My New 240K Parts Car

[Alfadog]

This is my parts car I got about 2 months ago but then went on holiday for a month etc. and got carried away. Anyway, got around to taking pics finally. It's a beast and really dodgy, don't be deceived by the pics.

I picked this up at about 1am on a Thursday night. I left for Ireland on Friday. So I really didn't have any idea what I had until I came home a month later. Thanks to 440k for giving me the tipoff about this car! It was a big adventure with my mate, but was lots of fun and nothing bad happened. It's alright, it runs. It's just rusty and uncared for. Not beyond restoration, but you'd have to be pretty dedicated. It was apparently bought by his father in 1979 (2 years since new) and kept in the family all these years. For a car in this condition it's not exactly a selling point as it just shows the family suck at basic car-care rather than bringing forward a sense of trust. Anyway, why did I buy it? Well, scroll and find out

Again, don't think the paint looks nice and metallic like Kyteler's and don't think that it doesn't look rusty. It's bad. The front left stainless trim was held on by a lump of BONDO. Real pity about the smashed in rear. The boot trim looks reasonably straight apart from that... that's one part I'd really like. The boot is full of crap. The badges look like they would crumble into a thousand small pieces upon the lightest touch.

[Alfadog]

See in the first picture from that lot all the cracked paint, and spray paint down near the bottom? That's all bondo under there I guess. Has the original stylish (cough) steel wheels though. The spot just behind the side glass on the right was no more than a bubble when I first attacked it with a screwdriver. 3 minutes later I decided to stop before I start peeling the side of the car off. The inner skin appears reasonably solid though. All the scratch marks on the bodywork are not from my mad hacking away at the rust hole (which was incidentally not without a strange sense of enjoyment), they are just bad preparation with the bondo. In fact, the hardest part of making that gash was getting through the inch thick layer of bondo. It's the same all along the side gutter. Weird place for a car to rust I would have thought, but perhaps it has just been sitting collecting crap in there for a few years at some stage. Bonnet isn't too bad, reasonably straight, but who knows how much of it is metal. By the way, all that light brown on the bonnet, roof and glass is just dirt. washed on from being under a car cover and being rained on. Onwards!...

[Alfadog]

The interior stinks like petrol. The cause of this I took a picture of and will explain in a moment, but basically after taking these pictures my eyes really sting and are starting to go red. If you hit the seat, it will expel a cloud of dusty smoke that has an odour not dissimilar to my grandma's (rest her soul) closet, except about 50 times as concentrated. When I got the car, there were floor mats (3 of them on each side) and a small collection of shells. Also a rather large collection of beer bottle caps. I have since thrown this all in the bin. The mats made an odd squelching sound when I peeled them off the surprisingly decent condition floors. The dash looks as though it may have been an attempt to model the Grand Canyon. Luckily it has a blue mat to cover it. Yes and the seats you may have noticed... well yes I can now confirm that the seats from a Clown Car do fit the seat rails of a 240K. No but seriously, they're just recovered originals. The seats had 2 seat covers on each. I also took these off and into the bin, as they felt like you were sitting on a stray cat while driving. The bits of broken shell underneath the covers acted as the cat's claws! I have not been so brave as to take the second cover off the rear seat yet, because frankly I am scared. The seal between the side windows has deteriorated and some Einstien decided to seal it with silicone. Or snot maybe. Oh yeah, and it's manual! Haha! If you hadn't guessed already, that's the reason I bought it.

[Alfadog]

Engine bay shots! Yes under all that dust, mud and oil is a fire breathing monster. Actually the car doesn't run all that badly. It just makes you cry from the fumes. It is bodied KHGC110-015654, which is about 12,000 cars after the other one. Just goes to show what a bit of continuous care can achieve. It's four years newer. I included a picture of the fuel pump just to show the amount of crud in the engine. I'm not sure but I think there may be a stalegtite forming there. Oh and make sure to click on the second last picture - that's the exhaust system there and a clue as to why the text looks blurry right now. Later models have all this pollution control stuff you see including a tube from the exhaust coming back into the inlet. I have a feeling the guy who had the snot idea came up with the idea of disconnecting that. Oh yeah and the radiator... hey, what radiator??

OK that's all for now. It's probably not as bad as I'm making it out to be, but it's pretty bad. I'll be hopefully swapping the transmissions, and then trying to sell it to someone with a better tolerance of petrol fumes than me. If I can't do that for a decent price, I'll part it out (oh boo hoo) then give it to a wreckers. So, anyone collect beer bottle caps?

[Gav240z]

After looking at those pics I felt so unclean that I had to look at your GTR replica just to feel a sense of cleanliness again

[Mr Camouflage]

Like Pro240c said. why doesnt this stuff come up for sale in WA?

I'd call dibs on the shell, its certainly repairable, but not worth the $1000 it would cost to transport it to WA.

Alfa. If it were me, i'd keep ALL the spare parts off it. just in case.

[The C110]

Good find, shame about the damage/old person smell/decrepid body et. al. In any case, arent there ANY panels that are worth salavging? Look forward to hearing the progress on it. Cheers,

Tom

[Mr Camouflage]

Good find, shame about the damage/old person smell/decrepid body et. al. In any case, arent there ANY panels that are worth salavging? Look forward to hearing the progress on it. Cheers,

Tom

It's a parts car Tom.

Alfa plans to rip out the pedal box, gear box and clutch stuff and put it in his GTR look alike. No restoration planned for this one. Looks like its at the end of its life, unless someone buys the what's left of the chassis after Lachlan has stripped all the parts off it that he wants.

[Mr Camouflage]

Original wheels too.

[zman525]

grr it kills me to see people using these rare cars as parts cars but i am a victim aswell... i would be very thankful to have that car in running condition, living in new england and all...

[440k]

Excellent, Lachlan!!

If you do part it out, I call dibs on the engine and front stone tray / radiator support and beaver tray (heck, I'll take all the panels just in case)

The rust looks bad, but it's always repairable. It's amazing what you can achieve with a bit of sheet metal and a mig (or oxy welder).

How's the glass on it? Worth keeping that too.

Oh, those wheels are original C210 skyline wheels, and look great on a 1600. You should be able to sell them for a few bucks if you ever need to.

Look forward to seeing it when I get back. If you haven't already done the conversion by then (Jan) I'll give you a hand with it.

Peter

[Mr Camouflage]

grr it kills me to see people using these rare cars as parts cars but i am a victim aswell... i would be very thankful to have that car in running condition, living in new england and all...

Consider it revenge for all the 240z's that you Americans cut up for parts. Cars that looked perfectly restorable, cars that an Aussie would have no choice but to restore.