Jumping in with 2

[d240zx2]

I've seen much worse. The car is definitely salvageable and based on what you said, you're more than capable of doing most of the work yourself. It's basically a "cut 'n paste" operation (to borrow a computer term), but you need to get all the rust blasted away before doing much of anything.

I'd yank the drive line and blast the entire car, just to find all the rust. Anyway, you've got a couple of cars you can work with. And the parts you showed are definitely '70 vintage.

Good luck!

Frank

[kenz240z]

I have no formal training in auto mechanics or body work, other than the auto mechanic shop class I took in high school 20+ years ago. As far as body work, painting and welding, I am self taught. I jump at every bump in the night and I know when my meager skilz are not up to a challenge, but I haven't let rust holes, dents or painting a car scare me or keep me from tackling a project that at first look seems impossible. So, if I can do it, any munkee with 1/2 a brain can do it! In fact, when I brought my first '73 home a few years ago my wife thought I was nutz. She was right, of course, but that car has garnered a few plaques from the shows its been in.

I say do as much of the work yourself as you can if you have, then turn the rest over to a pro. Find a body/paint guy who will work with you. If you can weld patches in the rusted out areas, cover them with a little Duraglass body filler and shoot the car with primer, the body guy can take it from there.

I sincerely hope you do indeed follow through with refreshing one of these cars. One work of warning...if you do, you WILL be hooked and there will be no stopping you!

[ncolz]

I agree with Kenz240z (his cars are very nice, BTW). Like Kenny, I'm a self-taught wrench & body guy. Every project I get a little bit better - at least that's the goal.

If it were me (and I admit I think differently), I'd take on the worse one first - cut out the bad rust, weld in some new panels and see how it goes. I've been able to get old door skins from body shops for free and use that in most places. By experimenting on my worst car, I feel I've learned an awful lot so as I work on my nicer Z's the quality of my work has improved.

Ask your local buddies for advice, beer & BBQ goes a long way! I'm sure they will teach you a lot!

Great find - keep posting updates.

[ArnieTX]

Thank you. I guess anything I hose up can be fixed with enough money.

Keep it coming.

Arnie

[texasz]

Arnie, where you at in TX...it's a big state?

I've gotta know where you found those two cars side by side orphened like they were!

I have one that I'm working on myself, just a little bit earlier than your 10/70 build (see sig below). Hey, and my car is 2 months older than me!!

Feel free to hit me on PM or email as well if you like.

[ArnieTX]

TZ

I posted an ad on craigslist that said I was looking for a project z from 70-78 for me and my boys to work on together. A guy sent me an email about these two. Apparently the landowner was selling their place (ten acres) and a lot of their stuff to a auction type house and the guy that runs it sent me an email saying he saw two of them parked on the property. He gave me the contact info and they said $300 bucks and two days to get them off the property before they sold. I found out the rustier one has a 5 speed in it last night. The one I want to clean up has a four. Still need to verify what motors are in both. The rustier one is not as "Stock" looking in the engine compartment as car #1.

I live west of San Antonio off HWY 90 between D'Hanis and Sabinal. I appreciate the support.

Arnie

[AZ-240z]

Something to consider. You may have two really good parts cars. Depending on the degree of originality you are looking for, it may be much less costly to find a good series 1 bodied car and build it up using the two rusted cars for parts. Even if you were able to do all the rust repair using parts from one of these cars, I would think that a good knowledge of uni-body structural integrity would be needed to keep it safe.

Just some thoughts, and best of luck with your project.

Dan

[Richard Oben]

Arnie, before you start on the floors all the covering needs to come off. Save yourself a ton of time and go buy a block or Dry Ice. It will come in a 4 thickness paper sack. If you want to do both cars get two bags. Anyway, smash the bag with a hammer to break up the ice. WITH THICK GLOVES on put half the ice on each floor and spread it around. It will sound like fourth of July with all the cracking and popping but a few minutes with a putty knife later you will have no more coating on the floor. Good luck on both cars, they are both a little rough but worth doing. Learn on the first and keep the second. Remember if you plan to sell one make is nice but not super nice, super nice gets super expensive. HTH, cheers Richard.

