daddz

I have just sent you a PM with the address. As I stated this really helps get the project jumpstarted. I also wanted to know if a 280ZX aftermarket spring and shock setup would work. I have a set of Quickor springs from an '81 280ZX and a set of Bilsteins from the same car. Any thoughts on this?

Stephen, If you could help with pedal set that would be awesome! I have plans to install a set of 14x7 and 14x8 Enkei 92's with a black center to freshen the appearance. We have some minor rust spots to take care of. Amazingly the undercarriage is in very nice condition and it looks as though it hasn't been undercoated? There is a new center console over at oem-surplus for a manual 810 coupe that we need to snatch up as well. Thanks for the offer to help find a pedal set.

Stephen, 240ztt and I are good friends; we hope to get another friend (Datsunlvrs) to come over and help get this old girl in shape. 240ztt and I went in together on this car and you'll probably see Joe help me with posting the pics. The trouble is finding parts and a factory service manual at the moment. There is a '78 810 manual on ebay at the moment but, it won't have the coupe mentioned in the book. I will have to say that the car is very comfortable to drive (even in its current state) and with the automatic it makes the L24 spin a bit more than I am used to. The plan is to convert the car to a manual at some point so finding a pedal set will be difficult. I have been told that an S30 pedal set will not work?

Stephen, To update you the car is now back in Hughesville, Md. after a nice and pleasant drive home from just outside of Philadelphia. It is an August of 1978 production date. The spark plug wires were bought from a Nissan dealer as they are Sumitomo dated 1986! It will be receiving many hours of cleanup and minor maintenance to get it fit for the road. There is a sticker in the door which indicates the last oil change about 10k ago and roughly 2 years. The car has a few rust spots from living in the northeast; we were told the car originally came from Arizona and that might explain how it has managed to survive this long. The original spare is still in the trunk and looks as though it has never been on the ground. The chrome is in pretty good shape as well. Hope to have some pictures up pretty soon. Now, to find those parts?

Mark, I was just about to suggest giving Mike McGinnis a call at Banzai Motorworks until I saw this post. I bought some engine paint from him on multiple occasions and it was spot on. He may also have the correct blue paint for the air cleaner housing. You may also try with the following website: http://www.oem-surplus.com/ They have a brand new air cleaner housing for a 280ZX and if nothing else the color photos might help you determine which way to go. In addition I once heard somebody say that Alfa Romeo light blue was a close match. On another note you may want to buy a couple of "OK" stickers from Mike at Banzai as they are spot on replicas and would look nice in your passenger side quarter window with that shiny new paint. I say a couple in case you have to replace it later on. I think you can also still buy the "Datsun 280Z" dash emblem as well. Are you still planning attending VIR this weekend? Any more 350Z's planning to go?

I just noticed that this person is interested in selling a very early serial numbered 240Z in Wisconsin over on zcar.com: http://www.zcar.com/forums/read.php?f=4&i=178707&t=178707 Author: Kathie Date: Sep 29, 10:03am ZFLYER, Here's more info..... It's a 1970. I don't know what Series 1 means. There's a number on the dash: HLS30-0561. I don't know what that means either. 79,350 miles. Color: green. It's the original color, and has been re-painted. Exterior: shows no rust except for a small amout on the front chrome bumpers, and there are a few small areas around the rear wheel wells that appear to have been filled in, and are intact. I can see and feel rust deeper inside the wheel wells (not the body). Perhaps I should take it to my mechanic and get a good look underneath? Interior: perfect, as it has been restored. Leather (vinyl?) seats. AM/FM radio with a tapedeck. There are speakers mounted in the back, which may have been added. The original engine is stored in my garage. The car was purchased in Texas from the original owner, some 25 years ago, towed to WI., because the freeze plugs popped up while just sitting in Southern Texas for about a year. So, rather than taking a chance, the original engine was removed, and a different engine was installed. I'm told that the original engine block is not cracked, and perhaps the freeze plugs just rusted out. The existing engine runs well. It's a manual transmission, and shifting takes a little arm power, at least for me. This car has been rarely driven, and only in the summer for the past 25 years. I recently inheireted it from the 2nd owner. I'll take a picture later today. Not sure, however, how to attach it at this point, as there's no "Attach" icon like there is on my email. Many thanks in advance for any help that you can give me.

Mike, Thanks for giving me credit but, I must say that the idea was actually this fellow's: EastBay300ZX from zcar.com Hopefully we can get him to join this community as well since his email address is: norcalbmx510@hotmail.com I'll post this link over at the over forum.

Still only $177.50? There must be a few "sleeper" bidders waiting this one out?

I'll have to rename all of mine now too! I guess S30-R? It kind of makes sense because I was going to get a vanity plate that read: FeO2 Any chemistry majors?

