Damage Inc.

Saturday I took some time to assess the state of the Z. As I mentioned earlier, the body work proved to be in a pretty good condition. The floor panels however, are probably as bad as they could get. Fred (Flintstone) would have felt at home I guess. But fortunately new panels and frame rails aren't very hard to get.
The interior is also completely shot. Dash is cracked, seats torn and worn out, and then those idiots tried to spray the originally brown interior black. No problem, all of this can be restored to new for a few hundred bucks. But that's part 2 of the project next year.
Engine: dunno what the previous morons tried to do but some hoses and cables connected to the carbs were not just disconnected but cut through completely. Well, I do have an idea what they were trying to do and that's to by-pass all the emission related stuff that the flat tops were equipped with. The air cleaner and its housing were removed as well. Found 'em in a parts bin, together with some other unidentified interior parts. The battery tray also needs to be replaced cuz it's rusted through almost completely.
I jacked up the rear to see what was up underneath. Besides a rusted drive train, part of the exhaust's missing. Rear wheel on the rh-side didn't wanna turn by hand, which explains why we had such a hard time moving the darn thing. I guess my first job will be to loosen up whatever's stuck back there.
Still have to figure out what the various loose parts in the bin are from. Looked like they started a restoration project and bailed out prematurely. Yes, it isn't something for the faint of heart.
But let's see if I can get this baby running first. If possible, drive around a bit to check the gear box as well.
So the overall state is as expected. It'll take quite some effort to get the job done so i hope I'll get all the support from home. Check out the pix in my album.

A Sort of Homecoming

My Z's home! Yesterday I could finally pick her up. I thought this was gonna be a quick in-out job, but I ended up spending all afternoon and some more to get her into her new home :/ It didn't help that I had to drive all the way down to Roosendaal, which took me 1.5hrs. And lemme tell you that I was really hauling ass in that truck. At times I was doing 130 km/hr YiiiiHAAAH! :)
Marlog charged me 775EUR, which is almost as much as the car cost me! They're a big bunch of crooks! Seeing them in real life only proved my thoughts I had about them. Ah well, a lesson learned albeit a costly one.
Because I arrived at 5:15 pm at the barn, I had to off-load the Z as fast as possible in order to make it on time to Diks. Fortunately Eduard, the owner of the place, was home to help me out. We off-loaded in 15', left it in front of the barn and I took off as fast as possible. Diks (the car rental co) wasn't too far so I managed...barely. 10 min. before closing time I came rushing in...Pheww.. Fortunately they weren't very strict about the 4hr rental period cuz I exceeded it with almost one hour.
After a quick bite to eat at home I took HJ and little maru to the barn so that they could see the Z and the place where I'll spend as much time as possible for the next few years or so :) Little maru's first reaction was "auto, auto!" :) 18 years from now she'll have the coolest ride around :)
I thought it'd be a quick job to move the Z into the barn but I couldn't have been more mistaken. It proved to be a major PITA! The darn thing didn't wanna move more than a meter with 3 people pushing (Eduard was also there to help). No matter what we did, we couldn't get her past the entrance. Fortunately Sierk and his cousing Sander just happened to stop by (with a truck load full of car parts). But even then with 4 strong guys it felt as if we were trying to move mount Fuji. Fortunately Sierk carried a towing belt in his van so we eventually managed to tow her in. In front of the garage we had to push and pull really hard, including lifting the rear end but we finally managed. Yay!
We all admired her from up close. Too bad the front bumper's missing. These things cost a fortune, if you can find a decent one at all. Dudes thought it was a really cool ride. I'm amazed that they didn't know this type of car. Which says something about its exclusivity. We all were very surprised about the state of the body work. Sure, some dents and surface rust here and there but no major hidden body cancer. The floor panels and in the wheel wells are a different story, but even then not that bad. It's still gonna be lots of work though to get her into prime condition.
But I'll start working on the engine first as planned. First I'll try to see if I can get her running again. Makes assessment of the state a bit easier. Then take it apart bit by bit, cleaning and refurbishing every little part and put it back together again, hoping it'll run eventually :)

Finally and unfortunately

Today my Z was finally released by the Customs office! I quickly reserved a truck, rushed home from the office, only to find out that my wife was out with my bank and credit card :/ Damn! Pick up during the weekend is not possible. On Monday I have a meeting to attend so it's gonna be Tuesday. That's a lot of extra storage money :/

Open Sesame...

Been rather busy doing an ATC course and zooming in on everything around it. But on the Z front there's some good news to share! First off, le Z will be cleared thru Customs today or tomorrow. Last week the handling co. finally received the dox from the US Customs. Things could have gone faster if I'd submitted my dox earlier :/ Ah well...
Other good news is that we completed about 99% of our garage last weekend.Yay! This includes the walls, racks, doors, lighting fixtures and workbenches. Sierk was a real devil for work :)