Zak's Z

If you're going to get pics of that Z you found... get pics under the carpets of the floors, inside the wheel arches, the rear doglegs, inside the engine bay, under the battery at the firewall if you can, and the underside - frame rails, floors etc. Post them and everyone can take a look for you. Those pics in my gallery arent recent, I just went down to see the car at the body shop and essentially it needs to be blocked one more time then its going in the paint booth. I guess I should update and add some recent pics.

Paint removal ended up being a long process. I tried a few body shops and no one would touch it. I then tried a few media blasting companies. Most of them didnt do small vehicles, and the few that would do it charged a small fortune. I bought a larger compressor and a small blasting pot and tried to do it myself. It didnt work well on my (3-4?) layers of paint, and it didnt work at all on body filler or undercoating. I ended up renting a pot and a trailered compressor and doing it in my garage. That worked well, but I didnt want to warp or work harden the thin body panels, so I ended up doing alot of it with various paint removal disks/wheels on my hammer drill. The red fibre-bristle wheels work the best for me. I tried chemicals also but the paint stripper was messier and only really worked well on the roof. Check out my gallery for some pics. All I can say is it was alot of work to do properly. I enjoyed most of it, seeing bare metal was quite rewarding.

Ok, I found it. It was around Aug '07. This is the worst 'out to pasture' Z I have seen. http://www.hammondsplains.com/chester/index.htm

Does anyone have that pic from earlier this year of the 240z someone found in Eastern Canada (Newfoundland I think?). I remember it was talked about here... the hatch was rotted through, rear was all rotted..it was in really bad shape. I'll keep looking.

The floors, frame rails, and rockers are all still for sale, and they cost me about $1,200. I made a mistake of using the first welder at a bodyshop that I could find. It ended up with one floor pan higher than the other, and my current bodyshop had to fix the door gaps. So I then pay the guy to do the welding... and if I just paid a few grand more for a rust free body, I would have been ahead of the game. But I did what I could with the money I had.

As long as you have full spport from the wife....I guess it doesnt matter how much it costs! I bought a '72 240z almost 4 years ago, doing a slow 'refresh' on it. Mine was in pretty bad condition, needed floors, rockers, some welding...etc. etc. I also bought a whole new garage ful of tools over these years Im not factoring into price. Mine is just about to leave the bodyshop with new paint and fresh body filler all around. I pretty much have everything I ned to put it back together, less about $1000.00 for rubber and carpets. I'd say I have about 12k (Canadian funds) into it so far, but that will probably jump to 15-16k. And thats with me doingg most of the work myself, Taking the car down to bare metal for the body shop. Motor and carbs were done for the cost of parts also. The only advice I have for you is to buy the best car you can afford out of the gate. The better the body is on the one you buy the less cost and aggravation your restoration will give you in the long run.

It looks alot better than mine that I paid $2,300 for. How are the floors and al the typical rust areas?

77 and 79 look fine, but the 78 diagram doesnt look right in my browser.

This site has at least one electrical diagram for a 78. Hope it helps. http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/electrical.htm

How did that 'deal' go? .. "Gimmee 2 ounces of Panama White...uuhh, 2 Grams of that sweet jamaican bud.....and a couple of early Nissan Key Blanks." Just kidding of course, just sounds kinda funny 'different kind of dealer". Im interested to hear the rest of this story..

I have a locksmith friend who is re-keying my locks so one key works on all. I was watching him do his thing and he says he might have a very old box of blanks. We looked o an old shelf and there was what looked to be a pretty old box that said Datsun on it. I was pretty excited to see if there would be any of these keys in it...but alas, it was only generic blanks.

I have friends that work for Chrysler in Windsor. I can tell you it pays the bills and puts food on their table. I think thats a pretty good consolation. Same with the folks at Honda in Alliston. I think if U.S. companies were in a better state, maybe they wouldnt have to shut down the GM plant in Oshawa here. Lots of good people are going to be out of work next year, and thats going to destroy the town. I also worked summers in a steel plant in Northern Ontario that shipped steel to several auto makers and related industry, and it put me through university.

Hondas are built here in Canada (so are American cars)...so what do I do?? And my (sold it) German BMW was built in the US.

Ya, it's status must be lost on me. Sure its a great looking car but.... Would one of the real rally cars that it was actually modeled after fetch that much?

Whats this? I havn't heard this before...

Im interested! I've seen a bunch of videos of that car on youtube, and it looks fantastic. I have yet to see one in the Toronto area though. Im sure its only a matter of time.

What about using one of those 'universal' wiring harnesses I see on Ebay and other car sites every now and then? I know it a pain in the a$$ to make the stock connectors fit with them, but wouldnt it be a matter of spending some time either splicing the Z harness connectors to the universal harness, or just splicing the off harness parts to the universal harness? Heres a link to a few I found on a quick search. http://cgi.ebay.ca/EZ-WIRING-21-CIRCUIT-STREET-ROD-WIRING-HARNESS_W0QQitemZ230283959790QQihZ013QQcategoryZ42606QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.ca/KW14STD-Kwik-Wire-Heavy-Duty-Universal-Wiring-Harness_W0QQitemZ220273579155QQihZ012QQcategoryZ80739QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I stripped my car down to bare metal last summer. I used a few different ways - paint stripper, sanding, nylon wheels... When I was done a section, I used POR-15 Metal Ready, then I cleaned the area with solvent and used a rattle can primer to cover the area. When I brought the car into the body shop that is painting it, they said it was ok and they would just sand that down. I left a spare hood and fender bare over the winter in my garage. I used Metal-Ready on both of them, and they did both have a very slight amount of surface rust on them in the spring. Better prime it right after you strip it and prep the metal is my opinion.

Nice job. Looks great!

Dave, like everyone says sure it can be fixed. But seriously, are you really up for all that work? It would be great to learn on and could probably be saved, but finding a better car to start with will probably be less expensive if you dont already have the tools and skills. A better car might just be the way to go in this situation. Just my opinion, but it sounds like you'd spend a lot more money and time trying to fix this than some of the other guys here who already are comfortable and more skilled working on metal.

Really...I never called them to check I just saw it online. Did you call them Bob?