240Z: Body assessment for the final Boydwork

Those who follow the story of my Z’s since the beginning, might know that this project started over 15 years ago, and since then, I never had a complete S30 that drives. It has always been a hobby of mine, and it was intended for myself to gain knowledge about car repairs, how they work and just enjoy building something with my hands. What was once intended to be a quick-fix over 1–2 years, quickly escalated in much more than I could ever imagine. And that in a good sense. I’ve gained many new contacts, knowledge and friends.

In recent years, however, I feel that I lack knowledge and experience to get to work on the more delicate parts of the car – like the body. I have given it to professional bodyshops twice, but it didn’t turn out as expected. It took them much longer than expected, costed much more than originally stated and the quality was not up to my expectations. So I lost a bit of motivation. I thought about doing it myself and learning how to do it, but honestly, my work kept me busy in the past few years, so I didn’t really have time to get into it, buy all the required tools, and so on.
But also, I have spent way too much on the car to stop the project and despite all the hassle and costs, I still love it. It just makes it more special, once it’s finished.
Long story short. I have finally agreed to bring the car abroad to a real S30 specialist and get it done. Once we have settled the details and timeline, I will tell you more. But for now let’s keep it like this.
Next week, I’ll get a visit from the specialists to assess the car and discuss the details. I thought it’s about time to prepare myself and the car as good as possible. So I went to my to-do list and wrote down every known issue on the body:

Took it to the car and checked everything in detail:

There are some minor areas which still need a bit of love.

There are some modifications which I’d like to incorporate, while at it.

There are some previous repairs which seem to be incomplete and need to be checked.

While at it, I also realized that there still was some seam-sealer here and there, so I took the opportunity and removed it. Which was a good thing, since I found some surface rust underneath at some points. So now this can be tackled before paint.

Now, I have a very detailed to-do list with about 40 tasks that need to be done for the body with photos, descriptions, marks on the car, and so on. It will be a challenge since it’s sometimes tricky to fix a previous not-so-nice repair, but I’m sure I have found the best choice of people for this job, and I try to make it as easy as possible for them by finding NOS parts, like NOS cable mounting brackets, and so on.
I really hope to close this chapter now after so many years and go forward with the next steps.

The good thing is, in the meantime, I have collected so many good parts, documentation, knowledge and also nice contacts. So while it won’t be easy to finish this project, it will be definitely much easier than before.
I’m curious and excited to see where this story goes, but I really hope this gets a good boost now, which motivates me to get some stuff done on my side and prepare for the next steps. Fingers crossed.