JMortensen Posted July 15, 2007 Share Posted July 15, 2007 Since my car is still off of the rotisserie for a little longer I decided to work on the front and rear where the rotisserie mounts attached. The front was pretty straightforward, just taking the old paint off and trying to get it ready for some new stuff. The rear was a little different. I knew that the area where the hatch latches was pretty rusty, and I've determined that my next hatch will pin on, so I have already decided to cut out the rusty section and fab up a replacement. I was thinking that since this is the case, I should probably just do some other tail lights while I'm at it, because I think it will be harder to fix the rear and retain the stockers. So I go out there and start removing the panel which was fairly uneventful, but then I start thinking about the area under the bumper. I knew it was fairly full of bondo, but wasn't sure just exactly what I was up against. Well... now I know. I took a wire wheel to an area where I knew there was a dent on the right side. The bondo was between 3/8" and 1/2" thick. Then I started moving across the rear panel away from the dent to see if the thickness tapered down... not really. For some odd reason, the whole back end has a 1/4" layer of bondo on it, even though so far all I've found is the one dent. I started doing some stripes with the wire wheel just to get an idea, and it's pretty consistent 1/4" at the top and tapers down to about 1/8" at the bottom. What's weirder to me is that it looks like there were two repairs done here. One at the time the dent was made, and another when I had the car repainted about 10 years ago. Apparently when I had it repainted, they bondoed over the bondo, then carved what looks like a seam in it, but they didn't get it in the right place even. I guess if I had been more familiar with how the sheet metal comes together I would have recognized that this was wrong a long time ago. So here's the tentative plan. I want to cut the rear valence panel off right underneath the frame rail in the back for aero reasons. I'm going to make a panel which attaches to the last 1/2" or so under the hatch hole and extends out to the back of the car to replace the old part that I removed. I'm going to cut the center section of the existing rear panel off so that the only rear structure will be my rear panel that I fab up for the taillights and the one I fab up to replace the little deck back there. I'm a little concerned about the rust in the seam on the last pic. Don't know that there is too much to be done there, because all of these pieces overlap there so it seems like it might be a bitch to cut it off and really get a good look in there. Some pics: Rear "deck" removed: Left side: Right side: The dent: That's a lot of bondo: I know! Let's carve new body seams in the bondo! This is the side WITHOUT the dent: Little rust in this seam: If anyone has any suggestions or anything, I'd love to hear them. I don't know much about bodywork... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlderThanMe Posted July 15, 2007 Share Posted July 15, 2007 You are lucky that is all you had...All four corners of my Z were made of Bondo. I think I found some metal down in there... The RR section right near the bumper had 1/2" of Bondo on it. The front passenger side front stock "flare" was all bondo. Probably happened when the car was wrecked at Road Atlanta(supposedly) back in the late 80's... Hope you get it worked out. OTM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jknc90 Posted July 15, 2007 Share Posted July 15, 2007 That bondo is the least of your worries, the back hatch floor is missing!! lol jk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wickiewicked240z Posted July 15, 2007 Share Posted July 15, 2007 Thats how mine looked like. after patching Its really hard to get tthe dents out of the rear because of the spare tire well but since you cut yours out i think you can hammer it out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted July 15, 2007 Author Share Posted July 15, 2007 That is a really nice looking repair. The dents on mine are right on the outside of the frame rail across the back, so I can't hammer them out. I think I might take a few minutes to go at them with a slide hammer, but really the dents aren't too big an issue for me since this is a race car. The bigger issue is that I'm going to cut the existing rear area away and I guess I'm having some trouble with how to secure the new tail light panel. I think I'm going to leave the lip that the tail light panel sets on, and screw the new panel into that lip and cut all the rest of it away. We'll see how it plays out... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
het976 Posted July 16, 2007 Share Posted July 16, 2007 The right side rear hatch was almost as bad as yours. I cut the rear section out of a donor 280 and fabbed it in. I have very limited skills but it turned pretty well with a minor amount of bondo. The issue was the 280 I took it from has a slightly different shape than my 240, but it was close enough to be perfect to me. Peeled back the top panel Cut out the offending material (the patch panel is in the background) Fabed bottom panel Welded in donor part Looks like new Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawaiiz Posted July 16, 2007 Share Posted July 16, 2007 My hatch panel looks like that - Im tackling it next, glad to see the great work. I cannot find a replacement panel or doner so Im gonn have to fab it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nscason Posted July 16, 2007 Share Posted July 16, 2007 sorry i didnt read the big huge thing of writing, but i saw all the pics and though i would share. i am going to the local community college and decided to take an auto body class. so i could learn to do all of the custom work myself and save thousands. there was paint bubbling here and there. i figured it was surface rust. nope. now i have a hole the size of my first on my rear passenger side rocker panel. i know i can get the part from black dragon AKA victoria british i just havent had the money. not anywhere close to the pictures that i just saw. nice repair work. the problem for me is that my car is a daily driver and i have no other vehicle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spyder Z 15 Posted July 17, 2007 Share Posted July 17, 2007 My hatch panel looks like that - Im tackling it next, glad to see the great work. I cannot find a replacement panel or doner so Im gonn have to fab it. I just found a place that sells them for $110. Here's the link. http://www.zzxdatsun.com/bits.html Just scroll down and you'll see it. It's BO-56. