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HybridZ

Let The Games Begin


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Well today was day one. My 1971 Z was purchased as a roller a few months back. After spending a lot of time learning from this site and preparing my game plan I finally got down to work.

Today I pulled the front and rear suspension and put the car on my homemade rotisserie. Next step will be to finish removing all the lines, hangers, cables etc. Then I am considering having the body dipped.

I cleaned a small section with a scraper and a wire wheel on a die grinder, that will take forever so I am looking for a good stripper. Anyone had any experience dipping their cars? I am in New Jersey.

As the project moves along I'll post again. This forum is the best resource I have, thanks!

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Thanks for the thought on the acid dipping. As far as the rust goes this car has no rust. I have been all over it from the inner rockers to the dog legs to the hatch, inside the fenders and the frame rails there is literally no rust. I am mostly concerned with the rubberized coating on the bottom of the car. Media blasting and soft surfaces are a lot of work. Thanks for the thought I will consider it

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I did some checking and got general agreement that dipping my Z is not a great idea, Thanks. So I'm going to do the underside old school. A propane torch with a flame spreader and a putty knife will remove most of the undercoat and paint, then I'll wipe it down with solvent. sounds like a lot of work , and it is, but its also practically free! the small section I did took about ten minutes.

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I did some checking and got general agreement that dipping my Z is not a great idea, Thanks. So I'm going to do the underside old school. A propane torch with a flame spreader and a putty knife will remove most of the undercoat and paint, then I'll wipe it down with solvent. sounds like a lot of work , and it is, but its also practically free! the small section I did took about ten minutes.

 

I have never tried this for myself, but one of my muscle car friends used wd40 to get the undercoating off the bottom of the car. You might want to try that in combination with the heat.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well today was day three, I only count the days I get to work on the car! I spent a few hours removing the undercoating the old school way. I removed a section at a time with a propane torch and a scraper. Then I set up a baby pool under the car and applied lacquer thinner using a garden sprayer. I used a parts brush to clean and the thinner washed away the residue. I recovered the thinner, ran it through a filter and will reuse it as long as it remains effective. I call myself Zinpieces, I'll include a picture of the car as I bought it, That will explain everything. Last week I ordered a SBC kit from JTR, hoping to get that this week.

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  • 3 weeks later...

now that the bottom is pretty much cleaned up I removed the sound deadening material and the HVAC equipment from inside the car. I used a six dollar Harbor Freight impact chisel to remove the sound deadening mats. The chisel worked great ,lowered the air pressure a little guided the chisel by hand and did both sides in under 1 hour. Then I put the car back on the lift and straightened the floors and subframe where the old owner drove over something. Next its back on the rotisserie to weld in the Bad Dog rails.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Today I moved on to the front fender well, ultimately it was a lot easier to just remove the fender. I bead blasted the front cross member and primed it.

I picked up a 200R4 last week that was done at Level 10 Performance. Came out of a Firebird with less than 2K on it. Gabriel at TTT has been very helpful planning out the rear suspension.

I have a donor Q545 so I'll be tearing into that soon.

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  • 11 months later...

Time for an update, the frame rails are in and the bottom is mostly cleaned up. I did the cleaning of the bottom old school with a propane torch and a scraper. So far I have used only one 14 oz. bottle. I decided to cut the back of the frame rails and install the end piece first. That gave me the best fit. Then I added the center section. By overlapping the two rear pieces and doing a little metal forming with a torch I got a smooth finish. I also boxed the front with some metal of the same gauge.

 

Next up is fitting the rear suspension and installing the gas tank. I got a universal tank with in tank pump from Tanks Inc. I also got some really cool goodies from Gabriel at T3 to complete my R-200 install.

Tomorrow I hope to cut out the spare tire well

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I know that there are several rear brake upgrades for a 240Z. After talking with Gabriel at TTT I decided since I had donor Q-45 parts that I'd use the rear brakes too. The entire rear brake assembly including the emergency brakes calipers and rotors are a direct bolt to TTT's backing plates. The only thing you need to do is swap the dust shields and E-Brake parts left for right and trim a small area on the dust shield. I know they are not 4 piston Wilwood's but they'll stop a 4000lb car. And they were basically free!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Figured I should mock up the diff and the rear suspension to see if I was going to have any problems. Aside from some minor hardware issues everything went together fine. I think I'll fab the rear section of the exhaust while the car is still upside down and finish off the E-Brake cable routing.

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Figured I should mock up the diff and the rear suspension to see if I was going to have any problems. Aside from some minor hardware issues everything went together fine. I think I'll fab the rear section of the exhaust while the car is still upside down and finish off the E-Brake cable routing.

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  • 1 month later...

Had the weekend to myself so I test fit the motor and transmission. Everything went smooth. I am using a stock GM shifter that has modified detents for 4 forward gears. I mounted the shifter to the underside of the tunnel and made a new floor plate to fill the original hole and reinforce the metal. Next I'll change the damper so I can fit a Subie rack.

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