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 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 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 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: