a club member found this car sitting,and stopped to check it out. talking with the previous owner,he learned that the car was going to be sold. taking pictures,getting the owner's name and number,he posted the info incase any club member might be interested.

the history of the car, if correct as told by the p o is that it was being driven by the Datsun owner's son, and two years old when he bought it. the car was driven for approximately ten years, showing 108 k miles on the odometer when i looked at it. the p o had a wreck, sliding on ice into the back of the car in front of him, and then had someone rear ended him as well. he claimed the damage was minor. the hood was rolled under and both bumpers missing from the car. with the clutch slipping at the time,he decided to just pull it into the garage and fix it back up one day. and it sat for around twenty years, untouched, until i found it and bought it. the p o had purchased new bumpers for both front and rear, and had never installed them. i got them still in the package, along with a over ride bumper for the rear,when i purchased the car.

we had to take the rear wheel off and bust the drum, as it was frozen and wouldn't roll, so that the car could be loaded on the trailer. i had an idea of throwing fresh gas in it, new plugs, and rebuilding the brakes, along with a new clutch, and driving it right away. how wrong i was in that i have now spent two years fixing and replacing parts, so that i could have a daily driver to depend on. i wanted to do everything as best i could, and pay for as i went, so that when i finished, i would have a nice car, and not owe any money on it. so that explains the time period of getting it driveable.

i was extremely lucky in finding a club member doing a v 8 conversion, who had a engine with round top carbs for free, all i had to do was drive two hours to pick it up. and he even loaned me his cherry picker to load it. we decided to go ahead and just rebuild his engine, since we were swapping the four speed tranny for a five speed, i saw no reason to worry with keeping the original engine. i know there are club members rolling their eyes, wondering why i have ruined an all original,numbers matching car, and all i can say in my defense, is that i wanted a good dependable car, which would easily cruise on the interstate, and handle these ozark hills and curves.

at the time, i was driving a '88 300 ZX SS, and loved it. it was a really nice car, but the wife didn't see it as something we needed since it only was a two seater. we still have one child at home. also, i had the wife driving a '92 Nissan Sentra at the time, one i had worked out of for the last ten years, and handed down to my daughter, who now drives a '93 300 ZX vert. a deal we made, the wife and i, buying a new home, making do with an old car, that lasted all of two years, and she was not happy with the Sentra. so i sold the SS on Ebay and purchased the wife a used Maxima SE, which worked out great so far. and now my older son is driving that Sentra with 400 k miles on it back and forth to college.

back to the 260Z, hope i didn't bore you too much with all of the history and such. now we took the donated engine, tore it down, and had it boiled. it cleaned up really nice, and everything looked good as far as a rebuild. new time kit installed, and all of the originall parts were put back in. we did have the head machined, and valve seats installed for unleaded fuel.

the suspension was tackled next. i had ordered a set of Tokico struts and springs off of Ebay. also a set of polyurethane bushings from Black Dragon. we dropped everything out from underneath and cleaned it up with a wire wheel brush on a grinder, and sprayed it all flat black.

the car being wrecked, we found more damage than i had been told about by the p o but after an extra day of beating, pulling, and such we had everything back straight and all was good on the frame.