After discovering and documenting needed sheet metal repairs I continued the investigation with mechanical and electrical issues.
A lot of this was known going in, which provided the foundation for my original plans.
Start with a complete brake job. I would do this anyway; no major surprises here. The master cylinder is dry. I won’t even bother filling it – just go directly to replacing everything.
The hydraulic clutch actuator needs to be replaced. Like the brakes the clutch master cylinder is dry. Just replace everything. Won’t know until I can drive it if the clutch needs to be replaced.
All of the suspension rubber is “perished” (to use the British vernacular) and needs to be replaced, along with shocks.
The rubber hoses in the fuel injection system are shot and need to be replaced. The injectors probably need to be cleaned or replaced. There is a good chance the fuel pump needs to be replaced.
There is old gas in the tank – need to find out how much, drain it, and figure out how to get rid of it. And then clean out the varnish and gum from the old gas.
Distributor cap, spark plugs, and spark plug wires need to be replaced.
There is a tear in the drivers seat.
All of these things were already known and planned for. The more detailed inspection turned up a number of new things:
There is some electrical hackery around the battery that needs to be explored. At a minimum new battery cables are needed. There isn’t a battery in the car. I’m going to be cautious when I hook up power. Some things look funny around the battery shelf; this may need some work.
Major hackery around the stereo. Starting point is to rip out everything that had been done with stereo and speakers and start over. Currently a Jensen stereo installed; might be able to save it. On the other hand, the Jensen doesn’t fit properly – it is basically sitting in the slot and the bezel doesn’t match the Z. RetroSound has a bezel designed for the Z that would look better.
The radiator is dry and staining on the fins suggests a radiator leak.
The throttle body is frozen – won’t move at all. Need to take this off and find out what is going on.
Need to find a way to turn the engine over by hand – the fan is too close to the radiator to get a wrench or socket in there. Right now don’t know if the engine is seized. Need to get it turning over and run a compression check.
Transmission needs a new rear main seal and the engine needs a new oil pan gasket.
I’m assuming that the AC doesn’t work. This will be one of the last things to look at!
All in all I have 5 pages of notes on things that need to be worked on. And a guarantee that more will turn up as I dig deeper into the car!
At this point I’m going to declare that the task of finding a new project to work on has been successfully completed!