Hardway

Sounds like you got a smoking deal. Congrats and glad to see it went to a good home.

Congrats! That is awesome. Can't wait to see the pics and hear more of the story.

I ordered all new bolts from Fastenal when I rebuilt my front suspension. Decided to go with grade 10.9 and yellow zinc on everything. I have a thread detective that I used to measure all the bolts. If you are need the dimensions of something specific just let me know as I still have my notebook with all the info.

It sounds like a really a good deal for someone that can get to it and it has no more rust other than what can be seen by the fuel door. Unfortunately it is 800+ miles from me but it is seeing these kinds of cars that makes it tempting to cut my losses with mine and look for something in better condition.

You did a great job on your rear suspension so I am sure the front will be no different. Glad to hear yours came apart without any issues. I just wrapped up the rebuild of my front suspension on my '72. Check out my resto thread in the Open Discussion section. I took lots of pics but I am sure you have already seen the front should not be near as difficult as the rear. Keep us posted with your progress!

Great color, maintenance and work has been done, low miles, all for $5500. Sounds like a steal to me!

After a night out for some Tex-Mex and watching football I had no idea this thread had gained so much attention. I ordered the springs today from AutoZone on my way home from work. Ran me $95 with tax and they should be here one day next week. I usually always go with O'Reilly's for my OTC parts but they wanted $18 for freight shipping and AZ did not so they got my business on these. I truly appreciate everyone's info, comments, and passion around these cars, in fact I have loved reading them. The whole reason I posted this up was because I could not find anything about them here on CZC and the last posts about them on Zcar.com were from around 2006. I did not venture over to HybridZ but it makes sense there would be more info there. I still need to do the rear suspension rebuild on my '72 so the results won't be seen for awhile with springs. Based on the experiences of other owners these should make a great option for those wanting stock height springs for their Z.

Hey Z Boy, yeah I have read that using Eibach springs would be better but owners have reported some of the same issues that I am having already. So far from what I have read about the Chevette springs that in un-cut form they are almost 100% stock ride height and then can be cut to suit the owners taste. Plus they are supposed to be a little stiffer than the stock springs so that seems like a plus to me. For $88 for all 4 I think they are worth at least picking up a set and trying them out. My local O'Reilly Auto Parts store can get them but they will take a week to arrive as no one carries them in stock. I figure if they are not what I want I can always return them and go another direction.

Glad to hear you found a Z car Buddjack. Sounds like your hunting and patience paid off. As always we love seeing pics. If you have any pics of your '72 you can post up that would be great!

So after putting the front suspension back together on my '72 the King lowering springs are not going to cut it for me. They do work but the car sits too low and less than an inch off the bump stop. I want to get back to something a little more stock looking. On Zcar.com several members reported back in the late 90's and mid 2000's about using some front Chevette springs for the front and rear of a Z. They are not a bolt in affair as they have to be cut to produce the ride height that is desired but they are the correct diameter. The years to get look to be '77-85, auto. trans, and air conditioning. Moog #6558 comes up for this and seems to be what everyone else used as well. Are there any members here that have used them and have any results to report back on?

Get a flashlight and see if the bump stops are sitting or nearly sitting on the strut tubes. If one side is 1" lower or its already sitting on the bump stop then you may have a blown strut. As you mentioned these kinds of issues have been reported before but there are owners who have successfully used this combo. I am sort of in the same boat with my '72 only I have a set of King lowering springs that the PO put on. With my new KYB cartridges in I am less than an inch off the bump stop.

Depending on the laws of your state and how vehicle titles work you may be able to get a bonded title for the car. My questions is, if the city "owns" it why can't you just buy it from them or is it an impounded car? There should be some way to buy it without fear of recourse from a previous owner or insurance company. In my opinion if you are not able to secure such legal security then just leave it be, there are plenty of 240z's out there and this just may not be the one for you.

Congrats Grretc on your purchase! Very cool that she called you back after 7 months and you were able to make a deal on it. I like your plan to keep it as original as possible but since it sat outside for so long, even though it was covered we all agree some items will have to be replaced. The door panels look near mint, great to see there were no speaker holes cut in to them. I recently did a fuel system rehhab on my '72 but it had been a daily driver before I got it. Since you are planning to drop the tank check out the various threads and websites on replacing the tank vent lines. If they are original they are going to need replacing and having the tank down helps a lot in getting it done. Keep us posted as we all love threads like these!

