motorman7

Yes, that is basically what I did, every single nut and bolt. That's why it ends up being so many boxes. The only exception is the carbs and fuel pump. Owner has a pretty set of rebuilt carbs and fuel pump. Horns were disassembled and fasteners sent to plater.

Progress continues on S/N 00042. A number of items are out at vendors and should be returning all before the end of the month. Undercarriage parts will be media blasted tomorrow and then sent to the paint shop. Plated parts are finishing up and should ship either tomorrow (1/17/2025) or Monday. Engine block and head are at the machine shop and should be here before the end of the month. The body will be sent to the metal repair guy before the end of the month, so lots going on over the next couple weeks. At this point, I am most eager to get started on the engine, so I will monitor that one closely. I already have the engine gasket kit and am cleaning up parts so I am ready to go. In the mean time, I have been cleaning and painting some of the different parts. Below are some pics of the finished items. The motor mount brackets were pretty interesting as they were all of three colors. The base color is black. Over that is a light blue overspray. on top of that is a dark blue overspray. I am pretty sure this is all factory, so it must have been an interesting process for these early cars. Since the base color was black for the mounts I went with that,as the blues appeared to just be overspray. I do not think that I will try to replicate the overspray. I cleaned and painted the rear half shafts in the original black. The rubber boots were in good condition so I just cleaned them up. I kept the overspray on the original metal ties intact, although I was tempted to clean that off just to get a little color in the assembly. The half-shafts of S/N 2614 are shown below for color reference.

Like this...threaded hole on lower part of wheel well.

I am starting to clean up parts now, so figured I would start with the differential. A lot of the undercarriage parts have a healthy coating of dirt on them as you can see in the picture of the differential below. I think the combination of dirt and oil on the parts created a nice protective coating as there does not appear to be much rust....just a lot of oily dirt. Typically I would leave the aluminum bare on the differential as I think that looks very cool, however, we are planning on making this as close to the original as possible so the entire diff, except for the stud threads, are painted black. Pics below.

I sorted the parts that need to be re-plated by color, yellow zinc or clear zinc. I did a quick clean to knock off excess dirt and wire wheeled the areas where there was paint overspray from the previous paint job. I put some shrink sleeve over the plastic portion of the carb linkage to protect them during the cleaning process. I also plugged the holes of the carb and smog accessories to prevent the fluids from entering inside. I then put the small parts in gallon zip lock bags. I had one box of the clear/silver zinc parts, and 3 boxes of the yellow/gold zinc parts. I used three boxes for the yellow zinc because of the excess weight (USPS flat rate shipping box). Each box weighed approximately 20 pounds For the plating process, the 3 yellow/gold zinc parts will be thrown into a single barrel, so the charge will be for just one yellow zinc barrel plate. The plating company does a good job of cleaning the smaller parts in their prep process. I am guessing it is either a vibe or tumble process along with a chemical clean that they use to clean the parts to remove dirt and rust. I spent a bit more time cleaning the long tubes and larger parts as they will be rack plated and I do not think they get cleaned as well. On the long tubes I put in a large diameter bend in order get the parts to fit in my 4 foot shipping box. They said they can accomodate parts up to 6 feet in length. All plating is done by Sav-On plating in Phoenix, AZ. They have done a great job with my parts on previous restorations. Pics Below

I took the block and head to the machine shop today. The cylinders look pretty smooth with very little ridge on top, so I am hoping that we just need to do a hone on the cylinders so we can keep the standard size pistons. That way we just replace bearings and rings. The head looked to be in good shape and I am guessing that it has had work done on it previously. The head gasket was a standard Fel-Pro, so the head has obviously been off before. Machine shop will look the head over and fix as needed. Also, looks like the crank has been balanced previously due to the holes and light shaving on the crank arms. Will have the machine shop confirm. Pics below

Continuing to break down parts. Also sorting hardware into yellow and silver zinc tubs for eventual plating. This is actually going along pretty well as most undercarriage parts are in good shape, just very dirty. Pics are below.

