Metal on a burned out Datsun

N

NW Boy

Hello Forum,
I'm very new and have lots of questions. I've been doing a lot of reading on the forum and learning a great deal it's now time to get into it.
I have a couple of Datsun roadsters and I'm collecting parts. I have an opportunity t get body parts from !970 car that burned. The cock pit took most of the heat and nothings left their. The fire was hot enough to melt the aluminum trim and body moldings and most of the paint is burned off.
My question, is the sheet metal worth saving These parts are getting harder to find and can be costly.
The doors look pretty cooked but not much distortion. The front fenders are burned to just back of the wheel well, the front of the car looks pretty good over all. The deck lid seems to have escaped to much heat and looks straight.
I've read (other metal work forums) that the metal wont hold paint because of the smoke and extra measures need to be taken to have good adhesion.
I can get the car in the next week or so but is it worth it for what will be useful. The car is 200 miles away but the owner only wants $200 for it, their are enough suspension parts to cover that. However I have suspension and not so much sheet metal.
Any in put and feedback is really appreciated.
Thank you
NW Boy
 
It sounds like it might be worth the risk, but you can't know if the parts are good until you start working on it. If the metal is not warped it should not be a problem to strip the damaged coatings, I don't know what they mean about the metal not taking paint. If that were so we would never be able to use a welder or torch on our sheetmetal. As long as the oxide layers and bad coatings are removed, it shouldn't be a problem, but if the panels have been warped they are probably goners.
 
I'm restoring a '70 2000 myself. Check out 311s.org forums for some model specific help. My hood had been burn from an engine fire, but was still pretty decent.
 
Thanks for the reply's!
I don't recall the sight I saw the discussion on but it went along the lines that the fire caused the metal to expand and while in this state the smoke particles got into the pores of the metal and are nearly impossible to remove. I can see some of the thinking about expansion and pores in the metal but also see some problems. I would think that when the metal is preped for primer that the grinding , sanding, and cleaning should remove any films left.
Anyway that's why I asked, I've never worked with burned sheet metal so I thought I'd toss it out to those with far more experience in case they had.
Thanks
 
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