Quick update!

So just a quick update. In parts news,  the Mishimoto radiator hoses came in recently!  I've been meaning to buy some parts from the Z store (it's a secret! can you guess what?) but I've decided that next time I'll drive to Orange to pick up the parts instead of paying for shipping (~$70). Unfortunately they are only open on Saturdays for the weekend (while I'm at work) and I can probably only go on Tuesdays during the week haha.  I'll figure it out  a time to go soon hopefully. Or I'll pay my brother $20 to go pick it up for me haha.

 I've been having a hard time finding time to work on the car but I was able to sand down the clear coat a bit last on 10/21. I think it looks a lot better!

After sanding and before the wipe down

After the wipe down.

Some spots I got pretty low by accident. 220 grit is pretty rough

and I should probably be using 2000 grit if I wanted to keep most

of the original paint but I'm only sanding where it's peeling.

Lol can you see my gas tank?

Here's a before and after shot to give you an idea

of how much of a difference it looks. Even though

some spots look rough, I think it looks better

than having peeling clear coat everywhere. I basically

just want a smooth surface for PlastiDip or ElastiWrap

(which I'll probably go with since more color options). 

Unfortunately, I only had enough to do the passenger

side and half of the roof of the car on that Tuesday haha.

However, on 10/25 I was able to find some time to start

sanding the hatch and driver side (stills need work) and

the whole front still needs to be started so maybe I can do

that tomorrow hopefully! If I do I'll definitely update this post

either then or when I get my parts! Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Today (11/2) I sanded down the rest of the car (and my hands hate me for it!). I'll probably go back and redo the hood since I was testing on it and didn't sand it as smooth as I could. Here are the pics!

I also got this rust converter that should turn the rust on my car into a black sandable primer which is nice. I sprayed it on various rust spots both minor and major to prevent spreading as a temporary fix.

Battery tray and passenger footwell

Parts!

Hey everyone!

Haven't worked on the car much since the last post (besides unbolting my broken exhaust) since I've been busy with work and hanging out with friends, but look what came in today!

Spark plug wires, spark plugs, clutch slave cylinder, steel braided clutch and brake lines, thermostat, and various gaskets (valve cover, oil pan and intake/exhaust gaskets not pictured). The bolts in the plastic bag are for the oil pan since the ones that were bolted were all rusty and probably shouldn't be reused.

I also ordered some silicone hoses for my Mishimoto radiator but I guess they were out of stock so Mike from the Z Store emailed me saying they will send them once they were in stock in a few weeks at no additional shipping for me which is good news.

I was going to order a new thermostat housing since my old one was REALLY rusted, but from looking at various places online, they don't make them for the 260z anymore! It looks like the '70-73 and '76-78 thermostat housings are different and the '70-73 housing would need to be modified for it to work. 

After finding this out and seeing my housing I wondered if I could somehow salvage it. I looked up simple ways to remove rust to clean it up a bit. Turns out apple cider vinegar works pretty well so I decided to give it a shot.

After a few hours, this is what it looked like in the cup (kind of looks like Pepsi, huh?). I checked it out and most of the rust was off, but had to run off to school so I left it in there for 8 more hours.

After I got back home, I took it out and looked a ton better and a lot of the rust/crud was removed especially after being wire brushed. I would say that the thermostat housing is salvaged.

That's it for now, but more updates/parts coming soon after midterms/papers!

EDIT: Also, I think I will be sanding down the rest of the car just like my hood once I get more free time, but that may be a while. 

Busy busy busy...

School has been hectic lately and I haven't been able to work on the Z. Now that I'm free of group presentations and other speeches in my classes for a while, I finally bought some parts!

Not much, but this is just stuff I could find from the Z store and I'll probably buy more parts next week (after midterms!). This seems like I'm just rewarding myself for keeping up with school haha. Did well on that speech? Exhaust for you! Did well on that midterm? Carburetors for you! Joking aside, I really believe I can get this car running and hopefully driving by the end of the year if all goes well. In the meantime, I will continue doing thing to my car that are not too costly.

For example, every time I walked into the garage I would see my hood set aside with the clear coat peeling more and more each day. After looking up how to deal with it (like I said in a previous post, I'm learning along the way), it seems like high grit sandpaper would do the trick. I had plenty of 220 grit from working on the dash left over so I gave it a shot. I think it turned out great and looks a lot better even though it looks slightly scratched in person, I'm sure a higher grit would help. I could probably go over it more to get it pretty smooth but for testing it's fine for now. I was thinking if I should do the whole car since it's peeling.  FYI, this car isn't going to be a show car. I would likely get it plastidipped (maybe a dark green mix since I'm probably not going to paint the interior or engine bay) so think of this as "prepping" the surface and making sure the peeling clear won't ruin it. Thoughts?

Anyways, that pretty much it for the update. Get ready for more parts/updates soon!