Factory Restored 240Z's

[Carl Beck]

Hi Randy:

The Dark Green A/T is the only VZ we've found so far in that color.

Carl B.

[DougN]

I'm toying with the idea of selling my 71TR6, but only if I could find a 907 color 240. Still in the undecided phase, as I still enjoy dropping the top on the TR.

See Randy, if you'd gotten an early MGB instead of that Truimph, you would not even be thinking of getting rid of her :classic:

[mally002]

,

Doug, you may be right, but I'll probably keep her and keep looking around for a green Z.

If I could have found a Nissan Restored 907 4spd, then I would have given some serious thoughts to buying it.....love that 907. BuT I also love my 918"Refreshed" 240 as well.

[mskhoury]

OK, I admit it. I am completely clueless about the "F" word mentioned by you guys and what it means. So that I don't step in it again, can someone enlighten me?

[MikeW]

"Factory". The vintage Z program was a Nissan USA operation and the cars were restored by independent shops that Nissan USA contracted with. The cars were never returned to Japan where they were originally built in a "Factory".

There have been long and heated discussions about this over the years on this site which is why you got such a reaction.

[bigoak]

Bob,

Thanks for the reply and information. I'm toying with the idea of selling my 71TR6, but only if I could find a 907 color 240. Still in the undecided phase, as I still enjoy dropping the top on the TR.

I did see one on Ebay that was around 8K, looked clean with little work needed.

Regards,

Randy

If you are thinking of purchasing on Ebay, be careful. There are numerous tales of Ebay transactions that didn't quite measure up to expectations (in particular with regard to rust issues, so important as Carl mentioned). Often this is not outright fraudulent behaviour, but sellers who simply don't know the vehicles very well and think they look o.k.

Have someone who is local and knows Z's inspect the car for you. Post your request here and you will likely find a volunteer or someone can direct to a local Z shop that can evaluate the car for you.

Best of luck! While you may enjoy the top down, 2nd gear in a Z is pure heaven...

Cheers,

[26th-Z]

Yes, just type "Factory Restored Z" in the search box and see what comes up! The use of the word factory is, unfortunately, a common term and people actually believe that the cars were sent back to Japan to be restored. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Thought I would pipe in to say that I'm working on the research project again and plan to have copies by the convention in October. There has been a lot of Vintage Z activity in the last year. Nissan released some of them when they moved to Tennessee. There have been a few private sales that I have been fortunate to witness and made one reference / introduction myself that ended up with a sale. Probably the most exciting event was finding a car that was restored by Old Car Service in Huntington Beach, California. Up to that point, there was only one reference to the shop and everyone thought that three shops did the restoration work. Now we know for certain that four shops were involved. Another more obscure piece of information that came to light has to do with the weather in Southern California at the time all this activity was going on. It rained! Body shops in the area had so much collision work, that they didn't have time to spend on the restorations and the process was slowed dramatically. Nissan USA planned to produce 200 cars for the program and the rain is one of the significant reasons that the program fell short of its goals. Nissan couldn't deliver cars fast enough.

Your car is on Evanow's list, DougN. I wonder why you condsider it not a VZ?

Chris

[Diseazd]

My pops just got an absolutely perfect white 70' for $15k. It is the nicest one I have ever seen. He also has a flawless 72 in the green. He paid $12 for that one. It had a $10k painjob on it. Only flaws were completely original engine bay and sub-par dash. He has since purchased a perfect dash and we rebuilt the motor and repainted the bay in his garage. Check out this thread on his cars to see what you can get for $15k or under.

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27221

[DougN]

Your car is on Evanow's list, DougN. I wonder why you condsider it not a VZ?

Chris

Chris, while my car is indeed on the list, it is obvious it was never "restored". From the info I have, it was owned by an Admiral, traveled around the world and was then bought by the Nissan folks for the VZ program. Some mechanical work appears to have been done to it, but they never got as far as the body or interior. The car then sat in the Nissan warehouse until last fall, when it was purchased from Nissan when they were clearing out their warehouse. My understanding is that until they actually got the car out of the warehouse, it was believed to have been one of the restored VZ cars. It was purchased by our mutual aquaintence who has several VZ cars already, and I purchased it from him :classic:

So I guess that makes my car a very unique car, being the one VZ car that is not a really a VZ car! Someday I hope to get more info to see what was actually done to the car by the VZ shop!

[26th-Z]

Doug,

I wonder if your car has the plaque on the console. I don't see any window decals from the pictures I have. What does Pierre say about the car? Or is that the story from him? I heard all of this from our friend and I know he sold it, but I didn't realize to you. This sort of "double standard" is somewhat amusing to me. Is Evanow's list the final word or is it not? And to add fuel to the fire, I have serial numbers from Nissan published documentation that are not on Evanow's list. I think you have yourself a real prize, Doug.

CW-

[MikeW]

Doug's car does not have the plaque. The car is in very nice shape but in no way was restored like the cars that were completed for the program. It still has the original paint.

[SFe240Z]

Michael,

I have an excellent original/unrestored 1973 240Z for sale. Look in the classified ads for cars for sale in the US. It is on page 3. It's not cheap at $17.5k, but it is very, very nice. Good luck on your search.

John