Namerow

Thanks for this latest photo essay. Lots of good insights here into how multiple panels come together in this complicated and structurally-important section of the car. You did some very nice work in forming the two big replacement sections for the upper frame rail. Can you talk a bit about how this was done? Also: What was the gauge of the sheet metal you used? In the 4th photo, there's what appears to be a right-angle drive power tool, with a 3" sanding disk mounted in the chuck. Is this your go-to tool for grinding welds? Who makes it?

Seat cover fit might suffer. In essence, you'll be increasing the height of the side bolsters by 1 inch. The centre panel of the seat cover would end hanging in space above the carved-out foam. Occupant weight will force the cover down onto the foam, but the look (baggy) when the seat is unoccupied might make you wish you'd never tried it. I suggest that you run the idea by an experienced auto upholstery pro before you break out the carving knife

Post some pictures of the rebuilt damper after you get it back.

Fifty-year-old rubber exposed to heat, cold, vibration and air pollution. Aftermarket replacements are available. Your chances of finding a NOS unit are low. Your chances of finding a good-condition used unit are better, but will require you to rely on the quality of the seller's photos. There are a couple of businesses (Damper Doctor, Winslow Mfg) that will re-core your old unit.

You might also consider using vinyl paint. I used it to re-colour my Z's interior (from black to butterscotch). Pix below should give you an idea of the flexibility and adhesion characteristics (I've seen zero evidence of paint lifting over the ten years since I originally did the application). It sprays on easily using an HVLP gun and doesn't require much in the way of surface prep. It took me three coats to achieve full coverage over the black soft and hard trim pieces. We had a supplier in the Toronto area (Parasol) who would custom mix colors from a customer-supplied paint chip (my results we spot-on, based on a small piece that I snipped from the hem of my new butterscotch seat covers). I expect you'll be able to find a comparable supplier somewhere in the U.S. south-east.

$840 (plus shipping) at Motorsport Auto.

I've seen good results achieved by hammering the metal over the long edge of a length of 6" structural I-beam. Use Vise-Grips to clamp the metal to the I-beam. Then hammer from one end to the other, making 3 to 4 passes to get from flat to fully bent.

So, exactly how did you get her up on the cubes? Car looks great, BTW. That's a nice shade of yellow. Will you eventually paint the front spoiler to match?

That rubber glue may be the least of your problems! I've done a Z dash pad restoration, starting with something that had only 25% of the deterioration that yours has. Even at that, it was a time-consuming job. Not only does the pad surface need to be levelled (not easy to get right, given the multiple contours), it's also necessary to 'V' and then feather-edge all of the cracks so that the filler won't crack along the seams. I'll bet it would take you 20 man-hours of effort (or more) to level, edge-treat, fill, sand, and paint a dash pad like yours to a decent level of final finish. But before you even get started down that road, you'll need to convince yourself that what's left of your original pad has enough structural integrity to prevent the pieces from moving around independently when the cabin temperature goes up or down. With its many full-depth cracks, I don't think I would trust your badly broken-up dash pad to meet that requirement. As a litmus test, it would be interesting to know whether a professional dash restorer like Just Dashes would accept your dash for restoration. Maybe you should send a picture and ask them. IMO, your best path forward will be to either: 1) buy a used dash that offers a better starting point for a DIY restoration (as Siteunseen suggests), or; 2) buy one of the replacement dash pads that have recently become available. In the latter case, you unbolt the old pad from the underlying steel structure (known as the 'armature') and then bolt on the replacement pad. There are a couple of threads on this site that discuss these replacement pads. As a third, lowest-cost/effort alternative, you could just replace your old plastic dash cap with a new one.

If, by 'damage', you're referring to the discoloration on the bumper face, it's caused by the fumes from the exhaust.

'Make damn sure your sparks are right before you start messing around with the fuel'. Butch Bohunk, Master Mechanic, Finzio's Sincair Service

For your possible reference, 1970 FSM Figure BF-3 ('Standard body dimensions') gives these as 331mm and 320mm.

Did you clean the bonding surface of the weatherstrip samples with alcohol (or similar) before applying the adhesive?

It would be fascinating to know the how Skinner-Union (way back in the middle of the last century) came up with the bendable-tang-with-a-curved-ramp solution for closing the float chamber outlet valve. Maybe they adopted it from the shut-off scheme used in somebody's toilet tank? 😄 It would all be so much easier if there was an adjustment screw. An external screw would be nice, but even an internal screw would be an improvement. I've often wished that someone would do a plot of the geometric relationship of gas level vs needle valve displacement, so that the effects of bending the tang at its fulcrum could be properly understood. One might also take a look at the effects of changing the tang's radius of curvature. Any volunteers?

Sorry, but... a new set of exterior panels does not solve your 'slightly rusty' Z problem.