Project Theseus

[Noll]

Ripped the old rad support off today. Started by cleaning up the old "patch" on the passenger side to reveal this lovely workmanship:




Main stuff roughly cut off:



The 260z bumper mounts that weld on top of the 240 sheetmetal weren't in the best shape so I decided to rip them off too, I'm going to proper 240z bumper mounts anyway.






And all off:







It looks rough, but all the annoying stuff to re-make is intact, should be easy patches.

now the fun part, as I thought was the case, the p/s frame rails is bent. Driver's side:




Vs the passenger side:



Front and rear measurements:





You can kinda see it here (don't mind my crooked braces). I measured the top frame horn, and that's all as it should be, although I'll be checking the FSM measurements to be sure before I finalize anything.



"new" bits:

[grannyknot]

Noll, you're a brave man, that passenger side looks like a bloody nightmare.

[Noll]

Noll, you're a brave man, that passenger side looks like a bloody nightmare.

Indeed it does, it's not THAT much extra work though. Just need to cut a bit farther down the frame rail, some (mostly flat) sheetmetal work for the inner skin (which the other side needs too, just a bit less), and then a 2nd layer for the strut tower section that's missing.

Oh, did you happen to have any luck finding those 3pc lower front valences?

[grannyknot]

Oh, did you happen to have any luck finding those 3pc lower front valences?

I did, I have two complete sets, all pieces in primo condition.

[Noll]

I did, I have two complete sets, all pieces in primo condition.

Perfect, thoughts on price for one set? unfortunately my new daily needed some stuff that has temporarily eaten my Z parts budget, but as soon as I have $ again I'd love to finally make the drive down and snag a set and the brake parts.

Speaking of, out of curiosity, how does the disk brake setup deal with the handbrake functionality (if at all)?

[Noll]

Bit the bullet and cut out all the bad on the passenger side.

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Old and new:



Whole lotta rust came out of the old one:




I made a super simple template to use for marking the rails to cut - makes sure I get the cut angles the same on both.

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Had a more in-depth look at the TC mounts, and it would appear that one of the bushing mounts is trash, and the other 3 are missing . The actual main skin of the mounts is fine, seems like the outer sections became un-welded and came off when I removed the rest of the bushing stuff.



grannyknot I was looking into this and found your response in a thread about the same issue. Any chance you might happen to have those dies, and if so could I also buy a pair of 4 of those from you when I get the other parts? https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/...t-please-help/


I also need to fix this at some point, the TC mount structure is fine but the frame rail skin above no so much. Going to need to cut a lot out to get at it which sucks.



Welded in a patch for the new rail:




And made some SUPER beefy towhook mounts. More to do before they go on.








Also trying to decide if I want to reinforce the swaybar mounts. These rails are from a 280 so there's way more internal bracing than a 240/60, so not sure if it's needed - most of the "frame rail ripping from upgraded swaybar" issues I've heard about were on 240s. Thoughts?




Mocked up the new rail. I need to extend it by around 55mm as it was cut off a car too far back, you can see the (mocked up) tow hook mount as a reference:

[grannyknot]

Noll, you are welcome to borrow the TC flange dies to make what you need, I'll bring them to the meet.
The bottom of the engine bay frame rails are a bit thin I think so I made up a 16ga plate that went from the front of the rail all the way back to the TC mount then plug and side welded it into place.
The plate also had a 1/2" L shaped side wall bent into it that snugged up against the engine side of the rail, much stiffer.

[Noll]

Noll, you are welcome to borrow the TC flange dies to make what you need, I'll bring them to the meet.
The bottom of the engine bay frame rails are a bit thin I think so I made up a 16ga plate that went from the front of the rail all the way back to the TC mount then plug and side welded it into place.
The plate also had a 1/2" L shaped side wall bent into it that snugged up against the engine side of the rail, much stiffer.

Awesome, thanks very much! Unfortunately the pics aren't working, but that sounds like a solid modification. I'll probably end up doing something similar once the car is on its side.

[Noll]

made and welded on the missing front section of the frame rail:








Turned out pretty well, in my opinion:








Took it off, and cut out more metal to get at this:




Cleaned up:




Made some templates, mocked stuff up, and called it quits for the day because I'd been going for 7 hours at this point and was dead tired.

[Noll]

Back out to finish the job today. I've spent 14 of the last ~30 hours welding on this thing at this point lol.

Made the two templates from last time into metal, welded them on, and welded the outer rail back on top:




Carefully-made template for this void, and made into metal:





Still need to make/weld the brace on top of that layer of metal, and decide if I should leave the stitch-welds as-is or make one continuous bead. Thoughts?


And, after measuring about 3 million times throughout the process, I welded the rail on. All is perfectly in place, although the front end of the rail is slightly corkscrewed. I'll reef on it a bit with some vice grips to straighten it up before I weld anything else to it. Also going to bolt up the front subframe crossmember to make sure all is well, although the measurements do all check out so I see no reason it wouldn't fit






And cleaned up. Pretty happy with the way the day went all things considered. Next up will be to decide what to tackle first - the other rail, front lower crossmember, inner skin for this side, inner wheelarch brace, etc.

[Bumbletard]

Looking great Noll. I have some similar stuff to deal with on my front half, not exactly looking forward to that part but it's going to be a while before I am ready for it anyway. Stellar work you're doing man.

[Noll]

Looking great Noll. I have some similar stuff to deal with on my front half, not exactly looking forward to that part but it's going to be a while before I am ready for it anyway. Stellar work you're doing man.

Many thanks! It's not too bad once you dig into it, the underlying structure is all pretty simple.

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Nothing super groundbreaking today, cleaned up (mostly) the new d/s rail. It'll need some stuff cut out and other stuff welded on:







And got the front suspension further ripped apart so I could test-fit the main crossmember. Happily, everything lines up perfectly.



I'm thinking I'll cut the inner fender skin around 15mm above the frame rail and rebuild it from there. Should be less work overall vs trying to make a number of patches to the rusty metal that's there.

[Noll]

Stupid hot today and I didn't feel like welding, so I tore down the front suspension/steering components and cleaned a lot of it up. Happily, the rack and inner tie rods have zero play or weirdness going on, so I don't feel the need to rebuild or replace anything. Paint, new outer tie rods and locking nuts, and it'll be good to go,





front LCAs pictured are the ones I got used with a bunch of goodies already on them - They're not rusty so I'll just be scuffing/painting them. Not sure exactly on colour yet for the suspension components, thinking possibly gunmetal or gold? The front x-member and steering rack will definitely remain black though.

46 years of dirt, grease, and rust had to go somewhere, and hoo boy did it ever.







Took half an hour to get myself even remotely clean again.

I couldn't for the life of me get the strut gland nuts off, even with a pipe wrench. Anyone know if I NEED the originals, or if the ones that came with my new strut inserts will work? If the latter I'll probably weld a bar on the old ones for leverage + heat, but if I need to save them I think I'll bring them to a local garage and pay them a few bucks to get it all apart for me.

[Noll]

Had another go at removing the nuts, no joy. Just started spinning the struts in the vice no matter how tight it all was. Previous to this pic I also welded a nut on, and the impact gun did absolutely nothing. I have a few more things I'll try, and someone on FB has offered me a set of cutoff tubes for the cost of shipping as a backup plan which is awesome (I'm assuming they cut for BC coils or similar).



Also degreased + primed + painted the suspension components I had previously stripped. Black for anything visible in the engine bay, hammered silver for suspension components.

[Noll]

Steering rack refresh is (nearly) complete! For a DIY job I'm pretty happy with it. Will be taking the boots off again before final assembly to re-grease everything properly.



VS before: