DC_Mike

SO I pulled the rear slam panel from my 240 and of course there was some underlying rust which I cut out. Not there are alot of complex curves and shapes in that rear section and I have a whole donor rear end. Is it logical to cur down lower to in the panel at a flat area to have a nice mating surface for the two panels. The pictures below may provide some clarity to what I'm saying. Any input as this is my first attempt at THIS much body work ( I have tons more to do on the car). Here is where I want to cut , I'll pull off the support brace first (already cut out the top rusted sections): Here is the donor: I already pulled up the brace on this one and with cut here as well as pull the other spot weld to get it off with the slam panel and relace on the new car.

Sorry, was out of town, here is a picture of what I have. It is in really good shape.

Did you ever find this, if not I have one remove from the hatch already.

Alright well, everything is out except the suspension, I started picking and stripping somethings back and the rust gremlins have started to come out. There is no getting a new project here so I'm going to buckle in and see what we can do here. Besides the floors here are the 3 worst stops as of right now. These two are in the roof cross member, one is definitely worse than the other, took a boroscope to the inside and it seems to be pretty isolated to these areas for now. .. . This one just got worse as I picked at it, but then abruptly got better, it's layered as well so going to have to take my time with this one. . . From the inside. .

I'm back! After a couple of cold months and a couple of travel months, I finally been back in the garage tearing the Z apart. Sent the paperwork off to Vermont to get my registration in order to transfer to a VA title. Down to just getting the suspension and the brake hoses out of the Z at this point. Looks like I'll be at LEAST doing a new rear deck sill, replacing the floorpans and rails, doing the A pillar repair as well as some pinhole rust places over the course of this summer. Really looking forward to diving into it all. Due to the extent of what needs to be done I think the plan is going to be do some. I'm plan on doing a good portion of the rust repair, then getting it blasted and primered, finish up any remaining repairs, then move forward from there.

Great, thanks @grannyknot!!

Ok, so I'm almost down to the shell, and the floors in my Z have been patched before with some pretty ugly welds so I'm going to do a floor replacement as many have. I've seen it done a bunch of ways and wanted to get some consensus if there is a better way than others. Right now the car is sitting un-sandblasted on the suspension and wheels. First question is it better to try and replace the pans while it's on the ground, on stands, or on the rotisserie (which I already have). Regardless of which one of those I get the idea of putting on the rear and front strut tower braces for rigidity as well as the trans support. Do I need to add additional internal bracing? Any guidance here would be greatly appreciated as always. Pics to come.

Slowly but surely progress is being made! Got the engine and transmission out (if someone wants a engine or 4 spd trans let me know) and started cleaning out the engine bay. I few pin hole rust spots that will need to be fixed is the current analysis (don't worry there are plenty of other rust spots that will be part of the adventure. Going the Vermont route to resolve the title issue, unfortunately since you pay taxes based on NADA value up there it's isn't going to be cheap. More to come soon. . .

Yeah I really wish there was some recourse @87mj but since this was a salvage yard and they have specific language in the agreement that everything is sold as-is and with no promises, they also only deal in cash, I'm assuming so people don't really have that option. So I did end up picking up a '73 240 that I went to see in person this time. Still have some repairs to be done, but I am holding on the first car for parts and reference as I start to restore this one. It did definitely help having taken apart the first one already and kind know what to expect. Thanks for the replt.

@Patcon well right now I have a title for the door jam ID plate (which isn't doesn't match the car) and I'm working on getting a title for the firewall VIN.

So my build thread title is now wrong. After starting to tear down the car I got to the firewall VIN, and thought "Hmmmm, that doesn't look right" I check the door jam and sure enough they were different, then my thought changed to "Oh shi...." Well after some research the firewall VIN is clean and clear, no salvage, no theft, someone just replaced the plates for some odd reason, but I ACTUALLY own a 73 240Z, with an L24 engine with Weber carbs and Cannon intake manifold (BTW if anyone wants the engine it's fair game). Engine and trans coming out this weekend and the disassembly continues.

Was thinking of using one of those dustless blasting services so they can just come do it in my driveway. Anyone has experience with those?

Sounds about how my luck goes, welp, looks like I'm about to get real good at A pillar sheetmetal repair, lol

LOL, that you did Captain, that you did. It's going to be a learning process and a test of patience but it will go back together! Here's a general question. I'd gone some searching and their seem to be as many answers as there are people, but what are the opinions on the process of going about this. My plan is 1) Media Blast 2) Epoxy primer 4) Rust repair and at some point in there I need to fix the oil canning in the roof. I'm holding a bit till the humidity and weather drops around here, but i'll have to act fast before it gets below freezing. Thoughts?

A rust free body has eluded me yet again. However this time I'm just going to have to dive in a start to work on it. It seems that under a crappy paint job there is some rust on the interior door jam/a pillar section. It looks like there are two layers of sheet metal there so this should be an interesting adventure. I'm going to get some interior pictures this weekend and will update as things go forward.