87mj

That is more like a history than a reputation. I am constantly amazed at how well 240zguild guy sells cars. During auctions, he is always dropping comments about some past transaction that implies expertise. If you look at past auctions that aren't even his, he always sells himself and his shop in his comments seemingly just to get his name out there. "When we do our cars...". He is very subtle about it. He blessed this one at the end of the auction to make the buyer feel that he got a good price. Its a pretty good business model if you know how to sell used cars. Give yourself a name that implies expertise and double the price of what you sell.

I was a little surprised it went for $77k. If you look close, it appears as if the wheel arches are not straight. As if they are finished with bondo. The rocker seams are missing along with the rear valance seams. On the closeup shots, the paint job looked a little rough too. To top it off, the description says the seller hasn't driven the car since it has been restored. Does that mean it doesn't run or it has some electrical issues that haven't been worked out yet? It seems like a project at 60% complete.

Regarding your doors, I aligned mine with the seals and latches off the car. The window frames were on the door. That gave me a good starting point. It allowed me to make the gaps as accurate as I could. Then focus on the latch afterward. BUT, I wish I would have taken a black sharpie pen and outlined the door latches. Then replaced the factory ones with cheap aftermarket Taiwan parts. Then tell the body shop to paint over those cheap aftermarket ones. Also, when removing the doors from the car, unbolt the doors from the hinges. Leave the door hinges in their factory locations. Then when I got the car back from the body shop, install the original factory door latches (the factory positions should now be easy to see). And the hinges would still be at their factory location. I wish. But too late now.

I always thought the underneath side of the car wasn't finished at all. Jim's pics seem to support that. In other words, they were barely painted and painted mostly by overspray.

I bought a 6/70 a couple of years ago that didn't have emblems on the pillars. They were deleted by a PO. Makes no sense to me.

Is it safe to say that door weatherstrip that requires the use of the factory welt strips is still non existent? Either factory or aftermarket?

I have owned 3 240z cars previously. All had the later style 4 speed. I am putting together an early car with the series 1 transmission. I hear they feel sloppy compared to the later version. Is that your opinion? Do you plan to keep the series 1 transmission?

For some reason, I seem to recall these guys sell the poor quality Precision brand just like everyone else? Am I wrong?

From what I can see, it still has a lot of 370z in it. I had hopes that it would resemble the S30 but perhaps with fender flairs look that so many people seem to add to their 240z. I really hoped they would keep the lines of the original S30 rear quarters. Specifically, that line that runs along side the car. It looks like that line is gone. I thought it was going to be a 240 reborn but it looks like what it is. The next gen 370.

I'm not sure about that. I saw the movie Tron. It wasn't that great. This car belongs in that movie. Not on the road.

I am sort of a self proclaimed expert on this subject, at least regarding the body shop elements of your question. I haven't gotten to the engine part yet. I am an expert because I learned the hard way. There are no "Z" experts in my area and they probably couldn't spell Z if they had to. Even finding a body shop to do the work was difficult. I found a great small 1 man body shop in my area that enjoyed restoring but did insurance work to pay the bills. He promised on a particular date to pick up my car. I striped it down for him including the engine, interior, chrome, glass, etc. He picked it up as promised. Then it sat outside in his driveway for 3 months in the weather uncovered and without glass. It was obvious that it rusted more while sitting in his shop. Water and leaves were accumulating in my spare tire tub. I gave up and picked it up. Then I found someone else. He worked out of his home. He was in his late '60s and did body work all his life. He had a rotisserie and all. My car needed sheet metal work and he did it. In the early stages, he was doing a great job. He had a very laid back personality. The paint work under the hood, lower valance, etc was stellar. Toward the end, it was getting bad. I called him out on little things that needed done and he would get mad. Of course, I picked up the car immediately prior to me going on vacation and at night. When I got it home, the final car looked terrible. BTW, for those of you that would have stood up to the guy and said this needs fixed, there is no question in my mind he would have destroyed the car and scraped it. He killed himself shortly after I picked up the car. I had it repainted. It has been a long journey for me. I cant avoid suicide if that is one of your career goals. But if I had it to do over again, I would have been much more specific. It wouldn't have eliminated most of MY problems but if the guy was non suicidal, I think I would have been fine. Don't count on him to notice stuff. Point them out to him and put them on paper so he has a checklist. For example, my battery tray had surface rust on it. I should have told him to smooth it out. He wasn't a Z guy and for whatever reason, he didn't "Correctly" fit the holes on the lower front fenders to the rockers even though everything lines up great. Specify the paint (PPG only, no exceptions). If you are concerned, buy it for him and supply it. Tell him the order in which to do things. If he doenst want to put a gun in his mouth, he should be ok with it. Do the body work. Paint the doghouse. Mount the doors, fenders, and line them up. Then paint everything. I explicitly told him I wanted to retain the seams on the rear valance and at the rockers. If I didn't, he would have filled them in. But for whatever reason, he filled in the oval stamping on the rear valance behind the bumper. I have no idea why. I will never see it behind the bumper but I know it is wrong. He told me a guy in town had two of Z cars and the side body lines "disappear" into the rear quarter panel. I was fortunate to have a 60k mile car that I was able to send a picture and counter his claim (which resulted in great side body lines btw). But point that out. I bought a large box of screws of various sizes. When I sent the car to him, I had new (cheap junk) screws in every hole to prevent my threads from being painted. It made him mad. I had no idea why but it saved me tons of time when I got it back. The original body shop guy said that was a great idea. I removed those screws and tossed them in the trash. I would also encourage everyone to leave the door hinges on the car. There is adjustment there. There is no adjustment where the hinges bolt to the doors so mounting the doors is simply a matter of bolting them on to the hinges. You have eliminated the need to adjust the doors if you leave the hinges alone. I would also trace the door latches on the jams with a sharpie pen and replace them with rusty crap hardware. Then tell the body guy to paint over them. You can install your originals when you get the car back. The paint lines will reveal where they need to be. That is the way the 240 is anyway. I assume 280 is similar. Regarding the engine, I plan to load it on a trailer and take it to a Z expert. My $.02 anyway. Good luck.

