'71 240Z for sale found in So. Md. $1000.00

[daddz]

One of my clients alerted me to a Z car that he had seen while giving a co-worker a lift to work a couple of months ago. He told me of this car on Friday and we agreed to go look at it yesterday (Saturday April 12,2003). I was both shocked and puzzled as to why someone would leave an old Z out in the elements and not drive the car.

The owner is a 73 years "young" man who bought the car about 15 or 16 years ago (I have not seen the title to verify this). The owner told me that he is the third owner of this car and that the second owner sold it to him in Northern Virginia after his son got into an accident with the Z which dented the front bumper and hood. The hood was replaced by the current owner and the bumper looks to be in pretty good shape to me so I don't think it was a serious accident. The radiator core support is fine and doesn't have any rust on it. The owner stated that he has a whole lot of extra parts that go with the car (i.e. new rocker panels, lower front fender repair panels,rocker panel repair panels, alot of manuals and a restoration book and miscellaneous catalogs). The owner is also in the business of breeding and selling horses and had a few on the premises and thus the Z doesn't get tended to or driven. He also stated that before the Z he used to own an Austin Healey 3000, Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite and various other Bristish sportscars so at least we know he is/was a sportscar guy.

The first thing I noticed was the car has been painted black (a fairly cheap paint job but thorough as in the door jambs and engine bay were paint matched) over its original color. The original color was a butterscotch (the license plate area was not painted--must have had the plate while at the body shop). The car also has had a sunroof installed :-( but it was a quality installation and the interior shows no sign of having had any water leaking into it. The dashboard is not cracked and I could not find any evidence of a cover being overlayed. The seats were re-upholstered at some point (the grain replicates that of a '75 or '76 280Z). The interior is cmplete and it still has the original steering wheel and shift knob. The production date is 06/71 and the VIN# is HLS30-32996 and has been in the Washington,D.C. area its entire life. The engine has an E88 head and appears to be in original working condition. The original Hitachi S.U. type carbs are all present with the correct linkages. The original air cleaner is not installed and instead two K&N filters have been installed.The owner states that he will start it for me next Saturday when I go back to look at the car. He also wanted to blead the clutch hydraulics as well.The frame and floors and engine bay strut towers show no signs of rust through (I am sure there is some lurking somewhere). The hatch panel is not rusted through either (the horizontal panel that catches all of the water). The hatch glass has the vertical defroster grid but no vents. It also has a set of "Shadow" louvers on the hatch. I believe the engine serial number is L24-8540 (my eyesight is not the greatest). The odometer reads 89,567 but is probably 189,567 however the owner told me that it wasn't driven terribly much. The most interesting feature are the wheels--they look to be the old Empi style wheels and still have the original center caps! If you are not sure of what these wheels look like imagine the old Mini-Lite wheels with thinner spokes or look in the Road & Track Guide to Datsun Z's '70-'83 and in the first couple of pages there is a photo of a 240Z by the waterfront with the exact same style of wheels on it. The tires are whitewall tires (must have reminded him of the old British sportscars) and appear to be just starting to suffer from dry rot.

What to do with this car? I say make it a daily driver due to the sunroof. I don't think it would take much to get this car running in good order at this point. There is a junkyard in Brandywine, Md. (about 25 miles from where the car sits) that has a '71 240Z with a nice undamaged roof that could be had for not much money if you wanted to put the solid roof back on (lots of money to have a bodyshop do this). The wheels could be sold off to help offset the cost of buying this car. I think I will pass on this car as I own 7 Z's already and no more storage space :disappoin .

If nobody picks up on it I probably will end up buying it because I can't stand to see an old 240Z just sitting and not being used

:classic: :classic:

p.s. I didn't bring a digital camera because I honestly didn't expect the car to be as nice as it was. You would have to see the the ZX that my client drives to understand.