My Swiss 1972 S30 240Z rebuild project

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Just a little update: the Brake fluid paint removal trick doesn't work. soaked stuff over night, but after brushing about 15minutes paint still was there. i think i need something more agressive and wonder why i ever thought this will work great :)

[BRYAN503]

Do you have an air compressor? If so read this! http://www.aircooledtech.com/tools-on-the-cheap/soda_blaster/

 

 

[benny240z]

try caustic soda mixed with water.... should be able to get it at the supermarket!!

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Hmm both sounds cool, but i now think about a different solution:

 

wanted to get stuff zinc-plated anyway but my local plating/galvanizing company told me to bring parts degreased and without paint and rust, so i thought to make parts ready on my own. but now i think it might be easier to get 'em to another company which does the whole process from sandblasting to galvanizing. or bring em to another company to get parts sandblasted and then to the local plating company. we'll see. have to talk to some specialists first.. at least im very thankful for all your inputs! this soda stuff sounds interresting, both with a compressor and in chemical use with water ;)

[BRYAN503]

You could just get a rock tumler and do it that way...

 

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

thanks, i've read about that before and just found some cheap ones on ebay. maybe i'll buy one. seems better t han paint stripper, because it also removes surface rust :)

[BRYAN503]

thanks, i've read about that before and just found some cheap ones on ebay. maybe i'll buy one. seems better t han paint stripper, because it also removes surface rust :)

 

 

hella duh...

[BRYAN503]

The shop I worked in when I was a teenager had a small shaker plate that was full of walnut shells, that seem to work too.

[JDMjunkies.ch]

yeah the project has been a bit on hold during christmas holidays, but it seems to get better now :) got some parts today:

Yepp - a full NOS Set of brand new Nissan Fender mirrors. they where sold as C10 skyline mirrors but i think they come from a 510 Datsun.

Now you might wonder why i bought these?

The thing is genuine 240Z / Fairlady mirrors are hard to find or very expsensive, and these are exactly the same with only one difference, the mirror-base has a different length:

So when i found these on yahoo auctions japan for 75$ (complete set) i decided it's best to get these and interchange the bases. because i definitly want the taller genuine fairlady bases. it's those details that make a restoration perfect :D

I'm really happy now, got all the installation hardware, complete new mirror including the convex mirror glasses, new rubber seals, etc. and they really look sexy :D

[jalen]

i haz old fender mirrors?

[JDMjunkies.ch]

yeah, i had some old ones too, bu t i was looking for some new ones :D the old ones had several rust spots and the o-ring which holds the mirror glass in place was really brittly. so now i have a completely new s et of mirrors and just need to refurbish the old "base" from my old mirrors :)

[DAT510]

Über toll!

Ich Spreche ein bischen deutsch. Der Z ist auch cool.

:lol: :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Haha, dankeschön! Like you're dad's Z too and you have a lot of nice datsun's in your thread as well :)

[jalen]

no mirrors for me

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Today i visited Heiko from http://www.Datsun.ch to pick up set of 240Z taillights for my Fairlady project:

 

But - how should i say - what i found there is probably the biggest collection of datsun stuff i've ever seen. he currently stocks four classic Datsun's in his garage:

 

1) A beautiful and rare swiss-market 260Z in totally mint "out-of-the-showroom-floor" condition

 

2) a really nice swiss-market 240Z in great shape...

 

3) A absolutly sexy Fairlady SR311 with hardtop he lately imported from the Netherlands:

 

4) and another classic fairlady which is currently undergoing the most detailled and expensive restoration i've seen in real life so far:

 

but not only does he have a nice collection of cars (and owned even a few more in the past), but does he also have a huge knowledge regarding Datsun's and tons of NOS and used spareparts, memorabilia and diecast cars stocked in his whole house :)

 

 

what you see here is only a little part of all that stuff. some really rare stuff too!

 

 

need some mint dashboards, anyone?

 

If you own a Datsun and live in switzerland i highly recommand to contact and visit heiko one day, not often you meet nice guys like him these days! Next week or so i will visit another datsun nut to pick up some more needed parts. so stay tuned :D

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Yeah, you remember i tried to get thows OEM screws cleaned from rust and old paint and stuff? nothing really worked, so i followed your inputs and bought myself a cheap stone-tumbler from ebay with some walnut-shell grain :D

hope this works. the walnut-shell's came for free with the tumbler, so if this won't work i might use some more specific stuff for cleaning metal. have to try it soon :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Today we had some nice (but cold) weather, and it has been a while since i spent som time at the garage. You all know saturdays are made exactly for this, so i had to :)

 

1) The powder-coating guys missed to poweder a few hard-to-reach points on those parts so i decided to clean those parts and paint them before rust gets them:

Before:

 

After:

 

2) I decided to test my new Stone-tumbler, so i had to assamble it first:

 

installed and "rattling":

 

My first attemts with walnut-shells and a few test-screws:

 

Actually No changes after a few hours of running it. After reading the manual i figured out i'd also need a special sanding-lube (or whatever it's called in inglish) some brush-paste or something like that. allready ordered a package... :D

 

3) Now i have the taillights so it's time to get them fitted and that ugly old different-taillight-installation stuff removed: (me at work :D)

 

that's how the "Holes" loooked afterwards, still need a lot of detailing and work to look OEM:

 

But yeah, the taillights fit through the holes now:

 

And looks even better with the surrounding plates installed:

Thats it for today, hope to get updates on more regular basis soon again...

