madkaw

Well I got about half of my pictures to load. Haven't been sharing much because I have been truly frustrated with posting on the site. Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky but I can't seem to get around on the new format as easily as the old CZCC. I am glad Mike makes all his efforts and glad go have the site available. Most of the time I can't get the I-phone to load pics and even off of my laptop I have issues. As you can see I have been full tilt on this project the last week. We considered powder coating all this stuff, but the weather was really good for painting and I had the time to get it done. The other important factor is that stuff was mostly just dirty-very dirty. The rust was negligible , so a good cleaning, sanding, por-15 and paint at it all looks pretty again. Another reason to spend more $$ and buy a car out west and have it shipped if you are considering a project. Even the hardware cleaned up on this car to the point that you would swear I replaced it. I had the oil pan and valve cover tanked at a local machine shop so they are spotless. Now I feel comfortable running some high detergents and it will all drain out. The engine was brushed on Por-15 . I think the engine kit is well worth it when you see how well the paint covers. They give you too much color - a pint is enough for 3 engines. I tried some rattle can Por-15 chassis paint it is also $$, but it covers great and the chassis coat looks superb! I have thousands of dollars worth of new parts to install--- now that the dirty work is done. This will be much more enjoyable. Damper Doc refurbished the balancer and its ready to go on. The crossmember went on with new Nissan motor mounts and soon will have a refurbished rack attached. I need to press in the control arm bushings and assemble the front end. I removed the strut inserts to find some Monroe inserts , so obviously some one updated this. The inserts seem to be in working order and we will run with that for now. New ball joints, tie rod ends, bushings, tension rod rubber bushings, new calipers and rotors should make her stop and go much better.

Cliff, I think the best of Both worlds would be to limit the vacuum advance so you can run max total timing WOT. Meanwhile I would run about 17 initial and disconnect the vacuum while you play around for best power. There are threads somewhere where folks have limited the travel on the rod connecting the vacuum .

Ride quality is so subjective- but I am always looking for a bit of refinement in my ride. I noticed the OP had solid mounted tension rods(basically). Don't know if that was done at the same time or not, but that transmits a LOT of roughness to the chassis . Add urethane and hard springs and wow. I run urethane with suspension technique springs and KYB Struts. I believe my spring rates are less- though my car is lower than stock considerably. This subject has been on my mind lately with respect of how mixing rubber bushings with a firmer suspension would work out. Could a person go fairly rigid on the suspension for handling and not defeat that with rubber bushings? Would the suspension just wear out the rubber twice as fast- or not fast enough to worry about. This is assuming NEW rubber all the way around. This is where I really miss the wisdom of John Coffey

If I had my way I would off the rails(RR) and have a couple of these going at the same time. My wife wants me to retire and do this instead( lot less grumpy), but don't have a place to work- yet. I think I would like to keep it small and personal . It keeps the owner involved . In Bo's case , there just wasn't anyone around he could find to do this work local. I like being able to just shoot a text and pic to the owner and say-" look what I found today". So when the bills come in there is a story behind it.

Haven't hit bottom yet. Still removing bad parts . Balancer came off to replace front seal I suspect as bad- and it was, so is the balancer. Rubber all dried out and missing hunks. The seal was 2mm bigger ID than a new one - oil slinger! Also noticed the engine mounts are shot. The heat and petroleum bath has softened the rubber to sponges. Back to the front suspension . Disconnected rack and found one bad inner and one bad outer tie rod. Digging deeper the ball joints are bad also. None of these parts had any rubber boots left on them- so they have been left to the elements for how long? At this point ," while your at it" syndrome is kicking in with a vengeance . Now the struts are coming off to inspect the inserts. It's really hard telling what the prior owner did or not do. He replaced a about all the suspension bushings with urethane , but couldn't find a trace of lube- thus a squeaky ride. The PO also spray bombed the suspension parts with black paint -covering up what? Sprayed right over pretty zinc brake line keepers-jish. So we decided to pull everything including crossmember and powder coat it all. Going back all rubber on the bushings. Post pics later

Marvel and trans fluid look amazingly like each other:) Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club

Higher detergent to help clean the inards

Both. Car has lived in a very hot climate -Nevada. The car just smells of abuse. i probably will be using Rotella with a shot of transmission fluid

Well the owner came by yesterday to see the progress. I got lucky and found an owner that is realistic about this type of endeavor . An initial parts list of over 1k didn't buckle his knees or anything . Showing him all the damage from abuse he could understand . I said the abuse warranted me to drop the oil pan to see if it needed to be cleaned and... we we will really see how tough these motors are. I feel a little bad for Bo, but this is what you can get with an old car. I am going to tank the valve cover and oil pan and probably consider the oil pump at this time. Now if we run a detergent of some kind in the oil it won't stir up this sh!t

I got to go see Z's race at IMS and worked in Z's today . Great Father's Day week end for me! happy Father's Day dads

