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So I decided to fab up some new front rails for the Z.. What is the worst that can happen, right? (Answer: waste some time, buy a proper set from a vendor). So why not? Step 1 ? Step 2 - Pretty much committed now .... Step 3 - make a pattern and a cheap test piece from some leftover 20 ga Step 4 - game time ...18 ga Step 5 - bend them up.... This was way harder than it looks. My cheapo metal brake was at capacity, and several teeth had to be removed, inserted and realigned in order to make all the bends. But it seemed to work. z Step 6 - test fit Still a lot to do, (weld in the bend, all the internal bracing, new crossmember brackets, all the nuts, TC rod supports) but so far so good! And the jig is working perfectly. I should have done this years ago....

I am roughly 6 months (estimated) away from putting the car in the shop for body work. In the meantime, I am stripping the car and enjoying it after getting it running right and in a reliable state. The car had a vinyl top which I removed hastily a year ago causing a majority of the adhesive to bake onto roof. I recently removed the vinyl from the hatch lid which left me in awe at the original paint. Neither here nor there... Real reason for the post - Is it worth putting some sort of rust inhibitor on the roof and affected areas between now and until it goes into the body shop? How does that affect body work in the future? For the roof, is it worth sourcing a roof for replacement instead of metalwork? Note around the front windshield pillars on either side, there are holes.

Fellow Zedheads, I'm repairing my doglegs and want to fabricate the INNER dog leg as close to original as possible. I can't find an image of a non-rusted inner dogleg. (There are plenty of pics of rusted ones!). Can anyone help? I've attached pics of mine for reference. The piece I'm referring to is in front - with the jagged, rusty bottom. Thanks!! jughead

This should generate some lively discussion... Most of us have tried a variety of rust-prevention products. If you're like me, you've found that some don't quite live up to expectations. Many swear by a particular product, but I often wonder if their allegiance is tied to subconsciously defending the choice they made. There are lot of manufacturer's claims published and a lot of one-use testimonials, but not much in the way solid comparative date to back them up. Back in 2011, 'Classics Monthly' -- one of England's leading auto restoration publications -- began a test of a group of the leading, over-the-counter rust prevention products. The test lasted for three years. The products were split into two categories: 1) those for pre-paint treatment of exterior surfaces, and; 2) those for treatment of concealed internal surfaces (door cavities, frame rails, rocker sills, etc). The results were quite interesting... https://www.auson.se/sites/default/files/rusttest_noxudol_700_classic_monthly_uk_0.pdf

I'm digging further and finding that I will need to replace the floor pans or at least most of it. It looks like the rust problem was caused by the fact that water got up from the bottom and then underneath that rubbery coating. That coating kinda looks like a heavy duty roofing membrane. You can see pieces of it ripped up in the photo. I suppose that this stuff was put in at the factory since its painted 918. Was this put in to be a noise dampener/insulation? Odd that there are drain holes that actually served as a way for water to get up under that coating.

I just bought some 280z struts that I am gonna use for a coilover conversion because I cut mine too short. I plan to clean up the rest of the assembly later, but I need to know what to do with the brakes. They have new wheel bearings/studs but the rotors are pretty rusted up since they have been sitting for a while. So I'm wondering, what is easier? Clean up rust on rotors and use new struts Swap existing "clean" rotors onto new struts If I clean off the rust, how thorough do I need to be? Is it a "shop should resurface these" thing or can I just use a wire brush and call it good? Or better yet, will the brake pads just do the work for me on the first drive? "New" Struts: My existing clean rotors:

