Hi all, I recently acquired a '91 300ZX. I was hoping I could get some opinions on whether or not this car is too far gone. I'm afraid it is. I was working on it today, and noticed some rust near the door sills on the driver's side. I ended up pulling up the carpet and found that parts of the seam that unites the floor with the door sill "rail" had rusted through. There's also a large part of the rail that is rusted through.

This first picture is right about where the gas/hatch release is. The top layer and second layers are rusted right through.



This second picture is up further towards the firewall. The seam is actually rusted through and I can see straight through to my garage floor.


I think what happened was the regular side skirt rust, but someone very poorly fixed that with Bondo and didn't actually remove the rust. It spread through with moisture being trapped. I paid $1600 for this car. It runs and drives, but is it worth saving? Or maybe should I part it out and cut my losses?

 

I've seen worse. Still, I don't think I'd spend money fixing it.

I'm guessing from your post that the car is pretty rough overall. Drive it and enjoy it until it doesn't drive anymore.

 

Hey thanks for the reply! I think I will do that. I've been trying to do some research on the "frames" on these cars. Is that a pretty structural part to the car where the integrity is compromised? Oddly enough, the door closes better on that side than the other. LOL! It is in pretty rough shape, but I do enjoy driving it whenever I can. It's winter in MN, so I have it tucked away in the garage at the moment.

I was trying to figure out how you would jack these cars up to change a flat or something, and wasn't super successful. The included scissor jack (mine is missing) is apparently only supposed to be used in emergency circumstances as I understand? I think mine was put on a lift incorrectly since the pinch welds are a bit smashed up.

 

I don't think you're at eminent risk of a structural failure judging by the picture.

Below is a picture with jacking points and jack stand points. I use a floor jack. I use a pair ramps for ease of basic maintenance.

You can download the FSM for free. Also the z32 wiki has been saved below:

https://conceptzperformance.com/wiki....php/Main_Page

 

Awesome! Thanks a ton, you've made my weekend!