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  1. Mike_F

    Fire Rescue 240Z

    Chapter 12 - Glacial Movement is still Movement Its been pretty slow progress on Z of late. I've been heading to and from Canberra every second weekend to visit my mother in hospital (yes, smoking causes strokes), race mountain bikes, help my brother with his house, and even found some time to visit CBR Jeff. With all of those km's being racked up on the car and the bikes, I have managed to move forward with Zee. I figure its better to do bits and pieces than do nothing at all. I welded the bonnet latch bracket back into place: I put RivNuts in place for the Battery Tray using my brothers broken RivNut tool (ie a Hex Bolt with a big free floating nut that to pull against): I have prepared the inside of the cowl area for some seam sealer, and I figured I would do some more seam sealing around the battery tray area (on both sides) where it meets the firewall. But, before I can do that I need to lay down some primer, so I cleaned up the engine bay a bit and primed half of it: Why didn't I just prime the whole engine bay while I was there? Well... 1. I hate having things half finished, and I want to finish the Cowl area off, which has a sequence to it which start with Seam Sealer. So that's priority. 2. I need to repair some of the bracket that the front guard hangs over - the same bracket that is welded onto the strut tower. 3. I would need to get the front suspension components off to do the engine bay in its entirety, which I don't want to do yet. This weekend I intend on being in Sydney, so I want to get a bunch more done - hopefully zip that cowl area up for good. I also want to make a start on that back RH guard now that I have the green repair panel from Columbia, which will remove much of the crumpled mess there. Now, onto a serious note. My mother has finally decided to stop smoking. She is 69 years old, and started smoking when she was about 9. But, unfortunately for my mother, this decision has come too late. In January, 1/3 of her brain was damaged as a result of the blood clot induced stroke. He left arm doesn't work, she's blind in her left eye, and her left leg isn't too good at the moment either - after about 3 months of rehab, she can struggle to pull herself from a seated to a standing position. While she still has her excellent sense of humour, her cognitive ability has suffered significantly - snakes and ladders is a big challenge, as are children's puzzles. She has a very long and tough road ahead of her (years of rehab), and so does my Dad who is always at her side. My message to our Z family: If you smoke, don't wait until a debilitating stroke forces you to reconsider your health choices - because by then its too late for both you and your loved ones who will be looking after you. Giving up smoking will not be easy - the nicotine receptors in your brain, which are like ticks that suck the life out of their host, will fight you at every step. But over time, you will starve them to death and their need for your smoking will become less and less. But, it will be worth it. You'll look back in amazement at how good you feel once you have given it up. And you will have a much better chance at living out your days healthy, and on your terms. Hopefully, for us, that means still hurtling our Z's along winding country roads, windows down, listening to that roar echoing through the trees as we shift back a gear and allow the engine to rev back up towards redline - Grinning from ear to ear as we do it. That should be our twighlight years - doing that, not wishing we could do that. Mike
    1 point
  2. Mike_F

    Fire Rescue 240Z

    Battery tray part II Remember when you were in school and you thought "I'm never going to use this! I'm quitting!". Yeah, that was me in Kindergarten. And yet, look at this... I'm using my skills! Thank you Mr's Kindergarten Teacher! This is filling in a "relief cut", because I don't have an english wheel to make nice neat hollows in metal. As a reminder, this is the piece fitting pretty neatly under the battery tray. Once I had the relief cuts welded in, I next had to make the flange, which I did by putting a large piece of metal up against the firewall (held on by magnet), putting the new guard piece in place and then spot welding the two together. Then I took it off, welded the inside, ground back the excess on the top, welded the corner, and then ground it all back into a nice neat corner. Then, it was test fit time again, complete with my magic green battery tray. Then came the scary bit, which was also the slow bit. I cut the original guard away and slowly but surely fit the new panel in, grinding away metal on one or the other until it all fit perfectly. This took me hours, where I must have refit the whole thing about 100 times, slowly but surely inching my way forward. I'm sure "Fitze" would have "cut and butt" and had it done in 15 minutes, but I am far less brave. Once it was in, I tacked it, made sure it fit again, massaged some of the curves so that they flowed without any low spots where the weld was going to go, and then put more tacks in, before welding sections between the tacks. This is how far I got before "Sunday night family phone calls" kicked in. I should be able to finish this off tonight. The funny thing is I was expecting to complete this on Saturday. Yeah-nah. I hope you all managed to stay dry over this crazy weekend, and that none of your precious Z's got flooded! Cheers, Mike
    1 point
  3. Mike_F