Has anyone been successful at finding a battery that fits plus has no vents out the top or out the sides? I would think the old Datsun sheet metal would like that.

When I was a kid, my first car was a '73. Flat top carb issues aside, periodically my fuel filter would run dry and the engine would stall. I disconnected the fuel line from the filter and put a long hose into a glass jar of gas which eliminated the tank and lines as being the problem. Periodically, it wouldn't draw fuel. So I concluded it was my factory pump. I replaced my pump and had the exact same result. At the time, I was told it was vapor lock which was common with that year but the behavior acted like it was the fuel pump. Today, I have a low mile '71. It runs very well. But I only drive it once per month during the summer. A year or two ago, if it sat, gas would drain from the fuel filter. I would need to crank it for about 20 seconds or so to get it started. My son would witness gas coming back into the filter which resulted in it starting soon after. That made no sense to me since I knew there was gas in the float bowls regardless of what the filter looked like. I installed a different pump and made sure the fuel line clamps were tight so no air could get in and allow the fuel to return to the tank. Now the fuel remains in the filter but I still crank it 20 seconds or so if it has sat for a week or two. So the bottom line is there was no noticeable difference in how quick it started based on how much fuel was in the filter. I will be curious if that check valve makes a difference.

Rust can be hidden in these cars very easily. I had a white car that had rust beginning to bubble through from the inside out due to it sitting outside uncovered for a period of time. It would be difficult to tell for sure the condition of the body on the white one until it is blasted. Replacing floor pans on the red one probably is not that difficult for a body shop. If I were making a driver, I would chose the white one all day long and restore the red one. Keep both of them. BTW, I have a fairly low mile unmolested red '71 and I am restoring a white '70. I took tons of pics when I tore down the '70 but I cant say enough how helpful it is to have an unmolested car 3 feet away to use as documentation. Get the Whitey on the road and restore old Red. Just don't tell the wife how much stuff costs.

Actual rubber steering rack bushings, steering coupler and moustache bushings instead of polyurethane. No one agreed or disagreed about the door weather strip. Maybe it is no longer a problem?

Door weather strip. The Precision version requires you to slam the doors. Personally, I would like to use my factory welt strips too.

Question concerning the hose clamps for everyone - Depending on variables that I don't fully understand, zinc will thin and ultimately disappear. It does so on some parts faster than others. It also slows if the environment is less extreme. On some of those photos, specifically the emissions valve, the hose going into the float bowl and the heater hose, it looks like at one time they were plated. In addition, if you take the plastic off in the rear hatch, the clamps around the vapor canister usually will still have a minor amount of plating. In addition, the hose under the dash on the heater valve will also. Is there a consensus that the clamps are clear in the engine bay but plated in the other areas?

I believe the coil bracket was bright white. Similar to the door latch on the jam and the rear hatch latch. Beware though. Lots of people have varying opinions about what was correct and what isn't. I read where plating the hose clamps yellow zinc "was a common mistake". Others like the color so much, they over do it and yellow zinc about everything.

I would like to offer my experience to help others if they decide to go with these. I am restoring an early car and wanted the tail lights to look new. I bought a large batch of parts about 3 years ago so I had several pairs of tail lights to chose from but they all looked 50 years old. I decided to buy aftermarket (jdm-car-parts.com). When I received them, they looked like new tail lights. When I installed them, the backing was not as strong as factory lights. The nuts broke loose in several spots and the entire back split and separated. I contacted the vendor and their response was it didn't impact the light and since I contacted them in 28 days rather than 14 required for electrical, they would not exchange. But keep in mind there is a gasket back there and fumes can enter the car. So installing them correctly is critical. The bottom line is I should have restored factory lights and bought these chrome strips rather than going after cheap aftermarket parts. It would have been less expensive and the end product would have been better.

I am glad to hear about the ticking noise. I have a 60k mile car and adjusted the lifters thinking there was a tick. Afterwards, it didn't quiet down at all. But it doesn't sound any more loud than the video.

Zed is right. Without that plate, there isn't a way to know if it is the numbers matching engine.

I almost hate to ask but what town was this located in? There was a green car that was near my house that went up for sale a couple weeks ago and caught a lot of attention. It was less than 60 miles from my house.

This guy has it figured out. I am the same way. That is why I would NEVER consider converting my analog clock to quartz. I even notice (and remember from my youth in 1979), the sound of that loud clock ticking right before I turn the key.

I really don't think anything did. I always assumed it was needed during manufacturing. Anyone???

That car was for sale for $55k before the dealer got it. It was listed on a classifieds site I never visit. It was less than an hour from my house. Had I known, it wouldn't have been for sale. :(