Roof transplant or is this original?

[Reinier]

Hi guys,

I have taken out the interior of my 1977 280Z to work on some stuff and I noticed that the lower a-pillar area looks a bit weird on both sides with a black coating and a lot of seam sealer/filler.

Is this original or has my car had a roof transplant at some point?

I have searched for similar pictures of other Z cars and could only find blurry ones but I did see black paint in the same location on other cars as well.

Also do you think the gold the original color of my car?

Thanks!

Reinier

[cgsheen1]

Looks factory to me. I've had dozens of Z's torn down to this point. I've also done a roof skin replacement. Replacing the roof skin has nothing to do with the areas you've shown. Your last picture looks like a little body lead drip that they didn't wipe. And yes, the brown metallic is the original color.

Edited December 14, 2020 by cgsheen1

[siteunseen]

My dead giveaway has always been the crack above the rear pillars. Every Z I've had has some kind of fracture line at this point. It holds the car together like a span bridge.

 

[Reinier]

1 hour ago, cgsheen1 said:

Looks factory to me. I've had dozens of Z's torn down to this point. I've also done a roof skin replacement. Replacing the roof skin has nothing to do with the areas you've shown. Your last picture looks like a little body lead drip that they didn't wipe. And yes, the brown metallic is the original color.

Thank you. That is great to hear! I had not seen the black paint/coating anywhere before so that is what made me wonder.

My car had a salvage title in California (it's now in The Netherlands) and I cannot figure out why. It has some body work repairs done to the doors and rear quarter panels but the frame rails in the front and the trunk floor are straight as an arrow. I have not even found any ripples in the front from a low speed collision. So I thought maybe the roof was severely damaged at some point and replaced including the a pillars.

 

[texasz]

1 hour ago, siteunseen said:

My dead giveaway has always been the crack above the rear pillars. Every Z I've had has some kind of fracture line at this point. It holds the car together like a span bridge.

 

 

Yep, mine has those also.