wheee!

That turned out pretty nice Chas!

I had to whack the fuel pump a few times back in the spring before it would pump, but the car fired right up and ran perfect on that crappy fuel... wow! Blows my mind....

Thanks, but I am pretty sure I'm going to use this as an excuse to get the discs! As for the gas tank, it is coated in undercoating and seems to be solid so far. No leaks. However, it does have a couple of large dents that I would like to remove prior to restoring it. I was planning on doing the POR route anyways...

No. the drums were there but they are damaged and worn beyond repair.

I guess that makes it easier to decide to go rear disc!

And then discovered that the brake hardware was all missing too!

Should have known....

Learned a few things tonight... The gas gauge doesn't work. Thought it was empty. And yes, that's gas not oil in the bucket...

Post some pics without the seal Matt!

Let's be clear.... anything can be repaired.... But at what cost/time/materials? Your car has serious rust throughout the midsection, literally from dogleg across to dogleg. I have never seen one that bad personally. I have a friend nearby here in Canada who just disposed of a 240 with less than half of the damage yours is showing. Don't panic, he has two others to restore. The point being that IF you have deep pockets to replace the doglegs, surrounding sheet metal, door sills, rocker panels, floor pans, frame rails, seat anchors, and probably numerous other areas of the unibody you MAY be able to restore the car. The biggest issue I see is that you have very little SOLID metal to weld onto! You literally will need to start welding metal from the roof down in order to have good steel to add the panels to! Reread the comments, look at the car objectively, look at the other restoration threads and see what people are starting from in comparison.... THEN decide where you want to go. I believe your best option has already been suggested in parting this car out and saving the best pieces for a restoration of a better frame. Best of luck!!

If the $1000 for another shell is out of your league, then the $20,000 or so to do a complete restoration is going to kill you.... Sorry son, time to put this one behind you I think. I used to hate the fact that only the old dudes drove nice old cars. Now I realize it's because the time, money and knowledge to rebuild these cars comes with age.... I wish I could have all the old cars I used to drive as a young man back. Then maybe I could restore them as I should have. Keep your dream alive, save the parts you can and wait for a better frame to come up for sale. Take your time and save your money for now. I drooled over the 280's my 'rich' friends drove in high school. Now I'm almost 50 and I can afford a nice new 370Z AND restore a 280 of my own! A dream come true but, alas, it was time that made it come true! Best of luck and thank you for sharing your dream. Hope we haven't crushed your desire to restore a Z one day!

All good points above. Its a tough bone to chew but there's no meat left if you get my drift...

I would take a step back and find another frame I think... Sorry, that looks like a lot more than Rustoration.... More like a resurrection!

Admire your ambition! Good luck with the project and make sure to read all the other "project" threads on here for tips and hints.

Took a break from the interior and spent some quality time stripping the undercoating of the inner fender area last night. The coating was 1/4" thick on places and covered a fair amount of surface rust, which is why the PO did it I suppose. The corrosion looks like it is minor and I used a wire cup to strip it clean after the undercoating came off. I was careful not to strip metal. I know this area will be hidden, but I want it all down to bare metal and properly sealed. I need to stop procrastinating and start removing all the hard lines! I've been letting them soak in PB Blaster for the last week to loosen up some of the seized bolts...

I have beer and I will even BBQ a steak for you if you're coming to help...

True. I have both so maybe I will experiment!

I also have a son in law that is a professional welder...! That makes it even easier!

I was going to do the same thing basically with cleco fasteners. Butt welds are best! Seamless repairs....

All good info! I have basically the same setup you have described and have all the necessary safety gear. I have also designed the shop to allow me to enclose the car while I blast so I can contain the media fallout. And recycle it after filtering etc. I will need to experiment a bit with media however. The copper slag doesn't bite a well as I hoped and the crushed glass leaves a beautiful finish but is slow and expensive! $50 per 50lb bag versus $10 per 50lb bag of copper slag.

Quick shot of the rotisserie sitting outside the shop. I will have the car mounted in a week or so I think.

I don't disagree. I will only be blasting small areas of the car as i go (hopefully) so I'm hoping to get by. I don't want to blast any sheet metal body panels for sure. The blasting will be for the small places I can't get a stripping wheel into. The local full body media blaster quoted me $2500 to blast the car..... I think I can manage without shelling out that kind of money!

We will see. I am familiar with the technique, just not a lot of places to get dry ice near where I live... or maybe I will just have a Scraping Party! Everyone bring a scraper and let's have some fun!