This car belongs to the one and only William of William’s Autobody fame.  The 240 came into the shop with a noisy valvetrain so we (Josh) removed the front cover and discovered that the timing chain tensioner had dismantled itself over the last few hundred miles.  Uh oh.  Normally this would result in the chain jumping a tooth or more on one of the gears which would cause terminal engine damage, we happened to get lucky.  Part replaced, Long live the L-series engine!!

Turning our focus towards the rear of the car, we have a slight overhaul in order.  What you see here are a set of T3 (Techno Toy Tuning) fully adjustable rear control arms.  These new pieces are light years ahead of the stock stamped pieces in terms of stiffness and adjustablility.  The perfect alignment is now achievable.  To accompany the control arms and their new bushings are a set of 250lbs/in springs (up from 175lbs) to firm up the rear a bit.

The new rear suspension pieces and and replaced tensioner will help our faithful painter enjoy one of his Z cars to its fullest.  ZOOM ZOOM (He has a Miata as well)  Long Live the Z!!

Last week we had a couple of R35s come through the shop.  Well one is actually just coming back from William’s Autobody where is was getting repaired after a small accident.  The other one actually belongs to a friend of William.  I have a feeling that this car is on it’s way to becoming a nicely modded GT-R.

When it came in it already had the VOLK TE37 G2 wheels on it and it was coming to use to give it the stance that all GT-Rs deserve.  This is going to be achieved by using a set of Swift Sport Springs.  These springs are designed to keep the ride quality firm without being race car harsh, improved handling and looks are the goal here.  By the look and feel of things they worked out perfectly.

This car needed some serious love and boy is it getting it!!  Many people would have written this car off due to the extensive repair it needed but Z Car Garage and William’s Autobody have been given the job of saving it.  You can see from the photos that every area of this car needed some form of repair.

The frame rails on both sides needed rust repair but the passenger side needed to have the entire frame rail replaced.  The problem with this is that only the frame rails are available from the aftermarket.  ALL the other metal work must be hand formed.

This is most noticeable in the battery box/firewall repairs.  Many many hours of work have been spent getting these parts to look and fit just right, and it is nowhere near finished.  Another tough area of the repairs are the joints between the roof section and the A-pillar and rear quarter panel.  I’m sure many of you have seen rust bubbles that start here after an accident repair of restoration, this will NOT be happening here.  All of the welds were redone to ensure proper alignment and strength.

Other places that received some love were the lower and upper radiator support, the quarter panel just under the rear quarter windows, and the door jams and rocker panels on both sides.  All of these areas had rust holes that needed varying states of work.  The rocker panel just below the battery box had it the worst.  It has now been filled in and will continue to be reworked until it is perfect.

Finally you will see that there is major pitting on the top of the windshield frame.  This too will need to be cut out and replaced with new sheet metal and then blended into the original roof.  Again, this will not be easy.

We do all of this to keep the Zs on the road and in the hands of the people who love them.  This will be one of the most extensive rebuilds that we have done, and we won’t rest until it is done right.  I will update again as more progress is made.

Long Live the Restored Z

All the photos after the ‘read more’.

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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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