I really enjoyed this Discovery episode of Wheeler Dealers 2015.  It's about a refurbishment of a 240z automatic into a proper drivers car.  If you are interested in seeing a couple of guys swap out an automatic for a 5-speed and do a mild cam swap, this video is for you.

 

Sit back and enjoy this full episode.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8G8s-LwCco

Thanks for posting.  I hadn't seen it yet on TV.  They made a few technical errors or at least omissions, but overall, it looks like a nice car.

 

I have a Web Racing cam in my car and i'm not sure why they went with a hard welded cam.  According to their website, they don't even sell hard welded Z cams.  Maybe they made an exception for the show???  Mike paid $600 for the hard welded cam compared to $395 for the new billet.  The big problem I saw is that they reused the rocker arms without resurfacing them or even checking them.  Considering the cam was supposedly worn, the rockers would likely be worn as well.

 

The rest of the build was pretty straight forward, though they should have ditched the 280Z hubcaps and gone with either 240Z hubcaps or alloy wheels.

 

The car itself looked like a beautiful example with nice paint, so based on Mike's initial internet searches where he found cars from $18,000 to about $25,000, why did they only ask less than $17,000?  A $1000 set of Rewinds and new tires would have made the car look much nicer.

 

Then again, I thought I remember it having nice wheels when it showed up on ebay.

Jeff........A good friend of mine bought the car. It's on the waiting list for a down to metal total restoration by the shop that did my gold and orange car. The buyer was looking for a straight, no rust car to build on......he loves the color too. We will do a total rebuild of the engine, so it really doesn't matter what Mike and the Tall Man did. It'll be a really nice (and expensive) Z when finished.......I'll post some pics when the process begins, but that may be awhile. Regards. Guy. BTW.....The guy on the show acting as the the buyer was my friend's uncle (lives in California), not the real buyer (much younger).

That's awesome Guy.  If he is as meticulous as you, it should be a hell of a nice car when finished!  If Mike really paid around $8000 for that car, they got a great deal.  It looked really clean.

 

I can't wait to see the pictures.

It's nice to see a 240Z but you can't call this a restoration, more like a quick buff up for re-sale. But it's for a tv show anyhow.

I know this is an old post, and I'm late to the party but I just saw the show tonight. Kind of fun to watch given the relevance. I was kind of surprised they got that high a price-especially here in So Cal. Maybe Z's are finally following European sports car pricing. Could be time to sell the spare?