Hey guys, I am currently facing a dilemna regarding my 240z. I've stripped almost every component of the car as I'm gonna be taking it back to bare metal. The body has some rust one place under the battery is particularly major. I'm told it's best to have that area professionally repaired as it plays a major role in the cars strength. The rest of the body work is in the doors hatch, bonnet and spare tyre well as they've all experienced rust. The rest of the car seems well looked after like no bondo or bog was used. My problem is that I want to have the car resprayed and all rust removed and have a professinal looking job like a brand new car. But I've never done body work on a car before. I am wondering from past experiences etc.. if you guys had the chance to try it out and see how it turns out would u take the risk and see if you were patient enough to make it a perfect job or would u pay someone else?? Keeping in mind I have a tendency for things to be perfect and something that isn't close enough will drive me nuts.

Any comments on body work and/or information would be much appreciated.

PS: I live in Melbourne Aus, So I'd be looking for a good spray painter to do the final coats not the rust removal. As I want the paint to be 2 pack and oven backed on. This is because it will a red color and red fades in the sun easily. If you know of anyone in melbourne or vic who does a top quality job please let me know.

Thanks Again,


Gavin,
Melbourne
Australia
73' Datsun 240z

 

The best thing you can do is to mark all the bad spots (deep rust) and give the car to a profesional and let him blast the spots. A blaster can get quite expensive, if you dont have a really good compressor dont try yourself. Using "magic" cemicals and other idiotic rotating stuff is not an option.
After a good blasting you can make yourself sure that theres no more rustproblems in the future.

Depending on the shape of your car you might have some parts of it blasted away ; ), this is where the welding come in. Learn! It's a good thing to know how to do. BUT! Start on something else, maby your wife's car or build yourself some big metal art-piece.

Dont buy yourself a too cheap MIG-welder. I got a nice surprice welding beneath my car last summer when I got a electric-fire in the other end of my garage. Better stay alive than save some cents.

After that you have quite a job of grinding looking foward too if you want it baremetal. I dont know what the rules are in Australia, but in the 70's in europe we had some kind of "radioactive" paint-remover. I found some in an old basement and it actually worked but gets quite annoying after a while of skin-contact.

You dont really need to make it totaly paint-free. If you check all of the car and follow the rust-threads from the big spots you wont get anymore problems with rust.

If you want someone else to do the job, don't hire just anyone. I've seen some really bad jobs by "farmer-mecanics".

En fin..
Good luck!

 

seeing as how its a project car (ie no time contraints) you may as well give it a shot. The welding *may* be best left to a pro, although it would be a bloody good skill to learn.

Getting the paint off isnt too much of a drama - either a good paint stripper or sanding. Paint stripper smells shocking, can can get messy, and pretty expensive as you will need lots of it. Sanding you will definately need a orbital, but be carefull round edges because its easy to make deep scratches from sanding too hard. Its extemely quick, but tends to generate a shitload of dust also use care as too much sanding in the one area heats up the metal and it may cause it to warp. Use of fillers is pretty easy, its not to hard to get a good smooth finish.

I think the key is to take you time, and youll be right. Having done a bare metal job(not quite finished yet), I can tell you that it will take alot longer than youd think!