71_current

This is the current status of my Z. She sits in the garage w/ most of the paint stripped and gone. You may notice the hole in the floor board...to be repaired soon. That's another story I'll get into later.

Right now, I have a few rust areas to take care of. One of which is the rear deck.

I removed the rear deck facia because I suspected rust. I was right. (click on the pic to see a close-up) The little circles that you see are from a spot-weld cutter. What a nifty little tool! And @ $10, relatively cheap. The facia should go back to it's original position when I'm done.
I have noticed quite a few Z's with this problem, although it doesn't appear to be an easy fix. A little sheet metal work has to be done. I'm almost ready to try my hand at metal forming. We'll see what happens.

The latest work to be done, was pulling the left front. A previous owner was involved in an accident that was not properly fixed. As a result, the fender and hood overlapped. The work cost me $350 for 10 hours of labor. This seems a little expensive for frame work, but the end result is great. The work was done by Precision Bodies LLC in Schertz, Tx. They specialize in restorations. I was told that everything would line up perfect, and it did. I think it turned out excellent.

The picture is a little dark, but you can still see the areas that were creased before the frame work was done. A little sand blasting and some paint and it'll look great.

Here is a good example of letting unqualified people work on your car. If I had done this myself, I'd only have myself to blame....
At the time this work was done, I was very low on cash, but had to have the floor and firewall section replaced. The guy charged me $150 to weld everything up. I got what I paid for! It looks like it's stitched together like a quilt.

The area around the battery is just as bad. The metal is from a '76 280Z and a few things have to be changed. But it still looks bad. Good thing I'm only going for a daily driver. This gets me back to the earlier mention of the hole in the floor. The front half of the floor was replaced, except for the area where the hole is. The welding guy left that rusty piece there and tried to weld it all up. Even I know you can't weld rust!! Long story short, I had to cut it all out and now I have to re-weld another piece in. I should have saved my money & tried to do it myself.