Guest Anonymous Posted February 19, 2003 Share Posted February 19, 2003 Ok im gonna rent a plasma cutter but 1st....I gota find a rental company. Well why thats in the works i have removed the steering, and am planning to drop the suspinsion and crossmember hopefully all in one piece. Then cut the frames off is this the best method ? Please help Jeb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeromio Posted February 19, 2003 Share Posted February 19, 2003 What exactly are you tryna do? Your frame rails are rusted out? Or your floor supports - or both? You need to make sure that whatever you end up with is straight. So if you're gonna cut out the frame rails forward of the firewall, then you need to somehow lock the rest of the car in place with a wooden jig or something FIRST. I don't know of anyone who rents plasma cutters. But I'm not sure that it would be worthwhile anyway. You have to clean the metal for it to work effectively. And it doesn't cut rust stuff very well. And the consumables are pricey. Plus, the Datsun metal is so thin anyway - I'd just use a sawzall. In the time you'd waste grinding off the undercoating and paint you'd already be done with the saw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8ZRACER260Z Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 Your suspension will drop right out if you loosen the upper strut bolts and the lower strut rods. Disconnect your steering coupler and then undo the four bolts holding the crossmember to the fram rails. You should not need a plasma cutter or a saws all for this. What you do need are the frame measurments for your year Z. If you can't get these have access to another Z to take measurments from. The frame rails must be installed exactly and this is what supports your engine and suspension. All you need to do this is something to remove the undercoating and paint, A 5/16 plug cutter for drilling out the spot welds and a welder. Again this is probably the most important part of your car so make sure you know what to do or take this to a body shop to have them do it. If you have everthing stripped out the charge should only be a few hundred dollars to have them cut out and welded in. If you do this your self be carfull drilling out the spot welds as to not deform the remaining metal. It is ok to drill all the way thru the spot weld as you will be using these hols to weld the new rails back on. Be sure to use a weld thru primer and spray body wax with along wand inside the rails to prevent any corrosion from starting inside the new rails. I hope I didn't scare you off of doing this. I just wanted to let you know what is needed to do the job correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lee Smith Posted February 27, 2003 Share Posted February 27, 2003 I saw a air chisel being used a few days back. A electric 1 may work as well. A tool rental place. ?? I found no 1 that rented Plasma. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.