Matthew Abate

Okay, I'm back. Sorry for the long hiatus, but I had a long list of stuff I needed to take care of this summer and the car sort of languished as a result. But now the vacations have been had, tuitions have been paid, the garage has been organized, and the motorcycle has been sold ( ), so I got back into it. The first order of business was collecting cardboard boxes. The car came with a lot of bits and pieces that have been sitting in old boxes outside in a Missouri field, so I wanted to make sure that I got any dirt, animal dung, mice, black widow spiders, etc. out of my garage. I also wanted to make a loose inventory of what I had so I had a sense of where I am with this thing. Next I cleaned up. Then removed the hood and I took pictures of the engine bay in better light that before. Let me know if you see anything peculiar. I don't know these engines very well yet and have no idea what's happening in there yet. Sorry the images are crappy. I didn't realize it until I started writing this and can't fix it right now. Then we made a cradle to get the car up off the ground so I could really get in there to check it out. It's 3/4" plywood, 2x4s and 4x4s, with 2x3s to lash the four parts together. The 4x4s have sockets for the heads of the jack stands to sit in and prevent sliding, and the jack stands themselves are secured to the bases with plywood. The casters can support up to 250 lbs. each, and there are 16 of them total, so we're good on the weight. I wanted 6" wheels to make it easier to roll, but Home Depot only had 5 of those, so we went with this mishmash of 4" wheels instead. The car is sitting about 30 inches off the ground now. I have discovered that my frame rails have been smashed from some jackass jacking the car up incorrectly, so they are going to have to go. Sorry, no pictures, but trust me, they are shot. This sort of solves a problem for me. I had been deliberating on whether or not to replace the rails with some for a 280z. Since I have to replace them no matter what I am leaning more heavily in the direction of doing a rest-mod rather than a straight restoration. The fact that it is not a numbers matching car is reinforcing that as well. I'm still not 100% decided but I'm seeing 280 drivetrains for fairly good prices so I might just bite the bullet and go there. Even if I don't hot rod the thing I will probably go with the 280 rails. Opinions on this are much appreciated. I'm having a rare case on not being able to decide for myself. ——— Next I removed the seats and center console, and stripped the sound deadener from the interior. Note the condition of the floors. I already knew they were going to have to be replaces. Now I know the extend of the damage. It is isolated to the floors themselves and does not come up into the transmission hump, thankfully. But, look at what some jackass decided was a good idea: I'm so pissed about this. I'm not sure if you can buy that sheet metal, but I have a feeling fixing that is going to be a gigantic pain. ——— And here are some shots of the luggage area and rear wiring area. Looks pretty good. ——— On the whole I feel like I've got a pretty nice base to work with here. She's not really a candidate for a concourse restoration given the engine block issue, but I think I can make a really nice sleeper with some tasteful exterior mods that will keep her mellow but also give her a little bit of style. The next order of business is finding someone who can do the sheet metal repairs for me. I'm going to remove the fenders this weekend and inspect the doglegs, but if they turn out to be alright I think I can get a welder in there as soon as the parts arrive. If anyone can recommend a place or person in northern New Jersey who I should talk to about this please let me know. I would love to find someone who could do the work in my garage, but if not I will need to also figure out how the move the car (anyone know a good flatbed company?). I know someone had recommended Auto Rust Doctors in another thread, but they have closed up shop. This is going to be for the rails, the floors, and the storage area wall that was cut for speakers ( ). Hopefully this can all get done is one shot.