Deja Vu: 1971 Restoration

[grannyknot]

I have the exact same hump in the middle of the P/S floor pan, with the windshield out of the car I stood on it and did the jump and stomp maneuver, didn't move. I'll have to try the sledge and 2x4.  The twins look good.

[Namerow]

23 hours ago, grannyknot said:

I have the exact same hump in the middle of the P/S floor pan, with the windshield out of the car I stood on it and did the jump and stomp maneuver, didn't move. I'll have to try the sledge and 2x4.  The twins look good.

Another possibility:  Princess Auto (aka Canada's Harbor Freight) has a relatively inexpensive hydraulic collision repair kit.  The challenge, I suppose, would be to rig a beam underneath the roof structure that would take the reaction force without creating a matching boo-boo in the roof.  Or maybe you could make a big, temporary hoop structure that encircles the floor, so that the reaction force is taken by the underside of the floor sills.

[grannyknot]

Or maybe I could just cut the whole floor out and replace it, which is what I'm going to do

[motorman7]

Yes, I guess there are a number of ways to attack this.  Hard to say which way is best.  I was pretty happy with the hammer results and it actually came out better than expected.  Also, the floor is in pretty good condition with no major rust, so no need to replace.  Structurally it seems to be pretty solid.  I will work on the drivers side dents this Thursday.  It is dented about the same as the passenger floor pan was.  I also noticed in the pic that I missed a spot at the aft end. I will have to go back and tap that out. 

[siteunseen]

I didn't have a B enough FH and limited swinging space as my dent was closer to the firewall so I used an old bowling ball, worked pretty good too. 

[JSM]

I noticed the ignition lock was Silver on this car?  I thought the larger black locks came on the 70-71 and then in 72 they switched to the smaller locks due to using the smaller diameter steering column?  At least my 71 has the black ignition lock on it.  Just curious.

[motorman7]

19 minutes ago, JSM said:

I noticed the ignition lock was Silver on this car?  I thought the larger black locks came on the 70-71 and then in 72 they switched to the smaller locks due to using the smaller diameter steering column?  At least my 71 has the black ignition lock on it.  Just curious.

This Z is actually a '72 Z built in '71, so that may explain why it is silver.  I was not aware of the timing of that change, so thanks for the info.  I probably need to contact Mike and see if he can change the title of the thread to read '1972 Restoration' instead of '1971 Restoration'.

[JSM]

Ah, no worries.  I may be a little off on the exact dates anyway!  I just saw this and went wait, mine is a 71 with a black and yours is 71 with a silver, what gives!

[motorman7]

The body work continues:  Pounded out the driver side floor board this evening.  It looks much better but will need some slide hammer work to finish.  There is a small amount of rust through on this side.  Will probably clean up and weld a 2" X 2" piece of sheet metal here.  

Removed the cowl.   There is a lot of over spray from previous work/paint and a lot of runs in the paint in this area.  Also, I will have to check on the availability of a washer motor cover.  That may be hard to find. But then again, I may have one in my boxes.

 Started work on the right fender.  Tapped it roughly into shape.  The key to bodywork is to get the damaged area as close to perfect as possible WITHOUT the body filler.  Once it is close, then the body filler goes on.  We want to keep that to a minimum.  I will need to go to TCP Global and pick up a small can to finish the fender out.  Will also use this in the back hatch area.

Anyway, here are a few pics.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

This thread is getting me all hot and bothered.  Siteunseen, the pic of that orange car with black front and rear spoilers with the black sticker on the side is giving me a warm fuzzy feeling. I may want to try that look. It just seems to fit the car while highlighting its natural body lines. I have some floorboards that look like the ones show here and always wondered how I could get them back to the right shape.  This 2x4 idea is just a great idea to try. Seems like their is no down side to trying.

motorman7, how did you get the dents out of the square channel?  It is covered up from the inside?  Is that the slide hammer job you mentioned?

[motorman7]

1 hour ago, Zedyone_kenobi said:

 how did you get the dents out of the square channel?  It is covered up from the inside?  Is that the slide hammer job you mentioned?

Hi Zedyone,

       The sides of the square channel seem to straighten out nicely as they are 'massaged' into shape, removing some of the 'kinks'.  The center part still needs to be cleaned up with the slide hammer as they are still dented inwards.  As you noted, it is covered from the inside and I do not want to put any holes in the floorboard, so I will use the slide hammer.   I did this on my '71 and it came out pretty well.  I know it seems odd cleaning up the underside of the Z, but when I look at any Z it is one of the first areas I check.  Clean frame rails are hard to find now-a-days.  

Rich

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Rich, thanks for taking the time to respond sir. I appreciate it and I forsee some heavy duty hammer work in my very near future. Mine is not quite as bad as the ones shown but they could use some love.