Parts Car or Restoration Candidate?

[watson]

I am new to this forum and I am looking for some general advice on a car that I recently purchased. I have a 71 Z that I have owned for 37 years and it needs a total restoration. I recently purchased a 72 for use as a parts car and now I am having second thoughts about cutting it up. The 72 is a one owner California car that has been sitting outside for 12 years. The interior is a total loss, the original owner left the windows down for all 12 years! The rest of the car actually looks pretty good to me. The body a has rust in three places. The first place is in front of the right rear wheel, and it does not look too bad. A patch plate should fix it and there does not appear to be any major structural rust behind the surface problem. The second place is below the battery tray, and it also looks to be surface rust only. The third place is the worst. The shelf inside the rear hatch has a hole rusted all the way through into the inner panel. The rest of the car looks to be very solid. I looked over the bottom area and I could not find anything that had significant rust. The engine is unknown. The previous owner said that it ran fine when parked. No, he did not have a good reason for why he parked it and I am wondering the same thing. As I said, the interior is a disaster, but the floors have no rust at all. When I opend the jack compartment, I found the tool kit and jack still in the plastic bags that they were shipped in. The yellow chocks look like they have never seen the light of day and the spare tire is original and it has never been used on the car.

So here is my question, is such a car a reasonable candidate for restoration? I am mostly a 63-67 Corvette guy and I know that one never cuts up one of those cars now that everyone suddenly thinks that they are made of gold. I believe that the original Z cars will be discovered some day, but today the market prices make it hard to spend a lot of money on a full restoration. I am not looking to make money on the car, I am too stupid to seel any of my projects when I get done with them. I am also not big on cutting up cars that can be saved. So what would you folks do, use the 72 as a parts car for the 71, or sell it as a project car and look for something else? Sorry about the long post and thanks for any advice.

Doc

[MikeW]

Welcome. Can you post some pictures (of both cars) so we can make a better judgment? If the windows were down for 12 years I can't imagine that the floorboards are in good shape unless the car was in Death Valley or another part of California that doesn't get any rain. Until you pull off the tar mats it's hard to know what shape they're really in.

[watson]

I will try to get some photos, but the car is in northen California and I am in southern California right now. The floors seem to be solid to me. The paint is even glossy under the carpet in the rear area. Is the tar coat that you are talking about a painted on coating?

Thanks,

Doc

[MikeW]

The tar mats are glued on. There is likely paint on top of them.

[adamr]

Remember, the rust you see is only the tip of the iceberg, and it never sleeps. Once you get view of what lies underneath those dime and quarter size little holes and bubbles, you will see what I mean. You might want to do a search on this site for rust/rust repair. You are noble to want to save a Z from the crusher, but it may cost more money than it's worth. I don't know what you paid for the 72, but it sounds like a heap to me, and worth only what the parts you want from it are worth to you. There are lots of old z's all over the country which are in such shape. They often need so much work that, even if you get one for free, it will cost way too much to bring back to life. That being said, one man's trash is another's treasure. What can you get for the second? How in love are you with your 71? I assume that the 71 is in better shape than the 72?Given my experience, it would be difficult to give up my baby of 37 years. A one owner car means little, to me, if it isn't in good shape. Wheel chocks, jacks, and spare tires are a dime a dozen. I would probably part it or sell it. Just my long winded 2 cents. Hope it helps,

Adam