Ab's Uncut Emerald - '74 260Z

[AndBir]

Well I have now purchased RS30-000467, a 1974 260z 2 seater.

 

It was my brother in law's car which he owned since new (still has the original owner's manual, warranty/service booklet and full 260z service manual) and only stopped driving it about 18 months ago. He indicated it is accident free (other than some right front fender damage from a kangaroo) however he replaced the original engine in 1992 with one from a 280z after removal of all the fuel injection system). Also, he did mention that years ago the front passenger floor pan was pushed up when the car slipped of a hoist support when being serviced in the 1990's.

It has the original paintwork and, other than a small patch of "deep" rust in the lower front door (about the size of a 20c coin), only appears to have some surface rust on the roof and some other panels. Yes, I know there will be some rust surprises in store for me!

 

Currently the car is quite a way from where I live and the first step is to look to prevent further rust damage both that that is visible and maybe attempt to get to areas that are hidden. I will get it garaged and go from there.

 

The plan is to get it restored (rust free) and painted in its original colour #303 Emerald Green (?Metallic?) and do some upgrades to the engine (mild ones!). I have chased up where the original engine was exchanged and it was a dead end - as you would expect after 24 years so no chance of getting matching numbers.

 

Here are some pictures :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2016 by AndBir

[CBR Jeff]

Well Andy

That's an original car with all the parts. Shame about the original engine but you cannot have everything.

 Its going to be a fun ride for you and your jewel.

Jeff

[KatoKid]

Well done Andy, great place to start!

[blu260z]

Nice 260z Andy. What I love the most is the spotlights drilled into the bonnet, it shows the value of the cars back in the day compared to now. Now the fun begins ☺

[AndBir]

...What I love the most is the spotlights drilled into the bonnet,....

 

Yep, I think there is also some other damage on the point of the bonnet and expect there is some rust damage here as well (bubbling up of paint on the underside of the bonnet front  ).

[chris240]

I think I mentioned last time that colour is superb.. One of my favourites.

Ahhh yes the driving lights, yup yup yup.

Where in Oz is it siting Andy ?

[gav240z]

I think it's a great buy, looks very original. You can tell the panels are OEM as all the gaps are pretty much spot on. The bonnet is an easy fix, even with the slight front end nudge it looks to have had on the corner.

 

A strip down and repaint and that thing will triple in value easily. Good to see it still has the original undertray also (most are missing now).

 

Just be thankful it doesn't have a sunroof.

[Brabham]

Nice find, love the Emerald green, one of my favorite colors too. Pretty rare in zeds.

[AndBir]

I want to get some of the inner lining off to spray on something like the Eastwood Internal Frame Coating spray into/onto the rust prone areas that cannot be reached easily - is this an appropriate product?

 

With the spray nozzle it may be useful to access the rocker panel / sill areas (via this black plug [top of picture] and cutouts internally)?

 

Edited September 1, 2016 by AndBir

[KatoKid]

Spiders won't be happy!

[Groundhog]

The choice of rust preventer can make a difference when you come to repaint.
If you go for a soft, waxy type product like Tectyl rust preventer, then it is very difficult to remove all traces when repainting.
An excellent product for sure but my experience is it is best applied after the painting is done as any run off can be cleaned off without affecting paint adhesion.
You may want to consider products that are initially rust converters/ with good seam penetration/ then hard setting or a combination of rust converter first followed up with a hard setting sealer like POR15?

I ended up using POR 15 in doors, sills, doglegs, rear hatch as it is an epoxy triggered by moisture, sets hard and can be sanded off on the overruns for repainting.

The choice of sealant is also influenced by whether its a bare metal treatment, partial treatment doing it as you go,  or just stopping the rust in what you have for now.
If it's the last one you can use anything from sump oils to linseed oil with terabine, fishoil, tectyl, etc etc.
Another factor to consider is the flammability of the product when you do come to do rust repairs. You don't want a flaming grill in your sills when you cut the rust out. Panel beaters hate the bitumen sealer in the rear wheel wells for this reason too.
I'm keen to see what others think about this also.
 

[AndBir]

Thanks for all the advice re rust prevention etc.

 

Well, I finally got the courage up to start stripping out the interior to see what nasties were hidden under the floor coverings and side trims.

 

All I can say is that, based on what you normally see posted here regards rust etc. that it is a miracle that (so far) this car has not given any really nasty surprises - but still a way to go.

 

First was removing the driver's seat and then carpet and jute :

 

Found some rust spots under the kick plate but behind and under the seat areas was OK.

