Namerow

Out of curiosity (I've never looked this up), how much does a Cleco cost? (Cdn $ please). How many do you have in your shop? (I see 13 in use in your most recent picture, with possibly 6 - 12 more hidden from view). What are the advantages of a Cleco over a sheet-metal screw?

If it's a 20mm hole, Banzai Motorsports were the only source when I last checked a couple of years ago. Things may have changed since then. Check the usual suppliers. If it's a 25mm hole, both Banzai and Motorsport Auto (and probably others) can help you out.

Somewhat (but not completely) off topic, here's an interesting video that shows how the Volvo P1800ES sportwagon's structure was put together in the day. Offers some good insights into lay-up jigs, spotwelding equipment, etc. These cars were not built to the dimensional standards of the Z and used assembly techniques that were somewhere between custom-build and volume-build (note the use of tin snips), but were very much of the same era. The lead-seam-filling sequences really caught my eye. https://binged.it/2UdwaNG or,

There's that, too. Even at an occupant crash decel rate of just 3g, the forces generated by a strapped-in 200-pounder through the seat belt attachment points are compelling. And the resulting stresses in the sheet metal can jump even higher if the local panel(s) starts to deform.

I can never resist a good structural engineering puzzle. Of course, unibody structures are not simple affairs to analyze as the load points and paths are complicated. And automotive design decisions can also be influenced (if not, dictated) by manufacturability and cost. From a structural perspective, we're looking at a long closed-box section that acts as an outboard rib for the floor panel. The floor panel has an equally strong inner rib, in the form of the open-box section created by the transmission tunnel. The rocker structure connections to the A and B-posts have to transfer/resist both axial loads and torques (and not just in simple bending mode, but also torsion, such as when a single wheel hits a pothole or a ridge). After staring at diagrams and photos of the rockers and the (very complicated) dogleg area, think the design solution used by Nissan at the ends of the rocker structures reflects all three considerations: 1. Structural: I think the structural decision was premised on a desire to have all of the loads from the rocker structure to the A and B posts transferred/resisted in shear through a single plane (vertical-longitudinal in this case). It's elegant and simple. It also means that... 2. Manufacturability: The spot welds all occur in that same plane and can be accomplished without the need to rotate the welder electrodes, and... 3. Cost: The inner rocker can be stamped with a single-shot (not need to fold flanges are the rear end to allow joining with the wheel housing. This might also assist in stacking the parts for shipment and storage. This is all just educated guessing, offered by an engineer who should be retired but still needs the money. To assist in further speculation, here are a couple of photos for your consideration (as usual, with apologies to the original posters whose names I failed to record)...

WD-40 is, in my opinion, essentially useless as a lubricant. It is designed with a very low viscosity so that it flows into holes and openings. Unfortunately, it has minimal effectiveness as a long-term lubricant. It is intended for what I would call, 'household' applications (i.e. good for house door hinges, not so good for automotive work). There are better spray lubes conveniently available. However... I am skeptical that you will be able to get the tip of the spray wand ('straw') to point in the direction needed to properly lubricate the regulator spring. You are welcome to try, but I think you're just going to get spray lube everywhere but where you want it. The regulator is best dealt with after it's been removed from the inside of the door. The main items that need oil are centre pivot pin for the arms (just like a pair of scissors), the pivot shafts for the nylon roller wheels (the ones located at the ends of the regulator arms), and the centre pivot pin for the hand-crank gear. Everything else should be greased (not oiled). Use synthetic grease, not mineral-based. Grease goes on all of the gears. It also goes in the front and rear guide channels. For the big coil spring, I would use spray-on lithium grease (available at hardware or automotive parts stores). The only way to properly apply grease and oil is to take the door apart. THINK CAREFULLY ABOUT WHETHER YOU WANT TO ATTEMPT THIS. Are you confident that you will be able to re-assemble the parts successfully? Are you really sure that the parts desperately need lubrication? IF YOU FIND YOU ARE UNABLE TO PUT THE DOOR BACK TOGETHER, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO DRIVE THE CAR. Don't make this discovery after you've taken the door apart. Disassembling and re-assembling the door is not rocket science. However, it takes care, patience, and attention to detail. If you lack these, don't try it. In my experience, it's the guide channels that are most likely to have lubrication issues. The original grease tends to turn to hardened crud over the years. In general, I think that lubricating the front guide channel is the item that will give you the greatest results. You can probably get some spray lithium grease into that channel using a long (12" or longer) flexible spray wand. Lower the window all the way. Look down the front of the window slot. After you're sure that you have identified the top of the front guide channel, you will have a target for the spray grease. DON'T OVER-DO IT!. Some of the overspray is going to go on the window glass and that will muck up the felt window channel guides. You cannot grease the rear guide channels without taking the door apart. Other members may have additional or better suggestions. Wait a couple of days before you decide what you want to do.

