motorman7

I'm hoping I can pick it up on Friday afternoon. That would give me most of the weekend to start putting it back together. My wife is gone for the weekend at a health seminar, so I can burn the midnight oil on this one for a couple days. The white truck in the back ground looks nice as well. Thanks for all the work on this Lance...It'll look awesome with the Panasports.

WOW, I love it! .....Very excited about this. Thanks for the update Lance! :):)

Welcome to the site! Pretty car, Nice color . From the pic looks like a Series 1. And, 50 is not that old....I'll be there in 2 years. Best Regards, Rich

Yes, the brake booster hose would be great. Mine is 40 years old

Thought about that after I wrote it. Seeing as how the Exhaust manifold is thick cast iron, I am sure it takes at least a couple minutes before it heats up. Also, if I am not mistaken, there is a vaccuum operated valve on the air cleaner that closes that path from the exhaust manifold once the engine is warmed up. Which, leads to the issue most likely being the choke. I will have to go back and check the adjustment. Rich

I have been driving the '73 daily now for the last two months and they seem to be doing just fine. They do prefer the warm weather and run very smooth when warm. They also work well during acceleration The only 'issue', though not a big deal, is that the engine is a little weak when cold. I have to run the revs up during the first 2 or 3 minutes of operation when starting up from the stop signs on my block. I should hook-up the hose that goes from the manifold cover to the air cleaner. That would probably help the cold start issue some. Once my engine temp moves over 120, everything runs fine. Also, regarding the cold: when its cold, seems like a little more cranking time, maybe 5 seconds till start. Also could be cause I am not running the electric pump (which I will replace some day). On warm days it starts of in less than a second. So, pretty happy with the flat tops so far. No plan on changing anything except the adding the hose and electric pump eventually. Thanks for all the input. Rich

Well, I finally got it off to the paint shop. I spent most of Thursday evening sanding; then most of Friday nite till 11PM....sanding. And then up again early today.....to sand some more before finally taking it to Lance's Maaco in OC. All the sanding was not complete, so I we figured some hours into the paint estimate to cover additional work that was needed. My next two weekends are booked, so it was now or a long while from now. Also, I felt it was time to let the professionals take over. I want mention here, that not all Maaco's are equal . The one 3 blocks from my house was very business like (not so friendly) and somewhat pricey. The Maaco "Signature" paint job was $100 more by my house and the cost to paint the engine bay and door jams was way pricey. By comparison, Lance's shop was much more friendly and much more reasonably priced. It was well worth the 70 mile trip. I will take my '73 up there when it's time to paint that one. I was in such a rush this AM to get to the shop that I forgot to take pics, so all I have is pics I took from a couple days ago. i will definitely take pics when I bring it back. Taking out the windshield was a piece of cake. I cut the rubber gasket as discussed earlier here. The front one leaked and the rear was curling so they needed replacement anyway. I decided on a "corvette yellow" at the shop (samll color swatches), but later today went looking at yellow cars and decided I liked the Camaro "Rally Yellow" instead. Actually it is more my sons choice as he will eventually get the car. I will call Lance Monday AM and get the color changed to "Rally Yellow" So, I am glad that part is over. It's really a relief to have the car out of my 'dusty' garage and at the paint shop. I am looking forward to the new color and of course the assembly process. Rich

I don't see how anyone could remove that engine and sell it. It would be like someone stealing and trying to sell the Mona Lisa. That motor is a work of art.

I think this is a picture of the voltage regulator bypass you were asking about.

I look forward to getting those. Thanks again for all of your hard work on this. Rich

Boy, this is slow going. Hours and hours of sanding. It's not bad, but it seems the more I work on this, the more I find stuff I don't like. There are quite a few dents on the underside of the panels where the PO placed the jack to change tires. Didn't catch those earlier. I ended up replacing a section of the passenger side dogleg. Fortunately the PO also gave me the Tabco panels that he had puchased for the car, both right and left side. The drivers side was pretty clean. The passengers side was pretty bad. Again, worse than I had expected. My son helped out with sanding the engine bay while I tended to the doglegs and the jack dents. I have most of the body dings fixed, but have not even started cleaning up the door jams and hatch are. That will be a chore. So, looks like I will miss my April 3 date to Maaco. Now shooting for the April 10. I opted to use the all metal body filler versus the regular bondo. Its pretty nice to work with and seems to dry harder. Thanks for the input guys, Rich

http://store.classicgarage.com/nid24brmakit.html I rebuilt my 40 year old '70Z with this kit and it works great. Bought another kit from them for my '71Z and will fix it in the next week or two. It's inexpensive and is the major rebuild kit. Parts are Japanese.

