m1ghtymaxXx

After putting about 130 hours into my fixing rust on my S130, I've come to the realization that I'm fighting a loosing battle. I've decided now's my opportunity to build an S30. I'm located on the island of Newfoundland, Canada, and have little hope in finding anything local, so I'm looking to have some shipped from the Eastern side of the continent. Because this island hosts the Targa Newfoundland Rally, I'd prefer some with a roll cage installed, but it's not mandatory. The plan is to build something fairly heavily modified, so nothing pristine. Something running would be nice for ease of transport, but not required as I have an L28E and L28ET already. Budget is around the 5K area. Let me know what you've got, Thanks! PS: I would take an S130 for the right price if it was local.

There are places where I'm lapping over pitted metal (rust taken of with steel brush. Do you think this would still suffice or should I be looking at a rust converter product before hand?

I know it's been covered all over the net, but I figured I'd start a discussion here. I'm replacing a fair bit of sheet metal on my S130, and after all the work I'm putting into it, i'd like to preserve for another couple decades. I've read about weld through zinc primers, and it seems they need to be removed from the welded surface anyways, and they burn off around the vicinity of the weld, making me wonder what the point is in the first place. I've already picked up a quart of POR15. My plan is to brush a strip on between rosette welds, leaving an inch gap or so from the weld location. I figured the the weld is best sealed afterwards, to avoid burning the product off. My idea for a solution is to melt a solid wax down into the lapped sheets. This way the wax can flow in the heat, but once cooled, it should't wick out and ruin the adhesion of another coat of POR15 and seam sealer. Does this seem logical to anyone else? And can anyone recommend a wax?

Awesome post! Who makes the one you and slownrusty have, and where can I find one? (they look liking matching pieces). Do you have any shots with the bumper on, and can you ID any of the others posted?

Googling Kaminari 280zx brings up this picture: Anyone have info on that? Easily my favorite I've seen yet.

Well I'm in dire need of an air dam, and I can't say I'm all that thrilled with the offerings from MSA. Is there anything else out there? I'm seen some nice looking pieces from Kaminari, but I have no idea where to find one. The only MSA kit I could live with is the Type 3: http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/7FAD/50-1429, or Type 1: http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/7FAD/50-1410 If anyone has more pictures/angles they could post that would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise can anyone point me in the direction of composite air dam that keeps the stock bumper? Cheers!

Will this car have a cage (not familiar with chump car series). If so, how will be working it around the T-tops, specifically the levers to remove them?

Thanks for the link. I've seen that and heard nothin but horror stories about showcars-bodyparts. That $400 is an aweful lot of money when I think I can salvage whats left of the floors with sheet metal I already have laying around. I've spent the past 2 weekends working on the car. I tried the dry Ice for removing the sound deadener and it sure is a miracle worker. Also I've got some ideas for some chasis (rocker box) stiffening I've been tossing around in my head. I'll post more details with pics when I get a chance. Right now the engine is ready to come out, just need to borrow a crane, then I'll get started on the inner fenders and frame rails.

I tried to do this, but got stuck when I could only find a 3 "bladed" die, which doesn't work on the flat sided shaft. Anyone know where to find such a die?

Looks like I'll give the dry ice a shot this weekend hopefully. Does it take the tar right of the paint, or does it leave a film behind? I went at it for a while with a hammer and slothead screwdriver and everything that came off left a tar film behind. Hopefully that be ground off easily enough. As for picking up a new shell, it would be nice, but I've already spent a good chunk on moving the car with me, and now that I'm living on the easternmost part of the easternmost island in North America, shipping, even just from the main land costs a fortune. Also I've already spent a good chunk on fab tools, so it's too late to turn back now.

Forgot to mention, I'm at the painfull point of removing the sound deadening. I didn't have much luck searching, but I seem to recall member recommending dry ice to remove. I presume just hold the dry ice to it, then chisel away? I spent a good while with a hammer and wide slot head screwdriver. I didn't get to far, and there was still a lot of gunk left over. Anyone have some insight on this task?

Since the block is out, I would just take it to a machine shop. They should be a breeze since they won't be corroded, and machinists have probably done it many times before.

