1971 240z bent rear trunk near the tool bin

[Rivvs1]

Hi I am beginning a restoration project on a 1971 240z and the part around and the tool storage bin are bent. Any idea what can have caused this? See picture the whole car does not seem bent because the door the hood and hatch line up perfectly 

[rturbo 930]

Have you looked underneath? Maybe the car took a hit to the suspension and not the body. That's some pretty unusual damage if the body is straight so hard to say what happened without more info. Also curious as to what that structure in the rear of the car is for, doesn't look like a typical roll bar or harness bar. Looks like it has something to do with the damage you're looking at, maybe some kind of ghetto reinforcement to the damaged area.

[AydinZ71]

looks like it is buckled. Get underneath the car and see if you see any other buckling from underneath. There two unibody tube supports that go along either side of that ramped surface. They should show some signs of damage as well. You just noticed this now, and not when you acquired the car? Can't tell you what caused that, but my guess would be an accident. An S30 can be rear-ended and repaired, look OK from outside, but still have buckling in the main unibody structure. Misaligned panels can be contoured with body filer. 

[Rivvs1]

13 hours ago, rturbo 930 said:

Have you looked underneath? Maybe the car took a hit to the suspension and not the body. That's some pretty unusual damage if the body is straight so hard to say what happened without more info. Also curious as to what that structure in the rear of the car is for, doesn't look like a typical roll bar or harness bar. Looks like it has something to do with the damage you're looking at, maybe some kind of ghetto reinforcement to the damaged area.

The structure in the back is some sort of ghetto sway bar. And it had a fuel cell in place of the spare.

Edited August 21, 2023 by Rivvs1

[Rivvs1]

13 hours ago, AydinZ71 said:

looks like it is buckled. Get underneath the car and see if you see any other buckling from underneath. There two unibody tube supports that go along either side of that ramped surface. They should show some signs of damage as well. You just noticed this now, and not when you acquired the car? Can't tell you what caused that, but my guess would be an accident. An S30 can be rear-ended and repaired, look OK from outside, but still have buckling in the main unibody structure. Misaligned panels can be contoured with body filer. 

I bought two car. I was gonna use the yellow to rebuild the grey one but after tearing down the interior of the grey I found a lot of rust. The rear shock mount is all rusted out and is has been patched all over the car. The yellow is in better shape but I am afraid that the whole car is not straight because ou how the rear end look like. At least now I know that this not a common thing on these car to Bend like that so I need to figure out what caused it.

[AydinZ71]

to give you some context, the race car I restored had also been rear-ended. Luckily, the buckling I experienced was right where the vertical supports surrounding the taillights intersects with horizontal panel housing the spare tire (mine is gone, fuel cell). I have about 1/4" of "dive" on the horizontal panel. No net effect to the outside bodywork after metal work, straightening, and filler. 

 

My concern for you is that your bucking appears to be forward of the shock towers. If you draw a rectangle around all four shock towers, everything inside is critical to the dynamics of the car, and everything outside is just "dead weight" with no direct effect other than aero and chassis stiffening. once the towers get pushed around (closer, further, left/right), the vehicles dynamics will be effected. 

 

It CAN be fixed, but if you balked at major rust repair, I am afraid fixing a buckled chassis is a much greater risk for success. 

 

Good luck!

Edited August 21, 2023 by AydinZ71

[jhm]

Off topic, but I'd be interested to see some more pics of that sway bar setup.  Can't say I've ever seen that setup on the rear of a Z car.

 

Strange chassis buckling for sure, from your pictures; but fixable.  Bring it to a chassis shop for measuring and straightening (if necessary).

[Rivvs1]

8 hours ago, jhm said:

Off topic, but I'd be interested to see some more pics of that sway bar setup.  Can't say I've ever seen that setup on the rear of a Z car.

 

Strange chassis buckling for sure, from your pictures; but fixable.  Bring it to a chassis shop for measuring and straightening (if necessary).

It is a simple sway bar set up. But it is very pourly made. Does not even have bushings. Metal on metal with no grease.

