Need expertise of the Z vets!

[SteveJ]

My usual advice to prospective first-time buyers: update your profile on this site to include your location. You should be able to find someone in your area who can help you go over the car. You may be able to find a local Z car expert who you can pay for an inspection.

Mike's advice is spot on. I looked at a Z car owned by a young gentleman who lives near me. I pointed out several things to him that should be worked on to correct big safety problems.

Hook up with with a veteran. You can learn from all of our mistakes!

[bpilati]

All those knobs were black plastic [at least in OZ], could this be another little variation in export models?

MOM

No, absolutely not. They were all black. :classic:

[EScanlon]

use a fridge magnet to check for body fill

Sorry Zhead, this is such a bogus test that it belongs on snopes.com (Urban Legends).

The people that would know how to actually use the test will be the first to tell you that it's easy to beat and hard to discern if there is any bondo in there at all. The "principle" behind this test is to see if the magnet will attach itself to the car or not, or not attach as well. Do you have the ability in your fingers to sense the difference between the pull of a weak magnet at 1/16" vs. 1/8" of bondo thickness? Then there are those "gages" that will "prove" it because of a spring on the magnet. Again, by the time you note the subtle difference you're past that area as you swipe your gage over the body. Heck if I were the owner of the car, I wouldn't want you wiping a magnet with who knows what dirt attached to the back of it all over my car, regardless of what you said you were trying to find out.

Bondo gets a bad rap from people who don't know anything about good bodywork and think this qualifies them as knowing anything. The only time that the magnet test would work is if it was so thick that your magnet wouldn't attract itself to the metal below whether it was because of the bondo or because there was NO metal. Skim coats of bondo are common when a customer demands a "mirror" finish. Factories sometimes use bondo to finish imperfections in joined metal areas or accidental bumps on the assembly line. Saying that this detracts from the finished vehicle could be just an excuse for not having any sound basis for denigrating the vehicle. Besides, if the paint is smooth, without blemishes (Lilly-pads, ripples, runs, sags, cracks, crazing, etc.) then why would it matter if there was a small patch of bondo or redcap or high-fill primer someplace on the metal?

That this would "tell" you that the car has been in an accident is plausible, but I'll bet that a good bodyman could make it so that most people could NOT tell. That is, after all, the basis by which bodymen are judged. If the bondo were thick enough to be detected (due to shoddy bodywork), then there are bound to be dozens of other tell-tale marks. Over-spray in hidden areas, sanding marks in hard to reach corners, unevenness in the paint as seen from the side (looking only at the reflection), these would JUMP out at you, LONG before the bondo would be an issue.

Granted that you want to get the BEST car for the LEAST money, but looking for bondo is like seeing a gorgeous woman walking down the street and wondering if she's wearing control top pantyhose.

2¢

Enrique

[DougN]

Another interesting thing to note -- the latest issue of Hemming's Sports and Exotic cars lists the 240Z as one of 10 Japanese cars that they think are still a great bargin, and will most likely go up in price in the future. So buy it now before they get too expensive :-)

[OrangeZ]

Thank you so much for the replies! Sorry for the slow reply, this week and next week is Finals week for me. I've read all of your replies and I realize I should definately check out the car with my own eyes and do the inspections you listed. I never would have thought of checking the vins or the tire well.

I'll check out the car first and if it passes the initial inspections, I'll post back here. Once again thank you guys, I really appreciate your advice.