Did you happen to take any pics? Did you do anything to the frame rails? I'd love to put the car on a rotisserie, but I'd like to leave the car as intact as possible, I don't have the space. I would imagine the floors can be dealt with almost completely from above, other than running a bead along the frame rails, and maybe rockers. my plan is to get some big (5 ton or so) jackstands and get the car in the air. Hopefully it shouldn't be too bad working on a creeper. Anyways, I got another weekend to tear the car down. Other than the engine, this should be the bulk of the teardown. The driver's was worse than I had anticipated with a pretty rotten footwell, however it looks alright behind "seat beam". On the bright side, the structural members seem to be alright other than some rust holes in the underside of the inner fenders. pics: The not so structural part of the driver's side inner fender is pretty rough. You can see where someone (likely the used car lot I bought it from) taped over a rust hole and undercoated it: Another area in pretty rough shape is the panel that holds the tow hook. Now's a good opportunity reinforce it and maybe add one of those oh-so-trendy billet tow hooks: And some various floor pictures: All in all it feels like a daunting task, but it's a relief that shouldn't be dealing with much in the way of structural repairs, and everything is out of site. Next time I start cutting! Unfortunately this is a weekend only project as the shop is about 45 mins from town, and until the snow melts I have to hike in (with tools) about 15mins.

I presume the bolt broke below the deck of the block? Did you oil them before torquing them? I think a competent machinist shouldn't have too much trouble extracting it. My machinist didn't charge me to take a broken exhaust bolt of out my head that had been there for god knows how long (broken exhaust manifold bolts are quite common on cylinder 6 as the manifold warps over time). As I understand it, the headbolts can be reused as they're not torque to yield in design. I think you would risk compromising the seal of the headgasket after torquing it down though, since I thought the rings get "crushed" and conform to any irregularities.

Haha Bernard don't forget I've been living in Newfoundland for well over a year now And I'm not sure that I want to spend another fortune shipping a car from Winnipeg. Plus I'm keeping an eye out for a rough s30 to build into a Targa rally car.

Good to here I'm not the only one. You wouldn't happen to have any photos or documentation? At the moment I don't really know what my approach is gonna be. I figure it should make sense once I start cutting. Is your floor gone all along the rockers? Mine certainly is and I wasn't sure the proper approach to welding them in. I was thinking I'd just flare the edges of the new floor pan up about 3/4" or so and rosette weld it first and maybe stitch a bead along the top. As for the frame rails if nothing else it would be an opportunity to gain some ground clearance, and maybe offer a slight bit of chassis stiffing (would love to do more of this if there's some easy places to reinforce). As you can see from the frame rail shot about with a 2x6 under it, there's only about 3 inches ground clearance beneath the rails, and I would like to go lower now that I've got some 16x8 0 offset wheels, which shouldn't rub the coils like the 225's on stock wheels do. The front of the frame rails has me pretty lost though. Also the pretty much everything in front of the rad support is gone (basically what the air damn attaches to, but I figure if I can set the air dam in place, I can work back from the mounting points, it just won't look original.

So far I agree with pretty much all BluDestiny's input. I think a large rotor/bracket option would be great too for those with bigger wheels, but I think a lot of people prefer to run 14-16" wheels on these cars. I take it you are designing a mounting kit for existing calipers? I think low price point would be key since AZC already has a nice kit for those who can afford it.

Are they negligible enough structural7 that I shouldn't be concerned about the frame getting tweaked while being replaced?

I've got 4 panels from a big old oil furnace that should cover me for a lot of the metal. I thought I would at least have to replace the entire passenger side floor, but it looks like I may be able to just use some (rather large) patch pieces, although I think it may be easiest to get at the frame rails with the floor out anyways. As for a metal shaping tools, I've picked up a 5kg anvil, still need to get a hammer and dolly, and I see Princess Auto has a 36" bench top press brake for $70 that seems like it might be a good investment. Anything critical I'm missing?

Googled Kaminari air dams to find where I could buy one (with no luck), but this picture came up, and I must have it: Given how I found the image, I'll assume it's a Kaminari, but would anyone be able to confirm, and suggest where I might find one?