Can't help with this one. I was involved in some commentary about techniques for seating the snap ring, but that's about it. JR's disassembly photos look pretty definitive, so I expect that that part of the mystery has been solved for you. The missing washer looks pretty generic, provided that you can find one with approx. the right OD and ID. Alternatively, @zKars might have a complete valve assy to offer from his used parts stash.

There is something seriously odd going on with that 'short stud'. A butcher-mechanic has been at work here. The threads are mangled and it looks some kind of additional fastener has been added above it. Also, if you look closely, you can also see that the slotted hole in the door panel has been elongated at the bottom to create additional adjustment room. Strictly speaking, this shouldn't have been necessary, but who knows what was going on in the mind of the person who decided this was the right thing to do.. The stud in question is one of two used to secure the the rear 'guide channel' to the inner door panel. The locating holes for this guide channel have some adjustment because the vertical position of the channel determines the max. height that the rear of the window achieves when it`s raised within its sash (chrome window frame). Here's what the rear guide channels look like (note: the rear guide channels are the short ones at the bottom of the photo. The long ones at the top of the photo are the front guide channels): The fasteners look like this (please excuse the rust): The nuts are 'serrated shoulder' design that (theoretically) provides high 'bite' at low torque. Difficult, but not impossible, to source. Any competent metric fastener supply house will stock these (try Bel-Metric, located in Massachussets). Not a big deal, though. An ordinary M6 nut with some Loc-Tite (anaerobic thread-locking fluid, available at hardware stores and auto supply stores) applied will work just fine. Note that the M6 washers have an oversized outside diameter (these are sold as 'fender washers' in auto supply stores. Like the serrated shoulder nuts, these are 'nice to have' but not 'need to have'. The elongated locating holes in the door panel also allow some adjustment to the angle of the guide channel relative to horizontal. After getting the window rise set properly, you may need to play with the angle of the guide channel to achieve smooth action for the regulator assembly as the window glass is raised and lowered. I agree with Zkars that no other fasteners appear to be missing. However, I am concerned by the fact that someone has mangled the locating stud and performed 'modifications' on the fastener and the locating slot. It suggests that bigger issues may be lurking out of sight inside your door (bent regulator arm?) and these may have contributed to the window 'shifting' when you slammed the door. Just how hard did you slam the door? Unless you were mad at the car, I expect that you didn't slam it that hard, so perhaps the problem was already there and just waiting for the appropriate time to surface. Was the window moving up and down smoothly before it 'shifted'? If the action was stiff, then I think you may have regulator issues. The late, great E. Scanlon posted an excellent write-up on this site that outlines the procedures for assembling and adjusting the window and regulator assemblies. I believe you can find it in the new 'Knowledge Base' section. Or maybe someone else can post a link.

I've dealt with these folks for 'Continental'-brand cloth-braided coolant hose (full range of sizes available)... Bel-Metric - Tyngsboro, MA https://www.belmetric.com/braided-metric-hose-oem-c-14_138/?zenid=l8q6rc5k16gtctsfllf89onb23 Priced per meter (i.e. if you order 1.3 meters, you pay for 2 meters) The molded radiator and master-vac hoses are always going to be a challenge, unfortunately. They are available but, as Patcon notes, they are expen$ive (esp. the rad hoses). You might be able to fake the master-vac hoses by bending and fitting metal-tube inserts inside the rubber hose (my notes say that the fittings are 10mm OD, so a properly clamped 9mm hose should work, maybe with a bit of sealant for insurance).

