my mechanics

In this video I'm continuing the restoration on my 1973 Datsun 240Z. After all the bodywork and the panel alignment in the last episode the car was finally ready to start with the paint job.

The first step for a new paint job is, to get all the old paint removed doen to the bare metal. I brought the car to a blasting company. They completely blasted the whole car and all the parts. For paint removal they used walnut shells. This is the perfect media for that job, because it does not warp any of the panels. Only downside is that it doesn't remove rust and it also doesn't roughen up the surface, which is not ideal for paint to stick. So after the paint was stripped with the walnut shells, they used aluminium oxide to remove the rust and also roughen up the surface all around. The total blasting took around 11 hours. Blasted parts do rust very quickly, so it is very important to protect the metal right after it. It's also very important to not touch any of the blasted parts with bare hands. Therfore all the sheet got protected with a layer of zinc dust primer. It's a polyurethane based primer which is moisture curing. It is very elastic and doesn't chip, it really becomes one with the metal, like zinc plating. After the zinc dust primer you can touch it and move the car without having to worry about rust.

For building up the paint I still need to apply one coat of epoxy primer. It will isolate the zinc dust primer and will be the base of the coming paint. To get good adhesion I sanded the zinc dust primer with 240 grit everywhere and washed it all off with silicone remover to get it grease free. The car was put on the rotisserie for that. Epoxy was applied first inside of the car, then engine bay and then on the outside starting with the roof. After it was dry to touch the car was turned 90° to paint the underside. It's important to let it dry before turning because it always could come out a little sand from the cavities and drip into the wet paint. After one day of curing I also applied epoxy on all the cavities. All the runs and drops can now easily be wiped off.

After letting the epoxy cure for one week it was time to move on with the high build primer. For good adhesion I roughend up the epoxy with Scotch Brite. After masking and degreasing two to three coats of high build primer were applied. High build primer is there to build up material for sanding it down later. It's like a very thin coat of body filler to fill out little imperfections. The high build primer also needs to cure for another week. After removing all the masking it was time to put the car back together for block sanding. All seals, windows, and locks were installed with the freshly restored hinges. Unfortunately I didn't had the time to record the restoration of the door hinges. I disassembled the original ones and sanblasted all the parts. I then recut the threads, chamfered all sharp edges and brought them for yellow zinc plating. On the lathe I made new bushings out of very tough aluminium bronce and also new pins out of silver steel.

I hope you like my work and enjoy the video.

Thanks for watching.

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