I bought a series 1 car a couple of months ago. Vin 5305, numbers matching motor, original transmission, hand throttle. I have it scheduled for paint in July.  I want it to be as original as possible but the car is white. In high school, my first z was  a white '73 with flat top carbs and we didn't get along well.

The car will be rotisseried, blasted inside, outside and underneath. I plan to keep the car until I die but I will have before and after photos in case I ever decide to sell. 

If I change the color to 918 (still a valid color for 6/70), does anyone think it will make the car less desirable?  I cant imagine that it would but changing the color of an early car seems like it violates something but I am not sure what.

Go for it, I'm partial to 918.

Even better, get some rocker stripes. Reproduction originals are less than $50 and look really good in my opinion.

Does it have black interior or red, maybe blue?  I didn't think of that.

Edited January 13, 20187 yr by siteunseen

To answer your question, I would have to know if originality is your primary motovation

in the restoration process.

If you change the color,nobody but you and those you tell will ever know. Paint it what you like.

Also the hand throttle was probably not original to the car...

The original 918 orange is rather bright as I have found while stripping mine.  Many have been resprayed in various shades of orange when repainted (Mine was done in a darker shade of orange).  With a low serial number car it may be best to stick to the stock colors, resale wise.  Personally I would paint it  the color or variant that I like and not worry about it.

The hand throttle was not original to the car.  If you remove all evidence of the original paint, you are free to paint it any color you want IMO.

Changing the color.....YES HAVE WHAT YOU WANT......It sounds like the prep work will make the final product satisfactory. Gettng those old layers of paint and filler off is the best thing. You get to see all the factory imperfections and they get straightened out properly. When it is completely stripped take a good look at the rear wheel arches. These were problem areas because of the sandwich effect and the sealer that was used to join the 2 pieces 50 years ago. It shrunk over time and allowed wet debris to get trapped. Changing the color over another color can sometimes yield undsireable results. Somewhat like blending two colors to get a final color. Good luck post pics of the media process.

18 hours ago, siteunseen said:

Even better, get some rocker stripes. Reproduction originals are less than $50 and look really good in my opinion.

Does it have black interior or red, maybe blue?  I didn't think of that.

Yes, Yes. I have seen pics of your car every time I log in.  I feel as if you are deliberately rubbing it in. 

The '70 has blue interior but most of the diamond vinyl was too far gone to use.  While I still have some of blue interior, I didn't have either door panel so converting to black will be pretty painless. 

I must agree.  I really like the black stripe too.  Back in the day, racing stripes were very popular.  I am sticking with 14" 195/R70 tires so it should look very dated.

Im not sure I am going to like that 1970 transmission though....