Hello from across the pond! Searching for a 240z

[siteunseen]

Yes, you found what you wanted and it's a turnkey car.  You get what your "willing and able" to pay, leaping over the bullsh*t.

Congratulations.  8^)

[Woody928]

Thank you for all of the kind comments! I'm really hoping that she is as clean as the photos suggest and a very sorted base from which to start.  I hadn't posted any further as I wanted to confirm all of the details before really relaxing and keeping everything updated. I returned the Bill of Sale which I'm waiting to be notarized before issuing the final payment to release the car and then arrange for the car to be collected.    

On 6/22/2016 at 0:26 PM, Patcon said:

That's a nice looking car...

Cheers bud

On 6/22/2016 at 2:55 PM, Zedyone_kenobi said:

Wonderful car and well bought buddy!

Welcome to the club of Z ownership. You have a splendid example to start with and far better than many of us started with.  I think you will enjoy her for Many many years to come. Hold on for a fun ride!  I look forward to seeing your progress and where you go from here.  That is a wonderfully honest looking Z.  With a lot of the correct mods already done.  Keep us posted!

Thank you, your advice has been very helpful along the way. Hopefully you can enjoy the ride as well, I'll try and keep the forum updated as to how I progress and am sure will continue to ask lots of questions :-D

On 6/25/2016 at 4:08 PM, moelk said:

Great!!

Good luck and hope everything about the car is what you think it is.

 

Fingers crossed :-) 

On 6/25/2016 at 5:40 PM, siteunseen said:

Yes, you found what you wanted and it's a turnkey car.  You get what your "willing and able" to pay, leaping over the bullsh*t.

Congratulations.  8^)

Short of the engine block being non standard, I'll be a happy man when its on the way. I must admit I've spent more than I was thinking I would (especially given the change in exchange rate), that being said if its as good as it looks then I should be a very happy man. Out of curiosity is that price fairly average or towards the higher scale in the US? Thank you though, it should be a great project! ;-D

[Zedyone_kenobi]

20000 US dollars for that car is what I would call well bought. You did not get the deal of the century, but you also did not get taken for a ride either. I think you paid market price for a well loved and cared for first gen Z car. You could have spent more and got less, and you could have spent less and maybe got as much or more (if you were crazy lucky)

I would not lament the purchase price at all. If the car is well sorted and all 'there' you paid a fair price for the car.  Neither the sell nor yourself should have any bad feelings from the deal.

There is always the potential of finding a better 'deal', but you had very specific requirements, and with every requirement you held to (good for you by the way), the chancing of finding that 1 in a million deal dropped. 

 

I congratulate you on a well bought car and I think you will be happy for many years to come.

 

[siteunseen]

In my opinion, if it looks as good as it's presented on eBay, $20K is a fair price for both of you.  It's what you wanted, take care and hold onto it.

[S30Driver]

Nicely done!   And, as a big fan of orange, congrats.   Beautiful looking car.

[Woody928]

Apologies again for the late response, the last few days have been hectic arranging logistics, the seller has now received full payment and is currently arranging a collection time for the car with the shipper .I'm attempting to try and have the car collected for me by Tuesday next week with the seller going on vacation, no easy task with the public holiday coming up and independence day on Monday from what I understand.  

On 6/28/2016 at 7:27 PM, Zedyone_kenobi said:

20000 US dollars for that car is what I would call well bought. You did not get the deal of the century, but you also did not get taken for a ride either. I think you paid market price for a well loved and cared for first gen Z car. You could have spent more and got less, and you could have spent less and maybe got as much or more (if you were crazy lucky)

I would not lament the purchase price at all. If the car is well sorted and all 'there' you paid a fair price for the car.  Neither the sell nor yourself should have any bad feelings from the deal.

There is always the potential of finding a better 'deal', but you had very specific requirements, and with every requirement you held to (good for you by the way), the chancing of finding that 1 in a million deal dropped. 

 

I congratulate you on a well bought car and I think you will be happy for many years to come.

 

I'm glad to hear you say that, from my limited knowledge that was the opinion I had, however I don't know the market like you guys do. I don't feel hard done by at all, I'm just really excited to get the car back to the UK so that I can finally see it in the flesh and take it for a ride. I'm sure that's going to be a special moment when I finally get to do that. 

It seems that I got very lucky with finding a car very close to my spec, thanks again. I really do hope that I'll have it for many years to come and can become part of a much loved collection. 

On 6/28/2016 at 7:30 PM, siteunseen said:

In my opinion, if it looks as good as it's presented on eBay, $20K is a fair price for both of you. It's what you wanted, take care and hold onto it.

