Project Theseus

[Noll]

Got the frame horn section completed today.

made the flange:




Mocked up:




And on. This was a very good thing to finally have done, not too much more left to do in the engine bay now.






The (sometimes ugly) welds tell the tale of just how much I've replaced at this point.




Inside mostly cleaned up too. Not sure how I'll be able to clean up the welds in the alcove on the right, might just seam seal them and call it good because they'll be pretty hidden once everything is back together, doesn't need to look perfect.

[Noll]

Oh, and just for fun, this is how much metal I've replaced on this part of the car alone:

[Noll]

The fender support pads had pretty bad bubbling rust under them, so I decided to pull them off and clean everything up properly.








Welded back on, and also cut off the rear pad that I had re-made for this side a while back and wasn't happy with.




Same deal on the passenger side, removed it all.






Cleaned up and made a new pad mount for the driver's side.




And all welded back on.






With that done, I turned my attention to the last broken bolt remaining in the firewall.



Much better.



Next time I work on the car I'll finally be on to the passenger-side inner skin at long last.

[Ont240]

Make sure you use "closed cell" material that does allow water to be absorbed as the cushion material.

[Noll]

Oh definitely, wouldn't want to cause more rust haha.

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Got to work on patching the p/s inner skin today. Started with a template:




...And then forgot to take more pics until it was welded in and (mostly) cleaned up.





Still will have 4-5 more patches to make for the frontmost section (to get the curves right), as well as one for the rest of the strut tower skin that was also cut off.

[Noll]

On to repairing the front section today.

Started with this:




Hammered it back into shape.




Made up a template for the outer strut tower skin to patch the other side, and marked/drilled holes.








Moved on to making a template for the front. I was going to make this area in a few different sections welded together, but realized that doing it all in one was viable and would make life easier.




Made both templates into metal:




And welded in. made the strut tower section a tad too thin, but I'll build that up with some weld so it looks right without a jog where the 2 sections meet.




Ran out of time to finish the front section, but it's all bent up and where it should be. Pretty happy with how it turned out, should be pretty clean once the welding is done/cleaned up.

[Noll]

Finished up welding in the repair of the front p/s fender skin:




Cleaned up, pretty happy with how it turned out:




Marked up all the small stuff I need to do to finish this side, and also drilled the holes for the data plate (not the stock location, but I like this better) and mocked up the wiring harness mounts. Obviously won't actually be using self-tappers for the final install.








Compared to before.
This brings up a question - Now that I'm getting close to done with the engine bay I'm making 100% sure that I'll have all the bolt holes I will need while deleting everything that I can. As such, I've been pondering eliminating the vapor line from the tank - as you can see in the pic it goes farther forward than the feed/return lines, requiring a couple extra captive nuts as well as generally cluttering up the engine bay. Removing it would clean things up and save me the effort of having to bend up another hardline running all the way to the back of the car. Obviously I'd need to change the evap canister stuff and possibly run a vented gas cap etc, but that's all totally doable and simplification doesn't seem like a bad thing. Thoughts? I know Zs are already notorious for gas fumes even with the vapor stuff in place, but I'm sure I could mitigate that.

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Again, compared to before:

[Noll]

Bunch more little stuff done today.

Didn't see any reason to buy repro wiring harness clips when I could make my own, so I did just that.




and welded a bunch of them in where they were missing from my car:




Welded on the main wiring harness mounts too, as well as cleaning up a few pinholes, welding in a few more captive nuts, and drilling/re-threading a couple bolts that had nuts snapped off in them.




With that out of the way, it was on to the front upper frame horn section at long last. Hard to show in the pic, but on top of the rust it is also seriously bent and wavy from old accident damage being repaired poorly.








After some cleanup.



did the initial round of straightening of the fender skin, more to do before it's good though.

[grannyknot]

Noll, black electrical shrink tube will work well on your new harness clips, after you have shrunk it on to the clip just give the end a squeeze while it is still hot.

[KeithZed]

Excellent looking work, the before and after pics are great as they show how much was done and how bad the car was. In my experience, the pictures always look better than it really is! It will be wonderful to see it together and back on it's feet.
Keith

[Noll]

Noll, black electrical shrink tube will work well on your new harness clips, after you have shrunk it on to the clip just give the end a squeeze while it is still hot.

That's the plan! Good idea about squishing the end while hot, that'll help seal it together I suppose.

Excellent looking work, the before and after pics are great as they show how much was done and how bad the car was. In my experience, the pictures always look better than it really is! It will be wonderful to see it together and back on it's feet.
Keith

Many thanks! Yeah, it is hard to showcase just how rough it was when I started unless you saw it in person. I'll sure be glad when it hits the road, that's for certain. Been far too long, and I just want to drive the darn thing already.


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Welded the brake line brackets back on to the front arches today:




Made up a new bit for the front upper frame section that was rusty.




Didn't bother making it perfect as it'll never be seen anyway, but it will work well enough.




Welded in a patch for the front inner skin:






And got the frame section and bumper mount welded on. Also a bit ugly, but never will be seen so I'm fine with it.





Next up (at long last) - the upper rad support!

[Noll]

Finally got around to refinishing my front hubs and getting the new studs in. Just need to wait on a rockauto order now for a couple bearings and I can get them on the spindles.






With that dealt with, I started work on the rad support. Before it could go on, I needed to change this - the new rad support is off a 280z, which had a larger hole on the driver's side for the air intake. This doesn't work with the 240z/260z air ducts that lead to the inner wings, so some chopping was in order. Thankfully this section was salvageable from the old rad support, so easy enough to section it in.








Much better.




With that done, I drilled a bunch of plug-weld holes in flanges, spent a bunch of time with a hammer and block of wood to put the rad support in just the right spot, and welded it in.



With it in, I immediately started cutting it up. I plan to make the center section removable (shoutout to Grannyknot for the idea) for easier engine install/removal, so it was angle grinder time.




Next up will be to make some plates with captive nuts here. That'll be next time.




Threw on the panels to test, and all fits as it should. There is a cutout on the right side in that wind-deflector panel for where the intake bracket would have bolted on to - I think I'll make a bolt-in panel there to complete the shape and allow me to use the holes for other stuff if I eventually go efi/turbo etc.




Nice to be able to look in here and have everything be as it should, finally.




Even on jackstands and with half the panels missing it doesn't look half bad.

[Noll]

Continued on the rad support today. Made a template and then two pairs of plates with welded nuts:






Welded them to the outer sections:




Tacked to the inner section after shaving it down to fit, before removing it all to finish welding.






Pretty happy with how it turned out overall.

[Ont240]

Have you test fit the rad yet for lining up?

[Noll]

Have you test fit the rad yet for lining up?

Yep, all is as it should be. Obviously the lower mounts don't exist yet so it's sitting funny but the upper holes line up fine (as they should, I didn't change the gap between the upper frame arms or anything).