1974 Datsun 260Z (early, thin bumpers, 240-style chassis), 4-speed, gorgeous, mint, no winters, no wrecks or fender benders, always garaged, 2nd owner, 79K original miles, 35K miles on light restoration, <500 miles on major hard parts refreshening.

Fresh Triple Webers with zero-slop billet linkage, street port/polished E88 head and Cannon intake, new 274 cam, rockers, springs, retainers, and valve job. All new gaskets, seals, chain, sprocket, tensioner, oil and H20 pumps, calipers, wheel cylinders, master cylinder, rotors, suspension bushings, ball joints, tie-rod-ends. Only the best available parts used, Nissan OEM when possible regardless of expense.

Engine bay components and front undercarriage all removed, sandblasted, painted, reinstalled. Many new parts, many spares, all documentation, factory manuals, factory service manuals.

Selling to make room and $$$ for race car. $6999 firm. 440-329-9448 days, benn9090@midviewinternet.com,

located in Cleveland, OH.

Run with filters over air horns, but picture taken with filter housings removed.

Nice one Ben!! What sort of front air dam is that?

I agree with Mike that is a nice Z it's a shame you are selling it !!! Hope you find a buyer and one who will appreciate it !!!

The air dam is the MSA lowest profile model ... basically follows the profile of the original sheet metal unit but with a slight lip.

Also, below is a lengthy reply I made to a prospective buyer ... thought I would include it here for others.

Regards,

Mark

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----- Original Message -----

From: XXXXXXXXXX

To: benn9090@midviewinternet.com

Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2002 8:46 PM

Subject: 260 Z

Is the Z still available? Looks and sounds great. What kind of maintenance do you see me getting into down the road? I know it is not a new car, but please tell me all.

Thanks,

XXXXXXXXX

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Oh man ... this is going to take a while.

I come from a family that raced Zs in SCCA from 1970 until the early 90s. I bought this '74 model from the original owner with 43K miles (I bought it in 1992). It was always garaged, never wrecked, no fender benders, but had not turned a wheel in 13 years. I replaced all gaskets, seals, etc. to make it roadworthy. I had the car painted several years ago to fix what was minor bubbles of rust at the bottom of the fenders - this paint job cost almost $3000 and is base coat/clear coat. The entire car was painted just to fix those few bubbles, and several door dings, etc. There is no overspray, and the paint is holding up perfectly. The car was taken to bare metal and no evidence of damage was found. No winters on this car and rain is avoided. The car now has 79K miles, all this time I just babied it and did maintenance as things came along - clutch, brake pads, tires, things like that. Struts were replaced, KYB Gas units. I added an aftermarket electronic ignition, leaving the original one in tact - hence, on a road trip if one fails you switch over to the other. Dual electric fuel pumps also. My main use for the car was as a road trip car to races - to Watkins Glen, New York every year, also to Road America, WI each year. The driver's side seat was reupholstered with an "OE-Type" kit. Passenger seat untouched and perfect, but I have the other upholstery kit if I ever need it. Original carpets have never been in car - I received them from the original owner in plastic bags and left them there. Rubber mats have always been used in place of the carpet. Hatch carpet perfect. Dashboard has one crack, it was repaired and I covered it with a Datsun patch to keep heat and UV light off it. The original owner said his buddy got drunk over an ex-girlfriend and punched the dash and that is how the crack got there. Console has a crack where the choke lever is - common failure on these cars if the choke cables ever bind up a little - has been reinforced with an aluminum plate. Original steering wheel perfect if I recall - I took it off and put on a wooden Lecarra wheel. Shift knob has crack in shift pattern lens - this is a 240 knob I picked up someewhere - car had an ugly aftermarket knob when I got it.

This past winter I decided to put Triple Webers on her - I'm sure you are aware the original 260 carbs are junk. I bought used Webers, rebuilt them with factory OE kits, refinished them with Eastwood alodizing, new Weber air horns, new Weber oval filters, new billet TWM linkage, and then discovered they were shinier and better looking than the rest of the engine bay. So I set about restoring the engine bay ... and what I ended up doing was basically a mini-restoration of the fire wall forward. The entire front end was off the car, every piece and part except the engine block and sheetmetal body parts ... crossmember and suspension all removed, sandblasted and painted with Eastwood Chassis Black. Alternator, starter, booster, radiator, EVERYTHING was stripped, rebuilt, and detail painted with Eastwood paints. New camshaft, rocker arms, springs, retainers, valve job, walve stem seals, water pump, oil pump, each and every gasket, o-ring, or seal, timing chain, sprockets, tensioner, manifold studs, manifold gasket, head pipe gasket. All parts were Nissan OEM if available, or next best thing if Nissan OEM was not available. New Nissan master cylinder was $130 alone. New Nissan brake wheel cylinders were $140 alone. New Beck/Arnley calipers. New ball joints, new tie rod ends, all new urethane bushings. New oil pressure sender. The block showed no wear on the cylinders and compression and leakdown tested great - hence the block was not removed, nothing was done with it except wirebrushing carbon off the piston tops and preparing the top block surface for a new head gasket. Clutch master cylinder was rebuilt with Nissan OEM kit. Fan, fan clutch, radiator, voltage regulator, relays, windshiled squirter nozzles, hood latch hardware, all that litte stuff - removed, cleaned, painted with Eastwood detail/restoration paints and resintalled.

