thriller

Thought I'd chuck a couple more up. I think this is pretty much straight under the rust hole in the C (or is that B?) Pillar. Going to be a mess inside here. Passenger footwell: Drive footwell. Must have had a bit of a ding here, run into a stump or something. Probably best to cut and replace, it's a pretty simple looking curve. FRESH METAL!!!! Peeled back a tiny bit of sound deadener on the tran tunnel. Aaaand here's how she's looking:

Yeah I don't doubt you at all, my friend did that method with a mk2 escort a while back. Still, I don't have a trolley for the engine, so using the crane will be easier. Already had a few offers of use, so thanks to you guys EDIT: Should also ask; what's the best way to get a windscreen out?

Hahah wow. I guess my luck there makes up for the rest of the car! I'll shoot you a PM in a tick. Is it the complete skin? As in spot welds just drilled out and pulled off? Also if anyone in Adelaide has/knows where I can cheaply hire an engine crane for just a day it'd be awesome. All that's left for the shell is to pull out the engine+box. then the loom, then attack the sound deadener with some dry ice and off to the blasters!

Hahah Saxon. Just gotta look at it in a different light, it's really not too much work. Unfortunately Paul, I have neither... I'll reserve from making a decision on patching/replacing until I see how it is after the blasting, though I'm 90% sure the hole is going to have to go one way or another. I'll probably be in the same boat as Roberto if you reckon you can fab one up though. In other news, it seems that someone has applied some oldschool weight reduction techniques to the thermostat.... Everything on the engine is disconnected, radiator is pulled out, stupid shitty mangled bent-up piece of crap exhaust has been removed, the complete interior other than a steering column (and the sound deadener) has been removed too. Next up is pulling the engine + trans out, followed by the loom and any other random bits and bobs around the rest of the car. Door hinges, windows, chrome trim, etc etc.

Haha yeah, slowly finding enough coin that I might not even need to buy replacement sheet! I found a 10c piece between the trans tunnel diamond vinyl and the gross fabric underneath it... strange. Anyway, with the exception of anything touching the roof, the interior is entirely stripped now. Only leaving the steering wheel in. Good news: -I think that every piece of interior I've taken off will be able to be restored. There's a few cracks and splits in some plastic pieces but I think some plastic welding will fix all that. -No rust under anything in the interior. That's pretty much a give, but always nice to see anyway Bad news: -Think I'll have to fork out for a roof. Will assess after blasting though. -Both seats are buggered, and there's no driver door card. Dunno where I'll find one, but I need to at some point. -Obviously all the speakers are completely shot. Might trawl YAJ in hopes of finding some sweet oldschool box speakers, maybe a 'becker europa' headunit (or any old looking one that I can retrofit an AUX jack into) -kick panels are disgusting, can probably make replacements for those myself though. Only looks like cardboard and foam. Also, I'm just going to ignore all the hanging panels until the shell is sweet; what's the best way to treat those? Just spray some fish-oil on and forget about them, since they'll be stripped eventually the fish oil won't react with the new paint...right?

Really appreciate the help everyone, I'm taking it all on board. Just going to quickly post these few shots up as I'm a bit busy and need to give page 5 something to look at. Prick of a job this one. Had to pull the dashboard out in my S13 when I was doing transmission conversion, the s13 was far easier than the Z for some reason. I thoroughly enjoy removing stuff to find beautiful fresh metal underneath. Of course this wouldn't end up rusted, but it's still one less thing to worry about haha. Wiring this back up is going to be buckets of fun... 5 cents in one of the heater hoses.... Was a 1994 coin, and the car was last rego'd in 1992, meaning someone has gone out of their way to lose a 5-cent coin down one of the heater vents. Weird hey? I've found a total of 15 cents so far. Dashboard in need of some love. See how I go with reskinning this later on.

Thanks guys, should mention that I've done a fair bit of welding at school, but that was just with a basic oxy setup. So I'm not completely new to it, but new to mig. I'll start off with a whole pile of scrap and if I decide to get a rotisserie, I'll weld that up first before touching the car with it. Thanks again for the tips.

Thanks heaps for the tips guys, I'm very glad I didn't pull the trigger on a cheap gasless a few days ago. I figure I won't be needing to weld for a little while to come, so in the meantime research research research + saving saving saving. Before that happens I think I'm pretty well set for a blast jobby, cut out all the rust, prime to cover up the metal and then weld up a rotisserie for a nice little starting project. Then she'll start coming together rather than being ripped apart.

