Z Greek Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 Well guys (gals?), I bought this car back in April, and have been gathering parts for the last 6 months. I am calling this project resto-rod, because I want the car to look very stock from the outside, and under the hood, but with a bit more bite. Engine is 3.1 NA with SU's. The block, crank, rods have been at the machine shop for several months (the shop does mainly race stuff, so until recently was really busy with that stuff).The head is done except waiting for cam kit from Rebello. Anyway, I finally cleared another project out of my shop, and decided it was time to give the Z some attention. My son and I towed it out of the garage, and up to the shop. Just as I took this picture, one of my daughters damn goats jumped on the car, I nearly lost my mind, kind of funny in hindsight. Look at my sons expression driving the Z, if you can see, it tells the whole story! I got the car up on the lift, and started looking it over. There is some rust on the drivers floor, but could be a hell of a lot worse. Kind of hard to see in the pictures, but the floor rails are HAMMERED. It looks like a PO thought this was a 4-wheel drive! I have new floor rails on order from Bad Dog, and need a drivers floor pan only. Charlie at Zed Findings said he would sell me the pair with out rails for $260, or one for $220. Anyone need a passenger floor pan? My pass floor appears rust free. Only other rust so far is under the battery box. I spent a few evenings with a wire brush on an angle grinder working on getting a TON of undercoating off the bottom of the car. I decided it would be nice to clean it ALL off, and do a nice refinish of the whole bottom of the car. I really had not planned on the project being such an extensive one, but the car is, what 38 years old, so I threw off the gloves (or rather put them on) and dove in. As I am alone in my shop most of the time (as most of us probably are), I thought about how to best utilize my lift (I know I am spoiled having one!), and remove front and rear suspension. I unbolted everything except for the strut retaining nuts, and the two nuts that hold the horizontal differential mount to the body studs, lowered the car, put the wheels back on, and set the wheels lightly on the ground. I then quickly finished unbolting everything, and picked the car up over the suspension. Worked pretty slick. Whole process start to finish, about an hour and a half. I repeated the process in the front end, and rolled the front and rear suspension out of the way. Front went really fast, one hour at the most. Unbolting the steering shaft took more time than anything. I continued to remove the fuel and rear brake line from the bottom of the car. So far ONE bolt has broken off, and it was just one of the little 5mm screws holding the brake and fuel lines to the body. Everything else has come unbolted slick. This comes as a surprise, as my other old Japanese cars have not been this way, particularly my 67 Honda S800 (in the background of the picture showing the suspension on the ground. I am going to continue working on the undercoating removal. Very slow process, and hard on the arms, and neck! And what a mess, that sh#t goes everywhere! Anybody had any luck with alternate methods of undercoat removal from bottom of car? Chemicals? I'll take some more pic's as I get more done on the bottom of the car. The paint comes off the car next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelsonian Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 Z Greek, Nice to see your project moving along very swiftly already. You are right about the undercoating removal, that shi* goes everywhere. I had great luck with a Snap on, crud thug tool. Very well built and does not break off little wires like a lesser wheel you apply to a drill will. Not cheap, but the RIGHT tool for the job. I also used a cheapie harbor freight needle scaler, and pneumatic chisel to get into tight spaces. It's absolutely worth doing it completely thorough and right from the get go. Keep us up to date with updates and a little info on your plans for that nice little Honda in the background. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z Greek Posted October 31, 2011 Author Share Posted October 31, 2011 Z Greek, Nice to see your project moving along very swiftly already. You are right about the undercoating removal, that shi* goes everywhere. I had great luck with a Snap on, crud thug tool. Very well built and does not break off little wires like a lesser wheel you apply to a drill will. Not cheap, but the RIGHT tool for the job. I also used a cheapie harbor freight needle scaler, and pneumatic chisel to get into tight spaces. It's absolutely worth doing it completely thorough and right from the get go. Keep us up to date with updates and a little info on your plans for that nice little Honda in the background. I was reading on a Porsche forum that a cheapo Harbor Freight oscillating multi-tool works pretty well, so I went out and bought one. They were right, it works GREAT! Combination of it, and the wire wheel to get the residue, and wow! Don't get me wrong, it is still work, but MUCH faster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbs70z Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 Lookin good. Post a pic of that tool. My hands hurt from using a wire wheel on my grinder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z Greek Posted October 31, 2011 Author Share Posted October 31, 2011 Lookin good. Post a pic of that tool. My hands hurt from using a wire wheel on my grinder. Here is a picture of the tool I was talking about. $49.99 at Harbor freight, wife had a 20% off coupon (my wife is the coupon queen), forty bucks plus tax. The other pic is of my left inner fender. I spent less than two minutes there, and then back under the car. Not quite as fast or easy under the car, but still works really well. It kind of looks like it is gouging the steel in the photo, but it really is not, couple of minutes with wire brush, and smooth as can be. The scuffed area off to the left is where I spent 30 seconds or so with wire wheel on angle grinder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z Greek Posted October 31, 2011 Author Share Posted October 31, 2011 Z Greek, Nice to see your project moving along very swiftly already. You are right about the undercoating removal, that shi* goes everywhere. I had great luck with a Snap on, crud thug tool. Very well built and does not break off little wires like a lesser wheel you apply to a drill will. Not cheap, but the RIGHT tool for the job. I also used a cheapie harbor freight needle scaler, and pneumatic chisel to get into tight spaces. It's absolutely worth doing it completely thorough and right from the get go. Keep us up to date with updates and a little info on your plans for that nice little Honda in the background. The Honda has two lives ahead of it. Originally, I had planned on building the car for Vintage racing, club track days, etc. I had a full SCCA legal cage built for it, patched a bunch of rust, and lost momentum. Then I watched the movie, "The Worlds Fastest Indian," and also read the book it was based on (1920 Indian Scout, Burt Munro, New Zealand, 183+ in 1967, record still stands). I am hooked, I am taking the car to Bonneville. Last I checked, the record for 31-46 cubic inch stock coupe (508-753 CC) is held by a N600 Honda at around 103 mph. I figure if a 2 cylinder, air cooled pre-civic turd can do it, my twin cam, four cylinder, four carburetor, roller crank, machine should be able to, also. To fit into that class, I will need to have liners and custom pistons made, since the stock displacement is 791cc. 791 would put me in the 46-62 cubic inch class where the record is 123+,held by a Subaru Justy of all things. Pretty tough to do even if I can coax 100 hp out of the little sh#t. Remember Bonneville is like 4,500 feet, and it is over 100 degrees F during speed week, not much air to work with on a naturally aspirated engine! After a run or two at Bonneville, I will follow through with the Vintage effort. Thanks for asking! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neotech84 Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 Talk to Tonny D If your looking to get into racing at Bonneville, he has a Z he races there and would probably offer more knowledge than your brain can handle! Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z Greek Posted October 31, 2011 Author Share Posted October 31, 2011 Talk to Tonny D If your looking to get into racing at Bonneville, he has a Z he races there and would probably offer more knowledge than your brain can handle! Good luck! Thanks, I'll do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbs70z Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 Thanks for the info on the tool. Will have to try it out for sure. Still have to do the whole underside of my car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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