I just found out that my 73 z has about 5 inches of rust on the bottom part of the back of the frame rail attaching it to the rest of the frame. I thought I checked the whole car before buying but oh well. I will try to post a picture of it. I dont know what to do, I have never had any rust repair experience and was wondering what the first steps should be...

Thanks

It's going to all depend on how bad it is. I could be surface rust that just sands off or a 5 inch hole or something in between. You'll need to show us the pictures. That part of the car is very important structurally. If it's bad it has to be repaired properly. You can get new frame rails from here:

http://www.datsunzparts.com/Summary.htm

You might want to search old discussions here for "frame rail"

The rust is about six inches long along the frame rail directly under the passenger seat...

Not only am i gonna be in for the big bucks on this frame repair but I scratched my dads digital camera viewfinder trying to take pics :stupid:

I only know how to do one pic at a time

I dont know how the hell to do this but the are coming up on my gallery, so if this doesnt work they are there

Looking at the link you gave mike, it looks like the floor pans have semi-frame rails connecting them. Well it looks like that is the part that is rusted. Anyway the pics are on my gallery.

Thanks alot guys

Man, I have been here before....

You can get away with just patching this area, but for the price it's better to just get a set of floor pan panels. These can range from $150-$300 depending on the "correctness" of the panels.

The repair itself is pretty easy is you are somewhat competent with a welder. Otherwise, find someone that will do the work *and* do a good job.

Since you're in Dallas, contact the Z Club of Texas (a link is posted in this site in the links section). There are quite a few people up there that will be willing to help.

If the floor pans are in good shape other than the one spot that is rusted out, you might also consider patching the spot on the floor, and replacing only the under floor rail which you can get from Zedd Findings.

Seriously though, the best thing to do is to get under there and find out what is or is not hiding under the undercoating before you go any further... Looks to be quite a good coating of undercoat on the car, so you may or may not have more rust than you think you have.

Actually the front floor pans are good shape rust wise but they have about a 4 inch tare in them... no rust around it just looks like someone jamed a screwdriver through it and tore it down 4 or 5 inches. This car has been in rural texas all its life, so it most definantly could be some teenagers offroading in it. You know how those country folk are :classic:

Originally posted by kmack

Since you're in Dallas, contact the Z Club of Texas (a link is posted in this site in the links section). There are quite a few people up there that will be willing to help.

So far all I could find on their website is guys with 90's model 300zx that jsut want the discount that membership offers them...

http://www.zcluboftexas.org/profile1999_body.html

There are still a lot of members with first gen Zs in the club as of 1999, and most of their club photos have a lot of the older Zs. I plan on joining soon.

Andrew