Hello from across the pond! Searching for a 240z

[cbuczesk]

That Z may have been hit hard. If the car was originally orange (that appears true) then why is the right inner fender yellow? I don't see yellow anywhere else on the car. It appears that it was hit hard enough by the tractor that the inner fender had to be replaced. Did he mention that? Based on the color of the radiator support matching the right inner fender and the welds where it meets the radiator support I think the entire right front clip was replaced. Notice that he shows no pictures of where the left inner fender attaches to the radiator support.

Chuck

 

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Okay wait, I have to ask for some clarification here bud

 

I am confused,

 

Are you planning on buying a car here in the colonies, and having it worked on and restored here and then shipping it, or are you planning on getting it to you and restoring it?

 

I will add something else.  Buy a car that be driven while you work on it. Being able to drive one is the fuel to the restoration fire.  Having a non running car for years is true test of ones will, and as many of us can attest to here, life happens and priorities can quickly change.

 

[Woody928]

2 hours ago, cbuczesk said:

That Z may have been hit hard. If the car was originally orange (that appears true) then why is the right inner fender yellow? I don't see yellow anywhere else on the car. It appears that it was hit hard enough by the tractor that the inner fender had to be replaced. Did he mention that? Based on the color of the radiator support matching the right inner fender and the welds where it meets the radiator support I think the entire right front clip was replaced. Notice that he shows no pictures of where the left inner fender attaches to the radiator support.

Chuck

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to have a look chuck, these were the questions I asked and the responses I got are in bold. Would you say that this damage would be a show stopper so to speak if this was you? 

- I see from the pictures in your add that both the engine bay and boot shuts seem to be 918 orange with the rest of the car having been resprayed red and black at some point. Can you confirm that the car was 918 orange from factory?   ORANGE IS ORIGINAL COLOR.  CAR WAS HIT ON THE RIGHT FRONT PANEL AND APPEARS IT WAS REPLACED PRIOR TO MY ACQUISITION THUS THE YELLOW.  I WANT TO DISCLOSE ALL.

- What was the reason for the colour change/respray? (change of style? or was the car involved in an accident?)  PRIOR OWNER PAINTED IT RED.  CAR WAS IN A BARN FOR 20 YEARS AND TRACTOR BACKED INTO HOOD AND LEFT HEADLIGHT BUCKET?  SPRAY PAINTED BUCKET AND REPLACED HOOD WITH A 280 THAT I SPRAY PAINTED BLACK.  

 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Zedyone_kenobi said:

Okay wait, I have to ask for some clarification here bud

 

I am confused,

 

Are you planning on buying a car here in the colonies, and having it worked on and restored here and then shipping it, or are you planning on getting it to you and restoring it?

 

I will add something else.  Buy a car that be driven while you work on it. Being able to drive one is the fuel to the restoration fire.  Having a non running car for years is true test of ones will, and as many of us can attest to here, life happens and priorities can quickly change.

 

 

Sorry If I wasn't clearer, the plan is to purchase the car is the USA, most likely have it transported to San Francisco (owing to my contact) where the car will be restored before shipping the completed car to the UK that's ready to rock and roll. I don't necessarily need the car to be a runner when its acquired as the plan is to send it straight from purchase to local z specialists and/or workshops to have the car worked on and restored to my specification.      

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Sorry, I may have skimmed over that.  Okay, not doing the work all yourself will make things more expensive, and this leads me to the most important thing.

 

Buy the BEST Z you can, even if it eats up ALL your budget. You can make more money. Buy a car that is just about 'done'.  It will still be VERY much a project I promise you.

 

[cbuczesk]

I wouldn't let the replaced radiator support and inner fender be a show stopper but I'd want to see some pictures of where they were attached and get some measurements to make sure that the car is still "square". For $11k I'd probably keep looking.

If you're going to buy a Z and then have a shop do work then you're best off to get a car already close to being what you want. It will most likely be much cheaper that way. The cost of labor will eat up your budget in a hurry.

Chuck

 

[Woody928]

Thanks for the honest feedback chuck, I really appreciate that. In that case given that I can't easily inspect it myself I think I'l just have to pass it up and go for something that's more complete. 

