10/26/11 - Mirror Finish

Just a quick one today. I went to the shop for a couple of hours and did a little sanding on the tank. Sanding is pretty boring, except you can bring tank from this

to this.

I also welded up a couple other tiny holes in my floors on the 240z.

If you haven't noticed, I'm dragging my feet a bit on the Z. That's because the frame rails are delayed, and won't be ready for a few weeks, which really holds me up as far as installing the interior and everything else. I'm gonna have to move on to the suspension soon.


In other news, I saw this on my block the other day. I'll let you figure out why that's funny.

-W.W. SBSS

Formula 1 Comes to NJ/NYC!!!

I just had to write about this. After many many years of attempts and speculation, Formula 1 is finally coming to the NY metro area. The Grand Prix of America, starting in 2013, will be a race held right across the river in Weehawken/ West New York.

The construction of the track and the cost of participation rights will be entirely privately funded, so there should be no one to complain and get in the way of what will be an amazing event. 

The backdrop of the race will be the NYC skyline and, as you can see from the artist's rendering, some residents of both the large apartment towers and East facing townhouses just lucked out, as they will likely be able to rent their homes for substantial sums for the weekend. 

I can't wait for this, now I will have two US F1 races to go to every year!

10/25/11 - Patchwork

Last night I went to the shop with the intention of just putting another coat of resin on my gas tank. Fortunately, this only took about 20 minutes to trim the excess carbon and recoat the tank. It's looking pretty good so far, and I'll start to sand and polish it soon.

Done wit this so early,  I found myself with an evening to work on something else. The tiny rust spot on my new 240z chassis has been eating at me for a little while, so I decided it was time to fix it. For those who don't know what the process is for fixing rust, this is a good outline.

Here is the spot in question. (that circular hole is a factory drainage hole, there's a plug that goes in there)

First I took a wire wheel to the area, removing both the undercoating and the loose, thin rusty metal.

The area you see through the hole is the underside of the rear seat bracket. it just has flash surface rust on it, and is very solid. Next, I removed the thinner areas of metal, and made a shape that I could replicate with new metal.

Next, I cut out a piece of cardboard to approximately the shape I need to patch.

Then I traced the outline of the cardboard on some new metal.

Cut out the desired shape and wire wheeled the metal clean.

Fit the new metal in place.

Welded it in place. (this was difficult, as the metal I was patching with was substantially thicker than the existing floorboards.)

Then I started to grind the welds smooth. I ran out of time, so it isn't quite done.

Once I have it all ground flat, I can see where I may have missed some spots welding and can make another pass. It is VERY nice to only have to do this once or twice, rather than ALL OVER THE PLACE on my old car. 

-W.W. SBSS

10/24/11 Waking the Dead

This post is going to be pretty low on pictures of actual work in the shop, partially because the work I've been doing lately doesn't show up in pictures well, and partially because I forgot to take progress pictures on a few things. Sorry about that. I will try my best to make up for it with other photos.

The other weekend, I went with the NYZCC to the CTZCC BBQ (whew). CB wanted to bring both his red V8 car and the new stock 260z to the BBQ, so I volunteered to drive the new car for him. This was the first time I had been behind the wheel of a Z (without making engine noises with my mouth) in about two years. It was really awesome to drive one again, it felt like home.

There were also some amazing cars in attendance at the show. The number of cars that showed up was amazing, considering it took place on a member's front lawn.

Here is the NYZCC meeting up for the drive to CT.

This gunmetal G-nose 240z was my favorite of the show.

Needless to say, there was a lot to look at.

Including a trio of GT-Rs

It was certainly a good day. Afterwards we drove to DC's house, hung out with his wonderful family and troubleshooted his taillights.

Over the past couple of weeks, KY has been buttoning up the Benz. Sunday night the last of it came together and we were able to start it! It was running a little bit rough, as one of the intake bolts broke, so there was a pretty significant leak, but the fact that it fired is pretty amazing. After a 15 year nap the car is alive and breathing. After some small fixes here and there, we will be able to go for the first test drive.