[Darrel]

Don't automatically think both or one as parts cars. But then of course the previous owner of my '73 considered it a parts car, that's why I got it for $500.

All of the floor pan rust can be patched with scrap metal as I noted in an earlier post.

Post pics of the other one. They both may be worth saving.

[ArnieTX]

After reading and re-reading this post a lot I think NCOLZ has a great idea. Since I want to have something I can mess around with and drive on the weekends, kinda get some instant gratification while using the rusty car as my learning test bed, maybe I'll tackle the rusty one first.

At this stage I'm more interested in learning how to do things properly and by getting the rustier one running and patched up first, I can have a little fun and gain experience. I can also chip away at taking the better one apart until it's just the body. The rusty one definitely has some "donor" pieces that can be cut out and thrown on car #1.

Thank you everyone for advice and ideas. Still thinking about the process....

Arnie

[tlorber]

I'm glad to see that those cars (or at least one) will be resurrected, at that at the very least, the other will become an organ donor that another may survive.

[kenz240z]

One common mistake people make is diving right in and tearing a car apart without having a good plan. Lost parts and lost motivation often result...how many of us have bought a Z car from someone who gave up on the project?

It is important to come up with a plan of attack to keep yourself focused and also measure the progress of the project by completing various milestones. For example, start with the mechanical. Next, work on the body & paint. Finally, finish the interior.

By starting on the mechanical work, you'll soon have a car that you can safely drive on the road. The mechanical work can loosely be divided into 3 categories: drive train (engine/tranny/diffy), steering & suspension (tie rods/ball joints/struts/springs/bushings/etc...) and brakes. Make sure the car is safe to drive before you take it out on the road.

Once the mechanical work is done, move on to the body & paint. Repair/replace any rusted out areas on the body, floor, inner fenders, firewall, rear hatch area, etc... Remove any dents with a hammer & dolly or a stud welder & slide hammer. Use a little body filler or lead to smooth out the small imperfections that are left. Then primer & paint! Eastwood (www.eastwood.com) and TP tools (www.tptools.com) make a lot of tools for restoration, but Harbor Freight can also be your friend, as HF will often have very similar tools at much lower prices.

Finally, take on the interior work. Hopefully most of the interior will clean up nicely. A dash cap is a quick & cost effective way to repair a cracked dash, although there is a thread on the site about using foam filler & SEM products to repair a dash (do a search). If the seats are torn, get new skins to recover them, or send them out to an upholstery shop.

Get a notebook to help keep track of everything. Take lots of pictures with a digital camera. Get a box of labels (the kind with string or wire ties) and label every part you remove. Baggies work great for keeping small parts together. Bins or cardboard boxes can be used to store the parts. Label the bins/boxes with the contents inside, or use clear bins so you can see what they contains (labels are still helpful). Do not trust anything to memory. Dedicate a section of the shelving in your shop to the bins/boxes/parts that are removed from the car. If you don't have shelves available, put more up!

Some things you will want to send out for repair at the beginning of the project, such as sending the bumpers to a plater or taking the engine to a machine shop for a rebuild. Make arrangements for these things up front because they will take awile to get done. If you plan to have the car painted by a shop, start searching for one now. Many shops don't do restoration work these days, so start by calling the shops to narrow the list down. Then make an appointment to bring your car down to get an estimate. Trailer the car to the shop, that way the shop owner knows you are serious about getting the work done. No matter what the number you have in mind for what it will cost to paint the car, triple it right now and you'll be in the ball park. After you've visited a few shops with the car, hopefully you'll find one you are comfortable with. Of course, if you end up doing your own body & paint work you won't have to deal with this step!

Wick Humble's book on how to restore a Z car is handy. There are also generic auto restoration books available that can help guide you. And there is a ton of useful information and lots of helpful folks on this site!

Whew, well that's it in a nutshell I think. Keep us posted as you make progress!