Revisiting the 280Z's Rusty Firewall and Underneath the Battery Tray

[@thomas50208]

Every video I watch it seems your subscriber count goes up. Good job. Great content

[@BLOKgarage]

That's the goal!

[@MrCaprinut]

Carl Fisher at Make it kustom has great tips on shaping panels with simple tools. Well worth to watch!

[@BLOKgarage]

Yeah I've watched a handful of his videos! Good stuff.

[@gabemidkif]

Love how you always seem to have a little tip or trick you're learning dropped in the video for us. That sanding disk trick is awesome.

[@michaeltruscott9443]

It’s good that you are learning on your own

[@kyms7593]

Hi mate I'm going through the same journey with a 260z here in Australia. Your videos keeps me inspired, really appreciated.

[@BLOKgarage]

That's awesome! Good luck with your Z!

[@GeorgeEI7KO]

Well done mate. Nice work! Regards from Ireland

[@BLOKgarage]

Thank you very much!

[@jackbrown6913]

Hi Brian. You're doing an amazing job on the Zed AND the filming, commentary and editing. Not sure if you have seen the guy rebuilding an Opel GT (link - m.youtube.com/@GT1900garage) but besides the intricate metal work he does he set up a foot pedal system for his shrinker and expander that you might want to replicate. Cheers from Oz

[@BLOKgarage]

I have not but I'll check him out!

[@garymucher4082]

Those shrinker and stretcher come in very useful. I bought a used one and decided to make the other one. And after finished making the other one, I built a stand for one to shrink and the other to stretch. And I powder coated them red and blue to tell the difference. They work great... You see how easy you can shape metal and probably use them for a long time now... Thumbs Up!

[@BLOKgarage]

Yeah they work way better than I expected! Definitely need to make a stand for them but the vise sufficed as a trial.

[@chrisrawle2967]

Nice work mate - your skills and confidence will grow quickly now, and you are inspiring others to give this stuff ago

[@BLOKgarage]

Thanks!

[@jayinmi3706]

That welding (while pushing from the inside) is impressive. I always manage to shoot my .023 wiree right through the center of the gap in the panels when I try from the front, looking directly at it. haha

[@BLOKgarage]

I know what you mean 😆

[@rogerbrooks1048]

I switched to.030 wire yesterday when I ran out of .023. I was much more impressed with the performance of the 030. I don't know why, but it stopped blowing holes. I didn't have a major problem with the 023 but the 030 is considerably better. Reset the welder with some scrap

[@BLOKgarage]

Interesting. I've been seeing that 023 is best for sheet metal but I've stuck with 030 as that's what I already had on hand.

[@jayinmi3706]

@@rogerbrooks1048 A few channels I follow that do sheetmetal and fab work said the same thing. I recently picked up an Everlast multiprocess welder and I might try some .030 in my old Eastwood 135 when I do the rockers on my (soon to be mine) '04 Sierra.

[@rogerbrooks1048]

Lol I have a 04 silverado that needs that same treatment. Everlast appears to be good choice. I want one of those as well. Lmk how it goes.

[@DjKrakTV]

Hey, if you don't want to buy a bead roller but you want to replace a bead or the squares you can sand or carve the shape into a piece of scrap wood, clamp a piece of sheet metal to it and hammer it down.

[@BLOKgarage]

Yeah that's not a bad idea. When I run into a situation where I need to do something like that I'm sure there's a good way like that to take care of it.

[@heikkipinomaa5720]

Hi Brian. Thank you for a nice long video. It was a pleasure to watch. You are doing great. I'm very happy for you that as you made a replacement wheel arc budded up perpendiculare to the firewall you made a lip on it. That'll make the car much more stronger doesn't it. As you might know some other guys on YT didn't do the same unfortumately. I was a little concernd of your last episode with those frame rails were made straigt from the box tubing without lip to the floor, but now I believe they will be allright and will last forever for you when protected properly. Congrats for purchasing new tools.

[@BLOKgarage]

Thanks for continuing to watch and the kind words!

[@giniblais]

Nice job!! Pretty intricate work. Like the new tools!

[@DLANM57]

I'm tackling this right now. I think I'm gonna go with the kf vintage piece. This is super helpful!

[@BLOKgarage]

I definitely would!

[@homepup72]

I'm finding that the metal fabrication takes longer than the welding as I'm working on my own 240Z project. I still have the floor pans to look forward to knocking out in the near future. Enjoying your journey.

[@BLOKgarage]

Yeah it definitely does take a long time! That's why I bought a bunch of panels from Klassic Fab.

[@jayinmi3706]

I didn't notice if you had one, but you could make a piece out of wood and press it with like a 12 or 20 ton press. A lot of people use a similar technique to make pressed custom speaker grills, so maybe googling that would help.

[@BLOKgarage]

I don't have a press unfortunately but I have access to one if I really need it.

[@jamesdisney9150]

Yeah, I’m know sheet-metal guy. that looks like it could get out of hand fast. I don’t know how much time It took but it looks great 👍

[@BLOKgarage]

Way too much! It's so hard to condense a weekend of work into a ~30 minute video.

