My Blue 260Z 2Seater

[C.A.R.]

IIRC back in 2020 Daniel messaged me asking if we'd be interested in repairing the rust in his Z - and of course we were.
After seeing the photos Daniel sent me if the body, some discussion around what he wanted along with budget costs was had,
and so I booked the car in for the start of 2022 - although this had to be pushed back to late 2022 as I had 'project creep' from another couple of projects...

Jojo from GetMyRide duly dropped the Z off in mid November, and shortly after we started stripping the Z down to a bare body shell.



It was then media blasted to expose all it's sins...





Lots to do...

We started at the rear, repairing the tail light panel area & welding up the 5mph bumper hole on the LH side:

[C.A.R.]

Bottoms of the A posts were rusted out, so they were repaired:

[C.A.R.]

We elected to patch the floors rather than replace them, as the cost & time to do this on a RS30 shell is prohibitive unless the floors are completely shot.

RH floor & rail were next.
The rear of the floor had rusted out & was subsequently badly patched, this was cut out and a new repair section was fabricated then welded into place:







Then the rail was removed and the front section of the pan was repaired:







Then the new rail was installed:

[C.A.R.]

The RH outer sill was rusted out, so this was removed & the new KlassicFab sill was fitted up:





Are these stalactites or stalagmites?

[C.A.R.]

Rust had taken out the top of the LH engine bay frame rail, so I cut the top out, treated any surface rust inside the rail, then fabricated a patch and welded it into place:



Notice the skirt under the battery tray? More on that next...





Next job was to repair the section of skirt under the battery tray.
This was not a fun panel to make - reverse curves are difficult!











Where the skirt joins the firewall is also rusted out, so this needs replacing next...

Edited January 4, 2023 by C.A.R.

[PeterAllen]

Very impressive Leon. Well done.

[C.A.R.]

RH sill repairs cont:



Painted:



Outer sill welded on:



Dogleg fabricated and welded on (weld will be tided up in due course):

[C.A.R.]

The HVAC fan duct was rusted away at the bottom, so I remade it:

Edited January 6, 2023 by C.A.R.

[C.A.R.]

Radiator lower cross member was rusted out, so  removed the original, fabricated a replacement & welded it in.
Daniel supplied a rear closing panel - not the nicest made thing, but it wont be seen.

Edited January 12, 2023 by C.A.R.

[C.A.R.]

LH floor rail was replaced - thankfully no major repairs to the floorpan were required.







LH side sill was rusted at both ends, so it was replaced along with the dogleg:









Checking the gaps are spot on:

Sill, dogleg & splash-guard done:

New slam panel welded into position:

[C.A.R.]

The rust around the quarter windows and drip rails was next.
Some of the photos are of the body are the wrong-side-up, so just stand on your head to view them properly.















Focus you feck!

Edited February 6, 2023 by C.A.R.

[C.A.R.]

LH side:

















That looks suspiciously 'fat'...
So graeme drilled a test hole and yep - it was fat with rust:









Done:

Edited February 6, 2023 by C.A.R.

[240ZBUILTBYME]

On 2/6/2023 at 9:06 AM, C.A.R. said:

 now tell me how to find these spot welds.....

[C.A.R.]

9 hours ago, 240ZBUILTBYME said:

 now tell me how to find these spot welds.....

With great difficulty! 

[C.A.R.]

Time for another update!
The firewall behind the battery tray / inner skirt area was ventilated and badly pitted, so a template was taken, then a patch was made and welded in:

[C.A.R.]

RH Rear quarter panel was next - due to the extent of the damage, we decided it was easier to cut out the damaged area and weld in a new panel:



After media blasting:

[lightmaster240z]

when did Jay Leno drop in ?

[C.A.R.]

11 minutes ago, lightmaster240z said:

when did Jay Leno drop in ?

Last Year.
He's dropping in again this year on the 1st of April.

[gav240z]

I'm loving the rear quarter panel repair work.

[gav240z]

On 2/27/2023 at 10:28 PM, 240ZBUILTBYME said:

now tell me how to find these spot welds.....

Ask a blind woman/man who is used to reading in braille to help find the dots?

[C.A.R.]

The RH front bonnet hinge mount was rusted out, so we unpicked the duct, repaired the area, media blasted the duct, repaired that, then applied some KBS rust seal, then welded it back on:









Done!

[C.A.R.]

Bar some panel beating, the body is now done and finished with a fresh coat of epoxy!







Now onto the panels...

Edited April 28, 2023 by C.A.R.

[C.A.R.]

Update: We've paused this project while Daniel lets his bank balance recover.
We'll restart on it again in a due course.

Edited July 15, 2024 by C.A.R.

[C.A.R.]

Update time!
In 2025 Daniel contacted me saying he's like to continue with the restoration of his 260Z, so in October '25 we extracted it from storage.

As we'd already done the body shell, the panels needed attention next.
On inspection the hatch frame was beyond economical repair, so I ordered a new one.





I had the bonnet blasted and as expected that was damaged and rusty around the perimeter, so a new non-vented one was also ordered.



Front guards were typically rusty at the bottom where they bolt to the sill, but the rest of the was ok.
Se we set about removing the rear brace and repairing them bottoms of them:





And the inner braces on both were reconstructed at the bottom: 





With the guard repairs complete, we turned our attention to the doors. This wasn't going to be easy...
Later 260Z doors are different to 240Z, and 260Z door shells can't be bought new currently, so our only option was to repair them.

We removed the skins (one had been replaced with a rare spares skin already) as they were both had rust at the bottom.
The shells were pretty bad - espically the right door. The hinge mounting was gone, so we removed the inner reinforment and fabricated a new patch then welded it in.











With the repairs to both doors done, the guards repaired I sent everything off to my media blaster so all the paint & surface rust could be removed...

[C.A.R.]

To continue, the doors and guards came back from being media blasted and the repairs continued with the door hinge plates being prepped and reinstalled, the door skins had new bottoms fabricated and TIG welded into place.
The frames and skins were painted on the inside with KBS Rust Seal to protect them from any future moisture, then they were joined back together.