    Fire Rescue 240Z

    Chapter 10 - All caught up Last chapter we patched the roof skin, and while I was in denial about the need to remove the entire roof skin, I decided it was a good time to tackle that small piece of rust on the firewall. First step was to get the engine and gearbox out. In order to achieve this there were 3 things that I needed; an Engine Mount, an Engine Hoist, and a Son. So, I went upstairs into one of the rooms that I have up there, scrounged around in all of the mess and managed to find a Son. Tick! We then went to Total Tools and bought an Engine Mount, and then swung back via a mates place to borrow his hoist and engine leveler. Interesting fact for the physicists out there, especially those interested in "conservation of energy". When smashing your forehead into a fully loaded engine hoist, there is zero energy transfer. No heat, no movement, not even a satisfying "dongggg". Nothing. Ask me how I know... Anyway, my son and I carefully disconnected all wires and hoses off both the engine and gearbox, and labelled them so that I had a fighting chance of putting it all back together again. For added insurance, I also took a bunch of photos. Some stuff came off easily, and other stuff just fell apart such as the hydraulic clutch hose (that looked as though a rat had eaten it at some point) and some other wires that went into the gearbox. To get the engine out, we first needed to get the radiator out which was pretty easy, and then disconnect the gearbox from the car. I couldn't seem to get the shifter off, but it looked like I had enough room under the car, especially since I had to raise the car a bit anyway to clear the legs of the engine hoist. As it turned out, we made 2 mistakes. Mistake 1, I should have tried much harder to get the gear stick off as that would have made things waaaaay easier. Mistake 2, I put the leveller on back to front (had the handle to the front of the car instead of the back), so after a certain point I could no longer wind the handle. Doh! Lucky there was two of us getting this all out, so one of us could lever down the end of the gearbox so that we could angle it all correctly to come out. But it came out without too much fuss. I also left the headers on because I didn't want to, aherm, exhaust myself. After an evening of hi-fiving, I moved onto the rust! I first had to ascertain what I was dealing with, so I removed the battery tray and also cleaned the paint off 2/3 of the firewall. There was cheese under the battery tray, and more rust along a horizontal line along the firewall, which unfortunately incorporated the bonnet latch mount. Battery induced cheese! Is it battery acid or that battery powder stuff that accumulates on the terminals that causes this? Since, apparently, I was now into taking things off cars that were never meant to be removed, I removed the hood latch mount from inside in the engine bay, and then the wiper engine mount and something on the cowell that was covering the air hole for the heater. No pressure, but if I don't get that back on just perfectly, I won't be able to close the bonnet. Under the air/water cover thing was a rectangular tube which was really rusty on one side. Seam sealer was everywhere, haphazardly applied in big random chunks by a gorilla with parkinsons disease. It was not a surprise that this had caused a build up of crap that had caused things to rust out, and I could now see into the cabin AND into the engine bay from outside the car. That was not good. Air Vent Rust. To tackle this beast, I decided to cut strips out of the firewall, then cut out the rusty cowel behind it, fabricate and weld in new cowel, then fabricate and weld in new firewall. Once I had done all of that, I'll then re-spot weld the firewall to the cowel. Tips for young players: Weld the cowel piece in BEFORE welding in the firewall, so that have better access. Cut the rust out, but make sure I cut far enough back that I can get access with the welder and the sander. get the fit. This first time I fixed the firewall first, and it was a pain in the butt. All welded and cleaned up. I need this pieces to flow the water out of there nicely. \ Firewall patch underway. All cleaned up. The theory worked, but it was a pain in the butt. It was quite hard to get the welder into many of those places (either from above or from below) and even harder to clean it up with any kind of grinding or sanding tool. But, with a tonne of patience, I got there in the end. SO much rust in there. Fabbing the new piece. Bend the outer, weld the inner. Looks just like a bought one. Tadaaa! I now need to make a new rectangular tube, which is fairly easy. This is what it looks like so far. But before I weld that in, and remove my access to the passenger side cowel area, I want to rust protect and seam-seal. So, I then sanded the inside by hand and nuked it all with a rust encapsulator. There's nothing quite like a random piece of poly pipe for getting the perfect corners. Making the new piece. There is also an extra strip of metal inside the cowel that doesn't seem to do much except to funnel water into the join between the firewall and the cowel, but was shaped "just right" to run some seam sealer in there. Channelling the above Ape with a neurological disorder, I attempted to put "brush on" seam sealer there, and failed dismally. So now I need to ctrl-z that piece of work and try again with a caulk gun seam sealer. I love redoing stuff. Now onto the battery tray area. First of all, I know I'm going to have to replace a bunch of that guard, so I made a cardboard design, making relief cuts everywhere to get the right shapes and sticky-taping it together. The cardboard looked so awesome I wish it would weld onto metal, but alas I had to transfer onto 18 gauge and made a piece that approximated what I needed. Its coming along nicely, I think. Then I tackled the rust where the guard meets the firewall. I cut away the guard so that I could access the firewall and then proceeded to cut out the rust. The firewall itself wasn't flush - it was bowed in towards the passenger a fair bit. I hoped that with the heating and cooling of the welding, it would shrink the metal into place, but I wanted it to shrink to the right place, so I set up a dodgy rig to push the firewall to square. Then I welded in my new pieces. To my delight, when I removed my rig the firewall was square again! Yay! Using a level as a lever, so that we can straighten up the firewall from inside the passenger footwell. Firewall is now much better, and I'm ready to finish off the battery tray area. The battery tray itself had seen a previous repair, but wasn't too bad. It needed a tidy up, but instead of using the usual methods I had to my disposal in my garage, I decided to use magic instead. I pulled out my longest screwdriver, waved it in the air like Ronald Weasly, and chanted Rustiest Expeleramous! Booof! To my amazement, a package from Columbia immediately arrived! New battery tray, all the way from Columbia! Glad I didn't try to order coffee... Yeah - creating my own battery tray would have taken waaaay too long. Also, I think i sorted out a lot of my mess on the back right hand side too! Yay! So, now you're all caught up! What is next for me to do on this build? Finish under the battery tray. Re-seam seal the cowel area Finish off the rectanglular breather tube thing and weld that into place. Add some more rust proofing paint around that Weld the cover back onto that thing Weld the wiper mount back into place Weld the bonnet catch bracket back on Tackle the roof skin Tackle a small amount of rust above the rear quarter windows Tackle the back right hand side Floor Pans Doors A question for you guru's: I have noticed that people have taken to bolting on the battery tray instead of welding it on. Why?
    1 point
  4. Mike_F

