Namerow

Are you continuing to use your heat-and-razor approach for these areas? The contours look a little challenging for a flat blade.

Any idea why filler was used on the top surface of your passenger-side front fender? Seems like an odd place for the surface to be low.

Ouch! Cdn$355 (plus tax and shipping). Cdn$270+ for an OE gas cap. Maybe I should start parting out my car.

Have a look here... https://belmetric.com/screws/oval-phillips-machine/

A great reference piece. Thanks.

Ziebart uses a 'wax' application (parrafin?). A comparable treatment in England is called Waxoyl. Ziebart was the leading rustproofing treatment in Canada and the US back in the 1970's, but it's popularity became increasingly challenged by competitors using light oil products (Rust-Chek and Krown are two of the leading franchises). All require drilling access holes in strategic locations to permit the treatment to be sprayed into closed sections (typically, rocker panels, A-pillars, and B-pillars). Doors, on the other hand, are treated by inserting the wand into the door through the window opening. One good thing about Ziebart is that the treatment doesn't drip after it's been applied (the oil-type applications drip for 2 or 3 days). Ziebart had some issues when the treatment was (allegedly) found to crack after a few years, leading to water/salt entrapment and premature rusting. Not sure if this was true, although I think I recall a class-action lawsuit being launched. One thing's for sure: Ziebart was a lot better than the brush-on 'rubberized' undercoating that a lot of Z owners applied to the underside of their cars when they first noticed rust appearing. That stuff just accelerated the rust. And we all know what a b____ it is to remove 45 years later on.

Thanks. Great job of assembling photos and details. These will be an useful resource for anyone planning to do a front frame rail replacement. I've always been intrigued by those 'teeth'. Its an odd design detail. Maybe a strategy for reducing warpage along this flange during the factory spot-welding process? If so, why wasn't it used along the other (longer) flanges? Any ideas?

Just be careful to inspect your existing screwdrivers before you plunk down an order for a JIS set. I didn't and. when the new JIS set arrived, I discovered that the tip geometry of my 10-year-old Craftsman screwdrivers was identical. I then verified that my Craftsman set has the JIS tip geometry. That makes me think that many of the manufacturers of 'regular' screwdrivers may have switched to the JIS tip geometry some time ago. I certainly do have some Phillips-head screwdrivers in my collection that aren't JIS, but they're all anywhere from 20 to 50 years old (dating myself here). These cheap-o's helped me to strip out the heads of the through-bolts (actually pan-head Phillips machine screws) that were holding together the left and right-side halves of my Yamaha 80's crankcase. That introduced me to the concept of corrosion between dissimilar metals and, in turn, led me to discover the perils of trying to use a cheap e-z-out to remove a frozen fastener (snap!). Which, in turn, showed me how difficult it is the drill out a cheap, but nevertheless, hardened-steel e-z-out. All of which led to my introduction to the service manager at my local bike shop.

I experienced similar issues when replacing the U-joints in the steering shaft for my 70 Z and, like you, butchered one of the replacements in the process of trying to install it. I had to cut the trunnion pin off the spider before I could get it out of the yoke. Small job. Big PITA. p.s. I like your 'budget' hydraulic press. Very resourceful.

Those NOS lower frame rails (and the LHS upper frame 'horn') are real unicorn pieces. Where did you find them? Also: If time permits, it would be of interest to some of us if you can show some pictures of the internal details of the lower frame rails (reinforcement pieces, weld-nut fasteners, etc). Also: What metal gauge was used for those lower and upper frame pieces?

Considering only the math, increasing the oil passage diameter from 0.239" to 0.250" would increase the cross-section by just under 10%. I suppose that's worthwhile, but only a Datsun engine expert would know. It would seem to be a lot of expense for a street-use-only engine. Have you checked Tom H's book, 'How to Modify your Nissan & Datsun OHC Engine'?

Kudos for illustrating that -- for certain applications, anyway -- there are choices other than welding. Reminds me of a friend (also located in BC) who successfully built a rotisserie frame for his 240Z project from wood. Looking forward to your photos.

Hi Chris: Congrats on your pragmatic solutions here. A few questions, if you don't mind: I've heard a lot about extreme increases in paint prices, so I'm curious about what the real-life numbers are. What were your approx. over-the-counter costs for the three categories of paint used (primer, colour, clear)? p.s. Costs in stated Cdn $ work fine for me. For once, I won't have to re-engineer costs stated in US $ to figure out what they mean here in Canada What was your source for the overhead strip lighting? Please explain the materials you used to fabricate your new flex sanding pads.

