sKwared

I received my panels today. All I can say is WOW. These things are a work of art. Anyone on the fence with this purchase should jump on it ASAP.

Also interested in still available.

Thanks for all of the great responses guys. As a result of your inspiration, I've started welder browsing, though I likely wont commit to any purchase until I get a full assessment of the rust damage. I like the idea of marking all of the areas requiring repair and revisiting afterwards. Right now I'm stuck on the interior until my brother returns my jack, stands, and cherry picker and lends a helping hand to proceed with tear down. Stripping down the passenger side further last night, I came across this little gem: Quite a bit of rust and what seems to be a poor attempt at bondo by the previous owner. Is there a name for this vertical panel that connects to the rocker panel on the front side of the door jam? Are any of you aware of replacement panels for this particular piece or am I going to have to fab something to match that curve? Thanks again, Kris

Thanks for the response. I've thought about learning to weld, but thoughts seem to be mixed in this area... There's the DIY crowd and then there's the "leave such a critical piece to the pros" crowd. Personally, I'm torn.

Like most folks on here, I'm working on a budget in restoring my recent 260z purchase. Granted, the wife has been a bit generous with the budget, but she expects the costs to be phased over time, not handed out in bulk. My first order of business was to address the common rest areas. I gutted the interior, stripped out all of the old carpet and tar, etc. The drivers floor pan is in surprisingly good shape, however I did encounter a couple quarter sized rust holes on the passenger floor - one just forward of the front seat bracket, the other just below the area where the floor curves up to meet the firewall. Everything between is either pristine or appears to be only superficial surface rust. (First question - do you guys feel this warrants a full pan replacement or just a couple small patches?) I'm a firm believer in that the rust problems I see are likely the tip of the iceberg. The idea was to strip what I can, then pass the car off for some sort of media blasting (as of yet undecided, there seem to be pros and cons to each method). While this would undoubtedly reveal any rust problems I've yet to encounter, my understanding is that I would have to have the car primered almost immediately after to prevent any sort of flash rust on the now bare metal. I cant weld. I cant spray. No matter how I look at it this process seems to be largely connected and will require paying someone to blast, repair/weld, then primer, all in a brief period, thereby destroying my plan to tackle this part of the project in phases. Am I at a point where just weeks into this project I have to put it on hold until my monthly budget accumulates enough to pay someone to do all of this simultaneously? Or am I completely taking the wrong angle here? Very newbie questions I know, but I'm getting frustrated that every project I want to start seems to be delayed or directly connected to another.

I've started phase one of my recent 260 purchase; gutting the interior and getting the floorboards bare to evaluate/repair any rust damage. In doing so I realized that the stock seat brackets are sheered through at three of the four bolts. Considering I was going to move on to the POR15 process after floorboard repairs, this creates a dilemma. The stock seats are shot, so I'm not sure whether I'll replace with other stockers or go aftermarket at this time. I know some companies (Corbeau for example) make brackets specific to our cars. Does anyone know if these are designed to mate to the factory brackets or do they replace them entirely? If I hold off on any repairs or modifications to the brackets at this time, could I POR15 everywhere but the brackets and revisit them in the future? Or would it be wiser to hold off on POR entirely until the bracket issue is addressed by either repairing for stock or modding for aftermarket?

Just an FYI for any others that don't already own the "How to Restore Your Datsun" book, it can be found on Amazon for about $10 less that MSA or Black Dragon, free shipping as well.

Many thanks Miles. I'll be ordering the book ASAP!

I recently purchased a '74 260Z to bring back to life. The body is in great shape overall, but will definitely need some work. What's plaguing me the most right now is the fitment of the driver side door. It clearly doesn't align the same as the passenger side. For example, the vertical metallic trim between the door window and the rear window have a gap substantially wider than the passenger side (and most other Z's I've seen). The same area seems out of whack from nearly every angle, as is evident in the pictures. It doesn't seem to be a door adjustment/tweaking issue though, nor does it seem to just be a poor installation of trim. Any thoughts on what may cause this? Feel free to contradict my assumptions about what it doesn't seem to be. Ignore the dirt and bird poop.