Project THESEUS: A '74 260z

[Noll]

Found someone on FB with a parts-car 240 that they're cutting up for scrap, and they will be cutting out the seatbelt mount/swaybar bracket areas and rear floor/rail/bumper mount sections for me. They're in Buffalo NY, so those should arrive relatively quickly once they get shipped (probably will pick up from ogdensburg to save $ on shipping).

Ebay find came in today; I managed to snag some NOS Bosch H4 e-codes at a great price. Better light, and I have the ability to change/upgrade bulbs. They look brand new!





I also ordered a headlight relay harness. Was going to make my own as it's pretty simple, but it was literally cheaper to buy a complete harness then to just purchase the relays separately. It's on the slow boat from china, so will probably take a month or two to arrive.


Going to do a 4 hour round trip tomorrow to get new floorpans and rails.

[Noll]

new floorpans and rails acquired! Man I love having a wagon.



and mocked-up the driver's side. Little tweaking to do, but initial fitment is otherwise great.

[Maschinenbau]

You are moving quick! This is a ton of tin work in a short amount of time. Nicely done. 

[Noll]

6 hours ago, Maschinenbau said:

You are moving quick! This is a ton of tin work in a short amount of time. Nicely done. 

 

Thanks! Yeah, come hell or high water I'm going to drive this thing next spring, so putting in the work even when it sucks.

 

Speaking of metalwork, I decided to sort the a-pillar rust. Still need to grind down the welds etc, but pretty happy with how it turned out. Cut the bit off my 280z shell parts and welded it in. Kept the inside part of the pillar intact to not have the roof sag; removed the spot welds and clamped it on and welded back on from the inside.









Next up will be to finish up the join from the doorjamb to the rocker, then get the firewall sorted so I can start getting the floor welded in.

[Noll]

Got the a-pillar patch ground down. Pretty happy with it; little work obviously required for the window channel to be perfect. That'll happen after the whole car is primered.





I also found a picture of another Z in the same colour I'm planning on going with:

[Noll]

Started work on the firewall area today, as that needs to be solid before the floor can go in.

Starting point:



Cleaned up and initial cuts made. I saved the section of steering-column brace plate, and will be welding it back in when repairs are done.



Next up, this mess.



Initial cleanup done. More cleaning to do (especially inside the frame rail), then patches can begin.

[Noll]

More patchwork done today.

Remade the flange on the left by the rocker, as I had just eyeballed the distance before I welded the rocker back in, and it was about 1" off from actually touching the rocker. It's now spotwelded to the rocker for good.



Made up and welded in a bottom section too, to tie it into the floor. You can see here the crushed/rusty bottom triangular-frame-thingy; I'll be cutting out the afftected sections and remaking it at a later date.



And floor mocked up. Once I get the rear seatbelt mount section that someone's cut off a parts-car for me welded in, I can get the floor tacked in where it touches existing metal, then start working my way down the trans tunnel making patches. Obviously the patch I made will need to be trimmed for where the floor bends, but I'll deal witrh that when installing the floor.



I also 3d-printed and tapped a shifter knob; you can see it on the right of the above pic. A little more finishing work to do, but I'm pretty happy with it.


next up is to finish up the firewall patches, then see what I can do next while waiting for the seatbelt mount areas to be shipped.

[BrothersGarage]

bad-ass work!

saw a car today that may peak your interest:

[Noll]

17 hours ago, BrothersGarage said:

bad-ass work!

saw a car today that may peak your interest:
 

 

Thanks! It's nice to have a visual indicator of progress now, hopefully soon the floor will be in for good.

 

Oh nice! That's essentially what I'm going for, just with a black hood and a front spook on the stock valence instead of that airdam. Those look like 16x7 Enkeis?

[Noll]

Side note, the person sending me some floor/rear frame bits sent me some pics of the floor sections. Will need some cleanup, but look solid and should work well for what I need them for.







 

[BrothersGarage]

13 minutes ago, Noll said:

Those look like 16x7 Enkeis?

