What do I do with my car? Do I need a new body?

[na_caraballo]

Before anything else, I know. Give me grief later, I give myself enough.

Here is my car. I am planning on the rebuild but I don't know if I need a body or not. I think the roof is the worst, and I don't know if I can fix those dents. Suggestions? I plan on stripping down to bare metal on the car to start. More pics???

[AChev]

Well can we get some description of those rust spots. It is hard to tell how deep they are, if it is just surface or holes are what. I don't think you would have to replace the whole "body" as you stated. Maybe the real panel, as it is not part of the roof due to a covered seam. Just my opinion. Waiting to hear more

[240ZX]

All I will say besides welcome aboard is, there are a lot of folks who would have liked to start out with a chassis like yours...based souly on the pics you provided. I and many of the site members have seen some pretty bad rust cases over the years and yours is nowhere near that bad. All it takes is some time, some money, and some TLC to get your Z into shape. Looks like a 1971 240 you have there...am I right?

[na_caraballo]

That's surface rust from sitting for a while. The paint came off from the accident. That's no big deal. But what I'm starting to worry more about is the roof. I've tried to punch them out, but they won't stay. Tell me if more pics are needed. I think I'm fine with the rear fender. But the way that roof is shaped and how the dents are they don't want to go back. And I don't think I can weld a roof in, so any input on that would be helpful!

Thank you for helping me. You can call me Mr. Dumass.

[LanceM]

Looking at the angle of that rear wheel I think you may have more than body problems... If the dents in the roof don't extend into the windshield seal line they can be taken out, the one fender shot looks like an old repair so worse could be hidden...

[AChev]

Is he referring to me as mr.dumass?

[na_caraballo]

Yeah, I have parts for the undercarriage/body underneath. Let's just say from the outside it looks much worse. I can replace the parts. And yes it is a '71 240. I will check to see how close those roof dents are. I want to have a really really nice paint job, (is it called a .5/.5?) so we'll see I guess...

[na_caraballo]

No Schevets!!!! I realized the mistake and edited my post!!! SORRY!!!!!!!!

[LanceM]

I don't think so I believe he is stating his position on knowlage on body repair, and why he posted the question in the first place, in other words he's starting out where we all did, a dumass....

[na_caraballo]

I concurr.

[LanceM]

If the roof dents are back from the hard line of the windshield they can be pounded out using a dolly and filled. Not the best and it's a tough job being that the roof line is an easy to see place on a Z.... You could reskin it, tough job too... If you have little $ in this one and want a A++++++++ looking car it may be best to move on to another before you invest more in this one... Roofs are the worst place to have to repair IMO, the fix always shows...

[texasz]

Hey, I see that you are on this site too.

As I posted to your thread on zdriver.com everything you show in your pix is repairable. You just need a good body man to do it properly...no mounds of bondo!