Patcon

I agree with Stanley. The triples are great if you can get them tuned but I would start with the down draft Weber if they will run. The triples are probably worth more than the whole car the way it sits. Rust could be a significant problem from the looks of the hood. How long has it been sitting in the yard? I had one like that sitting in the yard for a long time and it accelerated the rust under the car. Let me know if you need anything. I think your budget for getting it running is highly optimistic but we will see. There is a lot that needs doing. Don't start taking it a part until you have a good plan and know what your getting into. There are many cars out there that have been taken apart and still are because the owners under estimated the time and money to get it back together. Get it running and sorted first. PM me if you need anything, I have owned Z's for 25 years and have taken several all the way a part. I know Z parts better than any other car I have ever worked on. Charles

Booster is my first concern. I would think an external leak would show up on the floor. C

Be careful when welding on the tunnel side. I had my son be the fire watch, we were constantly putting it out. There tends to be a lot of grease in there and it would be easy to light it off. Also move around when you weld and use air cool it off or you will "oil can" the floor. C

On my floor pans the tunnel side had very straight bend lines while the factory tunnel has a very curved compound kind of line. So I made a cardboard template that lined up with the rocker edge and traced the curve. I then transferred the curve to the new floor pan. I made a series of cuts into the floor pan from the edge and using a hammer and dolly rolled the edge up like the original following the new curve. Worked great. I did not plug weld that seam on my car I butt welded it instead because I wanted to avoid a seam that could holds moisture and if prepped and painted right it would be less noticeable. If you have area that don't want the reshape just right. Tack in the spots that flush up and dolly to make the rest comply. C

I am all for doing it yourself. I am also planning on painting my Z at home in a self made booth. Booth is just about finished. Just be careful as some of the paints are very hazardous for your health. You really need a fresh air system to prevent exposure to isocyonates (?). Respirators don't normally get all of it and can leak if fitted poorly and they also can only absorb so many VOC's. Also be careful with your vent fan. Explosions are bad Charles

I am all for doing it yourself. I am also planning on painting my Z at home in a self made booth. Booth is just about finished. Just be careful as some of the paints are very hazardous for your health. You really need a fresh air system to prevent exposure to isocyonates (?). Respirators don't normally get all of it and can leak if fitted poorly and they also can only absorb so many VOC's. Also be careful with your vent fan. Explosions are bad Charles

Spartanburg,SC

I don't believe they are plastic but they night be? The seat slide lever has a black cover over the end of the rod. I see many seats that the covers are damaged or missing. Don't know about availability or a work around. Just throwing it out there Should be cheap to make.

I thought the compression numbers were very high too. I would block off every manifold port I could and all the ports on the engine I could. Adjust the valves a little looser even if they tap a little bit. It should idle fine with the gap a little wide and a little lower lift a few thousands wont hurt anything. I wouldn't rev it way up like that, but at this point I would just try to get it running first.

One time I had a Z I couldn't get running; turned out the valves were too tight, so low compression. I know his compression numbers were good but every one thinks of huge vacuum leak from his symptoms. There are only a few areas for that vacuum leak to occur right?: carb to manifold, manifold to head, internal of head, valve seats, rings, manifold vacuum signals. Any others? I also had a pertronix on my 95 suburban that gave me problems have you tried a stock GM module? I just read all 6 pages of this tonight. I find it intriguing that he couldn't get it to run with the stock dizzy either. I would want to simply like Chris said gravity feed versus fuel pump and keep simplifying until I find the problem. The less variables the better. Both types of carbs have the issue. That seems unlikely. Could still be fuel pressure. He checked valve timing at least once maybe more, not likely. If he feed it from a "baby bottle" I would lean towards ignition issue... my 2cnts C

Why do you only need one side? That is king of odd... C

I buy lots of parts from Rockauto. Look at the items and the vendors. they sort their items by cheap, daily driver, better. Also parts that have good feedback have a red heart by them. If you buy parts from major vendors like Cardone, Raybestos, Wagner, ACdelco etc. You will be getting parts as good or better than any local parts store. Also some of the items from Black Dragon are probably the same vendor. Best I can tell Cardone is the only supplier of Reman brake boosters so if you find one for sale it is probably from them whether its Rock auto or Black dragon Charles

GreenZZZ Did Kevin ever have a batch of flaring tools made up. I would like to get one for my specialty Z tool set. I am getting ready to replace these bushings soon Thanks, Charles

Its a little hard to tell because there are really no pictures of the usual trouble spots on these cars. Under the battery, dog leg panels, rear wheel wells, lower front fenders, etc. From what you can see of the under side it looks pretty clean and there are no heavily rusted fasteners. You have to realize though there is some substantial filler on the front and rear of the car to shave the bumpers and the work around the front grill. It could be bondo or fiberglass, might even be metal work. I would like the Nevada heritage confirmed some how. If I were going to by another car it would come from the South West.

