Many thanks for these quick responses.. It's a shame it's not unified across all the states  but I guess that's the point of have a state system! 

 

I'll call up Michigan DMV and see what they suggest. My brother would prefer to drive it whilst he's out there but if it's a ton of hassle then I can always revert to picking it up on a trailer and get it trucked to NY where it'll be put on a ship. 

There's no requirement for it to be registered to be shipped, the only document they use is thr title to determine the car manufacturing details. 

The title is clean and in the sellers name, and it was registered before in MA, but he hasn't re registered the car as he's selling it and doesn't see the point in registering it (not sure I agree with that..) 

Edited July 1, 20177 yr by Jay.

As an aside I would be leery of trying to drive any vehicle like this home unless it was under 30 miles. The car would have to be really pristine for me to try it. I wouldn't try it with this car. I really hate breaking down on the side of a really hot interstate and hoping you don't get hit by an idiot messing with their smart phone...

If distance from Michigan to wherever isn't an issue, and you want an engine that isn't stock, perhaps a car close to Virginia Beach could be found, and brought to Datsun Spirit, where a well built performance L28 could be built, before shipping to Jolly 'ol.

14 hours ago, Patcon said:

As an aside I would be leery of trying to drive any vehicle like this home unless it was under 30 miles. The car would have to be really pristine for me to try it. I wouldn't try it with this car. I really hate breaking down on the side of a really hot interstate and hoping you don't get hit by an idiot messing with their smart phone...

I think i'll go for some roadside assistance thing, assuming I'll be able to? 

 

14 hours ago, Reptoid Overlords said:

If distance from Michigan to wherever isn't an issue, and you want an engine that isn't stock, perhaps a car close to Virginia Beach could be found, and brought to Datsun Spirit, where a well built performance L28 could be built, before shipping to Jolly 'ol.

Any idea how much that would roughly be? I looked into a rebello build but they're upwards of 5-10k

43 minutes ago, Jay. said:

some roadside assistance thing

Roadside assistance will be of limited help if you seize a wheel bearing or lose an alternator or any number of the other possibilities. They will help get you off the road and tow you to a mechanic, but you won't know an honest mechanic in the area. Also parts probably won't be readily available so you will have to get a room and wait...

Best idea is to rent or borrow a car trailer and tow it home. Very little risk that way.

7 hours ago, Patcon said:

Roadside assistance will be of limited help if you seize a wheel bearing or lose an alternator or any number of the other possibilities. They will help get you off the road and tow you to a mechanic, but you won't know an honest mechanic in the area. Also parts probably won't be readily available so you will have to get a room and wait...

Best idea is to rent or borrow a car trailer and tow it home. Very little risk that way.

Ah that's a shame, we have 'get you home' over here where they'll tow us to our home address... I guess it helps that everything is so close here

 

I'll look into transporter costs. 

14 minutes ago, Jay. said:

I guess it helps that everything is so close here

True

Most of the roadside services here will only tow you 50 or 100 miles. Your haul is a little further than that...

Having the car looked at on Friday, excited!

 

Will post updates here. Thanks everyone for your advice so far

So my brother went and viewed the car.l yesterday. He was impressed at the condition of the paint work but there were a few areas of concern. Most were made aware to me, primarily the rusty dog legs. Unfortunately as someone has predicted, the rear arches had been rolled badly which has caused some rust to build up, which is hopefully easily rectified.

 

Beneath the carpets the floorboards were beginning to rust again. It hasn't gone through the metal and appears to be strong still, but it looks superficially quite bad, I've attached an image.

 

The dash was cracked quite badly but the seller has included a dash in much better condition which I can swap over.

 

Mechanically the car runs really well.. engine appears to have been fitted well and there's no vibrations during normal driving. Unfortunately it had rained so he wasn't able to give it a proper blast but he said that it all felt good.

 

We've come to an agreement and the car will be picked up by the shipping agency some time this coming week. 

 

I've uploaded some photos, hopefully nothing stands out too much but I figured I'd open it up to the violence some opinions! 

 

 

You are starting with a normal condition Datsun! They all have issues. Some more than others. Yours looks manageable. Congrats!!

6 hours ago, Jay. said:

We've come to an agreement and the car will be picked up by the shipping agency some time this coming week. 

To Detroit or England (shipping docks)?  Thought your brother was going to hoon around Michigan for a while.  Interested in what it takes to get it to England.  Could be educational.

That floorboard rust is still wet.  Leaks!  Common.

Not to rain on your parade, but I think you're going to find a couple unwelcome rusty surprises on that one. But if you're happy with it, it could still be a good base for a swapped project car. Congrats on the purchase.