Should I buy this car?

[Rkroel]

Hey guys, im looking at a late Series 1 Z car and need some more input before I make my decision.

Pictures: www.bastuds.com/240z

Higher quality pics can be posted if it will help.

Here is what I know about the car/have found out.

Floorboards are perfect, rust free.

Spare tire well is perfect, rust free.

Car is an automatic

Passenger side has a little bit of rust bubbling in front of the rear tire - it seems solid to me but I am no expert on older cars. See pictures

Battery tray is in good condition except there is a hole where the front passenger side corner of the tray is. The hole is in sheetmetal, but is not in a corner. The hole is visible if you look up past the pass. side tire.

The car has the original paint on it & it looks very good in the interior. Outside is faded (car is in the southwest and has been here its whole life)

The engine started with a little bit of coaxing by sucking gas out of a can. Owner says it needs fuel lines, I would guess it needs fuel lines/filter/pump/tank cleaning.

Oil leak out of the valve cover gasket (see pictures)

Car is an auto(I know I said that already...:classic: )

Body seems to be in great condition aside from the two problem areas.

The dash is cracked, the interior soft stuff is gone. Seats are decent.

Previous owner installed a single webber DGV.

The car is on its third owner, this guy has owned it for 6 months (it sat during those six months)

See the pictures for more details.

I have the mechanical skills to do anything and everything to the car besides body work and paint. I also have a '73 Z sitting in the back yard with 2.5 extra motors and a set of round top SU's to replace that awful single DGV.

Any thoughts? Thanks for any help.

RK

[texasz]

It doesn't look that bad from your pix. Is it in a dry part of the southwest...like Arizona? That would help keep the rust to a minimum. It all depends upon how much he's asking for it.

[Rkroel]

Yes its in a very dry part of the country. My main problem is the guy is a real bear and is asking 2.4k and saying he won't take anything under 2k for it. Not going to pay that much for it, so we shall see.

[26th-Z]

Yes I believe the $2500 asking price is a little steep, but $2000 is realistic. Looks like a fine project car.

[Marty Rogan]

It looks like it is mostly there and solid. Just remember that it will cost you a bundle to get it looking and running good.

In general, you are money ahead paying a higher price for a running car with good paint, than trying to buy it cheap and work on it. You will spend way more by the time you are done, than buying a car that is already finished. Believe me, I have done both.

Unless you are buying it because you want to rebuild a car for the experieince of it, then that is another matter. Go see the guy with 15 crisp $100 bills and put it on the table in front of him. Like they say, "money talks".

Good luck,

Marty

[Victor Laury]

I think he's asking too much. There's nothing besides the body you would reinstall after painting.

[2ManyZs]

I'd rather start with a non-rusted 1500 or 2000 dollar chassis than a 1000 dollar chassis that needed 1-2K in rust repairs...

Yeah, 2K sounds like a lot, but as long as you don't have to worry about repairing rusted sheetmetal and spending a lot of money on labor to fix it if you can't do it yourself, you are way ahead of the curve.

That's only my opinion.... but take it from me, buying a car for 750-1200 and thinking you can repair it, then realizing it's not worth the effort afterwards is wasted time and money.

Granted, living on the east coast, where we see very few rust-free chassis, I'd give 2K for it, simply because I have all the parts it needs that were taken off rusted out hulks over the years so maybe my opinion is a bit off...:cross-eye

[Jae]

convince the guy to sell it to you for $1500

[Rkroel]

Thanks for the input guys. This morning I talked to him, started at $1200 and ended up at $1400. At that point basically told him a car like that is only worth $700-$1200 so he should think about my offer and I will call him back on sunday.

I would pay 2k for this car if I was on the east coast, however im in a place that is about as dry as you can get in the US.

Ryan

[2ManyZs]

Wish we could all be so lucky......

I'd be happy if I could find just a rust free bare shell.