240ZBUILTBYME

Yes please keep me in the loop Lachy cheers

So I wanted to see what a pair of full quarter panels from KF Vintage JDM would be worth to Australia. I nearly spat my coffee over the screen. $4167 USD ~$6400 AUD including shipping.....yeah nah.... Shipping is just mental at the moment. Anybody out there interested in a group buy for some full quarter panels? Otherwise my plan is to wait for the US recession to hit and shipping prices to collapse lol

Amazing work @C.A.R. !!! What was the coating for inside the cowl? Kbs?

Im quite pleased with the RHS side! the LHS will be a lot of work, all the structure is heavily pitted and holed, luckily my donor roof has what i believe to be clean structure so i will try and not mangle when unpicking and implant into my roof

Another long day of drilling out spot welds on the roof skin. I can see why metal works are the most expensive part of restoring a car, it’s so time consuming. can anyone tell me about the joint between the rear quarter and roof skin? Mine seemed to be oxy welded or brazed together, is this factory? There was lead wiping which I burnt off, I ended up cutting the joint with a grinder but wondering if there’s a better way. I also found the front corners were welded in, there was no other way so I just cut joint and part of the skin with my 5 inch, I really must get so Roloc attachments and small cutting discs for my die grinder. I managed not to damage any structures underneath. i found the front and rear of the roof skin easy to unpick, the LHS was just cut as there was barely anything left, I found the RHS rain rail joint extremely difficult to unpick, I came close to just cutting it with a grinder on more than one occasion, but I persevered and I’m glad I did. There is just no room to work, I tried modifying my scraper blade so I could hammer it along as I went, but that wasn’t effective. In the end I used a sharpened flathead screwdriver to break the joints after drilling. there was a small amount of mangling which was unavoidable but overall very happy with how cleanly I was able to unpick the roof. I’m hoping to sell the skin to someone who needs to fill in their sunroof hole as the center of the skin is excellent. Was surprised to find the RHS to be very clean, some pitting at the rear quarter joint but overall a good result. the LHS is a shit show, as expected, it’s going to take a lot of work to rebuild the whole structure, rear quarter join is completely gone. next up rear quarters…

Yes but you’re very talented at metalwork lol

That’s the plan, remove exterior panels, get it blasted then start replacing panels.

Progress has been steady lately, but the deeper I get into this the more I feel like throwing in the towel… you will see why shortly… unpicked the beaver panel today, all went well with no surprises. Now I will have good access to repair the box section behind it. couldn’t resist putting the replacement piece on to see moved onto the roof skin next. As I began I felt a sense of impending doom… wire wheeled the rain rail to reveal the spot welds. before after ah no, Your eyes do not deceive you, that is a giant frickin hole over the A pillar. Gazing into the darkness of this chasm I felt like my soul was being pulled from my body along with all my motivation for this project…. it was like gazing into the eye of Sauron himself…. Where the roof skin joins the rear quarter was also a huge hole. I’m yet to perform the archeological dig to extract the bog artifact from its resting place I didn’t even bother trying to unpick the spot welds, I just cut what little metal was left. Then I did a lot of swearing, bird flipping and inanimate object abusing. then I unpicked the rear of the roof skin. I used a 25mm scraper blade to help check if the panels were separated and to separate the last bits that were holding on, this allowed me to do minimal damage to either panel. I found it incredibly useful. I found the roof skin was tacked the roof structure in the corners where they couldn’t get the spot welder, I believe this is from factory if anyone can confirm. so halfway to having the roof off now, should knock it off next session, then start tackling the rear quarter panels. I feel like Captain America, I keep getting beat to the ground by this car, but somehow I manage to pick myself up and utter “I can do this all day….” But lately I’ve been getting ever so close to throwing in the towel.

@C.A.R. has said in the past that the rare spares ones fit ok. Im sure KFvjdm will eventually do door skins, will just be a matter of waiting.

#respectallzeds

huh? didn't mention anything about popularity...

I was naïve and insistent when i bought my car that it had to be a 240z because that was the original, to me a 260z was lesser for not being the original. I'm somewhat wiser now and see the value of a 2 seater 260z. again saying the 260z is "better" really depends on personal preference. Not a debate I'm willing to start. lol I would like to know if capping and extending the 240z chassis rails brings the chassis stiffness more in line with the 260z.

lol I would agree to a point. really depends what you mean by "better" lol

ive noticed a trend of 260z's asking prices being on parity or higher than 240z's, what do you thinks driving this? people feeling the age old price difference between 240z's and 260z's is unjustified?

This guys dreaming….

Might be keen for a sound deadening kit. I’ll dm you. One step ahead…. I will be selling my auto panel solution panel if anyone is interested.

I’ve been on a bit of a roll lately working on the car. It feels really good to actually be making some progress. 2/3 more days and the car will be ready for the blaster. today I wrapped up the bracing. I added reinforcements to the rocker panel and tied that into the main brace, then tied the roof corners to the main brace. It might be overkill but I already paid for the steel a long time ago so figured I might as well use it…. the blaster is gonna hate me though… i hope he’s a skinny fellow… also had a bit of extra time so started unpicking the dodgy bros repairs on the rear slam panel. Mmmm crunchy….

not bubble related but couldn't think of a more appropriate thread to post in. Couple of articles i enjoyed from the Hack Mechanic Rob Siegel (If you're a regular viewer of Magnus walkers next big thing he was the owner of the clown shoe) The Rules of Attraction - Hagerty Media - His take on what makes us keep a car long term or move on Why do we buy the same car over and over? - Hagerty Media - why Gav has 4 240z's......

That’s awesome. Have you or anyone used the kit already? I haven’t seen his site before, some cool stuff on there

This week I removed the sound deadening/tar mat from the car as preparation for blasting. To be honest I was really dreading this job but in the end it was actually not that bad! I ordered 5kg of dry ice for the occasion. This worked an absolute charm for the boot area. Leave the ice on the matting for a couple of minutes and you can start to hear it cracking. Then use a scraper and it comes off in big slabs. the transmission tunnel area is much more difficult, dry ice can be used on the top flat surfaces but doesn’t work on the sides, I tried hanging plastic bags with dry ice in them but it just doesn’t get as cold… for the sides of the transmission tunnel a heat gun and scraper worked great for me, trick was to get it hot enough to lift off the metal but not so hot that it melts completely. and end results… still finishing up the bracing, only managed to add a cross brace for the rear of the car as I’m going to remove the entire rear valance.

i assumed so

do you have the link to the vendor? that's cheap

Just keep in mind before jumping in that “restorations” aren’t what they once were. Today, given the cost and time involved, they can be a fool’s errand. fools errand is an understatement lol

Interested gav, any issue with me being out west?

I couldn’t see any 280zxs Andy, just holdens as far as the eye can see…