 

Areas on the floor not covered by the tar sound deadener have minor surface rust.

 

After slowly peeling off the side carpet trim which was attached by some sort of light glue, it appears all is OK in the door sill area.

 

Looking into the upper dog leg area all appears good.

 

Poking the iPhone camera in as far as it can go to look lower down I am not really sure what I see - some "black" seam sealer and some sprayed on ?something?

 

 Interestingly the underside of the driver's and passenger seats appear to be OK

 

 

Second came the passenger side seat and floor coverings.

 

Again behind and under the seat area was great

 

In front of the seat the original carpet was in OK condition on the surface and even still had the clips to keep it in place.

 

Side and end panel trim in OK condition as is the diamond pattern tunnel covering.

 

Under the coverings no sign of rust however the picture hides the fact the middle of the passenger floor has been pushed up by ~2-3cms 

 

 

 

 I had not had a good look at the rear hatch slam panel(?) before now but it looks OK as well.

 

 Took the rear bumper bar off and you can clearly see what 42 years of sun did to the paint.

 

Purchased some new 260z style seat covers from the ZFactory and will attempt to fit these:

 

 

Edited November 6, 2016 by AndBir

[KatoKid]

Very solid!

[PeterAllen]

... With the spray nozzle it may be useful to access the rocker panel / sill areas (via this black plug [top of picture] and cutouts internally)?

 

IMG_2568.jpg

 

When you use the spray can hold the nozzle with your other hand to keep it secure. If you are spraying in a tight area (e.g .rails) and you bend the nozzle it will dislodge and disappear down inside the rail. Don't ask me how I know this...

[AndBir]

Thanks Peter, I will heed your advice. I was concerned about the brass nozzle falling off the end, not the whole tube!

 

For those that do not suffer from arachnophobia - the inside of the dogleg on the passenger side was interesting :

 

[Groundhog]

I see you still have the spacers under the seat which is pretty rare. They seem to get thrown away in most cars. Car looks very clean.

[AndBir]

I see you still have the spacers under the seat which is pretty rare. They seem to get thrown away in most cars. Car looks very clean.

 

Well spotted, I was told the spacers came originally under the bracket the seat frame mounts onto - luckily my brother in law is not tall and he had to move them to be on top of the bracket to get the extra seat height.

[CBR Jeff]

That looks great Andy.

It's a good starting point for anything you want to do.

Jeff

[AndBir]

Spiders won't be happy!

 

Had to evict some of the spiders today, big black "house" spiders as well as a couple of Redbacks on the underside of the bonnet.

 

 

 : Moved onto the the front cowl and uncovered a lot of surface rust.

 

: Then looked at the battery area/support - lots of dirt and again rust underneath but it appears to not be too bad.

 

 : Got stuck into it with a wire wheel on a drill and a screw driver to chisel the had to reach areas. Did the Marine Clean - Metal Ready - POR-15 treatment.

 

: Took the bob tail spoiler of to check what the panel looked like underneath and as you can see the paint not covered by the bob tail spoiler has deteriorated (probably just the undercoat now) markedly.

Edited November 2, 2016 by AndBir

[AndBir]

Continued on with looking for rust, took off the front fenders:

 

: Uncovered more spider habitats.

 

: Some dirt and,

 

: Some surface rust

 

: A lot of dirt in the bottom of the panel

 

: More dirt build up at the bottom of the panel

 

: luckily not too much rust under all of the dirt

 

 

 

[AndBir]

Wanted to see some improvements so decided to replace the cover on the driver's seat.

 

 

: Seat foam looked OK other than a small tear on the edge

 

: Off with the old and on with the new.

 

The process of removing the old cover and installing the new on the seat is relatively painless, looking at the seat back I am sure it will be much more difficult!

[AndBir]

Cleaned up the areas under the front fenders/mudguards :

 

: removed the remains of the ?foam? rubber along the seam

 

: Minor surface rust, not sure why they did not fill the corner openings hera with seam sealer?

 

: More surface rust

 

: appears they had to use a hammer a couple of time to get the internal frame parts to match up prior to welding!

 

[KatoKid]

Those hammer marks are pretty standard, they all have them to some extent.

 

Your a lucky guy, from a rust perspective this would have to be one of the best chassis Ive seen for a while

[CBR Jeff]

O my that shell is in amazing condition. I'm with Dave you are very lucky. It's very very clean.

And yes the hammer marks are on all/most cars.

 

Jeff

[gav240z]

Yep winner winner chicken dinner. All the usual spots just have some light surface rust. You can see why they rusted but in this case the car has remained dry!

 

You've done very well so far.