Thanks for your honestly, I think as you say both parties can walk away happy 

On 6/28/2016 at 8:56 PM, S30Driver said:

Nicely done!   And, as a big fan of orange, congrats.   Beautiful looking car.

Cheers buddy, definitely my favorite Z colour (color). I've always wanted an orange car so I feel complete now. I'm sure it'll turn lots of heads when its back here as last year there were only 188 cars registered as road legal in the UK! 

 

Another question for all of you guru's. I'd definitely like to find out more about the L26 engine as I really don't know much other than its obviously higher displacement than the L24. Below is the spec I've been given by the owner regarding the engine mods, what differences can expect over the original engine? and will any of the below make a noticable difference? I think if I'm correct the L26 got strangled by emissions equipment? If so I'll definitely be wanting to get those bits removed on its return to the UK as there's not emissions controls on vehicles of this age, so if I really wanted I could even go with straight pipes!   

Engine

L24 replaced with L26 (P30 Block and E88 Head)

Ceramic header

Turbo exhaust tips

Cam upgrade to Schneider 17033 model that produces a beautiful sounding vehicle at launch. Original cam is available.

High flow carburetors

Crane Fireball XR700 ignition

[siteunseen]

He probably used the 2.6 block to accommodate the larger valves that are most likely installed in the E88 cylinder head.  I had to "notch" my 2.4 with a die grinder.  The bigger valves will hit the sides of the smaller bore.  Here's some pictures,

 

[EuroDat]

I was also wondering why the L26. I don't think it would be for the valves though. The L26 is the same bore, but different stroke, 79mm like the L28. Its is already notched for the bigger 35mm exhaust valve. Seems a lot of trouble not to notch a bore. Something must have went bad with the L24. That would push me to change a matching number engine to L26.

[Woody928]

Thanks for the replies, interesting to have a bit of a read of your thread to see notching the bore's.

The only logical explanation I've come up with is what you've said EuroDat. Maybe there were some serious issues with the original block and it was just more economical to drop an L26 in its place at the time. If it was an L28 I would have understood for the potential gains but it has me baffled, either way long term I imagine I'll try and drop an L28 in there to get some extra performance especially given it doesn't have the original engine I'm far less worried.

 

In other news I had it confirmed on Friday that the car was collected in an enclosed trailer and was heading to NY to have it customs cleared and prepared for shipping to Southampton. I've just got to work out the logistics of how I'll get the car collected as I don' think I can drive it on US plates in the UK, and see if I need to modify the rear tail lights so that I can get it through an MOT to get it UK registered and a UK no. plate assigned. It's all making progress, just really looking forward to seeing the car for the first time and finally getting to take it for that long awaited drive....     

[Woody928]

Well I thought it was about time I updated all of you, given how helpful you've been! With that in mind I can now announce that the car has finally arrived to the UK, and I've seen it for the first time!

I went down to Fourways Engineering (A well known Datsun 240Z specialist in the UK) on Monday afternoon to await the cars arrival, after a nice tour around the treasure trove of a workshop, and a small wait it arrived. On first sight being backed down the driveway, it looked stunning in 918 orange. Within seconds it had several of us crawling all over it to have a look at what I had bought with my dad based on photos several thousand miles away. Unfortunately to all of our disappointment the car has clearly sustained damaged in transit from the US. the front end had been impacted denting the bonnet, chipping the paint, and most frustratingly left a dent in a fairly immaculate original looking chrome bumper. Damage also extended to the chin spoiler which had numerous cracks across it. There were also chips of paint missing from the door where it had clearly been knocked, potentially following been driven into the container. To top things off the head liner was hanging down with very sticky glue having failed to do its job. Safe to say, there's a fair bit of work that needs to be done to right these issues, and an email has been fired off to the shipping company to make an insurance claim. 

With that out of the way, the car was taken off of the trailer to have a look around and see what I'd got. Safe to say first impressions were very good, the respray looks fairly good, the interior is in very nice shape and looks to be very complete (minus the head lining issue). The car appears to even have its original spare wheel along with a lot of correct features for a car of its age. Next to try and start it up, absolutely nothing.... Some investigation later the battery looking very suspect and its out and a temporary replacement found. Still nothing, after coercing the starter motor, still no luck. Next job, rolled into the work shop and time for further investigation, up she goes to reveal whats underneath. 