It's powdercoat on all the suspension parts. I only use paint on the differential and CV/half shafts. Also took a little 'artistic license' with rear suspension. Diff rear cover and half shafts should be black.

@jayhawk Thanks for the kind words. Not sure if I would support the raised look though 😝. Found something interesting on the two small hood access doors. There is a little tab riveted on the end of the doors. Later models had this all as one piece.

Yes, this is always a big question. Previous paint and body work has ranged from $13k to $30k and is pretty much dependent on the amount of body work required. The $13k job did not require extensive body work, whereas the $30k had new floor pans and a number of other patch panels welded in. So I use this as a guideline. Based on the condition of the body, I can estimate what the cost will be within that range. Typically we are just paying for labor and materials versus a set price. Also, my previous body guy would not give me an estimate until the car had been sandblasted. You never know what you will find under there. Regarding paint quality, my San Diego guy was one of the best. If I am not mistaken, @jayhawk received an award at 2023 ZCON for Best Exterior at the show. I think his work on 'The Orange' was even better....like liquid glass. He really is an artist. All paint work was 2-stage paint, color sanded and polished. That being said, the paint on this one will most likely be a little different (need to confirm with owner). As we are going for the as close to original as possible, this paint will be a single stage where I will just do a single final polish with minimal color sand as needed to replicate the original finish. I did this same finish on the orange Z that I previously owned. This finish should save us a couple thousand as there will not be a full color sand. Also, I typically work as the overseer, coordinator and quality control for the paint shop. The customer pays the shop directly. I do seem to notice a bit lower labor rate here in Boise which should help withcost. All things considered, I honestly have no idea what the final cost will be. My best guess is $25k +/- $3k. I am hoping to come under that, but will know more after the sand blast. Hope that helps.

Yes, guess I should have thought about that. I am happy though that we will have people familiar with the cars doing the work.

So, I got a little education here on finding a body shop. I went to Shawn's shop yesterday and found out that he has 19 cars in his shop and 8 on a waiting list. Only saw 3 employees. He said he wouldn't be able to start work on the car for probably a year and the project would take several years. So that was a 'no-go'. I asked for some recommendations and still haven't received a call back from them. So, I was a little concerned here. This was not working out like my San Diego operation. I eventually called Guy, the 'Z Doctor' here in Boise which in hindsight, should have been my first call, and he was a wealth of information as he has restored a number of Z's here in Boise. Not only did he set me up with a body shop that has done 6 of his cars, but he also set me up with his machine shop for the engine work. What a relief! That being said, I spoke with his body shop yesterday and the guy said he would squeeze me in and should be ready for the car early next week. Will contact the machine shop once I finish the motor tear down.

Here are pics of the engine bay. I can't say that I notice anything unique other than the two hood bumpers. Later models have threaded nuts for the hood bumpers. This SN has a sheet metal screw that just threads through the sheet metal, no welded nut underneath

I have talked with Shawn several times here at some of the local car shows and he comes highly recommended. I will stop by his shop early this week for a final review before transporting the shell.

Shawn McNally is who I am planning on going with here in Boise. Customsbymiguel was my body guy in San Diego.

The body is just about ready to send to the body shop. I removed the glass, all items on the underside, and all of the body panels. I scraped off the old weather stripping and am now just doing final cleanup. I still need to drill and tap a few of the rusted out bolts as well. I will make an assessment of which patch panels we will need so shop can weld those in. The nice surprise on the car was the good condition of some of the interior parts. The headliner and A pillar vinyl is perfect as were all of the rear plastic panels, except for the rear panel which a PO had modified for speakers. Also, the doorsill plastic was in good shape and just needs to be cleaned. This will make the interior much easier to restore as some of the aftermarket items for these items are not the best. Often, aftermarket panel holes don't align and I have had headliners where the manufacturer's glue is poor with the vinyl detaching from the foam in hot weather. So, having these items in good condition will be a nice help. Latest photos are below.

