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When is It “too far gone“ to be worth resorting?


ZCarFever

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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!

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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.

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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 by ConVerTT
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  On 4/18/2020 at 11:55 PM, 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.

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

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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 by Zed Head
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  On 4/19/2020 at 1:42 AM, heyitsrama said:

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

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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.

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  On 4/19/2020 at 1:54 AM, 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?

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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.

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