I think they are: https://www.ebay.com/itm/JDM-ENkei-Mesh-15-rims-wheels-ae86-SSR-oldschool-artisan-ta22-Japan-original-/151688710129?_trksid=p2047675.m43663.l44720&nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

[Noll]

Sweet, 15" is even better. I was leaning towards Rota RKR's, but the mesh enkeis look pretty good with the green...

[Noll]

Ok, parts have arrived! They look a little crusty, but are actually really solid where I need them. Lots of undercoating removal to do, and wire-wheeling paint off. Then can start to fit to the car.







(I have both asides of all, and all the rear seat mounts too).

I's going to be really nice to finally get rid of this mess:

[Noll]

Got the firewall hole all patched up. Little more work to do to that area now, then I can move onto the rear and then actually put the floor in for good!

[Bleach]

I've been watching this thread but not posting a lot. I am continually amazed at the massive project you took on and how you keep making progress on this big welding project. Great job!

[Noll]

6 hours ago, Bleach said:

I've been watching this thread but not posting a lot. I am continually amazed at the massive project you took on and how you keep making progress on this big welding project. Great job!

 

Thanks man, means a lot! Honestly, if I look at the big picture it gets a bit overwhelming sometimes, so I just keep plugging away at it section-by-section until it doesn't look as impossible any more. Trying not to think about the fact that I have to do the rocker/floor/firewall repair all over again on the other side once I'm done here haha.

[Noll]

Wasn't really happy with most of the lower firewall, so decided to cut it out and start over. While it is hard to see in pics, the heat from the multiple patches was making things kinda wavy. One large patch should be a lot cleaner in general.



Tacked in the new panel. The bottom edge doesn't matter too much as that will all be trimmed for floor fitment. Got the steering column brace panel welded back in too.



I also had a friend come over, and welded up a new section on a fender for his k5 blazer. Going to do the other one tomorrow, as it also has a decent rust hole. No before pics unfortunately.

[Noll]

Been a little since I've had time to work on the Z, but today was a good day for it.

 

Got the firewall all welded up, as well as the clutch bumpstop.

 

 

Then fixed the clutch pedal; the point where it attaches to the master cyl. was really wallowed out. Welded up the extra:

 

 

and ground down:

 

 

There's still more stuff to do at that front area, but it is now complete enough for the floor to go in. Next point of focus for that is the rear swaybar/seatbelt area:

 

 

cut back to good metal. Next up will be prepping the replacement section that I have for this area, then lots of fitment and tweaking. I have a dilemma though; the replacement section is from a 240, which means no swaybar mount. Should I weld the mounts from my car on (they look to be usable), or get a rear swaybar kit for a 240 and upgrade at the same time?

 

[Noll]

been a hot minute since I've had time for work on this; got the news that my daily has pretty terminal subframe rust (anything is fixable, but I need something to get to work in haha), so I've been hunting for a new car. Ended up with a '04 WRX wagon with a bunch of STI bits and 6 speed, making around 300AWHP. Should be saftied early this upcoming week.

Did a little on the Z today, before conceding defeat to the overwhelming heat and humidity and deciding to retreat into the air-conditioned indoors.

Decided to shift my focus to this area:



Mostly cleaned up the replacement frame rail section; still need to figure out what best to do with some rust on the rear section.







Before it can properly go in, I need to deal with this mess...



...Which means I get to remove all the spot welds on the rear valence. Going to weld a brace or two in before that though.



 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Noll

[Noll]

Also to note; the trans sitting under the car in my last pic is a 5-speed out of a 240SX. Picked it up along with an already shortened driveshaft, short-shifter, and L28 bellhousing for a steal. I just need to convert the bellhousing for the larger shifter rod, and slap it all together. Should be way nicer for highway driving then the 4speed.

[datzenmike]

You also need to shave down the thickness around the counter bearing (front to back) and at this time increase it from 56mm to 62mm for the sx bearing. You can keep the 56mm if you want but get a new bearing if you do and use the L series cover plate.

