A little morale support please.....

[=Enigma=]

ah yes all thats missing now is this!

Holy crap Toecutter, that's probably one of the most appalling things I've ever seen, thanks for ruining my appetite.

[Montezuma]

I found one just like it in a "pick your part" here in San Diego over 10 years ago. The car had under 38K on it. It turns out some rich guy owned, garaged it, died and the family junked the car. Pulling it out caused one crack which I had fixed....can't tell it was ever there. The day I got it was a 1/2 price day so I paid like $20.00 for it. I had to remove all the the gauges or they would charge me for them as well. Well the dash is im the rafters of my garage and the car is under a cover in the driveway. I was thinking of selling....but now that I see how much you paid, I realize it worth keeping for that day that I might resurrect my faded out baby. I think you did the right thing and did not over pay by much. Let's face it; there are not that many great deals on ebay, there are great products just a little over priced.

[Obewon]

LMAO, this is why I love this site. I was worried I may have spent too much on this dash but like true Z owners, you backed me. You guys are great. And you are right, the wife deserves a night out and flowers for this one. I also know what you mean about keeping track of money spent on parts, I don't want to know. And Toecutter, what the hell was that?

[CANDYBLUE2+2]

One day I made the mistake (looking back it was) of making a Excel Spread Sheet of ALL the receipts I had for my Z (everything from parts, to labor, to pizza and beer to pay for friends help) ... let's just say it was in the 5k+ range ... I couldn't believe it ... you start to add up the little things and it makes it go way up! Of course I never skimped on my Z and put all nice parts and effort into it and have a car I love, so all worth it in the end.

I can honestly say I have somewhere in the neighborhood of $16K in reciepts on hand...and that dosen't count one penny of my labor which is probably underestimated at $5K to $6K. I know I'll probably never see that kind of figure in a sale, but who knows in 20 years what could be the great deal. NOT SELLING ANYWAY, so it dosen't matter much now does it?

[toecutter]

hehe-did'nt mean to hijack the thread I just find that pic so funny!

[Obewon]

That picture is just so wrong, on so many levels. I would bet if you could look in the back, the rear window would trimmed in dingle balls an a little dog who's head bobs up and down. But we're right, that picture is some funny sh*t.

[Darrel]

Keep in mind, it is still a 35 yr old dash with the 35 yr old materials prone to shrinking and cracking. Unless you are doing a complete original real restoration you might have been better off in the long run getting an old dash refurbished by the various dash restoration places around for not much more than what you paid for that one. One that will have a lot better properties to prevent cracks.

my 2 cents plus a nickle thrown in for inflation.

thread on zdriver about a dash restoration with "after" pics.

http://zdriver.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20770

[lonetreesteve]

Geez, original uncracked dashes are going for a lot nowadays, even 280Z dashes. My son and I sold a '72 dash just under 3 years ago on Ebay for a little under $500.00. I guess we should have held onto it because it would be worth twice as much right now. I have to agree with Darrel, the reason my son and I sold ours was the fear we would install it into our '72 and it would crack within a short period of time. If you're going to spend that much money, restorations are the way to go if you don't mind going through all the trouble to take out the dash and then reinstall it. Here's another link:

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22323&highlight=dash+restoration

[Go240Zags]

I sold one for a 72/73 for $300 two years ago. It was perfect, no cracks. Found it sans gauges ready to be rescued on the seats of a crashed up 240Z in a nearby wrecking yard across the border in Canada. If it was a Series I then I would have kept it. Total cost $50 Canadian, about $35 bucks U.S. at the time. Sold it to a guy in the Navy who was still on ship board. He bought it for a 240Z he also bought when out to sea. Hope his project went well when he got home to San Diego. It would probably be worth twice as much now, but no regrets. My philosophy is find the parts, keep what you need and sell the rest to someone who needs them. Got to feed the beast and that's the only way I can keep going on my project and pay the mortgage too. I have two Series I dashes both with cracks - one is worse than the other. I'm going full dash cap - don't believe I'll worry about being able to tell when the doors or open. Just glad there are people who make the cap and other parts for our cars and think (in my case) the money it takes to redo a dash correctly could be better spent elsewhere on the car.