Z Kid

Well if everyone is giving advice, i may as well have a crack at it too. Chris's Advice: 1) Find the biggest tree in the backyard, tie the endless chain to a bit of rope and climb up and secure it well. 2) Roll the car under it and proceed to undo the appropriate bolts. 3) Its now raining and wet so give up for the next week or so. 4) Weather is improving so we will give it a shot, hoist the motor up, and realise that maybe that wind is stronger than you thought, hmm that gearbox just swung dangerously close to the windscreen. 5) Race into the shed and grab the ride on mower, rush out and tow your Z shell clear. 6) Struggle to control a wildly swinging motor keeping out from under it while controlling its descent. 7) Go have a few beers. Next time I use and engine crane, only piece of advice is do not attempt to wheel the crane with the motor high, wheel the car back then lower the donk. Cheers Chris HAVE FUN

Each to their own, but money says a spraypainter could walk up to that car and pick faults from 10 yards. I am sure for what you wanted it was acceptable, and probably for most people it would have been good, but and i say but, only the owner of the car knows just how perfect they want their car to be. It is easy to spray paint, the difficult part is getting it perfect in the end, so no-one can come up and pick any flaws. Polishing and rubbing back is great, but a good spray job will have the car coming out looking awesome before you drag out the old wet rub. And if its a metallic colour, its a whole different kettle of fish.

If you guys think you can go out with no skills and get a good paintjob, you are fooling yourselves, I have painted three cars, all with the help/advice of a friend who is a boat spray painter at various stages, and sure it looks easy but its not. Halz in regards to your problem, I would email Cuong, as he is/was a panel beater and should be able to put you onto the guys who did the work on his car (which is the best paintjob I have ever seen on a Z). The other thing is that to get a good durable finsih, two pac paint is the way to go, and thats an Isocyanite based job. I'd rather it killed them than killed me. If you want to have a go do, but remember you can screw up your car beyond help doing it yourself. Good luck, but my money would be on asking Cuong PS Depending on the type of bog it is, some bog is meant to be applied directly to bare metal, and the damage from just bogging it up is often less than that of a hammer wielding amateur.

BMW Stock colour called anthracite.

Hmm its cold and wet outside, and I spent last night sleeping under my car, so I will give you the old photos, and if anyone wants more I will take them in the light of day. I dont think it has ever been bent, and the rust is just along the leading edge, and is only a few pinholes, and a pinhole on the side. (I would put money that if you had your rust free bonnet professionally stripped, you would come up with at least on rust hole on it (assuming its original)) http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=5233&password=&sort=2&thecat=500 Cheers Chris strippedshell9.bmp

Gav, The bonnet didnt sell today (god some people are tight arses), PM me your email adress, and I will send pics if you are interested, its a vented bonnet. It actually appears very straight, with a bit or rust on the leading edge, and down one side. Cheers Chris

Fibreglass front for a mini Pair of 10inch wide rims Rusty bonnet for a Z A set of original Z car mags Peanut mags for 1600 Mini Seats Yeah not much that is of any use to anyone here I would have thought

Hello all South Australians, Just a bit of a plug for the local swapmeet. Its on Sunday (14/9) morning at the Gawler racecourse, promises to be a big event as always (Often lacking in Z car parts though). If any of you decide to come along, just turn off the highway into gawler, and follow it till you see the line of cars/Racecourse, then entrance is from the back of the racecourse, its 5 bucks per person, or 10 if you want to sell stuff. Cheers Chris PS If any of you do come along, I will be the person selling bits out of the back of a Series II landrover.

James, THe guy near me paid in excess of 11k for his 260, and when taking the head off, he had to hacksaw off studs before he could remove the head, I think you sit alloy and steel together for long enough and they get bad. Rebuilding the Jag motor, we broke a 10 tonne jack trying to pop the head off. I can see nothing unusual about sheared studs etc in a motor that is thirty years old, in fact if it all came apart easily, I would be worried that someone had done the dodgy on it recently.

