mdbrandy

When I stripped my car down, under the dash on the passenger side, I found a small hole rusted through from the cowl area. Inside the cowl area, you can barely get to this hole, and there was a big piece of some kind of dried up "sealer" over it anyway. Never would have found it without removing the dash. Undoubtedly was leaking water into the passenger compartment. Good luck.

You might want to see what is under those metal threshold plates too...

Any rust along the bottom curves of your rockers? Mine rusted out along the bottom sides, back near the wheel well, and under the front fender where the stupid drains pour out. If you don't have any bubbling of the paint on the rockers as they curve down toward the bottom of the car, then you are likely to be in better shape than me. I'd at least poke at your rust areas with something, though. If you can go through them with a screwdriver, then you'll have similar problems. I had an actual hole from the rear wheelwell into the rear rocker too, which would have been letting water get inside there for who knows how long. Good luck.

That sounds ugly. I think I'll practice some more before trying the car itself...

I'm actually debating that with myself right now, and was going to ask for opinions. It would be easy to stitch weld the rocker along the outsides of the flanges, but I wasn't sure whether that would be the best way (and then grind flush as you suggest). Or, I could drill a bunch of holes in the flanges, and weld them to the car flanges to approximate the spot welding. For the previous body work that has been done on this car (rear quarters mostly), it looks like the body shop did the drill holes and "spot weld" sort of thing. Anyone have an opinion on whether a continuous stitch weld would cause unacceptable warping in the rockers or anything? thanks.

Take MSA's catalog with a grain of salt. There are several things from the catalog that I tried to get yesterday that are NLA. The prices have changed a lot too. The sales dweeb said that the catalog that I got just 2 months ago is actually almost 18 months old. FWIW.

I've got about 10 more pics of the hinges and springs (I was worried about gettting them back together too!), but I thought these were the best. Let me know if you think you need any other angles.

And the right side:

Pics of ones still on the car: Left Side:

I don't think I'll be that lucky. The quarter is just as good on the passenger side, but the Rocker is even worse in front on that side, and I expect to see the same stuff under the rear quarter. There's even a little hole in the wheel well on the passenger side in about the same place as the drivers side. Not quite as big, though, but it doesn't take much to let the water in. Oh well, by the time I get to it, I'll have a lot more experience, right?

Until you start making it "bigger". Abrasive cutting wheels make quick work of removing metal :devious: .

Here is the wheel well behind that portion of the rocker before work started. Hole doesn't look too bad, right?

Not much. I had some indications, however. Here is a pic of the rear of the rocker before I started hacking on the quarter panel. Note that the outside of the quarter looks pretty good. The end of the rocker inside it is rusty, but reasonably intact. However, see the next two pics...

There's a purportedly "no rust" gas tank from a '73 on e-bay that no one has bid on yet. gas tank

I glanced in my '78 280Z parts car last night, and the Heater Control Panel is NOTHING like the one in my 240Z.

Well, a few weeks ago I removed 2/3 of the left Rocker for replacement, and I was vacillating about cutting out the lower rear quarter to get to the back end of the rocker. The quarter panel had been replaced 12 years ago and still seemed to be in good shape. I think it was Escanlon that suggested I might consider what things looked like under the quarter, and tonight I did. Poke, prod, cut, chisel, and in the end, it looks like this. Yikes! At least I'll be able to replace the entire rocker intact, and then the lower quarter dogleg. Thorough cleaning out, POR-15ing, and maybe I'll never have to do it again. Hopefully. Ugly stuff, that rust...