Check with Bad Dog Frame Rails. He sells a 13ga sway bar reinforcement plate for a decent price. At least, cheap enough for me to pay for the convenience instead of making or paying a local shop.
Check with Bad Dog Frame Rails. He sells a 13ga sway bar reinforcement plate for a decent price. At least, cheap enough for me to pay for the convenience instead of making or paying a local shop.
Again, looked at the inside of the frame rails and started dropping the crossmember. I'll get it down and figure out best plan if attack for jigging something up so the rails don't get too out of square.
What blue paint did you put on the engine?
In reply to Datsun240ZGuy :
I don't envy the amount of painting you could do with that! I went to O'Reilly's and grabbed (I think) Pontiac Blue, can confirm tomorrow.
Tonight I got the crossmember fully unbolted. All that's holding it in is the steering rack/linkage, but the bolt is out and I sprayed some penetrating fluid. Hopefully tomorrow can hit with a torch and hammer and drop it all the way out.
Crossmember is out of the car to make frame rail access easier. Bought a new cutoff tool to get inside the wheel well a little bit easier to clean the whole front half of the passenger side engine bay.
Also ordered the vented rotor and 4Runner calipers for the front brake upgrade. I previously ordered the required spacers and longer bolts.
After this week I'll have everything on hand for completely new front ball joints, bushings, wheel bearings, and brakes.
All that's left, I'm realizing, are wheel studs (may as well replace/upgrade as I think I'm going to 15s anyway), tie rods, and dampers (I have coilovers, but not ready to get them on yet). THEN I'll be ready to get it and engine back in, lol..
I'm counting my blessings that mine sat for 25+ years but the rust isn't too bad.
Here I'm painting the engine compartment before I drop in an engine.
In reply to Datsun240ZGuy :
That looks gorgeous. Somehow, my passenger rail looks really good - driver's definitely took the worst of it, all the way down the car
I'm rethinking the scope on my rust repair, but knocking out the front suspension while it's out.
Pulled the driver's half of the suspension off today and tore it down tonight. Brake shield is left attached, and damper is untouched but otherwise it's all broken down.
Not pictured is the LCA which is outside of the garage after bringing the rubber bushing out. I'll hopefully scrape/saw the remainder out in the next few days and it'll be ready for the poly bushings.
Otherwise, new ball joint, and wheel bearing + seal awaits. I have spacers/extended bolts to also add the Z31 vented rotors/Toyota calipers in the same go. This will drive me to 15s (which I have) and causes some folks to shave down the calipers to prevent interference. I don't want to do that, so I bought new wheel studs from Nissan Quest, which are longer than OE studs and should let me run spacers 1/4 or 5/16" spacers with no negative impacts.
I forget how much I enjoy the actual wrenching, which I know well enough, compared to the sheet metal work on the Courier - where I am consistently seeing my inexperience.
Cut down the brake shield and got new studs installed today. Bearing races are in the freezer and ready for later. I nicked a caliper mounting ear so I'll fill it with weld and grind it before anything gets really Installed, but man these look nice.
Left upright is back together!
New ball joints, bearings, vented rotor + spacer. All that's left is caliper and I might not do that till it all goes back on the car anyway.
We are expecting our 3rd kid in May, so ideally I will have the crossmember refreshed and reinstalled by that point. Parenting stays busy, so no promises..
In reply to classicJackets (FS) :
My kids are 22 and 18, so I've got plenty of garage time. Problem is, I'm 57 and this couch is comfy and warm.
It's the best color, but I'm biased. 
Steve, is that one still in your fleet?? I love it.
Angry- I have at least some time on a bunch of weeknights, but it's hard to go out and be cold too. Warmer days are easier to motivate and use.
I did get the passenger side off the car and partially taken apart today. Steering arm is ready to get a coat of paint, and the LCA is ready to have the bushing can cut/chiseled out. I did a quick wire wheel on it but it'll get more before paint. After that's done I'll get the hub broken apart and start that process. So far, it's already much easier on this side!
In reply to classicJackets (FS) :
I just bought it a few weeks ago. I had that identical car, oddly enough with those same wheels, when I started dating My Wife. It popped up on BAT in December and she said buy it, so I did. We are going to recreate our first date in a few month, 37 years later.
That's awesome, congratulations and have fun with it! You'll be driving yours long before I take my wife out in mine!
I did get the bushing can out (1/3 as much time and effort as the first one) and the arm pretty cleaned up tonight. It needs a wipe down and then I'll hit it with some rust reformer for good measure before paint.
Slow going with extremely cold weather, and then a trip to Disney in the last few weeks. I am working on re-assembly of the driver's side now - wheel studs are in, all the parts are painted, and all that's left is the inner bearing race, which really fought me last night.
Also pulled the steering rack off the crossmember and started brushing that down last night. Should clean up pretty nicely.
Order in for 1/4" wheel spacers, inner/outer tie rods, steering rack dust boots, and open ended lug nuts. Should be everything to completely have the front end be new. As weather warms, I'll slap in the patch panel I made it last year and see if ai can just get it running. I've still never driven a 280z.
Edit for picture of more painted parts
Alright, passenger side hub is now assembled.
My 1/4" spacers came in, which gave me the necessary clearance to the caliper so I can run these 15" turbo wheels! I love them.
I got open ended lug nuts as well. I would prefer to get more threads engaged though, and I think the closed lugs have a longer shank - so I might go back to those.
I have good clearance with the spacer, and I rub the caliper if it's not on, so I think I'll stick with it. I just don't want to grind the caliper down..
Minor detail, but a lot of guys online said the original 14" wheels had fitment issues/couldn't be used with the up sized brakes. I tried mine today and they seem to clear just fine. Not sure if it's because of the 1/4" spacer or what, but was happy to know I can keep the 14s for rollers or something at minimum.
Hadn't planned to do this for a while yet, but my upright tumbled the other day and ejected the strut insert so here we go. Coilovers time.
Goal is to have the car in the ground and rolling again in a few weeks.
These have a ton of height adjustment, which I'll need for Michigan roads!
I'm not a professional, but these should hold!
Need the car as a roller to move Around for an event in the backyard next week, got there tonight! The front is so low with the new coils. It's beautiful.
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