Well spent the last few days cleaning and inspecting. It took HOURS to get the engine bay clean. It was the worse engine bay cleaning I've done. Black oil , gunked in every crevice to be scrapped and scrubbed , wire brushed and washed - twice. At least now I should be able to find where the leak is actually coming from. I suspect front main along with the valve cover that was leaking. I'm surprised the electrical still worked with the generator and voltage regulator covered in black soot. Anything that touched water is trashed but the radiator and heater core cleaned up. Oil is also baked on inside of valve cover - who knows what the oil pan looks like. The crankcase breather tube was partial obstructed with a build up of carbon dirt. I pulled it off and ran a wire brush thru it and was amazed of the amount of crap in there. Brakes were over done. Drums at max size and rotors under sized. It seemed only one side of the caliper was actually moving . One steel line was almost twisted closed. I think I can salvage the rear wheel cylinders , they must have been redone at some point. But still no rust to be found

Well spent the last few days cleaning and inspecting. It took HOURS to get the engine bay clean. It was the worse engine bay cleaning I've done. Black oil , gunked in every crevice to be scrapped and scrubbed , wire brushed and washed - twice. At least now I should be able to find where the leak is actually coming from. I suspect front main along with the valve cover that was leaking. I'm surprised the electrical still worked with the generator and voltage regulator covered in black soot. Anything that touched water is trashed but the radiator and heater core cleaned up. Oil is also baked on inside of valve cover - who knows what the oil pan looks like. The crankcase breather tube was partial obstructed with a build up of carbon dirt. I pulled it off and ran a wire brush thru it and was amazed of the amount of crap in there. Brakes were over done. Drums at max size and rotors under sized. It seemed only one side of the caliper was actually moving . One steel line was almost twisted closed. I think I can salvage the rear wheel cylinders , they must have been redone at some point. But still no rust to be found

I like them Mike!

Good timing Cliff. I just went thru these SU's on the 72 and was about to look for a good thread for tune. I need to rig some hoses for float level and I will be set to tune

Wel the car was described as a " survivor" in the ad- and it survived it's neglect. Rust in the coolant system from running straight water . Coolant lines thru carbs were plugged completely. Thermostat housing cracked and bolts seized in the head. Took the radiator to get flushed and he said it took a while to come out clean . Brake fluid very dirty and will need total flush. Exhaust manifold missing nut at downpipe and all the head nuts were finger tight. Alternator bracket bolt was just sitting in the hole. Good news is compression test was about 150 across. Valves weren't that far out of adjustment and the spray bar was intact and lobes looked good. Lots of gunk build up though. Other good news is that the carbs must have been done once and they actually have some sparkle left. The engine actually has some color on it too

Still have turn signals?

Contacted "Bo" on line thru craigslist an ad he had. . He seemed to be selling because the lack of experienced help with his car by his ad description. I volunteered my services since he was fairly close . Bo turned out to be a great family guy that was wanting a Z and found one. He got this rust free Automatic for him and his wife to enjoy, but like all these cars, it needs a Z medic to be right. By the end of day of checking out his car we agreed to get her going to a safe reliable status for him to enjoy and progress from there. With only 90K miles she is just broke in I told him this will be and up and down adventure with these "classics", so I hope you are ready. I don't have facility to do a "restoration", but I plan on doing anything I can. We got it up on the lift and while he was here and just love those west coast cars-so clean. Looked like the gas tank had already gone thru-painted. There was urethane in most of the bushings already. It needs front end work, rack boots, tie rod boots, ball joint boots are all cracked and or gone. Interior is a gut job, but not sure what color he is going back too. I like the white myself, but either way he is starting from ground zero. Dash is cracked, vinyl is shot , seats are shot. Door panels are some funky aftermarket as well as headliner. Weather stripping is gone to. Already have the SU's apart troubleshooting a rich issue. Carbs were badly misadjusted and one needle was bent. Next is a complete tune up, including valve adjustment, electronic ignition,etc...

Did they offer options to change the bolsters on the seat bottom if you wanted to make them bigger?

110 with originally white interior. Now just a ugly interior that has morphed black. Bad paint job that oozed onto finisher

Took on a client for some Z work- didn't have enough to do- 1972 Auto from out west- very rust free and original. Going to try and bring her back to glory

Congrats

You know what's funny is that I have never enjoyed that induction sound because my airbox muffles that. All I hear is engine and exhaust . And I have contacted several folks about larger chokes than 32 for 40's , and they don't exist for the most part. I would need to modify/enlarge mine. The good thing is that if I go to large , there are used 32's out there to pop back in

You know what's funny is that I have never enjoyed that induction sound because my airbox muffles that. All I hear is engine and exhaust . And I have contacted several folks about larger chokes than 32 for 40's , and they don't exist for the most part. I would need to modify/enlarge mine. The good thing is that if I go to large , there are used 32's out there to pop back in

You know what's funny is that I have never enjoyed that induction sound because my airbox muffles that. All I hear is engine and exhaust . And I have contacted several folks about larger chokes than 32 for 40's , and they don't exist for the most part. I would need to modify/enlarge mine. The good thing is that if I go to large , there are used 32's out there to pop back in

So you have a stock tach in there now and you haven't seen it run so you don't know if it works. Just saying that my current type tach worked fine with the zx dizzy. I wouldn't swap tachs until you get it running or you might really be chasing your tail