftgate, the

move should be relatively easy.

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Hard to believe, it took 15 months to get it this far!!

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SleeperZ,  Previously I had a Chevy 355 with a T5 trans in my 240Z.   This time I am putting in a crate LS3 motor with a T56 trans.   Thinking about 

putting a R200 differential with 3.70 gears.    Down the road,  I might do a Ford 8.8 or Camaro IRS rear swap.   I will have plenty of time when

I retire.

Edited by toolman
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Rented a Ford F350 with 14 foot flat bed for $120/a day.   The sand blasting shop was on the other side of the island about an hour drive away.

IMG_3421.thumb.JPG.f4f0a0d2f00691dc47922da940fb0233.JPGAt the sand blaster

Forklifted into the blasting room

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View of blasting( lots of noise from the air compressor and very difficult to see anything)

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IMG_3427.thumb.JPG.6ab424d436ac6c15bc7136459ba58993.JPG  Almost finished blasting

 

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The 240z finally back at home.   Probably take a week to get most of the blasting media out of all those box sections.   Next step is seam 

sealing the car.   This is another labor intense job that may take a couple of weeks.

 

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Get it in some sort of primer fast.  Freshly sand blaster cars start to rust in hours not days.  Don't touch it with bare hand salt and oil from it will speed up the rust process.  On 09090 we put POR 15 right over the bare metal, Almost 10 years later it is still like the day we put it on.  JMHO, Richard. 

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Looking great...

 

The only downside I have found to the blasting, is that the blasting media gets into EVERYTHING.  I would wager that inside the assorted enclosed areas of the, frame rails and such, you have a lot of it.  I haven't come up with a slam dunk way to get it all out, but compressed air and a shop vac are your best (only) hope.

 

My car was blasted almost a year ago and I am still finding blasting media in various places.  I guess it doesn't really hurt anything, but it definitely bugs me.

Edited by Ironhead
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 Richard is absolutely correct you must prime the car quick as possible to  prevent flash rust.   I purchased 5 gallons of Hold Tight  for $200 to

provide a 72 hours window before epoxy priming.   This solution can be mixed with media in wet media blasting or used with a 2000PSI pressure

washer after dry media blasting.   It removes the salt and other contaminants off the metal into the air.   Bridges and metal building  even use Hold Tight prior to painting.

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Also, prior to epoxy priming, I spray Ospho-rust inhibitor around overlapping metal patches.   This is slow down any corrosion caused by the

welding process.

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The vehicle was given another check for any rust that might have been missed.   If rust was found. the area was spot blastedIMG_3441.thumb.JPG.a928d3865c3118f2c3d03d95a31177ef.JPG

A 1000 lumen LED portable light was utilized to find any missed areas( like cowl and other boxed sections)

 

Epoxy priming was very difficult because of the enclosed and tight body sections( especially by the spare tire well).

704529318_IMG_3445(1).thumb.JPG.d127bd7334a1cebdd7fee227430f0921.JPGBottom  view 

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Front bottom view

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Front top view

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View of the interior

I sprayed  a gallon of white epoxy primer( costs about $200 with  activator).   Still have to touch up several areas for complete coverage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In preparation for seam sealing the under carriage, I masked around all of the metal patches and structural joints.

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View of masking around the engine compartment area.

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Evercoat Maxim #100823 seam sealer was used with a conventional chalking gun.  It total seals any moisture from entering welded areas.

But, it sells for $47 on Amazon.   It performs like a flexible epoxy sealer and is really strong.

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Close up view of the seam sealed metal patches and joints.  Note-using the masking tape keeps the seams neater.   The working time for this

sealer is only 15 minutes so one must work fast.

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A more rear view of the seam sealing work.

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The other seams and joints were sealed with Fusor 800DTM  seam sealer.   It costs about $15/tube and bought four tubes of sealer.  It is

OEM approved sealer for late model vehicles.

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Overall view of the sealing job.    I ordered couple of tubes of SEM PRODUCTS sprayable seam sealer to do hard to apply

areas( like cowl and other real tight areas).

Edited by toolman
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  • 2 weeks later...

Before View of the Left front compression rod frame mount.

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Two coats of body filler were applied to welded areas.

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After painted with Sherwin Williams 2K poly white primer.

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Right inner engine compartment being smooth out with body filler.    Upside up view is caused being on rotisserie.

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View  After being painted with 2K Poly primer.   

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Note -Just body worked area was primed to prevent corrosion on bare metal areas due to sanding.

View of the transmission tunnel where patches were done and primed with 2K Poly primer.

IMG_3503.thumb.JPG.5a6d007d99200b2c3bf46c5ef277d5ac.JPG

 

IMG_3515.thumb.JPG.549a5bc5aa2a5fb5af772f6dfa988201.JPG Left exterior rear wheel housing

 

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Left exterior wheel housing view

   I got to use my new 3M spray gun system #16580.   This system allows the painter to interchange  tips from 1.3  to 1.8 while keeping the same gun.   Also, the inner cup liner allows the gun operation to be upside down and functioning.   Gun cleanup is fast and easy too.   Next step will be to finish priming the under carriage of the Z.

 

 

Edited by toolman
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Front view of the Z on the rotisserie.   Work on the bottom of the car would be impossible without a rotisserie( tilt or full one).

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View of rear bottom of car(seam sealed)- painted poly primer over the epoxy primer.

IMG_3536.thumb.JPG.8e242d171782c14d047b683bdfc855c8.JPGNote- these cramped areas were difficult to paint.

 

View of bottom of passenger compartment.

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View of front bottom section

IMG_3539.thumb.JPG.693691810a95405a51730f03c21507dc.JPGNote-front crossmember and rear differential mount were removed to paint under them.

 

Interior picture-note reinforcement plates(16 gauge) added to floor board near trans hump and firewall.

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Top view of interior

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This is only the second primer coat.   But Heavy build primer is necessary only exterior body parts( fenders, roof,hood,etc).    A few more areas  in the engine bay will be smoothed out and primed.   Next the inner cowl area must poly primed but it

will difficult to paint because of its tight space.

 

 

 

Edited by toolman
added infor
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Thanks Jim,   I tried to find a more suitable 240z to build and use mine for a parts car.   But all of the others cars that I looked at were found to be worse than mine.   After reviewing your posts,   I see that you also been on this long road of restoration.   We must be "crazy"!!!!!!

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The cowl was difficult to paint because of its tightness.   Regular spray guns were not designed to operate in such confined areas.   So that left:

spray painting with aerosol spray cans.   But even that could not paint the underside of the cowl.   So I fabricate an attachment to the spray

can that would allow painting in tight areas.   Using duct tape and a piece of plastic strapping then filing the spray nozzle flat was all it took.

IMG_3599.thumb.JPG.4197d208b8f506d96e52af098d716c6b.JPGPulling on strap causes down force on the nozzle.

 

I also used a hand mirror to see where I was spraying.

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With a little practice,  anyone could do a decent painting of those tight to get to areas.

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Finished product

 

Next step was to use sprayable seam sealer on high drainage areas of the vehicle.   SEM PROUCTS sprayable seam sealer and their seam sealer

spray gun were utilized to do the job.

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Picture of the front core support sprayed with seam sealer.

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Firewall and rear front frame rail section

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View of rear wheel housing

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Interior view of firewall and floor area

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Rear interior compartmentIMG_3581.thumb.JPG.16a9e972a84fea62eb8e8dcec72f1746.JPG

 

This seam sealer was used to seal all major welded and patched areas.    This coating also provides sounding deadening and heat insulation too.

Probably  use it on the underside of transmission tunnel.   The sealer will be painted when the final paint is applied.

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