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The Fuzzy Project


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Hi all,

 

Thought it was about time I got off my butt and started a project thread for my Z since I've finally got all my Z parts in the one place. Sorry for the long background story, but might as well write it all down, cause I'm tinkering with a video diary for the rebuild as well (for sh!ts and giggles and for my future reference). You can just look at the pretty pictures, cause they pretty much tell the story.  ;)

 

There's a bit about the original Z in my introduction thread if you can be bothered looking, but basically I got it looking like this:

 

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Unfortunately, the blue Z was plagued with rust issues which required a fair bit of attention or $$, of which I had neither  :(

 

Fortunately for me, the answer popped up on the forum, someone selling a '74 260z 2+2 shell in good nick. The only downside was it had been in a bingle and the front was damaged a little, it was completely stripped down to a bare shell, but the owner had decided to move on to a different project. So after a couple of PM's, I acquired the shell, which had been media blasted and repainted a couple of years prior.

 

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So.. Since then, I moved to Ballarat for work, which resulted in leaving the Z at my folks since I had to rent... Then, I decided I missed my Z too much, so I bought a house with a shed and moved everything in. Needless to say, my mum was quite happy to have half the shed and some of their backyard back! So at the moment, everything looks something like this:

 

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So that's basically where I am at the moment. I bought some carbs and a manifold off Rev, which I'm now polishing and I'm basically working on getting the shell ready for painting. I'm thinking that I'll go some bright(ish) orange colour, but haven't decided whether I'm going to have a crack at it, or whether I'm going to get someone else to do it.

 

My aim is to try and do as much work on the car myself, not cause I'm tight, but because I want to at least have a crack at redoing the interior, spray painting etc. cause I like fiddling and working on stuff, it's half the fun of the build right?  :P

 

The long term goal for the project at this stage (once it's all running and back on the road), is to keep the L26 and rebuild and refit the turbo kit, just for something a little different.

 

At this point, I'd like to say a huge thanks to the Ballarat guys for keeping me entertained and enthused with rides in running Z's ;) . Also, to the other Vic guys for organizing meets and BBQ's which are an endless source of motivation.

 

Cheers fella's,

 

Rob[/td][/tr][/table]

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks Dave, yeah, have a bit of room to move, just have to build a few more shelves to store things on.  :)

 

Just came in from stripping some of the paint off the front radiator support area and have found a few holes that the guy who had previously restored the car had filled in with bog, not a big problem, but thinking I might as well take the rest of the car back to bare metal to find any other holes. Was a bit confused that they didn't bother to fix the holes when they had it media blasted.

 

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  • 4 months later...

Geepers, it's been ages since I posted an update....

 

Anyway, been busy working on the front end, which I didn't want to post up pictures of, because the previous repairs to it were pretty shameful, but have been convinced to share the 'love'. So have a laugh, I do, then I try and fix it.  ;D

 

Please note that I welcome constructive criticism, but remember I'm a noob to both welding and panel work.

 

As mentioned before the PO had a bingle in the front end and had 'fixed' it using a number of various techniques. Here's the front right corner.

 

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I attacked said area with angle grinder and ended up with a 3mm thick bit of random metal they had tacked on (however, they retained part of the original panel in the top right). Chassis stiffening FTW! Race spec. yo!  :o

 

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Now I haz hole to fit my head through!

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I'm not sure why they cut out that section, there doesn't seem to be that much damage to the original metal.. But I didn't see the original extent of the damage. The left over metal is pretty thin with a bit of rust going through it, so it'll be more chop chop, weld weld before it's complete. Luckily the original metal has all the factory holes in to line up the bonnet hinges etc. so I can make a template.

 

I test fitted my new panel (based off my blue 2+2) and drilled the holes etc. to fit (which I somehow managed to stuff up after measuring twice).  :-[ So at the moment it looks like this:

 

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So lots more work to do, but I think it looks better than the PO's attempt to fix it. I still need to trim parts of the panel up before I weld it in.  :)

 

It's taken me ages to make the new panels up since this is the first bodywork and welding I've attempted, I have another panel half made up to go on the front left, but that still needs more work to complete. As a parting image, here's the front left corner.. PO must have gone 'I know how to fix this! I'll weld, bolt and rivet random bits of metal in!'  ;D haha!

 

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Cheers guys, hope you all had as much fun today as I had!  ;D

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Please note that I welcome constructive criticism, but remember I'm a noob to both welding and panel work.

 

At least your having a crack mate. You are saving yourself a lot of money and learning new skills. It'll get easier as you get better.

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Thanks gents. It was a bit daunting, taking the angle grinder to the shell at first, but well worth it once things start coming together. I also ripped up the sound deadener stuff from the floor and there's only a bit of surface rust in there, so that all looks good  :)

 

I'm hopefully having a month off work soon-ish so will get a fair bit done then I hope. Have sorted out the heaters in the garage now so I really can't use the 'Ballarat is too cold to work in the garage at night' excuse. This week is looking good for some decent headway, as long as I don't have to work late.

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No worries mate, I was going to ask to pick your brain about the leftover segment anyway, we might need to do a bit more chopping than I thought  :D , but I'll wait to have a chat to you about that.

 

I'll probably be free tomorrow night, but I'll let you know how I'm going  :)

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So those crazy guys named Scoota and Dale dropped around today to see what had been done to the shell and to discuss what I could do about it. After we reached a conclusion of what I needed to do, Scoota, of course, gets that strange glint in his eye and asks "what power tools do you have??".

 

So we started work on the side which I hadn't chopped the random bits of metal out of. So 'zap zap' and it looked like this.

 

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I sh!t you not when I say that random bit of metal hanging down is about 5mm thick!  :o So Scoot knuckled down and started taking the grinder to the front end and we ended up with this segment cut out.

 

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With that chopped out, Scoot used it as a template and obtained the relevant segment from my parts car and did a bit of panel beating to get it straight before unleashed the fury with my new welder and set it up properly for me  :)

 

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The end result looks a million bucks, no random holes and pieces of metal riveted etc. onto the chassis. We also plugged up a few random holes that had shown up and test fitted the guard to make sure everything was nice and straight.

 

A while ago, Gav was looking for photos and a brief description of why people found ausZcar useful, I think this photo of Scoot with the caption 'because I have found other people's Z's to chop up'  would fit the bill?  ;D

 

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Thought I'd also include a photo of what we removed.. Only a couple of layers there!  ;)

 

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Thanks to the boys for their work today, I think after today's tutorial, I'll have the confidence to have a go at any other segments I need to.  :)

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Well, gee, I think it cost me whatever beer they drank while they were here... and a six pack I threw to Scoot on his way out  ;)

 

Not sure how much Scoota charges, he just got excited yesterday when we were talking about cutting and welding, haha ;D Yeah, Scoota can paint, he's sprayed his car, check out his project thread for the results, he's also going to be spraying Dale's orange car.

 

Oh, finally got the missus to sit in the Z... She doesn't look that excited does she?  ::)

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haha, yeah, I'll take her shopping... For Z parts  ;) I'm not even living with her, so she hasn't got a say on expenditure for the Z.  :D

 

She's not that interested in 'cars that don't work'. lol. But it does work.. Once all the parts are back in it.

 

Big thanks again to Dale and Scoot, today I was writing a job application and ended up procrastinating by going out to the garage and looking at the new front  :P

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