I was wondering about this because I wonder how my 77 or 78 280z is doing these days. Got it in high school and had it during part of college. Loved that car, sold it to a 15 or 16 year old guy and his dad. But now I'm looking for a new baby and wondered if anyone had any stories (and pics) of z's that they used to have and then got back at one point or another.

I'm sorry if my topic isn't right for this section, I'm very new to this site..

-C

I looked for my first 240Z, but with no luck. My 2nd Z is certainly scrap metal after it was totaled while parked. I settled with the insurance company, fixed it up, but it was never the same. It was bent and the doors and hatch wouldn't seal properly, even with new gaskets.

I finally sold it, (with full disclosure), to a young airline pilot who wanted a car he could leave in airport parking lots year-round without any worry. I saw it about 4 years later and it had small amounts of visible rust in the usual spots. I expect it's in Datsun heaven now...

Best story I ever heard about this came to me at a local car show. Seems a young soldier just back from Vietnam bought a 70 240-Z, and had it a short time, before he was sent back for another tour. Not wanting to just sell the car to anybody, he sold it to an Army buddy. One thing led to another and the second tour turned into a military career. Shift to the late nineties. The now-retired soldier was looking for a vintage truck to work on as a project. Found one on-line and he and his son drive to the west coast to check it out. It didn't meet his expectations, so he decided to take a tour of the Ca. wine country on his way back to Fla. While passing through one town, he remembers that this was his old buddies hometown. Lo and behold, he still lived there and was a successful restauratour(?sp) They went to his home for dinner, and after, the friend said, 'I have a surprise for you'. In the garage was the Z. Still stock, unrestored, and in perfect condition. It was sold back to it's original owner for the same price it was sold to the second owner. ($3,400?) It was then DRIVEN back to Florida, with no problems, where it resides today, and sometimes comes out to car shows. ( No, it is not my car. But it is a great story.)

Not as great as the last one but still... Back on Dec/22/2005 I had found a 240Z at a little sleazy car lot in the city and had told my dad about it. We wanted a project to work on and for him to relive his Z days (bought a early 260 new had it till it rusted completely out) we went and looked at it and could not beleive what good unrestored condition it was in, we put money down on it but the battery was dead so as part of the deal the seller would put a new one in it. Here comes Christmas eve my dad gets a call on the phone from the dealer saying "someone broke into my lot and stole 3 cars... the Z was one of them", Yeah right. We got the money back and started looking for another Z, weeks later we found a late 260 and brought it back to original condition. Just back in June I was surfing the web and came across an ad on our local Z club website (Gateway Z Club) and saw an ad describing with no pics what sounded like the 240. Checked Creigslist and boom pics of the Z... It was IT! Years later the Z is MINE, the car thought to be gone for good is back, but now in my hands! And when we were first looking at the Z I had grabbed the owners manual, warranty/radio/Ac booklets which I was able to reunite with the Z. So Thats my story

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42150949@N07/sets/72157622312413735/

Edited September 23, 200915 yr by Pleiner87

My 72 Z was originally bought by a family friend of my step-dad's when he was young. He bought it when he was in high school from that family friend, and had it until he married my mom, when he sold it to his buddy on the stipulation that if he ever wanted to sell it, he would come back to my dad first. Sure enough, a decade or so later, he wanted to sell it, and my dad bought it back. At this point, I was in Junior High, and fell in love with the car. I somehow convinced my dad to sell it to me in my senior year of high school, at which point I drove it for a year and the summer after high school I started to tear it down a bit for some replacement bushings, motor work, etc. I ended up joining the Air Force, and my dad graciously bought the car back from me in its half-dismantled state, and it sat on a concrete slab on jack stands for about eight years. He had planned on resurrecting it, but never got around to it. Finally I got stationed back in the area about a year and a half ago, and he offered me the car back again, with no price tag, just the title and the hopes that it would be back on the road again. So, the car is once again mine, going through rehabilitation, and will probably stay in the family for another 30+ years!

Here is a link to a thread about how I got my first Z back http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31481. Here is a link to the story as Carl Beck documented the trip to pick her up for me http://zhome.com/Carl/BJ71Z/FindingAnOldFriend1.htm. Bought new July 1971 in Spokane Wa., sold in June 1984 in Kennewick,Wa and found in August 2008 in Georgia. All the stars in the universe seemed to have aligned for me to get her back.,

I was going to buy mine back - but it rusted to nothing before I could!

I've lost track of mine but have often wondered about the stories it could tell (or the past owners could tell) about where it has traveled and who's been in it all these years.

I bought my 1970 Vin 3435 from Jack Ingram Motors, Montgomery, Al 15 Aug 1970. I had followed a fellow AF Flight School class mate from Craig AFB, Selma, AL to Montgomery to leave his car for some work over the weekend. While waiting for him I toured the showroom and noticed a car I had not een before. i asked a salesman what it was . He explained that the 240Z had just came to the states that year rom Japan. The price tag was about $3000 and since I didn't see any on the lot, I asked if it was available. He said it was special ordered by a dentist but had been on th floor for over 2 weeks. He went to check on the car and came back to say it was available, the dentist did not like the white exteriorwith blue interior and had ordered another.

