While I and my dad have 2 weeks off we are stripping down my Z and doing everything that needs doing to it, which means a lot of rust and change the petrol tank. I have decided to post what we are doing so you know all of the blood, sweat and tears I shed for my car. It may not be the best but I love it and I do my best keeping it going.

For the next week or so I will post up what we have done and what we have found wrong and how we fix it.

 

Anyways. Today late start as we had to drive to Bolton to Machine Mart to buy a couple of tools and a nice trolly to lie on. Saves lying on the floor in all the crap.

 

 

This was our first port of call.

You can see there the inner arch is wet. That is petrol that comes out every time I fill the car up or go round a round about. Graham from the meeting can voutch for the smell of the fuel which gets sickening at times.

 

After putting the car high up on stands we took off the bolds which holds on the straps. They where hard but a big bar took them off with little trouble.

 

 

We put a crate on the jack to take the weight as we unbolted the back of the straps on the tank.

 

 

Inside the boot we took off panel to access the pump disconnected the power and took off the 2 pipes. The main fuel pipe pissed out fuel when we took it off. So any one wanting to do this watch out.

 

 

Because the screws holding the neck on where so bad we couldnt take the neck off first before we dropped the tank so after taking the rubber bungs that hold the exhaust on we where able to move th exhaust slightly and drop the tank.

 

 

This is a pic of the car without the tank and for any one who is really good, they would have noticed something else is missing. But what ;)

Just after this was taken I gave the whole thing a good blast with the pressure washer and revield the writing on the diff. ;)

 

Found lots of things that needed doing while we where taking the tank off and I will post my findings and work here tomorrow.

 

 

Today was a short day today. We only started at 12:30 ish and finised at 4 because I am at work tonight. :(

 

Anyways, just thought I would tell you whats happeneing. I am actually learning a lot about this car by doing this.

 

Off to work.

 

Stuart

Originally posted by SRRAE

This is a pic of the car without the tank and for any one who is really good, they would have noticed something else is missing. But what ;)

 

The wheels ????? :D

Your neon lights you used to have underneath there?

 

Like it so far.....good luck tomorrow, keep us up to date!

can't see very well, but at a guess id say the HICAS is gone:confused:

Originally posted by Clarkey

can't see very well, but at a guess id say the HICAS is gone:confused:

 

 

First Prize :D

 

And James. I have not taken out my neon lights as a matter of fact nor am I installing any.

I am putting a smaller tank in so I can have a Disco Ball there ;) LOL

 

Stuart

can u give me breakdown of the weight of things?;) :D

Yes.

 

Bumper quite light.

Exhaust. Not as heavy as you espect.

 

Rust. Tonnes of it ;)

 

Stuart

Day 2

 

After taking the rear bumper off and noticed that the back of the rear arch is doubled skinned and thus we needed to be able to access it meaning exhaust off. It wasnt as hard as it sounds actually. The bolts where already unstuck after my clutch change just before Xmas and decat just after.

 

 

 

Here are my lovely Mongoose exhausts, or is it Mongease? LOL

A little dirty but you know me. :D While my dad was doing the not very important job of measuring new peices of sheet metal for replacing the arches I was cleaning the whole of the exhaust.

 

While the exhaust is off, here is the "Bog Brush" method of cleaning the pipes.

Here is the pipes all messy with the bog brush in a jar with a little paint stripper in it.

 

 

Put the bog brush inside, which is a nice fit. Twist it round about 5 times and then deep down and up a few times and then pull it out.

 

 

Wipe away the wet paint stripper that's around the exhaust with a cloth and there you go nice and clean. It may not look as clean because its in the shadow but it is very clean, compaied to the one next to it which wasnt half as bad.

 

 

More to come.............

 

Stuart

Part 2.....

 

 

After taking the bumper off we looked to see what was wrong.

 

 

Drivers side rear arch. This is the part behind the arch which goes along the side of the exhaust. Most of it is rusted and you will see how much of it left is good.

 

 

 

This is unside the rear passenger arch. The hole because the petrol neck, which is now off, trapped a huge pile of mud against the arch rotting it away.

 

 

 

We took the pressure washer to it to get rid of the surface dirt so we could start taking the rust off.

This the drivers rear sill after we brushed away the rusty bit. Not much left. :(

 

 

Never fear, my dad jack of all trades makes another piece to go over it.

It doesnt look pretty but it wont be seen as it will be painted and overed in sealer, it does the job.

 

 

Mean while, while my dad was cutting away at the inner arches and sills, I started to get the rust off my passenger wheel arch. I was told to just take off the parts with the rust. As you can see there want much that didnt have it.

 

It was sanded down too, which made it look a lot worse, before slaping a quick coat of paint to protect it for tonight.

 

Not a bad day. We did quite alot and had to take an hour and half off to pick my girlfriend from work. But shes fine now.

 

 

Few more days to go. Hope you are all enjoying these ;)

 

Stuart

Sterling work mate. I wish I had the time to come and join in the shinanigans.

 

Cos

This is great mate. I'm loving it.

