Planning

Thinking about the order of things... It's pretty evident from the photos of the Z that I have my work cut out. So, the question arises, where to begin? It's tempting to tear into the disassembly right off the bat, damaging parts only to find later that they are unobtanium. Inevitably things will be stuck, rusted, scaled, pitted, scratched, stressed, seized, crusty and most dangerously, seem to be irrelevant or unnecessary garbage. Save everything! 

 I've researched enough to know that a crusty little component can cost hundreds to replace and a little extra care and attention to detail in the beginning can save you a real headache down the road. The last set of NOS door cards for the 240Z in the entire world are running for over a grand(CDN) each out of Japan right now and there's no international shipping so...save everything. There's a great aftermarket for almost everything if money is no object, which is always an option if the project gets stuck, so thanks car guys for keeping the Z alive :)

Photo Credit: jdmcarparts.com

The best way I've found that keeps me organized is to reinstall any fasteners where they came from as soon as I've removed parts. However, This is a bare metal restoration so all the fasteners need to come off and go into storage for long enough that I will definitely forget where they go. 

 My solution is to sort everything into Ziploc bags, label them and tape the bags to the corresponding parts. Everything then goes into large totes. At a later date I'll be replating all the fasteners, clips and brackets and I would like to do this in one go. late discoveries of forgotten bolts which would necessitate setting up repeatedly for plating will drive me insane. Disassembly is one of my favourite aspects of fixing things and it's sooo tempting to dissect all the sub-assemblies into little sub assemblies. In the beginning it's best to leave what you can intact. Later-on it's perfectly OK to rebuild sub assemblies like brake calipers, drums and the gauge cluster after the big stuff has been stripped. Organizing an efficient workflow is not so much about the pace of the work as the economy of effort.  Forgetting how things go back together and losing track of tiny components is a likely scenario and a cause of much frustration.