HusseinHolland

Back to the garage for a bit - I need to finish the base plate replacement on the south wall . Removed the dead one Poured gravel into the lower cinder block, then concrete into the upper. Set two bolts to tie the new plate This corner will need separate attention

Just to wrap this up - car is much more enjoyable with a transmission that is not screaming or whining at me the whole time, never mind the fact that the gear spacing is much better than the old 4 speed. 70 mph in 5th is 3K rpm, was 4K with the 4 speed. And its quiet. Installed at (2)55700K miles I was up early today, so I trimmed my azalea bush before the sun got strong. The canna is starting to flower. I was hoping it would grow taller this year, with all the rain we've had

Finished up the rocker cover install. Drilled the 17 holes on the driver's side, squaring off the upper ten for the special clips Mounted & balanced the spare for the Z, and stowed it. Fits perfectly in the well cover fits over Also put the starter in the C30

Got the rest of the rocker welded, and sealed the various seams, then drilled the 7 8mm holes in sill lip for the rocker panel cover. Primed & painted those. Top edge of rear half forward section done. No process pics, it was all the same steps as the rear half. seam sealer on the sill lip, spot weld that, then MIG weld the vertical junctions, and then the top seam. I made more work for myself there, as I didn't leave a slight flat lip below the ridge line, which meant I was welding at the ridge line & had to make sure that stayed defined. 7 of these Panel retainer clips in place. rocker cover clips to those, then the plastic rivets go in along the sill. Forgot to take a pic of that

Presumably you got it first? It wasn't as bad as they were predicting in my area, although rain & lightening did continue sporadically throughout the night. Drying up now, so I can get back to welding 🙂

Moving along, although the day was cut a little short by a storm coming in Started by making the rear cap for the rocker A little forming work to get the fold & profile right tested the seam sealer compatibility with the spot welder - looks good, so I used it on all the spot weld seams seam welded the upper junction with the MIG after this To deal with the drainage channels, I just drilled holes in the sill and tapped the edges with a ballpein hammer to contour them slightly concave proceeded with fabricating the rear half of the outer rocker skin step in forward edge to tuck under forward rocker repair panel cut the square holes needed to retain the sill covers - those are from later 960 series, which is what the forward rocker repair piece was cut from. That way, I had guide holes to follow in terms of spacing, offset & specific dimension Prepped the outer sill lip & the backside of the sill so I can spot weld thru. Had to add another clamp - this one clamp wasn't providing sufficient conductivity for the spot welder to operate Only got as far as spot welding the sill lip, and the rearward overlap -by then the storm was moving in pretty quick, so I packed up for the day. Should be able to finish the outer skin work tomorrow. Lightening was coming through that darker cloud bank - I had about 5mins to pack up before the downpour

Got the underside seam welded, that was a bitch - working on my back. Welding spatter gets all over. Primed & initial seam sealer Got the B pillar base welded in - 1st part Side impact post & rear end of B pillar base The areas I've marked on the sill seam have to be modified for drainage Stepped the forward edge of this rocker section to fit inside the rocker, adjusted the fit to the B pillar anchors After I did the seam sealer here, I put some paint on the inner sill, since it's open anyway

Back on the Volvo rust repair . Tomorrow I need to make the B pillar tie plates that rotted out, then I can do the rocker skin Cut out the rot on the rear half cut matching section to fit. Lower lip will be trimmed later stripped & applied weld-thru primer to butt join area added dogleg at left end to make up layers at wheel arch lip Started tacking the rear section in - I first added a bridging lip between this & the repair section from Friday (under clamp) rear section overlaps mid section, as with original construction Made the small end cap for the wheel arch base that the rocker skin ties to Not going to grind down the MIG welds - I'll just apply seam sealer to that spot welded the lower step to the floor and center crossmember junction and forward repair section to floor lip Still have to finish the mig welds where the floor joins the vertical repair to the right of spot welded section

I have their subframe designed to accept the VQ35DE motor - it's not installed in the car. That will be a couple years out, I need to do the LS conversion in my Volvo pickup truck first. They couldn't tell me what would need modifying - I set one in the subframe today, and basically it the inside radii that needs trimming to allow for adjustment in the subframe. There are 4 'keyed' slots - 2nd from the top is the only one that has no interference. I don't know which of the 4 equates to stock offset for the control arm. I'll have to ask them. Hopefully that they have an answer for.

