#00655 Build Thread

[theczechone]

Hi,

First a little history on the car. I found the car in Double Springs Alabama. Drove 3 hours to look at it...it didn't run or drive, but the paint look good and it had floor plans replaced and I was extremely excited to get into a Z again. Long story short, I missed many things: rear wheel arches made of bondo, floor pan rails not connected to the engine bay rails, front fenders welded to what remained of the rockers, and maybe worst of all the drivers frame rail was spliced (butt welded together) with a 280z one. So yes it was a train wreck. Never the less I am going to try to repair it.

Here for some pictures:

When I first got it

I moved to Michigan, so i had my best friend trailer it up here for me.

Now in the shop.

The tear down begins and it uncovers all the rust

Rear Suspension's out

Driver's side Rocker Panel (or what's left of)

Passenger side Rocker

How the floor pans are installed

Rust around the fuel filler neck

Halfway stripped

Pulled the engine

Frame rail splice :dead:

I have ordered front frame rails from Zedd Findings and Bad dog rails to connect the front of the car to the rear.

And started cutting out frame rails. Spot weld cutters are handy!

New firewall is taking shape

[theczechone]

Went to look at a $900 240z and it had these on it. The car wasn't worth the trouble, but it had these on it. And for the deal I got, I couldn't pass them up.

HRE 505s

I picked up some 40 DCOE tripples of a parts car I bought, cleaned them lemony fresh and rebuilt them using rebuild kits from pierce manifolds

[Hardway]

Would love to see and hear an update on this car if there is one!

[bartsscooterservice]

Would love to see and hear an update on this car if there is one!

Ditto. Cool pics so far ! Looks like a .. " once your start cutting there's no way back " Z...

[theczechone]

I haven't been able to accomplish much as the average temperature in my shop over the past two months has been below 0 deg C.

But I have managed to cut out the passenger front frame rail. Of course this uncovered more rust that has to be repaired... but what else is new.

I've got the Zedd finding front rails and they are really high quality and stretch all the way under the core support. Also Charlie is a great guy to deal with and even though we had a slight issue with the customs we were able to work it out to a point where everyone was happy. Also I will be buying my floors from him when I get to it.

Currently I've been working on a jig to make sure that when I weld in my new rails they will be square and true. I'm still not 100% sure on what to use for a point of reference for centerline of the car but most likely it will be the rear cross memeber.

I did get some air horns for the carbs and repaired the throttle linkage so just for sake of some pictures in this reply:

[theczechone]

And yeah there is no turning back now.... Staying motivated is definitely a challange

[spitz17]

Looks like a lot of progress on a challenging project. Good stuff! Keep up the good work.

[theczechone]

Just a quick update,

Friend from work donated an industrial heater he had laying around, which made working on the car so much easier during these freezing months:

After much cutting and spot weld separation I was finally able to test fit the Zed Findings front rails, here is a quick before and after.

Before the new rails go in I had to make some repairs to heavily corroded areas.

[Z dreams]

theczechone, A tip of my hat to you and all members here who have and are repairing your Z's with extensive rust. keep up the good work.

[theczechone]

I put together a jig to hold the new frame rails in place.

[EuroDat]

Thats a top job your doing and a lot of work. Goodluck with it.

Chas

[Hardway]

I continue to be amazed at the lengths owners will go to in order to save low production number cars. Makes my little rust repair projects looks like cake compared to what you are doing. A true hats off to you for all of your work and effort!