Chrome is perfect - I took the bumpers off and painted the insides for rustproofing when I got the car. All glass and weatherstripping is perfect. Repro rubber for these cars is junk - this car has all original Nissan rubber. Door panels almost perfect - no tears or rips, just nicks and chunks missing from fingernails near the window winders. Armrests perfect. All gauges, fans, wipers, lights work. The turn signal switch could be replaced - you have to move it into place firmly to get it to work for left turns. Windows work perfectly - no slop, they track perfectly, etc. The exhaust manifold is an N42 280Z non-smog manifold. This gives 95% of the benefit of headers without the leaks, headaches, high temps, etc. The muffler is a stainless steel SuperTrapp - the best looking and sounding muffler you can put on a Z if you ask me.

Factory service manual, owners manual, original bill of sale, original warranty card and papers are all available. Original wheel covers, mechanical fuel pump, and any other items removed for any reason are on hand. Front dam is fibergalss (original steel one was beat up from roadkill, etc., but is still available). Weber Synchrometer tool available.

What car needs right now: Clutch slave cylinder leaks. Cheap and easy to fix, just haven't gotten to it. Exhaust from head pipe to SuperTrapp needs to be added - right now I have a "test pipe" in there with an 02 sensor to help dial in the Webers. This section of the exhaust is literally a straight section with 2 90 degree bends. Brakes need bled. Needs an alignment after all bushing and ball joint work was completed. Tires not great - quite old, and they squeal like pigs.

Worst things about the car: Driver's floorboard was dimpled from the underside when my father misplaced the jack. Have always meant to fix this, but never got around to it - not hurting anything the way it is. Front fiberglass dam is cracked from going up ramps that were too high for the car - this happened because the ramps I bought for myself looked the same as my Dad's, but were apparently not the same. The car always went up on my Dad's ramps fine, but the first time on my own ramps it cracked the fiberglass. The original owner used metal chrome mud flaps on the car and screwed them into the sheet metal lip of the fenders - this is what caused the rust I had fixed when it was painted. These holes are still there and are annoying, but cause no problem. There is a crack in the paint where the rear quarter panel joins the roof via a lead seam. It was that way when I got the car - when it was painted they "re-leaded" the seam but it cracked again. Causes no harm, there is no rust or anything in this area.

That is about it - I think $6K is a complete steal for this car - it is a very rare day that I see a Z as original and nice as this one. A 260 with good carburetors is really one of the best Zs in my mind - you get the nicer interior with armrests and retractable seat belts, but the car is nearly as light and good looking as a 240. I should warn you I am not very willing to go below $6K - certainly I would not include some of the "extras" such as the service manual, valuable spares, Weber tools, and so forth.

Maintenance down the road? None. Voltage regulator maybe? A gauge might quit working? The bushing kit I bought was for the whole car - you could put the bushings in the rear suspension, tranny and diff members, etc. to tighten up the rear suspension to match the new front.

Lots of little stuff - shifter bushings, rewired the headlights (wiring harness connectors under steering column), fuel filter, replaced rubber bumper trim and hardware ... I could go on and on.

An awesome car - but I have a Supra TT hardtop and a Spec Miata race car and trailer on the way, and a tow vehicle I need to buy. No space! After doing all this to the Z, I can't bring myself to ever have to do any of it again - time to sell it to a good home!

There is a CD player hidden in the glove box - CD does not work, just use it as a radio. No holes are cut, there are surface mount speakers in the back. I'm an automotive engineer and I do everything the best way I know how - no shortcuts, no expense spared.

If you're serious I can send pictrues of anything you like - otherwise my plan is to take her to the vintage races in the spring and try to get $7K for her.

(Note: The car only goes to the races as a spectator - it has never been raced)

Regards,

Mark