OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Fabrication - Soda/Glass blasting And now a "picture dump" about the blasting outcome. The car was blasted with soda and glass and took 21 hours. Almost half of this time was spent by working with the underside, because the rust proofing was so tough and did not budge easily. Doors and tail lid took 3 hours each so it took its time! Well packaged because of the looming rain and wet road surface. The tarp did not let any water through. I might say that I was very pleased. Not many holes were uncovered but quite a few patches... Need to sort those out! Also some caulking and silicone was left behind but not a huge problem! I'm pondering if the metal could be left as is and just sprayed with clear coat... Then I would paint a Pin-Up to the doors and call the car Zero. Just a thought... One last photo to show our "shop dog" Kähmy in training or better yet travelling: Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Fabrication - Blasting aftermath Not a lot has happened since last update. Zeta has been lifted to the rotisserie and I have been looking the carnage of previous "fixes". The chap that has been welding Zeta before was certainly a bit of a poor welder... I'm hoping I can better him. Frame rails are unfortunately shot... these I'm going to change to a steel profile and extend them to the whole cars length. Also I'm going to change the seat rails to steel profile and add one more "cross member" to both sides of the car. Should stiffen the car nicely. Also the floor pans are going and I will replace them with suitable pieces of sheet metal or ready made pans if they can be found. More likely will be the sheet metal option. Frame in front of the doors has received a blow and the other side is rusted. Both of them needs to be replaced with sheet metal. Should be interesting. Both of the wheel wells are patched with multiple pieces... Better to make them from one, I would guess. The front has been patched with multiple sheet metal pieces. I would guess that this has been done in order to prevent mud and other substances to enter the gusseted member. Nice touch... Cement in a hole in the rear valance. Left hand side frame... A bit knackered one would think. Some misc patch work around the car. Lastly one shot of the car in the grill. The grill should help in the restoration... Hope the welds are strong enough so the car stays on the grill! Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Supporting tasks for the project - Preparing a warm workroom - Mark II So, no updates for four months... Time has slipped away and project has not moved forward very much. Time has went to real work and preparing a warm garage for the winter. This garage is Mark II, because if the reader remembers, this was the first idea for a warm workroom. Well that fell through, because it would not have been very practical. Luckily my father saw my predicament and suggested that we might build a warm room to our machine hall. The room is the same where the journey of Zeta started 364 days ago, but now one can say that the room has improved a lot and it can't be recognized as the same. As they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words"... Floor is coated with epoxy and saturated with quarts sand for added toughness. Lighting is handled with five 2x58 watt fluorescent lights. Probably going to need few led spot lights as well. There's even a gym... if one has the time to use it. Also the door is a lift door with an access door and heat insulation. The whole garage is insulated and heating is handled with 6 kW electric heater. Here's few of the tools that will be used in this project. Got to say that the Esab is one fine machine! Also if someone has the need for 2 ton engine crane, I can recommend Jago24. Pricing is very good compared to Finland and delivery time very fast. These two cabinets I bought for 80 euro per cabinet and they will be used as tool cabinets. They have two roller bearings on either side per drawer so the drawers slide very nicely. I welded casters on the cabinets so they can be moved freely. Not that there is going to be much need for that. Here is Zeta in her new home... Probably a long time home! Hopefully now the project can get moving again and it will be on the road some time in the future. There is still work ahead with the garage, but welding phase is nearing... Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Fabrication - Welding practices and rotisserie I I'm on a roll, as here comes yet again an update! This week we achieved a start of a rotisserie (for the frame work), installed an exhaust fan and shop computer, made a holster for the welding gun and generally "dicked" around in the garage. After the first welds in the garage, it was obvious that an exhaust fan would be needed. So we drilled a 100 mm hole in the wall, stuck a pipe through it and mounted a fan to it. Might have to add some ducting to it as to gather the fumes more efficiently. First welding project/practice was to make a holster for the welding gun. Datsun's original front brake disc was sacrificed on the Altar of Fabrication and a few scrap pieces of pipe found their new homes. Welds are bit rough, but they get the job done. Next up was to weld a start for my rotisserie. I used a pallet shelving beams, as they are rated for 3000 kg's per piece and they were readily available. Also they are reasonably rigid and don't flex under load. Scrap pieces were used for the cross members. This factoid could have been guessed from the rust on them! Pallet beams are spaced so that the distance of the beam centers is 130 cm. This way the seam beneath the doors and running under the cockpit of the car, is on the center of the beams and can be interacted with clamps, that fix the car on the rotisserie. I also might have to study fixing points where I can bolt the car to the frame even more rigidly. The situation where the project was left after the weekend. After checking many times, the frame of the rotisserie is true down to the millimetres. Should be adequate... I hope. Next goal for the project is to make adjustable feet for the rotisserie. These I'm going to do by taking two square profiles of steel that overlap. Weld a cap on the inner one and a nut on it, so that a threaded rod can go through the cap and the nut. The threaded rod is to be mounted in a way that it stays fixed, but can spin freely on the assembly. This way I can extend the legs as I wish by ratcheting the rod (limited by the designed max. height of course) and also level the whole contraption. I'm thinking between 50 to 100 cm for the max. height. This would mean between 4 to 8 metres of two different square profiles. With the rotisserie, I'm aiming to keep the car square and level during the welding phase of the project. Hopefully, I even can fix the crookedness of the shell, if there is any, and make the car better than new when re-doing the frame