-----------------------------------------PHASE II (February 20, 2007 - June 15, 2007)--------------------------------------
I delivered my 240Z to Stan's Collision & Refinishing Center, Newport News, VA on February 20, 2007 thus commencing Phase II. My point of contact at Stan's is John, who I met at the Tidewater Z Car Club's (TZCC) Z-Odyssey Car Show in May, 2006. I was competing with my 2005 350ZR in the 350Z Stock class, and John was there with his beautiful blue 1974 260 2+2 (Check out his ride at "cardomain.com" (MD-IN-UK). John is a member of TZCC and was also a judge for the 350Z Stock competition. Thanks to John's critical eye for perfection, I won first place. Thanks John! When I asked him who did his paint job and he told me he did, and that he is the Master Refinisher at Stan's, I knew I wanted him for my project.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I didn't hear much from John until about a month later, when he sent me some pictures to show me the progress that he had made so far. This is one of them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two days later, on March 15th, my wife and I took the 80 mile drive to Stan's to visit the 240Z. She looked awful (my car not my wife), but John explained to me that she would look a lot worse before she started to look any better. Parts were sitting around with solvent bubbling away the three layers of old paint. The crud and dust was everywhere and covering everything, and John was grinding away - trying to find bare metal.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My next trip to Stan's was on April 6th, and I found that John had been working away on the dog leg arch supports that Todd had welded in, and had ground his way down through the three layers of old paint to the bare metal on the roof. He also gave me the bad news that I really needed a new hood and a new rear hatch. A quick phone call and visit to Tidewater Z Auto Service, and Todd was able to sell me a new hood he just happened to have in stock. And, after a visit up to his attic, Todd found a used 1971 rear hatch that was in great condition. Since I was going to use my 1972 rear window with the horizontal defrost wires - the 1971 rear hatch would work just fine.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On May 4th we once again made the trip to Stan's and found that John had masked and primed the body, new hood and 1971 rear hatch. Since I needed to remove some items from the interior, we opened up the doorways and I removed the center console so I could begin it's refurbishing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
During our visit on May 17th I discovered that John was still not happy with the lines in the rear quarter panels, so was working hard to get them just right. He had also started the paining process by painting the inside surfaces of the hood and rear hatch. After several months of waffling back and forth between a dark red and chrome silver (the same color as my 2005 350ZR) I chose to go with the silver - back to the (near) original color.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Painting was scheduled for June 8th and I left the house just 7 minutes before John called to say that he would not be able to do it because of another priority job. Since my wife was not at home to take or pass on the message and since John didn't have my cell phone number, I got to make the one and a half hour drive to take these pictures. Painting was rescheduled for June 11th.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On June 11th, painting commenced. John did the final prep wipe down and suited up. For some reason, he wouldn't let me into the booth to help him and I found that windows on paint booths are not always condusive to taking quality photographs. John was kind enough to clean some windows after spraying the base coat.
Next came three coats of the Chrome Silver paint, Nissan Color Code "KYO".
Then three coats of Clear Coat, using BASF Glasurit 923-255 HS Multi-Clear.
----------------------------------------------------------PHASE II COMPLETED----------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PAGE 1 - HISTORY
PAGE 2 - PHASE I - MECHANICAL
PAGE 3 - PHASE II - PAINT JOB
PAGE 4 - PHASE III - UPHOLSTERY
PAGE 5 - PHASE IV - RECONSTRUCTION
PAGE 6 - PHASE V - ENGINE COMPARTMENT
PAGE 7 - COMPETITION RESULTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
