newbie with some 260 zx questions

ChrispinZ said:
Wow, that's a big job...we took on a massive job on a 240 which almost turned to dust during sandblasting. It has taken absolutely ages and will cost thousands in the end...but once it rolls out of the workshop it will have been worth it.

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and as if that wasn't punishment enough, once it is finished we'll start work on the 260!!!
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These are the pair of Z's that you where going to complete within a few months a long time ago !! What happened ? Everyone who replied to the thread where correct ? more to it than meets the eye + £1,000's. Any recent pics.
 
You're right, it kind of got sidetracked with other things (Mk1 Golf GTi) but the 240 is going back together at the moment. In fact I just got a load of engine bits and bobs painted today. The engine bay is already painted in the gunmetal greyand looks nice and new. Front and rear suspension is also back in after being refurbished etc, the anti-roll bars were a royal pain! I'll get more photo's up soon.
 
michael1703 said:
hi there, i've took on a daft project to repair a 1976 260 zx

i would like to know if any repair panels are available? i'm guessing no (apart from the sills which are on order) but i would like some door skins if available

if not it means ive got more bits to make

the damage is as follows:

the o/s/r corner of the car has rotted out just above the rear lights,
a 3 inch strip of tailgate rear edge has disintegrated,
the fuel filler is err... odd to say the least, you can see the fuel filler hose as there is big holes above and below the filler flap.
theres holes around the o/s rear quarter light, the base of the o/s screen pillar and o/s/f headlamp cowl is bubbling so needs seperating from the wing, repairing and reattaching with some silkoflex in the seam.
o/s sills are rotted all along and the bottom of the rear wing is missing, the drivers floor is full of holes, the drivers door has rotted through about 3 inches up from the bottom edge

on the nearside

nearside bumper is hiding a 4 inch by two inch void of nothingness, the passengers door has rotted through about 3 inches up from the bottom edge, some light rusting around the rear quarter light, sill is scrap, front wing flaps in the breeze as its lower rear edge has fell off, the rear wings front edge is rotten.....

this is the superficial stuff, theres about 8 inches of chassis rail missing on the drivers side and thats only the bits i havent poked with a screwdriver!

the rear quarters are going to give me trouble as they are lead loaded :banghead:

i'll attach some piccies soon
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I have some repair panels that might be of interest and also wing inspection flaps.
Email me to discuss
pmaczc@madasafish.com
 
not much progress yet, i'm waiting on the sills, so have stripped back the paint on the most corroded parts of the body

i had to cut away quite a bit of rot below the filler flap to get to sound metal

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it was a tricky piece to shape as the waistline went through the repair at an angle with a reduced curve, so i shaped it as to be more pronounced a the rear edge and fading to a small curve, this is the basic shape, then i put a rounded fold through it at an angle and then dressed it flat at the front edge so it fattened out as it passed below the cap

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i could have added the fuel cap recess to the top of the repair section, but i decided that i will make a one piece recess and weld that in below the repair section and then shape my top repair piece so it flows into it.

the rear corner was looking a bit sad, so i cleaned it back with a brush cup to find this

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i made a curved angle piece to replace the missing part, i used the rear lens as a template and shaped it with an even gap around the tail lamp assembly, with this welded in to place, it was easy to close off and get a nice shape

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the rear corner was an odd shape, two waist lines which narrowed into a taper and met a curve, i had to do make it smaller than intended as there was too much shape to do this AND get a nice curved at the top, so the top piece where the rear spoiler sits will be seperate, just as well as i had trouble with the old metal buckleing very easily so had to planish the odd imperfection

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i primered the repair to see how it looked and to keep the rust off for a week or so until i can finish it

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the rear light area looks better, still a bit more work to do, but the shape looks pretty good

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ive started on the tailgate which is'nt too hard to repair

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ive cut out the rot and cleaned the panel on both sides, a bit of rust converter on the bits i cant get with the grinder and i'm almost ready to let the new sections in

i've got loads of work on at the minute, so progress will be slow for the next few weeks
 
I take it back. You can obviously do the job (and well). I was gutted that the post ended as I was loving seeing that take shape. You have a lot of work ahead bud but hey, if you're methodical then it'll get done in the end. What do you think to the car itself from a design / shape standpoint? I love the lines of the thing. It looks a simple design because of how well the lines flow but there are so many shapes and direction changes in there. Loving it mate. Keep it going while you can!
 
Nice work michael, This looks like it will be a long but interesting project.

Good luck mate.



Rob
 
then after the tailgate.... the o/s rear quarter light will be repaired

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its a nice car to work on, i was slightly confused by the amount of pipework when removing the fuel tank (odd breathers) and that i couldnt actually remove the filler hose completely so i left it in

Seiously guys, anything is fixable, the guy who owns it was told by the 3 main zed specialists to get a donor shell from the states ££££'s , the work i'm doing will obviously cost the guy more than the £550 he has part payed me, but i cant see it exceeding £1200, i'm not spraying it, but paint is a fortune if you cant find the right people to do it then try it yourself, i know of people paying £7k for paintjobs which arent very good, there are people out there who are good and wont rip you off, but theyre normally the unassuming old geezers with string holding their trousers up rather the chromoflare specialists with their fancy spray bakes
 
MJP might be able to get windscreen rubbers.

