lonetreesteve

I agree with Guy and the others, Banzai's decals are the closest thing to the original. The only issue that I have with Mike at Banzai is that he doesn't accept PayPal. That would really speed up the delivery process for his customers and in turn, he would get paid a lot quicker as well. Guy, you did a fantastic job on your air filter box, it looks beautiful!

Thanks for the kind words about my old car, Oemz. The engine bay detail was the last phase that I completed on the car. I had driven the car for over a year while slowly working on the engine bay. I had extra parts on hand that I dropped off at a shop that did the cadmium plating for me and then slowly switched the parts out. I stripped the old paint off the factory air box, then primed and spray-painted it. After that, I bought the reproduction factory stickers from Banzai Motorworks. I was able drive and enjoy the car during the entire process. Once I traded out the old parts, I would have the old parts plated and then sold them, which more than covered my costs for the plating services. I've never owned a Series I car before and you are very fortunate to have such a solid example, particularly a White/Blue Series I. That combo, along with the Blue/Blue combo are probably the 2 rarest combos out there and are my personal favorites.

Nice Series I, Oemz! Did you find the car in California or somewhere else? I have always liked the 904 White/Blue interior combo. I used to have a '71 (Series II) with the same color combination as yours that is now in Europe. Here are a few pics of the car before I sold it:

Hi Bart, Here's a listing for a set of 4 slotted mag wheels located here in the Denver area for only $200.00 US: http://denver.craigslist.org/wto/5404271959.html

Thanks, Bonzi (and thanks to Siteunseen for the link). Looks like Nissan calls 903 Blue 'Universal Blue or 'Dark Blue') and the 115 Blue is called 'Metallic Blue'. I have attached 2 pictures from the Zhome Color Gallery link of the 903 Blue and the single picture shown on the link for 115 Blue. Looking at the pictures, I think you are right, Bonzi, the 115 does "pop" better than the 903 Blue. As far as the rarity of the blue/blue versus the blue/white is concerned, according to Zhome the only blue/white combination was in 1972 since the 1973 combo was actually an "off-white" color. Also according to Zhome, there were only about half as many '70 and '71 240Zs produced (a little over 56,000 combined) and more than twice as many '72 and '73 240Zs produced (over 108,000 combined). Also, there were 9 available colors on '70 and '71 cars versus just 8 different colors in '72 and in '73. My understanding is that Nissan did not keep production numbers of how many blue 240Zs were made or any other paint color for that matter, as well as the vinyl color numbers. However, after considering the production number comparisons and the number of available colors in '72 (over 58,000 240Zs produced). Just to get a rough estimate, if you were to divide the 58,000 '72 240Zs produced by 8, it would equal 7,250 Blue 1972 240Zs, which all had white interiors. Then if you take the 56,000 '70 and '71 Blue cars produced divided by 9, it would equal 6,222 cars and using a rough estimate of 50% of them had black interiors and the other half had blue interiors, that would work out to be an estimated 3,111 blue/blue combination '70 and '71 240Zs, making the '70-'71 blue/blue rarer than the '72 blue/white combination.

Yes, what a small world it is! We both just bought our 240Zs in Tucson, AZ at about the same time in December and now you are in Winter Park, one of the resorts where I go skiing since it's only about an hour and a half from where I live here in Lone Tree, CO.

I had the same problem when the original Type A transmission in my last '71 240Z went bad. I had a shop replace it with a low mileage Type B transmission from a '72 that I had on a shelf in my garage. Below in the first picture is a Type A shifter, next to a standard Type B shifter. The second picture is a Type B shifter that I had modified by my body & paint guy and the third picture shows the modified shifter in the car after I installed it. The modified shifter worked great -very smooth!

Welcome, revlimitbounce! Congratulations on your new Z! I remember seeing your car on the Tucson Craigslist awhile back, when I was searching the southwest for another 240Z project (I actually ended up buying a project car in Tucson, had it shipped up here to Colorado and it arrived at the body shop about 10 days ago). I love the fact that your '73 came stock with a 5-speed (versus a 4-speed on North American cars), that it came with the round top carbs (versus the N. A. flattops) and it had the Euro bumpers (versus the N. A. '73 bumpers, which were slightly different than the '70 through '72 N. A. bumpers). Your car was featured on BringaTrailer.com. Here's the link: http://bringatrailer.com/2015/11/25/swiss-import-1973-datsun-240z-5-speed/ Enjoy your new Z!

Bonzi, I know that the 915 Blue was a '72 and '73 color versus the 903 Blue on the '70 and '71 240Zs. Is the 903 Blue darker? What are the differences?

Guy, This is the only link that I could find for Bruce's restoration: http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/21963-phoenix-240z-update/?hl=desert#entry186237 Thanks, CDL1452! I have attached some pictures of what the car looked like when it arrived at my body & paint guy's place from Phoenix. I also attached some pics of the restoration process and a couple more after it was finished. In the fall of 2013, I sold the car and it was transported to the East Coast and then shipped to its new owner in Italy. Later on, it was sent to the Z Shop in Hungary where they took a few pictures of the car with the model, as shown in my original post on this thread before they started modifying the car. Once they were finished, the video was uploaded to Youtube as also shown on my original post.