Hmm, I didn't think of how I'm actually going to transport the bonnet haha. Might strap it to roof-racks. Anyway here's some more digging, had to work soon as I got home last night. Some joker has tried to fill in a dent in the rail with bog... Stripping down some more, need to get the interior out next step as well as the grill (all the screws stripped instantly... woo...) Going to have to get creative with some sheet metal in here; Underneath the passenger fender. Other than the bit of thin sheet that bolts the fender to itself, the whole thing looks pretty solid. I'd like to thank Nissan engineers for creating adequate drainage solutions here This is the only rust in the engine bay, obviously underneath the battery. Kind of expected it. And in the A pillar. This is a bit concerning as I've got no idea what lies underneath that a-pillar... I get the impression that I'll have to pull the roof-skin and a-pillar skins off at some point to assess how bad it is under here, correct? Anyway, I think that brings me to the point where I know where 95% of the rust is... Once I've stripped the interior, next step is strip out the engine bay, correct?

Alrighty, got me a bonnet for $230. As long as when I go inspect it, it's not totally pitted out like mine. Ventless too, from a 2+2. Started drilling out that bolt too, will have to finish and post a piccy of underneath the fender once I'm home from some uni enrolment thing for a few hours.

Alright, I'll make an offer on that eBay bonnet. All the z's use the same bonnet don't they?? $260 a bit pricey or is that about what they go for? I swear I saw a fiberglass bonnet for sale here for $100 once... Also RE welders. There's a complete shitstorm regarding gas vs gasless, conflicting opinions everywhere. Know a couple of people whom I trust pretty well who say a small gasless is totally fine if you take it slow, but then on any forums it seems everyone is backing gas. -how much should I spend? -What amp range should I be looking at? 25-130 ish?? -suggestions on places to buy/brands/welders in particular?

Okey dokey, time for more pics and more words. Gav240z, definitely not expecting to come out on top money wise from this one. Maybe in about 40 years when they're all but extinct. Thanks for that link Veloce Zed74, I'm trying to think of it as though my 400 hours is un-doing the damage that Mother Nature has been inflicting for about 350,000 hours... Definitely going to be logging it all Wayne, as I can see that at some point I'll be down on motivation, then I'll at least be able to look back where it started from. Yes blasting doesn't sound cheap at all. Corsa here told me that Soda Blasting will set me back ~$1,100. Soda sounds like the way to go, but I think I'll strip it back to a bare shell and then assess from there. Thanks for the tips too. I assume Dioxodine de-oxygenates the metal or something in order to stop it oxidising underneath the paint later on? Anyway here's a bunch of pics to keep it interesting... Getting through the bonnet stripping, at least most of the paint is off now. Just a fair old bit of surface rust and two small holes: Here's some of the rust... Flap disc seems to be quite ineffective against it, unless I'm using it wrong? What should I be doing here? Any ideas would go a long way. Brabham, I think you asked for this angle? Pulled off the windscreen cowl expecting to find much worse than this One of the fenders off: I don't reckon this looks bad... Thoughts??? I couldn't get the passenger side fender off because one of the bolts that holds it to the sill has rusted round, and since the head is recessed beneath the fender I can't get a grip with vice-grips... What should I do? Also I pulled the fender up to have a peek at the rail, it's definitely much worse than the drivers side. Not totally rogered, but will require some sheet welded on. Oh, and there was this little surprise waiting for me underneath: Again, thanks for the encouragement and comments.

Okay, I'll rip as much of the hanging panels off as I can today... What's the best coating to use for storage? I've heard great things about lanolene, or should I just go fish-oil as I don't need to worry about it contaminating paint (as it'll all be stripped back to nothing in future?)

Should ask; is $260 a good price for a bonnet? Seems a little steep considering 240z, 260z and 2+2 all use the same (don't they?) part. One's up on eBay in Adelaide, not sure if forking that out now is better in the long run than filling the dents as best as possible.