 

 

 

  this...

 

to this...

 

 

I used a 5/8" for the shifter hole. Passed the drill through it several times and perfect fit.

[Noll]

34 minutes ago, datzenmike said:

You also need to shave down the thickness around the counter bearing (front to back) and at this time increase it from 56mm to 62mm for the sx bearing. You can keep the 56mm if you want but get a new bearing if you do and use the L series cover plate.

 

  this...

[pic]

to this...

 

[pic]

 

I used a 5/8" for the shifter hole. Passed the drill through it several times and perfect fit.

 

Oh yeah, I've found the guides on the conversion at atlanticz and zhome, had just forgotten about the shaving part. I'm thinking I'll stick with the smaller 56mm bearing to avoid having to machine etc, unless there's a good (longevity?) reason to use the bigger one. Thanks for the info on drill bit size! I should really get around to getting all the trans stuff done soon so I can have it sitting fully-assembled and ready to go, even if its not installed for a while. Also need to figure out why the short shifter won't fit nicely (I think I just need to stick it in the fridge for a while 1st), and source a missing shifter return spring and check ball that I've managed to find a part # for.

 

 

 

--------------------------

Got the taillight panel off today.


Old and "new" (still needs some work):



One of the big issues with the panel is this section. I also need to remove the square bracing, but that's simple enough if a bit time consuming.



Happily, the cutoffs from my replacement quarters will solve the issue on both sides, and the d/s one also has the benefit of replacing the exhaust cutout that was welded up previously.

You can also see that the rear valence was shortened for some reason by about 2" - I'm thinking I'll make a strip for the center section and weld it in carefully to avoid heat warping.



Car looks pretty bare with it off. Primary area to repair is the leftmost section; the flange and right side are actually solid, which is a nice change for once.





it'll be nice to be able to use the other side as a reference. A little surface crust, but should all clean up nicely with a wire wheel.



Next up is to start reconstructing that left section, and getting that frame rail/bumper mount back in. Anyone happen to have measurements for proper bumper mount spacing? I don't want to mistakenly weld it in the wrong spot.
 

[datzenmike]

The front counter gear is a failure point on the 71B that is much strengthened by the 62mm bearing on the 71C.

 

The clearance is for the wider gears on the 71C transmission and what looks like an oil slinger on the very front just behind the counter bearing. If not clearanced the transmission will be too tight when bolted together.

[Noll]

21 hours ago, datzenmike said:

The front counter gear is a failure point on the 71B that is much strengthened by the 62mm bearing on the 71C.

 

The clearance is for the wider gears on the 71C transmission and what looks like an oil slinger on the very front just behind the counter bearing. If not clearanced the transmission will be too tight when bolted together.

 

 

Ok, good to know! I did some research, and found an old thread that references the smaller bearing to be good till 250-300hp, and larger one till 400. Would you say that's reasonably accurate? This car may at most see 200 with the L series, eventually.

[Noll]

So, differential question. I've been doing some research on getting a higher ratio and LSD for my 260z for when it's eventually roadworthy. I initially looked at the subie r180 stuff, but for a 3.9 or similar it seems like total cost (diff + wolf creek adapters) is going to be running me 1500 CAD, which is a lot.

I'm thinking a 4.11 R160 is going to be a much more economical way to go (and 5spd means about 3200 rpm at 120kph), however even that brings more questions.

Seems like for subarus, the pre-1999 r160s will let you bolt in Z stub shafts, bolt your axles on, and go. After 1999 though, the attachment method changed to clip-in, and I've read conflicting reports (I dug through way too many old forum threads lol) as to if cutting a circlip/snap ring groove into the r180 stubs works or not to install them. Anyone have advice on this?

I can probably source a pre-99 diff if needed, but seems like the later 4.11 ones are much more plentiful due to being in automatic WRX's that frequently get parted out around me.