And adjusting the hub position to help correct the early design's leading-diff/trailing-hub situation would have made the tire sit even further forward inside the wheel opening. I've heard it explained (source?) that the S30's differential was pushed forward late in the design cycle when Nissan's engineers became concerned over meeting the new US FMVSS requirement for rear impact. The explanation was that they wanted to move the differential further way from the front of the fuel tank to reduce the liklihood that it would puncture the tank when the rear of the car folded up. I don't think this was guess work. They must have observed a potential problem or else they wouldn't have taken such an unnatural design path. There was a lot of confusion and uncertainty within the industry over what form the actual FMVSS rear impact standard would take when made into law (impact speed and fixed vs. moving barrier were still being debated). I wonder if Nissan decided to take an extra-conservative route to begin with and then relaxed the design back to 'normal' when they felt more comfortable? It's all very curious. A lot of parts had to be changed, at enormous expense, and giving back the crash safety margin in the process. This would not have been done unless Nissan felt there was a major problem with offset design. And yet modern-day owners of Z's with the offset design never seem to complain about the expected issues (which are: 1) drivetrain resonance at cruising speed, and; 2) premature halfshaft U-joint wear).

While we're on the topic of amusing news stories from down east, how about this one? "'More stupid than it was criminal:' Judge frees Halifax brothers involved in border standoff" https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/halifax-brothers-stand-trial-standoff-at-border-1.5047429

Thanks for taking the time to do this. A very nice tutorial.

Out of curiosity, are those butt welds throughout, or do I see a few plug welds in certain places? If you did use plug welds for this repair, what's the rationale?

A master class in fabrication. If we put you and Disepyon together, we'd have a source for truly rust-free Z frames. You do the front, he does the centre, you split to chores for the rear.

For me, 'unique' isn't the word that came to mind.

When time permits, can you post a couple of photos of your laser, along with the mftr/specs and any comments you have about its use. Also: I have the opportunity to buy a Stanley 'Cubix Crossliner' this weekend for $40. It's marked down from $120, so it seems like a great buy. Or it could be just $40 wasted. I don't know much about these systems and I haven't done any online research yet. The Stanley unit is described as: Stanley Cubix Cross Line Laser features a quick link bracket and mounting system Accuracy: +/-5/16” Self Leveling Cross Lines: projects bright horizontal and vertical lines onto flat surfaces for common leveling and alignment applications Compact and lightweight design Locking pendulum for setting angled lines and to help prevent damage to internal components Range: 40' (12 m) I'm not liking that accuracy spec too much, but maybe that's +/- 5/16" when the beam(s) get projected out to the extreme of the 40-foot range? If so, it would be +/- 1/16" at 10 ft. Also, it seems that 'accuracy' may not be the issue for the type of auto restoration work being discussed here and that, instead, it's more a question of offering the capability to throw 2 perpendicular lines with independent positioning adjustment, together with a decent, adjustable-and-stable platform. Your comments appreciated.

I enjoy playing with numbers sometimes (and I know this will drive @Captain Obvious crazy), so: At 510 lb, the entire S30 unibody would crush down into a block of steel that measures only 12" x 12" x 12" . (Which reminds me of the scene from the old James Bond movie, Goldfinger, where the crushed remains of an early-60's Lincoln Continental (an early American unibody) are dropped into the bed of a waiting Ford Ranchero pickup for 'disposal'. That block was probably about 3 cu.ft. but it included all of the bodywork, interior and glass too.) The S30 unibody weighs a bit less than 5 of Grannyknot's anvils. The S30 has plan-view measurements of about 162" L x 64" W. If the entire unibody was fabricated from 20-gauge sheet (0.036"), you'd need a single sheet measuring about 350 SF. If you wanted to make your own from 4' x 10' sheets of 20-gauge, you'd need 9 sheets. But then, allowing for scrappage from the cut patterns, you probably need to actually buy about 30 sheets. A 4' x 10' sheet of 20-gauge hot rolled steel sheet currently costs about $90, so that means your bill out the door of the metal supply shop would be about $2700. You could probably recover half of that by selling the scrap to a recycler. So let's call it $2000 for the material needed to make your own S30 unibody. Freight, taxes, and labour costs extra, of course. If you started with a single 348-SF sheet of 20-gauge that was 64" wide (same as the length of of S30) and laid it crosswise and centred under the car, it would extend two car widths on either side of the car outline.