Got the body up on rollers. This will make working on the underside much easier. Should have the final items removed over the next couple days. Pics are below.

More progress on the tear down. Interior is just about cleared out.

Thanks! Engine number is L24-2079. You can see it in one of the first set of pictures.

I have been stripping the car of parts so that I can send just the body to the paint shop. Tear down has gone pretty smooth with only a few bolt heads torquing off due to rust. I will drill and tap those spots. I posted a couple pics of some of the unique early Z items that i have noticed. Some of the unique items so far (to the best of my knowledge) include: form fitting washer motor cover (versus the later bag), hood rubber bumpers, air duct attach bracket (versus tab) , and nice interior hangers. There is a lot of rust, so we will need a number of patch panels in the usual places. Pictures of some of the rust areas are also below. The interior plastic panels were in great shape, much to my surprise. No need for new ones except for the rear panel that was damaged during a speaker installation. Engine came out easy. Looks like the car had AC at one time as there is a third pulley wheel on the crank and a large hole in the firewall which was plugged with plumbers putty as shown below...🙃 Pictures of progress are below.

Thanks for the feedback. That's why I like posting here. It helps make the restoration the best it can be, especially with this early a serial number. I actually read up on the crankshaft issue this morning, which seems like it would be more of a concern if we were racing this car. More than likely, this will be more for show and my goal is to keep as much of the original parts as possible. I will have the machine shop balance the original as that is the best option. Glad you mentioned it. I will check with the owner on the paint versus powdercoating. I lean towards powdercoating due to it's better resistance to fluid damage caused by fuel and brake fluid. However, I do want to keep this as close to original as possible, so I may just go with the original paint finish. I will have the owner make the call on that one.

I usually use the vacuum bleeder for clutch and brakes. The one time that the clutch didn't bleed was when the clutch hard line didn't seal with the flex line. I had to tighten the flare nut more.....took me a while to figure out the problem though.

HLS30-00042 arrived this afternoon for a complete restoration. Boy, this an early one, complete with the original clear rear window. It's a little beat up, but most of the parts are there. I own HLS30-02614 in the same color, so by the time I am finished they should be looking like twins. The motor runs, which is great, but it will undergo a complete rebuild. Amazingly, the head still has the overspray on the lower portion, which is pretty rare to see. I will see if the machine shop can leave that intact. There are still a few wire clamps in there and the owner has a metal fan (and a number of other key parts), so we should be able to get the engine bay looking like the original. Looks like the hood has been replaced by a later series that was orange. The drivers side door may have been replaced as well, as there appears to be blue paint under the Safari Gold re-spray. Also, the rear panel under the rear bumper is pretty beat up and front bumper is missing. We will need to get one of those. Rear bumper looks to be in pretty good shape. Both headlight buckets are fiberglass and cracked. Both fenders are pretty rusted out in the standard places. Rear hatch panel is also rusted out (as usual) and will need to be replaced by the body shop. The interior will need to be completely restored as most items are severely cracked or worn. The original dash has just one crack in the middle unfortunately. Not sure if that is repairable, I will have to look into that as the single crack is about 2 inches long. The seats have the original vinyl material which is cool, but not usable obviously (from the pics). So the plan here is to completely strip the car over the next two weeks and get the body to the body shop ASAP as that is typically the long pole in the process. I am estimating about 6 months for the body shop to complete all its work. While the body is out, I will send the block and head to the machine shop to get that all in order for me to re-build. All the undercarriage parts will be sent to the powder coater, and all of the nuts and bolts will go out for re-plating. I will re-upholster the seats, clean up the wiring harnesses and replace the connector housings, and then start re-assembling items as they return from the shops so that once the body arrives, everything will be ready to assemble. I will post progress on here and pics as things move along. As always, feel free to comment.

But you know it's there. Just one more thing to take care of.

That is such a bummer. I have had that happen as well, but not on such large a scale. Ugh! I hate brake fluid.