240sx strut tower/frame rust

[Empire087]

Well this is a long shot but a friend and I got word from another friend that a 240 hatch had made it to a local junk yard(very rare for our area), my friend is also a 240 fanatic (mr fixit). Overall the body is in excellent shape, interior is nice, manual, dash is in one piece, ect. Here's the downer, the strut tower is gone, it's pushing against the hood right now, and there is a hole that takes up where the frame is supposed to be just shy of the tire and where it bends.

Is it even worth the trouble to try and breath some life back into it? If my friend/I buy it it's gonna be around 250$ at the max we pay.

[moso]

in my opinion, its time to put that 240 to bed. even if you were to restructure the strut tower and the frame rail, you would just be chasing the dragon. the bodies and subframe on 240s are made of stamped sheet steel that is tack welded and seam sealed into place. once the rust starts its pretty tough to get control of again, mostly because the frame and body can rust from the inside out.

[asoomal]

Save it!!!

BTW, someone needs to start building body parts for the S chassis, such as the Z ;D

Nissan has discontinued a lot of body parts for our cars

[OutToWinPAHC]

Drivers replacement frame rails are available. I would like to see pics tho. Perhaps you can cut it from a junk yard card.

[1SickSilvia]

Take off any parts you need or can sell and leave the rest, a rusted frame is more trouble than its worth. You can buy a non rusty rolling chassis for under 1000 bucks, fixing a rusty frame might cost you more than that to fix.

[moso]

Take off any parts you need or can sell and leave the rest, a rusted frame is more trouble than its worth. You can buy a non rusty rolling chassis for under 1000 bucks, fixing a rusty frame might cost you more than that to fix.

my roller came from texas with no rust and a black interior (uncracked!!) cost me 400$ plus towing!

[Empire087]

Yeah in northern Michigan/upper peninsula 240's tend to cost more even for a roller. I think we are gonna get the junk yard 240, save the uncracked dash+ other goodies, then get scrap value at another yard. My friend is also looking at a couple cars: one with an sr swap and another with a blown head gasket. Overall the one with the blown head gasket is in good shape with 120k. The sr swap one is gonna need calipers, and wheel bearings. It's 1g for the one with a blown motor(decent interior, but cracked dash).

[TCory64]

My son and I are dealing with the same issue on a 91, the rust on the frame rail was just below the area where the left front brake line pokes thru. Very common problem with these. Removed the diseased area from the frame rail which is basically an outside cover for the rail, welded in some 18ga. and turned out great. Working on reconditioning the left front lower strut tower area; bit more of a challenge. We live in Maryland and S13's are extremely hard to come by and as many have stated, Nissan has in fact discontinued many parts. Performance Nissan in Texas has been a huge help in locating parts nationally.