Once you get the gland nut off using the pipe wrench method your strut cartridge will either slide out or need some persuasion. Check out my thread below as I just went through this with my '72. I ended up buying a slide hammer and holding the strut tube in a vise and literally yanking the cartridge out with the slide hammer. Hopefully yours will just slide out! Keep us posted. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/thread47863.html

Like everyone else the holidays have been keeping me busy. I did manage to find some time in the evenings to do some work on the Z. I got the new rebuilt front calipers installed along with new pads, hardware, original rotors turned with it’s re-packed bearings back in place and some new stainless steel braided hoses. I also installed the front sway bar with the poly ES bushings and new hardware. All in all I think it looks really good. I know some will ask why I did not paint and detail the rotor and hub. It came down to 2 factors, time and value. I needed to make the car a roller again and time was not on my side. The lack value being that trying to wire brush the rust off the rotor and hub would have been rather tedious and then cleaning everything to paint such small areas would not make any real difference in the long term. Since my wife and I were going to attack the garage to put up some wall shelving the Z needed to come out. So back on went the wheels and she was finally a roller again. She effortlessly rolled out of the garage and saw sunlight for the first time in 9 months. While it was on the ground it gave me a chance to look at the springs and see how close to the bump stops I was. Sure enough I had less than 1” of travel before the top of the strut tube would hit the bump stop. I figured this might be the case since others had experienced this with their Z when lowering it. This is too low for me so I am going to look in to getting some Eibach Pro-Kit springs as other owners has reported good results with them while using the KYB struts. That is all for now. We will see what kind of time the rest of the holidays give me.

Check out this thread and look at Zed's fuel rail on post #32 - http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/thread45706-2.html Looks to be what you might be wanting.

Congrats on your barn find and for working to get it running. Does it smell rich when it runs? If so your floats may not be set just right. The SU carbs are sensitive to their float setting. Are you using an electrical or mechanical pump? If its electrical it could be pushing too much pressure. What do your spark plugs look like?

First off, great progress, pictures, and info on your work. It is these kinds of threads that save so much of us a lot of pain, time, and money. On the note one small nugget I can offer on removing the bushing shells is this. #1 Invest in a reciprocating saw, I picked up a next to new Dewalt at a pawn shop for $40 and spent $10 on a variety pack of blades. #2 With the control arm in a vice and a metal cutting blade in the saw cut two slits in the shell at opposite sides, not just one. Then using a cold chisel push the two halves out. The picture below is of the shell I removed. It came out just the way you see it. The second slit I cut was not 100% through as you can see. I used this technique when doing my front suspension bushings so it should work on the rears as well, took about 6 minutes per bushing. Again, just be careful not to cut in to the control arm.

Yeah, jumped in expecting to see pics of Z cars on the highway or on a cruise. Instead I got a stationary Z and a nice shot of the owners g/f. Nice g/f OJ! You are a lucky man in many respects.

You are making some good progress Pacemkr. I am knee deep in my 240z as well and will be tackling the rear suspension very soon. What kind of diff mount setup do you plan on going with? Stock, RT, solid, etc? Hearing that your spindle pins came out with just penetrating oil is motivating. Hopefully mine follow suit. Look forward to more updates!

I appreciate all the comments guys. The term "mid project remorse" hit the nail on the head. At this point I am going to keep it and press on. I have been following my thread and everyone's support of my project. On the Z, I just got in too deep off the bat but felt a lot of it was necessary since I seemed to uncover one safety hazard after another as I made repairs. This car has certainly proved to be a good learning platform as I have taught myself to weld on it. I have done big projects on other cars in the past, suspension rebuilds, engine swaps, interior restorations, but never cutting out metal and welding in new. As far as the paint goes, given my budget it will be sticking around for awhile. Once I reach the point where I want to paint it I will see if I can partner with a local body and paint shop to do as much work as I can based on their guidance that will help produce a high quality finished product.

Thank you for the comments and compliments Zed. I followed your engine build and install thread like a hawk so seeing your posting has made my day. You may get lucky and your strut inserts may slide right out. However it seems its about 50/50 around here. One item I am going to try and locate is a wire bore brush that will slide down in the strut tube to clean it. Mine still had a some gunk in it despite blowing out as much as I could. Post up or shoot me a PM if you have any questions.

I appreciate the thoughts and comments guys. You are right, finding a really good silver car will cost really good money and chances of it being within driving distance is slim to none. I like MadKaw's suggestion of sanding and priming one area or panel at a time and still be able to drive it. That is very do-able and makes progress too. You guys are right, any buyer that came to look at it would beat me up on everything that was not done regardless of what I was asking for the car. For now I think my real issue is a lack of patience. I am ready to drive the car and ready for it to look good. I guess it will all come in due time.

That is some great progress Dan! You are truly neck deep in that car. I have been tackling some of the rust repair on my '72 as well and yours gives me more motivation to carry on. Can you tell us what kind of welder you are using and what you have it set at? When I have welded some butt joints together I am still blowing holes through it. I have Hobart Handler 150, set on 1 for power, 5-6 for wire speed, using .024 Hobart wire, and my gas set at around 25-30. In some of my repair work as can be seen in your pics there is no way to put a backing plate on the spot you are welding. If you do blow a hole through the metal how do you go about repairing it without making the hole bigger? Any info will be greatly appreciated by all!

Thank you for the compliment Steve and glad to hear my thread provided the motivation to tackle your own seats. If you have any questions please post them up or PM me. Once you are done post up some before and after photos!