[@94jimmy5]

Adapt, improvise & overcome. Nice fab work.

[@BLOKgarage]

Thanks! I learn something new every video.

[@danielhughes9556]

I made my own floor pans for my 510. I used two pieces of angle iron back to back to form a t, with one angle about an eighth higher than the other one. I then clamp my sheet to those angles with another piece of angle to cover the metal. I then use my hammer that more or less looks like a standard screw driver on one end and another hammer to hit the one hammer into the area where the "t" is higher on one end. It is an easy, cheap, ugly, effective, long proccessed way to make your own "beads". Good luck, cant wait to see the roof section

[@BLOKgarage]

Ok yeah I see what you're saying. That would make a very squared edge bead. I'm hoping I don't have a bunch more custom panels to go to be honest, I believe I've bought the Klassic Fab panels that I'll need. I just wasn't expecting to have to replace this firewall section and underneath the battery tray when I ordered panels.

[@danielhughes9556]

@@BLOKgarage ya, it works, and it's not sloped like Datsun did, meaning it's about a 90 degree bend, but it does what it needs to do. I'm in your boat, with you. I'm learning as I go to. I like how you did your battery tray repair.looks really good. Imo, like you said, if it's getting covered in in undercoat, and it's not gonna be seen, it doesn't have to be perfect. I'm trying to minimize the panels I buy from kfv. Love the videos, love the build. Keep it up, and congrats on 1000+ subs! 👍

[@BLOKgarage]

Thanks! Yeah the Klassic Fab panels are pretty pricey but they speed up the process so much, which is important for me on getting the car on the road and getting videos out. To be honest though, if I was doing this over again I probably would not have bought the floor pans. It would have been very easy to put that frame rail in place then build a completely flat floor pan on both sides (with some bead rolls for rigidity).

[@danielhughes9556]

@@BLOKgarage that's exactly what I did. I took 16 gauge and had it bent into what's called a "top hat" which looks like a u but at the top little flanges stick out 90 degrees away. Kinda like an ohms symbol. I used that for frame rails, which more or less is what datsun did, and ran a flat floor pan. No harm, no foul. Rear passengers feet will be up about and 1, 1.5 but whatever. ill be driving!!

[@BLOKgarage]

Sounds great! Dusty Mac did a flat floor in his 240z if you've seen his vids.

[@GK-sh7ck]

Excellent video editing, and content. Great work keep on keeping on!

[@BLOKgarage]

Much appreciated!

[@MrJohnBabcock]

Fun project. Thanks for sharing! ❤

[@BLOKgarage]

Thanks for watching!

[@robertkrauss7161]

Good work! I too am building a ‘78 but going RB for power.

[@BLOKgarage]

RB would be an excellent swap also.

[@lila8687]

Great job!

[@T3glider]

Great music.

[@BLOKgarage]

Its all from creatormix.com.

[@robertdavis386]

It's likely too late to try this trick on the firewall but what if, after you welded in the flat patch panel, get the cut out scrap and cut the "hump" sections out of it and weld them onto the flat patch section. That should add strength back into the panel and mimic the original too.

[@BLOKgarage]

I think I should be OK strength wise, this sheet metal is thicker gauge than the original thin Datsun sheet metal. I believe I went with 18ga.

[@Majorreflexes]

Good job

[@BLOKgarage]

Thanks!

[@masonpalpant4784]

Keep it up man love the vids

[@BLOKgarage]

Glad you like them!

[@Zfrk]

Your sunroof was way bigger than mine. Doubt it's going to be any nicer underneath than what mine is

[@BLOKgarage]

It was an absolute unit

[@DanCashmore-r3z]

Check out Carl at make it custom or Fitzee's Fabrication for their cut and butt method of replacing panels

[@BLOKgarage]

I actually have seen a handful of videos from both of them! I did a bit of the "cut and butt" on the trans tunnel side of the floor pans.

[@rogerlabbee6625]

what is that purple pad you are using?

[@BLOKgarage]

Those are strip discs or cleanup pads. I got these off Amazon. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09BQNHV53/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

[@JoseVazquez-ed1wu]

What gage metal are you using?

[@BLOKgarage]

I'm pretty sure it's 18ga if I'm remembering correctly.

[@kevind5508]

Check out karl at make it kustom. He has a good video on making those panels without a beadroller just using basic tools. Nice progress on the build

[@BLOKgarage]

I've actually watched a bunch of his videos recently!

[@steeltree-fabricatingandcu3796]

Use a hammer handle not your finger when tack welding Yeah my body hammers have black tips on the handle

[@BLOKgarage]

I do use hammer handle or screwdriver or whatever is laying around a lot of the time. I can get the panels better leveled with my finger though when its important to me.

[@markmissildine961]

Watch fitzee fabrication he talks about stuff like this it's easier to just weld the lip on the panel afterwards

[@BLOKgarage]

I've watched some of Fitzee's videos. He knows his stuff.