My 260Z Rebuild

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
....
Be prepared for some work - which judging by what you've had to do and seen so far suggests that you are.

Well it looks a reasonable shell to me for a resto. job. To be honest I was expecting it to be much worse so :thumbs:
 

s2k_adz

Club Member
Cheers Rob!

Ive managed so source a new 'under skuttle' panel which forms the bottom edge of the windscreen so all that rust can be cut away completely without hours of patching up. I'm also on the hunt for a lower rear valance panel so the same can be done with that.

Rear arch panels are easily sourced as is the drivers floor pan.

Does anyone know where I can get new front bonnet support panels? ZFarm said they used to have a guy who made them but he's now retired.
 

s2k_adz

Club Member
Franky and Maxim, I went up to my unit yesterday to inspect the creasing further. Its definitely from factory but is very pronounced! I'll put some more photos up soon.
 

morbias

Well-Known Forum User
My 260z has the same creasing in that area, I wouldn't worry about it. Up until last year I worked at a Ford production plant and a lot of the thicker pressed white metal had creases too.

IMAG0003_zps8d505e71.jpg
 

s2k_adz

Club Member
Cheers Morbias! I feel much better about this now. Good to see the car completely bare and find no nasty suprises!

Cant wait to start building back up on a good, painted 100% rot free shell. Feels good to be bringing a car that was sliding towards being a wreck back to 100% health :) That's why I bought a resto project. Buying a completed ready to drive car would have been the easy option but that's not what I wanted.

Does anyone have a colour chart for the UK cars that shows what colours were made in each year? My car is a 1978 and I would like to paint it a standard Datsun colour appropriate to the year. The car was white from new, then someone really badly sprayed it red. I think I will either go white again, (although I feel there are too many white ones about at the moment) or I really fancy the Safari Gold.... is this year appropriate?
 

Ian

Club Member
Shell doesn't look too bad, well worth saving. My 260Z is also creased in the same area.


Good luck getting the shell to the paint stage, I guess you've got most of the winter to do that.
 

s2k_adz

Club Member
Good to know it's a normal thing :)

Yea, I really hope to have the back of it broken by the end of next summer in terms of hopefully having it running..... albeit with lots of stuff to still sort out. I'm fed up of going to Goodwood Revival in a modern car! ;)
 

s2k_adz

Club Member
The car is going in around the middle of December for all the welding to be done. It's going to be an expensive Christmas!

I am using a company called Zakham Engineering who are a rally and MK1/2 Escort specialist. Alwyn the owner is a mentally good welder and used to work on planes. His alloy welding is second to none! He has also been recommended to me by everal people in the local area now. I went up to see his unit and work before committing to use him and I am very happy with his work.

I will put some photos up as soon as I take it up! Now all I need is a dry day!

Here is a link to Zakham's Facebook page if anyone is interested.

https://www.facebook.com/ZakhamEngineering?pnref=lhc
 

madda

Well-Known Forum User
His work is spot on. He's done bits on my escort, albeit when the previous owner was footing the bill.
 

s2k_adz

Club Member
Unfortunately the welder has let me down after 5 months of waiting to take the car in.... It is not his fault and I understand exactly why he has done this but it has been really annoying. 5 months of time has been wasted and all this time has been spent with the car in the garage in pretty much, bare metal condition.

I think I have found another restorer in the Swansea area called NJ Restorations. I am looking to visit this week and if I am happy with their work will take it in on Monday.
 

MaximG

Well-Known Forum User
Hmm can see what's happend reading between the lines. Anyway hope you find the right restorer soon.

Mike
 

s2k_adz

Club Member
Right guys!

The company now doing the welding for me are NJ Restorations in Cross Hands in Carmarthen and I took the car in to them early last week. They are currently removing the butchered roof skin and welding a new one on as well as

They will be posting photos of the work they do up on their site which is here: http://www.njrestorations.co.uk/current-projects/d...

Ive been up my unit today looking through the parts that I have removed from the car. I have NO IDEA how I am going to get it all back on. I really should have had some kind of part filling system or something... I am sure Ive also lot some parts which I'm sure were there when I bought the car. The inside of the fuel filler cap for one, as well as the rear numberplate lights and bracket :(
 

atomman

Club Member
Glad to see its moving along now dude , it's not that easy to find a good restorer down this way,

If you cant find your number plate light and bracket, I've got both and there 260 ones to if you need them,

Gary
 

Wyn

Club Member
Ive been up my unit today looking through the parts that I have removed from the car. I have NO IDEA how I am going to get it all back on. I really should have had some kind of part filling system or something...

Maybe a bit late now but when I did mine I took lots of pics as I went along
Putting it back together was much easier that way as I could refer to them to see what went where n how
 

richiep

Club Member
Maybe a bit late now but when I did mine I took lots of pics as I went along
Putting it back together was much easier that way as I could refer to them to see what went where n how

Ditto when I did mine. I photographed pretty much everything I did.

Now might be the time to suggest getting hold of copies of Wick Humble's 'How to Restore Your Datsun Z Car' and the Haynes manual for 240/260Zs. Also very useful for disassembly, parts restoration and reassembly. And check out the Factory service manual if you can.
 

Wyn

Club Member
.... Or post lots of pics of them random Z parts so we can play - guess where my Z part goes ! .... :D
 

candy red

Club Member
I too took loads of pics when i done my 280zx once i start my restoration on my 260z i will again take load of pics to jog my memory ,I also have bits stripped off by previous owner not sure 100%where some of them go yet, but along way too go yet as need to strip whole car down first good luck with yours :)

Derrick ;)
 
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