Zvoiture

Starting floor pan repair (pretty good sized areas) and frame rail repair directly under possibly this holiday weekend. Should the car be blocked up in the middle or something while the material is removed and welded back in? Could the car 'sag' in the middle while this area is out? Flip side: When the new material is going back in, would it be possible to jack the car up in the middle and build a bit of 'pre-load' arch into the frame? Like truck trailers and laminated beams. Ignorant, inquiring minds want to know! steve77

Let me preface this: I am not a mechanical engineer, nor do I KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT STRUCTURAL METAL. Metal is great because you can weld a gusset over it and be good as new or even stronger. But, addressing the 'repair' and the shop NOT welding anything over/around the hole/stressed area and giving it back to you as a structuraly sound unit, it is interesting to compare to structural wood members (my business). This diatribe is basically worthless because (a) wood and metal are probably quite different in how they fail, ( there is no clearly defined 'bearing point', and © the entire inside of the fender above the structural member is practically a gusset, or 'web'....anyways, all Iknow about is wood and it is Thanksgiving morning and I am bored so what the hell.... In 'unengineered' (natural) structural wood members, you are limited to removing roughly 1/3 of the cross section on horizontal members and 1/2 of the cross section on vertical supporting members. So, rounding things off, if you have a 2"X4" board on edge supporting a ceiling, you can only drill a 1 3/8" hole in it. Translated to the frame rail, I'd say your hole is a bit over that ratio. On engineered wood products, the rules are both stricter and more relaxed because it changes as you approach or depart from the bearing point. Within a certain area close to the bearing point you can make practically NO penetrations but as you move away, the penetrations allowed become larger but there are very close restrictions realted to shape (drilled holes can be much larger than square) and how close you are to the top or bottom edge of a horizontal member. Dead center is the least susceptible to failure, but as you approach the top and bottom edges, the stresses multiply. On engineered members constructed out of natural members (roof trusses) the allowance for penetration is almost nil. Only the tiniest absolutely unavoidable holes can be drilled in the members, and there is a good chance it will be reviewed. There is probably very little of this that translates to metal. Again, weld a plate over it and it is done. Stilll, cosmetically and ethically it will be wrong. steve77

Hey Walter, We have twin cars! steve77

Wow, CTR, I feel so honored. You chose to reply to MY post on your very first post. Welcome! Nice to have ya! steve77

http://www.vararacing.com/Videos/British5.mpg steve77

Stagea! That's it. Sorry. steve77

Pretty popular with the ricers. I don't really know how old of theory this is...perhaps it has been around for ages. This 'multi-ground' thingy--where a half-dozen or more fat ground wires run from the battery off to all over the engine. They bolt to just about anything that doesn't move. Is there any merit in this? steve77

Isn't the Alcantra the Skyline wagon? Something like that.... steve77

I hate to break it to you, but......oh, nevermind. steve77

What is the difference between these two?: Competition Oil Pump (15010-A1115) W/external adjuster above Turbo Oil Pump (15010-S8000) W/external adjuster above Please use 'standard' ZX turbo oil pump as standard for comparison. steve77

Yup, that's basically the same location as the factory mounts. I would still be interested in seeing a factory one. I know this has been discussed on an 'Alan' thread before, but don't remember the outcome. The brackets were welded on in US from '73-on, but were rear sway bars ever INSTALLED in them? steve77

And about half my collection of Z sway bars. NONE OF WHICH WORK!!!!! steve77

And here is the 11/76 alignment:

Does anyone actually OWN a rear sway bar for a 240 that fits into those cute little brackets that come pre-installed on something like '73-on? It looks identical to the 280 and accepts the same bushing and cover and bolt and everything BUT they are in different places!!!! Needless to say, a 280 stock sway bar DOES NOT fit into these brackets. Well...it fits INTO them just fine, but the eyelets for the endlinks are hanging out back somewhere around the e-brake lever. On closer inspection, (lucky me, I have a 280 and a 240 side-by-side in the gee-raaage) the brackets on the 240 are welded on the same structural member that crosses the underbody and contains the front diff. and control arm mounts. So a bar installed on a 240 would have to be bent either FORWARD, to go around these items, or DOWN to go under the diffy mount (blocking all the bolt heads). On the 280, the brackets are well forward of the diffy mount and are welded to one of the multitude of structural members back there. The bar is perfectly straight and lines up with the heads on the control arm bushing retainer bolts. Hence the 'arms' on the 280 bar are much too long to use on a 240 and they hang out way rearward of the end-link area. If anyone has a bar that fits into these brackets, I would love to see it. Here is the 11/72 alignment:

This situation has re-surfaced in another car. Question 1. I have never seen the early style, but am guessing converting to the new option is not an option. #2. the boltholes in the tranny are the same, no? steve77

Yeah...wait til you find all the typewriter parts and modified Zero fighter bits......sorry Alan... steve77

First time back on all fours in a few weeks. The corners were fresh back from the machine shop and have been sitting here for a couple weeks. New spindle pins, urethane bushings, everything cleaned and painted. 25mm sway bar front and not-so-fat aftermarket rear, new Tokico struts, BRE springs and tubes, 3" X 1/2" lug studs installed, rear hubs removed and replaced with new seals and severely packed. 280 hubs. T/C kit. Adjustable camber bushings. Solid diffy mount. 280 rear drums. Front rotors turned. Front shrouds removed. Carbotech fronts pads and Porterfield R4s rear shoes. SS brake lines. 83 R180 and halfshafts (stub-style). Not bad for one afternoon, huh? Gonna need to borrow someone's baseball bat. those fenders are gonna need some work. There's no engine in that yet, and they are only 225#. REar is gonna rub too when cell is installed and seats and tranny and cage and...and...and... steve77

Yeah, I think I will buy a shorter bolt and just cut one of hte new spacers down into two 3/4" pieces. That way everything will look new. Funny thing: my new bushings and washers will not fit on the old bolt--that was my first impulse: Use the old bolt and nut and spacer and everythign else new. It must be 9/16, not 14mm. That is, unless I find some sort of 360 degree swivel for an eyelet. Gonna have to go browsing on that aisle tomorrow. Would love to find a way to adapt to solid links. Are sway bars pretty hard steel? Could they be threaded or drilled? steve77

3/4"

So al I need to do is get a shorter bolt and nut and re-use the center spacer and use my new bushings. Is there a way to adapt a solid endlink on a bar with eyelet ends? I have only seen them on threaded or pinned ends. steve77

For comparison....

OK, flipped the hting over and found some really shord end links in the salvage bucket. These must have been them. This is off the jack, but nothing tightened. Looks like it will work! Thanks. steve77

No, that's the embarassing part! This bar was on the car before I stripped it. So I know it works. the car was lowered before, but about half as much as now (I am 1" from tire to fender in rear with no tranny, tank or interior and 14" tires). I saved all the end links that came off the car just in case. Now I am glad. There are some shorter ones, but no longer ones. I am going to try the shorter ones and go under the axls. steve77

I test-fit it UNDER the axle, but it looked like it would need end links that are about 2" long to work. In the picture above, I had to take the end links off to get the car down off the jack. They totally bound up and wouldn't let the car down (up, actually). I had end links on there that I bought from Energy Suspension that are 3" from bearing point to bearing point. Someone has to have a picture of this thing installed on a severly lowered car. steve77

Over.