beams and floors. Similar rotisserie is used on a project I'm watching on Youtube, called Project Binky by Bad Obsession Motorsport. Thanks go to those guys for the general idea! More light! The lighting in the garage is pretty good as it now stands, but one can never have too much light! This system was on sale and features two 50 watt LED work lights and a tripod stand. The tripod is a bit flimsy, but the lights are very powerful. Shop computer under updating... I'm planning to use this as the source of music (Spotify), database for manuals and instructions, as my project planning/tracking platform, as Nissan FAST machine and also as a VAG-COM and ElsaWin computer for my dd-Audi. Hopefully the VAG-COM cable likes cable extensions... Don't mind the cable management; this is only the first try and cables will be and are neatly packaged. A side note: I'm sweeping the floor after every major day and organizing the tools, as this way the work is much more enjoyable and faster. The 5S-principle is mighty fine in this! Now only if I could follow it in our/my daily life also...Well, I do try! So lots of words for such a mundane tasks, but "slowly and surely" is my motto in this project! Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Fabrication - Rotisserie II After the last update I have made the feet for the rotisserie, cleaned up the garage and made an auxiliary tank for the air-system. Also a lot of time has passed since last update! Here is a start for my auxiliary tank for the air-system (all installed now, but no picture) This way the capacity is doubled to 100 litres and the compressor need not to run as frequent as before when using air tools. These tanks will be connected with a hose and therefore will run in parallel. After the tear-down, I also have parts for the running compressor as the units are identical. The raw materials for rotisseries feet, a part of them at least. The profiles are 50x50x3 mm and will go inside 60x60x5 mm profiles and they will together make a "sleeve feet". The height of the feet will be around 90 cm when fully extended. I also need to strengthen the rotisserie. It flexes about 2 to 5 cm when lifted from the corner and this is not preferable, as one might guess when trying to square a car. So much for the thought rigidity of the pallet shelves... I'm thinking that I will "cage" the rotisserie by welding profiles between the bottoms of the feet. This should make the whole contraption more rigid (see next update in the possibly near future). Now some pictures about those feet and "wheel feet". A lot of pictures that just describe the making of one lousy rotisserie... At least the adjust-ability of the feet is about 40 cm so it should be "enough". Although few cm would have been enough! When you retract the feet fully, the wheels will contact the ground and rotisserie will be movable. Next time on Zeta GT: I will add crossbeams between the legs of the rotisserie on the long side and this should stop the flexing. After this, it is time to lift the car with the engine lift and ceiling pulley to the rotisserie, clamp it down and start hacking the car to pieces (and weld repair patches to the car). Also the measurements of the car will have to be checked. Lots of work and not a lot of forward motion regarding the car, but at least the facilities are shaping to be very good! Lots of work still ahead! Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Fabrication - Rotisserie/Sled is finished During the last weekend I finally have "completed" the rotisserie or as I have started to refer to it: "the Sled". Also I managed to lift Zeta on top of it and make "adapters" on which Zeta rests on the Sled. This only took few months to achieve so the project is on track... I wish! The outcome of this toiling away in the garage. It doesn't look much, but it's sturdy, it's designed for this car and I have made it so it must be very good. Jokes aside, the Sled is rather sturdy and the spacing between the longer sides is 130 cm from center to center. This means that the seam on the car runs nicely in the center of the beams as one can see from the following pictures... sort of. It only took three lift attempts to get Zeta on top of the Sled: First to see if the lift points will hold (they did) and to notice that in order to get Sled under the car, Zeta and Sled first have to switch places. So Zeta out of the garage and Sled in. Second to test if the lift points will hold (they still did) and to notice that the boom on the engine crane was too short in its current setting. So car down and I extended the boom to the right length. I used the engine crane on the back and the beam mounted chain hoist in the front. At least it was very easy to lift the shell with that kind of set-up. Third time managed to roll the Sled under the car and lower it to the beams. After checking that it held for a short time, I strapped the car to the beams and moved the whole contraption to its "rightful" place. After a short thinking brake, I made these profiles you can see under the car. They are just profiles that have grooves cut in to them so that Zetas' side seam will rest in it and the car won't move or fall. The profiles are welded to the beam, but I might have to add few more welds to them just to be sure. In other news: First... The website has undergone small update (as the keen eyed reader might have noticed) and has moved to its own domain: Zeta-GT.com. Also there is now tabs where I tell about the Project, where you can find the Blog and where you can find the Specifications... when I first decide on them myself. Second... I sold the RB20 motor with all of the other engine bits. The engine was a bit too small for my dreams and a bit too old and beaten down. So to keep things interesting, I found a rather nice replacement. The coming engine has six cylinders (in-line), 2.8 to 2.9 litres of displacement with a turbo or two, about 270 horses of power from the factory, vast after market support right here in Finland and in Nordic countries, has been made from 1999 to this day and last but not least it has the potential to develop 400 hp and 500 Nm with small tuning. With more extensive tuning 600+ hp is not out of the question. Also with this engine the gearbox selection is more varied and I can have a ZF gearbox with 6 gears (tested to withstand 1000 Nm of torque). Sounds nice, eh? Well the motor will be unveiled sometime in the future. First I have to see if the shell is fixable and how it develops. Got to say though... can't wait to buy that motor! Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Tool sourcing - Tools for repairs No new developments apart from few "part sourcing" trips. As the day comes nearer when I start the real restoration of the car, I noticed that some tools will be needed... Well they are not necessary, but I would like to think that they will help my job and I'm a "gear nut". This means that I think that: "the better the gear, the easier the work". Also because I'm a full fledged novice in sheet metal work, I will need all the help I can get. First additions to the tooling of the garage are needed when cutting the floors and frame rails off the car. These I bought from Finland, as I will need them come the next weekend. At least I hope so! I'm thinking of using only pneumatic tools as much as I can, as they will be quieter and more "controllable" than electric versions. I'm going to pick up a nibbler too on my way to the garage. Spot weld drill bits (6 and 8 mm) will be handy when taking the floors and frame rails off. There are quite a lot of spot welds in the floors and all of them have to be drilled out. (Thanks Motonet.fi for the pictures.) Next up is the items I bought from eBay. First picture shows Clecos (bought 35 pieces for 3 mm hole), Cleco pliers along with Cleco edge clamps and intergrips (bought 10 pieces). As I'm going to change the whole flooring and frame rails, better get tooling to get along with the job. The usage of Clecos can be seen from this guide: Z floor pan replacement. Clecos are used widely in the aviation industry in the USA so I would guess they are adequate for my rust heap project. Intergrips are needed when replacing the rusted or otherwise botched panels on the body. Like in this thread: MP&C Shop Projects. There is so much knowledge in this thread that I recommend it as a must read, if doing DIY car body repairs. The cut off tool comes in handy in here too when planishing the welds. The thread pitch gauge is a welcome addition to the tool "collection" as I'm going to change as many bolts as possible from the car because they are quite a sorry looking bunch. In this task this tool comes very handy. Cataloguing as its best! The "christmas trees" were just an impulse buy... You just can't have too much drill bits and step drills are rather handy! (Thanks AB Tools Online for the pictures.) So this kind of an update this time. I'm writing about these kind of happenings too as acquiring tools for the project is as important task as other tasks. Without these tools the work could be much harder and when time is of the essence, it can not be wasted! Next up should be the levelling of the Sled and that way Zeta. After this I make the first "surgically accurate" cuts to the car and start taking away the floors and frame rails. Making the new ones I'm going to outsource to a local sheet metal company. Rather exciting... for me at least! Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Fabrication - Flooring: Part I Fabrication has started! Well not really, I just have made the first cuts and taken the drivers floor off. Here is the starting point for the removal process. Damage is quite extensive and the previous repairs have been done very poorly. Thus the whole floor has to go! One can see that spot weld drill went through in few spots. I'm cutting that area also off, when I have repaired the floor first. That way the distortion of transmission tunnel is kept to a minimum or so I hope. I'm guessing this is going to be the case on the passenger side as well, because the spot welds are keeping the seat mounting rails attached along with some body adhesive. You would think that after 30 odd years the adhesive would have failed, but no! I don't plan to use the rails, so I just hack them to pieces and remove them that way. I extended the cut far in to the firewall, because there was already poorly made patch panels attached to the firewall and the only reasonable action was to cut those off too. Here is a picture showing the inside of the frame rail. Full of rust and debris. Got to say that it was the only good decision to remove the floors and frame rails. Without that decision, the rust would have been left inside the rails and the integrity of the car would have compromised along with the safety. I took quite a chunk out of the floor, but at least the piece is rather "easy" to reproduce and make a new floor for the hole. Also I took out the frame rail and this is going to be made either from nicely sized box section or I'm going to have it made from sheet metal same time as the floor piece. I'm leaning towards box section at least for the time being, as it would be rather easy to weld additional stiffening to it and to further stiffen the car. Better to run few simulations for the added weight and torsional stiffness of the box section compared to the OEM frame rail. This is how I left the car last weekend. One can see that rust damage extends to the rocker panel also, so I will have to cut sections off those too and make nice patch panels for them. These repairs will be done before welding the floor, because it would be insane and pointless to weld nice floors to such a poor foundation. Few words about the Sled... Best piece of equipment so far! When the car is on it, I can roll under it with a creeper and even sit under the car in the transmission tunnel with my back straight. A little better than jack stands! Fortunately hard work paid off this time! Hopefully next time I get to start the welding and making patch panels, but as plausible outcome is that the project screeches to a halt... You never know! Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Fabrication - Flooring: Part II The cutting has continued during few previous weekends. I have cut off half of the drivers inside rocker panel and unearthed some "vintage" quality rust. Almost all of the original sheet metal had vanished and only the more resent repairs remained. A rather sorry looking sight! Well it can only get better... but not yet, I'm afraid. The extent of the removed sheet metal is rather massive at this point and to counter-act the possible deforming, I ratcheted few straps around the cars lover portion. The straps are cheap, but I reckon they will do their job when I sever the last remaining piece and weld it so there are no overlapping sheet metal. The starting point was that I run over the original seam with a nylon brush to remove any contaminants. Then I cut through the overlapping parts where they were welded together and tidied the to-be-welded area. After the area was tidy, I clamped the pieces with clamps and hammered the edges level or at least as level as possible. I welded few spot welds between the clamps and in the sides and then removed the clamps. After every few welds, I planished the welds by hammering them against a dolly and grinding them flat. By first hammering the weld, I compressed the weld and eased the temperature deforming. I just kept on adding more spot welds and planishing until the seam was continuous. Work in progress... In this state there were few spots where light shone through. More welds it is then! The finished seam, but I guess some finishing touches should be made. No light shines through when checking for integrity, so I would guess that the seam is also watertight. I welded from downside also to maximise the strength of the seam. Few pointers I learned during this endeavour: 1) The gap between the panels should be equal in every place. This ensures good penetration of the weld and a nice result. In this first exercise, the panels touched in some places and some places they were 4 mm apart. 