Sean, Do you have any pics of your recent HS130 purchase? I own two of those "bastardized" Z cars and the '81 has no power steering and also lacks cruise control, rear wiper, the 10 function check, and the old style radio and high back bucket seats. The '82 is a more typical 280ZX in that it has power steering, cc, pw, pdl, rear window wiper, low back bucket seats (these are truly not comfortable), 10 function check, and oversized radio. If I drive both cars back to back I am struck with a similar impression that Road & Track had observed back in late '78 when the cars were introduced. The '82 is a much more benign car to drive in everyday situations and the '81 w/o all the power options is a bit more of a chore to drive and while this is closely equipped like my '78, the '78 is a much more pleasant car to drive over long distances as well as in urban cycle driving.

Chris, The trouble I run into is when I buy parts from the dealer for two different generations of cars (i.e. a case of oil filters) or two of the same generation (worse) deciding which file the receipt goes in.

Jim, Sorry aboutgetting to this thread quite late in the game. Just thought you might like to see a few pics of my friend's old Skyline which he brought back to the U.S. after a tour in Japan: http://www.240ztt.com/skyline.html his main page is here: http://www.240ztt.com/nissan.html MrCamouflage, Let us know if you ever catch the title to that movie. Sounds like fun.

Dylan, That's a real treasure you have there! I bet you can't wait to take it for a spin when it's done? Funny thing is I haven't found that issue but, I know I have it somewhere and I can't wait to read that article again. Alan, Thanks for posting a scan of that brochure. It is difficult to find such literature here in the U.S. even for late model Nissan/Datsun products. I guess it has been assumed that there is not enough interest to justify selling such items. It would be quite something to see any literature relating to the ZG models. In addition, I am curious to know if you have written anything relating to the history of your Z's. The fellow that administers the Md. Z Club website has asked its members to write a short blurb about our cars and how we came to own them.

Chris, I don't include storage fees, bribes, beer, drugs or any other peripheral expesnes related to this hobby. Can you imagine those trips to Tampa and the nights spent at Mons Venus being added in to the cost? I only suggested that "if" I were to have been required to pay storage fees can you imagine how high the true cost would be? Getting back to labor charges though; I feel that you have to include such costs because it is too much work to separate the costs (IMO) and there are some jobs that I would rather not tackle myself because I know that I know not when it comes to welding in new sheetmetal for example and I wouldn't want to shortshrift any of my S30's. The same holds true for things such as NGK or factory plug wires vs. "el-cheapo" wires from Autozone. :nervous:

Stephen, I don't know if you noticed the VIN# or not but, it is xxxx249 and I was wondering what your production date was. I don't imagine that they were making a bunch of these and based on that hunch I guess the production date might be a few months off of yours?

Damnit Stephen now I have another auction to watch over :-) I was just talking about that car with a friend and we were plotting how to install a pedal set from an S30 and then there are the mandatory Enkei 92's that are sitting in the attic looking for a car to get them rolling again. You know a set of triples would look good under the hood as well. Pa. isn't too far away....

zhead240, TR-6's are great cars; I have wanted one for a long time but, they too can be expensive to maintain. At least you can re-shell the car if you have a bad one. I wish that was a possibility for the S30 cars. As always spend the money upfront and find the best one you can afford and you'll thank yourself right away as well as later.

Chris, I was including labor if applicable (of course my labor is free so that doesn't count) since the Nissan senior tech that is kind enough to work on my junk, er Z cars in the evenings after his day job and we don't want to think about what storage would cost especially for the trollup that calls itself HLS30448652. That car was purchased in Dec. '98 and it hasn't seen the road since Sept. of '95. Maybe next month he'll see the roads again.

I saw a similar thread on another message board and thought this would be more interesting on this forum. I'll start with my own summary of the various Z cars in my stable: 1977 280Z HLS30366531: No file when I bought it except a few months later I went looking through the owner's manual and found the original bill of sale! The file is growing (about $800 in parts and labor so far). 1978 280Z HLS30437667: One big mother of a file going back to '78 from the original owner to me. It's my avatar at classiczacrs.com--daddz. An example of big money spent on this car: a body shop receipt dated from '95 for $8,000.00! The receipts total a little more than $23,000 since '78! 1978 280Z HLS30448652: No file when I bought it because I bought it from a junkyard! I have added a small group of receipts that total about $2500.00. 1978 280Z HLS30456240: No file when bought since it was a rescue purchase from Datsun Dynamics but, the recipts for the parts that were transferred from the old orange '78 280Z (HLS30431775) total about $4000.00. 1981 280ZX: Another mother of a file. This car has all of her receipts from date of delivery through me and I am the fifth owner (the second owner was also the fourth owner). The third owner spent a little more than $17,000.00 on this car in the four years that he owned it (I know about the slippery slope that he slid down with this car since I have done it with my '86 300ZX). 1982 280ZX: A good file here although it only goes back through to the second owner from '86 to the present. I have added about $2000.00 to the file since I bought it in early 2003. 1986 300ZX: This file wasn't very big when I bought it because the original owner gave it to her son and he traded the car in after owning it for about three months. I tracked back to the original owner and she remembered the major service and read it off to me via the telephone. Since buying the car I have spent about $9500.00 on this car since December of 2001. 2003 350Z: I bought this one new and I have all the records since before it even got here.