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HybridZ

Need Opinions: repair or replace?


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So since I've owned my car I've never been able to get the drivers side of the hood to sit all the way down flush with the headlight bucket. Well now that I'm taking some time to go through the front end and engine bay I found the reason. The metal section the hood hinge bracket mounts to is seriously screwed. I removed the headlight bucket so I could get to the backside, thinking I can use a hammer and dolley to straighten it back out. Now that I've got a good look at it I'm just not sure the metal is very sturdy anymore. Granted it doesnt really have an structural role but . . .

 

So do I try and straighten it out, kill the rust, coat it and move on? Do I cut it out and fab a new piece? Only thing about a new piece is that this plate is threaded for 3 hinge bracket bolts and two fender bolts.

 

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics.

 

SSPX0010.jpg

 

SSPX0008.jpg

 

Here's what the other side looks like by comparison.

SSPX0011.jpg

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Only thing about a new piece is that this plate is threaded for 3 hinge bracket bolts and two fender bolts.

Even worse to deal with is the crazy water channel that is spot welded on and gives the section its rigidity.

 

I had this trouble on 2 of our 280Z's and hunted down a car being parted and found another at the junk yard that had decent metal there. I whacked out as much as I could so I'd have plenty to work with and welded the pieces in. Before this, I tried repairing and it was more trouble than it was worth.

 

It may be tough to find a car without rust in that section since trash collects in the water channel keeping water from darining and the whole section rusts out.

 

Another thing I thought about was cutting bad metal out which included the water channel, welding new metal in and reinforcing it with some square tubing.

 

Good luck! It is one of the Z's "most likely to rust" areas.

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This brings to mind an episode of Trucks, or maybe it was Gearz...but the Stacy guy used a clamp-type thingy that was attached to a pneumatic ram and it would clamp down on something like that and pull it back out to spec. They were doing this repair on a Jeep with a front end collision.

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If it were me, I'd cut out and replace, either with a donor piece cut out from another car, or made from scratch.

 

The 3 threaded holes are easy to replicate, weld nuts with the proper thread in the right spots. You may not make the piece exactly like factory, but close is good. ;)

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Ok so this is the progress I've made. . .

 

What I started with.

SSPX0008.jpg

 

Cut/drilled out the factory upper rad support

SSPX0018.jpg

 

Used a hammer and dolly to get it more or less straightened out. Bolt holes are now aligned properly and the hood hinge aligns well.

SSPX0020.jpg

 

This is the new upper rad support. I will add vertical supports between the upper and lower tomorrow.

SSPX0025.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

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