dar5052

Progress… underside is basically done. Now on to the inside/engine bay… started prepping the brake and fuel lines today. Once I have the engine bay and interior painted, I can start much more reassembly. Seriously looking forward to it… I’m tired of looking at shell. I want a rolling chassis again.

Decided to go a safer route based on the content of another user on the forum, thanks for the inspiration… this gives me quite a bit of room to get under the car with a roller board. Definitely money well worth spent. I’ll be able to pressure wash and then put on my undercoat outside of the garage.

@Patcon yes I was surprised how heavy it actually was. When it was on the stands it felt pretty Light but when 4 of us lifted it, it was a struggle.

Been a while since I updated this post but nothing fun has been happening and with work so busy with a lot of travel, I haven’t had much time to work on the z. I finished repairing and areas with rot and welded all new patches in. Applied POR15 where required. I’m now focusing on the underside to get it ready for undercoating. Should be finishing that up in the next two weeks. I’ll then be able to throw the suspension back on and have a roller… and yes, that is some fine engineering since I don’t have a rotisserie.

that's a pic of the under side fwiw...

@Patcon gotta use what I got lol.... After a few beers on new years day I decided to tear up the old soundproofing.... figured it was best to address any issues while the interior is apart. I am glad I did because I found surface rust under the passenger side that would likely have created issues later on. Driver side isn't bad but I'll need some dry ice to remove the remnants of the sound proofing. overall it seems fairly clean... and surface rust. I'll next turn my focus on the underside of the car.... still not sure if I want to media blast it... I go back and forth daily. while I would like to, I am not sure if I want to awake sleeping dragons although I like the look of the underside of a car when its clean and rust free. I currently have a good layer of undercoating. What have some of y'all done? did you blast the bottom and not put undercoating and just primer and paint? or put undercoating regardless? Just trying to figure what's best for this build... I know its up to me in the end, but would love to hear some opinions/experiences. any help or advice is appreciated.

under battery tray is on order, I'll cut that out when I get the new piece.

Patch work of rotted out areas has started... There are a few that I've found during disassembly, notably on the rockers under the front fenders, under the battery tray, under the passenger seat, and on the front and backside of the passenger side rear wheel well. All in all, not too bad but there was bondo on the front part of the rear passenger wheel well and as I grinded it out, it went right through to the lower portion of the quarter panel... oh well.. Luckily its a small and simple patch. Front of rear wheel well: Grinded out to metal on the passenger quarter: Rear of passenger rear wheel well: Driver side front rocker panel: Passenger side front rocker: Under passenger side seat:

Thanks @zKars. Found what I'm looking for. Don't know how I missed it the first time around.

anyone know where I can get a molded section for under the battery tray? Ive seen some on the common sites but they don't seem to have the compound bends.... trying to fix some of the wrongs from the PO...

Now that you mention it, I do remember taking the front wheels off and lowering the car to get more clearance.

Your current setup is the same way I removed mine but I think I used a short chain instead of a strap. It worked well. I had to get the motor up pretty high to clear the oilpan over the radiator support.

the best decision I have made thus far is to buy the $14 harbor freight moving dollies.... its so much easier working in a smaller space (three car garage) with moveable, heavy components.

Made some good progress today.. the car is now basically stripped with the exception of the doors and the hatch. I'll pull those off after I finish the bodywork and get the car ready for paint. On the underside, I intend to tackle any visible surface rust. I'll use a wire wheel to get to the bottom of it, repair what needs to be repaired, and POR15 the rest. Then undercoat the bottom to make it uniform... any suggestions from any other builders? The disassembly is complete... only took 2 weeks, basically weekends only, lets hope the rest of the process moves along just as quickly😂

@Patcon Yes I have a MIG and a TIG. I can use stick off the TIG but it makes such a mess that I hate using it. Do they sell these panels aftermarket or would it be something I need to fabricate? I agree that these are structural because the steel in the area is quite thick when compared to some other areas... which is good because it makes it easier to weld😂.

@Patcon I was able to convert the pics to PNG's and upload them... 🤷‍♂️

After taking a week off I got back to the car today and made some good progress. Removed the steering and entire front suspension. Like a bonehead, I started lowering the front suspension and the front of the car started lifting off of the jack stands because I still have the rear subframe on the car... Luckily it only required about 50 lbs of force to keep it down so I stood there for about 10 minutes holding it until I could get ahold of someone to come help me out. And I got lucky that my phone was close enough to reach it... lessons learned. I then started poking around on the floors and trunk area to see if the rust I could see was surface rust or something more serious. Most of it is superficial surface rust that came off by scraping a screwdriver on it except for the spot under the passenger seat. Oddly enough, I got under some of the sound deadening material in the trunk area and the entire sheet popped off.. At that point I figured there was no turning back so I just removed it all... it all came off very easy, probably within 5 minutes and the majority came off in big chunks. Guess I'll need some Kilmat... Anyone have experience if the floorboard sound deadening is just as easy to get up or does that have more of tendency to adhere better? I also took a wire brush to the rust on the front apron. There is some serious pitting there... any recommendations? Wire brush and primer or repair it somehow? This isn't intended to be a show car but a nice weekend cruiser. What have others done? I would be interested to know although at the end of the day I know it will be my decision.

Yes, my crossmember was recently painted but I intend to redo it anyway. The suspension is completely redone with new bushings and tokico springs. The rear brakes are also converted to discs. As far as plans for the car, I think I go back and forth on a daily basis🤪 My plans at this point are to have a nice weekend cruiser. I want to clean up the body as best I can to remove rust, I am handy with a welder so no need to use adhesives, etc. Originally I was thinking of doing a media blast but I think it could be overkill seeing as how solid the car looks the way it is now. I thought about getting a rotisserie to do the underside but not sure if its worth it seeing as the condition of my car/floors are not bad at all, at least from what I've seen thus far. I would welcome other peoples opinion on their experiences particularly with doing a complete rotisserie build. As far as engine goes, I plan on doing a mild rebuild on my L28. By that I mean check compression in the cylinders and if I have no major bypassing, just replace all the engine seals. I will rebuild the entire motor if the compression test indicates a problem. Once I have a driveable car, I intend to build a motor to swap in, preferably a turbo L28.

Some progress pics on the car... I stripped the engine bay with the exception of the fuel lines. I'll be taking those out at some point as well. Also stripped the interior and preparing to address any rust I have. Any words of wisdom from those that have done this before? The floors are solid so I'll keep the factory sound proofing and just prime and paint over the original. I'll need to address a previous repair under the battery tray as well.

@Zed Headunderstood and apologies if I have offended someone.

My apologies for bringing up the subject. I'll keep it to myself in the future and just ask specific questions as they arise. Thanks

@siteunseen can you give specifics of what was removed and why to get your engine looking so clean? the reason of "you're an engineer and can figure it out" isn't of much help... can we have a more informative discussion?

@Zed Head Thank you for being a valuable resource on this forum. my general response was to no one in particular just an observation that when one speaks of egr/emissions delete, the community goes crazy about why not to do it versus giving feedback on how to do it. That was all I was trying to point out... I can easily provide examples on this in the forum but I'm sure I don't have to because you already know, given you use the search function. maybe I am using it wrong, in which case please enlighten me.

@Captain Obvious if you read my original post, it would be clear as to what the subject was about. Lets not get caught up on technicalities.... seems like everyone else knew what I was talking about.

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