Picking up a 1977 280z 6 Hours Away. Tips?

[BayAreaZ650]

20 hours ago, Patcon said:

Common rust areas:

under the battery, front frame rails, rocker panels, dog legs (it sounds like you have this), wheel arches (this too), slam panel under the hatch - especially the drivers side, spare tire well

As for paint, take as much off the car as you can. The paint job will be cheaper and look and last better. If you can afford to do it with the glass out, even better.

Thank you for your reply. I rechecked today and found rust in the 2 locations i mentioned. I brought it to a shop and here's what the quote I got. The Z was resprayed once by the original owner.

 

$5500 - Remove parts (taillights, headlights, bumpers, etc.), repair dents/rusts, and a two stage Axalta paint job.

$3500 - Leave parts on and mask, repair dents/rusts, and a two stage Axalta paint job.

$8000 - Sandblast, remove parts (taillights, headlights, bumpers, etc.), repair dents/rusts, and a two stage Axalta paint job.

[Dave WM]

any glass out options? I agree that will look a lot better.

[Patcon]

1 hour ago, BayAreaZ650 said:

Thank you for your reply. I rechecked today and found rust in the 2 locations i mentioned. I brought it to a shop and here's what the quote I got. The Z was resprayed once by the original owner.

 

$5500 - Remove parts (taillights, headlights, bumpers, etc.), repair dents/rusts, and a two stage Axalta paint job.

$3500 - Leave parts on and mask, repair dents/rusts, and a two stage Axalta paint job.

$8000 - Sandblast, remove parts (taillights, headlights, bumpers, etc.), repair dents/rusts, and a two stage Axalta paint job.

What if you remove most of the parts and save the 2k?

Glass is still a question? You could have a glass company remove the windshield and hatch glass. You could do the quarter windows. $2,000 is a lot of money to strip the car. I can do it solo in maybe 4-5 hours if I drag butt. So double that or so for R&R. Even if it took you 20 hours to R&R all the outside bits, that's $100 an hour. If you make more than $200k a year, it makes sense to sub it out. I don't so I self perform stuff like this.

If the rest of the car looks good, I don't know that I would remove the existing paint. It would be nice to sand it down good, so you don't have excessive thickness but the factory primer is bonded pretty well. Are they going to be doing metal patches for the rust repair? Any specific spot rust treatment?

[gwri8]

I agree with removing parts yourself.  That way you can clean/ polish/repair while the car's in paint jail. You might even discover more rust spots that way and help avoid any surprises of more rust spots.  All of that stuff is pretty easy to remove, except for the door handles and those aren't too difficult,  just awkward for my gorilla fingers....       

[Mark Maras]

 Another thought. Is the body shop aware of the thickness of the sheet metal in a Z? Sand (media) blasting on thin sheet metal should be done very carefully. It's easy to warp the panels.

[siteunseen]

Thanks for sharing your pricing!

That's about what I was thinking too. A few more dollars with the glass out is the rubber seals. Some are quite expensive.

[BayAreaZ650]

Thanks for all the replies!

- Good idea, I think I will remove the parts by myself. Should I just have the car towed to the paint shop since it'll be missing some parts? What parts should I remove?

- Is sandblasting or stripping it down to the metal necessary? Honestly, I'm just not too sure if there are any hidden places with rust. It's obvious when you see it in certain areas because of the paint bubbling. So far I only saw it on two: Dog leg (2 inch radius, bubbling), Wheel Arch (1 inch radius, bubbling). Besides that, I didn't see any rust in the interior/exterior.

- Removing the glass is a great idea. I'll probably pay a glass company to do it since I'd be saving money by removing the parts myself.