The thing is, all that is referencing the OEM u joint on models that allowed for replacement, no? It is not relevant to an aftermarket u joint that uses the yoke flat measurement & cup size to determine appropriate fit. I would have to say it is more than get by for a while. The u-joint felt perfect. It's not difficult to tell if there is end float in any of the cups. Or if the joint is binding.

I didn't measure anything. I treated the end float in the same manner as standard joints that have the cup clip external to the yoke. Once it's all assembled, I find that typically the joint will more often be 'tight' from squeezing or loading either yoke. I set each yoke in open vice jaws so that the opposing yoke is resting on the vice jaws & tap (with a dead blow hammer) the base of the yoke (where it's welded to the shaft or sleeve). This forces the top cup outward a hair. Rotate & repeat for each cup. Hard to describe, but it works. You can easily feel by rotating the end yoke whether there is any end float or binding in each axis. I didn't photograph that stage - the prop shaft would be set similar to this pic I took to illustrate disassembly

Got the Z front control arms cleaned up pretty nicely. Next I have to figure out what about them needs modifying to fit the Apex-Engineered front subframe. They had no clear directions on that

My Mum has been feeling poorly the past couple days, so this morning I gave her a COVID test & it was positive. two of my sisters had visited several days ago, and one of them had tested positive for COVID. I took her to a Doc-in-a-box to get further evaluation - they confirmed she has COVID & given her overall health, quarantine & rest is about all there is to say about it. Thankfully I didn't get it this time around. Got her home, and then my Volvo C30 wouldn't start 😞 . I couldn't leave it, as it was blocking her driveway. I thought perhaps it was the clutch position switch, as there was 0 action when turning the key to start. I bypassed the pedal switch (PITA), no change. Got the Mrs. to operate the key while I tried an alternate length of battery cable, and then I tested the wiring by hooking up a spare starter motor from an older T5. That engaged & cranked, so my starter is dead. I pout that starter in just so I could get the car home. Bosch reman is on order. Glad it happened after the morning errands & not while I was transporting my mum in the heat. VO 31268035

Installed the correct U Joint (TUS-11a) today, and then reinstalled the prop shaft, heat shield, exhaust, starter, fan clutch & throttle linkage at the firewall. Also added an OEM 5 speed shift knob. Driving it around a little - it definitely feels nicer than the 4, and doesn't make the horrendous noises of my worn out 4 speed. 3rd is a little whiny below 4K rpm though. No idea how many miles were on the trans. Installed the joint in the yoke first. Started with one cup pressed in enough that the circlip could be installed, with the cross set in so the needle bearings don't walk, then set & pressed the second cup in just enough that the circlip fit in the groove Then I did the same with the prop shaft, set one cup in deep enough to set the circlip, then did the same for the last cup. Normally I'd just tap the cups in the way I remove them, but since the initial opening of the yoke has a step in it from the staking, that doesn't work very well ( I tried that first). After the joint was fully installed I just tap each yoke in the open vice jaws to relax the yokes after pressing, that makes sure the cups aren't tight or binding in the yokes. It felt perfect. Prop shaft back in Heat shield on exhaust on Trans filled - only took 2 quarts (started dripping at the end of the 2nd quart. I was surprised, as I thought these took more than 2 quarts to fill Fan clutch back on ( I had removed it as it was mentioned the engine dropping at the rear could cause interference).