[Rivvs1]

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8 hours ago, AydinZ71 said:

to give you some context, the race car I restored had also been rear-ended. Luckily, the buckling I experienced was right where the vertical supports surrounding the taillights intersects with horizontal panel housing the spare tire (mine is gone, fuel cell). I have about 1/4" of "dive" on the horizontal panel. No net effect to the outside bodywork after metal work, straightening, and filler. 

 

My concern for you is that your bucking appears to be forward of the shock towers. If you draw a rectangle around all four shock towers, everything inside is critical to the dynamics of the car, and everything outside is just "dead weight" with no direct effect other than aero and chassis stiffening. once the towers get pushed around (closer, further, left/right), the vehicles dynamics will be effected. 

 

It CAN be fixed, but if you balked at major rust repair, I am afraid fixing a buckled chassis is a much greater risk for success. 

 

Good luck!

This one needs rust repair too. But most of it is in the front. I went under the car the rear frame rail seems to be straight. It look like it has bent upward where the rod for the sway bar goes inside the car. Maybe the touched the frame rail and bent it. I took a couple photos.

[AydinZ71]

Mann… uncoated carbon steel and everything. I applaud his creativity, but he must not have been too concerned about corrosion 😂

 

what is your goal for the car? If it was a great deal and you want to turn it into a cruiser, I’d say you can keep going and as long as the suspension geometry isn’t too out of wack, you may be OK I wouldn’t use this as a base for a track car though. The buckling will just introduce another point of bending/articulation in the unibody that you don’t need. You could add a bunch of reinforcement, but it may warp it further if the unibody is already compromised. Tough call. Did you get a really good deal? I see a lot of rolling chassis on offer up for $5-8k. I bet they would negotiate since there are so many of them. 

[AydinZ71]

So looking at it closer, there may be a link between the pass-through on the sway bar and the buckling. He bored a hole right through the unibody support. If the car was then rear ended, it would definitely buckle at its weakest point which is precisely where you see the damage. If the material removed is severe enough, the unibody could simply be warping from the stress of the road alone. 
 

What I am saying is plausible, but really there is no way to know for sure so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. 

Edited August 22, 2023 by AydinZ71

[Rivvs1]

1 hour ago, AydinZ71 said:

Mann… uncoated carbon steel and everything. I applaud his creativity, but he must not have been too concerned about corrosion 😂

 

what is your goal for the car? If it was a great deal and you want to turn it into a cruiser, I’d say you can keep going and as long as the suspension geometry isn’t too out of wack, you may be OK I wouldn’t use this as a base for a track car though. The buckling will just introduce another point of bending/articulation in the unibody that you don’t need. You could add a bunch of reinforcement, but it may warp it further if the unibody is already compromised. Tough call. Did you get a really good deal? I see a lot of rolling chassis on offer up for $5-8k. I bet they would negotiate since there are so many of them. 

I want to use it as a cruiser only. No track. I paid 8000 Canadian for two car. One is complete (grey)and one roller (yellow). Two engine two diff 4 set of suspension etc. So I think it was a good deal considering that there is absolutely no s30 for sale in the province. I already got like 5 people asking to buy them haha. They are rusty but I live in Quebec where winter absolutely destroy car so these car a very rare here. The grey car is complete but it has been patched everywhere and pourly done using isolation foam as body filler…

[rturbo 930]

If you want a cruiser, I'm guessing you're looking for a fairly stock car. If so, I think I'd sell these to one of these people offering to buy them, and get a nicer car from the US and import it. Both of these cars sound extremely rough, and I don't think there's an easy way to fix the damage you're looking at here. 

Edited August 22, 2023 by rturbo 930

[Rivvs1]

I not looking for a ready to drive car actually. I love project. I came here mostly to know if someone had already seen something like this and the cause etc. I took mesurement in x from the shock tower to the front of the car and compared them to the other other 240 and I got the same length. Also wheelbase is still good. Next I think I need to take mesure from front to rear wheel in x pattern to see if it is straight. If it is I think I can rebuild it. Also for this car at first it need to be stock to pass inspection here but in the future I plan on an engine swap. RB or Tesla power train