2) Better to clean the area very thoroughly. If the area is not cleaned and there is some contaminants left (eg. seam sealer, rust, sound deadening), the weld will go straight through like hot knife to butter. Then one must fill the holes with more welds. This compromises the quality as more heat is generated and more heat deforming can happen. This time the panels were 1 mm and 1,5 mm in thickness, so they were relatively easy to weld and not prone to distortion. The rest of the rocker panel was in as bad as shape as was the first half, so I cut it open as well. Seam running on the bottom of the rocker panel is in rather bad shape also, as can be seen from the previous photos, but I'm going to run the angle grinder through the center of it and clean up the rust. Either I then clamp the seam closed and weld it or I insert some flat stock in the seam and then weld it shut. Either way, the seam should be in better shape when ready. Luckily that doesn't take much! I will be welding safety cage tubing (48,3*2,6 mm ST35.8) inside the rocker panel and weld the coming cage and frame rails to it as well with few extra profiles. Together they will make additional framing to the car and should stiffen the car rather nicely thus making the car as safe as possible. Also, when done this way, I make sure that the car can and will handle what ever horsepower I throw at it. I'm not sure if this procedure has been done with a Z-car before, but Bad Obsession Motorsport did it with their Project Binky. If it passes with them, it will be accepted in my project also. The added safety features will add some weight to the car, but better to compensate with power than skimp out with safety. Luckily the weight is added to the floor and thus it can even make the car handle better in corners by lowering the center of gravity. That I at least hope! Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Fabrication - Frame rails: Part I During the Easter I toiled away with the drivers side frame rails. Material used is 60x40x3 mm RHS profile and it should be more than adequate for this task... might be even a slight overkill! I managed to spend two days building one lousy frame rail, but I hope that the next one will happen a bit faster. At least now I have a sample frame rail, as now I just had to guess/measure what should be the correct angles and lengths. Onwards to the pictures... First the Mark I and also what I had to cut away during this stage: Area marked that needs to be cut away... Among other areas. What the cut revealed inside the frame rail. Mark I mocked up and welded to the "right" angle... I did a second angle to the rail as it drooped too low. This did not fix the problem. First mock up of the placement and reducing of the frame rail. This looked like... well not good and as I said earlier the frame rail was about 30 mm too low. On the next day I cut away the rail and started again. Pictures from the Mark II: I used a strap to put the tension rod hole in the right place and to keep everything level. Also the new frame rail is mocked up in the right place. The reducement I made to the frame rail. Now the rail sits inside the original frame rail and looks like the part! Welding sample... I had to make a cut to the rear seat frame to get the rail as high as needed. The rear pick-up piece that connects to the rear subframe and to the rest of the frame rail. I plugged the end with a 1,5 mm sheet metal and one can see the numerous angles that was required of the rail to it sit nicely to the place it needed to go. I welded the pick-up rail to the floor rail and to the rear seat frame. Should stiffen the car up nicely, but the rear frame will still be welded to the cut out section and to the rear subframe. For my eye the quality of the welds seems to be okay, but there still is room to improve! Also good (best) seam sealer needs to be used to prevent water and debris finding their way to the unwanted parts of the cut out (inside the rear seat). Shot where I tried to compare the heights of the new rail and the old one... Old one might be about 10 mm higher but that should not be a problem! As the fabrication part has been dealt with at this time, lets move on to the old suspension parts. They looked like this on Wednesday: Before the weekend on Friday, they looked like this: Quite the difference, eh? My friend Timo shot blasted them with steel medium and they look like new! The rust proofing and other muck did not have a chance! Now I just need to get the old bushings out and take them to be powder coated. Only real downside in them looking like new is that now I can't justify buying new and shiny and adjustable parts from Techno Toy Tuning... Well at least for now! I might have to see if these original parts could be modified somehow to be more adjustable. To wrap this update up, we went to the American Car Show in Finland to see Tonis' -74 car. Thank you Toni for a detailed tour and good luck with your goals on the races and with the new engine! PS. First project photos with the new lens (Sigma SE 30 mm, can recommend) and camera (Sony Alpha 6000, can recommend). Seems to me that I need to shoot with smaller aperture or at least to be more careful with the focusing, because now the photos are too "shallow" in some places. Better luck and technique next time! Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Fabrication - Patch panels: Part I It has been a bit quiet on the "Eastern front", but now there has finally been some progress with the project. During the last two weekends I have cut the car even more, but I have even made some new panels to compensate! Without further ado, lets get the show going... The form of the first patch panel taped and outlined with a marker. I have noticed that this taping method is rather fast and efficient. You can tape over the needed area, outline the needed form and then transfer the "schematic" to the sheet metal. Could be even faster method than CAD (Cardboard Aided Design)... The first patch panel cut and bended. It came out reasonably nice, but the bend is a bit... well it leaves something to be desired! I clamped the panel tightly and got cracking! The panel was first tacked up and with each tack I planished the weld and ground it flat. This was continued as long as there was light shining trough the seam. After this, I just welded from the other side also... just to make sure as this is somewhat a load bearing part! Panel for the outboard side. A bit more complex shape but still rather easy with the tape method. The strap is there to pull the assembly to its correct place. Still need to use it when welding the floors to the now formed flanges as the assembly is "leaning" a bit towards the transmission tunnel. No biggies, just need to ratchet it couple centimetres... easy in theory! The next panel all clamped up and ready to go! Old spot welds as new plug welds. "Final" weld seams... The quotation marks are there, because the welds are not ground and therefore rather ugly. I will grind the welds and prep them as nicely as I can. Better not leave them as such when all other sides of the project are made as best as possible! So this kind of update this time. Some advances have been made and I found out, that I truly can weld this sheet metal work! A load has been lifted off my shoulders, as I was a bit worried that is the car salvageable. It might be now! Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Fabrication - Patch panels: Part II Summer holiday has been dealt with and some progress has been made! I have made few patch panels and now there is more new sheet metal in the left front fender well than old metal and even the lower part of the suspension tower got rebuilt. Also my friend shot blasted some parts for me again. Should be easier to weld new coil-over tubes to the hub assemblies and paint the parts when the time comes. Might be that my friend will have to shot blast them again before paint if rust gets to the parts. Let the picture avalanche commence! Suspension parts loaded in a container and going to my friends house to be shot blasted along with some "bribes" for his hard work. The outcome of the shot blasting. He uses a tumbling machine and small metal balls to get the result seen here. If I may say so myself, they look very good for their age and my friend did very nice work! Here I got a bit side tracked for a moment and looked at the rear fenders. I drew a line to where the angle goes in the side panel to see how much would have to be repaired before I will cut the fenders for the over fenders. As one can see the right side (lower photo) is much better than the left side (upper) and I might get away with just cutting the fender and the over fender will take care of the rest. On the other hand something must be done for the left side... Unfortunately! I'm using this car and picture (Line added by me) with the Works fenders as my reference point, when deciding where to cut. As one can see, the over fenders are situated quite high and therefore the original fenders are cut reasonably high also. By doing these over fenders the rear fenders are salvageable with much lesser work than by just repairing them with sheet metal. Next patch of old sheet metal cut off. Luckily the inside of the frame rail just looks bad, as it was in rather nice condition! Patch panel marked up... ...and cut... ... some more cutting and grinding... ...test fitting and cutting and grinding some more. Finally the panel fitted like a glove as Ace Ventura would say and I got it tack welded. Here the panel is welded firmly in place and the work with rebuilding the lower part of the suspension tower could begin. Tacked patches in place. All patches in the fender area are made with 1.5mm sheet metal so rigidity should increase nicely with these repairs. All welded up. I just hope my welds have enough penetration, but by the looks of the discolouration, I would guess that the welds should hold just fine. Also around this time, I made the decision to go with 0.6 wire. Welding new metal to old one became so much easier as it doesn't blow holes in the original sheet so easily. Next up was the left front tow point mount. This was heavily corroded and someone had "repaired" it by welding additional sheet metal over the corroded part... and welded it very badly. I just cut it off and began making new panel and mounting hardware for it. New vs. Old. Old had practically disappeared. New one is made with 8.8 grade nuts and 1.5mm sheet metal welded to 1.5mm sheet. I just tack welded it in place and began tacking it more securely. Here you can see it all welded up and looking rather nice, if I may say so. How the car was left after the holidays. More has been repaired of the left fender well than has been left untouched and some small holes I just tack welded shut and rebuilt the corroded metal that way. Still much to do with this fender well and general area! I must not forget the vast amount of work ahead of me... Here is a shot of the right fender well. Same repairs have to be made and some more along with the flooring and frame rail! Next Saturday the work continues with left fender well with even more patch panels. Of course when I have made all repairs to that area, I will be seam welding it for even more rigidity. So to the next time! Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Supporting tasks for the project - Garage III Saturday did not go as planned with the project... My goal was to wake up early, drive to the garage (1 hour drive) and make some new patch panels. Almost all of this happened, but not the patch panels! Sometime last week, I had an epiphany: Why don't I use my now vacant Ikea Jerker as a welding table and make a "machining center" to the garage? I thought that I would do that and still have time for some patch panel fabrication, but as always I got a bit carried away! On to the pictorial review of the work day! Some readers (if I have any) may remember, that the garage looked something like this... the tool carts were easily available and there was ample table space. Unfortunately there was no room for a column drill and grinder and the space below the other pallet shelf was full of "stuff". Enter Ikea Jerker along with some very basic organization skills. Ikea Jerker is a rather flexible and sturdy work table, that I have been using in my office. Now that I got a new table, this was looking for a new home and it found one in our garage! The final (as of now) tooling center... Excuse the mess and dirt! I added a 3mm metal plate on top of the Jerker and welded a diagonal support profile under the right corner as my large vice will be placed on the right corner. Work surface is fully level and I welded a ground point to it for the welder. Now I just can lay a part on top of the table, attach the ground to the table and begin welding. I put our grinder on a separate surface... on a hindsight, I might have to lower it a bit! Our trusty column drill also found a new home in the garage. Now all that it needed is bolting it to the floor and giving it a nice once over! Now I can do very varied works in the garage and not wonder around the "barn" between different tools. Tool drawers found their new home under the second storage shelf. Also my engine stand fits in the left over space quite nicely, along the iron storage between the shelf and side wall. I just hope that the coming new engine will fit in the same space... Both of the shelves will be covered with white tarps as to prevent dust getting all over the parts and to reflect all available light back to the work area. No need to waste good lights and illuminate rarely used and dismantled car parts. I did get some work done on the car also, but only few cuts and grinds. In these three photos, one can again see the "near expert quality" craftsmanship, that has been used when repairing this car in the past. Unfortunately these repairs just have exposed the car for more damages and problems. Because of the past life of the car, I must repair all of the upper portion of the wheel well and upper structural rail (shown in the third last photo) and this will be what I will be concentrating on next. Same goes for the right side of the car when its turn comes. Still few CAD models to do and few sweat drops to drop before all is said and done! Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Fabrication - Engine: Part I and Patch Panels: Part II ½ This update is going to be a bit mixed due to work being done with new driveline, patch panels and a little bit of garage alterations. So "lets get to work", as Tom says on his videos! First up, the driveline components and engine along with some garage "remodelling": I spent a weekend at the garage and first thing I did was to go and pick up some parts. So I drove on Friday to the garage and left to get parts on Saturday morning and drove over 400 kilometres total on that day! First stop was in Tampere to pick up this; a busted aw30-43. The transmission is used for example in the Toyota Supra and Volvo 960, but as this is broken and automatic, I'm just going to use its bellhousing to mate the actual transmission to the coming engine. At least I hope that this bellhousing can be used... well the box was only 40 Euro, so not a huge loss if all goes "tits-up" with it. I can always dismantle it and study it a bit. And now the real McCoy, a six geared ZF GS6-37DZ from an E46 BMW diesel straight from Germany. This example should be barely driven-in as the cars mileage was only 133k. For this project, this transmission should be quite adequate as they are pushing about 700nm of torque through these boxes. The big brother of this box is called the GS6-53DZ and that is suited for about 1000 or more nm of torque. Next, I set my course to Turku, where I picked up this parts engine. This engine in question is called the B6304F and its made by Volvo. As this is the parts engine, it means that the actual engine will also be made by Volvo; a B6284T aka 2.8 litre turbo T6. I'm going to use only the head (possibly) and all oil related parts from this motor in the T6, as this 3 litre engine uses a rear sump oil pan straight from the factory. Also engine mounts might be used... Almost all parts are interchangeable between Volvo's I6 and I5 modular engines and even though this engine is from the 90's and the actual project engine is from 2003 (driven 115k), the head should bolt up with minimal hassle. The view should clear up a bit once the project engine is built. I'm not going to use the power steering pump or the a/c from these motors so the package should thin out quite nicely and be as compact package as a Toyota 2JZ or even smaller. The resting place of the parts engine. There was just enough room for the stand and the motor, so I got it out of the way and out from the elements e.g. dust and sparks. Engine will wait for head removal and further dismantling here in the garage, as I start working with the T6 engine in another location. I needed to get the motor for example out of the dust and sparks so I bought some tarps and hung them with tek screws from the pallet shelves. Now the dust and sparks can't fly so easily on to the shelves and over the parts. These tarps also reflect the light so that it is not wasted on illuminating the storage shelves. Next up, some patch work: This frame rail or what ever you like to call it, has been repaired quite badly some time in the past and it has to be rectified. I started the work by welding some braces to keep the suspension towers from moving and then cutting a large chunk out of the sheet metal in the wheel well as I was going to replace that before the "upper frame rail". Then I realised that I should just cut the upper frame rail off, make the patch panel for the wheel well and then make a new upper frame rail at the same time fixing some design errors aka nooks and crannies the original design leaves. First task in this job was to make some patterns out of the existing rail and luckily they are interchangeable between the left and right side. As the rail is quite complexly shaped, I will be making patterns out of the three sides of the rail and weld them together and thus make a new and improved upper rail from 1.5mm sheet metal. Unfortunately this was as far as I got with this task so work will continue some other time. As I mentioned previously, I will start working with the actual engine as soon as I get it, but I'm hoping that the courier will drop it off come next week. I will be updating those parts of this project in posts labelled as Engine, so check up those and have a nice one! Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Engine - Volvo T6 Hybridz: Part II New motor has arrived and dismantling has started. Slight change in venue, but at least the garage is warm in winter and also really close to our home. No need to drive 1.5 hours to the garage to tinker with the motor. Motor in question is a Volvo B6284T that came from a Volvo S80 MY. 2003. The car was driven only 115k kilometres (according to the seller) so here is to hoping that everything is in order and checks out! I'm not going to ramble very much this time and I will just dump the pictures as this is reasonably straight forward deal. On to the pictures: As one can see from the pictures, there has been some water under the coil cover and it has been accumulated in one of the spark plug holes leaving a white residue when water has reacted with aluminium. The motor is in really good condition when judged by the outside looks and moves freely when turned from the damper. I hope that the water is, for example, just water that has accumulated under the coil cover and not some cooling water that has made its way to a cracked cylinder and seeped out from the spark plug hole. I will see if the block is cracked when I get the head off, but before that I'm going to need some more tools, e.g. a plastic mallet to whack the valve cover off and a longer ratchet would also help! Fingers and toes crossed that everything is OK and the motor is valid to be used as a project block and the head that I bought previously mates nicely with the newer parts. After I have dismantled the engine(s), I'm sending it to my friend to be washed in parts washer and I also will soda blast the heck out of the parts so they will look just like new. Then off to the machinist to be straightened if need be and balanced. The inspiration photo for this motor of choice: Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Engine - Volvo T6 Hybridz: Part III The dismantling has advanced a bit, but screeched to a halt as the tools did not endure the torture. Onwards with the pictures! The head looks really good and hardly any sludge to be seen. Also the camshafts seem to be in really good shape, so this motor is really looking like it could be a rather nice project motor for Zeta! Unfortunately still no head removal in sight as I had to stop work for the night. Reason that I had to stop for the night... Note to self: use 1/2" socket and extension bar next time for the head bolts. 