Hi Guys,

Well its been a while but my beloved zed has been sleeping quietly in the garage underneath an indoor cover,

but unbeknown to me has been rusting without me knowing, really annoyed. ( how its rusted in an indoor garage is puzzling me )

 

first sign is a fuel tank leak, so began the process of removing the rear tank,

 

looking under the rear arch behind the bumper, it has rotted through, this has been repaired before but again has rotted through,

does anyone have any pics or experience with repairing this section?

 

looking under the zed it looks like I will be dropping the subframe and using a product called POR 15

http://www.frost.co.uk/semi-gloss-black-por15-rust-prevention-paint-946ml.html

 

I have sprayed loads of waxoil and stone chip under the arches that did nothing to stop the rust, what is the best way to clean it all off to bare metal so I can do a proper job?

 

any help would be greatly appreciated regarding dropping the rear subframe, and redoing the brake pipes, do these need to be done as

a complete section front to back, or do you join them somewhere, ive tried the search function but I need a little more help with the brake pipes

and hicas pipes that seem to have rotted

 

any help greatly appreciated

The Dynax S-50 is excellent, as are all the products by the company that makes it, Bilt Hamer, they have lost of other rust repair products available.

 

Get yourself a dehumidifier for the garage, that will keep the humidity low and keep rust from forming.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Bilt Hamber that should be.

So this is where im up to so far with replacing the rear section,

 

I have opened the spot welds on the rear section to the boot floor using a spot face drill

I have done the same on the donor panel

 

I am shocked to see how poor the seams are once the paint has been stripped back as you can see this is the reason all the water seems to be getting in between the seams and causing all the rust problems, this will be something I will be addressing hence the panel bonding adhesive I will be using.

Wow great work Dewi, glad the donor panel is doing the trick, I've had no experience with body or rust repair so wouldn't know where to start with a job like that!

 

I've found a boot trim for you too, I'll send a pic through tomorrow.

Great thanks Bazz, ive never done anything major like this before but ive read a few posts about how its just like changing a wing just that the tools are diffrent... well ive taken the plunge big time, your doner part was just the trick thanks, still wsiting for the interior screws if you have sent them matey

The strip down continues,

I have opened all the spot welds and removed the sections apart, I am surprised at the amount of rust between the seams, I think it will be easier putting the sections back piece by piece using the body adhesive,

I have cleaned off the rust and used jenolite to hopefully kill off what is left of the rust, now I'm not sure about what to use to repaint the steel before putting it together, I have got some immersion grade paint used on oil rigs ect promises to be good stuff, use it on bare steel, I really don't want the rust coming back so need to get this right.

Edited September 12, 20169 yr by FASTREDZ

I will be power wire brushing the rust again to be sure it will be gone, its difficult to try and cut it all out, hopefully this will sort it, anyone used an epoxy primer or any experience with it

Edited September 12, 20169 yr by FASTREDZ

Well I have taken the inner wing off now complete, and I have seen the rust that is left on the inside of the outer wing...

This looks like I will have to get one of those repair panels, anyone have pics of how they used there's ?

What is the best option for yhe arch repair panels? I believe there is a guy on ebay who sells them also zcentre sells them are they both the same panels? Anyone have pictures of yhem

Try Guy in Tamworth He did all the work that Jeff used to find

 

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

Try Guy in Tamworth He did all the work that Jeff used to find

 

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

 

Thanks Tonyb, any more info at all for this guy?

phone him on 07721 014097

phone him on 07721 014097

 

Thanks, just called him now unfortunatly he doesnt sell repair panels to send out, only makes pieces to suit the car that he works on if that makes sense

This link may be worth a look.

 

http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?175949-Replacment-arch-and-sill-panels

Yes, I didn't know you were doing it yourself.

 

Guy makes parts to fit and he repaired mine

 

Just a quick update, the section that was rusted underneath the rear quarter panel has been welded in,

the boot floor rust section has been repaired, Also the rear part of the inner arch has been repaired.

 

bought some epoxy primer aerosol on ebay and im very very impressed with it so far,

 

anyone know if the repair panels on ebay or zcenter has this section in it also? its the rear part of the arch

 

Im going to have to cut my arch out to at least 3/4 way as it is rusted inside, so best be safe and weld in a new section.

Time to update the thread, its been a slow process im afraid with other commitments but I have managed to move forward a bit

so here are a few pics to enjoy.

 

so after cutting out the rotten part we are left with this

 

 

trying on the new repair panel that we will scribe from the inside

 

 

and after cutting the repair panel to suit we can now hold it in place ready to be tacked on.

 

 

So that is the bulk of the work for the repair panel, next is the sanding, filler and painting.

after this we need to work on the inner arch and rear inner panels.

That's not a Z repair panel is it??

That's not a Z repair panel is it??

I think z centre sells rear arch repair panels. Also some part of the sills if I'm not mistaken.

That's not a Z repair panel is it??

 

Yes it is apparently so, these are the rear arch repair panels that are available

Its intresting to see how the panels were put together in the 90's compared to today,

 

on the zed I can clearly see the rust has spread through the seams where the spot weld are, today cars are bonded together and the seams are sealed

so this is what im doing with my zed when im putting the parts back

 

my advice to anyone who has a half decent non rusting zed would be to get the inners sills and inner arches and box sections all rust cavity coated to preserve the zed,

I wish I would have done this when I first had mine,

interesting to see also that most if not all of the rust seems to come from the inside out...

Well done for sticking at it mate.

Must have been my eyes, they looked like flared metal arches when I first looked lol.

 

Looks like I've got a tiny bit coming through where my arches were flared, that section needs repainting anyway, I'll inspect it when I sand back the metal. Luckily I did my inner and outer sills a year ago and re zinc primed and undersealed the whole of the underside while I was at it. Gutty job but worth it

 

Must have been my eyes, they looked like flared metal arches when I first looked lol.

 

Looks like I've got a tiny bit coming through where my arches were flared, that section needs repainting anyway, I'll inspect it when I sand back the metal. Luckily I did my inner and outer sills a year ago and re zinc primed and undersealed the whole of the underside while I was at it. Gutty job but worth it

 

 

Wow that's really impressive work, how did you manage to strip all the underseal, im looking to do mine too, did you strip it too bear metal?

im thinking of using bilt hamber epoxy mastic.

http://www.bilthamber.com/epoxy-mastic