grannyknot

Yes it wouldn't be too hard to clean it up, fix the rails and make some money on this car but the I think the rewards of owning and driving your Z will be greater and if you do decide to sell sometime in the future the car will only be worth more. Your Z would be perfect for a survivor treatment but I would be very careful with how hard you drive the car until the rails are repaired. That area just behind the T/C rod mount is a crucial to the structure of the car and although that area appears to be the only major rust you can be assured that there is more waiting for you. The structure of the car needs a full restoration or at least a through cleaning and inspection, everything above the floor pans can stay original if you choose to go that way. Finding original rails from an early car is ideal but there is a company in Florida that is making excellent reproductions that might be worth looking at, https://kfvintagejdm.com/product-category/datsun/

@240zadmire, It is much easier to mount the SS trim in the windshield/rubber seal before installing on to the car. You took the harder route but it came out nicely, I love the colour! Even though I have Kia seals on my Z and they work great I installed a complete Precision weatherstrip kit last winter on a 280z and everything seals perfectly including the doors, I think Precision has fixed the problem with their door seals but the message hasn't got out yet.

Oops, bad call on that one.

Were there any problems with the Jenvey TBs that helped you make the switch?

Here's another, https://www.blocklayer.com/rpm-gear.aspx

Nice rotisserie! Like rturbo mentioned you need to get all suspect areas down to bare metal so you can see what you're dealing with. Get an aggressive wire wheel for your angle grinder like the one in the pic. I think the rad support will come out nicely without removing it, the bottoms of the rockers don't look bad so you might get lucky on those ugly spots on the pinch welds and sills. One of those $40 Harbor Freight bore-scopes are great for looking into the rockers and dogleg areas before you start drilling out spot welds. The floor pans don't look too bad, the transition area where your feet are always needs a custom patch anyway and you might get away with just a section patch on the P/S floor pan rail, you'll know more when you cut it out.

CO, you don't need to weld the perch and hope that you have picked the right height, you can mount the perches on split collars and raise and lower them until you're satisfied they are perfect and then weld them. In fact the split collars clamp with such force that you could tack the perch to one side of the collar and leave it at that.

The oil pressure will vary depending on where you are in the RPM range although our oil pressure gauges don't respond very quickly. That water temp reading that is pegged to the right is not good, could be the fault of the gauge but could also be an air pocket around the temp sender. You need to burp the coolant system to eliminate that possibility. Voltmeters will also vary in the reading depending on the demands but it should be reading about 14 most of the time.

Nice work, those seats look great. I just finished adapting some RX8 seats to a 510 I'm working and the bottom of the seats are identical to yours.

The best way to find a pin hole I have found is to pour a little bit of rubbing alcohol or Methyl Hydrate into the tank, it is so thin it will locate any hole in seconds. It evaporates quickly if you have to weld again. How is that sound deadener applied? Schutz gun?

Just some of the 510 parts I've finished off since my last post, I cut the spring perches off the front struts and will lower them with split collars to help lower the front of the car. Just like the 240z 510's dashes love to crack so made the repair as stylish as possible but we all know what it is hiding. Very happy to find that the whole range of weather strips have been reproduced and are available.

The nut on the threaded portion will lock against the tie rod.

Western Cyclone II, 15 spokes, now I just have to find caps for them.

What a great site! OK seems like they are Western Clyclone II Western 1976 Vintage Wheel Catalogs.htm

I think they are called Turbines, I just bought this set for the 510, hoping someone could give me any information on them. They are 14"x6.5"

I can remember exactly where in this build thread, perhaps @wheee! could give a better idea but the front rail replacement is covered well. There a few more threads that cover the subject but Wheee's is the first to come to mind.

Trev is a master tin beater, love his videos.

That's a good point though, on an older assembly you will have to crack the nut CW to tighten it and that's not going to be easy. Me, I would crack it loose first and then re-torque. 180-240 lb.ft. that's a lot of spread on the tolerance, but as CO says you really shouldn't be able to change your reading. How many miles on the bearings?

And when you have done all of the above you can try this incantation, GET the F__K IN YOU MOTHER F__KING PIECE OF S__T!!! As you repeat those words violently shake the end of the transmission while pushing it forward toward the engine. This method has a surprisingly good success rate.

I like the use of the paint stir sticks, I'll have to borrow that one next time.

That's a good point, I'm firmly in the rubber camp except for the steering rack, sway bars and mustache bar, I just don't hear anything different than with rubber or at least I don't notice it. But the best thing I ever did in the way of comfort and handling was pull out the stock one person bench seats and replace them with seats from the 350Z, they are wonderful.

and that would be all of them except FOX.

Yeah but the Fonz would never wear yellow gloves.

I agree, @Mike hint hint

You could bead blast them and spray a clear coat but I think wet or vapor blasting would bring them out very nicely. Wet blasting doesn't remove any detail from the lettering and leaves a soft shine whereas straight bead blasting will soften the edges of the detail.