MEZZZ

Thanks...I was smart enough to wear long sleeves and latex gloves. About the only smart thing I've done since buying this car

Thanks for the words of wisdom. The stripper I bought today was Kleen Strip and the guy at Home Depot told me it was their industrial strength. After trying it in the spare tire well and waiting about 15 minutes, I read the directions...(duh, Im a man afterall)...it stated works best between 65 and 85 degrees. I am in a garage, have a heater going but it only warms up enough to take the bite out...maybe 50. I was thinking of going and getting a heat gun tomorrow and trying it just for the helluva it. The stripper wheel works great, but is fatiguing to work with after awhile. I cant get into all the little nooks with it and am thinking I might have better luck with the heat gun in the tight places. I will get it one way or another.

Ok, I am BEAT! I have been stripping the paint from the interior for hours! I dont even have the passenger side finished yet. This project BLOWS! When I bought this car, I thought it would be fun, theraputic... I went and bought some chemical stripper, the strongest, most potent stuff Home Depot had..I did a search earlier on Jasco but they dont carry it anymore. It isnt working at all, it smells nasty and I think its too damn cold for it to work. I am thinking of getting a heat gun and see if that takes it up any better/easier than the stripper wheels. There are so many nooks to get into this job is anything but fun. I started thinking of just going and getting some rustoleum and painting over the existing stuff that is down but...I already bought the POR-15 and I dont want to half a$$ this as tempting as it might be.

Intersting post Derek, thanks for sharing. I remembered reading many years ago that G.M. was using an adhesive to bond together the leaf springs of the new Corvettes. I am still up in the air on a solution, I will be spending the rest of the day stripping the paint from the interior. I just got back from Home Depot armed with discs and wheels...just waiting for the garage to warm up a little

I had a message and replied a few weeks back and have not been answered. I had inquired about getting a hatch and he wrote back. Then I replied about asking if it would be possible to come down in person ( 5 hour drive) and havent ever heard back.

Ok, I need some advice. I sourced this welder and did some reading into it.. the first link is for the welder.. a 90 amp flux core wire that uses 115v http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44567 the 2nd link is a page I found that claims a unit like this is great for moderate auto repairs. Located on page 44. http://books.google.com/books?id=OpGC-r-fmPoC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=auto+body+work+steel+what+gauge&source=web&ots=e_GXyPmQlT&sig=XAosKkt6eK1oW_yy5R1zIu59Dz8#PPA44,M1 I also read that these units are best suited for material 20 gauge and thicker.. I would appreciate your comments.

Thanks to all that answered. I am unfortunately, fully aware that the area underneath the area is the framerail I do have a hole about an inch in diameter further back on it where it looks like the undercoating had been scraped off years before. I figure a new passenger frame rail is in the future once I get to the underside. It looks pretty rusted in the rail, I did the screwdriver test yesterday on the rail, poking, prodding and it didnt open up but I am sure it has been weakened. I will probably go with a frame rail from Bad Dog or something similar. Thans as well for the tips on sanding pads, etc. I used the 3M product on my harley tank and fenders a couple years ago and it worked great, I will also check into the other product Escanlon. Speaking of a portable 110V MIG welder, I thought of that today, I wonder if Harbor Freight has a cheap one? I'll check into it, my nephew works there and can get me a 20% discount on anything I buy...although I've only been in there once. I am figuring once I get to the body work I am going to find some more monsters lurking, notably in the cowl area and once I remove the pass. fender. Oh well, I bought it as a project

