240Z resurrection

tyroguru

Club Member
My Ade Foreman rotisserie arrive this week so spent most of the day getting the car onto it. I must say that I'm amazed at how easy the car spins when on the jig as you really can move it easily with one arm. The jig seems pretty well made and appears to go together fairly well but I have no reference point on what other jigs are like. The only critique I would have with the product (so far) is that the installation instructions are not that great and leave the assembler to make a few leaps themselves that they wouldn't have to do if there was just a few clear and complete diagrams. Only a small gripe though as I'm sure most people doing this are much more mechanically adept than me.

After reading around a bit I was a bit confused about mounting points at the front of the car (the rear is just attaching to the bumper mounts). Some say that you can use the front bumper mounts and others say not to as the box section is too weak. However, after exchanging with Phil on this I came to the conclusion that this may be a US/UK car difference - I have the 1973 HLS30 model which has significant bumper mounts with different attachment points and mechanics than the UK version (at least, different to Phil's '72 S30 anyway). I'll put some photo's in below to show the mounting points. Just to note, I used the "Universal" mounting plates that you can buy from Ade and this is 6mm steel section. Bending a right angle in two of these when you only have a vice and a big hammer was a vigorous exercise :) .

GOPR0582.JPG

GOPR0604.JPG

GOPR0597.JPG
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Well done, that will make welding etc so much easier than lying under it like I did for 2 years.

I can see you have used the lower 'US' bumper mounts.
 

Rushingphil

Club Member
Fantastic Jon - I knew you would get yours on before me! I'm one or two days behind you. Got the rotisserie built but now looking for ways to connect it to the body! Your photos will really help me.

Rear will be the same, but will probably make same angle iron up for under the front chassis rails - I have no other options!
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
This has moved on a seriously long way since I last saw it! Awesome work dude, its amazing how fast plans escalate :rofl:
 

tyroguru

Club Member
Fantastic Jon - I knew you would get yours on before me! I'm one or two days behind you. Got the rotisserie built but now looking for ways to connect it to the body! Your photos will really help me.

Rear will be the same, but will probably make same angle iron up for under the front chassis rails - I have no other options!

I wouldn't have got mine together so quickly if I had to fabricate something! I'm just lucky to have the US bumper mounts so things just bolt together really. Let me know if you need any more photo's Phil as I certainly found the ones on Ade Foreman's FB page to be useful (back to my earlier comment about the instructions). Saying that though, I still managed to make a couple of really stupid mistakes which I didn't notice until it was all together - the middle photo above actual shows both of them: the spring pin assembly thing is at the other end (the front of the car) but the horizontal tube section for that got put on at the rear of the car (note the holes) - drilled and tapped new holes at the front end to rectify that. Also the four bolts at each side which clamp the tubes are on the wrong way (nuts facing out) and therefore protrude and hit the vertical part of the frame on rotation. Angle grinded some of the excess threadsoff each bolt. Nothing to see here, move along... :) . I'm sure you won't make those mistakes though.

This has moved on a seriously long way since I last saw it! Awesome work dude, its amazing how fast plans escalate :rofl:

I can take things apart quickly but I've got to learn some skills to sort the problems out :) . Thanks though Mark! Really looking forward to what you do with your engine. I've got all that to sort as well in the fullness of time.
 

Rushingphil

Club Member
Actually, regarding the bolts being the wrong way round, I did make the same 'mistake - because That's how the diagram showed it! Luckily I discovered it before I made the second assembly.

Unlike one of the bottom tubes that I put on 90deg out - didn't realize until I went to put the wheels on :rofl:
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
I can take things apart quickly but I've got to learn some skills to sort the problems out :) . Thanks though Mark! Really looking forward to what you do with your engine. I've got all that to sort as well in the fullness of time.

Thats's always the way Jon, there's only one way to learn though right ;) Hopefully I can eventually share some useful info. I need to get the engine back home and get started in anger, all this uncertainty certainly complicates matters though!
 

tyroguru

Club Member
Now I've got easy access to the underside of the car, the first area of interest for me was the frame rails and the floor pan. I could see a couple of small holes in the floor pan and the frame rails have some good dents (from jacking I assume) so wanted to get the underseal off to get a better look. Unfortunately the passenger side is looking a bit sorry for itself:

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The drivers side isn't showing the same rust on either the rail or the pan but it's taken a bit of a beating:

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The frame rail on the passenger side that runs from the firewall the radiator is rusted at the firewall end:

GOPR0611.JPG

And onto the battery tray area... Well, I knew it wasn't looking too good but it was so rusted up that I couldn't for the life of me find the spot weld sites. I kind of made a big dogs dinner of getting the spot welds out but I'll put that down to a learning curve... Anyway, the firewall code is the worst of it:

GOPR0610.JPG

Things to ponder for me anyway. Any input more than welcome!
 

tyroguru

Club Member
I'm doing my best to single handedly keep the economy going :) . Look what the nice man from DHL just bought me:

GOPR0631.JPG

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”. Aristotle.

