1973 Z28 Restoration "Lilith"

[Jerry73Z28]

Boy, no updates for far too long - I was way down in Page 4!
Big progress on Saturday - we declared the garage finished, except for small side projects, got everything organized and put away.
Then got to work cleaning all the parts out of the body and off the trailer, and then, finally, got the body off the trailer and into the garage.

We meant to get it onto the rotisserie, but ran into some problems deciding where to fasten to the rear end. I have a post in the Tips N Tricks forum looking for ideas/advice for safely mounting the body to the rotisserie.
There's no actual work done on the body yet, but I'm so excited about having it where it CAN be worked on that I'm taking a few days off work this week to dedicate to really getting started.
Time to really start getting an idea of where the rust ends and good steel begins...

 

[Da-bigguy]

I hear you on the no updates for a long time! I need to get back into my garage and get back to working on my car. That will be in mid to late December at the earliest but my brother and his two boys will be in town for Christmas so maybe them being there will get me back in the garage and working on it.

Looking forward to seeing more pics as you make progress.

 

[Jerry73Z28]

Finally, some good progress!
I took Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off from work last week, and spent them, plus Saturday, working on the Camaro.
Wednesday, we got some bushings for the rear leaf spring mounts fabricated and got the car onto the rotisserie I've had for the purpose since June.

Then I got to work with a sandblaster and wire wheel brushes and got most of the rust off the front floorboards inside and underneath. Found a few small rust holes, but they had enough good steel around them that we closed them up with the welder.
There's a lot of rust holes in the rear floorboards and under the rear seats, though. Looks like I'm going to have to get some patch panels for them. I'd been sure the front floorboards would need replacing as well, but I'm very happy we were able to save them.

Next up, we'll get a coat of POR-15 on the areas I've got cleaned, and get some patch panels for the rear floorboards and seats on order, blast more rust this Saturday, and POR as I go.
Put in a lot of work this last week, and a very long road yet to go, but I'm really happy that progress is being made.

 

[Jerry73Z28]

Saturday's progress:

I actually got quite a bit further than this pic shows, I forgot to take a picture when I finished up. Except for the bottoms of the rear floorboards and seat pans, it's bare metal almost to above where the rear end would be. I left bottoms of the floorboards and seat pans because we'll be cutting them out and replacing them. I got an email from UPS letting me know those parts will be arriving Wednesday!
Next up, I'll keep moving back. I'm a little worried to start on the trunk floor. There's already a couple small rust holes visible - I'm just hoping we'll be able to patch instead of replacing the whole thing. That might strain my budget a bit.

 

[Bob Lane]

Are you sandblasting inside or outside?

 

[Jerry73Z28]

Outside. We just finished some drywall work in the garage and got the drywall dust cleaned up, and Dad's been working on Willys transmissions and engines. I/we don't want all that dust inside.
I've been giving the driveway a good sweep before I start, and then sweeping up and reusing the sand. I still get most of it back.

 

[Jerry73Z28]

Received from Classic Industries yesterday:

Texted these pictures to my Dad last night. His reply: A big thumbs up emoji, followed by, "Time to learn to weld."

Yep. Good thing I've got a good teacher.

 

[Jerry73Z28]

A little more progress...
Decided that since it was such a nice day, I should spend the day sandblasting outside and save welding in the new panels for an inside day.

I didn't clean the bottoms of the panels that are being replaced.
It's actually going much better than I thought it would, considering I'm only getting to spend a few hours a day working on it.
Thanks to our dry climate (despite the snow), there's no sign of rust re-appearing yet, even on the parts I cleaned off two weeks ago. That being said, I think I'm going to try to get the entire underside and interior rust-free, install the new rear floorboards, seat panels, cowl, patch the trunk floor, and then prime and paint it all in one shot instead of a section at a time like I'd originally planned.
IF we keep getting nice Saturdays, I think it'll only take a couple more weeks for sandblasting.
Maybe I'm being optimistic...that's pretty rare for me.

 

[asicerik]

Looking great! When I did my rear pans, I could not find ones with the seat clips, so I had to reuse my old ones. Still not sure I put them in the right place

 

[Zoomin]

Fun to see another 73Z getting another chance at life. I'm curious what color you're going to paint it. It would be a tough decision for me.