Hi guys/gals, I have had a few people on various posts here and on reddit asking for a full build thread, so I am going to try to make that happen. This will be a documentation of the restoration and modification of my 1972 240Z. This project really started a year ago, so I will give a quick background. After that I will try to post regularly; it may take a week or two to get this thread up to date with the work I have done so far, but it is what it is. Some things will be out of order as I find time. If you want to follow real time then follow me on instagram if you like (d_stratton). Okay - this started in October of 2016 when I got my first 240z. I picked up this car (lets call this "the blue car") for 500 bucks. It was incredibly rusty and dirty 1973 model; it looked like it was parked outside for 20 years. The last tabs where 1988 and it was FILLED with rat/mice poo. But hey, for 500 bucks I got to enter into my dream car since I was a little boy. This turned out to be kind of a gold mine of a parts car - I didn't notice when I bought there was a whole separate dash with all the gauges and two sets of carburetors in the back trunk under a tarp. I disassembled this entire car down to a bare shell and sold quite a few parts off of it. I kept the suspension and the good dashboard from this car as well as some odds and ends. The shell was way to rusted to do anything with, ended up giving it away for free. These are all the pictures I have left of this car; unfortunately all my pictures from this time frame are lost.

Hey everybody. Im looking for an early 70s 240z. I cant find any in my area. I want one that needs work so I can put it back together the way I want to. Does anyone have a Z like this or one that is so rusted you just want to junk it. Preferably I want it to be under 300 bucks. A guy can dream.

My 1978 280Z has severe rust on rockers and underneath. No rust in trunk or engine compartment. Car runs great. Can/Should it be fixed or do I part it out?

Hi guys, Im having some trouble deciding what to do with this situation. The pictures I have attached are of the inside of the A pillars LH and RH side. As you can see not much rust there Only minor surface rust, but this area is not easy to reach, so im down to two options: 1. Use light and penetrating oil as rust inhibitor with long slim hose - possible to clean the outside up if it runs. 2. Use the long slim hose with a spraypaint - not sure of how that would end up? I worry that the paint way will run on the the pretty yellow paint, which would be a shame. But ill definitly have to do something, since the car is going to drive in Denmark. What have you guys done to the A pillars inside? Sorry for the picture quality, cheap endoscope camera But on the tablet it was clear that there was no rust other then the surface corriosion on the pictures.

So, one bit at a time my 1970 Z is finding its way back to respectability. Hope to have her back on the road in April. Some progress pics..... Front and rear spoilers are GONE, holes patched and sanded. Body sanded down and excessive bondo repairs replaced with mesh supported fiberglass. Hubcaps coming along (yes, I know they're the wrong ones for a 1970, but I like them). She's running solidly now, and the interior is about 80%. Tail light on the left has been polished and restored, one on right is as they came to me.

Hi everyone, I've been looking for a Z in all California for several weeks already and finally bought one. It's not perfect but it was Christmas and I got seduced by that light blue metallic color. Biggest problem, and the biggest of all Zs in general, RUST! I've been talking to my local Z garage and read a ton of documentaion and I'm well aware of the effect of rust on Zs. The owner of the garage and a a couple threads on that forum were listing values of rust-free Zs sometimes well below the bar of 5000$ but after looking methodically in all the US for such cars I couldn't find any even close to that price without a major problem somewhere. Coming from a wet/salty road/close to ocean area in France, I'm used to see rust on cars and I guess it doesn't bother me like most Z owners in the Sun Belt. That being said, I do want to treat that car the best I can for my limited budget and I seek advices. I got the car for 4750$, I dropped the price of a couple thousands due to the rusty parts (initial price was way too much). The body and inside is perfect, nothing to complain aboute. I drove the car for a couple miles and it's running strong. The pictures here show the worse of what I could find on the car, the front car picture is just to show that the Z is still a gorgeous lady and not a total piece of rust. I believe that the rust is mostly on surface on most (or all) part so I won't have to get parts removed/replaced, but it's all over on the underside of the car. The paint of the car isn't infected except for the front underside (see picture) + tiny dents which created rust on that line of metal at the very edge under the car (it might have a name in english but I don't know it... I'm thinking of getting a car jack and and stands and sandpaper everything underneath before treating it with the most appropriate set of anti rust chemicals. I'm not a car mechanics but I'm willing to learn. Every advices or comments is much appreciated.. and I'm of course happy to finally join the Z family! Thanks!

