mdbrandy

When I was about 23, and still in grad school, I was very surprized one day to go over a puddle and have the floor under my feet in my '75 280Z push up. Problem was, that there was no floor under the pedals any more :eek: . So, I cut out some sheet metal from a VW bug hood, pop riveted it over the hole, and fiberglassed the underside to seal it up. Worked fine for the next four years until I had to sell the car. Now, having said that, I wasn't racing the car, and Bambi is right that it most certainly compromised the integrity of the body. Plus, the 280Z frame rails in that area are much more robust than those on the 240Z, and they were still OK (from what I remember from 20 years ago...). Bottom line is that older and wiser now, I wouldn't even consider going that route again! It's a stopgap measure for someone with no money, and it will most assuredly cause more problems down the road. FWIW.

9 pages take a while to read, but it's cool seeing who some of you are. So, I'm Mark - 42, one wife for the past 18 years, and three sons (10, 12, and 15). Just signed the drivers permit application for the 15 year old today. Pity me! I live here in Champaign, IL, about 45 miles from where I grew up in Decatur, IL. Got a BS in Engineering here at the University of Illinois, and then spent 6 years in Los Angeles (UCLA) getting a Ph.D. in engineering to go with it. Then 5 years in South Carolina working for Westinghouse at a Dept. of Energy site doing Safety Engineering work. Then followed 7 years in Bel Air, MD (just north of Baltimore) working for a company called SAIC doing safety work, and then information technology work for the Army. Now I'm back working in a research group at the University of Illinois, using supercomputers to model Solid Propellant Rockets (a rocket scientist in a manner of speaking :classic: ) like the ones on the space shuttle. www.csar.uiuc.edu if you're interested in that sort of thing. I'm their software engineering and QA manager. My first car in 1977 was a 71 240Z that I switched the auto tranny to a 4 speed, rebuilt the head, and much of the body on. Rustbelt, you know. I traded it in in 1981 on a 75 280Z that I had until I graduated from UCLA in 89. Had the suspension on that one tricked out with heavy bars, springs, etc. I liked it, but I was married with one kid when I graduated, and had to keep the station wagon, and not the Z . In 94, in Maryland, I found a '78 280 that was in OK shape for $900. Not too much rust. Just needed a few things to pass MD safety. Well, I never had time. 6 years later I towed the thing from MD to IL, still waiting to fix it. This January, I ripped out the interior, only to find huge amounts of floor/frame rust. Then one day in March, as I was looking around to decide whether to fix or buy another one, I noticed a silver 240Z on a side street here in town. Stopped by, and it was for sale! After finding that it was 11/69 car #215, I did a little research, and luckily for me, the guy who owned it needed $$ and dropped his price by $1500. Still probably paid too much given the rust I've now found, but hey, It's a project. So, the restoration begins...I'll be around for quite a while. Nice meeting you all.

I've been through Banzai's site pretty thoroughly. I'm holding off on buying a lot of stuff until I get through at least a good portion of the structural body work. No sense spending a bunch of money 6 months or a year before the parts are needed. I'll probably start accumulating parts in the fall, assuming that the body work goes well this summer. Right now I'm making a spreadsheet of all the parts I want/need, who has them and how much they are. Probably be a rude shock when I add it all up! Thanks.

Good idea. I'll keep that in mind when (way off in the future), I get to the point of putting it back together instead of taking it apart . I think part of the problem on mine was that the company that did the "restoration" work for the PO on my car 14 years or so ago cut many corners. When I removed the front fenders, there were NO seals under it. None. The little plastic flap in the wheelwell that supposedly covers the area at the rocker - not there on either side. Sealing along the spashguard between the guard and the fender? Forgeddaboutit! That company is now out of business, or I'd run them down around here. Oh well, gives me more to work on. It's a hobby, right? Thanks for the ideas...

And possibly hard to find. I found about a one inch square rust hole on the passenger side of the cowl bucket, just in from the passenger door. Probably not able to be seen with the dash in. Looking from outside the car, the hole is WAY BACK in the corner of the cowl bucket, and I pulled a big chunk of sealing material out of that corner (that looked original, but came out really easy after 34 years). Thus, if you didn't try to get the sealant chunk out, and didn't remove the dash, a problem like this would have probably remained a mystery. See the attached picture from the inside of the car, about where you'd be sitting in the passenger seat (if there was still a seat there!).

If you only paid $1200 for this car, and you've been driving it for a year, you stole it. :classic: A little surface rust is nothing. There looked to be a rust-through in the passenger side door opening on the rocker - I'd look over this area very thoroughly. If you don't have any paint bubbling along the rocker, then you're probably still OK, but beware of what I found when I removed the front fenders on mine: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7721 Of course I knew I had major rust problems other places. Overall, we should all be so lucky... EDIT: Ok, looking at the picture again, I guess it's the drivers side rocker near the rear quarter dogleg. At least that's easier to see any hidden stuff...

And then the drivers side:

Well, I knew I had rust problems, but I found some nasty stuff today. I finally pulled the front fenders. I knew that the PO had replaced the fender with factory parts, and they still looked good. No rust apparent at the rocker on them. There were a few rust bubbles on the rocker itself, but not too bad. So, here's a pic of what I found under the front fenders. The rocker ends are pretty much gone. Don't know how you can see this area without pulling the fender, but if you see ANY rust on the rockers, beware of this area. First, the passenger side:

I have three computers in front of me all day at work, and the Windows machine pretty much always has this site on at least one browser. Most of the time on the others I'm logged into a supercomputer or two in California. While waiting for jobs to start or complete, I often use the time to lurk or post on the site. I bring the Windows laptop home every night, and I'm sitting here in my easy chair in the family room using the wireless network and broadband to surf. Spent most of the evening in the garage, though.

That's what I have been thinking, but never having done this before, I was/am looking for backup and/or dissenting opinions. It looks like I can leave the main seat mount in place as well if I patch instead of completely replace, and I like the idea of maintaining that factory geometry. Thanks!

Ahh, how I get it. The lap joint in the floor pan as it goes through the depression near the drain holes. I see how it was welded from the top but not the bottom. I hope to get things cut as precisely as possible and butt welded. We'll see how things work out. I'm just finishing up getting all the tar mat off inside the car, and next will be working on the undercoating. Then, I can actually think about replacing metal... One other question - what are opinions on leaving as much of the original floor as possible or not? I have Zedd Findings floor pans and rails sitting in my garage right now, so I could replace the entire floor on both sides if I wanted. However, there are large sections of the original floor that are still in good shape, interspersed with rust holes. Would it be better/cleaner to just remove the entire original floor, or leave the larger areas that are still solid (meaning not even really surface rust on them), and patch in parts of Charlie's floor pans? I'm especially concerned about that nice smooth sheetmetal curve as the transmission tunnel comes down and turns into the floor. Probably 80% of the length of that area is fine on mine. All opinions welcome... Thanks.

Check out Charlie Osborne at Zedd Findings: Zedd Findings Bumpers He lists two used front bumpers for 70-72 for $70 each. Some rear stuff too. Good luck.

I'm a little confused - how would you get a two sided weld of the rail to the floor? The second side from inside the car through the floorboard? I have some repairs like this to get done soon, so I'm interested in how the best way to do it is... Thanks.

I've seen them in either the VB or MSA catalogs, I think. And on the parts fiche, they are shown as parts 62692-E4101 (RH) and 62693-E4101 (LH). There are no applied-to dates listed, so it appears as though they are for all 240Z models. Hope this helps. EDIT - I just looked them up in the VB catalog, and they are 98-052 and 98-053, selling for $4.95 each. Page 22.

For any of you that have actually used the colortune, what colors do you have to be able to see, and how close is the variation? I ask because I have a very slight red-green colorblindness. I can see red and green fine, but very light shades of red I can't, and two shades close together that other people can tell apart, I can't. Thanks Mom.

And you have another PM...

My first Z was a '71 240 just that yellow color. I painted it blue...

Is a book from 1970 still under copyright? I think a normal copyright is 17years, with one or two renewals available, but I don't really know. Anyone really know what the copyright law says about books like this? There are plenty of old books already in the public domain due to the expiration of their copyrights. I've downloaded music from the internet, but only old jazz stuff that is well past it's copyright.

It seems to do a good job, although as you might imagine, it is still not a magic bullet. It seemed to help with a number of stuck or stubborn fasteners/fittings in the brake system. I still have a couple I am working on though, after soaking for a couple of days. Bottom line is that it seems to do the job, but I don't have anything other than WD40 to compare it to - and it is definately better than that!!! The last three fittings I have are connected to the rear pressure/balance valves on the car. I took the valves and their pipes off as an assembly, and I'm soaking all three. Strangely, the fittings broke free with no real problem after application of kroil for a couple hours, but then after about three turns, they started to bind up again. I thought they were binding on the pipe, but with the assembly off the car, I can spin the fittings on the pipes as they bind up on the threads again . Anyway, we'll see what a couple days of soaking will do. One place it seemed to do a little magic was on the left caliper. The pad pins were rusted solid - couldn't punch them out, couldn't grab and turn them, nothing, even after applying Kroil to both ends of the pin as it goes through the caliper. Luckily, I could get the caliper out of the car with the pads still on, so I put it on it's side and soaked the pins with Kroil from the ends, so it would soak down the length. After an overnight soak, the pins punched right out of the caliper. my 2 cents.

FYI, I was just in Sears again a few minutes ago (for something unrelated), and the sale tag on the gloves say that the sale is good through 6/15. Sears here still has stock in all sizes. You might not care given their messing with you, but that's the scoop...

Yup. Just finished removing the drums on my '70 240Z. Cleaned up around the studs and center, soaked with Kroil. Did it again. Did it again. then pounded around on the front outside of the drum with a 2 lb rubber mallet, and then from the back around the fins with a block of wood and a three pound sledge. They came loose within about three revolutions (pounding from the back about every 90 degrees) on both sides. EDIT: Beandip's post (next one) reminded me that I also backed off the adjuster quite a ways before doing any of this. The drums spun freely before I started beating on them. Also, I had to push DOWN on the adjuster arm, not up. One small screwdriver under the cylinder to push down on the arm, and one beside it to turn the knurled wheel.

They were in stock at my local Sears here. I bought two pair as well this afternoon, and used the first while removing the left front brake hardware tonight. Felt pretty good - dexterity was pretty much still there, although I had trouble picking up the pad pin retaining clip off the floor when I dropped it. Better than cut and dirty hands, though!

Sears has their brand of mechanics gloves on sale for $9.99. Probably ends tomorrow. If you are a "craftsman club" member, you can get them for $8.99. They feel pretty good, although I don't have a pair of the Mechanix brand gloves to compare. Oh, and they are regularly $19.99.

Ok then, I'll be the guinea pig . It will be quite a long time before I get to that, though - I'm about 90% done stripping the car down, and then it will be the long road back to having it done. Thanks.

I've attached a picture of the timing mark pointer on my L24. 11/69 production and it is the original engine. Hope this helps.