I agree with your premise. I know you're busy with the real work right now, but later, when time permits, please consider creating a set of drawings for your jig. It would make a great addition to the restoration resources that this great site makes available to others. BTW, you have a real talent for visualizing sheet metal repairs. The fab part is half of it, but the 'vision' part (i.e 'How do I translate this into cuts and bends and welds) is equally important.

For added obfuscation, look up the 'balk' in the baseball rulebook.

I mentioned this recently in another thread, but no one came through to confirm/deny or expand on it: There were reports some years ago that a section of a Z front fender has a contour that replicates the under-battery section of the inner fender. Unfortunately, I don't recall that suggestion being accompanied by pictures to show how it was done (or whether it was done). Even if true, Z front fenders don't grow on trees these days, so it would probably amount to a difficult or expensive solution (or both). However... The general concept is interesting. Perhaps a re-pop or scrap front fender from a more pedestrian donor vehicle would serve equally well? It would need to be a vehicle (car or pickup truck) with a similar, rounded styling. However, I think you'd only be able to size up the feasibility of this approach by cutting out the Z inner fender repair area and then eye-balling the shape, hoping that it would ring a bell: 'You know, that looks a lot like the crown of the front fender from a 1986 Ford Taurus'. A DIY alternative would be to take a fibreglass cast from the repair area and then do some tree-stump/sandbag tin bashing, using the cast as a shape reference.

From long ago, I remember someone mentioning a specific combination of socket-wrench extensions and U-joints that would allow getting at the mirror fasteners. Maybe someone with a better memory than me can tell us the secret formula.

Whoever wrote this manual back in the day had a nice understanding of the Z's prospective corrosion spots. There are some places missed, though: lower boxed section at the rear of the front frame rails (behind the T/C rod bracket) underfloor reinforcement rails underside of hatch floor, where the floor meets the rear valence panel inner cavity beneath the rear hatch sill plate full perimeter of the hatch cavity (not just the trailing edge) windshield posts front cowl (esp. along all the seams) In the 1970's, it seems, many of the popular aftermarket rustproofing solutions were flawed by design. Ziebart (a wax-type treatment) was considered the gold standard, but the material apparently dried out and cracked after several years, creating thousands of crevasses and concealed ledges for salt water to lodge in. As a result, the 'rust preventative' became a rust accelerator. IIRC, there was a successful class-action suit and the company went out of business. Another name in the day was 'Bondeco'. They seem to have disappeared, too. Maybe for the same reason (modern wax-type treatments (e.g. WaxOyl) use better formulations and don't seem to suffer from the same problem). Also in the 1970's, old-timers swore by the effectiveness of oil-spraying. Unfortunately, most of the shops that did this were kind of 'rural' and they used old crankcase oil. Not the sort of thing to be spraying onto your brand-new sportscar! We now have RustChek and the like, which use a clean, thin, perfumed oil that does a nice job of creeping into seams. I have a 2006-vintage car that I bought new and had sprayed once shortly after purchase. It's still solid and rust-free (although at least half of the credit for that probably goes to manufacturers' increased use of galvanized sheet metal).

Forget about the Zamboni. Look at the size of that 'backyard' rink! Gretzky would be proud!

I've had my Haynes 240Z manual since the early 1980's, I think. Dog-eared, grease-smeared, binding disintegrated, but still a great resource. I think I got my money's worth.