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Showing results for tags 'fabrication'.
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Hey guys been a member on here for a while but haven't been very active. Anyway for a little background, I live in Barbados in the Caribbean which is a pretty small island. Despite the obvious benefits of living on a tropical island like all year good weather and lovely beaches, our duties on vehicles here are crazy (over 200+%) and also there are serious restrictions on vehicle importation for instance nothing older than 4 years which automatically rules out any s30 Zs. However I have always wanted one of these cars so I was left with the only legal option of importing a shell or basic chassis and building a car from scratch. I spent some time scouring the net for just that and finally found a 280z in pretty good condition and the owner was willing to strip it to the point I wanted. He had done a basic restoration a few years back to the point of primer but it was too rough a job for my purpose so I decided a full strip down from the ground up was in order and at the same time I would modify to suit. One of the issues I faced was that there were no other driving Zs on the road and just a couple S30 shells lying around and since the body came missing most parts I would have to educate myself thoroughly on the workings of the car. Also because of the unreliable work ethic of many persons available I decided that for the fun and general experience of it I would undertake the restoration and modification almost exclusively along with a good friend. This naturally required somewhere to work and the tools to get the job done, so my first order, even before I had the car was to start getting the tools I didn't already have. It's been an on and off 3 year project so far and still not done. The car in it's original state when I first got it. Looked decent from far but far from great... Of course after stripping some rust issues were found but all in all was pretty good. After the rust areas were dealt with the next plan was to convert the car from LHD to RHD since that is the side of the road we drive on here. Finding donor parts prooved to be a bit of an issue so we eventually decided that the only real way was to fabricate everything from scratch. So we made up a couple templates and pulled out our spot weld remover bit and got to work. The next step was getting everything stripped down to metal and epoxy coated. Best way for this would be a rotisserie so that was our next project, building one. Then the fun could begin... After hearing alot of horror stories about 'professional' sandblasting services I decided to blast the car myself with a small blaster from eastwood and some glass. It was NOT fun. But the results were rewarding.
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Hey all, quick question that I'm having trouble finding the answer to. I'm about to fab up the engine mounts for my RB25 and I've read online somewhere sometime ago that I needed to level out the engine using the flat flange on the bottom for the oil pan. That makes sense to me, but when I try to twist the engine to be flat it pushed my transmission shifter into the passenger's side of the trans tunnel. is it better to go off of the transmission shifter and get the exactly flat or to go off of the bottom of the oil flange? Also, I know that the oil pan has a bit of an angle on it, around 3 inches deeper on one side. Is this to flatten out the bottom and the engine actually should be angled a bit? I'm hoping somebody may be able to walk out and snap a few quick photos of their setup and describe it a bit. Thanks in advance!
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Hey all. So I have had my 1977 280z for around 7 years now. Drove it for a couple when I first bought it. Started having issues with the L-Jet system. Spent a while troubleshooting but the more I fixed the more I found items that needed fixing. Ended up moving into an apartment, then bought a house, sold the house, etc. barely worked on it for a few years. My now fiance and I bought a farm house with a big ole workshop (about 2500sqft, 3 bays, 1 dumptruck bay) and I got back into making my dream car just that. I decided now was the time to do it right. My Z had rotted floors, rotted frame rails, rotted fenders, rotted firewall. tons and tons of structural rot. Good thing I am a welding and metallurgical engineer and have plenty of fabrication equipment and experience (I hope). I cut out both floors, the firewall on the passenger side, fender well, and patched the "torque box" area of the frame in front of the firewall...one panel at a time. Most of these welds have been gas backed or flux shielded, or copper backed. Derek Macheski provided the floor support rails for my build (I think hes on here somewhere) as a partial trade for my motor. I am pairing my Z up with a Ford 5.0 small block V8. The donor vehicle was a 2001 mercury Mountaineer which means this is the highest performance factory 302W offered but also brings up some challenges; 1: The heads are GT40P heads which requires special or custom headers. The only headers currently manufactured that fit correctly are long tubes which will not fit the S30 engine bay. 2: The upper and lower intake are quite tall and require the engine be mounted somewhat lower in addition to possible hood clearance modification. 3: The engine is returnless and distributorless and I will be using the factory EFI harness and ECU, tuned with protune and probably a Moates QH chip. The current state of the build: I have completed most of the fabrication work, a few odds and ends that need to be finished but nothing major. I have the engine, transmission, and headers all in the vehicle and everything seems to fit. I am currently working on thinning the EFI harness of all unnecessary equipment using an old factory electrical schematic and some help from the folks over at the explorer forums.
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i bought my zx a couple years ago now my goal is partially a restomod but also creating a racecar setup. at the moment im finsihing up with my engine work including intake with pallnet rail and new injectors and the works and a header thats all fine and dandy but my big issue is the body! originally the only rust i found was the spare wheel well but that turned into small patches on all for quarters and passenger floor pan and rails, battery box, to my current discovery the windshield area both on the roof and the wiper cowl. with my lack of experience in body work i cut out the passenger floor and welded in some new steel not have bad for a rookie. i already planned on buying new fibergalss fenders for the front so no need to fix the fenders and i think i can handle the rear quarters but don't know how to work with the windshield trim areas. unlike the s30 the cowl doesn't unbolt so obviously i have to drill out tack welds. and i dont even know what im going to do with roof at the moment but im looking for advice from someone thats had to repair these particular areas before and i know i should have bought a new shell long ago but im in this one deep plus this has been the greatest learning project possible.
