My first Z -a free Z

[madkaw]

I thought I would finally get around to telling this story of my first Z. It was way back in the 80's that I was in the USAF stationed at McGuire in NJ. I always had a some great cars and I always was out of money. I was barely 20 and had a 79 Z-28 that was a great car, fast and black laquer custom paint with a L-82 drivetrain. I was always broke from paying car payments and high insurance in NJ. I believe a 4th of my income was funding this ride, but that's the way I rolled back then.

I finally decided that I needed to get into something that didn't involve a payment and full coverage insurance. I was driving around the base and I noticed this Z(datsun type) sitting in front of this trailer that was used by on-base housing. I don't remember if it had a sign or not but I said to myself that I always loved those cars and maybe I could fix it up cheap and have a cool car and no payments. At the time I had my Z-28 up for sale and was driving around with a for sale sign in the window. I went to the trailer and knocked on the door and this guy answered and I told him that I was interested in the Z and that I was selling my car at the time. He was very interested in my Z and he thought we could work out a cash and trade deal.

I got a chance to take a close look at the car and noticed it was definetly NOT a driver yet. It looked a little rough outside and under the hood was well-ummm-incomplete! The carbs and intake was sitting in a box-not good. This was going to take some work .

So we started talking money and I told him that I was looking to get about 6000$ for my Z-it was pristine. He then said that he was looking to get 3000$ towards the trade for the Z. I'm always a nice guy so I swallowed my initial response( are you fu#%&*g crazy), and I told him that I would have to think about it. On that note I drove off thinking- damn I would love to have that car, this sucks.

to be continued...

red 240z 13.BMP

red 240z 17.BMP

[madkaw]

So any way I leave this guys place wondering can he be serious, surely he would come down in price-the car doesn’t even run.

I gave it a day and decided that I would call the guy up and tell him that I owe too much on my car and I couldn’t afford what he was asking and maybe he would reconsider his price. Well I called him and told him that I really couldn’t afford the trade out and he stopped me right there and said that he reconsidered and he didn’t want my Z after all. So I say that’s all right, when I sell it maybe I can just buy the Datsun straight out. Then the conversation went like this;

he said” my wife and I have been talking it over and we decided to just let you have the car”—well I just froze in silence, not sure what to say. He then said that’ the car was taking up too much of his time that he could be using for better things’ and he rambled on about the ministry and other things that I didn’t pay much attention to because I was just thinking that this guy is giving me this car.

“So you are just giving me the car” I had to reconfirm.

“Yes, it is yours for free----FREE”, he actually spelled it out.

“Will you sign over the title?” details, details

“Yes and you can have the tow bar that is hooked up to it, but you have to tow it away”

I think he noticed by now how excited I was getting . I told him that I would try and get back today to get the car. Needless to say I was on this instantly before he changed his mind. I grabbed my buddy that had his 56’ Chevy truck with a tow ball and we grabbed it later that day. My buddy could hardly believe it, I did have pretty good luck when it came to cars. I towed the car to my house until I could find a place to work on it. By the way, the title showed that it was a 1970 from Texas.

As I type this out I remember now that when I say I was looking for a place to work on the car, I really had no clue what I was doing. Yeh I had some fast cars but I was no mechanic-I’m still not a mechanic. I was and still not one of those guys that just had a mechanical aptitude, but loved working with my hands. I was more interested in looking good in my car then whether the car was engineering masterpiece of its time. But I stumbled on with these big plans of rebuilding this baby; I’ll figure it out as I go along!

I towed the car home(I was based 25 miles from my house in NJ), and there it sat in the driveway-parents never had a garage, still don’t. I would stare at the car coming up with a plan of attack that had no scientific reasoning or mechanical backing. Though my memory isn’t good enough to remember exactly, knowing my lack of mechanical ability I looked at the engine apart I figured that it needed to be rebuilt, never really doing any of the important things like a compression check.What I saw when I looked at the engine was all of that aluminum everywhere and I thought how beautiful this engine compartment would look all cleaned up. This is the closest I had ever been to a Z engine, but it was love at first sight when I saw that engine compartment. So I yanked the motor and dropped it off at the machinist and said ‘rebuild it’.

More later…

[zbane]

pics from post 1 converted to jpeg. Hope you don't mind...

[kinfish]

Great story!

But you never shared the VIN # on this 1970 classic?

[madkaw]

I wish i had the vin#, but that car was sold 25 years ago in Bloomington Indiana. It was my first Z and I wish I had kept it.

Thanks for converting the pics zbane!

[yayyayfun]

haha, i was reading this... and was so intrigued... then, i noticed.. it just stopped.. and then i kept reading, and BAM! there it was, my hometown. Bloomington, Indiana... and i was awestruck.... haha, if only you could find this bad boy, and get it back

[Gary in NJ]

I wish i had the vin#, but that car was sold 25 years ago in Bloomington Indiana. It was my first Z and I wish I had kept it.

I say the same thing about my first Z which I also sold 25 years ago (Oakdale NY). I wish I at least had the VIN because it was an early Series I. Like most Z's, I'm sure it's long gone; lost to a youthful owner, damage and ultimately a junk-yard queen. My current Z is a much better car, but it isn't my first.