Restoration of BringaTrailer 240z - HLS30-35883

[madkaw]

FYI- my last engine I was shooting for .021 clearance . I based everything on the Felpro to compress to .049 or 1.25mm . 

[inline6]

Work to straighten out the misaligned rocker panel (at the factory) has begun.  In addition to the problem I already showed pictures of, the top of the rocker panel had some misalignment as well.  The outer panel was noticeably low along the top edge, but only for the center portion of the rocker panel.  This caused a dip in the top surface that the aluminum threshold goes over top of:

    

You can even see where the spot welder completely missed in attempting to join the inner and outer panels.  Seems the workers at the factory had to adjust the welder downward to hit the outer panel, and even then, they could only pick up the top edge.

  

 

I didn't show how I corrected it, but I just drilled out the spot welds, then used the stud welder to put some pins on the weld flange, and then used a crow bar and piece of plate to protect the top surface of the rocker, while prying up on the pins.  This allowed me to put enough lifting force on the weld flange to raise the low area of the rocker.  I then welded, with my Mig, the holes left from cutting out the factory spot welds, and ground everything flat again with the surface of the outer panel's weld flange: 

  

  

 

It's not perfect, but it is much better.  Metal work like this is a big time suck.  Lots of tedious grinding of welds.  I finished them off with my hand held belt sander.  I hope to experiment with the spot welder I bought on this flange, but the electrodes may be too large in diameter to align well on this flange.  We'll see.

Next up was the part where the quarter panel folds over the rocker at the back.

  

Interesting to see what is inside.

  

After a light dressing with wire brush... and the outer panel piece receiving some attention in the glass bead cabinet:

  

The sandblaster was again employed to remove corrosion and get to nice metal.  Got several pictures while this area was seeing the light of day:

  

Close ups showing pitting (light pitting, in my opinion):

  

My first 240z was missing the entire dog leg corner (inner and outer).  So nice to see this area in such nice condition.  

  

Pic showing up inside (bare metal from the factory and the seam sealer they used in the wheel arch).  A few more minutes in the glass bead cabinet with the panel.  The dark corner (upper left in pic) was pitted too much, so I made a section to replace that.

  

Taping for application of weld thru primer.  I've never used it before.  It is kind of transparent (has been applied in second pic):

  

Tape removed and outer panel tacking in progress with new fabricated piece also (bottom left)

  

As the welding occurs, the panel wants to move around.  I used the stud welder to yank on low areas, trying to keep alignment as best as I can as welding continues:

  

Alignment is not bad.  Lots of time involved with keeping alignment, tacking, and eventually grinding.  I easily have more than 30 hours of time with fixing the rocker and removing and reapplying this panel.  The end result of the main effort, to straighten the bottom of the rocker panel/quarter panel along the bottom of the car is "better".  Sometimes I can't get things good enough to my liking. 

  

 

I've ground the welds in the last picture down and filled small voids etc.  More pics will follow, but it's time to get out there and work on the car again.  ? 

 

Edited January 12, 2020 by inline6

[wheee!]

Beautiful work!

[grannyknot]

Can't get much better than that.

[inline6]

6 hours ago, wheee! said:

Beautiful work!

Thanks!

 

Best I could do with the Mig and grinding.  Maybe I'll be able to do this kind of thing better with the Tig in the future.  And here is where having the car on a rotisserie is so nice!

  

 

Still body filler art involved with making things straight.  Much work work to do...

  

Sighting down the body line, it is pretty straight.  Next up (second pic) is to fix the floor panel where it wraps around and didn't get welded to the inner rocker right:

  

 

More body filler work is ongoing.  I hope to put a bit more epoxy primer on the body of the car tonight.

[inline6]

I find this rather interesting... and I am thinking about how to proceed.  It seems that the panel gaps around the doors for this car are not ideal.  This is likely a 240z thing or more precisely a 240z of my 240z's vintage thing... but I think the panel gaps here need to be worked a bit to be improved.  

Front of passenger door, bottom door gap line:  At the front, bottom corner, the door panel edge rises upward a bit, increasing the gap distance between the door and the rocker:

Passenger side, where the quarter panel dog leg attaches to the rocker, the distance across the gap to the bottom edge of the door is noticeably narrower than the distance across the gap from the rocker panel to the door bottom edge.  Also, the door gap is inconsistent along this radius at the bottom, back part of the door to the quarter panel.  

