Zedback's '71 240z rustbucket resto

Around November '06 I went looking for a 240z.  Budget was vey small and I was looking for a resto job.  So of course the first cheapy I came across was going to be the one.  It had a smattering of surface rust to go with the last of many poor resprays that was now powdery and flaking, and only a smattering of rust bubbles, though they were in some odd places as well as the expected.

 

After it arrived home dismantlement began and as I proceeded I started poking screw drivers into some of the odd bubbly areas...

 

 

...and it just got worse and worse as I started stripping back the layers of paint and bog, and started digging out the chucks of expanding foam filling corners and crevices where metal was no more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I even had to drill the head off one of the screws holding in the RH sunvisor, it was rusted in solid! 

 

In the end the floors, sills, doors, A-pillars, radiator support, entire tail-light area, fuel filler region, aft of quarter windows, inner rear guards, outer rear arches, spare wheel well and of course the bloody roof were all found to be either badly rusted or very poorly and nastily welded up.

 

 

 

 

 

So by January 2007 it was rolled out of the shed and up to the carport where I've been mostly trying to ignore it ever since.

 

 

 

In the meantime I picked up another 240z ('73) in a very lucky find and spent the last couple of years patching it's body work up: http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,3987.0.html

 

I enjoyed myself so much and felt such a sense of achievement that I began to look guiltily over at the poor '71.  Ignored for the last few years, but not to the point of being dumped, I started wondering if I might yet be able to resurrect it from such a sorry state.  Better cars have been set to the crusher for sure, but it's an early shell, and there's still lots of good metal in there, sort of...

 

There's no denying there is a lot of rust to deal with, but most of it is in the common areas.  I've done a badly rusted Mini in the past and watched the Mull videos.  So a plan was conceived, if I can fix the worst of the uncommon, odd areas where there are no replacement panels then it'll be all down hill from there. 

 

So the starting point is the roof.  The skin had already been removed so the extent of damage was easy to see.  A chop top or donor were the only real solutions.  I seriously considered a chop top but in the end decided that repairing rust and engineering a reinforced shell would be all too hard.  So a couple of months ago I picked up a 2+2 shell already stripped of everything the bloke I bought it from wanted for his project.  Hard to beleive this car was registered and on the road in 2008.

 

 

Got a bit worried when  I got to here and found evidence of the roof already having been repaired!

 

 

It was pleasant surprise though to find the rear arches and spare wheel wheel in very good condition.

 

So with the roof skin removed I went to work drilling out spot welds until I could remove the entire windscreen frame and roof rails down each side.  Unfortunately I've lost a whole bunch of pictures.

 

Here are the 2+2 and 2+0 roof skins hanging side by side.

 

On both cars I left the inner sheet metal of the A-pillar and roof rails to give me a reference for mating the two together.  I was all to aware that I was trying to fettle a 2+2 onto a 2+0, but guestimations showed it should be workable.

 

Here's the 240z with the outer windscreen and and roof rails removed.

 

 

There's a couple of days worth of back and forthing as I would put it in place mark a bit more to be removed and so on...

 

When it was getting close the real test came with a trial fit of the roof skin.

 

Now this was quite a moment, for the first time since it was removed the roof skin was sitting in place where it belonged.  Yes, it was just held together with lockgrips and clamps but the daunting impossible now actually seemed possible!  I had to stop for a few minutes.

 

Later that evening I tacked the frame in place.

 

The windscreen frame has now been solidly plug welded to the inner frame

 

You may or may not have noticed in the earlier roof skin shot that the 2+2 roof (obviously) does not have the same profile as the 2+0.  The drip rails are bout 60mm longer and are much straighter with a more acute angle at the top of the door.

 

The end result is that even after trimming, when you trial fit the roof, there is a gap...

 

...but it's not as bad as you might think and with a bit of gentle persuasion can be made to match.  (Note that I slotted the vertical sheet metal to make the bending easier.)

 

and made permanent.

 

There is more work to be done, some additional fettling of the drip rails and where the a-pillar joins are, and it needs to be stitch welded along the top of the roof rails on each side.   

To conclude, the drip rails and windscreen frame from a 2+2 can be used as donor replacements for a 2+0 if needed.  It's not simple and requires a lot of bravery and customisation but it can be done.  The same cannot be said of the roof skin which is both much longer and a little wider.

Wow.  You are not easily daunted.  Making some veery impressive progress now. 

I commend you for restoring such a rusty beast! Keep us updated

bloody hell, it was a busy arvo. nice aerodynamic+lightened shell to start work with lol. Be brilliant once its finished, can't wait to pick up the 280 bits and possibly have abit of a look at your z's . liking the mass amount of pics on the 73 resto as well, awesome awesome awesome work mate

Wow you really are a busy bloke. Just shows what can be done to bring a Z back to life.

im amazed was thinking it couldn't be fixed but you have amazing

Thanks Gents.  Have slowed down a bit of late and devoted a bit more attention to the '73 240z and after Lakeside today the z32 is going to need a bit more time/$$'s because that was FUN   

 

Chopping up the 2+2 shell did in my body work enthusiasm for a while.  I haven't got any good photos at the moment but it's up on Peter T's old rotisserie with all the rear panels removed as well as the left rear quarter panel. 

I'll get some photos up eventually but I'm in the process of rebuilding/recreating those inner panels in behind and outboard of the taillights. 

There's also a chanel that runs the width of the rear below the hatch floor behind the beaver panel that I need to repair of recreate.

Trying to decide whether to use the good rear arches off the 2+2 quarter panels or just go with ZG flares and wider wheels.  $$s!

 

It's doesn't much resemble a Z so much as a chinese puzzle... 

nice work man. you sure will be proud when she is done

nice work man. you sure will be proud when she is done

Thanks mate, but I'm still saying to myself "if" rather than when !!!

