Datsun 240Z 1972 Restomod from Germany

[Radeon]

Rollbar fail and further plans

Oh well. Again a terribly long break from the blog (/forum)! I honestly had the feeling in the beginning that I’m working on to many little things that are not worth a blog (/forum) post yet, and wanted to accumulate many little things for one post! After a while I realized that I actually had material for multiple posts, which again ended in procrastination regarding posting content, because I was a bit overwhelmed!

Let’s start with the biggest “accomplishment” being a big fail in the end…

I started the progress to weld in the supporting brackets/plates for the roll bar in which it’ll be bolted into.

I had to put the roll bar in and out a couple of times to get the correct fitment for the brackets on the floor, as well as where to drill the holes on the wheel wells. After quite some time muscling with the roll bar I ended up with three holes on the wheel well:

The brackets on the floor will be welded in the area where the original seat belt mechanism was. Wirewheeled that area intensively to prep it for some zinc spray and later welding in the bracket:

I then did the same with the wheel well area: (keen readers will now already see where I’m about to go wrong!)

The actual brackets and plates got the zinc spray treatment as well, did the rear frame rail connectors from bad dog parts as well as the patch piece for the rust spot under the windshield gasket…on the wrong side though as I later realized!:D Before:

And after:

I forgot to take pictures from the zinc sprayed areas inside the car!

Well if you did not already catch my mistake a couple pictures ago, here it is in all it’s glory:

The correct way would have been to weld the plate in from underneath the wheel well, sandwiching it between the plate and the roll bar itself. A guy in the Datsun Europe Facebook group pointed that out to me, “luckily”!

I’ve never done any cage work before, and haven’t seen one in enough detail before I guess. I must have just assumed, since the lower bracket is on the inside of the car, the upper plate has to be on the inside as well! I can’t even tell if it was properly written in the instructions, since they where not model specific and written pretty vague, but threw them away back when I thought I finally finished the roll bar, so can’t check. As if it would make any difference! I’m to blame for my own mistake! :’)

Anyways, I’ll at least show you the other work I did. Here are the lower brackets finished welded in, and since I wasn’t to proud of them cosmetically I ground them down. I honestly don’t have any pictures in between, as I pretty frequently forgot to take pictures when I was in the zone!:D

For good measures I gave them a coat of zinc spray just for the time being:

And the roll bar actually bolted in:

Further plans now:

I’m going to cut out the plates on the wheel well carefully to only cut the welds/plate itself, and not into the original metal of the wheel well. Hope I’ll succeed and the wheel well underneath isn’t to warped from the welding, if so, then more hammer and dolly work. Pretty surely I have to cut out the lower brackets as well, since they now might be off to some degree so the roll bar wouldn’t be sitting flush on the original wheel well now.

I’m also a bit “happy” about it, since I always thought how ugly it looked having the plates and welds on the inside, theoretically visually poking through the vinyl cover of the interior if installed. Never occurred to me on my own that it’s actually not meant this way though!:D

Another good point is that I decided to now order the front cage section yet already! Before my plans where to “retrofit” the rest of the cage if I actually am finding myself more on the track. Meaning I would have to strip the interior area as well as the underbody, where the front plate has to be welded in, from it’s more or less fresh coat of paint then. Also there would’ve always been the possibility that nothing would line up properly! I’ll now weld in all the plates for the entire cage correctly, but only run the rear cage/roll bar on the street, and bolt in the front section with door bars for track use!

Since a lot of individual blog (/forum) post topics accumulated there will be quite a lot of them in the next days, they are scheduled to go online at 6 pm CEST on the blog and shortly after in the forum until the 1st of May one each day!

Have a great evening you all, or whatever time of the day it is where you're living!:)

[wheee!]

For what it's worth, i would cut/grind away the excess metal on the top of the wheel well under the cage mounts, so they are flush with the mounts. Reweld them into a bevel grind so they are nice and pretty under the roll mount. THEN weld in new plates under the wheel well. That way you would keep your geometry and the disruption to the vinyl inside will be approx the same as with just the roll cage mount point.

