Jay's RB25 240z

Wow, looks like a job well worth doing with what you dragged out. I keep wondering whether to remove the factory fitted sound deadening on mine to check it out.

That paint sounds like really good stuff, hopefully it does the job!

Woody- I wouldn’t, unless you’re ready for the risk! It’s on bare metal, what looks solid has a good chance of having a few thin patches/pin holes, then it’s a case of joining the dots!
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Woody- I wouldn’t, unless you’re ready for the risk! It’s on bare metal, what looks solid has a good chance of having a few thin patches/pin holes, then it’s a case of joining the dots!

Hmmm, it's not on my urgent to do list as I think they're very solid. You just never know what's lurking with these cars! Were the floors painted from factory as protection before the sound deadening?

This is a photo I took a while back when I had the drivers seat out and it looked good to me, I just treated some very light surface rust in a couple of places. How did your floor compare before Jay?

IMG-7010 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
 
unpainted from the factory, every little bubble you see(or slightly larger) is where there's an air gap between the metal and the sound insulation.......
 

Jay.

Club Member
I'm a bit worried about your seat mount crossmembers. In the photo above, the front crossmember appears to have been altered/cut and the rear mounts have gone. Do your seat rails now mount direct to the floor pan at the back?

If so, that's not good. You need to spread the load and - ideally - tie it in to the vertical panels (the inner part of the sill and the trans tunnel) otherwise it will gradually flex the rear part of the floor pan and start stress cracks. It could also be dangerous.

It's difficult to get seats mounted low in these cars and that's why people sometimes cut out the seat mount crossmembers, but they need to be replicated structurally somehow.

Hey, thanks for that! The seat is mounted into the rail at the front (albeit chopped down for clearance) and then directly into the floor with a bar underneath it. I hadn't really thought about it much as my old Mx5 had the same setup, but I'll definitely reconsider now that you've pointed this out... I guess I could weld in a horizontal bar to spread the load?
 

Jay.

Club Member
Hmmm, it's not on my urgent to do list as I think they're very solid. You just never know what's lurking with these cars! Were the floors painted from factory as protection before the sound deadening?

This is a photo I took a while back when I had the drivers seat out and it looked good to me, I just treated some very light surface rust in a couple of places. How did your floor compare before Jay?

IMG-7010 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

I've gone in with the knowledge that in a year or two I'll want to replace the whole floorboard anyway which made the job worth doing.

You can see around the edges of yours what appears to be some light corrosion appearing - my worry would be that there is moisture trapped underneath the sound deadening which accelerates the corrosion. That's effectively what happened to mine!

If they're the original floorboards then they'll rust at some point, even if they haven't right now, so it may be worth sealing it up whilst the metal is "okay"? I did a bunch of research on the America hot-rod forums which seem to think this is the way forward
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
unpainted from the factory, every little bubble you see(or slightly larger) is where there's an air gap between the metal and the sound insulation.......

Ahhhh fantastic news! It seems very solid so I'll leave it well be for now. I imagine at some point removing all of the factory deadening to see whats beneath would be sensible further down the line....

I've gone in with the knowledge that in a year or two I'll want to replace the whole floorboard anyway which made the job worth doing.

You can see around the edges of yours what appears to be some light corrosion appearing - my worry would be that there is moisture trapped underneath the sound deadening which accelerates the corrosion. That's effectively what happened to mine!

If they're the original floorboards then they'll rust at some point, even if they haven't right now, so it may be worth sealing it up whilst the metal is "okay"? I did a bunch of research on the America hot-rod forums which seem to think this is the way forward

Seems sensible dude, and makes perfect sense. I seem to recall at the time I attacked everything I could see with Hammerite Krust to stop the surface corrosion, it does seem to be the issue with using any form of sound deadening material though.

Drivers side is completely original and passenger side is largely original, it all seems very solid considering its age. What would you recommend to seal it up? the product you've just used?
 

Jay.

Club Member
Ahhhh fantastic news! It seems very solid so I'll leave it well be for now. I imagine at some point removing all of the factory deadening to see whats beneath would be sensible further down the line....



Seems sensible dude, and makes perfect sense. I seem to recall at the time I attacked everything I could see with Hammerite Krust to stop the surface corrosion, it does seem to be the issue with using any form of sound deadening material though.

Drivers side is completely original and passenger side is largely original, it all seems very solid considering its age. What would you recommend to seal it up? the product you've just used?

It would be cool to protect the original metal, if you have a read through the Rust Bullet website it's not particularly revolutionary stuff (not far off what POR15 does), but it I can certainly attest to the layer it creates. I've left a painted piece of metal in various liquids (paint stripper, white spirit, salt water, some acid) to see the effect and so far the surface hasn't been damaged!
 

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
Hey, thanks for that! The seat is mounted into the rail at the front (albeit chopped down for clearance) and then directly into the floor with a bar underneath it. I hadn't really thought about it much as my old Mx5 had the same setup, but I'll definitely reconsider now that you've pointed this out... I guess I could weld in a horizontal bar to spread the load?

Yes. My feeling is that you want to spread the load to the more structural areas (the trans tunnel and the sill area) as much as possible, although there's no harm in also attaching to the floor panels in the way that the factory crossmembers/mounts did.

Here are photos of a very simple solution, which might give some pointers:



 

Jay.

Club Member
Thanks for the photos, I'll definitely do that next time I put some time into the floorpans. What are the remaining holes for? Simply drainage? ..
 

Jay.

Club Member
Yes, they are the factory-stamped drain holes. Make sure you keep 'em plugged, as it's amazing how much they can let in if left open...