 

Sounds like I need to start playing a waiting game looking for a car that meets my three requirements, I think if I compromise on one point then the engine sounds like the most obvious from a cost perspective. What sort of budget do you think you would need to do a bare metal restoration on one of these in that case? My $30,000 suddenly seems potentially inadequate... 

Can anyone give me a rough ballpark figure on a full strip down and bare metal restoration? 

 

 

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Well the point is that you can buy a Z that has already had a bare metal restoration (or close to it) for less than 30 probably. 

In essence you are buying 40k dollars in work and parts for 25k dollars. These cars are not like 911's (yet) and you rarely get more from them than you put in.  So buy one that 95% there and does not NEED a bare metal restoration, then you can spend time and money just maintaining it and modifying it the way you want to (wheels, triples, decals, seats, etc)

[jfa.series1]

Here's another pence worth: give a bit of reconsideration to holding out for a Series 1.  There will be a far greater number of cars to choose from if you open it up to the Series 2 cars - late 71's and after, i.e. higher yearly production quantities.  The early cars came with the Type A transmission which had some weaknesses.  Also, I've heard there were unibody structure improvements in the later cars.  Others on this forum may be able to comment on that.

Edited June 2, 2016 by jfa.series1

[Patcon]

As Jim pointed out series one cars also suffered from some electrical issues that were fine tuned in later car...

A full respray for me here on the Southern East coast is some where between 5,000 and 9,000 depending on the shop and work load.

On the west coast I would add maybe 50% to that and you will have to use waterborne products. California is very strict on painting businesses and their cost of living is higher...

[LeonV]

I have a friend in the SF Bay Area looking to sell his 240Z. I believe it's an original 112 Yellow car although it needs a respray. The body looks to be in really good shape, I didn't see any rust during a quick inspection (doesn't mean there isn't any of course). It's a solid base car, although the fenders have been cut and flares installed. PM me if you're interested and I'll connect you guys.

[Woody928]

Thank you all for the further replies, this is all really helpful great info. 

From your comments I've spoken with my dad this evening (bearing in mind this is half his project) and we've decided to slightly narrow the search criteria looking at we we want to achieve form this project. With that in mind we don't want to compromise on a series one car, purely on the basis of that's where it all started design wise and is a bookmark for the vehicle and the colour is important to me suits the car so well so 918 orange will be the second sticking point. We're going to drop the matching no.'s requirement as a couple have rightly made the point that absolute originality isn't vital for this project. We will be searching or a near complete car with a lot of the work done as it gives a better starting platform to work from and also hopefully saves us a bit of cash which can be put towards mods and other bits. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and I'm now slightly gutted that two months ago now I actually passed up on an opportunity to obtain the car I have just specified above which was rejected at the time due to a non standard engine. That being said it proves that with some patience and lots of trawling there are cars like this out there!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1971-Datsun-Z-Series-/162012786167?cp=1&sojTags=exe%3Dexe%2Cext%3Dext&ext=32580&exe=12792&euid=c657013ea86d48e2b8fe02cdfe69056e&nma=true&si=bjszkkxYzeXwHPFMEx9gZmSRxWs%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

Jim & Patcon thanks for the further info on the series one cars, that's really useful to know. The transmission weakness I'm less worried about as the plan will be to get a five speed transmission to go in there so that solves any potential issues there, however I'd like to know more about the potential for electrical gremlins and structural improvements? Would I notice a serious difference between a series one and two in that respect?

 

Patcon thanks also for the respray figures, its nice to have a ball park figure in the back of my head in any event!

Edited June 2, 2016 by Woody928

[Woody928]

24 minutes ago, LeonV said:

I have a friend in the SF Bay Area looking to sell his 240Z. I believe it's an original 112 Yellow car although it needs a respray. The body looks to be in really good shape, I didn't see any rust during a quick inspection (doesn't mean there isn't any of course). It's a solid base car, although the fenders have been cut and flares installed. PM me if you're interested and I'll connect you guys.

When you say the fenders have been cut, would replacement wings be required to bring it back to stock? I guess this would only work for the front, and a bodyshop would have to rework the rear arches if I wanted to remove the arch flares? Thanks for the post either way