BoulderZ

Over the years, it seems I've heard every rebuilder who uses paint on their suspension / undercarriage parts say, "I should've spent the extra money and gone with powdercoating." So, I've been planning to use powdercoating on my '78 all along. Well, now it's time to actually do it, but it's looking like ~$400 for all the front suspension pieces... so of course there's a little sticker shock. I start thinking, "$400 would go a long ways towards my new cam kit, or most of getting my dash re-covered. How badly could Hammerite perform?" Of course, I don't want to be looking at it 5 years from now regretting the choice or having to re-do anything.

So, what's your experience with various finishes under the car? I'm not concerned with authenticity too much, but just a durable, decent clean finish (not a bunch of rubberized undercoat on the suspension pieces, for example). It's not ever going to be a daily driver, so it won't be exposed to de-icer spray. The only moisture it'll see will be when I wash it or if I get unlucky with the weather when I drive it.
Our roads do have a tendency to have a lot of dirt and "stuff" on them, particularly over the passes and such that I intend to drive, so chip resistance is pretty important.
thanks for any input,
Dave

Darrel

Colorado Powder Coating Inc. Talk to Mark the owner. He does great work. 303-853-0394

He's in Commerce city. He also does sandblasting. Very reasonable. Tell him I sent you.

If you still need to disassemble your suspension give me a call. . Or email
Darrel

BoulderZ

Hmm. I'll check 'em out. Commerce City isn't too much worse of a drive than Longmont. I was going to solve the whole thing by just getting the Eastwood HotCoat kit. But the real cost of that would be about $500,000 to get the required house with enough room for a dedicated finishing oven.
Disassembly was a piece of cake. Only took me an afternoon (hooray for the impact wrench!). Thanks for the offer, though!
Thanks for the reference, too!
Dave

Darrel

You can use my spindle pin puller if you don't already have them out. Let me know.

Darrel

Mark has a big enough oven for just about anything you might have. Frames, fence sections, etc.

I had the suspension parts done on my 240 a couple yrs ago. At that time he charged me $180.

Lost Vegaz

Powder coat is alot better than any paint. IMO. And since it's not a daily driver, then take your time if you have to or want to. Get a piece done this week and 1 one done next week and so on. Spread it out if you can. I know all to well about wanting it right away. But sometimes it does not work that way.

BoulderZ

Cool, thanks guys. Nice to have some other people to bounce ideas off of. I'm thinking I'll go ahead and do the powdercoat. My daily driver is a bike, and for regular car usage we've always got my wife's car or my pickup, so waiting isn't a problem. Really, I've waited 20 years to get my own Z; a couple of weeks to get some parts reconditioned is de minimus. The body work alone took 20 months, anyway.

Overall, it sounds like it's worth it, and Darrel's guy sounds a lot more reasonably priced. I just wanted to be sure I wasn't blowing money on something that wasn't really an improvement or necessity. In a previous job we always used powdercoat on frames for durability, because it was harder than good-looking paints. But I had been thinking that now maybe Hammerite or some other durable-but-ugly paint might be hard enough. I couldn't find any Rockwell ratings on it, but didn't find any evidence that it could stack up against powdercoat hardness. Sounds like you guys can confirm that, too.

Hopefully I can call Mark today or tomorrow, but for now it's off to Harbor Freight over lunch to get an abrasive blaster! Darrell, I may let you know about the spindle puller. I may just buy one, though. I don't think this is the last Z I'll be doing that job on. In any case, thanks for the offer. And thanks again to both of you for the input!
cheers,
Dave

theramz

Dave, while your at HF check out their powder coat system. You can get an old electric oven and do a lot if it's big enough to hang the parts, even if you do one at a time.

Darrel

Old ovens for powdercoating are only good for small parts. If you have a lot of long parts that cannot stand upright you won't get an even coat.

The prices Mark gives you usually include the sandblasting. I had a set of snowflake wheels done a few weeks before I had the suspension parts done, they ran me $120 for all. There are a few things you would want to do before taking the parts down for the actual coating. We can talk about that before you're ready to take the parts down. You can call or pm me, you seem to have your pm's off.

Mark is usually at least 2 weeks out for anything, more if the weather doesn't cooperate. I usually bring him the parts then check in with him a couple weeks later.

Did you see the article in sportz about my spindle pin puller?

BoulderZ

That was you! Nice work! I'll probably be buying one from you shortly. Rear suspension is the next thing on mine after the front and engine. I read that article (the magazine doesn't even touch the countertop the day it arrives, I just sit down and read it cover to cover) and thought "Looks like I'll be ordering that". Nice to see such a great solution to perennial problem in Z car overhauls. Well-designed!