James, I may be wrong, but are you sure you are not reading into this problem a little to much, the car had been off the road for many years, and one must expect a build up of deposit in a car that has lain unused. If its got ok compression, and not blowing bubbles through the radiator why does it matter. I also cant see a stuck thermostat as being solely responsible for the starting problems, remembering when you first start the car up, the block is the same temp as the radiator so the thermostat does not make an instantaneous difference. Replace the thermostat with a new one for a couple of bucks and see how it goes, what is the worst thing that can happen to you, the headgasket does blow, and you need to put in a new motor, you are at the same position now, only you have had fun for a while first, helps with the motivational phase. Its one of the pain in the arse facts about owning old cars, things do go wrong. My old main paid just under 37k for his old car, and on its first long trip, he used 21 litres of oil, when it was parked it ran fine, but obviously 17 years of sitting wasnt kind to it. Still ran fine for over two years before he decided to rebuild it. If I was in your position, slap it all together, get it roadworthy and enjoy, I am assuming you didnt pay the huge price that a good registered Z seems to command, so every so often little things will go wrong. Stop, dont mess around now, just enjoy it while/if it runs. A motor changeover can be done in a weekend with a slab of beer and a friend or two (heck I pulled out my motors using a tree in the backyard to tie my $10 endless chain onto) Its all part of the fun. Cheers Chris PS many of the head reconditioning places slap a bit of "The Turd" in rebuilt heads just to be on the safe side.

Alan, I probably should have spoken up earlier, but I dowloaded that picture and saved it for future reference when I get a set of mirrors. Your efforts were much appreciated. My pathetic collection of Z car pictures and information mostly comes from your posts, and they are always looked forward to at the end of a boring day at uni. Many Thanks Chris

Hmm, we were all betting you were going to die searching for one. Glad you found it, but it doesn't look rough to me, I can still see shine in that paint . Good Luck and enjoy Chris

Ok, the things you will need are: Flap Disc (Or similar grinding device) Some Epoxy Resin and Hardener (not polysester resin) Some fibreglass matting or tape etc Surface must be oil free, and all old paint etc removed. To start off, grind back the crack, till its a V shaped depression fairly wide around the area, the brush on some epoxy, lay on some fibreglass mat, and wet it down well till its transparent. Wait till this is set, then grind back the other side till you reach the glass you just made and repeat the afore mentioned procedure. After this is finished and set, it can be sanded back and filled using just normal car bog then painted over normally. Cheers Chris PS Its bloody messy, and fibreglass splinters make you itchy (I've just spent all of yesterday putting a new floor in a boat) Also wear a mask, itchy lungs are bad. If you have any more questions just ask

You use the page from the middle of one of their other magazines with the order form on it, but I have found that nearly all their early issues are sold out.

Yeah that was one of my main concerns, I will weld on a couple of supports and run them down to the tow hook mounting points before I put it on the stand. Thanks for the link to your post, mind you your rotisserie is much higher tech than mine (If there is such thing as a high tech rotisserie ):classic:

Well, In the end I answered it myself, I ended up using the bumper mounting points front and rear, I can pick up the front of the car on the rotisserie points and it doesnt seem to flex much/at all, so I think it will be ok. Never got my car on the rotisserie, because I hurt my back holding the front up and trying to drag the rotisserie over to the car simultaneously. The moral of this story is, Use something thinner than 8mm thick angle iron to build your rotisserie, and get a friend to help putting the car on it. Will these points be ok, I will post pics soon in my galler, but its cold and dark now. Cheers Chris

Just a point of interest, I lost a wheel from the boat trailer at about 80km/hr, and the wheel overtook the car, veered across the road, cleared a fence and came to rest nearly 200m into the local wetlands area. Is it possible you just need to widen your search area? A moving wheel can make it a hell of a long way. I hope your Z is ok. Cheers Chris

Do I dare to ask how one drives home in a three wheeled Z?

George, You could almost settle for a 78 celica fasback