I traded my Ford Fairlain on the spot and drove back to Selma with my new 240Z. (See first photo)

After getting married and having our first child we decided we needed more room and traded the Z for a station wagon. Scott Gregory, a lieutenant going through flight school, bought the Z and on graduation he stayed at Selma as a Flight Instructor and happened to move next door to me on base. I saw "my Z' everyday until leaving in July 1975.

In August 1989 I was stationed at Shreveport, LA and received a letter from Scott who was an airline pilot. He used the AF personnel system to forward the letter to me. He stated he was selling the car which was still his dailey driver and wanted me to have first choice on buying it. My wife said lets go get it! I made a deal with Scott to buy it for $3000 the same as I paid when it was new.

We went to Dallas and picked up the car and all the parts Scott had saved. He still had all the original paperwork, keys, warrenty book in my name, plastic warrenty card in my name, showroom brochure that I had left with the car, maintenance receipts and log that he had kept up to date for 27 years. My wife followed the Z which I was driving and said when we got home that if she could have caught me in Dallaswe would have given the car back to Scott since tears were rolling down his cheeks as we drove away.

Eighteen years later (see second picture), I decided I needed to do some serious work on the car or find someone to do it for me). I started sanding and priming (see third picture). I found Garvin Hershey at Rod Shop of Memphis who agreed to do the restoration (of course for a good price). The car went to the shop April 2007. (picture four).

Hopefully the car will be ready in the spring so I can make to Nashville for the convention. (see picture five and six).

More pictures at www.rodshopofmemphis.com.

Wally

I'll have to resubmit pictures.

Wally

Here are the pics.

I tried for years to find the 70 240z I bought back in the day (1970) and sold less than two years later (back to the dealership I bought it from) but I've concluded that it's just not around anymore.

Originally posted 11 Oct 2007.....

Lubbock, Texas. In late fall of 1969, I was subscribed to several automotive publications like Road & Track, Car and Driver, etc. In one or more of those magazines, I saw pictures and read articles of a “new sports car” being introduced by Datsun. I was hooked. I owned a Porsche 912 Targa at the time, and my then wife laid down the law: NO Z-CAR UNLESS THE PORSCHE IS SOLD. I had been autocrossing the Porsche with little success because of its handling characteristics and was tired of finishing last in four-car classes. I knew I was better than last! I had broken my foot while dancing and also had some surgery done whilst the ad for the Porsche ran in the Dallas paper. It sold over the week-end with me signing the papers in the hospital.

Kent Clark (yes, that’s his real name) and I decided to purchase one Z-car each. Kent was not going to register his, but prepare it for Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Solo I racing. I would’ve done the same, but didn’t have the bucks. I had to drive mine to work and, obviously, for fun.

We each gave a $1000 deposit to our local Datsun dealer, B&V Motors. Kent was there the day before me, so I was second-in-line. Here the story gets a bit interesting.

These 240-Z sports cars were on allocation to Datsun dealers. Each dealer would get one Z car each month and the local dealer had yet to receive his first one. Kent and another friend, Mike Peacock, worked up a plan to go to Houston to get Kent’s car and, if possible, mine. They took all the requisite paperwork for Kent’s car and hoped they could wing it for the second car, mine. They took special care to determine if any of the Datsun sales executives were in town that Friday and after finding that all were in LA for a meeting, implemented the plan.

At that time, Pete Brock was doing a deal with Datsun on the left coast, using the first production cars fresh off the car-show circuit as race cars. Bob Sharp, on the east coast was doing the same thing. That left the central part of the US vacant of any factory authorized or supported racing endeavors. Kent and Mike’s story to the Datsun dock workers was that they were there to pick up the two cars for Datsun Racing Central, as the West and East already had their cars. They explained to the lot honcho in charge that Datsun had authorized the preparation of two cars but that the paperwork for one of them had been lost in transit. That was the key that Kent and Mike used to unlock the gates at the Port of Houston and the two cars they then drove back to Lubbock. I bought a stolen car.

Between the two cars, they had one paper dealer plate and a roll of masking tape. It would have been next to impossible to drive 600 miles in two cars nose-to-tail that had never been seen in Texas before and escape notice by the gendarmes of the era. They tore the corners off the plate and affixed it to Kent’s car. Then they took the torn-off corners and taped them to the rear of mine, leaving just a black hole where a tag used to be “….I guess the wind blew it off, Officer.” They traversed Houston-to-Lubbock in about 8 hours having to stop for gas and to tighten the alternator belt when it proved sufficiently loose to not keep the battery up with headlights on.

A bunch of us had gathered at Kent’s home awaiting their arrival, not knowing (these were days long before cell phones) if they were able to get two cars, or just one. At about 9:45 pm, Kent comes screaming up the street in a bright red 240-Z sports car…..by himself. My heart leapt! Mike couldn’t be too far behind him, could he? As about 15 folks were ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the beautiful piece of automotive design, Kent explained more loudly than would have been otherwise necessary, that they couldn’t get the second car off the dock and that Mike had taken ill on the trip back and that he’d been dropped off at home. My heart fell. I believed him. I turned to Kent and said something innocuous when the sound of screeching rubber pierced the night air. Here came Mike down the street at 5000 rpm in second gear, sliding sideways into the driveway….in MY CAR! You’re right, he drove it like he stole it! I teared up. Couldn’t help it. Laughter and tears don’t normally go together, but they did that night.

