Guest jjohart Posted February 5, 2004 Share Posted February 5, 2004 Hi, I've got an 83 280ZXT, 50K miles, and apparently kept from rust by previous owner, but not, alas, from a cheap repaint job which messed a lot of trim up with poor taping, single stage, cheap paint, etc. I'm thinking of a repaint this spring, and I dreamed of finding some additves for: 1)rust prevention, 2) using a multi-color effect to some MODERATE degree to add a purple/red/blue/green effect into a sliver-blue Honda 2000 Prelude metallic paint. The paint tech I spoke with today told me, first off that there's absolutely nothing that will foreshorten rust from forming, eventually, short of replacing body panels. He went on to tell me sooner or later, I'll tire of replacing panels and sell the car, but the only preventative is welding on new metal in place of rusted bits. He went on to note how Nissan made a good deal out of a relatively cheap car like the 240/280/300's by using incredibly cheap, inferior metals that would rust like hell. Tell me he ain't right?!?!!??? Finally, he told me that any multi-stage paint, like Kameleon pearls or PPG, etc, is NOT repaintable, so if you ding/dent/do all the normal daily driver stuff and you want it repainted, b/c of the three stage process there's a good chance you'll never MATCH it again. He seemed pretty adamant, and didn't let me get a word in edgewise, so there's a good chance I won't be doing business there, BUT it made me wonder...if what he said is true about the multi-colored paints (which I notice VW Beetleand Ford Mustang are coming stock in), wouldn't it stand to reason that these cars are inferior in paint longevity/repairability, and then, by deduction, those wonderful old Z's I saw at the NE Z show last summer with 6 coats of paint have the same difficulty in matching panels, should one of em' be dented...or is the point that IF you're going to go that far, you shouldn't be expecting to have the paint encounter daily conditions in the first (or is it the second, e.g restored?) PLACE?!!? Thanks John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MistaFosta Posted February 5, 2004 Share Posted February 5, 2004 On the cheap metal subject... Im not sure that nissan used cheap metal, but Im currently in the process of caging, and subframing my 72 240z. As I stripped the interior, I found out that BOTH floorpans were rotting through with rust (This is a california car, if it matters) I ended up having to replace both floorpans completely, with new metal. It wasnt a huge deal, since I was doing the subframes anyway. Now this is a very high amount of rust as compared to my welders 70 camaro, and his roommates 69 mustang has. Cutting it out is really the only real way to stop rust, unfortunetly. I have rust in my lower rocker panels too, but Im leaving them as is for awhile, since I can get them repainted seperately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest gtmattz Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 I'm just kind of guessing here.. but I think that the rason the metal on the Z cars seems to rot so fast (that is, faster than say american cars of the same vintage, talking like 70 here) is because nissan used lighter gauge metal than detroit was back then.. less metal and there is less material for the rust to eat through, so it seems to go faster.. just my observation here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillZ260 Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 Ok so it's thin but when i replaced my floorpans, the sections I cut out could be rolled up like a blanket. This stuff has proporties closer to un-heat-treated aluminum rather than STEEL! Was very weird. The car definatly benifited from the subframe connectors and is very soild now. So replace that rust and beef up the chasis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillZ260 Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 so it is a different grade from what you would get from a steel supply? That would make sence, since the recycled would have more impurities? Is that right? Just trying to understand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest gtmattz Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 and so.. with the higher amt of impurities, that would make the metal more susceptable to rust, which means that nissan DID use a cheaper metal to make the cars less expensive to build.. which looks to be the trend with automakers anyway, nissan was just 'ahead of the curve' so to speak ;D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gramercyjam Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 Cheap steel? Not sure I know what that means. The metal that is used for cars is really nothing like what you can buy in a steel yard. Car manufacturers all have special chemical formulations for their steel that are intended to help improve the results of metal forming process. I'm pretty sure the Japanese were way ahead of us on that back in the day, just as they were with the actual production of steel. Back in the '50's thru the late '70's, when I lived in a rural part of upstate NY, it was damn rare to see any brand of car that was more than a couple years old that wasn't rusted out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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