For the last year I have been thinking off and on about selling my 70,  Vin #4213. It is excellent driver quality, I have put over 4,000 miles on it the last 4 summers, it has never left me stranded. For the last 8 months I have been chasing down an electrical problem. I have been through 2 alternators, a battery, voltage regulator and wire tracing. Still only putting out 11 amps. I also have a super nice 75, one owner til me, 71,000 mile car with blue tooth, cold a/c and a 5 spd. Long story short, I have watched Ebay, Craigslist and Bring a trailer trying to figure out what my very nice 60,000 mile 2 owner 70 with a SUNROOF was worth. Well, last Sunday, I had 2 men come to my shop from 2 hours away to buy some Miata parts off me. They went straight to the Datsun, pointed out the hatch vents and were wowed I had a series one. These guys were serious collectors, they were judges at the Lexington Ky Concourse D'Elegance, they knew their stuff. They offered me $14,500 right then and there. So, I made a phone call to a Cincinnati Concourse judge that knew my car and had showed interest in it, he said don't do anything crazy, I will give you $17,000 for it tomorrow, that was the magic number for me. SOLD! As much as I loved that car and I knew I would not be able to ever replace it in my price range, I still sold it, because I hated that sunroof. So, I am tickled to death to have an awesome 75 and still be a Z owner, but, it is also nice to know the sunroof cars can bring a decent buck. The car sold with 14" slotted wheels, carpeted inside (diamond vinyl removed on trans hump and rockers), needing some slight body work behind front wheel well and some rockers that were in need of straightening out and the gauges all had 40 year old stickers on them that would not come off. Other than that the car was pretty nice.

https://www.hagerty.com/apps/valuationtools/1970-Datsun-240Z

http://www.nadaguides.com/Classic-Cars/1970/Nissan-Datsun/240Z/2-Door-Coupe/Values

Edited August 4, 20177 yr by Consigli

The thing is beauuuuuuutiful! But like yourself the sunroof would spoil it for me as well because they all leaked and most didn't have the best installation, very unsightly. I wish I would have known I could have welded a piece in to close it back up with unnoticeable results. That's probably what will happen to it someday. That fix alone will put it at 25K easily. Nice car though.

Thanks, I took that car to many body shops and everybody said the same thing..... The whole roof skin needs to be replaced. The guy that bought the car off me, he's going to do it I even sold him a 73 parts car with a good roof and headliner The Body Shops did not want to touch it they just want to do Collision work and even if they did they wanted 4500 minimum. 

So a skilled metal worker can't patch a sunroof hole? The whole roof needs to be replaced? Just asking cause I don't know. 

Everybody I talk to said it gets too hot and if it was just that I would have had it removed on my own but I didn't want to go through pulling the glass and cutting it at the pillars

2 hours ago, Consigli said:

So a skilled metal worker can't patch a sunroof hole? The whole roof needs to be replaced? Just asking cause I don't know. 

I believe Arne has a thread on here detailing how his roof skin was replaced. But yes, the idea is to replace the entire roof skin. From what I hear, simply getting the roof straight enough for body work is hard enough, I can't imagine how hard it would be to weld in a big sheet metal patch, and then try to get it straight. Easier to replace the skin. I can't imagine it costing $4500 though. But that was probably just a big number to make you go away.

It could be done but someone that's really good with an English Wheel would have to be involved to shape the panel. You don't even know the size of your panel until you get the paint stripped off. And trust me it will be much larger than the hole for the roof!

On 8/4/2017 at 2:21 PM, rturbo 930 said:

I believe Arne has a thread on here detailing how his roof skin was replaced. But yes, the idea is to replace the entire roof skin. From what I hear, simply getting the roof straight enough for body work is hard enough, I can't imagine how hard it would be to weld in a big sheet metal patch, and then try to get it straight. Easier to replace the skin. I can't imagine it costing $4500 though. But that was probably just a big number to make you go away.

That's good info. to know. 

Edited August 6, 20177 yr by Consigli
I was confused!

8 minutes ago, esmit208 said:

It could be done but someone that's really good with an English Wheel would have to be involved to shape the panel. You don't even know the size of your panel until you get the paint stripped off. And trust me it will be much larger than the hole for the roof!

May be member "Disepyon" could patch it. He has an English wheel and extraordinary metal forming skills! 

Given the proper shape the heat from welding can be managed. But the car has to be flipped upside down to get the best weld penetration from the inside. And oh did I mention lots of PATIENCE! If a job like this was pricey I could understand. You have to pay for skill and expertise which are much more valuable than parts!

33 minutes ago, esmit208 said:

Given the proper shape the heat from welding can be managed. But the car has to be flipped upside down to get the best weld penetration from the inside. And oh did I mention lots of PATIENCE! If a job like this was pricey I could understand. You have to pay for skill and expertise which are much more valuable than parts!

I guess $4,500 is pretty cheap to fix when you drill down into what it takes to do right. If it ups the value on a rare car its money well spent.