Not trying to be too critical of your new ride, but that is a pretty big statement. It looks like it has had patch sections welded on the floorpans and the frame rails. The paint overspray in the engine bay (rubber grommets, etc) and the lack of a hood emissions sticker indicate that the car has been repainted at some point.

Actually, all of the carpet looks to be aftermarket to me. There shouldn't be carpet on the transmission tunnel, on the door thresholds, or on the sides of inner rear wheel wells. Is the original vinyl underneath?

The rest of the car seems to be in good shape for an Ohio car, so if the paint and repairs were done well and you got it for a decent price, it looks like a good find. Good luck with the move.

-Mike

Yeah maybe jumped the gun on the "nicest Z in all of creation", but you all for sure have more trained eyes than I! If it were an NSX, I could spot it a mile away. Interesting though that she didn't mention any of that. Maybe the car's caretaker took it upon himself to do some of it because they seem a bit old to lie to me haha.

You can see the blue diamond vinyl peaking out at the transmission tunnel. Haven't looked at the other places, but I'm crossing my fingers.

Eagle eyes!

Appreciate the kind words all. Original or not, patched up or not, she's a beaut. I'm excited.

Is TMO shipping the car for you? I didn't think you had to convert the turn lenses, speedo but who knows. I worked at Fuchu-kichi from '03-'05 at ADC HQ, lived at Yokota and commuted, how about you?

You will become freakish with this one. I never had the feeling until I drove mine to work to show it off a little the first time. Seeing other drivers so close will scare you. Good Luck you have found a true gem~

Congratulations, nice Z. We have a couple members in your area. I have lake house near Cookville, TN. Maybe I will get a chance to see the car this summer. jlp

Is TMO shipping the car for you? I didn't think you had to convert the turn lenses, speedo but who knows. I worked at Fuchu-kichi from '03-'05 at ADC HQ, lived at Yokota and commuted, how about you?

Yeah I think I've got to do that before it goes to the VPC, but I'm not completely sure on that (just heard). Maybe it's old enough that it won't need that anymore, but I'm preparing for the worst. I'll be moving to Yokota in November. How was it? There's a servicemember from Yokota on japanesenostalgiccar that has a popular thread recounting the story of him picking up a '72 Skyline. Seems like it's going to be an unbelievable experience.

You will become freakish with this one. I never had the feeling until I drove mine to work to show it off a little the first time. Seeing other drivers so close will scare you. Good Luck you have found a true gem~

Thank ya sir. I'll be careful with her.

Congratulations, nice Z. We have a couple members in your area. I have lake house near Cookville, TN. Maybe I will get a chance to see the car this summer. jlp

Possibly. The most likely place would be the Knoxville Cars and Coffee at EAG that occurs every other month or so (I think the next one is in July).

I'm going to pick up the car next weekend. In reference to the carpet covering some stuff as mentioned above, the blue vinyl is still intact on the strut towers and transmission tunnel. It's just carpet over top.

There's a model year sometime in the mid 70s whereby TMO won't pay to import the car for you, I want to say it's '75-'76? If you have a sponsor there they may be able to ask AIU or one of the auto insurance agencies what the requirements might be. If the AIU rep doesn't know, they should be able to call the office where they register the cars and find out. When I was at Yokota, there was an individual who lived on the West Side who had a 280Z that was left hand drive and I don't remember that he had JDM lenses on his tailights but, it's been 10 years. There was also a Japanese national who worked on base who had a beautiful blue 240Z he drove on rare occasions.

I loved Tokyo and only scratched the surface of what there is to do there. If I had it all to do over again I would go to the annual Nostalgic Heroes car show down at Odaiba every year, I'd try to go to Japanese Classic Car Association events, I want to say they have a track event every year at Tsukuba and finally, one thing I would go to every year is NISMOFest at Fuji speedway which is usually at the end of November or the first part of December. The best thing about all of these things is you can drive your classic 240Z to them and you'll probably be able to meet alot of really great people along the way. You might also be able to go to shops like Wood Village or Star Road or Rocky Auto who build insane S30s. There's a chain of second hand performance parts places called Up Garage that you might be able to get parts at although I got the impression parts for S30s were rare and expensive, far more so over there than here. Finally, when you're at Yokota you're only about an hour away from Zama which, if I'm not mistaken, is where the real dream garage is for Nissan. I don't know what it would take to get in there but a local club or contacting a gentleman named "Mad" Mike Taylor from the Texas Z club who used to make annual trips to Tokyo and got into the Zama garage from time to time might be a place to start.

I lived in one of the towers when I was at Yokota and wish now I had lived in one of the gardens instead. It was easier to get into the tower but it seems like the gardens had more space. The gardens are organized into 4-plexes and are just plopped down in two main areas, one on the "East" side where main base is and one on the "West" side which is mostly housing, an Elementary school and the Armed Forces Network (AFN) building. (What splits the base is Hwy 16) Go off base alot, you'll be able to meet people through the car which will draw attention and there are alot of cultural exchange opportunities too. The food is awesome too, a little bit of an adventure but all very much worth it. I liked Japanese curry and ate at Coco Ichiban which is about 10 minutes outside the gate. There used to be a great gyoza place down by the Tachikawa train station, just go to the info desk at the Yujo near the main gate and ask them for directions to "communist gyoza". Japan is an amazing place, rode the bullet train to Kyoto, wish I could have taken my Z on a trip to see the temples in Nikko, lots of great places to see and adventures to have in your Z in Japan. Heads up gas off base is expensive and parts suppliers here in the states that ship USPS are your friends.

As the time gets closer if you have any or more questions let me know.

