Project Theseus

[Dr.Diesel]

Oooo. You did a nice job on the rad shell. I especially like the removable part of the upper rad shell. Thats something I would like to do with mine.

[Noll]

Oooo. You did a nice job on the rad shell. I especially like the removable part of the upper rad shell. Thats something I would like to do with mine.

Much appreciated! it's not perfect (and bends aren't as crisp as factory), but for where it is and how not-visible it'll be it's more than fine . The upper removable section should be super handy, shoutout to Grannyknot for the idea for that mod. It's pretty simple to do, just measure 14 times cut once haha.

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Acquired tubing today (1.5" .120 wall DOM) , and mocked some stuff up. Rear strut tower bar (obviously top bar won't be sitting that high):




And front braces. Still debating as to if I want to do these, while the rigidity would be nice and I probably should, they'd make using the factory plastic fender liners a pain and make routing the drain hoses forwards even more of a hassle.

[Dr.Diesel]

I see you have completed the reinforcement of the tension compression mounts for the lower control arms. It would be nice to continue and put in those frame braces. With what you have already welded into the upper frame horns, adding the frame tubes would have that area triangulated. From my perspective with having a 73 240Z, there's no plastic fender liners so I would weld them in. Your right though, putting the fender liners adds more work. But, thats the fun of working on these cars.

[zedfoot]

Where do you find these fender liners? Can't say as I've ever seen them on an S30.

[Noll]

I see you have completed the reinforcement of the tension compression mounts for the lower control arms. It would be nice to continue and put in those frame braces. With what you have already welded into the upper frame horns, adding the frame tubes would have that area triangulated. From my perspective with having a 73 240Z, there's no plastic fender liners so I would weld them in. Your right though, putting the fender liners adds more work. But, thats the fun of working on these cars.

Where do you find these fender liners? Can't say as I've ever seen them on an S30.

Solid points, and yeah, probably best to finish what I've started and brace everything.

These are what the ones I have look like (fatter end goes towards the front, and that "flap" bends down behind the headlight buckets. 260 specific possibly? I am leaning towards not putting them back in, they don't seem like they'd do a ton and the mount points (captive nuts under the upper inner wings) are rust traps - as it is now i need to either replace a bunch of the nuts or weld the holes/surrounding areas up anyway.

I guess they might help keep dirt out of the seam between the inner arch and fender, but I can just be proactive with washing in there. As you say, 240's never had them anyway.




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This saturday's project was the rear strut brace. Welded in some mount plates:






And cut up and welded in the tubing.





Really happy with the outcome, both in terms of look and function. I can already tell the increased stiffness - I had carefully ground down the top tube till it was a perfect slide fit between the two towers, and when I climbed into the spare tire well to weld it in my weight tightened the gap up so I couldn't pull the tube out. if it does that with just me in the back then obviously cornering forces would cause a lot more flex without the brace.

[Dr.Diesel]

I drove my Z for a while without strut braces. After driving it, I decided the front and rear strut braces would help stiffen the chassis. I was about to make a set when Grannyknot gave me a call that he was making a few bolt in sets. So I jumped on them. They made a huge improvement to the stiffness of the car. All the panel squeaks went away too.

[zedfoot]

Hey, Noll, did you see that you are only 10 views away from 10,000? Says something about the quality of your posts.

[Noll]

I drove my Z for a while without strut braces. After driving it, I decided the front and rear strut braces would help stiffen the chassis. I was about to make a set when Grannyknot gave me a call that he was making a few bolt in sets. So I jumped on them. They made a huge improvement to the stiffness of the car. All the panel squeaks went away too.

Good to know! Almost a shame I won't be able to experience the before/after, but I'd much rather just have the after than the before if I had to choose lol.

Hey, Noll, did you see that you are only 10 views away from 10,000? Says something about the quality of your posts.

That is pretty awesome! I'm glad people find what I'm doing interesting, even if all I'm doing is welding rust together in a shed.


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Cleaned up the welds on the cowl today (and on the lower rad support, but no pic):

[zedfoot]

You say shed, but you must have heat.

[Noll]

You say shed, but you must have heat.

Yeah, a little bit of an exaggeration haha. It wasn't heated/insulated for a good chunk of the build though, that happened semi-recently.

[Noll]

Got the remaining stitch-welding done (for now, will do the rest once the car is flipped):






And started on the rollover jig. Wish I could have used Grannyknot's rotisserie, but covid stuff locally isn't really conducive to traveling the distance I'd need to to go get it right now. will 100% go get it for future projects though when able.

The bottom corners will be a curve made out of layered plywood to more easily roll it over and a lot more beefy, everything's just mocked up right now.

[Noll]

Spent today building the majority of the rollover jig.

Started by making some mounts to bolt up a pair of 2x4s to the front end; they tie into the tow hook mount holes. I've seen people do them to the bumper mount holes, but that area doesn't seem beefy enough to do without worrying about stuff bending.







Not half bad for something made out of old fence posts and scraps I had lying around I think.


After that it was just a matter of spending a lot of time measuring/cutting/bolting wood until I had this:




Tomorrow I'll run some more bracing between the two ends (another line of 2x4s and then some braces in the shape of an X between them), then have a go at rolling it over.

The pivot point being relatively far out means that doing it by hand is definitely not going to happen, plan is to hook up my engine crane to the p/s doorjamb and lift from that.

I've had the rough plan in mind for quite some time but recently stumbled across this vid of someone making one specifically for a Z, so as it worked for them I decided to just roughly copy their design, no sense reinventing the wheel. His design has the front/rear transverse planks a bit shorter than mine meaning that the pivot is a little more inboard, but I don't think it should be much of an issue with the crane - at worst I'll take stuff apart, cut the doubled 2x4's shorter, and go again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0uTuamJR60

[Dr.Diesel]

Hey Noll, I like the fender on the wall behind you car in the last photo. It looks like wall art!

[Noll]

Hey Noll, I like the fender on the wall behind you car in the last photo. It looks like wall art!

Thanks! Something like that would be fun actual wall art at some point, would need to be a fender in bad shape though for it to make sense to do.

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Flippage occurred today, and went very well. Guess I did something right in regards to the pivot point etc, as I was able to flip it over by myself without the crane.








All the ugliness on the bottom is now exposed. First order of business will be undercoating removal, then a lot of misc welding and cleanup.

[grannyknot]

Hey, you're in the home stretch!
What is that flange looking thing that I circled, fuel pump mount of some kind?