ok well while I was putting the car up on jacks the frame buckled! So uh, I guess she's gunna need some work now eh? I was told I could plate it and im wondering if this this really a big job and could i do this myself ... if I knew how to weld. What else could be done to fix this. Any imput what-so-ever is great because i dont really know where start looking to solve this problem.

 

why did it buckle? too much rust or just old and weak?

 

rust old and week it sat in a yard for 10 years man

 

ok, gotcha, well I hope you get a solid answer because i wouldnt doubt that my Z needs a good frame restortation

 

we had a combined canada us z meet in august and one of your countrymen mentioned a place to get frame rails etc. Can;t remember what it was but you might look for vancouver z club website and send out a help message. Welding pretty much the only solution. Get a wiregun and start practicing until you can run a decent bead with good penetration.

 

Don't put the jack under the frame rails...

If the car was brand new, it would have still buckled.

Rod.

 

Did the entire frame rail buckle? Or did you just push the bottom of the rail up (dent it in)? If it's the latter then it's not really a big deal at all and it'll happen every time. Like Rod said, DONT jack your car there! It doesnt matter what condition they were in before hand.

 

hey rogerz, what meet were you at, you never came to mine!!! we had a wicked z meet at my place.

 

well it was the latter indeed j. guess jacks dont go there then. lol oops well im gunna have to fix that dent then anyways. well im in no rush to do frame work prolly wont get done if it needs to be until like next year or two im just gettin an idea of what i may be up agaisnt after the engine work is done. one last question then is it just surface rust on the frame that i see or is has it already penatrated?

 

always jack it under the cross member or diff .. even a solid cars frame rails wont be to happy when you jack on them

 

lol yeah figured that one out the hard way

 

Awe, I'm sorry to hear that, Steven! Here's a company in Canada that sells the rails you need: http://www.datsunzparts.com/Summary.htm

 

Part of the reason why the frame rails on my 300ZX were annihilated. The teacher from the auto class I got it from was saying the car was so rusted out and couldn't be jacked up. He was trying to jack up rusty frame rails and they were just breaking. They did that at the dealership I went to to look at an 88' 300ZX 2+2. He was jacking it up to change the tire and jacked it right on the frame rail. It held up, but I knew that was no good.

 

Ya know, I was just thinking ... I had a Chilton's manual, which I tossed in the "round file" years ago, cuz it's nothing like the Hayne's. If I remember correctly, the Chilton's tells you to jack it up on the rails. Do you guys have a recollection of that? If so, and if it caused damage - well, just lemme know, and you might be able to make them pay for the bad advice.

 

lol hey maybe i can get free rails

 

Did you read a Chilton's manual for the procedure in jacking up your Z, Steven?

 

i was wondering the same thing. bleach and i were the only washingtonians at shadys meet. was it the big vancouver nissan meet?

 

well im sure i could uh get one and say i did