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A crash, alot of salt, and another cold Colorado winter.

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  • A crash, alot of salt, and another cold Colorado winter.

    Well finally got some time to post some of this years Z car adventures, as I am laid up in bed with the flu and can't get any Z work done anyway. So here is a little tale.

    All started with a great day riding my quad up in the mountains, at least until I got a little over zealous and found out that a human knee isn't quite up to the job of stoping a 500llb quad from tipping over.



    Whoops.. torn ACL well not going to be driving the z for a while, (can't press clutch) and I was going to have a lot of time on my hands as I couldn't go to work either. So it was time to do some much needed and long overdue work on the Z. Too many winters were spent in Missouri snow and SALT!

    Step one.......... Find all the damage.



    as you can see from this pic, some very familiar rear camber issues. Plus isn't that frame rail supposed to have a bottom? Well I already knew I wanted to do some Camber mods before I put any new tires on, so put that on order.. also, it would seem that I have ALOT of welding to do.....joy joy

    Well little did I know, how much welding I had to do.. everywhere I looked under there was gobs of rust, most I knew was there some was new to me.. anyway... it was time to start tearing parts out.



    Well after getting all the big parts out of the way, I decided that the factory undercoat had to go, as it did a pretty good job of hiding rust. and as you can see from this picture, it was just plain nasty.




    So after many hours with a wire brush it was starting to look better. except for all the rust holes.




    which left quite the pile of crap on the ground every day.



    worst of the damage...


    Left frame rail is toast, but a semi easy fix.


    Right frame rail where it bends down had the weight savings mod.. no steel!


    aft part of that rear frame es no bueno either!


    from below..


    from above with light shining through.

    Left side rear deck pan was Swiss cheese.

    Sorry for the post chop picture, but I think there might have been some structural deficiencies the the left rear quarter.




    Well that's about all I have time to post today. So I will leave you all hanging with that little teaser... Will I ever finish? Is this Z yet another destined to be sent to the crusher.. Have I lost my mind? Do I really need a new hobby? stay tuned....
    Who needs new car's, Nissan had it right 30 years ago!!!

  • #2
    Bloody hell, the Z31 is rust prone in ordinary use, driving on wet salted roads takes that to another level. Agree with you on the stock under body treatment because it certainly encourages rust to grow between it and the metal.

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    • #3
      Sorry slacking on updates. .been busy actually working on the z...boat loads of little stuff

      Little tease..

      Who needs new car's, Nissan had it right 30 years ago!!!

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      • #4
        Looks Great man. Keep up the awesome work!
        Originally posted by Racinjitter
        :lol: Those of us who say A/C FTW all have a g/f or wife. ac+women=more quiet=possibility of sex. -
        ac+women=SUPER BITCHING=no sex.

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        • #5
          Great job

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          • #6
            Thanks guys....I'll post more updates as I have time... I was going too this week in reno,NV but the auto museum there took precedence.
            Who needs new car's, Nissan had it right 30 years ago!!!

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            • #7
              Ok.. short update today.. lets talk about the Differential insulator...

              Mine was shot..





              well. Courtsy wants 257+ for a rubber nissan part that has been sitting in some warehouse since Ronald Regan was in the White house. Acadiana sells a Poly mount but they are out of stock, and no Idea when they will get more. Sooooo.. I guess I'm going to rebuild my own.

              Step one.. use any means possable to remove the old rubber... (mostly wire brush wheel) then off the sandblasting cabinet and you end up with this.





              so I painted that sucker up, and then scuffed up the center where the poly would be so it would stick.. I used duct tape to hold the unit together and to form a mold to hold the liquid poly until it solidified.





              Then I used this stuff from "Smooth on" called reoflex 60, it has over 750 psi of strength.





              Then it's pretty much a matter of mixing part A with part B adding some color, pouring and waiting..





              Didn't take very much.. only half a cup full.



              End result, I'm very happy with it, it feels very strong, looks good, I guess only some time installed on the car will prove how well it works, but one thing is for certain it's better then busted ass rubber one.





              Only downside is the texture of duct tape from my "mold"






              Who needs new car's, Nissan had it right 30 years ago!!!

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              • #8
                Looks like you're a good 1/3rd of the way into your S13 sub swap.
                sigpic

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