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.

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

Adel AlSaffar
Alfonso Baz
August Kupfer
Ben Burns
Sigoss Family
bikilotta
Brenna Redpath
Chris
Chris Walter
Colten Hazelip
Dane Prince
Daniel Shaw
David Lehnus
Edward Conway
James
Jennifer K
John Shebanow
Joseph Kamps
Josh Ledford
Joshua Bentley
Joshua Scher
Kar
Kerem Yollu
Kyle O'Keefe
Lambda GPU Workstations
linear_lock
Lorraine Hughes
Marbor
Marcus H.
Mark Tesmer
Mellissa Marcus
Michael Fleisher
Mohammed Basith
Nathaniel Jack
Nick Houston
NoLoneSurvivor
Peter Cyprian
Peter Pearson
potokslow
ReddDirt
Ryan Pickett
Scott Tomlin
Stefano Di Biase
Stephen Buggy
StevenVR
Tyler Carruth
Vickie Bligh
Vince Valenti
Will Black
Yale Baker
Aaron Funk
Adam Holtzclaw
Albert Siemers
Alex Manning
Andre
Arni Bjorgvinsson
Arnon Shimoni
Ben Simmonds
Bobcat Johnson
Bonnie Williamson
Brett Pitts
Brian Hoerl
Bruce Boschek
Caleb Betczynski
Chad Bryant
charader
Charles D
Chris Faehl
Chris Visscher
Christian Fjelldal
Damien Fuller-Sutherland
Daniel Thoenen
Daniel Varga
Dave Hardware
David Chang-Yen
David Charteris
David P Hruska
Derson Jacomini
Dustin Davis
Dylan LikeBobDylan
Emily Dee
Erik Nordby
Gareth Rimmer
Haley McFadden
Haze Skunk
Jack Curry
Jacob Hamm
Jeremy Cole
Josiah Brown
Joël Franusic
Jörg Thomsen
Ken Rosso
Laurent Bolli
Leevi Kontkanen
Luzia d' Almeida
Marc Cerisier
Mary Casella
Matthew Mitchell
MDC
Micah Reid
Michael Masouras
Norbert Spaar
Panagiotis Mavrommatis
Raoul Kriesi
repülő búgás
Ricardo Ivanovski
Rob Sherfick
Robert Landrum
Ross Clark
Scott Brooks
Scott Marshall
Sean Welgemoed
Sparrow
Spencer Kormos
Stanley Dimant
Svenja Kuckla
Taylor Stimpson
Thanny
Tim Holt
Timofey Lychik
Trevor Kam
Tucker Ifft
Warren Mingo
wdwfan78
William

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

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

In this video you can see all the bodywork getting completed on the Datsun 240Z. I continued on the rusty rocker panel where part 2 ended. Removing the outer shell revealed a lot more rust. I also had to replace the inner rocker panel and the sheet with the complex shape below that. The wheel arch was also quite rusted and also needed to be replaced. I remade all the panels myself out of flat 1mm steel sheet using a bunch of different tools.
With an endoscope I could see that the driver side was also very rusty inside, alltough it looked fine looking from the outside. That was definitely a good idea, because there was alos a lot more rust hidden, which required the replacement of more panels. It wasn't as bad as the passenger side, but still was a lot of work.
Then I moved on to the passenger floor. I first had to remove bth seat mountings to get access to the rusted area. On the floor I made four patches in total. First I always made the sheet I wanted to replace, then I cut the old one out and welded the new one in. After that I welded the seat mounts back in, making sure they're all aligned.
The driver floor was in much better condition, it only had some surface rust which I quickly sandblasted clean. I still had to remove the rear seat mounting to get access to the dented floor. The seat mount itself was also cracked and bent. I reshaped it and welded it after a quick sandblast.
The engine bay had a bunch of extra holes drilled in it from the aftermarket AC unit. As I'm not putting it back in, I decided to close all these holes. Removed the paint, welded it shut, ground and sanded it flush. And that was the last step on the chassis, making it ready for blasting.
The damaged hood which I repaired in part 2 was not 100% perfect. I wasn't able to completely reshape it, especially the front section. I didn't want to use body filler, so my friend came over and applied lead on it. This is much more durable than filler, especially when building up an edge. It turned out very great and the hood is now looking perfect.
After I had all the bodywork done on all the panels it was time for the panel alignment which I did off camera. This was a lot of work, it took multible days to get all the panels fit perfect to eachother with nice, even and consistant gaps. In the end it was all worth it and the car looks now amazing.
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.
Next step of the car restoration will be the paint removal and the new paint job.

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
Bryan Knauer
Chris Walter
Dane Prince
Daniel Shaw
David Lehnus
Edward Conway
James
Jennifer K
John Shebanow
Joseph Kamps
Josh Ledford
Josh Wasserman
Joshua Bentley
Joshua Scher
Kar
Kerem Yollu
Lambda GPU Workstations
Lorraine Hughes
Marbor
Marcus H.
Mark Tesmer
Mellissa Marcus
Nathaniel Jack
nick arello
Nick Houston
NoLoneSurvivor
Peter Cyprian
Peter Pearson
potokslow
Ryan Pickett
Scott Tomlin
Stefano Di Biase
Stephen Buggy
StevenVR
Tyler Carruth
VaushVidya
Vickie Bligh
Vince Valenti
Will Black
Yale Baker
Aaron Funk
Adam Holtzclaw
Alex Manning
Andre
Andrew Lavergne
Arni Bjorgvinsson
Bobcat Johnson
Bonnie Williamson
Brett Pitts
Brian Hoerl
Briscolone05
Bruce Bosckek
Caleb Betczynski
Chad Bryant
charader
Chris Faehl
Christiaan Van Eeden
Christian Fjelldal
Damien Fuller-Sutherland
Daniel Varga
Dave Hardware
David Chang-Yen
David P Hruska
Derson Jacomini
Dustin Davis
Dylan LikeBobDylan
Erik Nordby
Gareth Rimmer
ghostdunk
Haley McFadden
Jack Curry
Jacob Hamm
Javiera Ignacia Jeldes Pizarro
Jeremy Cole
Josiah Brown
Joël Franusic
Justin Wirth
Jörg Thomsen
Ken Rosso
Leevi Kontkanen
Leon Fox
Marc Cerisier
Mary Casella
MDC
Micah Reid
Michael Masouras
Nemo
Omar Domínguez
Panagiotis Mavrommatis
Peter Read
repülő búgás
Rob Sherfick
Ross Clark
Scott Marshall
Sean Welgemoed
Stanley Dimant
Svenja Kuckla
Thanny
Tim
Tim Holt
Trevor Kam
Tucker Ifft
wdwfan78
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