A very clean looking engine, which had been tarted up, along with lots of shot rubber bushes and some interesting brake lines. Safe to say those are all on the to do list. The arches appear to have had a few plates welded in, however look very solid and clean with no rust visible. Further discovery however unfortunately lead to some investigation of a suspect looking chassis rail on the passenger side. With permission to get digging given, and the reasonably solid looking chassis rail begins coming off in chunks, revealing the rusty remains of the original rails. Safe to say more digging will need to be done, however some serious welding will be required to make the area solid again. Once I'd composed myself again and we'd looked around some more generally speaking it was good news via a few details here and there.

Car was dropped back down again to see if the guys could get her heart beating again, a temporary starter motor was magic'd up and after some quick testing was installed in the car. The moment of truth came again and the started motor started clicking over, and over. A bit of fettling later, some gas and more perseverance and finally she roared into life! Relief does not come close to describing how good it felt to hear that car scream into life, safe to say I was grinning like a four year old child on Christmas day. Via a slight rattle that will need some investigation and she was sounding glorious, at that moment I knew this project was going somewhere and after months of emails, phone calls, sleepless nights and concerns vanished. 

There are going to be numerous bits of work to be done, and the above doesn't really come close to describing my rather Roller Coaster afternoon. However we have on the face of it a very good car, it needs some TLC in areas, some damage repaired and then it should be an extremely good (fairly rust fee) example that can have its wheels driven off and enjoyed for years to come.

This brings me on to giving a big shout of to Fourways Engineering who have been extremely welcoming, knowledgeable and helpful this afternoon :bow: The whole team was on hand to check the car over for me to see what we've got, it was very clear that there is a team of people who are all Zed lovers, and complete Petrolheads. They were determined not to let me leave before hearing her roar into life, finally making the project very real :thumbs: Which after some disappointing discoveries, meant I left on a high note. 

The car unfortunately won't be making it to Goodwood Revival this year given that there is lots to do, and I don't want anything rushed for the sake of making one event. Hopefully over the next few weeks it will slowly have its niggles sorted so that we can get it onto the road and enjoy it, before the winter hits home hard. I have attached a few photos below, albeit I'm sorry to say it was so focused on taking photos of the damage (for insurance claim) I only took one very poor photo of it on the ramps. I promise once its out and about I will get some good photos of the whole car and share on here.

Its safe to say, after getting home I felt completely drained however I'm looking forward as to how the next few weeks progress and will share as and when things develop. A few pics for you all below as I know you love them. More to follow shortly.     

The Dreaded Damage

What Was lurking underneath 

A souvenir from the underside

Edited August 28, 2016 by Woody928

[Namerow]

Looks like a nice car.  I admire your courage for buying site unseen from an overseas seller.  Too bad about the shipping damage, though -- especially considering the fact that the car was apparently loaded into a container to prevent exactly this kind of damage from happening.

Based on my own experience, I recommend that you go through the electrical connections from stem to stern, using De-Oxit or a similar type of spray to knock down at least some of the oxidation on the terminals.  Pulling the white-plastic connector shells apart can be a problem.  A bit of heat from a hair dryer before you start tugging may help.

Up front, pay particular attention to the connectors for the headlights, the wiper motor, and the voltage regular. Check the condition of the fusible links while you're at it. 

Under the dash, there are two oversized 'spade' connectors for the primary current that are usually badly corroded.  One is located in the console/centre stack area. The other is in among the bundle of connectors where the engine harness connects to the dash harness.  To identify, look for heavy-gauge white or white-red wires.  These two connectors can get really hot because of the combination of high current and corrosion.

Corrosion on the terminals within the Combination Switch (Lights on/off and Headlight hi/lo in particular) and the Hazard Lighting switch is a well-known issue for these cars.  Spraying with De-Oxit will help, but disassembly (finicky job) and polishing (Dremel tool with brass wire wheel attachments works well) is a better answer.

Don't forget to check the condition of the Fuse Block.  Look for a loose fuse (or fuses), which will probably indicate that the Fuse Block's plastic floor has melted and given way.  The usual culprit is the Headlight circuit.  If you find that your car's Fuse Block has melted like this, make sure you treat both the symptom (melted Fuse Bock) and the cause (corrosion and over-current issues within the Lighting circuit and switching).  There are several articles on this site that go over the problem and the solutions in detail.  An upgraded Headlight harness (with relays fitted) is probably the best answer.

Finally, make sure that the electrical system's body ground connections are good.  There's one in the engine bay (fender apron, adjacent to the Starter) and one under the Rear Deck floor, back around the gas tank. 

[grannyknot]

Woody, that must have been heart breaking to see that damage, unbelievable. They ship millions of cars around the world every year, no excuse for that. Looks like you found a good shop to get her back in shape, looking forward to your progress.