I'll show you what I'm dealing with on my 280z, and perhaps get some advice! What is the "interior of the fuel door" called? The metal where the fuel filler neck is mounted. Is a replacement part for this made? I believe this is a pretty common rust area, due to spilled gas? Has anyone done this repair before? Any good guides? I'm in Seattle, if anyone has a recommendation for a good shop.

I don't know what it's called, but the area behind where my fenders attach to the inside of the engine bay had some issues with rust. By issues I mean I took off the fender to do some preventative POR and found that there were holes straight through the metal. I'm grinding the rust off now with some wire brushes, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the repair. I figure I have a couple of options: I could cut out the old stuff (the leftover holy metal) weld some sheet metal together and try a (probably ghetto, but hidden) replacement. I'd probably leave a hole in it for water to get out in the future. I could try filling in holes with epoxy (I have a pound or so from POR) cut out old stuff and replace with just what is needed to mount the fender back on (minimalist, just something for the bolts to go into) Find a place that sells this particular part and replace it that way??? I've looked around but am having trouble finding this specific piece Cut one out of an old car in a junkyard or something? Except I'm guessing the same piece will have the same issue there, too. I'm thinking of taking the pics to a body shop or the mechanic I trust, but I'm on sort of a small budget. As in starving college student budget. For reference: That's a '73 240z, though I'm guessing that the frame would be pretty much interchangeable with any other 240, 260 or 280. Any thoughts or opinions would be appreciated, thanks! Oh, and one more thing, there are two other spots with rust holes that I'm going to be dealing with at the same time as the above, one right below the gas cap's door and the other (the worst one) on the front part of the doorframe. I'm trying to figure out where the water came from that rusted out the area on the door frame, and it doesn't appear to be coming from the fender and moving back... could it be a bad seal on the windshield that's leaking water down into the frame? Thanks

Hey guys, I've recently sanded and treated some minor rust underneath the cowl in the plenum area where the wiper motor etc. goes and i remember a while back seeing a Custom Z that had a solid cowl (e.g no air induction holes) and i was wondering since this area is prone to rust if it would be a good idea to fill in the holes of my cowl (at least on the driver side and leave the passenger side as is for the heater air intake.) Would this cause the wiper motor to overheat? I'm trying to figure out why the holes are there other than to gather leaves and wet slush.(even though I've treated with POR I'm still paranoid). Looking for an opinion on this, is it is a bad idea? Thanks, Sam

Hello All, Been active on the forum for just a little while now... bought a '73 240z down in San Diego a couple months ago to learn on and fix up. I've fixed a couple things on it, mostly electronic in nature, I removed the side and rear skirts this past week, and I'll soon be upgrading the nonworking windshield wipers to Accord wipers. Next I need to buy a rear bumper, either metal or fiberglass/plastic... i don't know yet which. I'm leaning plastic, and I'll paint it matte black. But I digress. My big problem to deal with in the near future is the rust on the car. Right now, the car has three really bad rust spots, a couple troublesome spots, and the rest seems to be superficial at the most. Also, the current pain job, while not the worst looking, is pretty ****ty. Uneven, textured and apparently just applied over the original paint, which was the yellow-green one. I'm a college student, so resources are limited at this point. I have some money saved from summer jobs, but not a lot of space to work in. This is important, because it means I can't put it on bricks and work on it the way I'd like to. Overall I'm not too concerned, because my car stays in a garage and is therefore safe from water or sun damage almost all the time, but I know this problem isn't going away, and some of the bad spots are in the door frame, which sort of worries me. I do live in a small town, though, so I'm not really sure what sort of prices I should be looking at, or if it would be worth it to drive it to LA or the bay area for a better deal. My conclusions so far are that i could: 1.) Wait. Not do anything until later. 2.) Pay somebody to take care of it (I'm thinking this will be the most expensive option). 3.) Take care of the current rust spots at a body-shop, then wait to paint until later to do anything more (would this even save me money?). 4.) Apply rust remover, then sealer of some sort and hope things don't deteriorate further. 5.) ???? Any advice, related stories or general thoughts on the subject would be much appreciated. Thanks! PS, the attached files show: The car as bought ($2.5k), what it looked like after skirts removed, then the damage from rust: both door frames (worse on the driver's side), under gas fill door, then some spots on the roof, and a crack in the metal on the roof as well. I should note they didn't look that bad until I poked around at them the other day to see what the depth of the spots looked like. [ATTACH=CONFIG]49991[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]49990[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]49980[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]49988[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]49987[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]49985[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]49986[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]49981[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]49983[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]49989[/ATTACH]

