I recently purchased what I believe to be a 77 Datsun 280Z with no title. The only tags left on it are the Vin tag on the dash and also the serial number on the firewall.  Engine tag and the tag on the door jam or missing.  I am going to attempt to get a title for the vehicle and would like some help determining of build date.  Online I have found bill year by serial number by year but not the month.  If anybody has a close serial number could you let me know the month of theirs is I would appreciate it thanks. HLS30-402633

Mine is 355,834, build date of 09/'76 titled as a '77.  Look at the rear deck and see if it slopes up toward the rear window, it should and you should have a space saver uninflated spare tire.

Also look at the fuel rail on the engine.  77 had the three piece, connected by rubber hose, 78 had the one piece.  The rubber on the bumper ends is another good clue.

The car completely apart except suspension and I don't have a spare 

4 minutes ago, RacerX77 said:

The car completely apart except suspension and I don't have a spare 

How big is the hole where the spare tire would go?  What do the bumper ends look like even though they're off the car?  Is the fuel rail multi-piece or one piece?

You're gonna have to put a little bit of work in...

Like siteunseen mentioned, Early 77' (up till June?) had a sloped rear deck. Later 77' had a flat rear deck. If you have that part in a pile somewhere, It would be an easy visual check.  

My 370368 is a 1/77' car.  A parts car I had ,#403569, was a 6/77' car.   I don't know the particulars of Nissan Z car production, but if every car and serial # produced was sequential, It would place your 402633 as an early 77'.   936 cars in front of the 6/77 I previously mentioned.  A wild guess on my part would be April/May/June?

By my math they were producing about 5,500 a month so it would fall right in there. Someone with a closer vin and production date could narrow it down some more.

Edit: To add more info, according to The Classic Z register, 69,516  US sales in 1977, UK=417 Canada= unknown.

Lots of fun information on that site. From Aug 1, 1977 - Dec 13, 1979, They call it "The Bounce of the Dead Cat". Someone will have to explain that one to me.

The most successful year commercially, was 1978.

Edited July 19, 20177 yr by gwri8

Is that zhome.com, the registry you're reading?  I've never heard the dead cat story. Had one climb in the window and wizz/spray  in mine before. I'dve like to bounced him to death, that's a bad smell.

 

2 hours ago, siteunseen said:

Is that zhome.com, the registry you're reading?  I've never heard the dead cat story. Had one climb in the window and wizz/spray  in mine before. I'dve like to bounced him to death, that's a bad smell.

 

It's s30.org Cliff,  https://www.s30.org  It's kind out of date and not very functional but look under the heading "timeline".  It breaks the z down by the year.

And Please tell us more about how you grabbed that P_s_y!  

He posted over on hybridz.org at the same time and "Globerunner513" gave him this link - http://www.300zx.cl/ga/300zx/images/serial number Datsun Z Car.htm

Probably doesn't need the thread anymore.  It did turn up a nice reference though, if it's correct.  Seems to fit the numbers shown above, and my car.

 

A dead cat bounce is when a small good thing happens after a big bad thing.  Like when stock prices go up after a big crash.  Kind of dumb financial term.

I've learned something new I didn't know yesterday.  Thank you Zed Head.

Even a dead cat will bounce if dropped from high enough.  That reminds me of a saying I used to hear when I was river racing my boat and all these guys said theirs would run over a 100 mph.  The guy that worked on mine would always say "the only way that'll go over a hunnert is droppin it from a airplane"

Free fall is 122 mph. 

9 hours ago, Zed Head said:

A dead cat bounce is when a small good thing happens after a big bad thing.  Like when stock prices go up after a big crash.  Kind of dumb financial term.

No. A 'Dead Cat Bounce' is a drop followed by a small revival (the bounce) immediately followed by the final drop to the bottom. The analogy being based on the fact that a living cat will (proverbially) land on its paws and not bounce. A dead cat on the other hand will hit the deck and bounce once, then hit the deck and stay there.

Live cats don't bounce. The bounce is proof that the real trend is down.  

I just remember it from when I used to watch some of the financial shows, back when the stock market made a small amount of sense, before the government bailed out the financial institutions and forever corrupted the markets.  

Yes.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/deadcatbounce.asp?lgl=rira-baseline-vertical

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_cat_bounce

Here's a UK site - http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/108600.html