2/8 – The Starting Line, racing against the clock
Hello everyone, my name is Hayden Valmonte Macklin and from my senior project title, you can tell that I have an huge passion for cars. Models, toys, memorabilia, pictures, wall decoration–I have it all when it comes to cars. My future plans are to eventually get into designing and fabricating parts for the race divisions of big manufactures, like NISMO, Gazoo Racing (GR), and Toyota Racing Division (TRD).
Even though it is not on the website, I have 2 different site placements for my senior project. One is at UMS Tuning, a tuner shop in Mesa that builds racecars for the track, as well as just high horsepower street cars for customers. From the short time I have already spent at the shop, they are very welcoming and had no hesitation at putting me to work. I will be at UMS Tuning on Mondays and Wednesdays since I go to my welding class at Mesa Community College and the shop is 5 minutes away. My second site placement is at TurnStyle JDM & Euro in Apache Junction. They are a shop offering many services, anything from general maintenance to full-on engine rebuilds. They enjoy building drift cars during their off hours and their passion comes from old cars that are barely street legal. Since TurnStyle is 5 minutes from my house, I will be at their shop Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and potentially weekends.
I hope to use the knowledge and expertise from both shops and translate it to working on my final product, my 1975 Datsun 280Z Restomod. I will be doing lots and lots of work. I hope to be able to at least drive it to Prom and Graduation…. which is in 3 months. To bring everyone up to speed, I have had 3 different Datsuns over the past 4 years or so, a 76 280Z, a 1980 280ZX Turbo, and my current 1975 280Z. I will be dropping information about each of them over time when it makes sense to include it.
It is ambitious to say I will get the car done in time, but I will use every moment I have free and dedicate it to pushing my car forward. I am planning frequent blog posts, with lots of progress on my Z car, potentially some progress onmy dad’s BMW, many images, and stories from my experiences throughout this process.
I am pictures of the 1975 Datsun 280Z to show where I am starting from at the time of this post. I am currently in the process of doing the body work so I can get the car painted, and start reassembly. The photos I have uploaded is when the car was first put in primer, and the process of using guide coat (the black stuff on the car) and block sanding to make the panels as flat as possible.
