GLEE Z - The reason I own an e30 - non-e30 content.

[freeride53]

Very inspirational Eric. I can't wait till the day that I can afford to buy my dad his old car.
His was stolen, and found torched on San Bruno Mountain decades ago.

Looks like everyone's dad loves Z's. haha

[2mAn]

Weird, my Dad used to own a Datsun also.... a 710 :rofl:

[Cabriolet]

No louvers, no fares, no mods.
Sina, funny you say that. My dad’s car was stolen and the one and only time it broke down. It was stolen and then overheated on the grapevine and then ditched.

On to the project:
There is a lot of rust on all of the body panels. SO, my dad asked me to come over and photograph all of the rust to show people as he is asking for estimates.



There is quite a bit more but no need to belabor the point. 40 years of sitting outside makes those beach bums a weird rust color and makes cars rust.

The car was parked a few years ago after my dad noticed that a bearing had spun. He tried to patch it, hes told me but idk what that means. The bearing was pretty much not there.

Here he is tearing into the oil pan to see what other damage has been caused.
Well, the crank is toast. The rod was slapping the side of the counter weight and the journal is hosed.


So this rod, block and crank are pretty much scrap now. The bearing wore thing, and then slipped underneath its self and then welded together with the heat. Luckily we have another L26 to use for parts. Let’s hope that one is in better shape.

[jalopi]

How come you gotta ditch the block? I can understand the crank, though I guess it doesn't hurt to just put a different (but refreshed [hopefully]) engine in.

Also, those door jambs are gonna be a major PITA to do right so it'll probably be expensive. My guess is anywhere between $300-800

[Cabriolet]

How come you gotta ditch the block? I can understand the crank, though I guess it doesn't hurt to just put a different (but refreshed [hopefully]) engine in.

Also, those door jambs are gonna be a major PITA to do right so it'll probably be expensive. My guess is anywhere between $300-800

it's a gut feeling on the block. but we will take it down to be inspected. the rod was able to move sideways on the crank so it may have ruined the block as well. or we convert it to a L28 block =P

ya the rust is scary. i bet it will be a 10k job for body and paint.

[Todd Black 88]

Awesome!
The second car I ever owned, and the one I first payed for with my own hard earned dollars, was a 72 240z. My old man and I swapped a SBC into it when the original motor shit the bed. It was soooooo 70's it was awesome......complete with louvered rear window.

I will be watching this.

[rturbo 930]

Lol at that being "a lot" of rust. That's nearly rust free by east coast standards. I'm a little jealous. Shouldn't be too hard to fix that, though. I'd take off the trim pieces on the door sill. My rockers looked rock solid until I took those off... there was nothing underneath. I don't know how far you've poked and prodded, but I wouldn't be surprised if you had rust where the T/C rod mounts, there's a reinforcement just above it that is a common rust spot, but because it rusts out from behind the piece, it's not always obvious.

If you haven't you might want to sign up at http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/forum.php lots of good info there, and that site is geared towards stock restorations.

[Cabriolet]

It's been a long long time. But in Berger repairs, this seems to be the trend, work for an entire week put off a year and work for another full week.
So this week was stripping the engine bay of all the electric and hydraulic lines and then today we took out all the glass and removed the rear hatch. For being a CA car its whole life, the rust is pretty bad. all of the door jams and under the hatch and all the screws on everything seem to need attention.
The engine has been at Rebello Racing for almost 2 months. Apparently getting parts for a 40 year old engine is pretty hard. As you can see, we are in no rush to get the engine back, as the car is far from done.

First day of the semester break we raised my dad's vert from HR coupe sport springs to HR vert sport springs.
then we reattached his door keeper, which had popped its welds and wasn’t working.
The first pic I took was yesterday of the Z.

Ah that dash, so cool.



taking out the windshield wipers was so much easier than an e30. But the rust yikes

This morning i took out the glass from the doors and all of their trim.

40 year old plastic pins break, 0 survivors.

So after taking all the glass out you can see the horror that was hiding under the dash mat. I've never seen an e30 this bad. thx god.
Rust under the front window as well.
The rubber is shot on every inch of the car. So we took out the windshield by cutting the gasket and then ripping the gasket out.



Now it's time to find a place that will paint it. I want my dad to take the car down to King's autobody, the guy that owns my old m3, but the 400 mile drive isn't easy.
Oliver's shop doesn't want rollers any more so he's out.

keeping the glee going.

[rzerob]

Updates?

[bataangpinoy]

s54 swap it!

On a serious note, the rb20det will drop right in place of the L2X. Despite what people say on the net, the RB can be very reliable. Just need TLC and preventative maintenance.

[Todd Black 88]

Cannot believe I missed this thread!

My second car and first love, was my 1972 240z. My step dad and I heavily modified that car over my short 3 yr ownership. Original smoky L24 was pulled in favor of a 350SBC and 4- speed. Car was flared, rear window louvered, head light covers installed.

Car was an 80's panty dropper for sure.

[pandaboo911]

LS1 swap!

[Cabriolet]

Andy in Napa is going to paint it next month.
Rebello Racing, Antioch, rebuilt the engine using a donor crank. That has been sitting on the patio for 6+ months waiting for someone to paint the car.

There should be real updates this summer.

[Staszek]

Subscribed, this is really cool and I always wanted a 70's Z car.

[rzerob]

I am glad to hear new updates are coming.

This is really cool and I always wanted a 70's Z car.

Ditto.