CarGroves

Snagged some 1973 minilites from a junkyard today. They came off a 240z and I was contemplating saving it but it was just too far gone. So much rust.

I originally owned my first Z car, a 1996 300zx, back in 2004. Later around 2006, I picked up a 260z and started working on restoring it. Life got in the way and we had a big move to Texas and I sold the 260z. I almost bought a really clean silver 240z that was on eBay in 2007. I was wanting a neat car to daily drive. That fell through and now 12 years later I was on the hunt for another car. I really wanted the earliest 240z I could find that was in reasonable condition for a full restoration. I live just North of Houston and found several cars for sale locally. The problem is these cars were very rusty. I mean I can do body work and sheet metal replacement but I didn't want to spend 5 years redoing the body. As luck would have it I found a really nice example on craigslist a couple of states away. I made the deal over the phone last Thursday, drove up Friday, grabbed the car Saturday and headed back home. I'll document the restoration through pictures and video and put it up on my youtube channel. I believe 52519 to be built in 10/71 ?, making it a series 2 car. It appears from items in and on the car it was last driven in the early eighties. Story was the guy I bought it from found several of them in a field back 5-10 years ago. He parted out the rusty ones and kept this one for himself. The car has sat under cover behind his shop since then. The curious thing is that it has Series 1 back glass, round tops, series 1 seats, and kidney bean wheels. I'm assuming that these were period modifications back in the 70's and maybe the back glass was replaced by a dealer that had series one glass left to sell? Am I better off putting it back to series 2 spec or leave it mid 70's period correct with the early series one parts? I don't want to kill 5-10k of the value if I should put it back to full series 2 specs. Here it is as found. I have all the original sheet metal and the car looks very rust free! Also has the dealer installed AC, with the York compressor.