saridout

as far as i know, either wire can be used as ground. sorry for the late reply!

thankyou! it's taken the shop about 6 months for the rust repair and paint, but i'm one of only a few resto jobs they have currently.

well, the car was painted last week, and it's just beautiful. i gave them the rubber kit yesterday and they said it should be ready to go by the end of this week. i'm sure they're as tired of working on it as i am excited to get it back. i took some photos of it before they reassembled the body panels, and it's under fluorescent lighting that makes it look positively teal. the photos of the car after reassembly are much truer to actual color. sorry for how blurry these are. my iphone takes crappy indoor photos.

Though there was a hangup regarding the passenger quarter panel, things have gotten moving again and the body should be painted within the month. Here are some photos of the progress. these areas came out looking really nice, especially after the way they looked originally (http://www.flickr.com/photos/76280z/3850802953/) passenger floorboard rust repair under cowl cover you can look larger versions of the above photos and more photos from that shoot here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/76280z/tags/august31/

wow, thanks for all the info. unfortunately (since you went to the trouble to type all that out), my body man already decided to just repair the existing quarter panel in question. we had a donor car that we were waiting on, but the owner kept stalling so my body man just went ahead and repaired what was there. it may not be perfect, but if there's any problem with it in the future, he guarantees his work. i'll post pictures soon!

haha, i was going to, but i accidentally washed my iphone the day before i went and saw it i'm going to go take some pictures in the next few days, though. thanks for letting me know!

hey awesome i'm glad it worked out

E- thank you for all the time you've put into helping me. i appreciate it very much. hls30- that's a good idea, and i may end up doing that. although zed2 says that he looked at it and agrees with the shop's assessment, so it may be overkill. really, my concern now is not that the car has more rust than i, or any of the several people i'd shown it to, had originally thought, but that a quote i had received for a worse-case scenario body restoration is growing beyond what was agreed on. i'm being asked for money up front when i was told that i would pay half halfway through the job and the rest at the end of the job. but that's something i need to take up with my body man. the questions i asked yall about the quarter panel issue have basically been answered. thanks everyone for your advice. i just need to keep telling myself, it's just a car... it's just a car...

hey texas, just wondering if you ever had any luck finding that guy...

ok, sorry guys that i haven't responded. i accidentally unsubscribed. let me just say a few things that i think should be obvious, especially if you've been looking at my previous posts. firstly, this is my first restoration, and i have absolutely no idea what to expect when it comes to cost, extent of rust, etc, except what i can glean from here. secondly, i love my car desperately, and want to do the best i can for it. thirdly, i am of limited means. the reason i chose the most expensive shop is because i was told that the quote, aside from parts such as the rubber, was for "the worst case scenario," and expected that it was all-encompassing. i also had a really good review of the shop and had seen the work he'd done and was satisfied. E, the general consensus that i got from the thread you linked to was that the car didn't have any rust that was earth-shattering, with the exception of the headlight area rust, which has already been repaired. if anyone had actually told me that my car was a disaster, as you were so kind to point out, i probably would have put more thought into finding a different shell. as evidenced by this thread and most threads on here, there's generally a mix of opinion, and for someone like me who has no basis to make a decision except what i get from here, it can get confusing. believe me, there was no arm-twisting involved in the shop taking on my car. one reason i chose this shop is because he seemed very enthusiastic about the project, and brushed off my concerns about problem areas as not being any problem. this particular shop has a long history of working on z cars, so i assumed he knew what he was talking about. i don't think it's at all out of line to question my body man, especially here in a forum of people who know better than i do. he's said and done some things that have planted a seed of doubt in my mind. for instance, he insisted that the windshield couldn't be reinstalled without the defrost vent cover put in first, which isn't true. they also broke my windshield and say that it's my responsibility to replace it. the proprietor himself said that there is no difference between the quarter panels from any year z, from 69-78, which is something that i would expect someone with extensive experience with z's to know. not to mention that a time frame was agreed on during which i would make payments, and it's been dramatically shortened from 8 months to possibly 4 months. i think it would be irresponsible of me to NOT pay attention to these things. i like the shop, and i am confident that the car will be beautiful in the end, but i can't afford to just pay him more and more than the amount we agreed on. E, you seem to be suggesting that i'm fishing for the answer that i will like best, but that's not the case. i honestly don't know what i should do about the whole situation, and am getting mixed messages, and it is causing me CONSTANT stress. Geezer: i'm very confident that the oem quarter panel in question is genuine. it comes from a trusted source. EDIT: also, i want to add something. after i got the quote from him, which included from-scratch repairs of the rusty headlight areas and the front right fender, i bought body parts to replace the rusty holes and an OEM replacement fender. he said that he would discount the original quote because of these items, but it seems to have had no effect on what he's asking for the quarter panel repair.

i'm pretty sure the OEM panel he has is for a 70-73 car. should there be any major problem with using that on a 76? is the vent hole different?

also, he said something that i thought was a little fishy... i asked him if the panel he has is the correct style for my year, and he said they're all the same. aren't the 75-78 years smooth while the earlier cars have an indentation for the bumper?

ok, i talked to the body guy, and he says: the quarter panel needs to be replaced, probably all the way up to the roof line. he indicated rust below the quarter window and on the rear side of the window as well. he says that a patch panel won't work for this reason, and that it would be better to have the entire panel. i had misunderstood him last time we talked; he doesn't have a replacement panel from a donor car, he has an actual nissan replacement quarter panel. that makes the 500+ amount he wanted for it sound much more reasonable. he says he may even be able to get it cheaper than that. does this sound like a good deal to yall? his reasoning regarding the benefits of a full replacement confuses me. when he gave me the quote for the full amount required to rust-repair and paint the car, he said $8000-9000 with additional costs for parts, worst case scenario. today, he told me that he could make a quarter panel from scratch if he needed to, but then he pointed at his his employee and said that he would have to pay the guy $125 a day, for probably 6 days of work, to fix the car without a replacement panel. i would have thought that replacing a quarter panel falls well within "worse case scenario." could he be trying to get me to spend money on a replacement part, so he doesn't have to spend his limited amount of profit on labor? or is it reasonable to expect an additional charge for replacing something like this?

ok thanks. i'll give tabco a call tomorrow after i talk to my body man and get a better idea of the situation.

that's what i thought before i talked to the guy, but he made it sound like the only option was finding a replacement. i'm going over to talk to him about this tomorrow. is there anything else i should keep in mind? aside from all that, i'm fairly happy with the rust repair they've done on the front. what do yall think: http://www.flickr.com/photos/76280z/4559245394/

the shop recommended a potential donor panel, for $525. i'm sorry, but i just don't think it's worth that. how deep does the rust usually go? which portions do most people replace? here's a photo of mine... i know you can't really tell what's there, but it may give you some idea of where i'm at.

my body shop is stripping the rear of the car, and they've found what they say is irreparable rust over the wheel arch. i've seen this area rust in other cars, and i'd like to know if the rust in this area is usually just confined to the skin, or will it be likely to have bled onto the wheel housing? would it be better to just buy a rear wheel arch replacement panel, a la black dragon, or try to find a donor car? does anyone else sell a better replacement panel than BDA? i've heard tepid reviews of their body panels. which years will match my 76 when it comes to the quarter panels? i'll be uploading a few photos later tonight.

is this still on? i can't find any information about it...

i've finished ron's 1970 diagram. here it is, free for the download. thanks ron for supplying the original. http://sridout.com/datsun/70circuit_B&WFINAL.pdf i may do a color version later on, when i've recovered :sleepy:

yaaaaaaaaaaaaay that is so great! i'm so happy for you. where was it?

hey man, you're the one who keeps replying. over and out.

cause i don't think this thread should go on without SOMEone saying something about it. i don't want to start a mess, but if i came across it while searching for "vinyl upholstery", anyone could. that is all.

dude... not cool. there may not be any rules here regarding discriminatory language, but you shouldn't say things that would alienate current or potential CZCC members, especially based on their personal business and not their cars.

hey that's cool. i don't recognize it, but if you scan both halves at a higher rez and send them to me, i'll redo it.

thanks! i prefer a pdf myself, cause it's searchable, which is useful for a big diagram like on the '76. what year do you have? i was going to do 73 or 71 next, but i could be persuaded otherwise...