daddz

I finally decided to have a look at the '77 280Z's owner's manual this past Sunday. I purchased the car in December 2003 and since I have looked at these owner's manuals before I wasn't in too big a hurry. In any case I thought everyone would have a laugh at what I found in the manual. In the back at page 105 in the notes section there were a few oil changes logged in: 12/31/88 84300 oil 10w40 havoline lee maxi 2/1/89 plugs 85480 4/6/89 89450 oil/filter 1040 havoline fram 2850 5/31/89 92750 valvoline 20w50 lee 8/30/89 95125 valvoline 20w50 fram 2850 I saved the best for last; towards the front of the book folded neatly lengthwise was the Original Bill of Sale!!!!! Check this out: The trade in was a '70 Dodge Charger 2 dr. with VIN # XP29GDG237610 (what do you think that would be worth now?). The invoice was dated 02/08/77 from Jack Hare, Inc. 800 W. Highway 90 Milton, Florida 32570. Invoice #2216 The price of the car was : $7609.00 Air, AM/FM Radio & Mag Wheels: $338.00 Dealer Prep.: $125.00 Tag, title, etc..:$10.50 Delivered price: $ 8082.50 The aforementioned Dodge Charger was given an allowance of $1225.00. The car was sold to a David J. Short of 6115 N. Davis Heritage Apts. #27B Pensacola, Fl. A nice piece of historical information regarding this car's history since the person I purchased the car from had absolutely no records on the car although, he promised to give me the phone number of the previous owner who supposedly had the records. In any case this car was bought based on its physical condition and records were secondary to the process. I suspected that this car had some sort of military history to it since there is a sticker on the back hatch glass that denotes membership to the aircraft pilot owners association. Now if only I could contact the original owner (where are you now?) since I was told that he was PCS'd overseas and wasn't able to take the Z with him. (see galleries for photo)

Thanks for the good information. In the next week or two I will finally install the Epsilon mesh wheels on the '78 280Z. The fronts are 16x7 w/ p225/50/16 and the rears are 16x8 w/ p245/45/16. The car has been lowered with a set of Tokico springs and Tokico Illuminas front and rear. With the offset that these wheels possess and some trial fitting with the wheel and a tape measure it should all work even at full suspension compression although, the Tokico setup doesn't allow for much of that at all. Steering this rig at parking lot speeds is going to take a bit of practice and thank goodness the shorter steering knuckles weren't installed. The '81 280ZX is a good practice car since it currently wears a set of 16" mesh wheels with Michelin Pilots p225/50/vr16 and the car has no power steering so it should be close to what the '78 will feel like.

Thirteen pages later..... My name is Bob Dadd and I am 33 years old, single (still looking), and work in the financial services industry. I am currently working towards a Bachelor's degree and reside in Southern Maryland, which is approximately 25 miles from the Nation's Capital. My hobbies include Z cars, sailing, golf, and travel. I currently own 8 Z cars in various stages and have always been into cars and to a lesser extent sailboats and planes. My parents started me into the car hobby at a young age with Matchbox cars and in 1978 my father bought a brand new 280Z and ever since then I have been hooked on Z cars. One of my proudest memories is being able to hand over the keys to a '77 280Z to him a couple of years ago. Between working on the Z's and helping to bring back the old Hunter 30 there are no shortage of projects. This website has been a great help and the comraderie among fellow Z enthusiasts have made this one of my favorite places on the web.

Sad.... Sad because I don't have enough storage (indoors) for her and her sisters. Sad because after owning one it didn't seem fair to not give her some company. Sad because it has turned into a neverending search for parts and places to keep the spares (the attic is not going to be big enough). Sad because Nissan will never make another S30 knockout again in my lifetime (the 350Z is close but...) but, there's always tomorrow. Sad because I haven't yet made the trip to the S30's homeland to fully understand where this car was created.

kats, If you are looking for a good source of original style hose clamps and such this person might be of good service: http://www.zzxdatsun.com The owner of the shop is Mike McGinnis (Banzai Motorworks) and he is very knowledgeable regarding factory parts. As an example, he has reproduced the "OK" sticker and a few years ago Nissan came calling and purchased 50 stickers for its factory restoration program. The funny thing is they didn't quite finish the 50 cars as I understand. It was reported that Nissan purchased better than 125 cars and who knows what happened to the excess. In any event you can still purchase the original style clamps from Banzai Motorworks and the local Nissan dealer that I deal with can still source them as well. The only difference is that your clamps look better than the factory originals! Good luck finding an English teacher, I would volunteer but, I would have eight Z cars to bring with me and one '72 Celica! In any case I have been speaking with a Japanese woman named Satomi I am attempting to learn Japanese, albeit at a slow pace. :classic:

I have noticed a bit of a "stall" in the escalation of bids with regard to that 240Z w/ a supposed 4484 miles. I would agree with previous statements in this thread with regard to "tampering" with one's auction--not a good idea. An interesting aside as it relates to ebay car auctions: were it not for a similar thread on classic-celicas.com I would not have known about the '72 Celica that came my way back in December 2003. The link was posted and comments began to flow in about the car and some of the advice was helpful to me in deciding how much to bid on the car. Thank goodness the owner was honest in his description and objective about the car. I have previously sold two Z cars on ebay and have met with good success and I find that being honest is the best policy. In both cases the car's new owners were very appreciative and even after the car's were brought back to their respective new homes the, emails I received were a testament to setting expectations at a realistic level. It's a shame that Nissan's governing values of being honest and fair dealing in its business practices when the company was first founded can't be found in the automotive business these days.

There have been many things written about 'Big Sam' and his creator(s) Spike Anderson and Bob Gathercole. An article worth reading is here: http://www.zhome.com/History/BigSamIsBack.htm Win Percy used to drive a 'Samuri' Z as his personal transport and later drove 'Big Sam' in various races with varying degrees of success. A funny anecdote about 'Big Sam' was that a day or two after a race outing the car was driven to the market and back home afterwards.

2ManyZ's and Walter, I have been buying engine paint from Mike McGinnis at Banzai Motorworks for about 6 years now and I have painted a couple of my engine blocks and the color is spot on. After several conversations I have been able to extract that the color is very close to an Alfa light blue color. If you need further description let me know and I can copy whatever information is on the paint can if that would help.

Too funny! I was thinking the same thoughts as I read the description of the car. He should be getting some hate mail from some of those bidders for false advertising. Funny thing about that car is if he just let the pictures "sell" the car without making up some story about it he might be pleasantly surprised as there can't be many 240Z's left in Connecticut? Notice there aren't any pics of the floors or floor supports?

Alan, Thanks for putting me (and others) straight regarding the history of the two Z cars. I find the history of the car(s) to be as interesting as who/when/where they were driven. I just finished watching "The Speed Merchants" last evening and it was interesting to see some period footage at Sebring depicting a 240Z being passed by Mario Andretti and later to see footage of the Targa Florio with Vic Elford's narration as well as Mario's.

Alan, Thanks again for clearing that issue as I was not aware that Mr. Bristow owns two rally Z's! I had read an article some years back describing how badly the ex-Nissan car was when found but, I don't remember the bit about the owner removing the factory exhaust. There was mention of a farmer's wife using the car to run errands before the car was placed in storage. If I recall Kevin is a friend of James Morris whose car has been featured in Classic and Sports Car before?