The BEHEMOTH has returned!!! The Paintwork is amazing.

After being sent to the talented hands at William’s Autobody this black beauty has come back to Z Car Garage.  While it was away we have been amassing enough spare parts to complete two cars so the next assembly stages should go pretty quickly, remember that the goal is to unveil the two RB powered cars at the Historics at Laguna seca in just a few months.

I really hope that the pictures you see here help you to understand how much work was done to get the car to this point.  A few of the reflection pictures that I took ended up looking like the car had been chrome plated.  The mirror-like finish carries over into the engine bay where every hole, bracket, and weld that was’t necessary was smoothed or removed entirely.  Special attention was paid to the frame rails to make sure that they were as straight and as perfect as they could be.

The 2.8L stroked RB engine is patiently waiting in the back shop for it’s new throne in the engine bay.   We will be putting a smooth coat of black paint on the engine block to match the rest of the car.  This project is going to need to move really quickly from here on out to make our self inflicted deadline for the Historics.

I will have many many more posts on this car as we make progress into this huge project.  Until then enjoy these pictures.  Z Cars Rule.

More photos after the “read more.”

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What a busy day here at ZCG.  We went to William’s Autobody around lunch today and took a few photos of the first exterior paintwork to be done to the RB28 240z.  The paint looks amazing and there are still more coats to go with tons of color sanding in between to make sure the finish is perfect.  I’ll have more photos soon!

Rob and I were also out driving the ZCG 370z and a white 240z that is here to get triple Mikunis (see above photo) and we decided to stop by the scales and weigh the newly acquired 370z.  The car tipped the scales at 3,320 lbs with no passengers and almost a full tank of gas.  Not too shabby.  (For reference the ZCG G35 Twin Turbo came in at 3,600 lbs.)

More to come tomorrow.  Long Live the Z

A week or so ago we received a shipment of parts for the RB28 240z from the car’s owner.  We have become accustomed to him bringing in parts that are top quality, but this time he’s taken it a step further.

This “care package” included fully adjustable, billet control arms for the front and rear, adjustable tension rods, billet bump-steer spacers, new front turn signals and wiring, and a super trick power window set up.  The new power windows feature switchgear that looks like the factory window crank but it is really just a large switch, pull up on the crank, window goes up, push it down, the window goes down.  Sweet.

The new rear suspension is fully adjustable in every way imaginable with heim joints at every pivot point to relieve any binding or slop that standard bushings are subject to.  It also features an extra beefy set of rear sway bar mounts that have been machined out of aluminum as well.  Top notch parts for a top quality car.

I will be headed to William’s Autobody to take some more pictures of the car while it is going through the paint process early next week.  Soon the car will be back at ZCG and then the fun begins.  More updates soon friends.

I just got back from William’s Autobody where I was taking pictures of the interior work that is taking place right now.  All of the sound deadening has been removed as were all unnecessary brackets and other parts.  Stripping the car is a very tedious process and most of it must be done by hand to guarantee that nothing important gets damaged.

As you can see the car has been extremely well taken care of throughout its life as there appears to be no patches or any signs of rust in the tub.   A good starting point is crucial in a build like this RB28 car and it’s becoming hard to find cars as clean as this one, especially without paying a hefty price up front.

The next step after this striping stage is a smoothing process to make the floors and interior appear more uniform.  This is followed by a few coats of primer and finally a deep black to match the rest of this amazing car.  Rest assured that I will be back to take more pictures of the car as soon as more is completed.

Rob just got back from William’s Auto Body (check his site out and support one of our own) where the car is getting painted and all of our jaws dropped when we saw the pictures he took, and he says it looks even better in person!!  When you look at the photos it almost seems as if the inner fenders have been sent to a chrome shop.  This is where the many hours of tedious preparation show and pay off.

The engine bay is all that is painted for now, but the finished shell is just on the horizon and we can’t wait to get it back to the shop and begin the mechanical work!  I will have some pictures for the blog when the next coats go on so stay tuned.  Have a great weekend.

Oh yeah!  There are a few more photos after the ‘read more.’

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