Not as bad as some, not as good as many. As others have said, much depends on your skills, bank balance, and need for a long term project. What do you want to have when it's finished - show car, fun weekend driver, daily driver? Take into consideration the car's mechanical condition as well as the rust issues when making your decision.

Dennis

Gulp.

Well Carl, you have an experienced eye if ever there was one.

I plan on doing everything except the actual cutting, welding and paint shooting. That includes as much of the prep work as I can do, which may not be much. But I can certainly strip down the car.

It was originally silver on red, which it will be returning to. (C'mon Carl, the car's on your registry! )

... I should have looked. My body work estimate is based on the lastest 240Z resored. I took the body shop a bare shell. That one took new floorboards, an NOS Right Rear Quarter, replacement innerfender wells on both rears, replacement dog leg on the left. The car was on a rotisserie and the undercarrage was striped to bare metal and completely refinished, sealed etc. All paint/supplies were PPG.

At first I thought the estimate was a bit high on that last project .. but after all the metal work was done - I felt it was a very fair price. About 1700.00 of that $14K was for the body parts replaced. About $6K was labor for the metal work and the other $6K was for a very high quality paint job. When the metal work was done - you could not tell the car was ever touched..

Of course prices vary depending on the overhead of the location in which the shop operates.

I tried to keep a very accurate track of the actual time spent on the last car - I don't work too fast but I'm fairly efficient at most tasks.. so I feel that the 650 hour figure is pretty close.

FWIW,

Carl B.

Edited June 18, 201212 yr by Carl Beck

The cutting, welding and painting is the fun part! If you were closer I coupld probably help you out with the metal work.

Chuck

Is there a chemical dip in your area? That would eat all the rust leaving you with seeing all that would need to be redone.

You can't put a price on sentimental value, but if my son had my old Z, and he was in your position, I would slap his wrist, tell him to put that wallet back in his pocket, and spend it more wisely.

Thanks for the input, Carl. That's really helpful. I think I'm going to tear the car down over the course of the next couple of months and see where we are then.

Thanks for the thoughts, Chuck. I wish you were closer too! Mechanical work I can handle, but bodywork is a black art to me...

Don't know about a chemical dip. I assume that's where they dip the entire unibody? I'll ask the body guys when the time comes.

Dave, rest assured my dad and I are going to have some long conversations about this one. We may move forward; we may decide it's time to move on. FWIW, neither my mom or dad are the type to throw things away easily, so...we'll see.

I would say if your going to do all the work yourself and dont mind spending tons of time doing it, go for it. If your paying someone to do the bodywork, you would be much better off with a less rusty car.

I plan on doing everything except the actual cutting, welding and paint shooting. QUOTE]

The paint shooting I understand. But the cutting and welding is not that difficult and you could save a lot of money there. You could if you were so inclined get a welding setup with gas for under $1,000.

Edited June 18, 201212 yr by grantf

you can't put a price on sentimental value. I like that you and your dad are going to review the needs of the car and then go from there.