Thanks nizm0zed, appreciate the comments. Corsa I'll send you a PM, if I can grab the price it'd be sweet. From the sounds of it, blasting is the way to go? I guess it gets into the little crevices that is impossible to do with a grinder and very hard with paint stripper. Will blasting strip back the rust properly, leaving me with a blank canvas? I've never really looked into it much. PeterAllen, just something I'd heard. Since the Z doesn't really have very thick rails, I thought it got much of it's stiffness from the entirety of the body? Curtis, on the whole I think I agree, after a few days of poking around it seems to look worse than it actually is. I've had a good look at zedback's thread, that will be good for me to follow as a bit of an example. I'm keen to end up with a zg replica, but without the nose. I'll figure that out a bit more down the track in regards to registration. Anyway just thought I'd chuck two pics up so that at least each page has something to look at, make it a little more interesting than walls of text. This is some god-knows-how-old sludge (excuse the string, seems like it used to open the bonnet. Works as it should from the lever inside the car though): This is the bonnet. It looks like someone has gone crazy with a ball-peen down the front and filled it with bog later. On stripping back the rest of the bonnet, it looks OK... Going to have to get some prices for a good bonnet and decide if I want a new one or to try repair this one. Ah yes Jamo, probably not the best choice of words on my part hahaha. I guess I meant that I'm enthusiastic to do it right. I'll definitely be using all the experience and tips from people who know far more than I do, pretty much the main reason I've posted this thread in the first place.

Whoah, not much optimism in here guys... Ledge, I'll definitely shoot you a PM in a couple of days if you want to come around and have a look, you'd be more than welcome. Cheers Jamo, appreciate the concern. I'm completely aware that this will end up costing more than finding a decent Z for ~$9,000, but I'm not after something that I'm going to buy, give a fresh lick of paint and call it a day. I'm also completely aware that structurally, it will be hard to re-create the original strength of the car. I'm think that anywhere I can't see, I'm happy to make it somewhat ugly, but very strongly reinforced. I know the sunroof significantly reduces the structural integrity of the Z and I'll be doing everything I can to make sure that I'm not driving around in a deathtrap. Also Chris, as above. I'm aware that it's going to take some long hard thinking to get this as stiff and strong as it should be. But time is on my side here, I can wait to make sure I do a proper job of it all. Thanks Brabham. I'm thinking of going front-back, otherwise I'll spend years chasing little bits and pieces around the place, not being truly sure of how much progress I've actually made. Front-back and I can see the progress I've made very easily. I'm not 100% sure about the sunroof Brabham. If it's allowable under historic rego I think it'll stay, otherwise I'll be trying to find a decent roof skin. I've seen that 240z track shell, and I'd definitely be keen but it's in Brisbane and I'm in S.A.. Transport would probably be about $900 considering it's non-rolling... I've shot the guy a PM expressing my interest in the major repair parts I need, will have to just wait and see how the eBay auction pans out. I've pulled the shitty canvas sunroof completely off, I think tomorrow I'll get rid of the framing... Hopefully that'll let me see underneath the roof-skin a bit, I'll then be able to see the extent of the cancer underneath the skin... The surface around the sunroof is in comparably good condition, but I'll wait to see before I say anything for sure. People have restored far worse, and I have youth on my side. I need something in my life that I can focus my spare time and energy on, and I've loved Z's since I first saw them. Anyway enough rambling, time to sleep off a few too many beers.

Yeah, guards will be coming off as soon as the bonnet is stripped bare. Hopefully won't be in for too big a shock. No better way to learn something than to dive in headfirst... Before my last car I didn't know how to do an oil change, two months later and I decided to finally swap swap the trans over from auto-manual At least there's enough metal to bolt the flares onto, that's a good start hahaha. Anyway; the z bug has bitten me. Well and truly in love with this bucket of rust. EDIT: I should also mention I want to aim to get this registered with S.A.'s historic registration scheme. Not sure how the sunroof will go with that, but even if I have to replace the roof skin, the difference in cost between historic and normal will pay for the roofskin in just one year. Build #1001 too

My new old car. An interesting place for rust: Passenger side is pretty well shot to shit. Sneaky hole underneath the passenger fender Finally part of the car without rust: Engine bay looks tidier than the rest of the car Almost complete lack of passenger floor. This is a little bit concerning as I don't think the standard replacement floors reach this far back. Might have to find someone splitting up a shell and get a donor patch After a few hours with the car I had a bit of a poke under a tiny hole I'd spotted, opened it up a bit and found a bit of a nightmare... The worst thing is I have no idea the extent of the rust under here Anyway now onto the actual work. I've started stripping the bonnet back using one of those 3M strip discs (drill type. bunnings didn't have the grinder one last time I went?) and it's taking a very long time because there seems to be more than a few layers of paint on the bonnet. It seems to go metal-factory red-primer-red respray-primer. Would I be better off using chemical stripper for this? Doesn't seem like a problem on any of the other panels, they all strip back quickly.

Thanks Mick. Keep saving, the perfect one for you will pop up one day. Now the fun begins...

Paid for it yesterday

Ryan here from S.A., just waiting on a different transport company to send me a quote, then I'll send you a PM with an offer, so long as the eBay auction doesn't meet your reserve and get sold.