[gwri8]

Basically you remove anything that is not sheet metal.  That means tail lights and panels, running lights, mirror(s), door handles, antenna, bumpers, headlights, badging, quarter windows, door window frames, probably not the grille. Are you going to paint door jambs and the hatch panel also? Then you might need to remove the hatch hardware and door hardware also  and the metal (aluminum) step plates, but the paint shop could handle that with very little effort.   The front and back glass is not hard to get out if you just cut it out with a razor knife. Just cut around the edges and have someone help you lift them out.  Depending on how well the first refresh was done, there could be rust behind the rear taillight panels or under the front and back glass seals, if it was not handled before.  Mine had to be rebuilt.?

[Patcon]

gwri8 has a pretty good list.

One item I find difficult to remove with out mangling is the drip rail trim. It takes a little practice to get them off with out distorting them. If your window seals are hard at all, I would just cut them and remove the glass. If they are still pliable, I would try to remove the glass with the seal or have a glass company do it. The front windshield is easy to break if you push it too hard.

Mark, also makes a very good point. The sheet metal is very thin on these cars and a careless blaster will destroy a car very quickly.

I would have them DA the whole car really well. They will find any trouble spots at that point. I don't think I would go looking for extra work. There are risks associated with stripping the car back to bare metal. You can develop surface rust and that can cause paint failures later. Even rust that is really not obvious; been there , done that. If the existing paint is adhered well, I don't believe I would pay someone to strip it off...

[jonathanrussell]

I would think about how you want to spend your time. I would definitely fix the leaks at some point but maybe you don't want to do it now. If you do everything else on your list, plus install a set of KYB strut inserts, you can start driving and enjoying the car. And, you can assess further what all needs to be addressed. If you pull the suspension apart and start painting all of the black under the car, you are starting a big project that likely renders your car on stands for a decently long time. Same goes for fixing the leaks. Those jobs open up multiple boxes of worms and could leave you without a car to enjoy for a while. Also, fixing the transmission seals is totally doable but it isn't an insignificant exercise. I did it last summer and it was pretty challenging getting the bolt that connects the shift fork to the shift rod removed (without damaging it) so I could replace the shifting o-ring and seal. Not trying to scare you. It is just not a clutch swap. It is a messy less than intuitive job if you have never been inside of a transmission before. Again though, it really depends on how you want to spend your time. If you really want to devote 6 months to getting all of these things right so you can drive and enjoy after then great. If you think you will get worn out and a bit frustrated when the car has been on stands for months and you can't drive it then maybe that tells you something also.

 

[BayAreaZ650]

On 6/19/2019 at 8:33 AM, jonathanrussell said:

I would think about how you want to spend your time. I would definitely fix the leaks at some point but maybe you don't want to do it now. If you do everything else on your list, plus install a set of KYB strut inserts, you can start driving and enjoying the car. And, you can assess further what all needs to be addressed. If you pull the suspension apart and start painting all of the black under the car, you are starting a big project that likely renders your car on stands for a decently long time. Same goes for fixing the leaks. Those jobs open up multiple boxes of worms and could leave you without a car to enjoy for a while. Also, fixing the transmission seals is totally doable but it isn't an insignificant exercise. I did it last summer and it was pretty challenging getting the bolt that connects the shift fork to the shift rod removed (without damaging it) so I could replace the shifting o-ring and seal. Not trying to scare you. It is just not a clutch swap. It is a messy less than intuitive job if you have never been inside of a transmission before. Again though, it really depends on how you want to spend your time. If you really want to devote 6 months to getting all of these things right so you can drive and enjoy after then great. If you think you will get worn out and a bit frustrated when the car has been on stands for months and you can't drive it then maybe that tells you something also.

 

Good points. I definitely want to be able to enjoy the Z and I think I’ll just fix issues as they pop up.

Right now I’ll be installing the shocks and lowering springs. I also got a few things including speakers, a mini amp, and head unit to revamp the audio in the Z. 

[BayAreaZ650]

My fiancé and I worked on the Z’s audio system. We took out the old deck and installed a Bluetooth deck, infinity amp, and 2 6x9 infinity speakers in boxes