[JDMjunkies.ch]

1) Im still busy planning and ordering a lot of stuff, so no progress at the car itself. anyway, was looking for a few "rare" parts for the datsun and figured out i alleady have a "sought after" part on my Zed: the genuine "Elephant" oil filler cap:

actually i got that feel it isn't too rare, there are several similar caps for sale on ebay, pretty cheap. anyway, it was a kind of limited item so i'll clean it up and re-use it. specially like the japanese lettering :D

 

2) after reading about this http://speedhunters.com/archive/2012/01/19/reader-s-ride-gt-gt-peter-brueckner-s-2000gtx.aspxHakosuka on skyline i was curious about the watanabe steering wheel. checked the 2009 watanabe catalogue, but no steering wheel for sale. a bit investagation and i found ot it's discontinued, rare as hell, and usually expensive:

 

I found one for sale, but really expensive.. i'll think about it tonight, but i believe i need this :D

 

the other possible steering wheel could be a vintage nismo one. a guy on Yahoo auctions is selling about 15 of these, but sadly all without horn button and all need some new leathering:

 

They're cool and rare too, but somehow i feel like the look more 80ies than 70ties. fits probably more into an R31 skyline or something boxy..

 

these would be a fitting horn button:

 

Also found this cool one, but somehow it doesn't look OEM:

 

So what do you guys think? what should i go for? rare or ultra-rare? :D

[DARIN 510]

Get the Datsun Comp steering wheel

[JDMjunkies.ch]

I have a new favorite tool of metal destruction, but more on that later :)

1) Started with cleaning the "Elephant" oil filler cap today:

- Tools of choice: old toothbrush, acetone and the oil filler cap:

 

got inspired by inzane's blog, probably i'll highlight the textures too (like he did). kinda like it. but here's the result for now - really like it! and the o-ring looks good, so no replacement needed :)

 

2) now back to my new favorite metal tool..

- this is how the taillight-cutouts looked about an hour ago - still a lot of "wrong" metal there from the attempt to add different taillights (some corvette kind of...), which some of the previous owners did..

 

now here's my new favorite tool: FIBER DISKS :) so much fun and so fast to work with:

 

and here's how the taillights looked after i used the disks:

Still needs much sanding and detailing to get it perfect, but at least i don't have too much "wrong" metal there now and no sharp edges. great :D

 

also oredered some tools and stuff from around the world again, hope they arrive here soon :)

[TENDRIL]

such a percision thread!! :o love it

[JDMjunkies.ch]

So you remember stripping the old screws from paint and rust didn't work with the nutshell grain delivered with the tumbler? thanks to Markus' Ford Project blog (http://www.maurer-ma...ns_tumbler.html) i found the information on which abrasives i need to get thos damn parts clean again :)

I finally ordered a set of PL-M Delfir Chips, 1x1x1cm he recommanded at a local company which makes abrasives: www.Polyservice.ch

after a few days of waiting they finally arrived here, so i hope i can try this stuff soon:

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Today i visited Ruedi Schnüeriger, former head of the http://www.datsun-z-club-schweiz.ch/, to pick up a used, but cheap genuine datsun rear wing:

 

As you can see it needs new screws, a bit of sanding and new paint, but otherwise it's in great condition :)

 

Sadly his Zed was underneath a winter-Pjama, so i wasn't able to see much of it, but outside is the son's latest Z-car project. A black 240Z. The project hasen't really stated yet and needs some work to get the proper look again - typical swiss 70/80ies style Z with rear louvres, massive vented hood and widened fenders (steel job in this case). like the wheels, forgot to take a closer look at them...

Thanks Ruedi and his son for the short chat about the club and cars. Hope to see them soon again. And of course i will need to get a Z-club member as soon as my car is closer to a complete car :)

 

When cleaning my house lately i found an old drawing i made during army-time at one of these boring hours. Must have been a few years ago i drew this, but somehow i still like it. that was probably short after i fell in love with 240Z's and planned to buy one in future :D

[JDMjunkies.ch]

So after i got my new delfir-chips i decided to make a little how-to:

 

1) Add Delfilr-chips and the parts you want to clean-up into the tumbler:

 

2) Add water (water 1:4 delfir chips ratio), and 2-3 drops dish washing fluid:

 

3) add a bit of random grease to one of the screws (this will give all the parts inside a thin grease cot which prevents it from immeadiatly starting to rust!, you will need to bath them in grease remover before giving the parts to the galvanizing-company!!)

 

4) Put lock on the tumbler, let it run :)

 

5) wait. have a beer meanwhile. check progress after about 8-12 hours

 

6) wait another 12 hours. have another beer if you want :) check again, and after totally 24 hours it should look like this: almost perfect:

 

7) Extra tip: be sure to not run the process in a garage with -15° Celsius. this will make the water freeze even when the machine is running :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Nothing big today either, just started to sand down the wing i bought recently.

Before:

 

after 1,5 hours sanding by hand - one side done (still need to do the rear side,

but don't have any feeling in my arms anymore, so decided to quit :D)

 

Sadly figured out it was broken and fixed once in the past, but not a too big problem: