toolman

As I have not recovered fully from the lower back injury, I doing light work on my car till I recover. To prevent or at least delay any future corrosion, I am making rust proofing access holes. But, first the front end of the car, water drainage holes were added. On the left front fender reinforcement section, four 1/4" holes were drilled in the lower edge to provide additional drainage. The interior of this reinforcement and air inlet tube will also be rust proofed after painting. The right side had similar work done. This picture gives a overall view of the left side rocker panel drilled for rust proofing access holes. The left front rocker panel had three 1/2" rust proofing holes drilled. The large hole was the area where corrosion was cut out. As this area is a major rust area, the interior will probably be brushed painted with a rust encapsulating paint then welded shut and rust proofed. The lower rear rocker panel had two 1/2" rust proofing holes drilled. The inside of this area will also be brushed painted with a rust encapsulating paint then rust proofed. Without these access holes, you would not be able to get rust proofing into those rust prone areas of the car. Right hole shows what the 1/2"rust proofing plug looks like installed. All of the 1/2" rustproofing holes will be plugged after rust proofed.

240zJJR, You did a nice job on bracing. If you are worried about the present frame condition, you can take frame measurements with your car on the rotisserie. If you have access to the auto body shop, borrow a Tram gauge( for frame measurements) and frame gauges( these 3 gauges will show if your frame in alignment (centerline and height). If the major part of your frame is crooked. it will next to impossible to repair after a full roll cage is installed. The frame machine will tear the vehicle apart. A good frame man should be able check the vehicle in less than an hour. The other option( if the frame is real bad) is build a entire tube chassis and mount the 240Z body shell on it. By the way, are you building a street car or a full race car? Toolman

SleeperZ, Thanks, Keep checking this post as I am still adding more pics and text of the Show. 240zJJR, First, Just check the squareness of interior?engine compartment before welding bracing in. Usually you really don't know if the vehicle was in a previous accident or not. In my case, I measured from the seat belt mounting hole crosswise to the lower door hinge mounting hole. Perform the same on the other side. Your two measurements shouldn't vary more than 1/8" to 3/16". After that.I made 3/16" plate to mount 1" X 1" steel tubing in a crossing diagonal pattern. You can also weld four 1" tubing from side to side and front to back if you wish too. I use this method for the engine compartment as I was removing the frame rails also. You should measure frame length( front to back) especially when building a new front frame. And, of coarse, use a bubble level for front to back and side to side checks. One thing a lot of people forget the vehicle must be level to begin with(before any work is done). I used 1/8" steel shims( or bigger if needed) tack welded to the top of the jack stands to raise or lower the car. Place bubble level on the rocker panels to check. I hope this helps. There are a lot of people on this forum that will also help you. Toolman I twisted my back so haven't be able to work on my car for now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCPfHHMaQ64 I knew it was a matter of time before someone try to put a Hell Cat motor into a 240Z. I think they might have to cut the hood or cut the firewall set the motor more back. Interesting, anyway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR05Je02rUY

SleeperZ, Thanks, Keep checking this post as I am still adding more pics and text of the Show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9fN7ntWKAY&t=126s Check this 2017 Nissan GTR out!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4TqX-eWkWM&t=85s 2018 Sema Show Young Guns Winner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU656s-qti0 overall view of Sema Show huge fender flares https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0q-fwwS9Vs video of 58 Chevy with metal engraving in spray booth Farm Truck from STREET OUTLAWS was there.

There were hundreds of exhibitors and attendance was probably more than 170,000. I will attempt to give you guys a small sampling of the show at this show. The winner of the Young Gun Builders of SEMA Show was Kyle Kunhausen. He spent 5 years building this early 240z in his home two car garage in Oregon. Go to https/www.youtube/watch?v=pCfLQHZgnCM&t=49s Bob Sharp 240Z race car General Motors had an ALL Electric motor powered Camaro on display. It provides 800volt batteries. The motor has 700HP and 600 FTLB of Torque; This Camaro can do the 1/4 Mile in 9 Seconds!!! Shell Oil booth had a supercharged Tractor Puller. There were many Rat Rods there to demonstrate their creativity. Here is a vintage service truck. Rear view of the cab and rear bed. This is spin off the original LITTLE RED WAGON wheelstanding truck that could carry the front wheels the full length of the strip. - It was powered by a supercharged Dodge Hemi engine. From the You Tube videos, this 240Z had a BMW M5 V10 motor installed on custom made steel tubing frame. The front end utilized a Rocket Bunny front panel and fender flares. A universal rear fender flare kit covered the rear tires. The Street Banditos made a custom LED tail lights for this Z, Its construction can be seen on You Tube Videos- "B is for the Build". The site has almost 500,000 subscribers. It was entirely built in home garage in Portland, Oregon. A really chopped and lowered Jeep with giant wheels and tires. A view of the large crowds of people outside of the main halls. A wild looking 65 Mustang with a supercharged motor in Pro Street form. Air brush artists showing their skills. El Dorado low rider with air bag suspension. I think this was a modified Miata with tube frame with supercharged motor. A Monster Truck with Giant Tires climbing rock display. This 58 Chevy has a very unique type of body work-metal paint engraving. This process is spraying metal paint to 1.5M thick engraving the whole vehicle. It is widely popular in Japan and Asia. Thos car took over 6 months to complete. But really expensive as it is extremely time consuming. Enlarge the photos to see the workmanship. Unreal!!! Another example of type metal engraving. Don't forget to enlarge this pic to really see the workmanship. This 370Z was painted and body worked to replicate a beat up racer. All those dents and scrapes were created. They created a Rat Rod Nissan Z to me. Only a keen eye would notice that gaps, edges, body panels were not distorted. The paint job was manipulated to create the worn and damaged effects. Similar to what Rat Rods do. Nissan Skyline Z was in Optima Ultimate Street Car Event that raced around the county. Another Optima Race Z Not sure but think this Z had a LS motor with T56 trans. The car was so low you couldn't see underneath. There were about 10 Food Trucks all around the SEMA SHOW to provide a wide variety of food selections(Chinese, Mexican, Middle Eastern, etc) Another LS Z Racer; Tires and wheel look small for the flares but looks like there was a lot of carbon fiber parts on it. Ever wonder how the movie studios film those wild car chases and crashes. A modified Toyota with computer controlled 360 degree crane on its roof, that is how!! HKS 370Z RACE CAR Auto Body & Paint section of the show( even had spray paint booths). WELD UP another one of their RAT ROD creations. Note how the front end's black roses-represents death. As you move move to the engine's red roses represents love/hope. Then to the rear of the car. the yellow bright paint job.white interior and white wall slicks represents clean/ purity. This car was made for a cancer recovery individual. Very Artistic!!

DonH, Thanks for compliment. I finished the rear hatch and seam sealed all of the seams. .pic of the finished hatch. . Front area of the floor pan resealed with sprayable seam seal. View of the main frame rail seam sealed. closeup of seam sealing frame connector and rear crossmember. Rear frame and rear body panel seam sealed. I wanted to put more seam sealer on the bottom to provide more rust protection and sound abatement but ran out of sealer. I am going to the Sema Show in Vegas next week and will try to post some pics( especially 240zs) from there.

Thanks, Richard, I hope my posts will continue to be informative and useful. I found corrosion on the rear hatch only after disassembly. Though mostly small areas and were easily repaired. I decided not to replace the aluminum louvers on the hatch so those mounting holes had to be patched. The holes were 3/8" so 9/16" patches were created. The lower pair of holes in the hatch were accessible from the backside. The patch were held in place with a 1/8" x 3/4" steel bar. Then were tack welded with the mig. Pic of the patch grinded down. The upper holes could not access from the back so the patch had to welded on the exterior, So the holes were tapped down with a ball peen so the hole area was recessed. These patches were made by drilling 18 gauge sheet metal with a Blair 9/16" hole saw. The 1/2" plug was used as the patch for these holes.

