Seatbelt pocket rust

[NCchris]

While cutting the floors out of my early 260, I saw where rust has migrated under the oem seam sealer.

 

Should I cut these pockets out and replace with new material or treat with POR or Rust Bullet? The new floors will attach here so the repair needs to be structially sound.

Someone said in a post that this is a good area to put the bottom of the rollbar. Anyone done that? Which rollbar? TIA for any answers.

chris

[lbhsbZ]

Before you do any more cutting, I would try to wire wheel the rest of the seam sealer out and get the remaining piece of the floorboard down to shiney metal to see how bad the rust really is. If its just on the surface and the material isn't too thin, I'd leave it and apply sealer after you weld in the new floor board.

 

As far as the cage mount in the seat belt bucket, I did that on mine. I made a box that I welded on over the bucket and mounted the main hoop on that.

 

 

I bent up my own cage. The autopower sucks IMO, the main hoop mounts to the fenderwells. They different main hoop for the 2+2 that they claim will work in the regular Z, but the attachment points on the legs were too close together for my liking....it would mount about 6 inches inside the seat belt buckets. My advice would be to find a buddy with a bender. To make a 4 point bar, you only need 2 bends on the main hoop, then you can make the rear legs straight.

[buZy]

Not hi-jack the thread but.... I read a post on here a long time ago where a bodyman with 30 yrs plus experience said the inner wheel wells are actually one the most rigid areas on a unibody car.

[Careless]

Not hi-jack the thread but.... I read a post on here a long time ago where a bodyman with 30 yrs plus experience said the inner wheel wells are actually one the most rigid areas on a unibody car.

 

that's also the area where (correct me if i'm wrong) the BRE car had thick angled plates that tied into the upper portion of the dogleg area (just under the window, in order to brace the roll cage a little better, or easier, without welding (bolt on part)

 

so I could see it being pretty darn structural.

[cygnusx1]

Ideally, you would have also welded that upright to the wheel well AND the box you made on the floor. You can still add a gusset to tie the upright to the wheel well. Nice work.

[johnc]

I read a post on here a long time ago where a bodyman with 30 yrs plus experience said the inner wheel wells are actually one the most rigid areas on a unibody car.

 

A piece of sheet metal that has a curve or bends in resists bending more then a straight, flat peice. The rear wheel wells on the 240Z are made up of an inner and an outter piece of curved sheet metal and are a pretty strong part of the chassis. But, IMHO, the corner where the rocker panel, floor pan, and wheel well meet is probably the strongest part of the unibody. Five formed sheet metal panels meet there.

[buZy]

A piece of sheet metal that has a curve or bends in resists bending more then a straight, flat peice. The rear wheel wells on the 240Z are made up of an inner and an outter piece of curved sheet metal and are a pretty strong part of the chassis. But, IMHO, the corner where the rocker panel, floor pan, and wheel well meet is probably the strongest part of the unibody. Five formed sheet metal panels meet there.

 

I agree with you John. This a better place to mount the main hoop. I just sometimes feel that too many people over look the autopower option as being worthless when it's not. All depending on the application and intended use of course.