Rust question before buying a car.

[Sulla]

Hi I looked at a 240z today. Its got a fuel injected L28 but without the wiring finished. Automatic transmission, new interior (2 really), new weather striping etc and a bunch of extra parts for the inside. Any way the framerails at the front where the curve up are perfect but on the passangers side the floor is rusty in the center and about 18" or so of the framerail in the same area. The other side is perfect. Also the querterpanels behind each door. But thats about it. The hatch and the part of on the back around it is fine. The spare tire wheel well looked fine. A little rust on the battery tray but thats about it. On the outside its primired with just a little surface rust and no bondo I could find. They said its a 1970 but the VIN was HS30 93425 so I would think its probobly like a 1972. The plate on the door was primired over so I could not read it and they did not have the title on hand so I could not double check. Any way I think with the rust it has the $300 they said they would take for it is not to bad. Can any one give me any feedback on this? Also can you buy replacement metal for the parts that are rusted. I am pretty sure you can but just got home and have not had time to do a search.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

[240znz]

Well, this sounds like a familiar thread.

You can get replacement floor rails and floors from MSA or Zeddfindings. MSA stocks Zeddfindings floors as a premium product.

Tabco have a range of replacement panel parts that you may need. I can't remember the link but you can find it under the links section here.

For $300 it sounds like a steal. But it all depends on what you want to do with the car. If you want to keep it and turn it into a daily driver, then I would get the car up in the air and have a really good look under it. Tap the frame rails with a hammer and listen carefully for the sound of rust sleeping. It will be there.

Take a fridge magnet and run it along the body to see where else the bondo is.

Sounds promising though.

[Sulla]

Ya I guese I can take jack back with me so I can get it up in the air more. I crawled underneath it but did not have a hammer with me. I would like to find Z with no rust but I am not sure it will ever happen I have looked at a lot of them. Even the ones where they told me they stripped it down etc and it had no rust had bondo behind each door and where they rust on the hatch. Oh well I will check it over again when I can get up there.

[este]

I bought a 1973 wiht a pristine looking body... i thought, now im stuck with a car that has a lot of rust... especially in the frame rails.

still the 500 price left me some cash to begin the restoring fund.

and yes you will have a hard time finding a Z without rust, the metal used in early Z cars was not the best quality.

good luck!

[Inf]

I don't think it has so much to do with the metal being of sub-par quality as it has to do with it being insufficiently protected from the factory. Metal used in modern cars will rust too, given similar exposure to the elements.

[Mr Camouflage]

Yeah. the reason the floors rust out, it that the floors have no paint on them what so ever. The tarmat sound deadening was applied straight onto bare metal on the inside of the floor, and air pockets between the tar and the metal (like where there is a seam) start to rust over time (the paint was then sprayed over the tarmat) . On the outside the tar was sprayed on like paint. A couple of scrapes on kurbs and speed bumps, even stone chips, leaves exposed metal which then starts to rust.

If Nissan had painted the surfaces first, then applied the tar, there would be alot less rusty Z'z around.

I'd strip the tar off the interior of the Z because it may look fine, but there could be rust lurking underneath. Mine has some slight rust in the boot tray between the seats and the spare wheel well, where the curved indents are, that you would not have known was there untill it ate its way through the othere side. Glad I stripped all the tar out.