I'll go ahead and do my own sandblasting. I like to do every last bit of work myself, when possible. It's as much about the process of rebuilding it and doing the work as it is about actually having the finished car, for me anyway.

HF's powder coat equipment was really nice, and decently priced, but I just don't have room for the oven in my house. The garage isn't big at all (1956 vinatage), and if you add in a workbench, rollaway, fold-up engine crane, engine stand, solvent tank, and compressor you can barely fit the Z in there, with access only to the front and one side. You can't actually open the doors, you have to push the car in and out. So a dedicated oven was kind of right out, unfortunately. In any case, it looks to me like the front suspension crosspiece is about 6 inches too long to fit in a standard oven.

Hope to call your powder coat guy today, Darrel! (Yes, I have PMs off because I don't have time to check with them usually, and I don't want to be rude and just let messages hang without replies).
thanks guys,
Dave

Darrel

I didn't have the front crossmember powder coated. So I couldn't really guess what he would quote you for everything.

I usually let local people use the puller I use free, that way I can see the progress they are making on their z's ;-)

BoulderZ

Hi Darrell,
I took a day off from work on Friday and drove down to Commerce City. Mark took a look at the parts and quoted $165 to powder coat them all!!! Much better! Means I have enough to just go ahead and order the flattop pistons and bore over by .020".
I also stopped by H.O. Motorsport (the machine shop I have hot-tanking my block). It's clean and looks great. He's got to thread the plugs in for the oil gallery, and I now that I've decided on pistons I'll be able to have him bore it out, too ($20 per cylinder, so it's pretty reasonably priced).
If Motorsport will email me back soon about spring rates, I might be able to get the whole suspension and engine package back together and into the car in a month or so. That would set things up nicely to be finishing in time for decent spring weather.
Even if I decide to buy a puller from you rather than borrow it (seems unreasonable for you not to make money off your time and effort), you're more than welcome to stop by. It's not particularly spectacular at the moment, though. The interior looks great but isn't finished (leaving seats and dash until the end), and of course the motor is out right now, and it has no front suspension (meaning I can't even roll it out of the garage). Given it was a Black Pearl 280Z, it's just a really nice new black pearlescent paint job. Just an airdam for body changes. Still, it's a decent, clean-looking Z.
Now, if I can track down some 240 hubs this week in between real work, I might feel justified in ordering the vented 4-piston front brake upgrade along with the other parts I need...
thanks again,
Dave

Darrel

Did That include the rear suspension as well?

I don't have any problems letting you use the puller.

I know of a 240 that is supposed to still have the front hubs on it as of yesterday. I have a friend who lives in boulder that I gave my extra 240 hubs to and he's supposed to find me another set. But if you can use them I'll let you know where they are. He drives a dark silver 260 without bumpers.

Call me

BoulderZ

Nope, that's front end only. Crosspiece, rack mounts, control arms, t/c rods and all assorted hardware, steering arms, lower strut tubes/knuckles, and upper spring perches. I can only really do one end of the car at a time with my messy miniature garage (what's up with that? I thought cars in the 50's were huge). I'll be doing the rear suspension after the front and the engine/transmission are back in. I'll turn the car around Flintstone-style and put the back up on jackstands by the workbench. Hopefully in about 4 weeks or so.

I think I've seen that 260. Is it a really nice dark grey paint job, with some kind of a header on it? I see one like that around here sometimes, very nice! I'd be very interested in those hubs, but if he has plans for them then I don't want to mess up his process, given he got a hold of them first. I've seen a few pairs off the national salvage yard searches, so I can order some pretty quickly, but it's always easier to pick up locally, of course. Sadly, Blake's doesn't have any right now.

I'll try to give you a call today or tomorrow. Work kind of piled up while I was off on Friday (certainly not complaining, it's good to be busy).
thanks again,
Dave

Darrel

The plans he had for them were to give them to me. He already has my 240 hubs on his car. There is a 240 at a local yard, the hubs were still there as of sunday. I'm not sure when it's scheduled to get taken out of the yard. I was only told about it and not sure how far away it is from replacement. I couldn't get that info from the one who told me about it.

Call me anytime, tonight if you want.

myxtaz

I have used POR15 and have had great luck with it. You must follow the preperations that they tell you other wise the stuff will peal off. If done correctly it is the most durable paint I have ever seen . Nothing will remove it so be sure when you pick a color it is what you want .

adamturbo

it took me and my bros some time to wire wheel all the suspension components ready for powder coating , but in the long run its worth it. it only cost us 200 to completely powder coat everything.







be sure to remove all rubber bushings as they cannot put the items in the oven with them installed. also be sure to tell the powder coaters where you dont want paint so they can mask items up properly.