There it was. That ugly mustard yellow color with no wheel covers and factory inspection stickers all over the windows. Cosmoline dripped from every surface. It was, to borrow a phrase, coyote ugly. But she was beautiful, and she was mine.

I made right with the dealer the next day, but Datsun wasn’t at all pleased with him as he had been more than a little complicit in Kent and Mike’s plan. His allocations were suspended for three months, so I made a deal with him to park my Z on his showroom floor every Saturday for 60 days. That seemed to square things up because he sold out all of his allocation for 1970 in less than 10 days at retail plus.

Over the next seven years, the Z was driven quite hard. I modified the engine with a high-performance camshaft and stout valve springs; oil cooler; headers; replaced the two doggy SU carburetors with three Mikuni-Solex units; added an electric fuel pump and shaved the head 0.030 inches. The suspension didn’t escape my notice, either. I added racing steering linkages; short springs; changed the McPherson strut oil from 10w to RPM Delo 50w; heavier front sway bar and added a rear bar. The puny narrow (4.5”) factory wheels gave way to 6 inch aluminum mags and bigger tires. Brakes were upgraded as well. If it goes fast, it’s gotta stop fast, too.

Omaha, Nebraska. By the time all this had been done, my interests had shifted a bit. Although I was a top contender in Solo II SCCA events, I was getting old (33) and into the cars made by my employer, Chrysler Corp.

I sold this modern hot rod to Mike Cole in Omaha in 1977. We had a handshake agreement that should he ever decide to sell the Z, he would find me and give me the right of first refusal and would sell it to me for what he paid me. I think that last part is a fool’s agreement, but he offered it, I accepted, and we shook hands. That was 30 years ago.

The Woodlands, Texas. At the end of January, 2007, I got an email from Mike Cole, accompanied by a photo of him standing next to his new-to-him Dodge Viper. In that email he said he wanted to sell the Z and was curious if I would be interested. You know my response by now and a deal was done, again without me ever laying eyes on the car. For the second time, I bought it sight-unseen.

John Evans, owner of Vintage Restorations, and I drove to Dripping Springs, Texas on 10 February 2007, towing an empty trailer. Mike was in the front yard, chainsaw in hand trimming low branches. In the drive, by the garage, was my Z. Still. Quiet. Lifeless. A pool of leaked coolant stained the concrete. She looked good, but something was wrong. After a few minutes of pleasantries that couldn’t substitute for 30 years of absence, Mike and I walked to the Z. The hood was popped and Mike lifted it.

I nearly cried again. The engine compartment was exactly as I last saw it. It was spotless except for the missing water pump which was the source of the coolant stain. The polished valve cover shined. The carbs were void of stain. The remote oil filter and cooler were exactly where I’d put them. It was, as Yogi Berra said, “dejavu all over again.” I looked inside. The four instruments I had added were in place. The dash crack had expanded some, but otherwise was the same. The windshield still had the same chip. The doors still had the same parking lot dings. The tires were unchanged. I looked at the odometer. WHAT? When I sold the Z to Mike in 1977, it had 55,000 miles and change. The odo read, 30 years later, 64899!

Mike had been posted to an out of the country assignment for eight years. He didn’t take the Z with him, of course, and put it in storage. He did it right, fresh oil, tank full of gas and Stabil, wheels and tires off the ground, suspension unloaded and the car covered. When he retired from Daimler-Chrysler two years ago, he moved to Dripping Springs, had the Z removed from storage in Michigan and shipped down. He changed the oil and coolant. Put in a new battery. Unplugged the coil wire and cranked it over for about 10 seconds to get oil where it needed to be. Plugged the wire back in and it started! As the Z still had the original water pump, hoses and all, the lengthy time in storage had cratered the pump. When attempting to change the pump, a couple of bolts proved recalcitrant to move and broke. That’s been rectified and all suspension bushings & boots have been replaced. Carbs have been gone through. Gas tank dropped, cleaned. Fuel lines replaced. Now she's in paint.

Time, of course, takes it’s toll. Although Mike had garaged the Z constantly, and had only driven it on a wet road one time in 30 years, certain things just go away. The driver seat back had torn and is missing a vent piece. The “leather” steering wheel cover I’d installed in 1970 had fallen to the effects of time and UV rays. Parts of the car that are historically prone to severe rust were only affected to a very small degree; easily and inexpensively repaired, given its condition.

The Z does need that minimal amount of rust repair and fresh paint, and Mr. Evans is seeing to that. New carpets, some replacement seat covers and a shift boot will easily put her in near-original interior condition.

I think I am in a truly unique situation. It’s like finding your high-school sweetheart late in life and making good on all the hopes and dreams you had when you were young. Time is short now, live life and enjoy. And I’m taking my own advice seriously.

d240zx2 is online now Report Post Reply With Quote