A Tough Night...

[Mark Maras]

It's just a flesh wound.

[siteunseen]

3 hours ago, Mark Maras said:

It's just a flesh wound.

[Mike]

Grab your son and give him a big hug. It sounds like he did some good things to try and avoid the accident. It could have been much worse. No airbags would have injured them a lot more if that other truck hit him head on. Let him know that speeding across a grating system (like the on on the Ballard bridge) needs some extra care.  Lower speed and no horseplay.

Buy the kid a used Kia because they will likely get into accidents as they are learning. My kid won’t get access to the Z until he has experience. ?

Good luck with the rebuild or whatever you decide to do next. 

[siteunseen]

More seat time on the bike @rossiz.

[rossiz]

Decided to get motivated while the sun was shining - pulled off the fenders, hood, grille, sugar scoops, bumper to see what i'm dealing with.

Looks like the sheet metal work forward of the wheel wells is not worth saving, combination of some hidden rot and it being really mashed up. Might try and find a frame-cut from just in front of the shock towers and just weld it on.

One thing that was rather exciting: I finally solved the mystery of the "Z Mana". Some of you might remember previous posts under this title, about how every time I got going really fast or encountered some bumpy roads I'd have a piece of what looked like (very old) toasted oats cereal fall on my left foot. I figured either the previous owner's little kid had been depositing them through the defroster slots, or some critters had been stashing a winter food supply. Well - it looks like it was the critters! I found a stash under the drivers side fender supports - and not surprisingly this is where the rot had started. So I guess I would've had to deal with that at some point anyway...

 

[Patcon]

That's great! Glad you got motivated to dig in. Good you found the oatmeal source too. A loot of people seam the car at the radiator support instead of going back to the shock towers. It's a good place to disguise the seam while the radiator support is out. There might need to be some patch work to deal with the rot but that would be the least intrusive to the car body.

If I were going back further, I would seam the car under the forward lip of the shock tower. That would leave a minimal seam above the tower and below it to the frame rail that would need dressing. I would want to put the car on a frame rack before I started cutting on it or better yet. Take the donor cuts to the frame shop and pick up the repair car when it's done.

[Zed Head]

If it runs, a drive around the block with some brake stomps would probably tell a lot about any sub frame bending.

[Reptoid Overlords]

I don't know if this has any parts you need, but it's free, if you haven't already seen it...

https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/d/seattle-1972-datsun-240z-5-speed-clip/6880222160.html