Weather moved around - didn't rain all day as predicted - so, I was able to get started on fitting and welding in the first repair section of the inner rocker Cut out back to solid metal on th car- made Initial cut of filler piece Test fit. The drop in sill to rocker lip is perplexing - I don't see a stagger like this at the front of the driver's side after some back & forth - I left a section of the floor lip that coincides with the area I had to remove mostly welded - rain is coming back so I primed it all with weld-thru zinc primer. Lip alignment seems OK now. Just a slight step at the front Just tacked on the underside where the floor pan had to be welded The remaining rearward inner section should be possible with just plain "L" or possibly a dogleg section I bent a range of options on my friends metal brake. Lower piece will be the rear rocker section repair section I have that was cut from a parts car only goes as far as the pillar The rear section is a little hairy towards the jack point & behind were the tie-in to wheel arch happens. Once all this is addressed, the rocker skin can go back. Acid soaking a spare set of 280Z front control arms to remove excess rust. I need to modify these to fit the Apex Engineered front subframe. Didn't want to cut up the originals which are far too nice a condition to modify TUS-11a UJoints finally came - hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to install one.

I dunno - I also found a large amount of horseshoes, railroad tie nails and a pair of gas filing station 'guns' from the days before the vent caps were required. Not sure what all that was about.

Scraping away at the underside where I will need to make a cut Shoulder gets wider towards the rear. It's been very hot & humid making it difficult to work outside Cross section of rocker/sill/B pillar reinforcement cut from a wreck Drilled out the sill welds on the spare section - I want to try & cut the inner repair piece from this Cut some sheet metal in preparation for bending Have to match the rocker section, and make some inner support sections Also put new handles on two sledge hammers I dug out of the yard many years back. Now I have 4 sizes - these two fall in the middle

Still waiting for Datsun parts. So, I started fixing the rust on the Volvo pickup right rocker panel. Driver's side has no issues. Pretty bad. It was bad when I got the wagon 3 years ago started poking from the inside cut most of the outer skin off have to fix the inner structure before I can replace the rocker skin. This mid section below the captive nut is the reinforcement for the B pillar, all this has to be replaced Scraped all this sealant/undercoat back from the floor to rocker lip, to make sure nothing will catch fire when I start welding in new sections

Because I want the same rolling OD. I'm assuming the tire will sit approx 1/4" outside the wheel rim. Since it is narrower than the tires I'm running, it may in fact be OK with just the 1/4" spacer I already need for the Konigs to clear the calipers

OK - finally found a wheel that seems like it should work (on Amazon, so I could return it fi not) - Hyundai 15x5.5, 4 x 114.3 ET45 - can't find any RWD offset steelies in this size and bolt pattern Dorman 939-200 Needs a 3/8 - 1/2" spacer to make sure the tire will clear the strut spring seat. brake clearance is plentiful I have 205/50x15's on there. 185/55x15 is close enough rolling OD, and narrower so should fit nicely in the spare well. Ordered a 185/55R-15 SUMITOMO HTR ENHANCE LX2 SL from Tirerack

While I'm in wait mode for the TUS-11a Ujoint, I cleaned up the floors & undersills where the undercoat was either non existent or damaged, and primed exposed areas, then stone chip protection then undercoat. Have to wear a coat & respirator - this stuff is nasty. The ambient temps are in the 90's, so I think I lost about 5lbs in water weight by the time I was done. Area that was beaten to fit the 350Z seat wire-brushed the original undercoat & soaked with some turps to soften up the old stuff. Chipped off the loose bits. Replacement (warranty) tension rod bushings came, so I pout those in also

Broke down & bought an OEM fuel sender from ZcarDepot - I've gone through two different aftermarket senders, and both leaked around the sender pins. Installed it today Hopefully the end of my gas smells

When I spoke with him, he said that joint is very low volume sales, not sure he would change the listing details. It not even in his sizing chart. I re-read one of the posts on HybridZ, and Oblithian, with a '75 2+2 had the same size Ujoint requirement (except he measured span @ 1.647", but still). He ordered 430-11a

Spoke to Jason at the UJointStore (where I had ordered the TUS-10's) - based on my measurements, my prop shaft takes the TUS-11a - .947" cap OD, 1.65" yoke land spacing

Dang. That would explain it then. I just used the collar that came with the trans, as the new one I ordered came as the (obviously) incorrect part. I didn't catch any alternate dimension collars when I was looking on RockAuto, not that that is a surprise.