Based on the comments on the Chevelle website, there is a least anecdotal evidence that this product degrades over time. The problem, of course, is that 'over time' doesn't mean how long since date of purchase, but instead how long since date of manufacture. And the degradation process might depend on the storage conditions. A call to the manufacturer's support line might provide some better insights or guidance. Your side experiment with the spare piece of sheet metal will probably* indicate whether your particular batch is flawed (* but not necessarily, because the spraying conditions won't match the conditions that existed within your indoor booth re temp and humidity). Regardless of that outcome, I think that the safest route would be to write off what you have left and buy new. Unfortunately, the law of paint system mix-and-match says that you should go with the same manufacturer again, so that all of your layers are Nason. The comments on the Chevelle website provide some useful thoughts on how to determine whether the new batch is also flawed. Maybe there is more/better guidance available on other paint-and-restoration websites. Also, the manufacturer may have their own guidance for pre-application checks on their product. I had a similar outcome with a vinyl paint that I applied to a Z upholstery panel. Fixing the bad result was a PIA... but it was successful. Crappy way to start the holidays.

It seems it's hard for some painters to un-learn what they've picked up in the insurance-driven collision repair business.

The late Colin Chapman would have referred to this as 'adding lightness'. So, a good thing 🙂

In your last photo, is the light-green panel (so-called 'K-box') a KF piece or is it something that you made on your own?

Colombia, as in South America. When I dealt with them in 2019, the sales office was based in Florida (Miami, IIRC), but the parts are stamped in Colombia. If you do a little snooping on line, you can find some pictures of the factory. They made their rep supplying the VW microbus community and then decided to branch out into other types of vehicles. Datsun and Toyota models were chosen to lead the way.

Without meaning to shill for this vendor, they have really taken the Z restoration process a completely new level when compared with the bad old days of Tabco-or-make-your-own. I just checked their website and was pleasantly surprised to see that they've pretty much doubled their range of Z repair panels from the time when I last checked in 2020 (the 240Z catalog now includes 44 items). Some of the noteworthy additions: radiator bulkhead front inner fender patch panels, c/w separate 'pocket' piece for the crossmember join area and separate 'doubler' panel for the K-box area firewall repair panels (lhs and rhs) battery tray - separate, or c/w inner fender patch panel dogleg repair pieces - inner and outer, plus lower B-pillar piece front fender lower-rear patch panels, c/w mounting details Worth a look. KF Vintage JDM 240Z Separate catalogs for 280Z, 510 and 620 (!)

Who makes it? Or, who was the supplier that you bought it from?

Here's an article on re-bushing the SU's that I found in my e-library. Credited to Delaware Valley Triumphs club member, Tony Rhodes (www.dvtr.org -- based in Philadelphia) . It provides some insights into the symptoms, the cause, and one of the cures (re-bushing). In essence, this approach assumes that the majority of the wear problem occurs in the steel bushing ('ovaled'), not the ends of the chrome-plated brass shaft. That seems counterintuitive, but I miked a set of worn shafts and found very little difference in the diameters of the unchromed ends vs those of the chrome-intact sections. Maybe someone else can verify by doing some measurements on used throttle shafts that they have on hand. SU Carbs - Rebuilding - Bushing Reaming.pdf

I wonder if Nissan had some build tolerance issues with the earlier cars' structures and used this strategy as a cheap-and-dirty way to get all three engine/trans mounts points to line up with the structure after the engine/trans was put in position (i.e. secure the transmission mount first, then bend the engine mounts to line up)?

Intriguing idea. Not so much 'outside the box' thinking, but more like, 'What if we turn the box upside down?' Some pix would be nice.

While the Z community is well served by a couple of specialty manufacturers of replacement body panels, there remain certain large panels that can usually be sourced only by taking a replacement panel from a donor vehicle. Examples would be the hood, roof, hatch, outer and inner door panels, firewall, inner front fenders, rad bulkhead, and the tail panel. Nissan has recently previewed a new technology that permits large, complicated-shape panels to be formed without a die. While it's probably intended to serve the collision repair industry, it's conceivable that they might be talked into doing short runs of panels for older classics like the Z and Skyline. Here's a video from the auto industry daily blog, Autoline Daily:

It is a broken-off section of the electrical system's reverse encabulator mounting block.