Zak's Z

See..looks like you're gonna have to wait. The key here is you need some leverage. She has a car you want, what do you have to bring to the table? Some sort of bribe is in order here. Does she need the house painted, or a basement finished? Maybe suggest the car is getting a bit old and needs some work...then start refreshing it, and by the time you're done youve spent all this time on it and put so much work into it that it just sort of becomes yours by osmosis. I'm just throwing stuff out there...:ermm:

wow..18 months? Whats being done to it and how much progress have they made?

Ron, Im just glad to see some progress! They are working with me and calling me in to make sure things look right, and actually discussing the progress and process. I still need a paint code for 110 red. I have the ppg 27000 code, but thats for single stage. If anyone has some info that would be great.

Heres some pics of the work being done on my '72. It's been in the shop all winter and they havn't had much time (with all the fender benders) to work on it until recently. They've welded on the new rear valence, fixed up the patches where I've brazed , straightened out the fenders and mounted the front clip, fixed up the rear deck lid, and they've started to smooth out the body. And yes...its being used for storage when they have another job that takes up that area! Heres a few pics, any comments are welcome.

Thats a bold move to make, it looks interesting. I had a Z3, and my friend has a M roadster with the exact combination in your pic, and I love it (but im more partial to the blue M). The color looks pretty uniform so it should look good when you get it together. Please post some pics of the final result.

Tabco sheetmetal sells the outer rocker panels and several places carry the hatch patch panel. If you find out later theres more rust hiding and its too far gone, you can part out the interior for more than you paid or keep the stuff for a better shell. I'd buy it too.

I got one with my Z when I got it, but its kinda rough. My wife's Honda CRV had one when we bought it (a 2001 bought in 2005). When I took the bra off, the corners of the fenders by the hood had bubbles, and since then its rusted more. I'd only put a bra on a car now for a long trip or something. I should get to fixing those little spots before they turn into big spots.

BigOak..I was in Ottawa last week, we went to Gatineau at night and it looks just your pics. It seemed alot colder there than Toronto. Dang.

Good luck. Sblake's advise is gold. Assess the rust!! You can always walk away and keep looking if the rust is too bad. Maybe you can take/swap some trim and parts from the donor cars if the good-condition car is missing anything or needs replacement.. Let us know how it goes.

Although I generally like the Libres ..they dont seem to look right on the green. The D's look good, the slotted look good, and the ones in the first pic look alright too.

Randy, they both look great. I sure do look forward to the summer.

Ron, thats too bad you have to do it by yourself. Maybe you should consider 'farming' it out if you have to do it by yourself so much. LOLLOL (just kidding...I saw the humor on your post..but man you opened yourself up for some good 'ol flaming there)

Hey, these are really inspirational stories guys. I don't care if its -12c in my garage, tonight my son and I are putting on our snow pants and mittens and were gonna make some hot chocolate and work on some Z-parts.

dkd021: I almost agree with you. If I spent more on the front end, I'd be ahead of the game on the back end. I really wanted to DRIVE a 240z...and now I'm looking at it all in the basement lately.. fuzze: You have a great outlook on your project. My son is 8, and he always asks when were going to get it done, and how he wants to help out with it. You cant put a price on that. He only lasts about an hour before he loses interest, but he likes monkeying around with the tools and doing little jobs. Even if he forgets all about it in a few years, those will be my fondest memories. Now that im 'in too deep' I am enjoying it and learning alot. I never would have learned like this from a car that was already finished, but then again I'd be driving a Z right now. When its finally done, I'll have the best of both worlds. TOXIC, you have a tough decision to make! Either way you'll have a Z. It'll be done and you can drive it, or it'll be a project and you'll have to get into fixing it up. Its a win-win situation.

hey nice to see fresh paint. Looks good, post more pics when you get them.

Hopefully someone can help with this... My bodyshop is asking me if I can find a 2-stage paint code for 110 red. I did find the PPG single stage code of 72000. The paint supplier he used tried to match it to a 2 stage paint chip and the color is a tad off, he wants to get it exactly. He says they can mix up a single stage, paint a panel then use that to match a 2 stage paint. Does anyone have a paint code theyve done for 2 stage that matches 110 red exactly? I'm sure he'll get a match, but I'd feel better having some info for him to confirm what he does. Thanks guys!

Great find, I might print that out for the garage wall (wife might not like a framed print in the foyer).

Hey good find. If you can, scan the article and put it.

Yeah that looks very nice. Post some pics with it on if you change it out. I wonder if it looks as good put on as it does in the pics.

Don't let me scare you off. My car was a trainwreck painted with 5 coats and an inch of filler to make it look good. I could have gotten away with 3k to give it a paintjob to clean it up...but I'd still have all the problems underneath. I knew going in this was going to get ugly. But, I have a whole new set of tools. I actually learned quite a bit about cars now. Ive met some great people on this site - and even met a few in person. I went from being able to read and search for answers to being able to actually to the work myself (to an extent i admit). And seriously some of the best time I've spent all last summer was working on the Z with friends, drinking a cold beer picking sand out of my teeth and changing the band-aids on my knuckles. good times....

But seriously...all kidding aside, that was well put Carl. I think I remember my first words of advice on this site from yourself and others. This will cost money, and I will get what I pay for.

Carl makes me feel like I need to spend more! ...okay, I probly spent $1500 on tools I never had before (but I dont incluse that because I will have those for years)...and I spent at least 3,000 on parts for it already (interior, this and that, etc.). Youre making it very difficult to downlpay this Carl. If my wife reads this, theres going to be a basement full of Datsun parts for sale on Ebay and a freshly painted shell with a for sale sign on it in the driveway.

Im right in the middle of a costly restoration. I got my 72 and it looked great from 10 feet away. turns out it needed a frame rail weld...thats all. once that got started, it needed new floors too. So i had new floors and rails put in, at a cost of $2,200.00 CAD plus i think 700 for floors rails and outer rockers. Then I might as well paint it since everyting is already out of the car. That cost me 2 summers of thorough paint stripping and brazing and grinding and sand blasting until finally she's down to bare metal. I spent several hundred on rentals and supplies. Now its in for prep and paint, and that will cost at least 4,000...these are 'friend' prices. Im assuming it will be like 7k at least because theres a lot of little things that need attention. I might as well take the motor apart to see whats going on while its out of the car. I still have to do suspension - new bushings all around and a huge cleaning, brake/fuel lines, new carpet, then all the little interior things and such. The car cost me 2300.00 but I figure when its done Ill have an extra 10k easy into it. Doug is about right because I should have a 'good' driver at that point. Im not very skilled either, but Ive done everything I possibly can myself to both learn and save money. If I had to farm this whole job out, I would have had to pay someone for the one to two hundred hours ive put in already.

Keep in mind, if you find another color and you want to paint it white, to do the job properly, you'll have to strip the engine bay...and while your at it you'll have to clean everything...and while youre doing that, you will probly want to fix up any rust bubbles or cancerous areas...and the list goes on. So to do it proplerly, it might get expensive and time consuming.

True or not...thats a great story.