Patcon

I use a die grinder with a cut off wheel or a grinder with a 4" disk to grind out the spot welds. I grind on the welds from the piece of metal I am removing which leaves the metal I want undamaged and clean. Then on the seat brackets or any other place I need to make plug welds I use a Harbor freight punch tool to make holes or a plasma cutter if they are in the middle of the panel. Spot weld cutters will work if you take your time and use good bits. I am just getting too old to be willing to take that long to drill out so many welds.

Made a wooden block to hold the studs on the bottom in the vise so I wouldn't tear them off. Added 3' 2x4's on each side of my jig. A little PB blaster and it turned right off. Might post pictures later. The inside of the booster stinks like old brake fluid and tons of rust crumbles. I can't get the retainer off of the plunger as it is corroded into the central plastic part. Any ideas? The diaphragm is ripped at the bottom where it sat in the brake fluid. Don't know if I can seal it up with RTV or not. There must be a source for replacement diaphragms since there are companies out there reconditioning them and you know the cores we send back have torn diaphragms in them. It would be nice to find a source for those, since that is all you really have to have. Charles

Thanks, I thought I would add some 2x4's for leverage. I was putting a tremendous amount of torque in already. We shall see... Charles

A little more info, Jeff had a great idea on how to repair the out jackets on the parking brake cable. The info can be found here http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/open-zcar-discussion/47863-lime-green-machine-restoration-thread-1972-240z-3.html

Blue, I have a bad brake booster in one of my Z's and since I have 2 brake boosters laying around I thought I would try out your repair techniques. I have been trying to get one of them open. I made a wooden pattern to grab the top side that needs to turn counter clockwise to unscrew. I have two questions how hard was it to disconnect the pieces? I have pulled very hard and they don't want to rotate. I have also tried a punch and hammer to try to make the half rotate. Also how much tension is on the large spring inside? Is it going to launch the top across the shop?

When I was repairing under the battery tray my son was being my fire watch but wasn't doing a great job and we caught the harness on fire. Been there done that

Malibud, Are you in Black Mountain, NC? I am in upstate SC and may have some of what you are looking for...PM me Charles

I have a dehumidifier in my shop that is about 800 Square feet. It runs a lot and is set at 50% RH. It was necessary due to mold growing on things and flash rusting of parts. I have it draining outside thru a short section of garden hose. Much of my shop is below grade and very well damp proofed but it still takes out a tons of water 24/7 365. Worse when the humidity is up. I didn't think I would need it originally but conditions proved otherwise. Charles

Where in SC are you? I know these cars inside and out. I might be able to help you with parts and advise. Charles

If I am looking at these right you have heavy rust in the flat areas of the floor pans. It also looks like you may have some significant rust up near the tie rods in the front frame rails. You will need new floor pans to fix the first correctly. I don't know what you will need up front, but on one of my cars the frame rail metal behind the reinforcing plates and the bumper brackets was completely gone but it looked fine from the outside. If I were looking for someone to do this work for me I would look for a shop that does work on old cars. Many shops only want to work on late model stuff. Bear in mind that these kinds of repairs are time consuming to do right @ $50+ an hour or better, that can get expensive. Good floor pans are $350 or so a set and frame rails are $450 or so a set. I am putting floor boards in my 73 right now and it has taken me quite a while to do the one side, 20 hours or so, but the rocker had to be patch and the seams are all butt spliced not plugged and lapped. I would survey the whole car really well, under the battery, around the sway bar to frame connection, dog legs, wheel arches, inside the rear wheel arch near the rocker panel, front fenders near the bottom and rear edges. I suspect with the other rusted components like springs and springs seats etc. there is a lot more rust you haven't found yet. At some point it becomes cheaper and years easier to find a better car and pay the shipping. Just trying to save you the mistake that I have made more than once, and I have all the tools to do this king of work myself. I have a 73 mach I rustang for one of my sons, with what patch panels cost I could have bought a much nicer project and that doesn't count my labor at all. That's my 2 cents... Charles

Rob, I have enjoyed the Weber thread that was going last fall, and you were going to sell you rare Webers and get 152's I believe. It seemed like you had your carbs sorted. What provoked the switch to EFI? It sounds like you want to go to ITB injection? What will you use for fuel mapping? Charles

I don't want to discourage you from trying. There are people out there and some even in this forum that have taken on projects with this much rust and succeeded, but you have to be as stubborn as a pit bull. I have several 240z's all in different stages of repair. Even the "rust free" cars have some rust. The car I bought out of Arizona had rust on the inside surfaces of the rear quarters and little holes in the lower rear wheel archs. I have come to the point that when I look at a car for all the rust I can find I figure there is twice that or more. The front frame rails are one of the harder repairs to do right (ie replacement). You have to get the dimensions correct on reassembly, remove the drive train, deal with the tie rod boxes, etc. You would probably be money and years ahead to find a better car. Even a shell that you could swap all of your car over too. I have owned 240's for over 27 years straight but haven't had a driver for almost 20 years. It is surprising how long it takes to get one of thsee cars restored that need this much work and the other things in life seam to always get in the way and double the amount of time it takes. Charles

Does anyone know what happened to all the inventory? Charles

I was trying to remember a specific salvage yard in Tennessee or maybe Kentucky. All they have is Z stuff. I believe it was a couple at one time and his wife passed away severtal years ago. He had semi trailers full of stuff, doors etc. I can't remember what the name of it was or exactly where it was. I was hoping someone could help me with my failing memory. Trying to help some one else find a part... Charles

hr369 Sorry no, I haven't even thought about the tranny. My wife has been driving a 5 speed miata for about a year and has decided she may prefer the manual over the auto box. I'm good with that. I have also been doing metal work and trying to get paint on the car this spring. Time goes by so fast especially when you have too many projects...

It does have a 350 in it currently, but they appear to have the original drivetrain too. I thought it was a little expensive, but the car seemed to be in pretty good shape. You, don't know how much they modified to drop in the v-8. It seemd kind of a shame for a low number car to be converted like that. There are plenty of better candidates for hybridizing. My opinion of course, might be a great car if you could get all the original drivetrain for the right price and the chassis is a clean as it looks. Charles

http://columbia.craigslist.org/cto/2886628042.html

Do you have all the clips, and just need cleaner examples? If so why don't you get them plated? I don't know about sources down under but Norm at Zedsaver does some nice work...I don't know what postage would set you back. Charles

My problem is I have too many spares already. 3 240's, 5 engines, 4 tranny's, 2 diesel cranks, 2 lsd diffs, multiple dashes, etc. Plus if the tranny becomes impossible to fix I can always say "Honey , I had to put a manual in it, I couldn't fix the other tranny..."

The car I have on my rotisserie is a 70 240z with the auto tranny in it. The car is for my wife and she would prefer to maintain the auto tranny. I believe it is the original tranny so I would prefer not to replace it. Also if I go thru the tranny I have; it becomes a know item versus buying something that is supposedly good. Thanks, Charles

Thanks, I appreciate that. I had assumed the transmission was used in other cars, but didn't know which ones. Charles

Skill level is not the issue, time might be... If I can find the manual for the technical aspects ie. disassembly techniques and torques, etc. The rest is not an issue. The other side of that is there are probably very few tranny shops willing to work on a 40 year old 3 speed in my area... Thanks, Charles

I like open source, thanks Charles

not free if I don't have a zip utility to unzip it...

I downloaded a copy from Scribd and had to buy a 24 hr pass for $5 to get it. The manual is 63 pages and has all the same features discussed in the ebay link above. It would be interesting to know if the manual they are selling on ebay is a newer presentation of the information or just a copy of the factory manual sections. Charles