Zedd Findings pans/rails for ZX

[Ernest Harmon]

I did a search and found stuff covering the Z's.Does anyone have experience with the ZX set?The battery pretty much killed the right frame rail and toe board area of the floor.I don't really need to replace the whole floor but as we know, NOS rails are all but nonexistent.Any suggestions? I can and will do the work myself Ive done it in Mustangs and early VW's not a problem with good fitting replacement parts.I know these are not an exact match to the floors contours.

[sticky280zx]

i wouldnt mess with the zx set....i really dont like premade anything as the quality/thickness of most isnt enough for my likeing. I have replaced a few zx's and i normally find a good donor floor at a junk yard or someone parting a car out. If you have fab skills though, get a sheet of metal and some tubing and make it work...ive used 16-14ga sheet and 2x3 .086 (14ga) rectangle tubing for more than a few "z car" floors/rails

[Eunix]

I just got my 240 pans and rails from Charlie, and so far I am pleased with the quality and the thickness.

I am new to this welding thing so I have not cut out the old pans and put them in until I can get a buddy to come over for a couple of days and walk me through it.

He say that all I need is a Mig welder and that I should tack the pans in about 1-2 inches apart alternating sides so that the pans don't twist.

 

Any advice from those who have done this before would be great!

 

Eunix

[sticky280zx]

i would suggest fully welding them in, obviously tacking and then welding a few inches on each side and rotating arounf, as well as some type of undercoating afterwards. There are a few threads that are good reads on here just do a quick search and you will find them. Also what "thickness or Ga" are his pans....i havent looked but probably will. I normally use 16ga sheet for my pans (i dont much cars if they are preformed or not) cause it doesnt take that long with some cardboard and tracing/shaping to cut out the right size chunk. And it ends up cheaper that way.

[Ernest Harmon]

The floor panels are 18 gage or .0478.The rails are .062. The floors are flatter than stock for a ZX.The rails would have to be modified to work with a stock floor.You would need a shrinker and stretcher to make the flanges to fit a stock floor, plus you would have to add material to the sides as the stock ZX rails are almost 3" tall in places.As Sticky said tack them into place and then go back and stitch them in solid to help prevent serious warpage.If you have to replace all the way to the rocker panels cut and leave about an inch or so of the floor to form an L shape.Clean the area that attaches the original pan to the rocker.This will be a spot weld.Use a spot-weld cutter in a drill or use a hammer and chisel to separate this joint.Once separated clean all of this surface really good.Measure the distance between the factory spot welds and drill corresponding holes in the flange of your new pan that mates up to the rocker panel.These holes should be 5/16 dia.Apply 3M weldable primer to the mating surfaces before welding to give corrosion protection between the panels.Then plug weld the flange in place this will replicate a factory spot-weld nicely.If possible butt weld the remaining sides. This will give you an invisible repair once ground,painted and undercoated.You can just drill out the spot-welds that attach the seat risers if you have to go that far and prime with the weldable primer and plug weld these places also.Good luck with the project.I hope to be this deep in mine before long.I am probably going with the Zedd set myself.The fabricating part of this applies to the zx cars.The rest can be used as a guide for most any car.

[Ernest Harmon]

Well I have done my floor repairs although not to the original turbo car I got an 82 for $250.00 this is what I have done so far. Work is slow but steady,or was mashed some fingers last week and pretty much out of commission for now.The turbo is not a dead project yet I am just not sure how I want to proceed with it.Fix both or build a killer car from the two.If I combine them I can get the body work done and save the time and cash finding the stuff I need for the 82 and just rob it from the turbo car. Get the body interior and suspension sorted out.Then pull the turbo engine and go through it and go with megasquirt for ems and let it control everything.I don't have a boat load of funds so things take time and I prefer to do as much as absolutely possible.If I don't know how I will ask somebody that does or find a good book on the subject and figure it out. Here is a link to the pics so far.