Great work you are doing, it's great to see another step by step guide to a restoration.

You are clearly very good at what you do.
 
Whilst I admire your hard work, I can't help thinking that - under the paint - the end result will be..........
 

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Albrecht said:
Whilst I admire your hard work, I can't help thinking that - under the paint - the end result will be..........
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I've seen a lot worse cars restored in the past, If the work is done well as it appears in this case I don't see the problem, I commend anybody with the amount of skill that Michael has to bring these basket case back to good solid condition, I feel guilty about wimping out of the first 260 I bought now :eek:, That was no where near as bad as this bugger.

Keep up the good work and please keep the photo's coming, This thread has given me the kick up the back side I needed to get off my fat lazy arse and get on with my own car :bow::bow::bow:.



Rob
 
Every thing everyone is saying unfortunately is spot on it took me 3 years to restore my 240z often working 20-30 hrs a week on it, the corrosion you see is just the tip of the iceberg, what are the chassis rails like or battery tray area and inner wings, are the floors good, sills are hard to line up correctly due to not being a good copy, are the sill returns good, if the car has excessive corrosion the shell may have distorted causing more panel gap problems, i would think very long and hard at starting this because ive been there and it gives me palpatations just thinking of restoring another zed like i had before, so much so that i bought my last one from california because i did not want another patch work quilt, and i estimate i spent at least 1500 hrs restoring the last one, a lot of time for a car, will the owner of the one you are doing pay that much or will he abandon it when costs spiral and leave you out of pocket by hundreds and hundreds, i dont mean to sound negative, just letting you know its hard long work, but if you go ahead and you probably will because if your like me you will not want a car to beat you then good luck
 
This owner didnt want a full on restoration,if it was to be fully restored it would be sent to spl Paint, Rust and Underseal Removal for Cars and Industry by Surface Processing Limited and dipped before work commeced and then zinc phosphated.

The fabrication and welding would still be the same as i've done, no patches or joddled in repairs, just finely cut butt welded repair sections


Ive worked outward from the rot and cut back to sound metal, through lots of poking and cutting back ive found the body to be reasonably sound,after repairing the rot and finding what caused it i can prevent it from happening again


If i were to linish both sides of the repair and paint it, i could make it look as though there is no join, how is that patchy if the metal is of the same thickness and quality as the metal it replaced?


If you wanted a full on restoration you could replace the rear quarters, but then you would need a new rear panel as that would be too rotten to weld to, two full floor section (lots of distortion likely and more time and money too)

The chassis rails have rotten areas,so should i be expected to remove the whole chassis rail and weld a whole new one in? A new chassis rail wouldnt look any different or be any stronger than the repair i will make, so why replace it fully? that would be a lot of work for no gain and would cause the chassis to twist

As it stands, this car would have been scrapyard bound, by repairing the rot and stopping the ingress of water/moisture which caused the rot,the new metal will now outlast the old, if this car changes hands over the years and finds an owner who wants it fully restored, then that can still happen, you lot had already written this car off after a few photos

Luckily for the owner i can do the work and as i work differently to most people i can repair it for a good price
 
Mad skills, looking good :)

You'd still have been better off (if by day you charge more than 50p/hour) to buy a better car I think (or the guy who owns it would have), sadly Datsuns don't seem to fetch a huge amount but as you know restoration is expensive so economically speaking it probably wasn't worth the repair (maybe).

However fair play to you for trying to save another one! Keep us updated on your progress, much as it seems like we're all against your work we're not really, we were just trying to save some £ for someone and some heartache :) Soon as you've done this one if you fancy relocating to Somerset you can do mine (will throw in a mk1 golf gti for your work hehe) :thumbs:
 
The way i work is odd.... i take on more stuff than i can deal with and have 8 jobs going at once, i work from home in my garage and have a lot of room for vehicles, i can mig/tig/oxy acetylene weld, panel beat and i'm a trained mechanic and have worked as an engine builder too

I have a short attention span, if i had one project on the go i would soon be bored of it and get nothing done, so i spend a certain ammount of time on one vehicle and then go onto another, i havent touched the datsun in a week now and i'm getting the urge to do some more, ive been fixing an mgb and an nsu since welding the datsun and ive had enough of both of them for the minute! ive got a triumph stag and a jaguar to fix, my ford thames 400e, a rover p4 and and and....

So you get the picture, ive just bought an mgb which i collect sunday and i'm fixing a beemer 325i too next week, so i will strip the beemer monday morning and while waiting for the parts to arrive i will do some datsun work

Its an odd way to do things, but it keeps my enthusiasm going and the days fly by
 
michael1703 said:
you lot had already written this car off after a few photos
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Don't count me in with this lot of old pessimists my old mucker ;), I think if the owner is willing to pay and you enjoy the challenge then why not take the harder option :thumbs:.

I agree that their is no need for this to turn out as some patched up quilt affair if done properly, These old boys just don't like a challenge :lol::lol::lol:.




Rob
 
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