I was almost a tiny little bit disappointed that the Z body was in such good shape. It looked like this would be a straightforward mechanical restoration. Making this restoration a relatively small job. At least compared to the Imperial.
Yeah, about that…
The plan of record was to start with the work needed to get the car running and on the road – brakes, hydraulic clutch, and whatever was needed to get the engine running. Enjoy it a bit, find out what it needed, and tackle the suspension and other major work over the winter.
After resting for a day to recover from the road trip I backed the Imperial out from under the Z, grabbed a flashlight, and began a thorough inspection of the bottom of the car. An inspection that requires a lift, since these cars have so little ground clearance.
I had already noted fresh undercoating on the belly of the car. And classified it as a red flag needing more detailed investigation.
Hmm… The drivers side floor has been cut out. A replacement floor panel dropped in place. And pop riveted. Then sprayed with undercoating. Crud. Not good. The passenger floor is in the same condition.
The drivers side frame rail is loose on one side. Closer examination shows that it is a replacement part. Clearly not properly installed.
The passenger side frame rail looks original. And a piece of it about two feet long has been cut out or rusted out.
There are some suspicious areas in the front frame and inner fender wells – will need to get the undercoat off and see what is going on.
The rocker panels look solid on the outside. The bottom edge of the rocker has been folded under. What do you want to bet that it is also a patch panel that has been pop riveted in place in place and bondoed over?
And, looking closely, there is no seam between the rocker panels and the front fenders. Since the front fenders can be removed I’m going to have to find out what is under this bit of bondo…
The floor, frame rails, and sill are major structural components – pop rivets and bondo aren’t going to cut it here!
The rear quarter panels have also received the place a patch panel over it, pop rivet, and smoothed with a bondo treatment. And I can see some spray foam.
The car clearly has significant rust damage, which has been “repaired” with complete and total hackery. Which is a shame because whoever did it finished with a really good paint and pinstripe job.
Change of plans.
I’m going to have to strip the undercoating off the bottom of the car and find out exactly what is underneath it.
I’m going to have to strip the paint and bondo off of the rockers and rear quarter panels to find out exactly how far the damage extends. This hurts because it will force a repaint of the entire car. At least I can now choose the color I want…
The good news is that it looks like they used actual replacement panels in the hack job. I hope to be able to reuse these panels by cutting them to fit and welding in place – the way it should have been done in the first place! If these patch panels can’t be used this job is going to get expensive in a hurry.
I believe I have the skills to do this job and do it right. But it is going to require several hundred hours of work to get to the point I thought I was starting with.
As a bit of a consolation, at least the doors are solid. I carefully examined them inside and out and they are fine.