3/8" seems to be inadequate! Luckily the extensions have 10 year guarantee so I just get new ones without a hassle. Still, going to pick up 1/2" socket set, so I can get the head of and see the cylinders! Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Engine - Volvo T6 Hybridz: Part IV New tools acquired so off with the head! Still need a counter hold tool to keep the crank shaft from rotating when taking the damper and pulleys off, but that I can whip up next weekend when welding continues. This side is cleaned up and only one sensor remains... Did not have a large enough wrench or socket so I will need to get that off before parts washer. Cross hatching looks immaculate for the most parts (hard to tell by the pictures.. sorry about that) so only a slight honing should be adequate for the cylinders, but they will be measured and checked none the less. My fear for cracked cylinder did not materialize, as all the liners and cylinders are in really good condition as far as I can tell! Also the pistons are in rather good shape and as they should be good for about 600 hp, I will just clean them up really good by blasting them with soda and washing them thoroughly. Head looking rather crummy, but still not bad for a 115k km motor, eh? Valves have a bit of carbon on them, but they should be in good condition also. Nothing that a good soda blasting and washing can't fix! They will be cleaned, checked and weighed, so that all is in as good condition as it can be when the motor is assembled. Did not have the tools to check if the head is straight, but my guess is that it should be OK as all the head bolts were tight as a whistle and there were no blow through in the head gasket. Of course this will be checked also! Next I should be able to take the oil pan off and see how the bottom end looks. Should be a good one and at the same time the intermediary section of the motor will come off, then only the crank shaft and connecting rods remain. The dismantling part is the easy one... the assembly and machining is the ones that make me nervous a bit! Fortunately K-Jet.org has a suitable "Greenbook" to offer as the manual for B6254T/B6304F is largely the same as for B6284T (Engine re-conditioning). Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Engine - Volvo T6 Hybridz: Part V It has been a long time from the last update, but not a lot has happened in the project. First of my computer acted up and still is doing so and secondly it has been rather busy in the real life! Engine B6304F: I started cleaning the B6304F engine off all the grime and oil by spraying mineral spirit and compressed air onto it. This worked remarkably well and also the most stubborn oil started to come off! Above is the starting point for the operation. In the above pictures the grime is loosening and can be wiped away. After I had cleaned the engine a bit I opened up the oil pan took it off. Oil is a bit dark looking and smudged but fortunately I'm not using this motor for anything critical so no harm done. Oil pan is great condition and can be used straight away with the pick-up tube and oil sieve in the new engine, B6284T. Looks rather good and might be still workable as a motor, but I'm thinking of turning this engine to a coffee table when I have cleaned and dismantled it completely! Should be nice if no-one else needs this ore heap... Seems that some oil sludge has accumulated on the oil pick-up, but nothing major. Engine B6284T: To get the new engine apart I needed a tool to hold the crank shaft locked when I open the center nut. Some scrap angle iron, "careful" measuring and one surplus socket later I came up with the tool you can see in the above pictures. Here the tool is in use and it is used in conjunction with a long breaker bar. Worked nicely and the center nut creaked open rather effortlessly This was the state I left the engine for few months, but now the engine is in pieces after I had it transported to my main garage. My friend and I tore the engine apart and those pictures will come next week in a episode called: Engine - Old parts galore: Part VI Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Fabrication - Patch panels: Part III Work has also continued with the patch panels. Here is the starting point I had before most recent repairs... Quite sorry looking sight even though quite large areas have already been repaired by yours truly. The whole upper frame rail has to be repaired. This will be done with 1,5 mm sheet metal and lots of swearing and measuring and beating and welding. Rough starting sketch... Well not rough rough. I had used CAD to get this far, but still a lot of fine tuning ahead. I'm doing the upper rail from three different large pieces, compared to the previous repair where there were three small patches slapped on top of the original rail. The rough sketch cut out and tabs bended. Next up I will cut and bend the top portion of the rail. Upper portion of the rail tack welded and bent to shape. Old upper rail has been cut out along with all the accompanying rot. Quite large portion in the end ended up in the metal bin, but as the saying goes: "If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the garage". Here I have tacked up the patch panels and they are looking rather fine, if I may say so. The upper rail fitted in place and tacked up. Last panel made for the top and plug welded in place. Difference a good weld makes. This has been welded only from the other side, but I guess that it is not going anywhere! Panels all welded up and additional patch added to the suspension tower to make up missing material. Before I can finalize the upper rail, I have to repair yet another section. This section had 4 layers of sheet metal botched on top of one another and this was not good. Cutting has started and adjacent panels also take fire. All the rot has been cut out and as one can see also the upper rail need adjustment. That is more sheet metal! Repair panel made and fitted in place. Fits like a glove and also seals the firewall which is a good thing as the firewall looks like a sieve in some places! Well... this panel did not go as planned. I measured in a hurry and did not take to account that the panel needs to be in-line with the outer side of the place (eg. with the newly welded patch panel). This resulted in a panel which is few centimetres short in some places and some places few mm too big. In other words a lost cause to be used in this place! Well better luck next time as this still