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jknc90 Posted July 17, 2007 Share Posted July 17, 2007 I just found a place that sells them for $110. Here's the link.http://www.zzxdatsun.com/bits.html Just scroll down and you'll see it. It's BO-56. I didn't think they sold them anymore. If they still do, thats great I need one lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonfly Posted July 17, 2007 Share Posted July 17, 2007 I'm a little concerned about the rust in the seam on the last pic. Don't know that there is too much to be done there, because all of these pieces overlap there so it seems like it might be a bitch to cut it off and really get a good look in there. Little rust in this seam: If anyone has any suggestions or anything, I'd love to hear them. I don't know much about bodywork... Jon the portion that you have shown in this pic that you are concerned about is actualy fairly simple, if you go ahead and take it down to bare metal following the seams that have the rust in them you will see that the entire rear section (including the deck you want to replace) is all one piece. It is held together with a series of spot welds than run up the lower valance inside the overlap of the seem, when they reach the tail light cutout the jump above it to the deck portion where there is several inches of overlap. Remove all the spot welds and the whole thing comes out as a single piece. That piece used to be sold as a complete replacement piece but I am not aware of where you might be able to find it now. When I did mine I actualy found that piece in the back of a Z that was in the wrecking yard, the piece was brand new and still had the foam on the corners (I paid $18 for it). Dragonfly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted July 17, 2007 Author Share Posted July 17, 2007 Thanks for the advice Dragonfly. If it's not that hard to cut it off like you say I might just do that to see what the rust underneath looks like and then either try to reattach the modified panel afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonfly Posted July 17, 2007 Share Posted July 17, 2007 When I attached my new one I used rivits in the places where the tack welds had been from the factory. I have not had any problems whatsoever with it. Here is a pic from the outside after I was finished. I do not have a pic of the inside but I used the shortest blind rivits I could. You may notice that there is fiberglass on the inside of the tail light holes on mine that has been painted over, that is because the piece that I found was for a 280z rather than a 240z so I had to cover the openings where the reverse lights sit at on the 280z. Dragonfly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Careless Posted July 18, 2007 Share Posted July 18, 2007 that's not nearly as bad as mine, so keep at it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonfly Posted July 18, 2007 Share Posted July 18, 2007 Jon, found this in some of my old pics, thought it might help. Dragonfly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted July 18, 2007 Author Share Posted July 18, 2007 Well I cut out a little section right where I thought there was rust, and there really wasn't much there. The paint was separating from the seam sealer, which made it look like the paint was bubbling up due to rust. I may cut part of the rear panel out if I can't bang out that dent on the right side, but I think I can patch the hole without having to replace the whole rear panel. Now I have a stupid question. I've looked in my VB and MSA catalogs and also checked Tabco's website, and I can't find who makes the replacement piece for the top area. Can anyone help me out with that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GD71240z Posted July 18, 2007 Share Posted July 18, 2007 Contact Charlie at zeddfindings http://www.datsunzparts.com/zwriteup.htm I believe hybrid member Mull got his there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted July 18, 2007 Author Share Posted July 18, 2007 I checked on the zeddfindings website and didn't see the part, but I did email him so hopefully he does make them. Thanks for the lead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nullbound Posted July 18, 2007 Share Posted July 18, 2007 Contact Charlie at zeddfindings http://www.datsunzparts.com/zwriteup.htm I believe hybrid member Mull got his there. I've been keeping my eyes open for one of those panels, but it's been reported that they are no longer available, even from Charlie. See this thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=119293 If Charlie says he has any, please let us know. I'll need one, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilten_one Posted July 18, 2007 Share Posted July 18, 2007 If you need a second pair of hands I am off the next two days, and every Monday send me a pm and I will give you some contact information if you wish for help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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