Engine or body first? Indiana area?

[Bambikiller240]

Originally posted by EScanlon

Sorry Carl, not trying to dump on you, but I've already seen one of my restorations go to the dump because the owner decided to "soup up" the engine AFTER the body was custom painted, and he literally tore up the paint on the fenders. Then he crashed it when he was testing the new blown up engine.

Just my 2¢

Enrique

Hi Enrique:

No worries! It can be done both ways.

I just know that when I had my first Z, I got the mechanical side humming and then could never bear to pull it off the road to do a full on body treatment. Finally, fate entered the picture and the car got totalled. At that point I found a great 240Z body with bad mechanicals and after sending out the shell for months of work, I assembled the mechanicals from my orignal car into the refurbished shell. Finally I had a NEW toy and I had a ball with it for many years.

BTW, For my current car "Bambikiller, which is a daily driver, I rebuilt the mechanicals immediately upon purchase, and I've now installed (or almost installed) a rebuilt L24. I've inspected the entire chassis and done POR for the floorpans. In a few years I may be able to bring her off the road for that body treatment, but for now; Sgt Carl is on the look out for demon rust.

[mdbrandy]

Originally posted by v12horse

... and then he sent the rolling shell to the autobody shop while he rebuilt the motor.

Make sure you can find a body shop to do the work before you make your plans. Here in the cornfields of Illinois, none of the 10 bodyshops I talked to wanted much to do with my car. They are insurance, replacement shops. Two places said that they might be interested, but they were too busy now, and my job would take a backseat to more lucrative insurance work (at least they were honest!). They told me to come back in six months and they'd see where they were. Thus, my purchase of a welder and practicing to do my own work . So far so good, but I've got a lot of work to do...

[EScanlon]

Mark,

Unfortunately, today's "bodyshop" should be renamed as a Fender Replacement shop.

Sadly, the type of bodywork that a restoration requires, is the very time consuming and hard to get paid for metal working.

Where it can take you up to several hours or days to properly fix a front fender, you can usually replace it in less than an hour. Because of the replacement we expect to pay more, but we aren't willing to pay the same amount for the repair, even though the labor and materials add up to about the same.

So, you can either learn how to do it yourself, or dig up the $ to offer a bit more to have the job done faster.

2¢

[dozer171]

like guys have been saying, there are many schools of thought on it... you could go 'old school', getting the engine, suspension, brakes, interior, etc. all said and done, just to strip and paint it. OR you can take it all apart, paint it, rebuild it while it's all apart, and when she's put together, you'll have a georgous car.

the path i chose was to park her, strip her clean of EVERYTHING paint, rebuild, put togehter. if i were to do it again, i would do it the same way. get her all together, then work out the bugs.

in the end the choice is yours, but, i believe that this method yields less down time in the long run...

[mdbrandy]

Originally posted by EScanlon

So, you can either learn how to do it yourself, or dig up the $ to offer a bit more to have the job done faster.

Ah, but the key is, that on my beast, there was no "unbolt and replace" for much of the work. Floor pans, rockers, etc., with quite a bit of custom patching. I would have paid the $$, but no body wanted it! They could make more unbolting other people's fenders. I am finding out that places where a "restoration shop" fixed it up 12 or so years ago, they did a really poor job in areas that weren't just cut off and replace - front and rear of the rockers, etc. I may be better off doing it myself anyway .

Thanks.

[NCLarry]

I support the 'do it yourself' effort.

My 71 isn't in bad rust shape in most places but the bottom side. Underneath, from the floor pans thoughout the suspension, she got hit by the rust stick.

Mechanically, she needs much work and to clean up the rust and apply POR properly, means removing everything from the shell.

Seems more logical to me to repair the frame/suspension before repairing/installing the engine. As for paint, I plan to send her for paint after fully rebuilt as a rolling frame, before engine is installed.

That way, I can have shiny car in one side of the garage and an engine in the other. The shiny car will serve as motivation to finish mechanicals. Of course, much extra care will be required when reinstalling engine, else, scratchy paint would result (as previously said).

My local vo-tech offers a course in autobody and I start in a few weeks. That should help me learn some basics (including welding) before I take on the task. Also, if I suck really bad, I'll save put the money I'd of spent on the welder toward a shop to do the welding for me.

Northern NJ Larry

[madkaw]

I revived this old thread for Jim's sake. How time flies since he was looking for someone to work on his car. Well there was good news for Jim today.

http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x223/stfinnerty/?action=view&current=ff7bd89a.flv

[derk]

Steve is officially "the man"

Jim

[motorheadwannab]

sorry to jump in but....i'm am looking to buy a 74 260z the body panels are in good shape virtually no rust but it has been painted very poorly. The engine runs but isn't driveabe, since I plan to only have the car for about 6 months I think i'll pull the engine, rebuild and while its out do the safety steering, brake, suspension check. I think whoever buys it after me would be fine with that, all they would have to do is get a paint job and fix the interior a little (i'll do some). What do you all think