Aaahh, but it's not just any Maaco, It's Lance at the Maaco in O.C. who will do the paint. Lance (aka Jackboxxx on the thread) comes highly recommended by a number of the members here, so I will have him do the work. He's done a number of Z's so I would be happy to have him do the paint. There is actually a Maaco about 3 blocks from my house, but I will trailer it about 60 miles to OC. I will feel better about it this way. Also, since the car is a "mutt", I didn't feel it was cost effective to put a 5 or 10K paint job on. I will do the high end two stage Maaco though. Thanks for the tip on the epoxy seal. I was using the light gray primer to cover the areas I sanded. Attached are some pics of the progress today. Got the tranny pulled and the rest of the firewall stuff off. I tied some of the tubes to the center of the engine area to keep them out of the way of the painter. Also will bag and stow the harness. For now it's just resting on the battery tray. Got the left fender replaced. Massaged out a few small dings and started a bit of sanding. I have some rust near the doglegs. I was thinking of brazing up the hole and grinding flush. Rich

Hi Doug, Yes, I love that color! It looks great. That is the color I am looking for; not too orangey, not too pale. As for painting the car a different color than the original, my plan is to just have painted the areas that are typically visible. So, the door jams, hatch area and engine bay will all be painted the same yellow. One of my pet peeves is an engine bay that doesn't match the car color. Plus, only takes about half a day to pop the engine out, so might as well take it out. I am not sure what to do with the wheel wells. I painted the front ones a yellow spray can color as you can see in the pics.and not sure I like the look. I may revert it back to the black undercoating. Will have to look at some pics and see how that looks. Thanks for the tips on the windshield with the razor knife. The gaskets leak, so they will be replaced. No harm cutting off the old one. I will also have the trans serviced at this time and rebuild my brake master cylinder. Also need a new booster. So, lots to do. Ah, and of course re-zinc my bolts. Thanks for the input Rich

I spent most of the day stripping my silver '71 in prep for paint. I am figuring it will take about two or three weeks to get it ready ( Unfortunately that usually means four to six REAL week). I should be able to finish the part strip tomorrow (Friday) and then begin sanding and rust repair. The one glitch I ran into was the front and rear glass removal. I was thinking I could get a glass company to come and remove them for me for about $40. Unfortunately, the first place I called wanted more than double that amount to remove the front and rear glass.:disappoin The second place said they don't work on old cars. So, I think I will read some of the treads here and try it myself. I think I can take the glass out, but will probably have to pay the price to have someone else install it when it's time to re-assemble. Since the car is a "mutt" there is no need to paint it an official Z color. I was leaning toward the an original Z green, but have decided to go with a bright yellow (I was out voted). I am looking at painting it a yellow similar to the current 350Z or the PPG base yellow. I want a color that is bright and grabs attention. It should work well with the Panasports. I am planning on doing the majority of the paint prep and then taking the Z to the paint shop. I am also planning on having Lance (jackboxxx) do the paint job up at the Maaco in Orange County. I am hoping to get a little input here on the paint prep. I haven't had a car painted for quite some time. I am not sure that I want to take the car down to the bare metal, but I would at least like to get to the original primer at the least. Currently the car is an oxidized silver. So, here are some pics of the teardown. i'll post more as the project progresses. Rich

Cool...thanks for posting. I should of took pics of my cowl area when I removed/cleaned it. I think there was half a bush growing in there. Needed a shop vac to clean out all the leaves.

Funny, I had a similar thing happen on my '73 and now am a bit afraid to drive it for fear I will get stranded. Aside from the voltage regulator, which I would like to replace, my guess was that the problem on my car was the battery hold down bracket. It seems a little too close to the terminals and I am thinking something may have shifted while going around a curve. I will monitor and keep posted.

I hope those aren't new cast iron-too brittle. Preferably stamped steel with zinc plating most likely. Much better properties

Just thought I'd post this in case any one was interested. http://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/cto/1633558881.html Car is HLS30-96591, Original Engine: L24-121846 , Original 4-speed transmission. All original smog equipment in place including smog pump belt. Car is original paint but has areas where bondo was used (obvious) and car spray paint used to cover. The frame rails are in very good condition with no rust; Driverside is near perfect, passenger side has some dents from lifting with jack, but not bad. Battery has hard rust underneath but the metal is still solid and not broken through. This seems to be the only bad rust area - not counting the bondo areas. Bad bondo job done on both front fenders (maybe ran out of sandpaper?) and minor bondo repair on both rear doglegs. Front of hood hits the upper bumper bar, paint scraped off in this area. Interior color is red and fairly original. Seats nicely re-done, small 4 inch crack in middle of dash. some rear panels on drivers side are cracked or missing chuncks. Carpet is original, has original radio and antenna. Also has original steering wheel. I don't understand the Grant steering wheel reference. Owner is second owner and has owned it for three years. Original owner did the bondo work- an older gentleman. Minor door dings along door and rear fender with auto spray paint to cover bare dings. Rusty rear bumper trim. Nice rims and Michelin Radial tires 195/70-14s. Engine started right up, no loud knocks or ticks. Odometer reads 51K...Most likely 151K. He said mechanic checked the compression and that it was good with all cylinders yielding about the same value. Not a bad car, but not worth what he is asking, $6995. I told him I thought it was worth more like $4000-$4500. He told me to make him an offer. So, sounded like he might take the ~$4K+ if I offered it. I got 3 right now with way too much to do on them so I am not buying. Just thought I'd post this for anyone interested since it was only about 2 miles from my house. Rich

Thanks for adding the July '09 copy to the spreadsheet. Looks much more organized now. I added my three.

5 cm????? That's like 2 inches! That can't be good. Perhaps you mean 5mm?

Yes, congrats! I love the color and it seems to have most of the items you were looking for. Very nice start!

here's the latest pics

I need one of these for my '71 to boost the power. Now looking on e-bay for the complementary Water Tank. http://sandiego.craigslist.org/esd/pts/1618850658.html AND, there's not a spec of rust on that baby.

The '73 is running pretty nice now. The carbs are tuned and have new brake pads installed. The '73 will now be my daily driver for the next couple months. I will post a pic in the next day or two. Now the focus is back to the '71 and getting it prepped for paint.