Hi everyone,

i got thrown into 2 projects at once. in the 1st gen section, i've got a thread on restoring my wife's '68. but an unfortunate incident (accident) with a deer threw us (me) into a complete resto of my wife's Z. the deer took out the front end. the insurance is paying to fix it. here's where it gets complicated. the paint turned into the critical hinging point on which direction to go with the repairs.

here's a little history. we (she) bought the car back in 2001. it was sitting in someone's shop unfinished for 19 years. the body and paint were done but the drivetrain wasn't installed. original motor, non-original auto trans. since the body was restored back in 1980, it was painted with lacquer paint.

here's our problem. the wife's been using the car since 2002, the paint's faded in spots and some body work is starting to show through. the insurance paid to paint 1/2 the car. why not paint the other 1/2, right?
well, to use modern 2 stage paint, all the lacquer has to be stripped off (which is what i wanted to do after i got the '68 done). but the more i strip, the more i'm finding out that this car is not as prefect as we were told. we are replacing the tail panel (already on) and trunk lid cause there was nothing but bondo in there. we found that the drivers 1/4 panel was replaced after sanding. but the real answers showed up last night. there was a bunch of bondo in the drivers rocker. i finally got the door off and started sanding the jam. this car was clobbered on the drivers side. sucks!
it has now turned into a complete resto. when we got it, there were certain things that weren't "correct" for a resto. since it's a real Z28, i want to get it back to factory correct as possible.

thanks, Greg

 

That looks like a beautiful early 2nd gen! It's a bummer about the deer, and finding all the poorly done repairs. But it's also a good thing, as you have the opportunity to do it up right. Buying a car in new paint, or fresh primer, always makes me a bit nervous, as I wonder what's under it all.
One of my present projects is an old '63 Falcon that I built into a late 60's style gasser. When I found a screw through the passenger door trim I removed it and the trim popped out about 1/2". I got a straight edge to check, and the door was not level, so I knew there was filler in it. I pulled the trim and began grinding the primer and filler down to bare metal. It was about 3/4" thick, and still low from true level! Once I stripped the whole door I found the original dent not pulled at all. They drilled some holes to attempt pulling, but that was all. Had to pull the door panel out past flush, and then tap it back down to get it all trued up. Welded up the holes, and gave it a skim coat. Found the front fender was actually high with filler, and when I began taking it down I found the dent was tiny. Someone had put 3/8" thick filler in it, and after grinding it all off, it didn't need anything but a small dab of filler to get it right.
Some people just shouldn't be allowed to work on cars!
Looking forward to seeing your progress on getting it all back to nice shape!

 

That's a pretty car. All things considered, it's in fairly decent (solid) shape. At least you have a rust free foundation to work from.

 

one thing to remember, all the work that was done on my (her) car was done back around '79 - '80. these cars weren't that old so it was fill it and send it on it's way.

i'll keep work posted when i can. still learning with the GM stuff. i'm a Mopar guy, but that doesn't mean i'm "mopar or no car" ( LOL ). all the trucks I've ever had have been Chevys. restored my '72 and '74 Challengers. my '72 i restored as if you drove it off the showroom floor. I'd like to get the Z done the same way, or close to it.

 

You should ditch it! Possibly trade for my totally rust free '80??? LOL no? Good offer! If the floors are good. It looks like a bunch of stuff cobbled together for sure. BUT! You say it was painted in '80, I'm not much older than the paint job but I do know that back then the standards and technology weren't what they are now. Factory panels may or may not been available, who knows.

I like it, its nicer than my '78 was for sure and thats why I have a rust free '80. My '78 had 1/4 with damage. I never noticed until I went to paint it but the spoiler end had a solid 1/4" of daylight under it and generally wasnt the right shape. That car sat for 90% of its life. 12 years before I got it and 11 years while I had it and it was a total basket case under a fresh coat of paint.

Sucks, good luck and please paint it blue again. My favorite factory color right there.

 

Where's the replacement line on the 1/4???

 

the left 1/4 was brazed in. 2 pics up, ya see that nice hunk of bondo at the roof line, that is one place. the other was in the trunk jamb under the trunk hinge. the 3rd is where the QP meets the body in the door jamb (that is actually pretty nice). the wheel well was pretty botched, they pinched the QP to the outer wheelhouse and made all these little dents that were filled with bondo. where the QP meets the lower valence was pretty bad too. there was a gap, about 1/2" between the two and was filled with braze. then they drew an line in the bondo to make it look like the seam was there (HAHA, pretty bad huh). with the new tail panel on, i have a 1/2" gap between the QP and the valence.

 

Looks like you'll probably have to split the QP at the edge of that gap, and do a small filler piece to get a "normal" seam there. Seems like replacement panels these days are all a poor fit, regardless of maker.
I would think good factory replacement panels would have been readily available for the car in 1980, as factories carried parts for 20 years. But I think in your car's case it was just a repair shop's decision to cut corners and increase profit. No surprise then or today, regardless of technology. Some things never change, and often it takes guys working on their own cars to make things right.

 

looks like a full 1/4 for sure. Mine had mud in the sail area from the factory. With what you have though I think some metal work and it will be good to go. The tail seam looks like what Val said, a filler may get ya where you want it. Are you sure its not the aftermarket tail coming up short there? Maybe section it and then put the seam in its right spot and filling the hole left from sectioning?

 

Since the vertical line on the tail panel looks so straight, I don't think sectioning it and moving it left would look good. That junction should be a pretty straight, vertical line, so whatever needs to be moved to keep it dead vertical will look proper.