I posted this thread here a couple days ago, only to have it instantly moved to some castaway "welding/fabricatoin" forum under the FAQ's section where it was the only topic. I messaged an admin about having it moved back with no reply, so I've posted it back. My apologies if this is an issue. Like many S130's mine, is succumbing to corrosion after almost 3 decades. The main culprit was a seam in the passenger side footwell that rusted out allowing water to pour in under the carpet when driving in the rain. She's now in pretty rough shape, but after paying a good chunk to move it from Winnipeg to St. John's Newfoundland with myself, It would be a shame and waste of money to toss the chassis, not to mention I have some history with the car. Anyways I've been amassing a small collection of metal working tools, along with a 110v Lincoln mig. I feel I'm compentent enough with the welder, however the rest of my fab skills are...well untested at this point. Also, all the work will be out of sight, so it doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to works, and here's how it looks on the outside shortly before going into winter storage: Anyways, the floors seem more or less self explanatory, but I've have yet to dig in. My bigger concern are the frame rails though. At first I didn't think it was necessary, despite them being quite dented. Once I pulled up the carpet I fund a nice gaping hole above the frame rail which had been letting water in. This makes sense, as previously, parking with the rear higher than the front resulted in a nice dribble of rust water which made a nice mess of my old apartment parking lot. Here's a rough shot of the hole over the frame rail: Another trouble spot is the rear seat foot well. Here's a pic: I've only had about 2 hours to tear into the car so far, so I'm not too sure what I'm looking at, but those bolts sticking through at the top of the photo wouldn't be from the rear x-member would they? Anyways, the main purpose of the thread was how to go about repairing frame rails without tweaking the chassis. I've seen people weld cross bars into the door jambs, but I'd prefer not to, just to preserve the paint, and avoid restricting access to the work area. I was thinking about scattering some RV jacks around to hold everything in place before cutting, but I could see that restricting access as well. As for the actual frame rail replacement, I planned to replace the section under the seat with some rectangular tube (size and thickness to be determined). The front where it approaches the x-member seems a kind of daunting, but my plan at this point is just to trace templates from what's there, and piece together the complex shape from the cuttings of sheet metal. Any criticism, advice, experience, photos and links would be extremely appreciated, and with that, I'll leave some photos of what I'm up against. PS: This will happening at the same time as an L28ET swap, So engine will be out allowing me access to the rusty frames rails, battery area, and inner fenders.

Like many S130's mine, is succumbing to corrosion after almost 3 decades. The main culprit was a seam in the passenger side footwell that rusted out allowing water to pour in under the carpet when driving in the rain. She's now in pretty rough shape, but after paying a good chunk to move it from Winnipeg to St. John's Newfoundland with myself, It would be a shame and waste of money to toss the chassis, not to mention I have some history with the car. Anyways I've been amassing a small collection of metal working tools, along with a 110v Lincoln mig. I feel I'm compentent enough with the welder, however the rest of my fab skills are...well untested at this point. Also, all the work will be out of sight, so it doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to works, and here's how it looks on the outside shortly before going into winter storage: Anyways, the floors seem more or less self explanatory, but I've have yet to dig in. My bigger concern are the frame rails though. At first I didn't think it was necessary, despite them being quite dented. Once I pulled up the carpet I fund a nice gaping hole above the frame rail which had been letting water in. This makes sense, as previously, parking with the rear higher than the front resulted in a nice dribble of rust water which made a nice mess of my old apartment parking lot. Here's a rough shot of the hole over the frame rail: Another trouble spot is the rear seat foot well. Here's a pic: I've only had about 2 hours to tear into the car so far, so I'm not too sure what I'm looking at, but those bolts sticking through at the top of the photo wouldn't be from the rear x-member would they? Anyways, the main purpose of the thread was how to go about repairing frame rails without tweaking the chassis. I've seen people weld cross bars into the door jambs, but I'd prefer not to, just to preserve the paint, and avoid restricting access to the work area. I was thinking about scattering some RV jacks around to hold everything in place before cutting, but I could see that restricting access as well. As for the actual frame rail replacement, I planned to replace the section under the seat with some rectangular tube (size and thickness to be determined). The front where it approaches the x-member seems a kind of daunting, but my plan at this point is just to trace templates from what's there, and piece together the complex shape from the cuttings of sheet metal. Any criticism, advice, experience, photos and links would be extremely appreciated, and with that, I'll leave some photos of what I'm up against. PS: This will happening at the same time as an L28ET swap, So engine will be out allowing me access to the rusty frames rails, battery area, and inner fenders.

Didn't the Toyota 2000gt use a similar chassis?

Curious to see how this goes. I have a spare passenger side fender laying around that I was thinking about trying it on, but my sheet metal work skills are...well unexplored (assuming the method I suggested) I'm guessing the tricky part is getting the 'flare extension' to contour the fender properly/ from there i suppose you could weld it in place, then cut loose cut the remaining crescent shape of metal that makes up the difference between the old fender opening, and the now expanded one. The just grind down the rest.

One idea I had from flaring the existing fenders is to cut the factory flare off right at the crease where it meets the body, then space it out an inch or so with with strips of metal. Hopefully that makes sense.