Back in April i bought a 90 240sx in georgia for 2200... it had an aftermarket exhaust .. a oil psi gauge and it was black on black.. i was stupid and didnt check it out in a thorough way because back then i wasnt as knowledgable on cars and all... i bought the car and drove it and learned a lot about the KA and had fun learning manual and things like that. I drove it to illinois after i switched bases... basically the KA engine gave away a day later and all summer i was out of luck until i did a lot of reasearch and decided i wanted the CA18DET.

Fast forward a bit i take the car to a friends house who says hes knowledgable about cars.. my KA could still run but it was knocking incredibly bad and it was done for.. it had one more drive left in it.. i got it to his house and it was done for there... we parked it on a basketball court and got to working on it.... i dont know anything about cars and i was doing my best to learn... i work on airplanes in the air force so i have some maintenance knowledge. As were taking the car apart we notice a lot of ugly rust, there was a hole beneath the battery from rust and it was very weak in that spot. We notice that some bolts are missing and that the previous owners did some crazy rigged up jobs. We ran into many problems getting the exhaust manifold off and what not. The motor mounts were broke too.. we couldnt get it off for anything then my friend starts "missing" some of his tools and says we cant do anything else with it yet. So we have to get a grinder to get those mounts off because that bolt that is holding it is bent to all hell it seems... the motor did shake around a lot in idle so... who knows. ... Trying to take my motor out he ended up bending the metal bracket that holds up the driveshaft.. he said it would be "ok" well obviously it wasnt ok. It was my fault for bringing it to him thinking i could do a cheap swap... Anyways.. a jackstand punched a hole on the frame we set the car up on... and that was in one of the rust spots. That was disheartening, but i am determined to get this to work.

Theres some bolts missing, the bumper wasnt even there anymore, and there was a lot of things wrong with it that i didnt notice until i really dug into it.....

heres the problems :

-Rust on the underbody
-the radiator support is rusted out and needs to be replaced
-A lot of bolts are missing
-No bumper, just the cover ( i was planning on drifting it anyway but still...)
-engine bay is rusted too
-metal bracket is bent wrong and needs to be replaced for driveshaft
-engine mounts are messed up
-im gonna have to get a grinder and cut off the mounts just right so i put new ones on there
-Oh yeah.. the front headlights wont go down (planning to do a silvia front end anyhow)
-rust on seams too
-my coolant reservoir has ah ole in it
-i would have to relocate battery

THe good is that it has good tires, the gauges... black on black interior.. and.. well no dents.

I have pictures here.. basically after all this background information heres what i need to know.... Some people are telling me I COULD go ahead and just do the swap and maybe not have that many problems but i would have to replace a lot of things and find a welder to help me out on some areas. Then some say i just need to buy a new shell or a better 240 and just cut my losses because if im planning to go a far way with this car i wanna be alright and do it right the first time. I already have a front mount intercooler and a CA18DET ready to go and in great condition. I wanna know what you guys think i should do... work with it or get a new shell... thanks for putting up with my long story and thank you even more for helping me if you can.. I appreciate it. I already posted this at ******** and dirftcentral just need one more opinion.

the rust looks a lot worse than this picture shows, plus on the other inner side its like that too but a bit worse

 

for some reason my comp is gay and is blocking most pics on the net, but if its as bad as you say it is, I'd try to find a shell that is in better shape, grab the good stuff of the rusty shell and swap it over and then do the engine...

 

that master cylinder has been leaking for a long time... brake fluid will kill a car in a heard beat... the rust could be fixed if there is enough solid frame around that area... yes you would need a good welder to do this... it is savable if that is the only location the rust is on the frame...

easiest thing would be to get a shell... there is one here in tn... i will post more on it later...

 

you said the body panels have no dents. try to find a non rusted shell with a bunch of dents and since you don't need the engine anyways try to find one that doesn't run. you said the interior is good in your original shell so put that in your new one. you should be able to find one super cheap if that's your criteria.

 

find a shell...

 

 

thank you for the help guys i really appreciate it. Theres a bit of rust in many spots on the underbody. It just doesnt seem worth the trouble ya know? But what do you mean that brake fluid kills the master cylinder? just wondering .


And you said theres a shell in TN?

 

brake fluid is highly corrosive to metal, you can see that huge rust spot under the master cylinder on the brake booster~ presumably from brake fluid leaking out of hte MC. Rust is bad news man, it's an infectious disease that really doesn't go away unless you do some SERIOUS metal work (i.e. cutting it and surrounding area out). I see lots of ppl from TN selling their cars on here all the time~ just be patient and keep your eyes open. You'll be back on the road soon enough.

 

thanks for the confidence.. i guess we all have to learn some way and i learned the hard way.. its just 2200... i gotta get back on my feet and be patient

 

the bad list is longer than the good list.