Zetsaz

SUPER IMPORTANT QUESTION: When putting on new rocker panels, do people generally just spot weld them on like the originals, or do they make a seam like on butt joints? I've been searching for hours and most of the pictures I've found are sparse to say the least and there's not much detail in the descriptions on how to get the whole job done. I'm almost done completely removing the driver side, but I'm still slightly confused by a couple things.

No pictures right now, but I've taken everything apart to prepare for metal work and hopefully sandblast this thing. There was way more bondo in some areas than I thought and it turned out to be more rust than I was hoping for, but the worst is in areas I already bought replacement panels for so I'm not too bummed. I'm gonna have to buy the lower panel for the passenger fender though because I had no idea it was pretty much just rust and bondo. Live and learn I guess. The project keeps getting to be more and more work than I expected just go the the shell in decent condition, but my fuel setup will be solid for pretty much any engine I choose to swap down the road (especially an LS engine), and the interior with few exceptions is pretty much done. Just gotta patch up this metal which is gonna be a pita.

Haven't been posting much lately. Been trying to apply for full time jobs and I was in Oregon for a few days just recently checking out a job offer. Finally made a cover for the tank. Made from aluminum my dad got at the scrapyard. It's bolted around the sides so I can access anything I want on the tank or the rear end down the road. Welded the fancy little things you see around the circle so I could bolt the plate down. It works well enough for now Dad cutting the cover and a mockup Fancy schtuff Gives you an idea of placement pre-welded Aaaand, painted and bolted on (mostly, you get the idea) It's not perfect but it'll do for now.

Been raining a lot here the last few days. Haven't done too much last weekend, but earlier I got the chance to clean up the glass, particularly the nasty tint that was left on the driver side window. Took a couple hours of scraping even after using a window film adhesive remover. Before (note that this is just a couple minutes after I had started. don't have a true "before" pic): After:

Frankenstein lives: Obviously I haven't put everything back on yet. Threw the taillights back on super fast just so i didn't feel too ratty, but she moves! Still finishing the back piece for carpet. Not sure if I'll have that totally done tonight, but pics will come as soon as it's done and I've thrown them on for a test fit.

Didn't get a chance to get some pics or video of the car moving today because we've been getting some pretty good rain. I'll get something once it's sunny again. In the meantime I started cutting up the carpet that I bought over a year ago. It's all laid out and ready to go. center piece at the rear of the console was finished earlier. I'll have pics up in the morning when I finish the rest.

Thanks a lot! It's been a lot of hard work, but I'm excited to actually do something with it that'll make me money now haha

Major milestone in both life and in the Z car. I graduated from my university this weekend, but more importantly... I bled the clutch properly and the car shifts quite well right now. Pumped up the lousy tires for a test drive and it actually feels quite good! I'll have a video when I take another short spin around the neighborhood tomorrow. Time for metal work and paint stripping

I thought I had figured out the clutch, I was wrong. I think there's just not enough throw in the new clutch master cylinder. I realized that a lot of people actually have this problem so I swapped out the push rod from my old on into the new master cylinder. It's installed right now, but I haven't had a chance to bleed it. Only things left to get it moving is clutch bleeding and new tires. I got a battery for it this week so I don't have to jump start it. I'll have to replace the air flow meter boot soon. I have a plugged up one from a 78 on there right now, but it's torn up and the engine is running super rich. If anyone has alternatives for the AFM boot on a '76 I would greatly appreciate some suggestions... $50 for the one from MSA is money I could spend other places :/

Used some test leads yesterday to check the Racetronix pump that came in the Camaro tank. It's working beautifully, the guy that last did the job did a terrible splicing job. I'm redoing wiring later today and seeing if the stock connectors on the pump assy aren't busted as well. If not, I removed the evap sensor and ran the wires through the hole. I'll do some more custom stuff to make that work with some quick disconnect cables. It's satisfying knowing that pump is working though, shouldn't have any pump issues for a long time even with an engine swap. Will update post with my final wiring when I get to it later tonight. Update: Pins on the pump assembly were busted or at least bent enough that the original connection wasn't making proper contact. Fed the wires through the hole where the evap pressure sensor used to be (since I can't use it anyway), and respliced them to some quick disconnect ends. Cut the hoses down to a more appropriate size too now that I know I'm using the internal pump and put the interior trim back over the filler. Looks much more complete than before, just need to make a cover for the spare wheel hole. With that, the fuel delivery is pretty much done. Will be wiring the sending unit next before I put the cover on. Won't be accurate until down the road when I get new gauges, but this will work for now.

