HLS30-00042 arrived this afternoon for a complete restoration.  Boy, this an early one, complete with the original clear rear window.  It's a little beat up, but most of the parts are there.  I own HLS30-02614 in the same color, so by the time I am finished they should be looking like twins.

The motor runs, which is great, but it will undergo a complete rebuild.  Amazingly, the head still has the overspray on the lower portion, which is pretty rare to see.  I will see if the machine shop can leave that intact.  There are still a few wire clamps in there and the owner has a metal fan (and a number of other key parts), so we should be able to get the engine bay looking like the original. 

Looks like the hood has been replaced by a later series that was orange.  The drivers side door may have been replaced as well, as there appears to be blue paint under the Safari Gold re-spray.  Also, the rear panel under the rear bumper is pretty beat up and front bumper is missing.  We will need to get one of those.  Rear bumper looks to be in pretty good shape. Both headlight buckets are fiberglass and cracked.  Both fenders are pretty rusted out in the standard places.  Rear hatch panel is also rusted out (as usual) and will need to be replaced by the body shop.

The interior will need to be completely restored as most items are severely cracked or worn.  The original dash has just one crack in the middle unfortunately.  Not sure if that is repairable, I will have to look into that as the single crack is about 2 inches long.  The seats have the original vinyl material which is cool, but not usable obviously (from the pics).  

So the plan here is to completely strip the car over the next two weeks and get the body to the body shop ASAP as that is typically the long pole in the process.  I am estimating about 6 months for the body shop to complete all its work.   While the body is out, I will send the block and head to the machine shop to get that all in order for me to re-build.  All the undercarriage parts will be sent to the powder coater, and all of the nuts and bolts will go out for re-plating.  I will re-upholster the seats, clean up the wiring harnesses and replace the connector housings, and then start re-assembling items as they return from the shops so that once the body arrives, everything will be ready to assemble.

I will post progress on here and pics as things move along.  As always, feel free to comment.

 

That'll be a valuable car when it's done, even in this soft market!

Very cool…..will you replace the early crank with a fully balanced crank when you do the rebuild? They are easy to find and cheap. Can’t wait to see this transformation.

I thought about powder coating the suspension pieces and opted to go back to the original paint finish for authenticity reasons.  I would encourage you to try to stay to the  "original restored" side of your project rather than replacement items and "over-restored" finishes.  For instance the crankshaft comment.  Just have the machine shop balance the original.  You are going to find that the early original pieces are very unique.  I see you have an early gas door knob.

Thanks for the feedback.  That's why I like posting here.  It helps make the restoration the best it can be, especially with this early a serial number. 

I actually read up on the crankshaft issue this morning, which seems like it would be more of a concern if we were racing this car. More than likely, this will be more for show and my goal is to keep as much of the original parts as possible.  I will have the machine shop balance the original as that is the best option.  Glad you mentioned it.

I will check with the owner on the paint versus powdercoating.  I lean towards powdercoating due to it's better resistance to fluid damage caused by fuel and brake fluid.  However, I do want to keep this as close to original as possible, so I may just go with the original paint finish. I will have the owner make the call on that one.

I have been stripping the car of parts so that I can send just the body to the paint shop.   Tear down has gone pretty smooth with only a few bolt heads torquing off due to rust.  I will drill and tap those spots. 

I posted a couple pics of some of the unique early Z items that i have noticed.  Some of the unique items so far (to the best of my knowledge)  include: form fitting washer motor cover (versus the later bag), hood rubber  bumpers, air duct attach bracket (versus tab) , and nice interior hangers.

There is a lot of rust, so we will need a number of patch panels in the usual places.  Pictures of some of the rust areas are also below.

The interior plastic panels were in great shape, much to my surprise.  No need for new ones except for the rear panel that was damaged during a speaker installation.

Engine came out easy.

Looks like the car had AC at one time as there is a third pulley wheel on the crank and a large hole in the firewall which was plugged with plumbers putty as shown below...🙃 

Pictures of progress are below.

 

Edited November 8, 2024Nov 8 by motorman7

Wow, that is so beautifully complete…

Will be a beauty.!!!

Could you post the engine production number to compare to October cars ?

   Whoops…. Found it…

Edited November 8, 2024Nov 8 by dspillman

2 minutes ago, dspillman said:

Wow, that is so beautifully complete…

Will be a beauty.!!!

Could you post the engine production number to compare to October cars ?

Thanks! Engine number is L24-2079.  You can see it in one of the first set of pictures. 

I was looking for production date on the other side of engine…..

same born on dates for

HLs30-00051 as your Hls30-00042… Perfect!!

Edited November 8, 2024Nov 8 by dspillman
Clarification

More progress on the tear down.   Interior is just about cleared out.  

Got the body up on rollers.  This will make working on the underside much easier.  Should have the final items removed over the next couple days.  Pics are below. 

The body is just about ready to send to the body shop. I removed the glass, all items on the underside, and all of the body panels.  I scraped off the old weather stripping and am now just doing final cleanup.  I still need to drill and tap a few of the rusted out bolts as well. I will make an assessment of which patch panels we will need so  shop can weld those in. 

The nice surprise on the car was the good condition of some of the interior parts.  The headliner and A pillar vinyl is perfect as were all of the rear plastic panels, except for the rear panel which a PO had modified for speakers. Also, the doorsill plastic was in good shape and just needs to be cleaned.   This will make the interior much easier to restore as some of the aftermarket items for these items are not the best. Often, aftermarket panel holes don't align and I have had headliners where the manufacturer's glue is poor with the vinyl detaching from the foam in hot weather. So, having these items in good condition will be a nice help.

Latest photos are below.