1973 Rebuild

[Patcon]

Siteunseen,

I was in Northern tool the other day and they had a lot of blast media. The had crushed glass no free silica for like $11 for 40 or 50 lbs. Would cut a little faster than beads but not quite as smooth. They also had "Black Diamond" which I believe is coal slag.

[Matthew Abate]

Okay, I'm back. Sorry for the long hiatus, but I had a long list of stuff I needed to take care of this summer and the car sort of languished as a result. But now the vacations have been had, tuitions have been paid, the garage has been organized, and the motorcycle has been sold ( ), so I got back into it. 

 

The first order of business was collecting cardboard boxes. The car came with a lot of bits and pieces that have been sitting in old boxes outside in a Missouri field, so I wanted to make sure that I got any dirt, animal dung, mice, black widow spiders, etc. out of my garage. I also wanted to make a loose inventory of what I had so I had a sense of where I am with this thing.

 

 

Next I cleaned up.

 

 

Then removed the hood and I took pictures of the engine bay in better light that before. Let me know if you see anything peculiar. I don't know these engines very well yet and have no idea what's happening in there yet. Sorry the images are crappy. I didn't realize it until I started writing this and can't fix it right now.

 

 

Then we made a cradle to get the car up off the ground so I could really get in there to check it out. It's 3/4" plywood, 2x4s and 4x4s, with 2x3s to lash the four parts together. The 4x4s have sockets for the heads of the jack stands to sit in and prevent sliding, and the jack stands themselves are secured to the bases with plywood. The casters can support up to 250 lbs. each, and there are 16 of them total, so we're good on the weight. I wanted 6" wheels to make it easier to roll, but Home Depot only had 5 of those, so we went with this mishmash of 4" wheels instead. The car is sitting about 30 inches off the ground now.

 

 

I have discovered that my frame rails have been smashed from some jackass jacking the car up incorrectly, so they are going to have to go. Sorry, no pictures, but trust me, they are shot.

 

This sort of solves a problem for me. I had been deliberating on whether or not to replace the rails with some for a 280z. Since I have to replace them no matter what I am leaning more heavily in the direction of doing a rest-mod rather than a straight restoration. The fact that it is not a numbers matching car is reinforcing that as well. I'm still not 100% decided but I'm seeing 280 drivetrains for fairly good prices so I might just bite the bullet and go there. Even if I don't hot rod the thing I will probably go with the 280 rails.

 

Opinions on this are much appreciated. I'm having a rare case on not being able to decide for myself.

 

———

 

Next I removed the seats and center console, and stripped the sound deadener from the interior.

 

 

Note the condition of the floors. I already knew they were going to have to be replaces. Now I know the extend of the damage. It is isolated to the floors themselves and does not come up into the transmission hump, thankfully.

 

But, look at what some jackass decided was a good idea:

 

 

I'm so pissed about this. I'm not sure if you can buy that sheet metal, but I have a feeling fixing that is going to be a gigantic pain.

 

———

 

And here are some shots of the luggage area and rear wiring area. Looks pretty good.

 

 

———

 

On the whole I feel like I've got a pretty nice base to work with here. She's not really a candidate for a concourse restoration given the engine block issue, but I think I can make a really nice sleeper with some tasteful exterior mods that will keep her mellow but also give her a little bit of style.

 

The next order of business is finding someone who can do the sheet metal repairs for me. I'm going to remove the fenders this weekend and inspect the doglegs, but if they turn out to be alright I think I can get a welder in there as soon as the parts arrive.

 

If anyone can recommend a place or person in northern New Jersey who I should talk to about this please let me know. I would love to find someone who could do the work in my garage, but if not I will need to also figure out how the move the car (anyone know a good flatbed company?). I know someone had recommended Auto Rust Doctors in another thread, but they have closed up shop.

 

This is going to be for the rails, the floors, and the storage area wall that was cut for speakers ( ). Hopefully this can all get done is one shot.

Edited August 26, 2015 by Matthew

[cbuczesk]

I could do it but I have to finish another car first and I'm in south-central PA. It takes about 40 hours to replace the floors/frames with the Zedd Findings kit. The speaker area would have to be cut out of a parts car or custom made. For reference it'll take a couple hours or so to weld-in some simple patches for the speaker holes. If you're interested and can wait for me to finish the other car send me an email. cbuczesk@Comcast.net

 

Chuck

[Patcon]

I agree with chuck on his time estimate. I am still trying to see the problem with you floors.

 

Also which frame rails are ruined by jacking in the wrong place? I would like to see pictures of that. You would be surprised what can be fixed with the right tools.

 

As for the speaker holes in the tool lockers, I would weld in patches there and move on. Dress them down from both sides. Smear a little fiber glass over the rough areas, sand smooth and roll on. No one will ever know the difference.