Speaking from personal experience on my one "burn" on Ebay, all I can say is it is a severe waste of time and effort to seek a resolution. Ebays buyer protection plan is a total sham I found out and PayPal is not much better. You can seek a resolution on your own with the seller and if that does not wok yuou can pay $100 for a mediator to contact the seller and try to work out a resolution, but, with no guarantee. I exhausted all avenues with the exception of taking the seller of the Z I bought to court. He had totally misrepresented the car in the ad, blatantly LIED to several follow up emails I had written. It took 3 months to get a title, turnes out that he did not even hold the title in his name when he sold it to my in August, only applied to have it transferred in October. And what did Ebays buyer protection plan do for me? Not a damn thing! He wasnt the legal owner, said the title must have gotten "lost in the mail", sold me bascially a totally different car than what was described. All ebay said was , go to your BMV in Ohio and show them the ad as a bill of sale and have them issue you a title. On the condition? Well, cars older than 10 years are exempt from mileage fraud and condition. Basically, sorry about your luck, you can leave the seller a negative feedback. I leave feedback calling him a liar and theif, totally misrepresented car... he leaves me on calling me a Blackmailer and a piece of dog feces! And Ebay said they wont take it off because it does not fit their definition of vulger! So, as the old saying goes, buyer beware. Chock it up as a learning experience and move on, as hard as that is to do.

Thanks ZTrain, I planned on sanding it down before using the POR-15. Yes, the car is undercoated...would a closer shot help? I thought of the POR-15 floorboard kit too, didnt know if this would be a good candidate or not.

Looks like someone used the vinyl repair kit on it and did a poor job. I have hundreds of transactions on Ebay with just one bad experience... WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE THE Z I BOUGHT??

Ok, found the camera and took some pics, I took them in VGA mode so that they were not huge in size. Let me know what you guys think. I did a search earlier today and someone wrote of riveting a piece in place after cutting out the bad. It looks to me that the piece. I dont want to half-arse this but have no MIG welder. If welding is the only way (I am sure it is the best way) then I will have to pony up the bucks and get it done. I appreciate all the comments. Driver side...it looked great passenger side..it looked good until I got towards the firewall closer shot of the rust.

Well, I finally have a week off from work and some time to work on the '77 I bought back in September. I had gutted the interior and have all the parts to put it back together, most coming in the past week. I figured I would do it right and do the POR 15 treatment on the interior and use Dynamat before laying in the new carpet. That required removal of the nasty stock sound deadener. The good.... I used the dry ice method I found here and my sincere thanks go out to whomever figured this out because it worked fantastic. I got about 10 lbs of it from my work yesterday and laid it in. Came back 5 minutes later with a hammer and small chisel and just tapped it and the pieces just popped cleanly in fairly big chunks. Highly recommend to anyone wanting to do this, I worked about an hour and it was done. The bad.... The driver side went quick and the floor was VERY clean...no surface rust, nothing. I get almost finished with the passenger side, get close to the firewall, hit the chisel with the hammer and...it goes right through the floorboard! I carefully scrape off the deadener and there are 3 little holes, about 1/8 inch. I move up to the firewall and open up about a 2 inch rust hole. I'll post some pics once my wife wakes up and she tells me where her camera is I am going to need some advice on how to handle this..

thanks het96, I will check that out as well...hell, I might get one from Michaels, Walmart and Goodwill as has been suggested. I like your car btw.

No, I should have but didnt. I DID give negative feedback to the thief that sold me the car though Dave, thanks for the tip, I'll check it out... Bo, that would be great, I will pick one up as well if you get that number, thanks!

Ok, Im next, I'm sorry too Actually, I dont get all THAT bent outta shape when the site is down, just gives me an excuse to look at porn sites, just to find a post worthy of the "boobs" post on here of course!

Thanks again for all that replied. I have a long awaited week off of work next week! My wife does not!!! I am finally going to have some time to work on my car I got in September. I have the interior gutted and alot of parts here or in route in the next couple days. I reupholstered the seats already with new foam inserts as well. I am going to the dry ice trick on the floor and tranny tunnel to remove the stock soundproofing. I just got my POR15 today and Dynamat knockoff (eDead) and will knock out the rust free floors. I also have a roll of carpeting coming to cut out new from the factory carpeting I ripped out. Then I have a new stereo and 4 speakers, power antenna sitting here waiting, a replacement set of guages to put the indiglo gauge faces into when they arrive next week, then a Grant steering wheel to complete the interior...wish me luck:) I guess I am going to have to go to different stores and check out clocks. I found a few sites on the web selling movements, but the smallest I can find is 2-1/8 square which will not fit into the housing... once again, you guys are great...thanks!

