Datsun 240Z 1972 Restomod from Germany

[Radeon]

Holy s*** guys! I just received a mail response from the Belgium distributor of my Safety Devices rear cage and he just told me that in fact I did it the right way to weld in the reinforcement plate from the inside! It was usual in the past to weld them from underneath the wheel well, but newer FIA regulations actually obligate to weld the reinforcement plates from the inside onto the floor or wheel wells, so the cage is in direct contact with the reinforcement plate!

Welding windshield sill, seat rail and mirror holes

Some more welding and repairs on the body!

In older posts I already talked about the rust repair area under the windshield gasket. Well now finally it’s welded in:

After some spot welds I removed the zinc spray coat the reduce spatter and fully spot welded in the patch panel:

And ground down all the welds:

I don’t have a before picture, but one hole on the drivers side seat rail was bent out of place and ripped open. I hammered it back in place and spot welded the split metal back together:

And again grounded down:

Again forgot to take a before picture, but I made patches for the previous side mirror mounting holes, since I’ll be going with fender mirrors!

Spot welded in:

After the first time grinding down the welds I had some pinholes I welded shut again:

And now fully grounded down. Have to hammer and dolly the area a bit again:

See you tomorrow, and have a great night or... you know the drill...!;)

[wheee!]

Which fender mirrors are you going with? I haven't found a set yet either...

[Radeon]

Original IKI S30 long stalk fender mirrors! Managed to source a pair!
I think I should do a post together with the beautiful Zstory stainless steel exhaust system with racing headers soon about new parts I got!

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Classic Zcar Club mobile

[wheee!]

I would enjoy that...!

[dutchzcarguy]

Wanted to say something about safety belts..  I drive my 240z with race harness over 15 years now.  We have APK as England has MOT and Germany TUV.  They never asked about it.. I have the original belts also installed on the same bolts, sitting behind the seat.. never had to demonstrate them, the technician that does my cars APK has never seen those original belts!  My 4 way Harness are from OMP.

[Radeon]

Engine bay clean up A/C holes - welding

I already talked a lot about cleaning up the engine bay. Now it was time to actually weld all those for the future unnecessary holes shut!

After a lot of research I was able to figure out which holes on the left frame rail where for the vapor fuel line, and weren’t necessary for the future! Also ground down most of the welds, not yet perfectly finished though!

And to have a properly clean firewall the holes for the A/C had to go as well!

Before:

New patches:

And welded in! Once again to eager working on the car and forgot to take a picture before I started grinding down the welds!:D Also spot welded from both sides, as I’ve gotten the problem that not all the butt welds fully penetrate and would leave pinholes, this way it’ll look like seamless metal!:)

I also think the area where I did not continue the ridge turned out looking pretty factory looking!:)

Fully ground down now! Bit too reflective for a proper picture…

See you tomorrow and have a great weekend!:)

[Radeon]

Side marker holes front & rear

The front fenders were in storage in the cellar for quite some time now! Just brought them up, unpacked them and started to prep everything to weld in the side marker delete plates in the front!

Before prep:

I started with the other fender first, since it was the last one I preped. Again I wasn’t to happy with the skillard delete plates, this time they where to wide and a lot of material had to be ground off. And no, I did not mistook the front with the rear ones, before you might think that way!:) But better to take some material off, than to bridge a huge gap trying to butt weld the plates in, as it was on the rear!

As I slowly spot welded all the way around from the inside the outside looked like this. The plan all along was to spot weld from both sides, to get the new metal in as seamlessly as possible:

With all the gaps filled from the outer side:

And don’t forget the chrome trim holes on the fenders!:)

After finished welding one fender I hung it on the car, haven’t seen her like that in a while!:)

The other side was done the same way inside and outside, just a picture of the inside:

And started to grind down the spot welds on the inside on both fenders:

Now the finished grounded down fenders. They will need a bit of hammer and dolly work, maybe tinning it with body lead, before the painter will even do its filler magic.

I also did some work on the rear delete plates as well. As I told before, and you can see above, the spot welds didn’t always penetrate all the way through. As good as I was able to I spot welded from the inside, welding shut some pin holes which came through after grinding the outside welds flush, and als just add more strength to the patch. I also welded the holes on the left rear quarter they must’ve put in some time back to anker the body filler when they repaired it I guess.

That’s what It looked from the outside afterwards. I still have to grind down the new spot welds again, trying the best I can on the inside as well, then some hammer and dolly work again. Especially on the whole left quarter, as I don’t want there to be as much body filler as it was before! 

See you guys tomorrow again, for the last time so far!;)

[Radeon]

Front sway bar reinforcement

Since the front sway bar mounting area is prone to fatigue when using a bigger sway bar, which I am (suspension techniques), I reinforced the area with a 3mm thick piece of fresh metal!:)

What we’re working with before:

CSD disk removed the old paint and rust quickly:

Here are the new 3mm thick reinforcement plates:

Coated them, as well as the frame rail, in a coat of zinc spray where both metals would overlap each other, to prevent any rust if water would find its way between the two!

Bolted the plates onto the frame rails:

Removed the zinc spray coat around the plate to prevent welding spatter:

And welded them right in! Welding over head is a bitch! One side turned out quite pretty in cosmetical terms though, as I was able to have a better posture for it!:)

That’s the prettiest weld I was able to achieve: BTW: I stitch welded the plates first, to reduce heat, to then fully seam weld the gaps, so less water could find its way between the two metals!

The other side turned out the ugliest, but still everything is plenty strong!:)

I still ground down the prone welds flat to the plate, so nothing would interfere with mounting the sway bar later on!

And a coat of zinc spray to protect the metal for now!

That's it for now guys! Hopefully a next post won't be to far off in the future!:)

[wheee!]

The inside of the stock frame rail has a support bracket as an integral support already. You can see the spot welds in your photos. I had metal support shims attached to the outside frame rails on the stock bar too. I would think that a shim would work just as well, but no doubt yours will be very solid!

[wheee!]

The replacement rails I bought from Zedd Findings have a reinforcement plates too.

 

[Radeon]

15 minutes ago, wheee! said:

The inside of the stock frame rail has a support bracket as an integral support already. You can see the spot welds in your photos. I had metal support shims attached to the outside frame rails on the stock bar too. I would think that a shim would work just as well, but no doubt yours will be very solid!

It does indeed! Still only designed for the thickness of the original sway bar! And since I've read that some frame rails are showing cracks I'm better safe than sorry!:) I didn't want the L shaped plates John from baddogparts sells, because I did not want them to show in the engine bay, even though you would have to look very hard down there to find them!:D

Edit: Just saw your picture! Those look way beefier than I suspect the original 240Z rails to be! On my pictures I can only see one spot weld which might hold a reinforcement plate originally on the inside (double edit, just looked at the one from underneath, from the side it's at least three more!:) ). Quite possibly the original 280Z frame rails are stronger from factory though! 

Edited May 1, 2017 by Radeon

[wheee!]

I think the stock rails were the same strength for all the S30's. The ones from Zedd Findings were a little more robust. I will not be pushing my car harder than stock power for a while, so I may not need extra reinforcement...yet.