Driver side, where the quarter panel dog leg attaches to the rocker, the distance across the gap to the bottom edge of the door is noticeably narrower than the distance across the gap from the rocker panel to the door bottom edge.  Also, the door gap is inconsistent along this radius at the bottom, back part of the door to the quarter panel.  

 

Front of driver door, bottom door gap line:  At the front, bottom corner, the door panel edge rises upward a bit, increasing the gap distance between the door and the rocker:

 

I believe I have a bit more door alignment to do with the driver side door, so that the gap distance for the front of the door is the same as the gap distance on the bottom of the door.  However, I also think I will be adding a bit of weld bead to the bottom front edge of both doors and shaping the added metal to eliminate this issue.  

For the quarter panel areas, I've already started doing minor surgery in the corner of the dog legs to improve door gap in that radius.  This is visible in recent posts of the passenger side work.

Edited January 18, 2020 by inline6

[ConVerTT]

Just read all 4 pages!  Great work!

On the doors:  personally I would focus on the trailing edge gaps by the dog legs and leave the leading edge gaps alone.  

 

Edited January 18, 2020 by ConVerTT

[inline6]

On 1/18/2020 at 9:57 AM, ConVerTT said:

Just read all 4 pages!  Great work!

On the doors:  personally I would focus on the trailing edge gaps by the dog legs and leave the leading edge gaps alone.  

 

Thanks!  I will work on the dog leg areas first and then see where I land with door gaps.  I don't think it would be much work to stitch some metal on the few inches of the bottom, front edge of the door, but it will likely cause at least a little distortion.  May leave it alone.  

 

I didn't want to take off the lower corner of the driver quarter panel - I just kept looking at it and trying to convince myself it wasn't worth the extra effort.  I examined it closely and contemplated... Car is upside down in these pics. 

  

In the first pic, I am looking at distortion in the area where the quarter panel spot welds to the rocker. These outward points or "dents" are areas where the metal is super thin and being pushed outward by the expansion caused by corrosion.

  

Seeing these little pin holes all the way through the metal, I know that the corrosion on the other side is substantial enough to be breaking through.  Especially, on the bottom flat area, any surface repair here would be short lived if water gets in again. 

Because I want to cut and modify the dog leg curve to improve the fit with the bottom corner of the door, I went ahead marked out where to cut and started cutting and drilling out spot welds.  Opening up the panel revealed quite the mess:

    

Unlike the passenger side, the corrosion on this side damaged some of the other, inner panels.  

    

Once again, I employed the sandblaster to remove the rust.

    

For this side, the panels are more damaged, lots of holes in the back of the rocker panel and a few holes in the inner wheel well panel:

    

Using the old panel as a guide, I cut a new panel from a flat sheet, and used some 1" X 1" square tubes and my vise to make the 90 degree bend for the weld flange.  Then I marked off a line locating the ~ 45 degree bend and used a piece of aluminum channel (it has a really sharp corner) to replicate the factory bend radius.  Some hand bending of the rest of the panel (clamping the panel in between a 2 X 4 and my bench surface) to make several slight bends... to replicate the shallow curve...)  Getting the distance correct between the 90 degree and 45 degree bends is the hard part.  I am happy with this: 

    

Once in the correct shape, I used the old one again as a template to locate holes to match the spot weld cut outs.  Then I used a 4 1/2" grinder with a flap wheel to sand the edges of the panel to fit the opening on the car.

    

Even with just one vise grip holding it on, the fit is very close.

    

    

 

I am very happy with how this turned out.  However, I can't close it up yet, as I have more sheet metal work to do to fix the inner panels.

 

Edited February 3, 2020 by inline6

[inline6]

Spent a good part of the day today working on the inner part of the driver rocker area.  Started cutting to see how far the cancer went.

 

    

The "middle" panel (there is an inner, middle and outer) needed replacement sections.  I spent some time making sections to piece together:

    

I put a few tacks to hold the new panels to each other, but didn't start welding it to the car yet.  I clamped it in place and moved on to making a rocker end cap: 

    

Fit of the rocker end cap is "getting there":

 

This piece has some compound curves, but I will section it a bit to try for the best fit possible.  Before I start welding these pieces in place, I will use the sand blaster to remove the surface rust.

Edited February 10, 2020 by inline6

[grannyknot]

Beautiful work.

[inline6]

On 2/10/2020 at 8:15 AM, grannyknot said:

Beautiful work.

Thanks man.  Hey, I looked at your profile and just about every license plate in the pics is from Virginia.  But you are in Toronto, right?  Why all the VA plate pics?  I am originally from there - Charlottesville.

Garrett

[wheee!]

.... and now he has to kill you...