Edited April 25, 2017 by wheee!

[grannyknot]

If that roll bar ever has to do its job of protecting you it will be in compression, that is, pushing down on those wheel wells so there is a valid argument for welding that plate on top of the wheel well just as you did.  If it were mine I would weld much larger support plates on top and underneath the wheel well to spread out the force of impact.

Will you still be able to use the seat belt pockets?

[wheee!]

I imagine he will have a harness installed so a seat belt pocket might be redundant.

 

[munters]

He Fabian

Im impressed with what your doing.

If you didn't buy any seats yet, I bought in 1987 new Recaro seats with H belts, had Seat rails fabricated for my 240 but never used them. Thy are 30 years old, but new, sitting in my garage since then...

Keep up with your work.

Marcel

[Radeon]

"Good morning" guys!

First of all thank you for your feedback!

Those are all valid points and suggestions! I think for now I have to wait for the response of the safety devices distributor and get myself the front half of the cage. Then I will look into if the front will even line up with the floor! If that won't happen the geometry is off anyway, after that I can address what to do with the rear! But great to hear your alternative ideas to overcome this setback, maybe even turn it into something good!:)

Exactly, as Mark pointed out I'll be running a harness, I don't think that the cage would work with the original 240Z seatbelt retractor! Maybe with the later style where the retractor sits on the shock tower?

@Marcel: Thank you!:) In fact I don't have seats yet, had planned to go with Recaro SPG, probably Bride rails and Takata 4 point harness with anti submarining. I'm curious how your seats look, maybe you want to sent me some pictures via private message?:)

All the best to you guys!

Fabian

[munters]

No problem, I will send some pics. as far I remember the seats are Recaro design sport. The belts... I dont remember the brand. but will be on the pics as well.

[wheee!]

I'm not sure about Germany, but in Canada, harnesses are not street legal. You still need the factory belt for street driving. Just a thought.

[Radeon]

If the TÜV is happy with the harness (Gutachten/ABE or so called Einzelabnahme), they are indeed street legal in Germany!
Besides, seat belts where only mandatory after 1975 in Germany, and the Zs are so uncommon here, nobody would be the wiser if ones were actually in the car from factory before 1975!
A friend of mine drives his 240Z without seat belts, and it's documented this way in the car documents!

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Classic Zcar Club mobile

[Radeon]

Door locking mechanics removal

Like I promised, everyday a new post until the 1st of May!:) Have fun reading it, even though today's might not be as exiting!;)

Pretty much one of the last things to bolt off of the car, besides the door itself, were the door locking mechanics. Off they go!

Before:

And after with a pretty empty door!:)

I’m struggling with the mechanics themselves though! The plan ist to yellow zinc plate them, I’m not sure though how and if I should remove the plastic connecting clips! The plastic nut thingys on the door handle mechanics are off already!

Also not sure what to do with the inside handles, since they are not separatable, and the vinyl stuff seems to be glued on:

See you tomorrow and have a great evening - or whatever it is in your place!:)

All the best 

Fabian

[munters]

Pictures Sent

[Radeon]

Welder upgrade, a visit and some odds and ends

The nozzle of my welder melted itself whilst I welded in the roll bar plates or brackets. Since replacement parts weren’t readily available I had an excuse to upgrade my welder with a 4m Euro mount welding gun! The original one was maybe 1,5-2m long, and a pain in the back. Had to put the welder into the car as I was welding in the roll bar plates because it was too short!

Here’s the original cable, the opening already has the correct holes for the Euro mount from the manufacture:

All rewired, bolted in and the new welder gun already connected!

It’s so much easier to weld with the new gun!:) Maybe I’ll take some pictures of the old gun and show them at a later point in time!

I also received a bearing puller a couple of weeks back and was finally able to remove the rear bearing from the shaft!

And I got a visit from a friend in his somewhat new to him Opel Kadett C!:)

See you tomorrow!:)