I finally received my replacement Tweco gun and lead. It has a HD switch and gives me a better control of the mig wire. Two flat 3" wide copper strips were temporary installed under the hood butt weld. It will disperse some of heat of the mig welding. A paper template of the bottom of the front bottom edge of the hood. Side view of the hood repair. A H&S Stud Welder was used with shrinking tip to shrink high spots found on the hood. Note-the shrinking tip is round and flat. It creates about 3/8" round red hot in the sheetmetal. This spot is immediately cooled with a wet rag. This action caused the spot to shrink. The lower passenger side of the hood also had small dents which the stud welder pulled out. After painting the hood with epoxy primer, I started work on the cowl section. As this section is flimsy and vents are difficult to remove the paint, paint remover was used. Note-if you look carefully you can see the factory orange /red lead primer and the other three paint jobs on it. The vent openings were difficult to remove the paint because of its narrowness and thick paint buildup. Two 1/8" rust holes from the bottom side were found and carefully mig welded. This view shows the repair after grinding. The cowl was then epoxy primed. Note-Even after using the paint remover, media blasting was necessary to remove remaining paint before priming. Finally the exterior of the two front fenders were epoxy primed.

Before I started on the hood repair, I seam sealed the fenders. Both inside and outside of the front of both fenders were seam sealed. As the rear bottom of the fenders had major corrosion problems, I decided to perform extra work to prevent future corrosion in the these areas. view of repaired lower rear fender section. A 1/2" rust proofing hole is drilled in the lower portion of the fender. Rust proofing can be shot into this area after the car is painted. Note-This area was seam sealed to direct any water and debris though the lower fender mounting hole. Without this passage, water and debris would get stuck between fender and reinforcing panel and cause corrosion. This backside view also shows the improved drainage method. Paint stripping of the hood was started by using wire brush on a 4 1/2" right grinder. This is what factory original paint plus three other paint jobs looks like after stripping. . Made the paper template for the hood repair. The spot welds around the hood area were drilled out for removal of the section. The hood section to be repaired was marked for cutout with 4 1/2 grinder.. Panel cut out and removed to allow panel repair. The hood edge was straightened using a 1/2" steel square bar and couple of c-clamps. The top of the hood panel was straightened with body hammers and dollies. The repaired section was fitted on hood many times to check "fitness". 1" strips of sheetmetal was installed on the hood to provide support for the repaired section to be welded to. Weld on primer was used to prevent corrosion on hood ribs. The repaired section welded to the hood. The completion of the hood repair was delayed as my mig Tweco gun went bad. The trigger switch was the problem but it was not available anywhere so I had to order a whole new Tweco mig gun. I am trying to do a McGuyver repair so I can at least finish the hood so I am crossing my fingers!!

Although the corrosion didn't look too bad from the outside, the inside view showed a lot of corrosion on this fender. The corrosion section was cut out with 4 1/2 grinder with 1/16" cutoff wheel. This patch was put in about 40 years ago. With the new sealers and rustproofing should improve the patch life.A paper template was made to create a new patch. The rear fender brace also had corrosion damage. Sometimes, a pipe can be used to bend the fender patch. Sometimes no special tools are necessary. A tear in the fender was repaired using an oxygen acetylene torch. This method produces a softer and durable weld than mig welding. The front corner of the fender needed patch to repair a tear there. The corner patch being welded in. The inside of both fenders were stripped of paint, underseal and rust proofing. This process was very labor intensive and took a whole day to complete. The fenders were then epoxy primed. When the paint dries, the patches and any seams will be sealed. Next weekend, The hood will be worked on.

