A new Z car?? - Jay Leno's Garage

I know you guys are patiently waiting for the updates on the paint job.
Just so you know it is in fact still at the shop but I should be getting it back any day now.

Keep an eye out for the update that will catapult this project back on course!

Check this vid in the mean time. Nissan hints at a new Z!

Never easy...

This weekend was chaos. As most of you know I had a date with a local paint shop on Monday and had to sand through 9 inches of clear coat to get the car to where it needed to be in order to be painted. During this process I found several pieces that needed further body work and did the best I could to prep for that.

From Z3

Thank god my buddy Mauricio came over to help. I bribed him with steaks, beer, and Malt liquor 40s.

From Z3

We put in about 20 man hours in two days which I think is an awful lot. But we got the car looking nice and ready for the shop. Good thing I have friends who will work for large quantities of beer and meat. :)

So the day of the tow comes around and I am all nervous. Up until this point no one has ever touched my car without my direct supervision. The car has never been towed and I have never had a car towed. So the Tow guy shows up and is very nice and professional. Hooks up the car and rolls it up onto the flat bed with no issues.

From Z3

From Z3

"No dough, No tow." lol


Following him to the body shop I was so nervous I thought I was going to puke, and I never get nervous.

From Z3

Once we arrive I take a quick look at the car and everything looks good. No issues, dents scratches or anything and I let out a sigh of relief.

I turn to walk into the office and talk to the shop manager and I hear a bunch of yelling honking and then CRUNCH!!!!! My heart fell into my ass.

From Z3

The tow guy backed into a 5 series.

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Thank god my car was ok. I thought sure it was over.

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After about an hour and a half of reports, police, yelling, and insurance phone calls they finally let my car down off of the truck.

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It could have been much worse and I'm glad its over... For now.

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Reality check

So last night Mike and Josh came over again to inspect my progress.

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Mike inspected my work very thoroughly and quickly let me know that I have many sleepless nights ahead of me.

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Evidently you cant have ANY of those little shiny spots you see up there on the roof. Sure I knew they would show up a little but I didn't know that they were going to be so bad for the paint.

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I am happy to say though that most of the car isn't too far off.

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I stayed up late last night figuring out how to eliminate the shiny spots on the panels and get them smoother. Every little dark spot you see is a tiny little valley that will collect metal flake from the metallic paint and will show up as a little dimple in the final paint job. Even though I have eliminated 90% of them, the last 10% still have to go.

Mike wanted to see me get one headlight bucket perfect and ready for sealer/primer last night. Just to get me familiar with what exactly it should look like.

Here you go man. As good as I could do.

From Z3

My girlfriend is taking off for the cape for a few days. That means I can spend every waking minute on the car. Good thing cause I'm going to need it. Deadline is Sunday.

Smoove Move

To answer some of the questions I have been receiving, Yes I am sanding the entire car by hand with blocks and pads. This is probably the hardest I've ever worked on anything and I do not recommend that anyone ever do this ever. :)

From Z3

I have gone through the color in some places. And the primer in others. The car is going to be getting a complete re-spray. Sealer, color, clear. I have a bodywork expert come over tonight to inspect my progress and tell me what else needs to be done before it is ready for paint.


Can't wait to just move on with this build. Start doing the fun stuff again!

Gettin' Smoove

Hey all.

So I've been putting in some work lately. Mostly grunt body work but work none the less.
I have finally started to address my paint situation "the right way".

From Z3

As I am sure you recall, I jacked the clearcoat with a vengeance.

From Z3

From Z3

And it seems my only hope is to sand the hell out of it.

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Thanks to my new best friends Mike and Josh, I actually have some professional advice to go on with regards to fixing my paint situation properly. I need to sand the whole car with 400 grit  paper, then again with 800 grit wet until the whole car is completely smooth with no shiny spots whatsoever.

Picked up this squirt bottle for a few bucks at WalMart.

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And I started sanding like crazy.

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Trying to get the whole thing looking like I painted it with satin paint. Just as smooth as possible.

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See the difference?

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I still have to go over the whole car, and then the whole car again with 800 just to make it perfect. I will be grinding away on this for the next couple weeks.

I have a phantom hard deadline coming up that I can fill you in on later.

Things are getting pretty exciting in DirtyS30 land. :)

Circuit Soul - Hard Style // Iron Mind

Thanks Alex.

From SE-R

Tough guy says: "FUCK YEA."

From SE-R

Depth of Speed: My Church – Datsun

Immaculate inspiration.


From:

Z Spotting in RI

Earlier this month I went to the "Season opener" meet at Colt state park.

Saw a few pretty cool cars there, one of them being this:

From 2012 Season Opener Meet

Real clean S30 Z.

Well... clean on the outside. :)

From 2012 Season Opener Meet

It had a Bob Sharp Racing manifold and a Holley 4 barrel carburetor.

From 2012 Season Opener Meet

It's cool to see Bob Sharp Racing parts still in circulation. I've been on the lookout for one of the valve covers for quite some time and have never seen one for sale.

This is what they look like:

From ZCCNE Charity Inspection

Real sick piece of Z car history.

If any of you know of someone who has one for sale let me know! :)

Where the F*CK you been?

Sup dudes?

I have been working too much.
Trying to get a daily driver together so I can stop having my girlfriend drive me to work (lol).

After a lot of hustling and wrenching I ended up with this.

From 2012 Season Opener Meet

A 1993 Nissan Sentra SE-R.
I have always been a big fan of B13's.

From 2012 Season Opener Meet

There is a lot of missing story between my last post and now but I think I'll leave most of it out. You will be seeing a lot more of me on here. Working on the SE-R and the Z.

As all of you know the main hang up on the Z is the paint situation. Currently I am exploring options and saving up money to get it done right. I would hate to put it back together like it is and not be happy with it.

From SE-R

Until then I will be chugging along, tooling on my daily Sentra (which is a boat load of fun), and getting things together for the Z.

Missed you guys!