I’m getting ready to restore my ‘70 240z. While going through my pile of parts, I came across a complete front and rear undercarriage of an early ‘70 I recuperate of a car that the body was way past  it’s expiration date.

The question is; how far gone is considered “too far gone” to get into the trouble of restoration for those suspension, steering, diff, breaks, tabs and all parts? 

Anyone with the experience and or wisdom on the topic that could weight in.?

Tks!

Most of those parts are still good.  Rust "grows" so it looks worse than it is.  The rotors can be turned, the hubs are still good on the inside where it matters, the struts can have shocks inserted, etc.  The insulators at the tops of the strut are hard to find.  The half shafts and u-joints are probably still good.  The steering rack rubber looks intact.   Lots of good parts there.

All of that is very restorable, the sand blaster is your friend.  This what it will come out like.

 

Sandblast, powdercoat or paint...

Rubber bits can be replaced.  Shock cartridges can be replaced or you can use the housings to build a set of coilovers,  or send them in for cores.  Lots of good stuff there.

Edited April 19, 20204 yr by ConVerTT

1 hour ago, Zed Head said:

Most of those parts are still good.  Rust "grows" so it looks worse than it is.  The rotors can be turned, the hubs are still good on the inside where it matters, the struts can have shocks inserted, etc.  The insulators at the tops of the strut are hard to find.  The half shafts and u-joints are probably still good.  The steering rack rubber looks intact.   Lots of good parts there.

I gotta dumb question, why turn rotors? they seem pretty affordable to just get new ones.....

He asked if they were still good.  They probably are.  So, not really a dumb question.

There are still a few NAPA stores and small shops around that have a guy that knows how to run the rotor turning machine.  The way they do it allows you to keep the bearing races in.  (Edit - since the rotor is separate bearings don't come into play, my mistake). Why waste money if you don't have to?  Take 'em off, drop 'em off, pick them up in a couple of hours, bolt 'em right back on.  It's old school.

And, who knows what "new" means these days?

Edited April 19, 20204 yr by Zed Head

1 minute ago, Zed Head said:

And, who knows what "new" means these days?

You got that one right!....

@grannyknot they do look very good once blasted!.. I will surely go that route. What about the dust shield for the front breaks ? They are different from my ‘73, Do they still make these?

No one makes them as far as I know but you shouldn't have too much problem finding them used.

13 hours ago, heyitsrama said:

I gotta dumb question, why turn rotors? they seem pretty affordable to just get new ones.....

I would probably just replace them also, depends how much you need to skim off them and what the minimum thickness is after that. Deep pitting will be a problem..

Half the issue here will be that undoing a lot of badly rusted stuff can be frustrating and take hours.. If the calipers have seized pistons etc.. it might be easier to start with better ones, but the main suspension components will come up good after a blast and powdercoat.

It's just math, time and understanding.  New is easy.

I screwed up in my first post because the rotor is separate from the hub.  I was thinking of other cars where they combine the two.

 

On 4/18/2020 at 6:54 PM, Zed Head said:

He asked if they were still good.  They probably are.  So, not really a dumb question.

There are still a few NAPA stores and small shops around that have a guy that knows how to run the rotor turning machine.  The way they do it allows you to keep the bearing races in.  (Edit - since the rotor is separate bearings don't come into play, my mistake). Why waste money if you don't have to?  Take 'em off, drop 'em off, pick them up in a couple of hours, bolt 'em right back on.  It's old school.

And, who knows what "new" means these days?

That's a fair point, i was talking about this with my uncle yesterday and he was saying that same thing, that you could go into an auto-parts store and have the people there turn the rotors in the shop for you. Makes sense if you are dishing out the money for higher quality rotors.