needs to be done and I will do that come next week and one free day! I have also made some improvements again to the garage. I mounted the LEDs on a light stand with integrated grinder holsters and extension cord. Now I just plug one socket to the wall and I have movable lights and grinders can be put on it as so in the picture. Rather nifty and convenient! I had to make few adjustments to the grinders safety shield as the shield would always catch on all places. With out the shield was too dangerous for my liking so I trimmed it down and now the wheel fits in rather tight places. Also the shield trimmed as shown, I could still put it to its holster even when the disk was spinning. Of course, no garage is complete with out a TV. The filing cabinet is from my fiancées fathers garage. A very sturdy piece and quite good for different storage needs with its four drawers. I also put the compressors on top each others to gain some room. One other project I did, but not quite finished, was a welding cart with few cheap parts. Ikea metal drawer at 20 euro second hand fitted on top of a shop cart. Cable hooks are made from small coat hooks riveted on the side. The gas bottle still needs to be filled and fitted on top of the cart along with extension cord for few extra sockets. Quite nice and beats the Motonet/Biltema (local Harbor Freight) offering... at least in my mind! Here is "money shot" of the project as it now stands. Hopefully I can soon start this side and get the repairs going and project moving! Next up is some more patch panels and cleaning the garage... should be fun! Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPTaiva Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Supporting tasks for the project - Garage IV Dear Diary, This weekend I did not weld any welds on the car or make any patch panels, but I did clean up the garage and make a new work table to replace my trusty Ikea Jerker. Lets get it on like Donkey Kong! First up the starting point. Jerker full of stuff and not very much room to begin with. Also the Jerker was very flimsy in this usage... as some wiser fellow would have guessed to begin with! Jerker has been dismantled and the area cleaned a little bit. The building material that I used can be seen on the bottom right corner. Those are pallet shelves and rated for 3 tons. I cut the pallet shelves in half and placed them on the shelf uprights. Then I tack welded a cross beam in the end and pulled the frame to square with a ratchet strap. I pulled the the tack welded frame level with another ratchet strap and made the first leg. Here is the frame ready for final welding. The frame is really sturdy and once I add more cross beams to it, it should not flex under any load. Jerker lives on! I re-purposed the Jerkers' table top and the metal plate that I had made for it and screwed it down. Lets see how long this temporary solution lasts and I also need to make the shelving for the bottom frame. The tool box on table can be seen in the first picture and that also I have "inherited" from the family. Really sturdy, tons of room and weighs a ton! I'm thinking that I should make the missing drawers for it sometime, if those can't be found anywhere. I also added a extension cord to the table so that I can plug for example lighting for the work area to it and shut them out with one switch. As a side project, I decided to open up the differential and see what ratio do I have and at the same time check the condition of the diff (good). I bolted some feet to the diff from my engine stand to keep the diff from tipping over. Worked really well and will do so next time also when I'm dealing with the differential. Reason for my curiosity was that as far as I know, all 260Z models came with a final drive of 3.545, but according to the "Green Book", the 260Z 2+2 would have come with a 3.36. The ratio can be seen stamped to the ring gear in this picture and it states 39:11. When you do the math I unfortunately do have the "wrong/correct" 3.545 as it would have been slightly better for me to have the higher gearing. This is because I will be using a gearbox with "diesel ratios" and with high gearing I would have better mileage and better top speed. Small quote from HotRod: "Considering that lower gears provide greater torque multiplication, it would seem that they are always the best choice for performance use. However, lower gears require more input speed (engine rpm) to produce the same output speed (tire rpm). Higher gears multiply torque less, but they require less input speed to deliver the same output speed; that's why axle ratios also determine engine cruise rpm." "If the trans is in a gear with a 1:1 ratio (like Fourth gear on most four-speeds) and the rear gears are 3.08s, then the engine must turn 3.08 times for every one rotation of the tires. Lower 4.10:1 gears would make the engine turn 4.10 times for each turn of the tire, so lower gears cause higher engine rpm at any road speed." In this picture you can see the projected tire size, max. engine rpm and the differential and gearbox ratios. Top speed is quite nice still, but the first gear is a bit short... at least when compared with similar cars. One remedy for this situation could be using a final drive from Nissan Armada/Pathfinder with a ratio of 2.937 and the diff would be a R230 (indestructible!). This would bump up the first gear top speed and well... the calculated top speed could be over 320 km/h. "Only" downside is that the needed differential would come from USA and I would need also Z32TT LSD, correct shims, Z32TT input flange, Z32TT output shafts and new stubs for the diff and a new moustache bar... Quite a long list and expensive at that! Some reading material about this setup. There is also a quite nifty looking setup available, but in limited numbers. In this setup the gearing could be practically anything as the support for it is really vast! Also the diff should be quite durable as it is used in Cadillac CTS-V among other. Some reading material about this setup. So I decided to bite the bullet for the time being and keep this diff. For that to happen, I need a LSD for it and to find the correct one, if I'm going with a Nissan unit, I need to know the ring gear bolt OD. FYI it is 10 mm in my case. Other solutions include KAAZ, Quaife and OBX. OBX being the most cost effective and rightly modded, a good alternative for the pricier units. More about the subject in my blog. Weekend was finalized with shelving and sorting all engine parts and cleaned suspension parts to large containers and sweeping the floor after a quite long hiatus in doing so. Much better to start making the patch panels next time around when there is room where to work, no engine parts tripping me up and gathering dust and also the fire extinguisher can be found! Edited February 20, 2016 by OPTaiva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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