I use a die grinder with a cut off wheel or a grinder with a 4" disk to grind out the spot welds. I grind on the welds from the piece of metal I am removing which leaves the metal I want undamaged and clean. Then on the seat brackets or any other place I need to make plug welds I use a Harbor freight punch tool to make holes or a plasma cutter if they are in the middle of the panel. Spot weld cutters will work if you take your time and use good bits. I am just getting too old to be willing to take that long to drill out so many welds.

Made a wooden block to hold the studs on the bottom in the vise so I wouldn't tear them off. Added 3' 2x4's on each side of my jig. A little PB blaster and it turned right off. Might post pictures later. The inside of the booster stinks like old brake fluid and tons of rust crumbles. I can't get the retainer off of the plunger as it is corroded into the central plastic part. Any ideas? The diaphragm is ripped at the bottom where it sat in the brake fluid. Don't know if I can seal it up with RTV or not. There must be a source for replacement diaphragms since there are companies out there reconditioning them and you know the cores we send back have torn diaphragms in them. It would be nice to find a source for those, since that is all you really have to have. Charles

Thanks, I thought I would add some 2x4's for leverage. I was putting a tremendous amount of torque in already. We shall see... Charles

A little more info, Jeff had a great idea on how to repair the out jackets on the parking brake cable. The info can be found here http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/open-zcar-discussion/47863-lime-green-machine-restoration-thread-1972-240z-3.html

Blue, I have a bad brake booster in one of my Z's and since I have 2 brake boosters laying around I thought I would try out your repair techniques. I have been trying to get one of them open. I made a wooden pattern to grab the top side that needs to turn counter clockwise to unscrew. I have two questions how hard was it to disconnect the pieces? I have pulled very hard and they don't want to rotate. I have also tried a punch and hammer to try to make the half rotate. Also how much tension is on the large spring inside? Is it going to launch the top across the shop?

When I was repairing under the battery tray my son was being my fire watch but wasn't doing a great job and we caught the harness on fire. Been there done that

Malibud, Are you in Black Mountain, NC? I am in upstate SC and may have some of what you are looking for...PM me Charles

I have a dehumidifier in my shop that is about 800 Square feet. It runs a lot and is set at 50% RH. It was necessary due to mold growing on things and flash rusting of parts. I have it draining outside thru a short section of garden hose. Much of my shop is below grade and very well damp proofed but it still takes out a tons of water 24/7 365. Worse when the humidity is up. I didn't think I would need it originally but conditions proved otherwise. Charles

Where in SC are you? I know these cars inside and out. I might be able to help you with parts and advise. Charles

If I am looking at these right you have heavy rust in the flat areas of the floor pans. It also looks like you may have some significant rust up near the tie rods in the front frame rails. You will need new floor pans to fix the first correctly. I don't know what you will need up front, but on one of my cars the frame rail metal behind the reinforcing plates and the bumper brackets was completely gone but it looked fine from the outside. If I were looking for someone to do this work for me I would look for a shop that does work on old cars. Many shops only want to work on late model stuff. Bear in mind that these kinds of repairs are time consuming to do right @ $50+ an hour or better, that can get expensive. Good floor pans are $350 or so a set and frame rails are $450 or so a set. I am putting floor boards in my 73 right now and it has taken me quite a while to do the one side, 20 hours or so, but the rocker had to be patch and the seams are all butt spliced not plugged and lapped. I would survey the whole car really well, under the battery, around the sway bar to frame connection, dog legs, wheel arches, inside the rear wheel arch near the rocker panel, front fenders near the bottom and rear edges. I suspect with the other rusted components like springs and springs seats etc. there is a lot more rust you haven't found yet. At some point it becomes cheaper and years easier to find a better car and pay the shipping. Just trying to save you the mistake that I have made more than once, and I have all the tools to do this king of work myself. I have a 73 mach I rustang for one of my sons, with what patch panels cost I could have bought a much nicer project and that doesn't count my labor at all. That's my 2 cents... Charles

Rob, I have enjoyed the Weber thread that was going last fall, and you were going to sell you rare Webers and get 152's I believe. It seemed like you had your carbs sorted. What provoked the switch to EFI? It sounds like you want to go to ITB injection? What will you use for fuel mapping? Charles