I also decided it was time to fix my dented tank of my SV650. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the work until the last step of the day, mainly because it's pretty dirty work. First I pounded the high spots of the dent in. Then I filled it with body filler and sanded it smooth and down to the correct shape. Then I sanded the "SUZUKI" lettering down. Finally, rather than painting it, I coated the tank in epoxy resin and covered it in carbon fiber cloth.

Yes yes yes, I know it's not really in the spirit of carbon fiber, since all I am doing is adding weight, and carbon is all about light weight. Frankly, I did this because it's easier than painting, and it looks good.

I will trim the excess carbon tonight, then another coat of resin then it is polish sanding. After that a quick coat of UV blocking clearcoat and I am done. Can't wait. 

-W.W. SBSS

10/10/11 Moving Forward

So, the first order of operations on the new 240z is as follows:

1. Remove the factory sound deadening and undercoating from the floors so I can
2. Weld in thicker, stronger, full length frame rails over the originals.
3. Apply POR15 rust inhibiting paint on the floors
4. Apply new undercoating.
5. Put in new sound deadening and insulation.

This weekend I started step 1. Normally this stuff is pretty hard to remove. I have heard a lot of stories about guys having to chill it with dry ice to get it to come off in chunks. Luckily, mine came up pretty easily with just a hammer and broad screwdriver. At the front of the footwell, because of the angle, it was a bit hard to remove. Lacking dry ice, I used the refrigerant from canned air to chill the sound deadening so that I could chip it off easily.  I got the bulk of the work done by Sunday.

I also got a bit more aggressive in investigating the rust on my old Z. Needless to say, it's a good thing I have a new shell. I only discovered the rust on the A-pillar after removing door molding. Someone had filled it with silicone and painted over it. Scary stuff...

On monday, having most of the deadening off, I decided it was time to get the new Z in it's proper place. earlier in the week, I spent some time clearing the scrap that was in the back of the shop, mainly to make room for a different sort of scrap.

I dragged my old Z into the corner by myself, just as AY stopped by. He helped me push the new Z onto it's bay.

'

Afterwards, we pulled the engine out of his 912, a surprisingly easy process. Disconnect, unbolt and drop it out the bottom. You don't even need an engine hoist, just a floor jack. Good progress all around.

I'm ordering framerails, POR15 and possibly sound deadening this week. Stay tuned.

-W.W. SBSS

10/4/11 New Shell!

This was a big weekend in the shop.

I have sort of reconnected with my local Z club recently. One benefit of this is that I have regained some friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. Another is that CB, the owner of the red/carbon 240z in the earlier post, seems  to be aware of every Z in existence on the east coast. More often than not, he buys the good examples that he finds. I believe he told me he has been through something like 28 cars in the past few years, between parts cars and cars he has driven.

This worked out well for me, because he had an early 240z shell that he found a few years back, and wanted to purchase a clean 260z that finally came down in price a bit, but didn't really have space for both. The Z that I picked up from him is one of the very first 240z's produced, the 1905th to be exact. It has the tell-tale hatch vents and dashboard, and is exceptionally clean. CB literally found this in a barn, and when he bought it, the last time it was on the road was 1976. There was minor rust in the rear quarter panels and rocker, which he had professionally repaired, and the car sat waiting for the turbo drivetrain he was building for it. Despite being partially dissasembled, the car is pretty much whole with the exception of the engine and transmission, and came with brand new nissan front fenders and a storage bin and hatch full of interior pieces.

Now it's mine.

The car is very clean, no rust, and has a perfect, crack free dash (covered in vaseline and dust to keep it from cracking)

 The engine bay has been coated with chassis undercoating to keep it rust free for a long time.

All the common rust areas on this car are rust free!

 All the wiring is unmolested and intact. Look at those floorboards. Clean with the factory insulation on them!

An odometer that hasn't rolled over yet.

Some of the interior panels still had the plastic that they were delivered from the factory with still on them!

I can't wait to get this car back on the road.

When I took delivery of the car on Sunday, we ended up having quite a group at the shop. CB came with his girlfriend and a couple of friends, AY and JB came with a couple of friends, and I brought AD. All told we had ten people in the shop, and we all went for dinner at the Brucker bar and grill. What a great way to spend a Sunday.

Stay tuned for fast progress on this Z.

-W.W. SBSS