Battery tray ugly

[a7dz]

Found some right gauged steel, so I'm going to sart beating out a peice to fit.

I went down to my local sheet metal shop and had a piece rolled to match the arch.

FWIW

[Victor Laury]

Ya all seen the pretty photos of my car and said nice-nice things. Now Behold on the EEEEVVIIIILLLL that lurks below the skin.

The battery tray is in remarkably good shape, and with a wire brushing and a ZeroRust prime coat should be as good as new. The inner fender, well that will require just a touch more work.

[montoya_fan01]

How did the spot weld cutter work? Was it worth buying/using?

[Victor Laury]

A wise man named Gary said to me, "Be carefull with that axe, Eugene", but I didn't listen. Drilled clear through in two spots.

[montoya_fan01]

well, your gonna need welding anyway, so probably not a big deal, right?

What would have been a better option? Chisel and hammer? I wouldn't think so. What else could be used?

[kenz240z]

Hi Garth,

I've used a couple of different spot weld cutters, both with good results. One type is basically a 3/8" drill bit with a different cutting face. Hopefully you can see what I mean in the pic on the right. The other one is like a tiny hole saw, the one I have is made by Blair.

The drill bit tool leaves a dimple, and seems to have more risk of drilling completely through both layers of metal, but it works pretty fast. The Blair tool can cut a spot weld out without any sign, except for the circle of metal left from the top layer. These spotweld remnants then need to be removed with a grinder. Less chance of cutting through both layers, unless you get in a hurry. Seems to take a bit longer to cut out a spot weld, though. Extra cutting tips are a must, they get dull pretty quick, even with constant application of oil.

I think the main thing when using either one is to take your time and stop the drill often to check your progress.

I didn't have to cut any panels off my Z, but I've used both of these tools to remove plenty of panels from other vehicles. I got the Blair tool after seeing a buddy use one to cut the floor panel out of a '62 Chevy. Needless to say, there were a lot of spot welds, and the sheetmetal on an old Chevy is a lot thicker than the metal used on the Z cars! :laugh:

In the case of a rusty battery tray area, there might not be any benefit in cutting out the spot welds if the underlying metal is rusted through and the tray is also too rusty to be salvaged. It might be better to cut the whole assembly out with an air saw or nibbler. Cut the same area out of a solid donor, plus a little extra around the edges, then it can be trimmed & fitted before welding it in.

I have a hunch that the area under the battery tray didn't get the best paint coverage from the factory, and the combination of battery acid, water and time allow rust to eat through!:mad:

[ncz]

Hey all, just went through the same thing and had a lot of the same results. Its amazing how an entire floorpan can be shot, but fixed fairly quickly and with OEM type parts. I tried to get Charlie Osbourne to make the battery tray area, said good english wheel guys are dying off too fast!! Couple of notes from my experiences. Had the same effects as Victor. The easy to get to spot welds weren't any trouble, the ones where the drill wouldn't fit were a B%$#. Ended up chewing some out that will require some weldiing up before putting the tray back in. I used the spot weld cutters that have a pilot spike in the middle. Those things went all over the place. Even by center punching a dimple it was still hard to keep those things on track. As Kenny stated , I chewed up a bunch of cutting heads. I think the cutter with the drill bit in the middle is my next choice. Even if a small hole goes through, quick blast of the mig and grinder is easy. Makes a better cut IMO. For replacement of the area(mine is just the size of Victors) I took some heavy tin foil and folded, mashed, squashed it into the area until I had the outline of the panel I needed. I have tried the card board cut outs with mixed results. The tin foil molds easily to the area you want. For the replacement panel I used an old fender(the one with the bad front qtr) and laid the tin foil over the "crown" of the fender. This curve is real close to the curve of the area near the frame rail. A little bending, maybe with a sandbag and mallet, will get you where you need to be. I need to rebuild some of the engine side edge of the battery tray, shouldn't be too hard. Hope this helps.

[Victor Laury]

Thanks Tom! I have a buggered up fender below the house - or two or three -sicko Datsun pack rat that I am. Got the sandbag and pedestal set up last night. The foil model is something I hadn't thought of. Good tip!

[Ed]

When I drilled out my rusted frame rails: first I center punched the weld, then I used a 1/8 drill to help guide the larger 3/8 bit to remove the weld. I purposely welded through both pieces of metal. After it was all cleaned up, treated and ready for the new metal I secured the new metal in it's place. Then I would use the same holes to weld in the new rails. The result is a very clean looking weld almost identical to the spot weld.

[ncz]

Hear ya Ed, I drilled out (all the way through) the floor pan support rails to get the support off. I knew that I would get a new floor pan and would only have to plug weld. That was the quickest route. That dang spot weld cutter was a pain!!! I have found though that I'm not too bad with an open spot weld hole and a copper pipe as back up. I can make those look decent. My stitch welding, well thats another story!! You know you guys make this somewhat fun, thanks!!

[a7dz]

Spot weld Cutter?? I think I missed. I cut the fender well out to repair the battery box and the frame rail at the same time. Both were effected by the years of wet Northwest weather. I had sheet metal rolled to go all the way to the lower side of the frame rail Fixing both problems at one time.

[a7dz]

Here are some shots of the in process work.