Ed

AAhhhh, I had to dust the cobwebs off of this one. I followed Escanlon's directions on the taillight restoration and I must say, THANK YOU ENRIQUE! My taillights look like new (except for the chrome strip, still working on a solution for them). I did the passenger light first and left the drivers as it was removed from the car. WoW! what a difference.

I hope your talking about the fuel filler hose. The one that goes from the gas cap to the gastank. I've only removed it while the tank was out but I imagine you could take it out with the gastank loose. First you need to disconnect the filler hose from the tank. Then I used a hair dryer to warm up the rubber on the gas cap side. Once the rubber warmed up it was easier to bend. Push the lip of the filler hose in then down. Once you get a piece of it inside and under the lip then the rest goes pretty easy.

Get someone strong to turn the wheel side to side while the car is parked. You stick your head under the hood and see where all the slipping is coming from. If it is the steering coupler than that's an easy fix. A new coupler and some new bolts and your good to go. I wouldn't drive it 10 feet until you fix this or you might end up :dead: .

Wow! That is a beautiful car! Congratulations, good things do come to those who wait. You should be very, very proud. I hope you can make it to the Nationals in Syracuse this August. I'd love to see her. Enjoy!!!!

I'm a little confused Jason, as your taking a right hand turn you turn the wheel to lets say 3 o'clock (12 o'clock being straight) 1/4 turn to the right. Now the car starts out doing fine then it does what? Changes direction? Do the tires squeel like your loosing traction? Tire pressure? Allignment?

Say, I must have missed a thread somewhere but. When did you get your Z? She looks real nice! Lets see some more pictures. As far as the spoiler goes. If it's in your price range get it. You don't have to put it on right away. See how she looks with it. If you don't like it you can turn around and sell it. Personally I like the BRE spoiler. Clean and efficient. Look through the gallery at some Zeds with the BRE spoiler. Enjoy.

If you don't have one I would suggest getting or renting an impact gun to remove the flywheel bolts. Why remove the flywheel you ask? Because when you remove the pressure plate and clutch you will notice that it has an uneven surface or maybe even some surface cracks. You will want to take it and have it resurfaced and for that you will need an impact gun to remove the bolts. If the surface of the flywheel looks good then your in luck. Go play the lotto. Don't get discouraged, remember it's a learning experiance. My first clutch took about 10 hours to do. Now I can do it in 4.

Brian, This subject has been discussed several times here. There are a lot of holes and crevaces in the rear of the car that would allow fumes to enter the cabin area, fuel vapor lines, fuel filler neck, tailight seals, antenna drain, rear hatch seal, rear hatch plugs, and the list goes on. Do a search for exhaust fumes and it will give you some more ideas of where to look. Seal up as many holes as you can find. Check your exhaust for leaks by looking for black carbon build up around joints and gaskets. It also wouldn't hurt to replace the PCV valve and the fuel hoses. The more you seal the less fumes you will breath. It can be done. Good luck.

As far as I know 80W is standard for gear oil. Not sure why it's hard to shift. My old 4 speed did that going into reverse.

If no one here can help you then try "All Z Auto Wrecking" they are down in the San Diego area. (619) 421-5881.

Try looking in the phone book. That's where I found a place and it cost me about $40 bucks.

You can't lower the car without loosing suspension travel. Unless you modify the strut tube.

Dude, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but, once you start taking things apart on your car you WILL find more rust. Those rusted frame rails....... :dead: Then there is that one picture that I can't tell what it is but rust, bad rust. OMG.... I'm not trying to discourage you and I'm sure others will agree. Strip the body and have it soda blasted, then you will get a real idea of how much sheet metal replacement is involved. Now you have to decide take it to someone who will do it for you OR learn how to weld and do it yourself. Your car has been in the northeast and seen too many salted roads. Honestly, I know you want the car to last another 30 years. The car has sentimental value. So you HAVE to do it right. Buy yourself a sandblasting cabinet, learn about POR-15. AND become a backyard mechanic. Save money where you can and do a lot of the work yourself. We will help you. Honestly. Strip the body and tell us what you have. Edit: load smaller pictures.

Sounds like your in for a fun time. I'm getting close to finishing my restoration and one thing I can tell you is that it isn't cheap. From what you've said it sounds like you have a fat wallet since your going to send out most of the work. Hope it all goes well. One thing is don't get discouraged. You will have parts everywhere and it will be a mess. Build some shelving and try to stay organized. Keep a notebook (diary) of items you remove for that day. Stock up on zip lock baggies and try and keep track of what screws went where. Take lots of pictures. All this will help you when it comes time to reassemble. Don't get burned out. A little here and a little there. I've been at it for two years and some days I just don't want to look at the car. Have fun and good luck.

She doesn't look too bad. Unfortunately the pictures don't show the trouble spots. The engine has had some work. It has the earlier carbs and most of the emission stuff has been removed. I don't know if you have to have it smoged but it probably won't pass. It also looks like it has headers. Judging by the rust on the brake fluid reservoir caps you will probably find some more elsewhere. Go look at the car. Get under it and inspect the floors. Pull up the carpet in front of the seats and look for rust. If it doesn't look any worse than the pictures she should be a 3-5k car. Good luck

I like this idea :classic:

Agreed. Depending on how much sludge accumulation you have it's better to leave it alone. I made the mistake once (emphasis on the once) of trying to clean some of the sludge on an old Dodge I had. It was atleast 1/16" thick in some places of the valve cover. I scraped as much as I could. I even thought about using those "engine flush" products. I was carefull not to leave any pieces laying around but it was all for not. A couple of weeks later while taking my girls to the Zoo the engine oil pressure light came on. Then the valves started to chatter. To make a long messy story a little shorter, a little piece of sludge the size of a pencil eraser had made it's way into the oil pump and siezed it. The oil pump drive shaft snapped. When I was able to reach into the oil pan I pulled handfulls of sludge, in solid and semi solid form out of there. A true pain in the A$$! If the sludge is just a bit of discoloration on the engine components you can try using a high detergent oil. Start saving and buying parts for a rebuild is probably the best thing you can do besides leaving it alone.

I just laid my front bumper on the ground and it layed flat. One side was up by maybe 1/2 an inch but I pressed on it and the bumper looked like it was touching along it's entire length. You should check your bumper mounts and your grill. Judging by the way the grill doesn't follow the lines of the hood it may just be that. There are two holes at the bottom center of the grill support. Try raising the center see if that helps.

Just curious as to which oil filters will work on the L series engine. I use a Fram PH8.

If your using an impact wrench leave the peening alone. It will come right off. If you dremmel the nut then you will distroy it and you will have to get a replacement (good luck). You can also use a small punch and knock the peening out to relieve some pressure. On mine it had some type of thread lock stuff in the threads. Not sure if it came from the factory with some kind of thread lock.