Hey guys, new to the forum. I browsed around a bit before deciding to buy a Z, and definitely got some interesting information, so I figured I'd contribute something interesting to the community.
Some background: I work with a couple car lots that do strictly rebuilt title vehicles, mostly specializing in daily drivers, so I have access to very skilled bodywork guys and very skilled paint guys.
When I started looking for a Z, I had looked at a couple rebuilt titles and had seen a very common trend of a poor quality rebuild, but the prices they were selling at were significantly lower than clean title, so it got me doing a bit of research on the parts cost. On 7/20/2015, I purchased a 2014 Nissan 370Z from Copart. Copart is an auction that specializes in wrecked cars.
Below, I just want to make a log of the progress on this vehicle.
Picture of the car at auction, 7/20/2015:
Car arrives at the shop and goes on frame machine to be checked out 7/27/2015 featuring BMWs old bodywork guy:
Door removed; no extreme structural damage found so far, and headlight turns out to be inside the car completely undamaged 7/27/2015:
Pulled out the quarter enough to confirm no real damage to the structure of the vehicle; already had quarter skin ready. On the downside, every suspension part that could have broken/cracked, did. Ordered suspension and door today, should be here Thursday
7/27/2015:
After drilling the original weld points of the quarter, we're only making one cut on the body, right below the corner glass for the window so that bondo won't have to be used on this car 7/28/15:
The carnage; if you ever wondered what your Z looks like undressed, here ya go.
7/28/15:
Fitting the quarter on (feat. BMW bodyman again) 7/28/15:
Quarter is on; everything lines up perfect. Now just waiting on the door and suspension! 7/28/15:
Also, considering doing a front bumper conversion to Nismo. Does anyone know if the 2014 Nismo bumper uses the same LED strips as base, just mounted differently, or if they're different?