87mj

Exactly. And to take it a step further, this might sound a little cold hearted but I don't know why they gave you a partial refund. You already made them famous so the damage is done. No refund is going to take back this post. They just learned a valuable lesson about the internet. Once its out there, you cant get rid of it.

I presume your heading was a typo. But since I am partial to 918 orange, I think you hit the nail on the head. Leave that poor car alone. It looks great the way it is.

Way back in the day when pop music sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks, my first car was a '73 240z. Even though the car was only 6 years old, it constantly required a lot of of love and money. Otherwise, they wont age gracefully. Maybe 280z is different than 240z. But mine did not age gracefully. Whatever could be broken was. If you are obsessed like I was and already made up your mind and if you can swing it, buy a z and keep it. Also buy a car to drive.

Wow. Reading this post really put me in a bad mood. Beat the crap out of someone else's classic car....

But, it looks like the correct '73 bumper to me.

Just my opinion, these cars don't rust as bad as you hear. They rot from the inside out. If that has been primied, I bet there are some serious problems lurking on this car based on the condition of the passenger door. I would look close at the wheel arches. If you don't see spot welds, they may have been bondo puttied to look presentable. I would also look close at the frame rails and inside the front fenders. These are rot areas along with the battery tray. Then there are the floors and rockers. Then the doglegs in the front of the rear tires. If the car still has the original carbs as the owner states, most people would say that is a bad thing. '73 is the least desirable of the 240. The bumpers are unique to the '73 and worse yet, the carbs are constant problems for many owners (I owned a '73 years ago and it never ran right). It is difficult if not impossible to know how good of condition the car is in from the pics. I bought a '70 a couple years ago. It was rough but not repainted so nothing was hidden. In my case, my car was sitting for a long time too. I assumed the brakes, clutch, etc was non functional. I have over $10k in the body work and its no where near ready to be driven. As I said previously, it is difficult to say what the condition is based on a few pics but I suspect you will have well over $7.3 in this before you drive it. You may want to hold out for one you can actually drive so you can do the math on the broken things. In this case, you have to assume all is non functional.

Is this a plug for a 1990's used car lot?

I read an article a few years back about some of the worst business decisions ever made by a corporation. I seem to recall for example the "New Coke" vs "Old Coke" debacle was one of them. Killing the Datsun brand was one of the worst of the list. As I think back during the late '70s, there were 2-3 brands of Japanese cars, Toyota, Datsun, to a lesser extent Honda. Then everyone else. The Datsun brand was probably their most valuable asset. I remember their advertising during that period. They weren't even advertising their cars. They were advertising their brand. "The name is Nissan". Can you imagine dissolving a well known name and then introducing a new brand to an established market?

If I make a purchase that the seller obviously mislead but I purchased through my credit card, I can dispute the purchase and the credit card company will back me up. That is why I don't have paypal connected to my checking. Only my credit card. I wonder how successful he would have been if he disputed the purchase with his credit card company? Its easy to get taken when purchasing a car, especially an 50 year old Z if you don't know what you are looking for. But this is a little extreme. I think I would have won the battle with my credit card company. I would have told those clowns to come and get their car. BTW, DC Mike, I would be very careful scraping or parting that thing out, especially if you plan to try again. Whatever you sell, you might need very soon. Plus it might make excellent documentation if you tear down another car to restore it (speaking from experience on that one :) )

I have a fear of heights. I couldn't watch while you were turning that thing around. I felt like I was going over the edge. :)

Mine went through the blast/paint process just fine. However, when I put the wire harness in, I haven't bent anything in place yet just in case I need to move things around in the future. I left that as one of my last steps.

It would matter to me. I would probably rather have a non functioning factory radio than one that has had the insides removed. I have a '71 with the factory radio. I think the speaker cone is ripped. So it sounds pretty bad. I bought an AM for a '70 I am redoing. I have no idea if it works but I will install it anyway. If I am going over 40mph with the windows down, I cant hear it anyway. Especially with my wife in the car.

I found it worked a little easier after I removed the torsion bars. Loosen everything. Remove the torsion bars. Then close it. That will take all resistence out. Then reach in there and tighten everything down. Then reconnect the torsion bars.

I think I was misquoted. It seems to happen to me a lot. My understanding was there was a 4 cyl prototype car. Not an S30 with a 4 cyl engine. I don't remember ever reading that such a car existed.

I'm not sure but I theorize that maintaining this body line during the repair of a wheel arch can be time consuming for the body mechanic due to the limited space. Mine told me the line "disappears" over the wheel arch. He claimed he got his info from a local fellow that owned two z cars. I sent him a picture of the lines of my other car. He reluctantly put the lines in the car but he was mad at me for the remainder of the restore. Then he killed himself shortly thereafter.

When I get scammed through an auction or internet retailer, if they don't back up what they sell, I contact my credit card company. They will back me up. At one time, I was restoring an old Jeep truck. I bought 4 refinished wheels but they didn't match. They had variations in the color and the casting. They said I bought 4 wheels. Not a set of wheels so they refused to take them back. My credit card company went to bat for me. My paypal account is tied to my credit card only and not my checking for that reason. If someone purchased a car using Paypal in similar condition as old yeller above and the ad was as deceptive, I wonder if a person would be successful by contacting their credit card company and withholding payment?

I am certain that I read somewhere where they took a 4 cyl prototype out on the American interstates (speed limit 70-80 at the time?). Mr. K decided no way. It had to be a 6 to run on American interstates.

Indy? I'm up by Ft Wayne. I have a 6/70 that I am putting back together. It's decal was silver. The ink wore off and the decal is long gone due to a repaint. I have a 5/71 with a gold decal.

I have a 6/70. Does anyone know when that switched to access panel type?

I read this a little differently. If you like old cars, you don't like girls?

That looks very good. But in my opinion, it doesn't look correct. As odd as this will sound, I don't think the wheel on shipped cars was ever as light as depicted in the brochures. I remember mine being about the same color as what is on my '71. At the time, that car was about 5 years old. All the cars I have seen in person throughout the years had a cherry cast to the wheel.

Right. But somehow he has convinced his customers that he is. That is how he is able to sell cars at 2x their value which in turn contributes to artificially inflated values. Agree?

I owned a '73 in about 1978/79. I don't ever remember seeing any unrestored steering wheel that was as blond as those in the brochures. They all had that cherry tint to them. I sanded my '70 wheel and refinished it with poly. The cherry verses the blond streaks had much more contrast than I remembered so I applied a coat of dye over my poly to "cherry" it up a little. It is now pretty close to how my factory '71 wheel looks. Also, the shift knob never matched the wheel. Does anyone else remember differently?

EXACTLY. I know people are buying up these cars and their value is going up. But somehow, I am very skeptical of the BAT prices. BAT is a subculture. The bidders and commentary seem to be a "click" of a select few. Their comments seem to influence the bidding more than others. When they are gone from BAT, I think the gravy train will be over and price increases wont be as steep as they are now. The guild guy already mentioned sells "refreshed" cars for $60k. I own a car that after a nice 2 stage paint job would qualify as one he could buy and resell for $60k. I think he could sell my car for $60k because he is the "authority on all things Z". I on the other hand might get only $30k out of it since I am just some guy...His customers might not realize if they educated themselves, they could buy 2-3 clean cars for what they paid for one.

Can you point me to the carpet discussion? I have not seen that. Facebook? I need to work on my reading skills. I'm a skim reader. It always gets me in trouble.