I am finally getting things started with my 92z. I bought it back in high school and I only drove it for a few months. All through out college, grad school, and after a year of working it has been garaged with my parents. Now I finally have it back and a place to store it for myself. I am starting with an initial inspection, if you would call it that, to see what shape the body is in as far as rust goes. Can everyone give me some pointers on where to look and specifically what I should be looking for before I decide on a complete rebuild or not?The car is a 1992 z28 hardtop 305 TPI Auto with almost 170k miles on the odo. I will post pics later today. My plan is to completely rebuild all suspension front and rear, upgrade almost everything you can think of. My powertrain plan is a Supercharged 406 with a 6-speed tranny. I have alot of parts picked out and planned that I will share with everyone later as I start to finalize it all and understand what works best with all of your help. For now I want to make sure this car isnt so badly rusted that I cant even bother starting a complete rebuild like this without spending a fortune just to restore the body/frame.I am going to lift up the car and start taking a look around and I will try to grab some photos as well.
I dont know why, but I spaced out all this text but I went submit the thread it get posted as all one straight line of text. Moderaters - any ideas on what is going on? I am not even getting the spaces after each sentence.

 

Here are some pics I took today. There is some rust under the car along the driver and passenger sides adjacent to the doors. It does not seem too bad but I'd like to here from someone with more experience.

 

More pics...


So what do you guys think about the rust situation? I did not see anything else really anywhere under the car or in the wheel wells.

P.S. I know the car doesnt look like its in the best shape but this is how I bought it 7 yrs ago as my first car in High School, so be nice

 

i don't think it looks that bad . many guy's have taken much , much worse and made them into real winners . if you don't know how , learn to weld . it's not that hard . best of luck , keep us posted .

 

Yeah that doesent look too bad at all! Looks like you are in luck. I think they make a rattle can at autozone that is paint that converts rust to something neutral and solid - not too sure how it works tho. Another option, better if you are planning to completely restore the car, would be to POR-15 the whloe underside with a good thick coat after you get everything taken off. Then get a case of rubberized undercoating or two and spray that on. That should take care of any rust for a long time.

Other places to look at are inside the rear quarter panels and where the rear wheels kick up. Make sure the body sheetmetal is solid. Also, look under the gas filler door on the inside. Finally, look under all the GFX because they hide alot of rust.

 

Sounds good... It looks like I am in pretty good shape then. I am planning to clean and POR-15 the entire underside of the car so I should be good.

Now, I am not sure where to ask this question but I am trying to figure out where I want to start my project... Suspension work, body and paint, and engine and fuel system and etc.. Of the three I am sceptical of doing body and paint first because I do not want to damage the paint will finishing the rest of the work. On the other hand, If i finish the engine work and the suspension work I know the engine compartment will have to be taken apart and maybe some of the suspension work in the front? This seems to be a major PITA to install and tune everything then take it all out again and reinstall everything praying it will work as it did before.

So, what do you guys recommend from experience and personal opinions? I have been following Neils rebuild and it looks like he is doing ok by having all the body work finished first then installed the engine and the interior stuff.

 

Yeah, that's not bad at all! My '92 started out MUCH worse:




(that's all metal I had to cut out to remove the rust in the floor. That doesn't even show the parts of the rockers/cowl I had to repair)

I cut out all the rust, welded in new metal, and POR-15'd the whole undercarriage after installing my subframe connectors to turn her into this:





All that to say, you have a GREAT LOOKING foundation for an awesome car/project. You've got some great plans for it too from the sounds of it. Since I changed the color of my car I stripped EVERYTHING out of the engine bay, and sandblasted it (and the door jams) down to bare metal. I then sprayed the engine bay and door jams the new color and re-assembled everything before painting the exterior. In my opinion the exterior paint should be the last thing after you've gotten the rest of the car assembled, but if you paint the engnine bay and door jams before re-assembling you can be careful during assembly to keep from damaging the paint in those areas.





Just organize everything the best you can so that you don't have to undo work you've already done. It's good that you're thinking about all of this before diving in, it will definitely help you in the long run with your project. Most important though is good luck and HAVE FUN!!!

-Paul

 

That was one dramatic transition! beautiful car

 

Sounds good. Now my next step is to find a very good body shop here on Long Island or nearby, I am willing to travel a little bit if the quality of work is there and the price is right. Any know of any good/reputable places to check out?

Again, thanks for all the help in getting this started.

 

i know i am a little late, but i think you have a great starting point for a custom build. if you are doing a color change paint job i would definatly say to paint the engine bay and the rest of the car first, before doing the engine, stearing and suspension, ect. if you are just going to paint the car black again, as long as your engine bay paint is in good condition i dont think it matters what you start on first. just my opinion, keeping in mind that i have never done a build like this i would not blame you if you did not follow my advice. good luck with all!!

 

Yea, I plan to repaint to a Kandy Color. Probably Kandy Red with some sort of other mix in it. I am not going to run any AC or heat or anything either so I def want to paint the engine compartment as well to make it look very clean.Everyone will start seeing my posts in various forums as I start to take things apart and get stuck along the way.