    Fire Rescue 240Z

    Chapter 9 - Roofus Interruptus Last chapter we went in fast forward to cover the half-done rear hatch, and the fully done front guards. This chapter, I want to cover an area that I have been too afraid to do since the beginning - the upper corner of the windscreen and roof. Why have I been too afraid to tackle this? Well, when I took the sunroof out (yep - I've got one of those...) I noticed that the roof itself was paper thin! Welding onto this was going to be nigh impossible, and unfortunately I had a repair to do... However, I thought my skills had improved enough to give this a fairly solid crack. The question was around what technique was I going to use?? Looking at this part of the roof section, there are angles going in every dimension: The part that the windscreen rubber attaches to gently arcs downward. The next, horizontal part, got marginally thinner and also gently arched backwards, but forward again right at the corner. The top corner also gently arc's backwards, but also slightly downwards. The roof skin bit also changed its shallowness the closer to the edge it got. And, this was super visible, so getting it wrong would make Zee look like Frankensteiness. Once again, after assuming foetal position again for a while, I figured I should be able to create the patch without needing to cut into the roof. This was perfect, because it allowed me to have several attempts at the patch if I needed to, which took that part out of the "how to stuff up your car" equation. I used what I call "the Fitze method". Rather than trying to bend the piece in all of those dimensions (I just don't have that kind of skill ... yet), I decided it would be easier to make it out of 3 pieces - 1 for bottom, one of the vertical part, and one for the top. I started with the bottom, making a piece that slotted in perfectly over the existing spot-welded piece. I clamped it in place. Next was the vertical piece. I massaged it with a flap disk until it perfectly mated with the bottom bit, and then flexed it backward so it fit perfectly with the existing roof. This piece extends way past the roofline, but that is fine. I then created the roof patch, which I painstaking mated perfectly with the horizontal piece, and also clamped it in place. Like a diamond in the rough, it looked ugly but had the right angles to work with. I tacked it with the welder in many places (while clamped), then pulled it off and welded all of the corners a la Fitze method, and ground them back to the shape I wanted. The top edge is currently way to sharp, but its easier to make blunt than it is to sharpen... Next step was to cut the roof. I didn't need to go back very far, maybe 3/4 of an inch, but wanted to go along far enough that I had good metal to work with. Once that was done, I took a photo, then nuked the insides with S50 Cavity Wax (I'd run out of Eastwood Internal Frame Coating). pre-nuke Post nuke. That cavity wax gets into everywhere!! Once done, it was time to cut back my patch, then carefully massage it until it slotted in perfectly flush. Welding was done very slowly. Literally 2 spots at a time, then let cool until I could hold my hand on it. Then another 2 spots. I kept doing that until complete, then just as carefully flapped back the welds and dressed with anti-ox to stop from surface rusting. I think it came up well, and I was super proud of myself! I even "showed it off" to the Aussie Z facebook group. Front all finished (except for the corner welds which need cleaning up) Side View. Its at that point that Lurch noticed the high amount of surface rust under the roof skin, and strongly suggested I take the roof skin off. I spent a day in complete denial, and then relented because he was right - unless I deal with the cancer lurking under the roof skin, its just going to come back again. At which point, I enthusiastically moved onto the battery tray area! While that is the truth (the part about moving onto the battery tray), I'm actually procrastinating on the roof. I will do it, but I need to decide whether I want to keep the sunroof or not. If I don't want to keep the sunroof, then I have 2 choices: See if I can source another roof skin off a good quality parts car. (unlikely??) Create a patch for the sunroof hole, and bond it in place. (its way too thin to weld, and metal bonding is meant to be just as good these days). Or, I embrace the 70's, grow a mow, wear some vinyl, and keep the sunroof. Arg. Decisions decisions... So, next chapter my son and I get the Engine and Gearbox out (making the exact same mistake as Ryan did with the engine leveler) and then I find more rust with the added challenge that its kinda hard to get at.
    1 point
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