Matt 78Z. It would be difficult to give you an estimate corrosion repair as the work would vary with amount of corrosion on each vehicle. If you wondering how much my car's corrosion repair would cost: I would guess I spent about 1080 hours on just corrosion repair. Auto Body Shops charge from $100-150 per hour. Another factor to consider is the quality of workmanship. Some shops just cover up the rust and it comes back in couple months. Ask other people to find shops that did good work for them. I hope this information is helpful to you.

Both doors were completed of corrosion repair and were epoxy primed. The small dents will tended to later. Note-Additional drain holes made in lower door edge. Underseal on the underside of fender was removed with 1000 watt heat gun and hand scraper. Just warm underseal first, then scrape the underseal off. A auto body stand was used to support the fender while scrapping. After scrapping the majority of the underseal off, the paint on the outside of the fender was removed. Most of the paint came off by scrapping the paint using a razor blade. The remainder will be sanded with 36 grit sandpaper then media blast off( note all the paint scrapping on ground). The inside fender reinforcement had corrosion on the bottom area. This is a common corrosion area. due to lack of drainage and no rustproofing. The old metal fender flare was removed with an air saw. A paper template was made to create a fender patch from. ..A metal shrinker was used to make the bend in the lower part of the fender The patch was matched to the bend of the original fender so shrinking was done carefully to prevent over bending. The patch was test fit and shaped as needed. This process was done many times. The patch on the reinforcement was test fitted. Tacking welding the reinforcement patch. The outside patch welded on. All welded and grinded. Now the reinforcement patch can welded back to the fender. Note-the fender edge was hammered back down. All seams and welded areas will be seam sealed then sprayed with weld thru primer to prevent corrosion. Additional rust proofing access holes will drilled in this area.

It took some time to sand blast the interior side of the door panel. So a 4 1/2 right angle grinder with a cup wire wheel was used for paint removal before sand blasting. The grinder saved about half a day sand blasting. With a bottom edge peeled open, the extensive corrosion can be seen. A 4 1/2" cutoff wheel was used to cut off about 1" below the lower body line. With the cut made. the corrosion can easily seen. After wire brushing the area. the patch can be constructed. About 5/16" additional metal for the lip that folds around the panel lower edge. This is the front side of the patch. The patch was attached to the door skin with sheet metal screws. Then was mig welded and seam sealed. A 1/2" holes were drilled with Blair hole saws in the both lower corners of the doors. They provided access for rustproofing later. A 1/8" drill bit was used to provide a pilot for the hole saws because of the uneven shape of the panel. These holes were plugged using 1/2" rust proofing plastic plugs after rust proofing. These areas are prone to corrosion and must be rust proofed. The fold over edges will be tack weld and seam sealed. All of the welded areas( including molding holes) will cleaned and painted with epoxy primer.

After plugging the 1/8" side molding holes with the mig welder, the welds were grinded with 3" 3M mig weld grinding wheels. These wheels are best at grinding mig welds. Its narrow surface allows of only the beads Then the welds are finished off with 24 Grit grining discs on a right angle die grinder. Overall view of dent repair on the door panel. I made a template for the patch on the door corner. outside view of patch Inside view of patch At this point, I decided to make it into a Reverse Patch which is a patch installed from the inside not from outside. this method allows the patch to be lower than the original panel. Then, only a small amount of body filler is required. Problem of holding the patch inside of door tight space had to overcome. I bent a 3/16" steel rod to hold the patch against edge of hole while tack welding. One end of the rod was inserted into a nearby rust proofing hole and placed against the patch. A downward motion of the vise grip puts pressure against the patch. After tacking. I just move the inner tip for the next area to be tack weld. This method is similar to the procedure used by Paint less Dent repairers. Evercoat epoxy seam sealer was applied to door panel seams. front lower edge Rear lower door edge sealed Unfortunately, we had a Category 5 (winds above 150mph) Hurricane heading straight toward the Hawaiian Islands so I had to prepare for the storm and was unable to finish the door. Fortunately, the Hurricane turned away at the last minute and only gave us heavy rainfall.