Will do! .. I've got the rubber inserts still. One of them was off and I wonder if that was causing the smell of gearbox oil as it's very close to the transmission tunnel (that I spilled oil all over :oops:) Fingers crossed that will solve it!
 

Jay.

Club Member
So not a whole lot of progress on that car - very much enjoying the sun whilst it is out!

I'm definitely going to need to sort out either the fume issue or some sort of aircon as it's unbearable when the windows are down.

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Jay.

Club Member
Work has been pretty busy - I've had no time to even look at the car which sucks. I think it's been 6 weeks now since I last saw it? I'm hoping that'll change this weekend although the forecast is looking like it'll rain.

Booked myself into the Sunday Scramble, one of my favourite events. Hopefully that'll give me a good excuse to have a decent drive in it!

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I've bought some sound-deadening which I'll use to hopefully make the cabin slightly quieter.. I'm not expecting much but I've heard some good things.

My next chunk of time off is coming in November, so I'll be looking into sorting out the fumes issue
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Jay,

I had that fumes issue and to the point where it made me light headed!!

It was missing rubber bungs in the boot lid + inner boot lid rubber wasn't on properly. I put pieces of A4 paper between the rubber and boot-lid before shutting and sat in the boot pulling on it to see where it was loose.

For me this was 80% of it.

Then I set about with masking tape sealing anything else that could possibly let air in and went for a drive / stopping to remove each bit until the smell came back. There is also a panel at the bottom of the boot lid which is a bit of wood covered with vinyl which gets wavey in between screws and lets the air in from the lock latch mechanism. I bought "P" shaped black draft excluder off eBay and lined the inside before screwing back on. No more fumes!!!

Finally, check the seals around your rear lights - mine were fine but I've read they are often the culprits.

All stuff you know already I'm sure.

The negative pressure created by open window is trying to suck in the vortex behind your car from the back of the fuel tank up to and over your rear spoiler. So basically any hole / gap anywhere in that region will feed it.

Good luck.

BTw - that is a gorgeous z !!! The wheels and arches REALLY work!

What exhaust are you running to need sound deadening?
 
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Jay.

Club Member
Jay,

I had that fumes issue and to the point where it made me light headed!!

It was missing rubber bungs in the boot lid + inner boot lid rubber wasn't on properly. I put pieces of A4 paper between the rubber and boot-lid before shutting and sat in the boot pulling on it to see where it was loose.

For me this was 80% of it.

Then I set about with masking tape sealing anything else that could possibly let air in and went for a drive / stopping to remove each bit until the smell came back. There is also a panel at the bottom of the boot lid which is a bit of wood covered with vinyl which gets wavey in between screws and lets the air in from the lock latch mechanism. I bought "P" shaped black draft excluder off eBay and lined the inside before screwing back on. No more fumes!!!

Finally, check the seals around your rear lights - mine were fine but I've read they are often the culprits.

All stuff you know already I'm sure.

The negative pressure created by open window is trying to suck in the vortex behind your car from the back of the fuel tank up to and over your rear spoiler. So basically any hole / gap anywhere in that region will feed it.

Good luck.

BTw - that is a gorgeous z !!! The wheels and arches REALLY work!

What exhaust are you running to need sound deadening?

Thanks for the long reply - it's super helpful.

I'm hoping to get some free time soon so I can try out some of these, I haven't heard about the A4 paper thing - my boot-lid rubber does slide off quite often so that could be a big cause of the fumes.

I replaced the rear lights to make them EU spec, but I don't remember installing any rubber - I'll check that.

The sound deadening is more for the road noise - the cabin sound is pretty loud which means music/casual chitchat isn't easy


Did you consider trying the smoke-machine method? I was planning on doing that, but using your A4 paper method and some trial and error that might be easier to do on my own
 

Jay.

Club Member
Managed to squeeze off to attend the Bicester Sunday Scramble - a great event. Parked up nice and early at around 8.30 in an empty spot (other than Paul Stephen's Clubsport 911!) and came back a few hours later to the Club! Was awesome to see a small group of us in a pretty nice position- just a shame I didn't get to meet anyone.

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Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Car looks awesome as always dude, some really nice photos there! (Calendar worthy material ;))

Nice to see the Z's together in the centre of the site, just a shame about the events clash with so many things going on the same day!
 

Jay.

Club Member
Yeah there were a lot of events on that Sunday!


So after the show I decided to drive the car up to work as it was already half way - and about 5 miles away from work my exhaust fell off! Luckily it happened RIGHT outside Peterborough services so I pulled in and assessed what happened.

Rts6aRt.jpg


The rear and middle hangers have actually corroded off the body of the car and the entire rear section hit the floor (creating a bunch of sparks which is the only reason I noticed, +1 for the noise cancelling headphones :rolleyes:) I had a bunch of heavy duty cable ties so I put them together and hung the exhaust off the rear crossmember and another shaft which I'm not acutally sure what it is - but is connected to the rear crossmember and seemed pretty strong. I also threw in a bungie cord for good measure.

es6rEeW.jpg


I had no time or tools to do anything about it there so I figured I'd try and get home (~120 miles) with my new cable tied system in place. I baby'd it all the way down and surprisingly had absolute no issues. I got back and parked it in the garage, had a quick check underneath and the cable ties are still in fantastic condition - I thought I'd of seen some melting or possible a couple snapped. This was a relief, and it means I can look for somewhere to re-weld the hanging plates back to the underside of the car - I assume any old exhaust place would easily do this

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uk66fastback

Club Member
Blimey, you were pretty lucky it happened where there was somewhere you could do something about it. I am sure any decent exhaust place could sort you out with this.
 
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