Edited May 19, 201212 yr by gogriz91

There's a model year sometime in the mid 70s whereby TMO won't pay to import the car for you, I want to say it's '75-'76? If you have a sponsor there they may be able to ask AIU or one of the auto insurance agencies what the requirements might be. If the AIU rep doesn't know, they should be able to call the office where they register the cars and find out. When I was at Yokota, there was an individual who lived on the West Side who had a 280Z that was left hand drive and I don't remember that he had JDM lenses on his tailights but, it's been 10 years. There was also a Japanese national who worked on base who had a beautiful blue 240Z he drove on rare occasions.

I loved Tokyo and only scratched the surface of what there is to do there. If I had it all to do over again I would go to the annual Nostalgic Heroes car show down at Odaiba every year, I'd try to go to Japanese Classic Car Association events, I want to say they have a track event every year at Tsukuba and finally, one thing I would go to every year is NISMOFest at Fuji speedway which is usually at the end of November or the first part of December. The best thing about all of these things is you can drive your classic 240Z to them and you'll probably be able to meet alot of really great people along the way. You might also be able to go to shops like Wood Village or Star Road or Rocky Auto who build insane S30s. There's a chain of second hand performance parts places called Up Garage that you might be able to get parts at although I got the impression parts for S30s were rare and expensive, far more so over there than here. Finally, when you're at Yokota you're only about an hour away from Zama which, if I'm not mistaken, is where the real dream garage is for Nissan. I don't know what it would take to get in there but a local club or contacting a gentleman named "Mad" Mike Taylor from the Texas Z club who used to make annual trips to Tokyo and got into the Zama garage from time to time might be a place to start.

I lived in one of the towers when I was at Yokota and wish now I had lived in one of the gardens instead. It was easier to get into the tower but it seems like the gardens had more space. The gardens are organized into 4-plexes and are just plopped down in two main areas, one on the "East" side where main base is and one on the "West" side which is mostly housing, an Elementary school and the Armed Forces Network (AFN) building. (What splits the base is Hwy 16) Go off base alot, you'll be able to meet people through the car which will draw attention and there are alot of cultural exchange opportunities too. The food is awesome too, a little bit of an adventure but all very much worth it. I liked Japanese curry and ate at Coco Ichiban which is about 10 minutes outside the gate. There used to be a great gyoza place down by the Tachikawa train station, just go to the info desk at the Yujo near the main gate and ask them for directions to "communist gyoza". Japan is an amazing place, rode the bullet train to Kyoto, wish I could have taken my Z on a trip to see the temples in Nikko, lots of great places to see and adventures to have in your Z in Japan. Heads up gas off base is expensive and parts suppliers here in the states that ship USPS are your friends.

As the time gets closer if you have any or more questions let me know.

Wow, long time no update.

Thanks for the advice! Someone always has a unique take and good advice to offer when it comes to experience with Japan and Yokota in general.

The year cutoff is April 1976. Prior to this date, cars should not need to meet Japanese emissions requirements (Cat A vehicles) but will still need to meet JCI. TMO doesn't want to ship a car to Japan that the owner will get in wayyyy over their head with legalization costs by being newer than April 1976. They tell you that you cannot ship a newer car there, but you can. It has to be waivered, but you probably already know that it costs $3-5K to legalize a newer car. I looked at bringing over a 1976 Porsche 911 before this Z, but Porsches don't have a month of manufacture on them, so I would have had to get a letter of authenticity from Porsche AG which I didn't feel like doing.....that and 1975 and 1976 911s are known to be basket cases...

So about a month and a half ago, I took some leave and went up to Ohio to pick the car up and bring it back. After loading it up and looking back at it about once every 5 minutes all the way home, I figured out that there was no way I could ship this car to Japan just to sell it. I wanted it.

Here's how I found it, phone pics sorry:

It's mine!:

Towing it back:

Back home:

I was thinking all the way up to Ohio that I was going to bring it home and prep it for the trip to Japan, but I couldn't do it. I figured out before I even got it home that there was no way I was going to tear into the taillights, speedo, whatever else it would take to legalize it, much less put it through the long boat trip over there.

So now I'm leaving it at home to wait for a few years before I can enjoy it, which is OK. I really wanted this car anyway. It needs some bushing help, especially up front, and one of the door panels needs a little upholstery work, but it's all there. Last weekend I pulled the black carpet out that runs along the transmission tunnel and over the rear struts and the blue vinyl was just sitting underneath looking as good as ever. Literally EVERYTHING works on this car electrically and the switches feel like they've just been rebuilt, but I have to keep telling myself that it's better than rebuilt even. That's the way it was supposed to feel from the factory. Very happy to have this car and I don't think I will plan on selling it unless something dire happens. Thanks for reading my story.

Found out first hand how sparingly the last owner drove the car and how inaccurate the gas gauge can be. Ran the tank nearly dry on my second drive out and sucked some gunk up into the fuel line. I guess 1/2 tank means "fumes". Have to drop the tank, clean it out, and blow out the lines.

Had to go back to Arkansas and left the car with a local Porsche shop. While it was sitting there, the owner's son took a number of photos of the car:

Beautiful! And Japanese racing white too!

Amazingly beautiful! I'd never sell that if it were me!

You know I love that car! Just amazing.

But looking at the front end, I though the front of the radiator bracket was painted black from the factory. So when you look into the front grill, it was all black? Did that start with a later model year maybe, or was this car painted before.

You know I love that car! Just amazing.

But looking at the front end, I though the front of the radiator bracket was painted black from the factory. So when you look into the front grill, it was all black? Did that start with a later model year maybe, or was this car painted before.

Ya know, I don't really know. There's evidence of repaint, at least in the engine bay, as one member here pointed out but I was hoping to meet up with #797 here in Knoxville to compare them side by side to see what was different because I know his has been restored.

If it has, it must have been awhile ago because all the stickers/plates look pretty worn

Can any members here confirm that?