Hey there, I'm a young guy with a datsun 280z in my garage, have done tons of work, including frame rails from the firewall foreward, along with alot of bodywork and much more, I built up a 305 to drop in, anyway, wanted some input on the engine mounts/rear end work needed, along with brake ideas, and suspension!!! Oh yeah should i buy the floor pan kit, or just bang out some sheet metal and patch in the rust wholes in my floor? anyway, money is limited, but i have about 5 grand i want to put into it over the next couple years.. its very much a side project but i want it to get on the front burner.. Cheers Jeff

my body shop is stripping the rear of the car, and they've found what they say is irreparable rust over the wheel arch. i've seen this area rust in other cars, and i'd like to know if the rust in this area is usually just confined to the skin, or will it be likely to have bled onto the wheel housing? would it be better to just buy a rear wheel arch replacement panel, a la black dragon, or try to find a donor car? does anyone else sell a better replacement panel than BDA? i've heard tepid reviews of their body panels. which years will match my 76 when it comes to the quarter panels? i'll be uploading a few photos later tonight.

Hey all, Here is my 1971 240z it is a series 1 with a build date of November 1970 has the vented rear hatch, emblems, ash tray, etc that go along with a series one. This was the first Z car that I purchased and I learnt a lot from the minor things I did on it. Unfortunately it did not turn out to be the dream car I hoped it would be, sadly all too often the story for many a new Z owner. After suspicions from looking over and working on the car I had it checked out by a local Z shop some of you might know Z Car Garage, San Jose, CA. It turns out there is a twist in the chassis from what appears to be a bad front-end repair. After looking closer it seems the car was hit in the front end at some point as some of the photos show. What to do? I would hate to see this car crushed and the parts go to waste, but do not have the time or space available to part out the vehicle. There are two options I can see selling it to a local Z / Datsun shop if they will take it or selling it outright to someone. With the right skills, time and money someone could restore this car but I have very little of all three to spare on this as a project. Otherwise it would make a very nice parts car to help complete a series 1 restoration or resto-mod. This brings me to the questions of what is it worth? I know I can get $1000 if I scrap it but really do not want to see that happen to this beautiful car. Before answering this question here are a few details on the car: Most body panels appear good but there is surface rust and/or bubbling in the common areas (dog legs, roof window seal, battery tray area). Have a look at the pictures; Lots of series 1 parts available on the car; 1972 L24 motor with round top SU carbs, pertronix ignition and fireblaster coil; Car runs but needs shocks I have driven this car to LA and back no worries, prior to the shocks getting progressively worse; Lots of other stuff look at pictures and ask away. You can also check the photos in My Garage for more photos. I have removed the MSA style strut braces as I was going to sell them separately. I also have a bunch of other parts I was going to sell off. I had originally purchased them for a resto-mod on the car but after hearing the bad chassis news I lost a lot of enthusiasm for working on the car especially as I have another 240z to work on. So looking for opinions, comments and advice

My dad thinks i should cut a piece of steel and rivet it over the affected area after putting a rust converter on the rust. That sounds pretty easy to me, but i wanted to make sure that's my best option before i start drilling holes. See the attached picture. The passengers side is not quite as bad; the rust doesn't go past where the headlight sits.