What colour is best for restoring for resale:

I would suggest folks look at it not as what color to "RESTORE" to, but what color is best when REFURBISH-ed or REFRESH-ed? Consider what would sell quickest and what would generate the higher ddollar sale.

I say that knowing how many folks take the word "restore"; to them it means to take back to original condition, which would answer the color question.

But to address the question in the manner that you meant: car colors tend to follow cycles that I can't cite but they are noted by the car industry. Years ago, burnt orange, copper, root-beer browns would not have been popular, today they abound. At one time pastels were strong, then metallics, and lately, opalescents or "pearls".

Z's from their introduction had "odd" colors that did and did not develop their advocates. The original "red" was seen as being "orangish", the "orange" was seen as "reddish", the "gold" was seen as "mustard", and the "yellow" was either too pale or too neon green. In fact, some earlier owners ended up with cars in colors they wouldn't have opted for originally, but that later grew on them and now they love.

With all that being said, my personal vote is for a non-stock color that both draws attention and is considered a color "in vogue".

FWIW

E

I believe white is the most commonly bought car color, it looks nice and stays relatively clean-looking. A white Z with black trim is very good looking imo, but not real classic.

Black comes second, its considered "the luxury color" for cars, and requires a lot of attention to keep clean. Black cars are also less likely to be pulled over by police. I've never been a huge fan of black Z's though.

Silver and Greys come next, they are the cleanest looking colors, and are fantastic on most Zs imo.

Red cars are the next best sellers, followed by blue.

A surprising amount of copper colored cars are popping up these days as well.

In the end, A lot of people appreciate a stock colored Z. Mine was originally a canary yellow, I dont know the exact code, but I much prefer its red (even though it does look pink or orange in certain light)

Silver as above, is the color that IMO shows the feline sexy lines on the Z to the max

A red sports car is pretty hard to beat. I think it would be hard to argue any other color. Maybe silver. But then, we can't forget racing green. Hmmmm....

The design team took color into account for the S30. Here are a couple of the popular pictures of their color studies. The background behind the guy on the left is a series of color swatches and the model on the table is one of a series of color study models. This particular file is not very high quality - sorry.

I might also comment - out on a limb - that Japanese art and aesthetic taste probably had much to do with the color selections that Americans found 'odd'. I think that Japanese red would tend to have a hint of orange, that gold would have a mustard feel. And let's not forget that wonderful butterscotch vinyl! Perhaps a Japanese relationship with color is closer to color found in nature, the floating world? I might comment about it that way.

If its a proper restoration surely its got to be a colour that the car could have had in the year it was made?

I read years ago on this website that most early Z's were orange. I have orange 240 and silver Fairlady.

If you have access to a Butterscotch interior, you can't do better then green (BRG).

The question here is what will bring the most money at resale on a restore. If the car is being redone to a close to stock condition, then original paint is the most desirable. It may not bring the quickest sale, but usually brings the most money.

If, on the other hand, the car is getting body and powertrain mods, then doing a color swap to one of the more popular colors will be the best choice IF DONE PROPERLY. A good paint job is labor intensive, lots of teardown and prep, removal of the doors and glass, the motor and fenders, etc, etc, etc.

I personally like bright metalic silver with hews of gold in it on early Z cars.

Only 24 votes? Don't be shy!

My car is silver, which I like and was close to the original color. However, if I ever get my parts car back together, it will become the lime green/yellow color. That color not only provides great contrast, but seemed to be exclusive to the early Z's.

Well the next car I will restore has 112 lime green as the original colour so I am not sure if the poll results are telling me to keep it lime green (yellow) with 50% of the vote or not to keep it yellow (with 0 votes)