BoulderZ

Picked up all of the front suspension pieces from powder coating on Friday. They're absolutely beautiful. Nice satin black. I did a cursory cleanup with a small sandblast gun at home, but they did their own blasting as well as the powder coating. $165 total. The most time consuming part was the roundtrip drive to Commerce City. The strut assemblies are already assembled and reinstalled (new tokico springs, new tokico hp strut cartridges, new urethane bumpstops). I didn't think I'd like the red springs. But, given everything else is black, they don't stand out too badly.
I also wired and logged all of the fasteners, and dropped them off at Denver Metal Finishing yesterday for new yellow zinc. Supposed to be ready this Friday, maybe Monday if things get backed up.
I was going to go to Pull N Save to get those hubs this past Friday. But, it was below zero, with snow on the ground. I tried working there in wet, subfreezing temperatures last winter, and it just isn't worth it. Too much time for too little savings. So I used the time to assemble and install the struts and start working on the steering rack (new boots and tie rod ends).
If I get the bolts back Friday, then I can get the whole front end back together just in time for the block to come back from the machine shop...
Thanks to all for the powder coating recommendations (and referral, Darrel!) and not letting me cheap-out on an important finish.
Dave

Darrel

Good thing this is Colorado. -13F one day, 50F the next and sunny skies.

Did you get the message I left on your phone about the other pick n pull?

BoulderZ

Thanks, yes, I did! I think I'm going to have to go more with the call-and-order and less the search-and-pull route for the time being. Things are so busy at work right now that I just can't afford a whole afternoon, or a vacation day, to retrieve parts from the yards. Not that I'm complaining... being busy at work sure beats the alternative.
Anyway... hope to maybe get one of the new steering rack boots and tie rod ends installed tonight.
Dave

Darrel

Hopefully you'll find some time to get the ones off the 240 at pull n save. It should still be there this weekend. Maybe the weather will cooperate.

Hopefully you Jim and I could meet up sometime before he moves to indy.

BoulderZ

Okay, got to pull n save finally, on Saturday. I got the hubs off of the bondo-mobile (whoever did that to a Z deserves some pretty severe punishment...). Walked around a little bit, didn't see the other one around.
Strut assemblies are together and installed, cross member is installed, steering rack has new boots, tie rod ends, and urethane bushings and is installed. If the ball joints get here today from Vic Brit, I'm hoping to get the control arm assemblies back in over the next couple of days.
Thanks again for the tip on those hubs.
Dave

Darrel

The other 240 was closer to the ford lot.

Any 280zx out there?

BoulderZ

Didn't see it near the Ford lot. Looked like maybe they had moved a couple of cars around there, though? Odd, as I thought that 240 had only arrived more recently. I might have missed it, though. I had my hubs by that point and wanted to get home to work on the car. I did not see any 280 ZX's. Various people there told me they had seen some at some other Denver yards recently, though.

Will disassemble the hubs from the rotors (too stuck to do with hand tools in the parts yard, and the rotors are cheap anyway), maybe tonight. I think I'll put the old hubs on for now to be able to roll the car around, and get the 240 hubs powder coated when I do the rear suspension pieces and front swaybar as well. Fewer trips to Commerce City (that's a lot of gas for a crappy drive). Also means I don't have to buy all the brake upgrade parts right now.

The ball joints showed up yesterday from Vic Brit. Oops, I mean "Black Dragon Auto". Does that name just scream "ricer boy racer", or what? Not that it wasn't weird ordering parts for a 70's Japanese car from a place called Victoria British (and getting them shipped from LMC Truck). Anyway, the lower control arms are assembled with new ball joints, new poly bushings, and the steering arms. If I can find where I put the bolts, I hope to get them installed on the crossmember tonight. The garage is tiny and I ziploc and label every part off of the car, boxing them by subsystem. But it seems that there's always one piece that's hard to find in each major system project.

Dave

Darrel

Awww, how dare you diss on that 240. There's nothing wrong that little more bondo couldn't fix. ;-)

The 240 near the ford lot would have crushed by the time you got there on saturday.

I'll be coming to boulder on saturday or sunday to help Jim swap wheels out on his car to see if we can figure out why his steering shakes after his brake upgrade. It might be a good time to meet up if your schedule is open either day. Give me a call so we can set something up and I can let jim know. So far either day will work for him.