 

Will be checking back to see how you progress in day three.

Day 3 things will start to happen I think. The new sills will be welded on and have underseal painted on. The rear arches will be sanded down and painted with undercoat and 1 or 2 layers of paint, and we are taking off the drivers sill infront of the rear wheel which if anything like the other will be a mess. Then its onto the front :(

 

Oh Well, it will have more steel plating on than Challenger tank when its finished. Not doing my MASS any good. ;)

 

Stuart

really interesting, its scary how much shit goes unseen,

 

I wish i had the time and nohow to do something like this,

 

can't wait for next installments.

Boy, am I glad I don't have a UK car ! ;)

Classic shot with the bog brush lol

 

Great stuff, I never get my hands dirty as I don't have the space, tools or inclination but seeing this I would love to have a go.

 

Maybe one day!

 

Keep up the good work Stuart

 

Martin

Blinding effort on this stuart.

 

We should all do the same with any jobs we do and shortly we would have a haynes manual for the zed. Except you would be able to trust it unlike the Haynes book of lies:)

Nice one, this is fascinating.

 

There's something theraputic about welding (yes I know I'm wierd) but there is also nothing worse than taking a cutting disk to your own car!

 

It's so nice that you've left something for your mum to remember this by! It'll be that little bare patch in the middle of the front garden where the thinners has killed the grass. :D

 

Keeps us posted m8, it's brilliant.

 

Tim

Excellent...........particularly liked the bog brush bit!

 

Looking forward to the next instalment.

Originally posted by jock

We should all do the same with any jobs we do and shortly we would have a haynes manual for the zed. Except you would be able to trust it unlike the Haynes book of lies:)

 

Been doing that since I got my car. It's all here .

Show off!!!!!! :p ;)

 

Its all good though Stu!

Stuart

That piccy with the rear wheel arch - Looks like you have bad rust on the sill there - Hate to say it but try pressing on those dark rust patches with a small screwdriver and I think you'll go right through it. Same on some of those areas on the wheel arch. Are you going to cut the sills right back and replace with new metal?

 

Be interested to see whats underneath them. Might have to do the same with mine one day.

Day 3

 

It seems to be a day where nothing much happened as there is no real great change in the car.

 

After the new sills where quickly made up obviously they had to be welded on. I dont weld and we only have 1 anyway so I was left to do other smaller things like take the areial apart and clean it. Here is my dad welding the sill on.

 

 

And after welding you have to cut the welding spots off. It wasnt really that important here as this part of the car will be hidden underneath the bumper when its back on. The grinder we have is so big and powerful we used it to grind away any excess metal or over hanging metal.

 

 

While that was happening I was stipping the interior of my car out as not to catch fire from all the sparks and to see if there was any rust inside. Thank God there wasnt. Here are a few pics of the inside with the interior taken out. And for Nelson, the carpart was the heaviest part really. ;)

 

 

Here is a picture of the Z amp, Clarion too, and next to it is the ABS pump thing. I took the picture because I have never seen it and I know a few people ask where it is.

 

 

 

Stuart

Day 3 Part 2

 

 

After taking off all the interior in the boot you could see the hole in the passenger rear arch better and also a smaller hole in the side which would allow water into the boot from the arch area. In the picture you can also see the mechanism that works the fuel latch which has never worked well for me. After a lot of cleaning and watching it work I found out that the surface rust on the metal arm that pulls the latch back has slight surface rust on, which made it a little longer and caused it to jam when it was opened. I made it so it most of the time goes back on its own or if you tap the side of the car near where the latch it is, it releases it and it springs locked.

 

 

 

 

Mean while my dad had finished the welding and grinding it down. They look messy but no one is ever gonna see down there. This is the drivers side which was the worse and took the most time as there where about 4 peices that had to be made and then welded and the smaller pieces took a lot of time because they where fiddly. Also the drivers side was contoured more as you can see on the top right of the welding where it actually curls in slightly.

 

 

 

 

Here is the passenger side which wasnt as bad and took half the time to do.

 

 

 

 

To help against this happening again, we slapped on a very thick layer of underseal.

 

 

 

Doesnt look like much happened today as only 1 of could really do anything and it took time. We also spent 40 mins or so in the paint shop and took time out to see the American in compitence of thinking that they can pull down a several tonne re-enforced statue of Sadam by using wire round its knee.

 

I think that we will finish off the front tomorrow and try to start on the rust under the bonet. The rear sill that we where going to do is still holding well and can wait to another time.

 

 

Hoping to have my car in a drivable condition tomorrow.

 

 

Stuart

Dude this has been most interesting, i admire you lmao, must be a massive job, keep it up.

Just think about putting that all back together lol

Originally posted by 300z

Dude this has been most interesting, i admire you lmao, must be a massive job, keep it up.

Just think about putting that all back together lol

 

I will have a huge box of screws that are left over at the end I bet. I could sell them off. ;)

 

Stuart

I think most of us that do work on our own cars have a box of assorted screws from our Z's. Then we all wonder why our cars sqeek LMAO