Here are some pics of the filler neck I made for the Z to keep it semi-oem looking. Looks like a frankenstein of a filler neck, but the welds are really well done where it counts (where the bottom of the camaro tank meets the top of the '78 filler) If you have a late model Z (77-78), this is actually not a bad option if you're going for the camaro tank. All it takes is cutting the top of the camaro neck, an inch or two off the bottom of the Datsun neck, and then joining them together. I cut the lower bend from the camaro filler, but I almost wish I'd figured out a way to angle the camaro piece towards the tank because right now the filler hose is in a really tight S bend to get the whole thing to work, but it's not bad so far. Here are a few not so great pictures from when I installed it after getting home from my last concert as an undergraduate trumpet player. Cap ended up a bit offset from center but I'm not too concerned about that. And yes the hole from the pipe at the top that would originally lead to the vapor tank will be plugged. Edit: Also... ignore the weird paint at the filler.... that will be fixed when the metal work is done and I start paint haha. Edit 2: There was a small kink in the hose from the tight S bend by the original opening in the car where the hose is routed. Solution: extra hose clamp did the trick

Finally got a semi-permanent solution for the filler neck going. Update in next post once it's installed and I have some pictures. It involves the top half of a late model filler neck, the rim from my original neck, and the lower half of the Camaro filler to narrow it down into the hose I'm using. Gotta cut off a couple inches on this hose and adjust the rim so it screws on properly. The upper portion will need to be cleaned up later for appearance sake and in case of spills but it'll work quite well for now.

Work in progress: Pardon the crappy picture quality. I saved it from snapchat when I was sending the picture to my older brother haha. Still needs carpet and the driver door panel needs to be installed, but it'll all be taken apart at least one more time before metal work for rust repair and repaint.

Dad got home at 2 in the morning yesterday. Got a chance to grab my seats and console lid to see how it all fit together. I'm pretty happy with the result. It almost looks like a proper interior now.

Minor update: I repainted the taillight panels last weekend. I still want to take them apart again to resand and recoat a couple spots that are still a bit rought rough but they look quite nice now compared to before. The bezel around the lights is a gloss black and the rest is a satin black.

Didn't think I'd get an answer so fast, thanks a lot!

Weird random story: My dad's still in Mexico for another few days, I took this picture in the Summer of '09 which was the last time I was there. This was back when I only dreamed of a project car, but I thought the car looked pretty good. This is my dad next to the same car earlier today!

No kidding! High quality labor at really great prices. I don't get how the stereotype of Mexicans working hard all the time, and having nice yards, and knowing how to work and cars and all that is somehow negative. I've been poked fun at sometimes for being Mexican and also enjoying car work, and I just think, "how is that a bad thing?!" Those are valuable skills But when friends need help with car problems they know who they're going to haha. Anyway, I figured I'd at least do some little things while my dad gets back next weekend to start on metal work, so I repainted the rear taillight trim. I'll have a picture up tomorrow when there's better lighting to take it in and see the side-by-side with the old ones.

Anyone know where I might be able to find something like these? I've yet to find any sort of build thread on this guy's car, but I like the more modern look they have. Here's a video of the same car if that helps.

Semi-big update: My dad was on a trip to visit family in Mexico and decided to take the seats with him since re-upholstery is significantly cheaper there. Today my seats were finished and he picked them up. They're looking pretty sweet if I do say so myself. Not much has happened to the car itself, the last several weeks I've kinda considered and "acquisition phase." Lots of new parts purchased including some stuff from the junkyard: Seats reupholstered Old New Passenger headlight bucket at a steal from the junkyard (Old on was bent out of shape) Taillights sans burned plastic (Picture doesn't do the new ones justice) Both plastic seat-belt strut tower covers Top is the only one that was in when I bought the car... ... And it wasn't even the original color Fuel door (Lousy pic, but it shows how bad the original one was better) Louvered hood (also a steal, only $40. A few small dents should be no huge issue) I've also committed myself to do SOMETHING about my filler neck situation. Won't update on that until I actually finish it though, no empty promises to strangers Dad should be back in about a week and after that I'll be getting a start on making this thing move and getting the biggest rust issues resolved before my dad helps me sandblast the whole thing.