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whats up everyone, so I bought a 73 2400z project, the previous owner started to swap a z32 rear sub frame but didn't complete it. After looking through Mull's project HUGO, it looks like he used 2" square tubing for the sub frame mounts. So my plan was to build the sub frame mounts out of 2x.120" square tubing, and connect the rear sub frame to front with 2x3x.083" tubing. Stock ls1 is going in now, but have plans for a 6.0 turbo making between 600-650whp Would this be appropriate for the power I plan to make? The car will be media blasted after I finish the subframe/frame rails, then primed and any major rust will be repaired. Basically I want to build it right the first time so I don't have to tear it all down in the spring. This forum is awesome and filled with so much helpful info! Thank You!
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Hey Guys! I got tired of looking for a parts car near here for a mustache bar and the two rear suspension support thingys and decided to make some. I bought an r200 bar but now I need the support things. I was wondering if anyone would measure one that they have. I need length, width, distance from the top to the hole, and hole diameter. I am not sure of the actual name of the two bars but they are right next to the mustache bar and attach the rear of the control arm. I was gonna make them out of steel bar and weld in some flat steel to make the hole and mount them on the top. I also have access to lots of 1/16 1x1 aluminum. If I welded 3 or 4 pieces of aluminum together to make the bars do you think they would be strong enough? I was leaning towards steel but feel like aluminum might even be stronger. Then I was just gonna tie them together with one or two 1x1. It says that it is called the "Link Mounting Brace" in this picture. #5. http://www.oldriceautos.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Datsun-280Z-Rear-End-Assembly.png Thanks Guys! btw I will be TIG welding everything and I have access to a mill at my high school so I can make it accurate.
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Would using a fabrication shop in a country where labor prices are much lower be feasible? Mexico is the obvious choice for me (I have family in San Diego, and could pick up a bare body in San Diego and ship/tow it to Mexico along with a wrecked/thrashed donor of the running gear - then after the proof of concept is completely together and reasonable, disassemble it, strip and paint the finished shell, and build/install the running gear - perhaps shipping it home to do the last steps myself) Some parts can be fabricated, sections of rot can be replaced, tedious work of grinding and welding might best be done where the cost of labor is lower. If not Mexico, maybe another country further south? I haven't considered shipping it overseas. Is this a reasonable approach, and how would one go about finding a reputable fabricator in Mexico or another country? As to details of my intentions, I'm going to put that on another thread in a minute... -
I am in the middle of restoring my 75 280z and have a few questions im hoping you can help me with! I am doing an LM7, or 5.3 v8 build with a Camaro T56 6-speed. Currently, i have scrapped most of the underbody off to clean it up and get to the rust, and all of the rubber coating off of the floor on the inside. Behind the fenders i have noticed, by the door hinges there are a couple of spot welds for the fender/main body piece. I was thinking, that could really be strengthened up with a fresh weld, which got me thinking: Im cutting out the radiator support and welding in tubular, and making custom frame rail and motor, strut tower/firewall braces which should help a lot. I am also going to have a partial/custom cage. What other spots on the car could use some good welds to help strengthen the shell, due to running a 600+hp v8 turbo setup?
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So, I'm looking to throw these rims on my Z, but in a different color (probably FLAT black instead of gloss black. I found a place that KINDA looks like these, and they'll do them in any offset I need . . MR Wheels They are a little heavy, but they are pretty darn CHEAP for custom offset. I think the rims below are the same ones that I have linked above . . . I'm also wondering about these rims . . . they have 9 spokes which aren't the same as the one I linked to from MRW . . The reason I am looking into these is my car has a very unique rear end. I have fabbed in a 240sx (S13) rear subframe, and this pushes the track out about an inch or so on both sides. I have a set of Extra wide ZG flares, but when mounted the tires are literally already about 3mm from the fender. So, I'm trying to fit in some bigger rears (around 235 - 255) and a little wider fronts (205-215). The front is stock so I'll need to get a prett NEG offset to push them out . . . BUT i don't want it to look weird with the front having more lip then the rear... So I'll probably have to go with something like +14 and then a 10 or 15 mm spacer. If anyone has any ideas, I'm open for options. I was actually looking into a few different options, one being the WORK CR01's, in a A disk and O disk patter for the front and rear respectively. But, this would be in 15, and with 15's I'm limited to 225 MAX width for tires (at least, all the 235 or 255 that I found looked to be like 50 or 60 Height and weren't even performance tires, but more for jeeps or suvs) Your help here would be greatly appreciated. FYI . . Work config . . Front : 15x7.5 +16 with 15mm spacer Rear : 15x9 +45 with 4 - 5 mm spacer