I noticed that also about the thread not fitting my screen, and I have a 22 inch Widescreen I bought 2 from a '77 and didnt have luck with either of them. I had been searching Ebay for awhile and finally gave up. The last "working clock" I bought on Ebay wasnt, the seller had perfect 100% feedback so I notified him of the fact the clock was DOA and he gave me his cell. We chatted for awhile and he was out of town and told me he would send another one when he returned as well as a couple other little goodies to make up for it. Of course, I never got them nor a response to my email

thanks Dave for the detailed directions. I will check out a travel clock and see if that works. That was a nice plus that you can adjust the time with the knob, that was the one downfall I could think to this solution for a reliable timepiece. I thought along the same lines, I have a few battery powered clocks, i.e. kitchen, garage and they last a couple years and are always nuts on, it only makes sense to go this route, especially at the prices Ive seen for a less reliable, less accurate stock one. Your white guage faces look great btw. I am going with the "reverse indiglo" kit from speedhut.com, where only the numbers light up vs. the entire face. I labored over the color, keep it stock looking, go white, I ended up choosing a silver metallic face with a very dark blue font..just to be different thanks again

ktm, thanks, you must have snuck this one in while I was posting. I am aware of Michaels, my wife has "dragged" me in there on more than one occasion Maybe I'll "impress" her by suggesting we go there to "browse" and see if I run across what you have described. I have searched the web on small quartz clcok movements and see quite a few listed. I bought one that was 2 1/8 inches square and it was just slightly too big to fit. I tried to take the plastic housing apart, big mistake It only cost me .99 + shipping on ebay, no big deal. What you describe sounds as though it should work. Thanks

Bob, thanks for the reply. I do have power under the dash. I actually hooked up the "working" clock I bought to a 12V lead and nothing! It was DOA. Oiluj, I thought along the same lines, although I was thinking of at least using an Infiniti analog clock I had a J30 about 10 years ago and thought about using one of those. Arne, thanks for the link, I found that in my searches on here when I thought about repairing one, Escanlon had great info and he even sent me a few messages on the subject trying to help me out. Mine is a "77 and both clocks I bought were also from that year. Nothing I tried could recusitate them Stephen, I agree its just wrong, but no more wrong than a battery operated clock I am not a purist by any means..I just want a working clock! Thanks to all of you for your input.

I am beat up trying to get a decent working clock. I have bought a couple, one "working" and one not working. The "working" one didnt and I have tried in vane to get them to tick. I looked at buying a rebuilt one from zclocks.com or MSA but they are expensive and in corresponding with someone, told they are accurate to a degree, maybe losing a couple minutes a week. I am now looking at doing a battery operated upgrade using a small movement. I have read a couple posts from awhile back on it and after searching, it makes sense. A quartz movement, battery operated is good within a minute per year for most I have seen. I tried a couple and either the shaft length is not long enough or the movement is slightly too big to fit into the stock clock housing. Can anyone give me any tips if they have made this swap? Steer me where to buy a movement that works for this application? I ordered the reverse indiglo guage package from speedhut.com and want a working clock to go with the guage faces. Thanks!

I couldnt have said it better myself

Congrats on the Z...she looks great and like it ought to be a pretty easy restore for you...keep us posted

My wife gave me $200 for car parts. I think she thinks this will go a looong way towards fixing it up! I will spend $1000 on parts and she'll think they all came from her Christmas money Speaking of parts, I was wondering if any of you are unhappy with some of the things from MSA? Not to rag on them, but it seems certain things I have gotten dont seem to be the quality I was hoping for.

That is a fantastic effort! Thanks for sharing. Can you make one to match my car? It would be alot easier, just give it a bad paint job and add a few door dings here and there...a little rust around the rear hatch for realism