[Unknown User]

All - I am beginning my restoration/upgrade process on my '71Z. I was looking over the body and found what appears to be two welds under the paint located on the body above the rear quarter glass, about 3-4 inches below where the top of the hatch is located (between the quarter window and the actual hatch assembly). The welds run perpendicular to the body, which is why this is concerning me. I looked under the car and cannot seem to find any other welds that would line up for this to be a full rear clip, but I cannot tell without completely scrubbing the underbody as there are years of junk built up on it. Can someone tell me if this was a factory weld or not? I do not have another 240 to compare to and would like to know if I got ripped off or not before dropping several thousand dollars into this car. TIA

Z

 

[twentyfourouncer]

This is a factory weld. You notice them more on some cars than on others depending on how much stress your particular cars unibody has been through.

 

[ghostkilla2179]

i notice on early z cars, tht there is always a crack in the paint on the roof right above the little side windows. is this related to that weld?

david karey

 

[Unknown User]

Great. Thanks for the confirmation, 24ozer... I was getting a little worried. Now my wife has to be worried since the $$$ starts flowing now. David, I do have a crack in my paint over the area where the weld is. So, it must be related to that weld... Thanks again,

Tim
(Z)

 

[schmaydee]

...oh ****...dont worry about it.......i'm happy to find any metal (that aint rusted) on mine anywhere...welded,glued on,taped on...or just stuck down between the seats its all good to me!... these are OLD cars.....s

 

[escanlon]

Unless the weld broke don't worry about it. If it did break get it re-welded. This is where they mated the roof panel to the rear side fenders, and usually, not always, they welded, ground and then did a skin coat of lead. Since it is a major stress point, it can "flex" and the lead is what usually cracks and causes the crack in the paint.

 

[johnh240]

Nope...it' not clipped...and

if you want to have an 'as delivered' finish on it the seam should ACTUALLY SHOW in the final paint. My 72 (still with original paint and original owner) had this when it was delivered, and every new Z of that era that I ever saw had the same seams showing through the original paint. It seems that most of the cracking came when the cars were repainted and the area was bondoed over and sanded smooth. Apparently the area flexes just a bit and will crack the bondo underneath. Soooo...if you are going for a concours resto and want to be 'correct' and are willing to argue with unknowing car show judges about it, you should have a small depression line there about 1/8" wide running across the C pillar arch. (The part about the car show judge comes from a true story from another original owner. The show judge tried to tell him that his car had a 'bad' paint job and wasn't original because of those lines! His too had original paint and the judge tried to tell him it had been wrecked and repainted poorly! The funny thing was this judge was at the most maybe 5 years old when this guy bought his car new.) I've seen the same thing happen with the seam in the rocker panels, and the 'layover' seams in the horizontal panel under the rear hatch. Good luck on your restoration.