daddz

Ed, Thanks for the information. It sent me to the invoice for my '77 280Z to see how close the numbers are for original sticker price and this is what I found: Invoice dated February 8,1977 for HLS30366531 the base price was $7609.00; additions were $338 for the 4 spoke alloys and AC. Dealer prep was $125.00 and my favorite is $10.50 for tag and title work...got to love Florida!

Wow! Thanks for the "better than I received at UMCP" education :-) ...and I had to pay for those classes! I can sympathize as I have been on both sides the fence (Alan you know to which I refer) as recently I have been doing business with the friendly folks at : http://www.oem-surplus.com/ and to my surprise a photo of the interior of my '82 280ZX appeared one afternoon on that website. When questioned the web designer apologized and politely offered to remove the pic if necessary; like most police officers because of the cooperative nature I didn't take offense and nor did the photographer (that's you 240ztt).

I have had to go through this before with HLS30448652 because of the fact that I bought it from a junkyard. The junkyard had the tiel and even let me look through his title book but, it had been misplaced. He even offered to give me a couple of 240Z titles! I ended up going through a company that advertises in Hemmings and the process was about $150.00 and it is accomplished with "buy to sell back" type of transaction. In the meantime I had made a trip to MVA to verify that the car was still titled in Md. and subsequently when I walked in with a Rhode Island title they didn't flinch. It is certainly not worth moving VIN# i.d. plates around causing more headaches down the road. Good luck.

Another alternative to installing a dash cap is to order a molded dash cover from Motorsport (others offer the same type of product) to lay over the dash while it is parked. The kit will suggest using their velcro stickies which to me defeats the purpose of trying to preserve the dash in the first place. I have had good success with Armour All in the 22 years that I have been using it. As a sort of testimonial, my avatar 280Z which was bought from the original owner in September of 2001 has always had that product applied to it and the dash has two cracks which the owner admitted appeared back in '85/'86 when he was stationed in California and his application of Armour All was absent for a few years and the car was always parked outside. Since my purchase the car has always been stored outside with that molded cover and has been coated periodically with Armour All and no further cracking has appeared. Lastly, the '81 280ZX which has a black interior has no cracks in the dashboard and has also been stored outside for most of its life thanks to Armour All. Some people prefer Formula 2001 and I have used both but, still I come back to Armour All.

Kats, I am also going to be sad to see that you will be taking a hiatus from this site. Maybe someday soon we can meet in Japan perhaps at a Z related event. Hope to here from you again soon, Bob Dadd

Actually, this might be a great idea. My friend Satomi and I have been discussing this of late and as her family live near Tokyo this would be a great chance to experience Japan. A friend of a friend has also just returned to Japan and recently has been hired at Nissan HQ. By the way I appreciate the religious aspect of your comment regarding the pilgrimmage.

This is all very interesting but, I do see the point of what was said earlier regarding a possibly higher quality control being acheived at a small restoration shop versus a big factory where asembly line method has been employed. If only Nissan and to a larger extent the Japanese culture and our understanding of it as westerners had been a bit more open when the cars were being currently produced, we might have been the beneficiaries of better record keeping these many years down the road. Over the years I have read in various sources of Nissan's in-house quality control measures that seemed to have been light years ahaid of what was being produced here in America. I for one would love to be able to find out with a fair amount of precision just how many S30's were produced in various color and trim specifications. Another curiosity that I will never be able to indulge in with regard to these cars is the ability to know where every last chassis number was shipped and further to whom they were sold. If only the Datsun had the equivalent to what is available from the British Heritage Motor Industry Trust! In closing I must say that for some time now I have been made aware that there are quite a few U.S. citizens who do come across as "arrogant" and the fact that some of these citizens have traveled overseas only makes it more difficult when some of us do travel throughout the world. Being the product of such a society can sometimes cause a perception and the fact that our "english" is not typically precise it tends to create problems as well. Lastly, had Nissan been a bit more cautious in approving ad copy early on us "yanks" might not have gotten the idea that the Z was created just for us without regard to the world market. The cure: I vote for a field trip to Japan! (God help us as mainland Japan might never be the same)

Alan, Glad to see that you are still carrying the torch for purity. This may become a somewhat noble undertaking as I can't recall when I last saw a truly original S30 in all of its glory. Welcome to the American landscape where generalities serve up big profits for overwieght shareholders. The NMC cars do deserve a special recognition however, when the factory has to go out and by someone's reproduction "OK" stickers in order to pass it off as "factory restored" we should have a closer look. This behavior is not unexpected from a company such as Nissan and given the history probably to be repeated. We as car enthusiasts are damned lucky the S30 car was ever produced in the first place. My intention is not to "slam" Nissan and in fact if Nissan were to begin production of S30's again today, I would be out to sell the 350Z tomorrow. As a final question: Which would carry more value: a(n) NMC Vintage Z restoration or an all original unrestored historically correct S30?

Chris, I have just been catching up on what must be a pretty exciting couple of weeks! I got close a couple of times in my late 280Z ownership experience. I once owned HLS30426919 and HLS30427175 at the same time. About a month after taking delivery of the 350Z I was presented with a dilemma and that was whether to buy HLS30437661 (paint code 611) to go along with my avatar which is HLS30437667 (paint code 611). What can I say, if the disease tastes this good why not have some more? At the moment I am trying to accomplish the semi-impossible and that is to convince the original owner of an 08/70 (HLS308323) to part ways with the car. It has been off the road since before March of 1979 as best I can figure and if it comes to pass the herd may get some thinning. Sorry to have missed the party but, I am planning to drive to Tampa this weekend (leaving Thursday night) and was wondering if it wouldn't be too much trouble to request a viewing of the 27th Z? The plans are to drive down (plan to drive HLS30366531 '77 280Z--pics in my gallery) and pick up the '91 Mustang GT from a friends house and hopefully this will help to blow out some of the cobwebs in the '77 280Z. Since the car was bought new in Pensacola in Feb. of '77 it hasn't managed to get back to visit her home state. Hope to see some Z people this weekend? Cheers. p.s PM and I will be happy to exchange phone numbers.