Wow, many a man would have quit.

When this is done, you will have earnt it 

Keep up the good work

  Struth!!! & to think their making Sister Mary Mackillop a saint. Mate if you can complete this project i reckon you should be made one to. It will definitely be a "MIRACLE". Great work I admire your tenacity. Typical Ausie spirit. Loved the pics, cant wait to see the finished job.

                                                                                                  Regards :Alan.

Progress over the last few months has been sporadic, but have managed to get a little bit more done on the ’71 and ’73 projects. 

Picked up a rotisserie off PeterT earlier in the year and got the Z mounted up on it.  Because of the extensive repairs required to the tail the car is suspended on steel tubes strung through the length of the cabin:

One of the more exciting moments was getting a bit more reconstruction.  The rear left floor filler inside the rear quarter and the tail support piece were replaced with ones removed from a donor.

The frame extensions that the hatch panel sits on are rusted through on both sides.  I had thought to use donor pieces from a 2+2. 

They could be used with modification but there turned out to be more difference than I really wanted to deal with.

Instead, I made repair patterns up of these and some other sections.

And cut them out of my favourite bit of 280zx fender with a nibbler before trimming

Here are the pieces laid out

And their relative fitment to the tail light panel (sorry upside down...)

The better left hand frame extension (from a donor) has been repaired with a repair piece

...but yet to be fitted.

This piece will end up repairing the steel over the top of the right hand tail light

Hadn’t yet removed the right rear quarter, so spot welds were drilled out

So I could start evaluating the right inner area as well

The end piece I am really targeting is that channel that runs the width of the hatch floor.  Haven't decided whether to patch it, replace whoe sections, try and find a donor piece or get a new piece made up.  I expect I’ll still be working on this area in 12 months time.  Once that channel is repaired, the tail light and beaver panels will be repaired and reunited.  These will form the core of putting the whole tail jigsaw back together again ...I hope. 

 

Wow, I never realised how little rust my car had when I bought it. I am impressed that you came back to that shell, but slightly concerned for your mental stability 12 months from now... 

Man I will never complain again, about how much rust I have to repair.

Great job. keep it up.

 

wow man that is a huge job. Keep up the good work

 

Thanks guys

I am impressed that you came back to that shell, but slightly concerned for your mental stability 12 months from now...

Ben I'm sure a set of Watanabes at an unreasonably cheap price would go along way to helping my mental state   

But in reality there's also the '73 to keep me sane and my wallet empty

 

Man I will never complain again, about how much rust I have to repair.

I would think this is definitely at the "extreme" end of the scale.  But it's an early shell (#618) and as I keep reminding myself it's basically ok because there's no rust under the battery tray! 

 

Just looking back at the pictures, have a look at the mess on the concrete before/after putting the shell up on the rotisserrie, not all but most is dust, rust and dirt from in the shell.  Maybe all those Z racers looking to save a few kilos need to turn their Z's upside down and give them a shake 

 

 

last post = Feb. You must be so busy on the car you haven't got time for an update. Surely that means you are finished

 

 

Na, He has too many other ZEDS that take up his time.

last post = Feb. You must be so busy on the car you haven't got time for an update. Surely that means you are finished

I wish!  Let's see work, wife's list, kids, more work, wife's list grown, kids, more work, wife's list never ends, kids, bit of Z, more work...

 

Nothing been done on the rust bucket since last time but a bit of excitement with '73 which I'll post up in a minute...

Wow, it's been a while, I even got a warning saying this topic hasn't been posted in for more than 365 days!  Still life has been just a little bit chaotic and full of some very unexpected surprises. 

 

On the Z front there has been some good, if sporadic, progress...

 

Inner ander sills:

Start with various rusted sections of inner sill...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then get creative...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outer sills are available off the shelf, so not so dificult.

 

 

 

 

 

With the sills finished new chassis rails went in.  Used channel, should have got Nato's but had already finished them.  Yet to redo

 

the rear connectors though.

 

 

 

Sills and chassis rails done so new floors. Ideally you don't want to have to add extra metal where the rust has climbed up the tunnel

or the rear floor section, but it's all doable.  Photo order is a bit jumbled, ie. cant finish the inner sills until the floor is removed but you don't want to remove too much until you absolutely have to...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of little jigsaw pieces...

 

 

Front end:

Nato produced some truly excellent front engine rail replacements.

 

 

 

 

 

I'll try and find some photos, but the lower radiator support was shot as well.  Made up a replacement girder for it as well.

 

Still have some patching to do on the inner guards, between lower radiator support and radiator panel, and the corners of the upper

 

radiator support.

 

 

250GTO:

I've decided that recreating some of the complex sheet metal around the tail light assemblies and in the rear panels in general is just

 

too dificult.  That on top of repairing outer rear quarters, front guards, bonnet, valence panels, door skins, head light scoops, blah,

 

blah, blah... and doing it nice - not going to happen.  Instead its time to cheat with some fibreglass.

It doesn't seem like it, but more than a year ago now we went on a road trip to Sydney with the trailer.  PeterAllen had a collection of rather large items for me to bring home...

 

 

 

 

Whatever you think of the 250GTO conversions or replicars, I must say I just like the lines and curves of this body kit.  For my 240z, at times called the "Cheesegrater Z" or "Rusterella", it's the only way she's ever going to see bitumen again. 

This is what I'm aiming for...

 

So had a brief try on of her new clothes, just a bit of a trial look-see...

 

Steel rear quarters will be going back on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 

Cheers Gav, I've found that is the key to it "just have a go".

 

250GTO conversions do stir up some love/hate reactions, I'll probably upset both groups.  As well as the black one I'm leaning towards doing something like on this red one to the nose...

Some inspiration. Watch the first minute and a half of this: