87mj

For what it is worth, I have an old series 1 I am restoring. My body mechanic blasted the inside, underneath and engine bay. Those things turned out fine. He didn't want to blast the body for fear of damaging it. He was very incompetent so I am glad he chose not to blast the body and sanded it instead.

After you have exhausted (?) all other possibilities, remove the left rear quarter interior plastic panel and the interior rear bezel that covers the rear tail lights. Park it in a garage and with the lights off, and from underneath the car and behind the rear wheel, shine a mag light flashlight up and look for light inside the cabin. There is a flat piece of sheet metal there which extends from the wheel well, around the antenna and to the rear valance. I found a small gap there. There are also numerous rubber plugs around hoses in the back that can deteriorate after 50 years.

Wow. Great observation. I guess they don't call you Captain Obvious for nothing. :)

If you are new to Z cars, the one piece of advice I would give is treat it only as a fair weather car. The sheet metal was not very good. I don't drive mine unless the sun is out. I live in the Midwest. Mine sits in a heated garage in the winter and I only drive it on dry summer days. No rain. Also, try to put a light colored towel over your dash when it sits outside. Especially in your area of the country. :)

Thanks Siteunseen. That post is very helpful. In my case, my idle adjustment screws are completely backed off so the linkage does not touch them. The front carb still draws much more air than the rear eve though the idle is backed off. Valves are adjusted and plugs are good.

Thanks for the help everyone. I will open the float bowls and take a look. No I assumed not mixing the parts between the carbs was important. I made sure I did not mix & match anything between the carbs but as I write this, I cant say someone else didn't a few years ago. Maybe I will try switching the pistons and see what happens (keeping track of which parts belong to which carb). I just noticed the insulators are mounted upside down. There is a pair of holes at the bottom of them that are now at the top. Cooling perhaps? Maybe that is allowing airflow where they shouldnt?

I am trying to balance the carbs on my '71. I warmed up the engine. Then I set the jets so they were flush to the bottom of the carbs and turned them both so they were flat with the bottom of the carbs. I backed off the idle on each carb so the adjustment knob was not touching the linkage. I also loosened the linkage so it wouldn't interfere with each carb and they could respond independently. The car has about 62k miles on it and it runs and drives nice. When I have the car running and look in the throat of the carbs, the front piston is much higher than the rear carb. Maybe by 1/2 inch. When I install a syncrometer to the front carb, the air draw is off the chart. There is no way I can turn the idle back because it is as far as it will go now. I can get the rear carb to adjust to anything I want. The piston is not stuck. When I shut the engine off, both drop down to where they should be. Any ideas from anyone would be appreciated.

This probably wont be helpful at all but I had soft pedal. I bled the brakes numerous times and nothing helped. Finally I installed bleeder valves on the brakes and bled them again. That worked.

I'm curious how accurate the bends in the steel tubes were. I saw in another post where someone was unable to use the rubber insulators in the brake line clamps. Did you still need to do some heavy duty bending to get them to fit correctly?

I have heard a lot of negative comments about the Type A transmission but I wont be able to personally comment about that for at least another couple of years until I finish another car. But most seem to say it feels very sloppy compared the later b. My tunnel was also botched. Regarding my '71 which has the transmission swap, it shifts too nicely to consider putting a different transmission back in it. So I decided to leave the "wrong" transmission in it. As a temporary work around, I did exactly as you suggested. I installed a type b console (8/71+ IIRC) which also meant I installed the later choke. The car looks kind of goofy since it has the vertical defroster with the series 2 console. A previous owner also installed a series 2 radio so the car is wrong on many fronts. Eventually, I plan to cut and weld a shifter and move it back a couple inches. Then install the original console back in it with the correct radio.

Thanks for the comments everyone. After thinking it through a bit, and since my front fenders are removed, it seems like I should first focus on aligning and gaping the doors to the rockers and to the 'b' pillars. Then align the fenders to the doors later?

I really need some help and search hasn't been my friend. I have a 6/70 car that had its doors & strikes removed for paint. The doors and strikes are now back on the car. Both doors line up great but both need to be slammed pretty hard in order for them to latch. Is there a technique to aligning the strike other than total guesswork? The car doesn't have any weather strip on it yet and both doors closed perfectly prior to the latches being removed. I should note that I don't have the dovetails installed on the doors yet. I could see how that might help a little bit but they seem to break easily if under too much stress. Any advice? Thanks

I have a parts car that has the same rust over the top of the battery tray. The battery tray and surrounding area were fine. According to a body mechanic, it is a very easy fix since it is flat metal for the most part. In my case it was caused by the cowl drains getting clogged with leaves and presumably exhaust gases coming from the caps of the battery.

I'm not sure what others think about restoring a car like this. I am going through a restore now. For me, the purchase price of the car is minimal compared to the cost of the restoration. Considering the upfront purchase price along with the fact that this car needs some sheet metal, the price gets high fast. In my case, I am restoring an early care whereas this is a '73. Plus I have 3 cars.... (ok 2 cars plus 1 derelict ) But having said that, if it was cheap and I went to look at it, I would buy it just because. I would politely ask people not to look underneath. Wow my wife would be mad. :(

Yes that car is about 1/2 hour from my house.

I never understood why a person would go through the trouble of painting a car but they wouldn't bother removing the nuts from the front strut towers. instead they paint over them.

I would remove those tow hooks and put them in the glove box. If they use them and the car shifts forward, you could damage things.

I have a mid '70 car. It's dash was in terrible shape. I was able to find a NOS Nissan to replace it. From what I was told, it was made in the mid '90s so it still looks and feels new. That being said, If my dash wasn't cracked, there would be no way I would consider replacing it. I would also like to know what everyone does to prevent theirs from cracking. My '71 has cracks but they aren't as large as others I have seen. I have heard that products such as Armor All will dry vinyl. So I have been using Vaseline on the '71. I will store the cars in a heated/air conditioned building so there shouldn't be any drastic temperature changes. I would think that would help but what do I know?

My advice would be to be patient. I decided on a whim to buy one. That moment, I started searching and found one on Craigslist 3 hours from me. Rust free 60k mile car. The first one I looked at. The owner told me he had another guy coming tomorrow to buy it and pay his asking price. I haven't been in the market for one since 1985 so I didn't know they were collectable cars. I thought sure there is but I bought it anyway. But knowing what I know now....

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1967-toyota-2000gt/ I'm aware of these cars, the story behind Yamaha, what they are and so on. Don't get me wrong, I really like them. But if they were worth the same money as a 240z and two cars were sitting side by side, I think the Z has more visual appeal. That is of course assuming the Z isn't wearing its factory hubcaps.

These things so far are nuisances, annoyances and so on. They can certainly be frustrating. But they don't mean the car is a turd. If it makes you feel any better, there is a sure fire way to determine whether or not you have a turd. What determines it is the quality of the underneath, floorboards, frame, sheet metal and so on. If those cost more to fix than you are willing to pay, then you have a turd. Otherwise, enjoy the journey of putting the poor neglected thing back the way she was intended. Don't forget. Just a few years ago, these cars were not worth anything. Consequently, they didn't receive much love.

What he says... If I ended up with that car, I would treat it like a rust bucket and pay to have the body put back to original. So from that standpoint, there is a lot of sheet metal there that needs repaired.

If you get lucky and get one of these, I will be amazed. I have one and have been looking for a second one for a long time.

I would have assumed a tumbler, particularly when used with abrasive media would damage the threads on screws. Am I wrong?

Anyone? If anyone has a dash that is not cracked, can you share your secret?