[grannyknot]

Matthew, it's hard to tell from your pics just how bad the floors are, no perforations are visible.

If you do replace them weld the new Zeddfindings rails in and then Baddog rails on top,

http://www.baddogparts.com/ They are a bit pricey but they make a big difference if you start adding power to the car (and you will). Looks like you have a pretty solid car though, I'm looking forward to this build.

Chris

[Matthew Abate]

Cbuczesk, I just emailed you.

———

Here are some slightly better pictures of the floors:

I'm not 100% sure that the entire floor needs to be replaced, but the right side behind the front seat brace is pretty much rust held together by paint. I took a wire wheel to it and never got to anything shiny.

I was in the process of pulling out the galvanized sheet metal that has been pop-riveted to the floors, but I broke too many drill bits and needed to go buy the correct tools to finish that process. Once I get that done I'll have a much better understanding of what is happening there.

———

As for the rails, I can't take pictures at the moment because the car is sitting on them. The 4x4s that make the top of the cradle I made are lined up with them and obscure them entirely. I'm not sure how they got so smashed up, but they are flattened almost up to the floor panel in a few places. It might be possible to fix them, as Patcon mentioned above, but I have a feeling it will be easier and faster to just replace the rails…

unless there is a really strong argument for keeping the originals that I am missing.

I'm also looking at this: http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/car-frame-rail-replacement.html

———

Another surprise I forgot to mention is that the gas tank is caved in in a couple of places, which might explain why I had a fuel leak in the rear of the car. It looks like it was either used as a jack point, or the previous owner backed over something and smashed it. Judging from the placement of the dents I am going to say it was from jacking up the car.

———

In other news, I pulled the front body work off:

I'm super happy to report that there was nothing surprising under the fenders, other than a black widow spider, but that's nothing a leaf blower, hose, and some raid won't solve. I just need to pull the grill from in front of the windshield and all of the removable bodywork except the 3 doors will be off.

I haven't looked for replacement weather stripping or rubber parts yet. I'm holding on to everything until I know just how hard to find all that stuff is. Hopefully I can just buy everything new and chuck all this old brittle crap.

Edited August 31, 2015 by Matthew

[grannyknot]

http://precisionrestorationparts.com/c-381272-weatherstrip-complete-weatherstrip-kits.html

 

http://www.vintagerubber.com/datsun240zbasicsealkit-3.aspx

 

These look like pretty much the same items, not sure why the price difference

[Matthew Abate]

http://precisionrestorationparts.com/c-381272-weatherstrip-complete-weatherstrip-kits.html

 

http://www.vintagerubber.com/datsun240zbasicsealkit-3.aspx

 

These look like pretty much the same items, not sure why the price difference

 

Thanks Grannyknot,

 

These will be super helpful later, but I'm looking for the Inner Fender Weatherstrip, the long piece that seals the fender against the body along the hood line, the pads that go on the little pedestals under the top of the fender, and Front Fender Rubber Mud Flap, the triangular piece that has two screws holding it to the dog leg under the rubber tube that evacuates water from under the wiper grill.

 

So far I've found these:

Front Fender Rubber Mud Flap - http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/classic03a14/50-1129

Inner Fender Weatherstrip - http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/34-1221

Edited September 1, 2015 by Matthew

[cbuczesk]

MSA probably has most if not all of that stuff. The long piece can usually be cleaned and reused. It might seem brittle but I've found that it's still flexible after you remove the undercoating from it. Lowes or Home Depot might have something to use for the little blocks under the fenders. The original foam under there didn't do much at all anyway.

 

Chuck

[jfa.series1]

Matt - for your splash shield weatherstrip and the pads under the fender, look no further than your local auto supply.  What you want is closed cell strip, 3/8" thick X 3/4" wide.  Closed cell is important as the original Nissan stuff was open cell which holds water and promotes rust.  Here's a pic of my car as it was coming together at the paint shop.  That's a double thickness of the 3/8" stuff on the fender pad - it provides greater support.  I did buy new upper fender seals as its the only design that will correctly fit and seal.  Hope this helps.

 

[Matthew Abate]

I just knocked out a quick photoshop concept of what I might do with my Z in the end. Note the orange-on-orange BRE style stripes.

 

 

The original photo is by Dan M.

Edited September 1, 2015 by Matthew

[Matthew Abate]

Did some work on the right side floor board. Pulled the sheet metal (those rivers were a bitch and here were something like 20 of them), scraped up all the black goo (bed liner? tar? heroine?), and hit it with a wire wheel until my drill battery died.



You can see the damage better now. Holes along the right side, which killed my fantasy of just welding up the holes, but not all the way up against the edge of the car, which is a relief. You can also see how banged up the floor is. I think they went off reading regularly.

Time for a beer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited September 3, 2015 by Matthew