my mechanics

In this video I start doing all the bodywork on the car to get it ready for blasting. This is the first half of it. The second half is coming next week in episode 3.
First I vacuumed the whole car and removed the sound deadening.
Next I needed to remove the undercoating on the rotisserie. I used an infrared lamp and a scraper to remove it. I also did the same on the fenders. Now the car is ready to get all dents removed by my friend from parkbeulen.ch. All panels were quickly reassembled to the chassis and the car back on jack stands. He was able to remove all dents from the complete car in just one day.
Now it's time to start doing all the bodywork. I started with closing the holes from the side markers. They're not mandatory in Switzerland and I prefer the clean look. Then I drilled four new holes in both fenders to install some fender mirrors. I really like that japanese style of them, you can't see much, but it's just about the look. That means I don't need the door mirror anymore, so I closed both holes.
Working on the door I saw two holes from the inside. I quickly discovered body filler and a big dent around these two holes. I sanded it all off, welded the holes, ground it flush and hammered it until the dent was completely removed. I also found the same on the passenger door. I think they drilled these holes so the filler holds better.
I also fitted a new BRE style front spoiler to it.
In the rear I found two areas where a tiny bit of rust was shining through. I decided to drill all spot welds off and remove the panel. What a good decision that was, a bunch of rust came to light underneath. I removed everything, applied some weld through primer and welded the panel back on the car. One of the clips that hold the rear panel was broken off. I bough new ones, but couldn't replace it. I needed to drill the little bracket off, make four new ones and weld them back on the car. I had to be careful when welding, so the clip doesn't get too hot and ruin the heat treatment of the spring steel. After the rear panel section was done, I moved on with the tailgate. As I'm replacing the old flimsy and broken rear spoiler I needed to close all the holes from it in the tailgate. So I started sanding the paint off for welding. I then quickly discovered more body filler and a bunch of more holes from the old emblems. I welded them all, ground flush and drilled new holes for the new spoiler. To remove the wobbly effect on the tailgate I removed the original support piece and welded in a much stronger version.
As I won't install the roll bar anymore, I closed all 16 holes from it.
Now it's time to move to the rusted rocker panel. I just started to remove it and found a lot more rust hidden behind it. As this video is already a bit long, I decided to continue and finish the bodywork in another episode, coming next week.
The complete bodywork on this car took me around 110 days in the workshop. It was much more work that I ever could expect after I disassembled the car. I recorded a total of 1500 clips. On Patreon there's a 2h 40 minutes video available which is an extended more detailed version which includes part 2 and 3.

I hope you like my work and enjoy the video.

Huge thank you to all of my Patreon supporters and especially to:

Adel AlSaffar
Alfonso Baz
Amar.k
Arron Metcalf
August Kupfer
Ben Burns
Ben Sigelman
Bike Kefeli
Brenna Redpath
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Chris Walter
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charader
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ghostdunk
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Nemo
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Peter Read
repülő búgás
Rob Sherfick
Ross Clark
Scott Marshall
Svenja Kuckla
Thanny
Tim
Tim Holt
Trevor Kam
Tucker Ifft
William

Sorry for my bad english, it's not my language. I try my best to improve my technical english.

Thank you for watching 🙂

„I make a new one“ T-Shirts:
https://teespring.com/stores/my-mechanics

My Second Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/mymechanicsinsights

My Patreon Page:
https://www.patreon.com/mymechanics

This is the first episode from the restoration of a 1973 Datsun 240Z.

This car was driven in Los Angeles California and only had one owner. It still had a California blue plate on it and the cars registration expired in 1983, so it was not driven anymore at least for 40 years. For all these years it sat in a garage in California until its owner died and then it got sold to a european car dealer, where I bought it from.
It seems that the previous owner was quite a fan of this car as he made a bunch of modifications and upgrades.

He installed some nice magnesium wheels, a rear spoiler, louvres, a roll bar, a racing mirror, a new steering wheel, new radio, speakers and equalizer. The original carbureters were replaced with triple Weber carbureters and also a new exhaust was installed. He also made a very common upgrade for Califonian cars, installing an air conditioning system. The car only shows 14'000 miles on the speedometer, but as it only has five digits, it's more likely that it has 114'000 miles.

The european car dealer changed a bunch of parts to make the engine running again. New battery, carbureter funnels, starter, ignition coil, completely new brakes, fuel pump and oil filter. He also put on new seat covers. I wish I could have bought the car directly from California, to have a real barn find car.

I really like the 240Z. It's a great classic japanese sports car from the 70's. It's design is really flawless from front to rear and side to side. The shape of the car is really timless. The car gives so much to customize your own style, so it's very rare to see a Z car that looks eaxctly like another one.

I plan on doing some slight changes, but nothing that can't be undone easily. So I definitely won't cut the fenders and install fender flares. I want to keep it original, but bring my touch to it. So the car has to be better than it came from the factory. I'll make a bunch of new ones for it, yet still in a time period correct design. What I can say, that the AC unit will definitely get kicked out. These old units didn't work efficient and they break very often and since it was never original or a dealers option, I have no problems with that. I'm more a open windows driver than a AC guy anyway. Both side markers will also be removed, as this was only a US thing. The Australian models had none of them either.

In the next episode will all dents be removed, all rust removed and all body work done. The car will get blasted with walnut shells and completely painted in a new color. I don't know yet which color I'm chooseing, but I definitely plan on making an original Datsun color. That's a lot of work that needs to be done, so stay tuned for the next episode.

I hope you like my work and enjoy the video.

Huge thank you to all of my Patreon supporters and especially to:

Adel AlSaffar
AK
Alfonso Baz
Alistair Moor
Amar.k
Ben Sigelman
Brenna Redpath
Chris Walter
Dane Prince
David Barker
David Lehnus
Edward Conway
Haitham Al Zir
Harrison Angsten
John Shebanow
Joseph Kamps
Josh Ledford
Josh Wasserman
Joshua Bentley
Joshua Scher
Kar Marsten
Kerem Yollu
Lambda GPU Workstations
LordPi
Mark Tesmer
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Mister Patina
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NoLoneSurvivor
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potokslow
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StevenVR
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Will Black
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Alipasha Sadri
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David Powell
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Hard_Boiled
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Kevin Robinson
Kurt Gazow
Marc Cerisier
Mary Casella
Mellissa McConnell
Michael Lamp
Michael Masouras
Mossy_Forrest
Nemo
Peter Read
pk42069
Rebecca Miller
Scott Marshall
Stefan Kronander
Steven Michalcewicz
Svenja Kuckla
Thanny
Tim Holt
Tom Wallace
Trevor Kam
Tucker Ifft
William


My camera:
Panasonic HC-VX11


If you have any questions about the process, machines i'm using or other stuff, just ask me in the comments. I read them all and i try to reply as soon as possible.

Sorry for my bad english, it's not my language. I try my best to improve my technical english.

Subscribe for more of my content. I'm uploading videos about mechanical stuff, as new creations and buildings and also restorations.

Thank you for watching 🙂


„I make a new one“ T-Shirts:
https://teespring.com/stores/my-mechanics

My Main Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/mymechanics

My Second Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/mymechanicsinsights

My Patreon Page:
https://www.patreon.com/mymechanics