Leaderboard

A week or two later it went off to the media blaster and this is what we got back. A little more filler in the rear quarters but nothing that really surprised me. Back at the workshop, outside we removed the remaining old filler, cleaned the shell up and gave it a coat of PPG's finest Epoxy:

Once the floors & rails will replaced, we focused on a couple of other areas. Rust below the fuel door was repaired: And the battery tray was removed for easier access: And the bottom of the LH guard was cut off and a new section fabricated and welded into place. This was then linished and tapped straight.

Long overdue for an update! The rusty floors were cut out & the new pans welded into place. The seat rails were media blasted, painted & prepped and welded back into position. The under floors rails were then fitted up, but annoyingly they didn't fit the contours of the floors! Blast! Luckily we have the technology and Graeme cut the rails flanges & re-profiled them to suit. These were then prepped, KBS'd and welded into position. And done:

Interesting, I like the colour. Better priced now. Being picky perhaps but I wouldn't call it 'original' seeing as the original motor has been replaced with a 260 motor complete with flat tops. Why? Are new / repro consoles available for the '71? And is that front bumper off a '73? Looks wrong...

Yikes that rail profile looked way out. Nice work getting them in though! But on the plus side those photos really show how the 260z structure is more rigid than the earlier 240z floor pans and rails! Those extra folds and creases will increase rigidity quite a bit over a flat bit of floor like in the 240z.

I've noticed this with quite a few classic cars lately. RBA is saying rates will to up etc.. maybe for a bit but they will come right back now at next crisis.

For inspiration.

It's been over a month, but we haven't been idle with Evans 260Z... Graeme has repaired the LH side of the taillight panel: And he also cut off the doglegs and found the ends of the LH sill behind remarkably sound: The RH fared a little worse though but its nothing we cant fix. But that amount of fibre filler in front of the dogleg panel in the sill was a little strange - why was it there? I didn't spot it, but Graeme did: On close inspection the 260Z had been in a serious accident early in it's life and the whole RH rear quarter panel had been replaced! Its been done so well, only a couple of clues give it away. This explains the sill, but why they decided to fill the sill instead of pull the dent out is anyone guess - although I suspect the repair quote didn't leave enough $ to effect a proper repair.