Major update: Last few weeks haven't been so great. Had to put my little dog down just a few days ago, he had diabetes and went completely blind from some cataracts that developed pretty quickly. Been focused on that so not much has happened to the Z. I figured out what I'm doing with the fuel filler, details to come as soon as it's finished. And the major update... my dad surprised me with a nice gift today. The gift of almost ever replacement panel I need to fix the rust on this thing. New rocker panels, lower rear fender panels, and doglegs for both sides along with a pair of bad dog framerails. The floors will probably just be patched with some sheetmetal, but I'm incredibly excited to get going. Cheap temporary tires should be on this week and a new battery so I can move the car to a friends for the welding once the filler is on and the panels arrive. Stay tuned for updates

Minor Milestone: Student teaching and travel for conferences screwed me for the weekend, but I finally got a chance to take a look at the clutch. The clutch works! Pedal still feels soft and crappy but gorillaman's trick actually worked. This weekend I'm gonna go check out the '78 Z in a junkyard nearby and gut the smaller unleaded fuel filler neck from it so I can actually route a filler hose to the tank. I'm thinking I won't even bother wiring the internal pump on the Camaro tank for a while. I'll just be using the external walbro I have for now while I focus on getting the rest of the car running, then maybe some random weekend when my older brother's in town I'll get the Ractronix pump working properly. In the mean time. Engine seems to be running have decently, all lights are working, transmission is shifting. To get it on the road I just need to replace a couple flat tires, route the filler hose and neck, then close up the giant hole over the tank in the back.

Huge progress made today. The rails I made for the '02 Camaro fuel tank were finally welded to the car's frame. I can't seem to find most of the pictures I had of them, so these will have to do for now. Remember, this is just one way to do it that I think will work for my purposes. Others have tried other ways successfully. Unless some other way doesn't actually work, no person that has done this is necessarily more correct than another. (I will edit this post in the future if I come across more images, and will turn it into more of a write-up when I have time to make more diagrams with approximate measurements) Each piece is two 1" square tubing pieces welded together. There is a bolt on only the rear end closest to the back of the car. The 2" wide barstock is welded directly onto the tubing until the spot in towards the front of the car where the tank's shape starts to curve downward (closest to the welder in the picture). The bolts are about 4" long and are welded in the centers about 2" from the end of the tubing. Friend hard at work, getting it done even despite the horribly awkward angles he was welding at: The centers of the two rails are about 17 1/4" apart from each other. They will seem sharply offset to the right because of the position of the spare wheel well. In reality they are only offset 2 or 3" to the right of center to allow a buffer zone between the tailpipe/muffler and the actual tank once mounted. Super quick video explanation. Pardon the very quiet audio, filmed kinda late and my dad wakes up at 3:30 am, so I was trying not to be too loud. My phone is also 3 years old and doesn't pick up everything very well. I painted over them earlier with some flat black Rustoleum automotive enamel I had lying around the garage, then waited for the paint to dry before mounting. I'm no professional, and I think the rails got bumped slightly at some point, making this a super tight fit. Not quite the super clean fit I hoped for, but it feels incredibly sturdy. Here's more detailed pictures. Driver and passenger sides Underside, a closer view at the covers I welded over the barstock for a cleaner look, and the L brackets on the end with side covers. Top and bottom view after mounting. (including a nice look at my rusty paint ) If it looks a bit far back it's because it is. If it was any closer forward it would almost be touching the tailpipe. Edit: Video is now up. New pictures posted. Also added a random picture of my buddy in the process of welding.

I had no idea this was an option. I'll try that as soon as I get the tank back in and before I try dropping the tranny. For those who are curious, the project is definitely still going but at a snail's pace because I haven't been working and I'm finishing my last year of college. The custom straps and rails for the 2002 Camaro fuel tank are welded and and I've test fit them on the tank. It's holding pretty snug. Just a couple welds to go then I'll be welding the rails I made to the car's frame. I have pictures, but I'll be doing a big dump as soon as the tank is in, the hoses are routed and the filler is fitted, that way it looks more like a write-up on how to do it. I know there are quite a few guys on here that have done the tank swap before, but I've only found a couple that went into any real detail. Pictures and updates to come... very slowly. (Patience is a virtue )

No picture updates currently. I replaced the clutch master cylinder and then the clutch slave cylinder and realized that there might be a problem with the clutch itself figuring that out this week. Slave cylinder's piston is moving plenty when the clutch is pressed, but there's no change in pressure and I still can't shift so I'm looking at the clutch itself. No progress for a while because I couldn't figure out what to do about the fuel tank situation. I finally settled on a custom setup with a 2002 Camaro fuel tank, because going back to OEM would have been more expensive and even more work (since the wheel well was already gone from the previous owner). Snagged a sweet deal on a tank with fuel pump assembly included $100 on fleabay plus shipping. The guy actually found out it had a Racetronix fuel pump in it after the fact and said he was shipping it as is either way even though he normally would have sold the whole setup for $300. Guess it's my lucky day. I also finally found a decent price on a replacement door panel for my driver side that I was missing. $80 used, but in good condition. Should be here in a few days. Updates to come as I get the clutch worked out and get the fuel tank installed.