New project-72

[madkaw]

Both. Car has lived in a very hot climate -Nevada. The car just smells of abuse.

i probably will be using Rotella with a shot of transmission fluid

[sweatybetty]

16 minutes ago, madkaw said:

Both. Car has lived in a very hot climate -Nevada. The car just smells of abuse.

i probably will be using Rotella with a shot of transmission fluid

whats the trans fluid do?

[madkaw]

Higher detergent to help clean the inards

[gwri8]

I just ran a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil in with my last oil change for that very reason.  When I adjusted the valves after that everything looked good, at least on the top end.

[madkaw]

Marvel and trans fluid look amazingly like each other:)

Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club

[madkaw]

Haven't hit bottom yet. Still removing bad parts . Balancer came off to replace front seal I suspect as bad- and it was, so is the balancer. Rubber all dried out and missing hunks. The seal was 2mm bigger ID than a new one - oil slinger! 

Also noticed the engine mounts are shot. The heat and petroleum bath has softened the rubber to sponges. 

Back to the front suspension . Disconnected rack and found one bad inner and one bad outer tie rod. Digging deeper the ball joints are bad also. None of these parts had any rubber boots left on them- so they have been left to the elements for how long? At this point ," while your at it" syndrome is kicking in with a vengeance . Now the struts are coming off to inspect the inserts. It's really hard telling what the prior owner did or not do. He replaced a about all the suspension bushings with urethane , but couldn't find a trace of lube- thus a squeaky ride. The PO also spray bombed the suspension parts with black paint -covering up what? Sprayed right over pretty zinc brake line keepers-jish. 

So we decided to pull everything including crossmember and powder coat it all. Going back all rubber on the bushings.

Post pics later

[Hardway]

Kudos Madkaw for helping out a fellow Z owner!  There have been plenty of examples as of late of owners wanting to get their Z's up to scratch just so they can reliably enjoy them but they just don't have the time, skills, space, etc.  Classic Z's are just like every other car that got cheap to buy, people bought them and just neglected them figuring they were and always will be a cheap car.  Glad to see this one is making its way back on to the road again.  Keep up the good work!

[madkaw]

If I had my way I would off the rails(RR) and have a couple of these going at the same time. My wife wants me to retire and do this instead( lot less grumpy), but don't have a place to work- yet. I think I would like to keep it small and personal . It keeps the owner involved . In Bo's case , there just wasn't anyone around he could find to do this work local. I like being able to just shoot a text and pic to the owner and say-" look what I found today". So when the bills come in there is a story behind it.

[Patcon]

2 hours ago, madkaw said:

If I had my way I would off the rails(RR) and have a couple of these going at the same time

I have thought about doing the same thing at some point

[madkaw]

Well I got about half of my pictures to load. Haven't been sharing much because I have been truly frustrated with posting on the site. Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky but I can't seem to get around on the new format as easily as the old CZCC. I am glad Mike makes all his efforts and glad go have the site available. Most of the time I can't get the I-phone to load pics and even off of my laptop I have issues.

As you can see I have been full tilt on this project the last week. We considered powder coating all this stuff, but the weather was really good for painting and I had the time to get it done. The other important factor is that stuff was mostly just dirty-very dirty. The rust was negligible , so a good cleaning, sanding, por-15 and paint at it all looks pretty again. Another reason to spend more $$ and buy a car out west and have it shipped if you are considering a project. Even the hardware cleaned up on this car to the point that you would swear I replaced it. I had the oil pan and valve cover tanked at a local machine shop so they are spotless. Now I feel comfortable running some high detergents and it will all drain out.

The engine was brushed on Por-15 . I think the engine kit is well worth it when you see how well the paint covers. They give you too much color - a pint is enough for 3 engines. I tried some rattle can Por-15 chassis paint it is also $$, but it covers great and the chassis coat looks superb!

I have thousands of dollars worth of new parts to install--- now that the dirty work is done. This will be much more enjoyable. Damper Doc refurbished the balancer and its ready to go on.  The crossmember went on with new Nissan motor mounts and soon will have a refurbished rack attached. I need to press  in the control arm bushings and assemble the front end. I removed the strut inserts to find some Monroe inserts , so obviously some one updated this. The inserts seem to be in working order and we will run with that for now. New ball joints, tie rod ends, bushings, tension rod rubber bushings, new calipers and rotors should make her stop and go much better.      

[Patcon]

Good stuff!

[madkaw]

Anyone with a link or pics of tension rod bushing and washer orientation -stock rubber bushings. I believe I have the washers turned the right way and the rubber bushing correct , but since I am having difficulty posting pics I can't show you. Been searching but I guess I'm not using the proper description