Z-TARD Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 Made another trip to Tucson to work on my second Z last weekend. This one gets a lot less attention than my 240 does because it's over 500 miles away, and not quite ready to make the drive to San Diego. I've replaced all of the metal on the front of the car, along with the passenger side door. I'll need to figure out a way to get the door to line up though, as the lower mount appears to have been pushed inwards about an inch by the collision that totaled the original door. I like how the wheels look, although I think I should have gone with 45 series tires rather than 40. (205-40/17). I wanted a kind of modern interpretation of the panasport wheel, and these are about as close as I could find without actually getting panasports. Anyway, pics: This is the Z as it was when I first got it. Looks like something left over from an episode of the Red Green show...... Here it is as of yesterday. Total cost for all junkyard sheetmetal, bling bling "HID" headlights, and new wheels and tires was around $800. bringing the total project cost so far to just over 1K. God I love how cheap these things are. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyZ Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 Hmmm, looking a whole lot better in the second photo!! Patience is a virtue and if you can wait, the deals will keep coming along to put together a cheap, but great car! Of course, this whole process could take 10 years. Ask me how I know... Davy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-TARD Posted January 5, 2005 Author Share Posted January 5, 2005 The interesting part will be finding a way to pull this back into alignment: All I can think of is to C-clamp an oak board on either side of the lower door sill, and the attach a slide hammer to the clamps. It will probably take a few hours of hammering to slowly undo what some dumbass did in a few seconds. Needless to say, I'm not really worried about making a show car out of this one, my plan for now is to make a cheap daily driver out of it. Hopefully this will take less than 10 years Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spotfitz Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 What ever you do, don't try a ram jack between the door jam and the trans tunnel. I didn't do it, but painfully watched it done to MY '74, at the paint shop! Shims were eventually used, but it looks like your rocker is pushed in aswell. And yes, I love how cheap you can get a decent Z with minimal damage and turn it into a great daily driver for next to nothing. The hard part is having enough room in the driveway for all the great deals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-TARD Posted January 6, 2005 Author Share Posted January 6, 2005 Thanks for the tip about the jack. I briefly considered doing that, until I looked at it and realized that there is nothing but thin sheetmetal to brace the jack against. I suppose if all else fails, I can take the hinges off the door, hold it in place and just weld it there. Maybe paint the car orange with a confederate flag across the top..... I'll probably end up crushing the rocker to a certain extent by slide hammering it back into position, but at this point I don't really see any other option short of cutting the rocker out and replacing it with a new one. I should be able to drive out there and work on it again in a few weeks, I'll post some more pics once I've taken the hammer to it Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phyte Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 Just an FYI with onclickpix you can link the image like this http://www.onclickpix.com/15853 The url, then the image id Phyte Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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