Vorn's 920 Gold 240Z

[vorn70]

My build started in September 2010. I purchased the car in 2006 from a Lady in the ACT who said she had had it painted red to cover the "yucky mustard colour" many years ago. I checked the oil and water and drove her home to SA. I drove her around for a while and then decided to give her a quick respray to tidy it up. So I put her on the hoist and one thing lead to another, and I decided to try and do a full rebuild in the shed. I have taken a few photos along the way detailing how I went about things. This may help others with their own builds . I know looking through other members builds and reading the advice given to them has helped me. So if you have any questions please ask away.

[RB26DETT]

Hi Vorn, what chassis # is your car? Looks like an early one.

[KatoKid]

So I put her on the hoist and one thing lead to another,

 

..and that is how it happens

[luvemfast]

Please tell me you're taking it back to "yucky mustard colour"?

I love it!

[chris240]

I swear that in the 70s in Canberra, every 2nd public servant must have bought a zed....for this , we give thanks to them for buying zeds, and to the zero humidity and lack of rain down here for preserving the zeds..

Welcome 

[vorn70]

Rest easy LUVEMFAST it is safari gold or as close as I could get the match in 2 pack DuPont. I will slowly put up pictures of what I have done over the last 3 years.

[gav240z]

Please tell me you're taking it back to "yucky mustard colour"?

I love it!

 

Yeah that made me chuckle also. I love a red Z but it seems everyone painted over the original hues to have their own red Z. Can't blame them, but the original colours definitely have that nostalgic feel.

[vorn70]

Hi Vorn, what chassis # is your car? Looks like an early one.

Build # 1055 It has all the early interior seats, dash  ,etc and Gear box. So I think it was just made up from what was left over from the Series 1 build.

The first part of the tear down showed being an ACT Car rust wise she was fairly good.

[NZeder]

Don't buy into the series I BS that is normally a US market thing where I think changes were required by law...ie after x date the early seats where no long up to the standard for the given market. So those parts were used in cars for other markets where it did not have to compile to the same rules/laws etc. I have seen cars with lower chassis IDs have less of these "series I" parts so I guess it might have been dependant on the assembly plant and what they had in the parts bin too.

[vorn70]

I started on the engine Bay area and as usual there was rust under the battery tray which required drilling off the spot welds to remove the tray. I removed all all the paint from the engine bay and the under side of the car (paint stripper). I did some small repairs to the underside of the car but I can't find the pictures.

[dat240z]

Looks as clean as a whistle! Nice one mate

[vorn70]

thanks dat240z

Cleaning is all I seem to do, clean and prep before welding, and clean and prep before painting. The paint of the underside and engine bay went fairly well. Now I can start on the dog legs and "slam" panel. I have some work to do in those areas which will test my limited skill.

[vorn70]

Now it's time to look at the "slam" panel I knew when it didn't look good on the outside I could be in for a bad surprise. But after some messing around I got my panel drilled off and it wasn't all that bad.

[vorn70]

I just had to cut out the old, and weld in the new. Getting the gap and the shape right so the repair piece would sit in a "relaxed" state was a bit of messing around but it all came up fairly good. (don't look too close at my welding)

[vorn70]

Having the repair finish at the lap joint required me to be careful in removing the old material. This did allow a nice flat finish to weld the slam panel down. The other areas of light rust I treated with rust converter before putting the panel on. Note don't rust convert where you want to weld.

[vorn70]

I knew with the amount of bog around the dog legs that I would need to repair or replace. I could see an attempt at a repair many years ago so it was out with the spot weld drill. The final part of the removal was done with a hacksaw blade by hand I didn't trust myself with a cut off wheel around the lower B pillar. It all came off OK and of course the inner guard will require some repair before the dog leg can be welded in.

[acf321]

Hi Vorn,

 

Love the car and the 'yukky' 920 colour too! Ahh the memories come flooding back!!!

 

Keep up the good work with this one, should look fantastic when complete in this OEM colour.

 

Regards

 

Adam

[vorn70]

Thanks Adam. I'm fairly happy with the build so far and the support from club members really helps with the motivation.

 

As you can see by the above pictures the inner guard was a little rusty. I tried to make one but just couldn't get it right so I cut out a inner guard piece from my donor 2+2, it was a little tricky removing it without wrecking it but after swearing for a weekend I got it fitting up OK.

[vorn70]

With a little tidy up from my friend the flapper disc, it came up good ready to start to fit the new dog leg. At least I can weld the new one onto new metal now. Once the trial fit up is done I will paint the inside with rust converter.

[vorn70]

I spent the weekend getting my dog legs to fit. I did a few practice welds and then went for it. I was fairly happy with the result ,the "spot" welds came out ok. I checked for good penetration on my practice piece. Having the car in the spit helped .

[CroS13]

looks top notch mate! gives me inspiration that i can attack my dog legs when it comes around to it too, then watch me post the abortion that i will produce!

 

Did you paint the engine bay yourself? it came up really well!

 

Rudolf.

 

[gav240z]

You sir are several steps in front of me. It's like watching a tutorial on what to do haha.

 

 

[vorn70]

looks top notch mate! gives me inspiration that i can attack my dog legs when it comes around to it too, then watch me post the abortion that i will produce!

 

Did you paint the engine bay yourself? it came up really well!

 

Rudolf.

 

no I just did all the prep work a mate of mine painted it.He just said get it back to bare metal. He did a great job in my shed

[vorn70]

As you can see I had a big ugly bog blister on my bonnet. I chemically stripped the underside masking off the seam to stop any stripper getting in and causing problems later so I had to finish off the hard way. The top side I used a 3M stripper wheel The whole bonnet was cover with a large amount of bog. When I got it all off the surface felt pretty good and sit was rust free.

[vorn70]

After completing the surface prep it was ready to lock away with primer and paint the underside. The top surface needs a little work but shouldn't need as much bog as what was on there before. I was really happy with the colour, it feels like I'm getting some where now.