Not on the car though for a good while!
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
I'm doing my best to single handedly keep the economy going :) . Look what the nice man from DHL just bought me:

View attachment 37942

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”. Aristotle.

Not on the car though for a good while!

Nice. Can that plug into a standard 13A socket. I bought a welder a while ago but in theory it needs it's own feed through one of those sockets like you see on camp sites.
 

tyroguru

Club Member
Nice. Can that plug into a standard 13A socket. I bought a welder a while ago but in theory it needs it's own feed through one of those sockets like you see on camp sites.

It's a 16A unit and if you wanted to draw all of that you'd need to put it one of those 3 pin connectors that you mention and have a supply to handle that. I'll be putting it on a standard 13A plug and hopefully that will be OK especially with the thinner metals that I'll be aiming at so I'll be drawing less current than that. My garage distribution is a bit sensitive though so I'l see how it goes.
 

Rushingphil

Club Member
I have the same one and yes it does run off a standard 13A socket - but only up to about 160A I believe - more than enough for the type of welding we are doing. More than that you need the 16A sockets.

Regarding the garage sensitivity - that will depend on the type of circuit breakers you have - they are product specific, some will handle greater initial current draw etc.

It's also the same one that Richiep is enjoying so much :thumbs:

The one I have was dirt cheap - my youngest left it behind when he buggered off to the States EXTRA:)
 
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tyroguru

Club Member
Regarding the garage sensitivity - that will depend on the type of circuit breakers you have - they are product specific, some will handle greater initial current draw etc.

It's also the same one that Richiep is enjoying so much :thumbs:

The one I have was dirt cheap - my youngest left it behind when he buggered off to the States EXTRA:)

Thanks Phil. Yes, it's with initial draw so I guess I'll see how it goes and follow it up if I have to.

I was reading around and there are so many opinions on Welders as with everything. I'd plumbed for the R-Tech 180 anyway but was still a bit on the fence and then I saw Richie had got one so that swung it (true story!) :) .
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
I'm doing my best to single handedly keep the economy going :) . Look what the nice man from DHL just bought me:

View attachment 37942

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”. Aristotle.

Not on the car though for a good while!

Ooooooo, I'm very jealous!

It's a skill I keep meaning to learn, and would like to pick up a welder at some point. How did you decide on this one?
 
you'll be fine running that off a 13a fused plug. i've had one at 220A with no issues. Normally you're on a 32a ring main which is the important thing, continued use did eventually blow a fuse, that was after a long period though.
 

tyroguru

Club Member
Ooooooo, I'm very jealous!

It's a skill I keep meaning to learn, and would like to pick up a welder at some point. How did you decide on this one?

I didn't want to pay much more than 5-600 pounds and in that range it gets very good reviews and people seem to be happy with them - I read a bunch of stuff on https://www.mig-welding.co.uk and I figured it was a reasonably safe purchase (at least from a buying POV :) ). Also, people seemed happy with RTech's customer support and they include 3 years pick up from site warranty. Certainly the delivery was fast as I ordered at 14:30 one day and it was delivered at 09:00 the next!

Gas also seems to be a thing with various options at various price points. In the end I went with a BOC Argoshield Light (the 'Y' bottle) as its high Argon level is meant to make it easier when dealing with thin sheet steel for automotive work.
 

tyroguru

Club Member
I've been carrying on stripping underseal and making slow but steady progress. I knew that the drivers side quarter panel had some filler in it right at the back so I thought that while I had the torch out stripping seam sealer, I'd have a look at that.

IMG_0545.jpg

:EXTRAlol:. I dug so much filler out that I thought I might find King Richard in the hole. (In case anyone is confused, the car is upside down.)

The dog leg on the drivers side is in a mess and needs doing so I guess I'm going to probably need to replace the whole quarter panel? If anyone thinks different please say. I think Ian has had a whole new quarter panel recently as part of his Resto Shack work so maybe his supplier would be an option if he's pleased with it.
 

Mark N

Club Member
I've been carrying on stripping underseal and making slow but steady progress. I knew that the drivers side quarter panel had some filler in it right at the back so I thought that while I had the torch out stripping seam sealer, I'd have a look at that.

View attachment 38362

:EXTRAlol:. I dug so much filler out that I thought I might find King Richard in the hole. (In case anyone is confused, the car is upside down.)

The dog leg on the drivers side is in a mess and needs doing so I guess I'm going to probably need to replace the whole quarter panel? If anyone thinks different please say. I think Ian has had a whole new quarter panel recently as part of his Resto Shack work so maybe his supplier would be an option if he's pleased with it.

5.56mm or 7.62mm?
 

tyroguru

Club Member
Sorry Mark but what do the two values refer to here?

lol. I just walked in the house and told one of my lads what your comment was and he replied, "they're common bullet diameters". If that's the case, good comment :) . Also, I'm worried that he knows that!
 
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