2 4 0 Z Uh Oh Project

[disepyon]

Figure I would contribute to this Forum with my experience on the I had no idea what I got my self into 240Z project.  Maybe it will help others restoring their Z or thinking about it.

Bought my 240Z back in 2010 or 2011, cant remember, from a student that went to the same college as me.  I remembered seeing him drive the car around campus and was in ahhh every time. I usually saw him driving it same day of the week in one my classes seeing out the window during class session.  Every time I wasnt able to focus on the class discussion.  One day when I was browsing craigslist for Datsuns because I thought I was ready for one, I saw the same car. It was like a calling to me, SAVE ME!! Purchase price was $1,700, tried to talk him down, but his father was there during the transaction and wouldnt lower it.

Well anyways, dont want to drag out this intro to long, I had no idea how bad condition the car really was. Well maybe not as bad as some of the projects I see around on the interweb, but still pretty bad in my opinion.

I am doing an LS1 swap, because of that I will not show progress or pictures of that since this forum is a purest forum and dont want to start any conflicts with anyone, I think... I dont let me know if its alright and I will.

What I will show for now is the rust repairs I've been working on the past year or so.

 

Pictures:

These are pictures of the craigslist ad.

Pictures of when I got it, over the years. I fixed random stuff and the engine to keep it running. Interior was pretty good, few stuff thats bad here and there but over in good shape. The owners I bought it from clearly had no idea on how to work on cars, had to fix a lot, and I mean a lot of there work.

Summer of 2015, Started tearing into it, repairing rust

Started with the driver side rocker area. Got to start somewhere...   I Will just post nothing but pictures from here, they kind of described what was going on. To much to talk about right now. Just ask me any questions, and I will try my best to answer.

I will give a briefing though. I was going into this project thinking that only the common rusted areas will only need replacing and then I can move on to work on the engine, suspension, wiring, etc. to get the car going. I was dead wrong. All I had been doing mostly is making replacement panels for the rusted areas. I originally bought some of the replacement panels/rails you can buy online, but I was disgusted on the poor fitment (I will not name the companies, but will upon request). I cant believe everyone in the Z world has been putting up with crappy replacement panels offered by these companies... Because I did not like the fitment, and I didnt know anyone locally that does this kind of work, I went on my journey to learn how to shape metal, I already knew how to weld, but shaping metal is a whole different domain in the metal world. I am actually glad because I have learned so much, and it is actually fun to metal shape.  The panels I made arent perfect, but I will say they fit better than the said panels you can buy online.  Also I came to the mind set of this being a learning curve project for gaining experience metal shaping. Enjoy the pictures!!

 

Next set of images will be on next post... Work in progress with getting images up.

[disepyon]

Part 2 of picture mania!

 

Alright, pictures below are where I left off recently last weekend.  Sandblasted some parts that go to the interior for the seat belt mechanism and other random parts.  Finally got the floors permanently welded in.  The reason the floors look so nasty is because I sprayed it with POR15 Degreaser and Prep and Ready. This also helps it from rusting prematurely before I actually paint it.

Currently working on getting the seat brackets and the parts I sandblasted prepped for installation.

STAY TUNED!

Edited October 18, 2016 by disepyon
Pictures

[Martzedcars]

Enormous job!  But when you open up a car like that.. aren't you afraid that the door wil never fit again, without any brace?  (Looked fast through your waterfall of pictures..)

Impressivvv!! 

 

Oh well you can always make the door fit! 

 

[Dave WM]

Holy smokes, I could stare at this for hours, fantastic work!

[siteunseen]

Talk about unpeeling an onion, WOW!  You have a tremendous project going on but by the looks of it you are the right person to tackle it.  

I'm not about to go poking around on mine after seeing this.  Thanks for the reality check.

[ksechler]

Are you forming all of those parts yourself?  That's pretty impressive.  

[S30Driver]

Incredible work!   Wow.  Love the picture with the Baileigh English Wheel.

[sdyck]

Frankencar!  Incredible work!  Now I understand why people say buy the best car you can afford.  You will know that car better than the designer when your done.

[rcb280z]

WOW! That's impressive work man. Enjoyed the hour it took to study what you have done so far.

[disepyon]

6 hours ago, Martzedcars said:

Enormous job!  But when you open up a car like that.. aren't you afraid that the door wil never fit again, without any brace?  (Looked fast through your waterfall of pictures..)

Impressivvv!! 

 

Oh well you can always make the door fit! 

 

I though the same thing after I finished the driver side.  Luckily both doors fit just fine and are aligned really well.  

2 hours ago, ksechler said:

Are you forming all of those parts yourself?  That's pretty impressive.  

Correct, Lots of youtube videos and reading online helped me a whole lot.

2 hours ago, S30Driver said:

Incredible work!   Wow.  Love the picture with the Baileigh English Wheel.

I actually just got that wheel a couple of weeks ago. Ended up ordering a 3x8 upper wheel and some specialty lower anvils from Hoosier Profiles Inc.. Thinking they will arrive sometime end of this week. I actually wasnt impressed with the quality of the Baileigh English Wheel, for anyone thinking about buying one, I would advise another brand.  I actually complained about it to baileigh and they pretty much blew me off and said it is the way it is. Because of my experience, not sure id buy baileigh again.

 

 

Thanks all for the comments. Probably would had been better to buy a better shell and ditching this one, but couldnt do it. 

[Patcon]

Those are MAD metal skills!!! I have a real appreciation for the work you've done, having done some of this work myself but not to this extent. Really hard to fabricate some of those pieces and the shear amount of hours it takes to get to this point. Just a little more and you will be done with metal work...

Did you fabricate you own outer rockers too?

[wheee!]

I bow at the alter of your metal skills.... absolutely stunning....!