Marty, 29k mile car, wow! Maybe the member will sell it to you. That's great that you have a '70 blue/blue! I love those cars. You'll have to post some pics. I am seriously considering to install a blue interior in my new 903 Blue project.

I agree with you, Guy. There are some really good stories and examples of Z car restorations. I will try to see if I can find Bruce's restoration thread when I get home from work tonight.

Rossiz, thank you for the compliment on my old car. The last 3 pictures with the model were taken at the Z restoration shop in Hungary well after I sold the car. I thought the same thing when I saw those pictures. We all know that Nissan used thin gauged metal to make the 240Zs as light as possible and those front fenders are soft. That girl doesn't look like she weighs very much, but I can't believe the shop let her sit on the car!

Thanks, Marty. You're right, low rust is the key and I'm really very happy about that. If the car was originally yellow, I would have it repainted 919 Yellow like yours - which I also really like. But since it was originally 903 Blue, I'm going to have it painted that color. I was actually very close to buying a 919 Yellow '71 Series I in the Los Angeles area, but unfortunately, another guy beat me to it. It's tough when you're calling, texting or e-mailing from out of state when trying to buy a 240Z on Craigslist, the local buyers always have the advantage. I got lucky on this latest Z.

I understand that that there are quite a few 240Zs in Europe that have been imported from the United States. In fact, 2 of my former 240Zs are over there now: the aforementioned white/blue '71 as well as a refreshed '71 918 Orange 240Z that my son and I sold back in 2007- it's in France.

Mike, Good to hear from you! That's very nice of you to offer your L24, I think that I will take you up on your offer, thanks! I will send you a P.M. shortly.

I sold my '71 White/Blue 240Z just over 2 years ago (discussed in another recent thread called 'Impressive Z Shop in Hungary') and sold the majority of the spare parts I had after three 240Z refresh projects, thinking that I would go in a completely different direction in terms of my next project. I looked around at other makes of classic cars, but really had a tough time deciding on what I was going to purchase for my next project. Well, guess what? I ended up buying another 240Z. I know, I know, I must really have the "disease'. I found another desert Z in Arizona, this time on the Tucson Craigslist. The car arrived at my body and paint guy's shop a little less than a a week ago, but this one needs a lot more work than my last Arizona Z I bought back in 2007. The last one had a rebuilt engine and ran well. With our 2 youngest still in college, coupled with the fact that 240Zs have gone up so much in value since I bought my last one, you don't get as much for your money nowadays. However, other than some rust in the rear hatch area and some minor surface rust here and there, the body and undercarriage are rock solid. Unlike my past three 240Zs, this one does not have its original matching numbers engine. It's an L28 with a five speed that was installed over a decade ago, but as you can see in the pictures, the job was never finished. Looks like the hood is all out of alignment from when the previous owner pulled the L24 and installed the L28. It also looks like a desert pack rat made a nest in the battery tray. I may try to find a '71 L24 to make it as close to original as possible, but keep the 5-speed. Besides the solid body, the original color of the car is 903 blue, which I'm really excited about and plan to have my body & paint guy match the new paint as close to the 903 Blue as possible. I will also redo the interior with the original black color (or should I change it to blue? - I've always loved the blue/blue and white/blue '70 and '71 240Zs). Here are the pictures that I recently took of the car at my body & paint guy's place:

Thanks for the compliments, guys! Both of your cars look great as well! I know Guy's is a '70, what was your Z, Red7? I do regret selling the car, Guy. White really is a great color on the 240Zs. If I remember correctly, yours was originally from Arizona as well, wasn't it?

I sold my refreshed '71 white/blue 240Z a little over 2 years ago to a gentleman in Italy. I bought the car off the Phoenix Craigslist back in 2007 and had it shipped here to Colorado. The car had spent its entire life in the Phoenix area, was rust-free, accident-free, had all of its original sheet metal and rebuilt matching numbers engine. The body and paint work was done professionally and was a bare metal restore, with all the glass removed, the paint was closely matched to the original 904 White paint and new rubber was installed everywhere on the car. I installed new blue vinyl seat covers, door panel vinyl with chrome strips and new transmission tunnel vinyl. The rest of the original blue vinyl was in decent shape, so I left it alone. I had the slotted mags restored, the bumpers re-chromed, new emblems, new carpets, the clock was rebuilt and restored by Z Clocks, I also had all the yellow cadmium pieces redone in the engine bay , gas cap, etc. I have attached some pictures of the car shortly before I sold the car back in October of 2013. I e-mailed the new owner in Italy a few months ago and he e-mailed me back and told me that the car was in Hungary and was undergoing some mechanical modifications. He also stated that the car was "almost finished" and he included the youtube link below. As you can see there is also a link below the Youtube to the Facebook link for this impressive Z shop. They took some pictures of the car when it first arrived and described it as "before restore" which I have attached. Notice the original North American tail lights before the Euro tail lights and the exterior Datsun stickers were installed. Here are the links: https://www.facebook.com/datsun.club.3?ref=hl

Here's a link to a slightly different Hagerty article than what NVZEE originally posted that ranks the 240Z #5 out of the top 5 cars to buy in 2015: https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/Articles/2015/02/27/Cars-To-Buy-In-2015

Since Hagerty published the 'Cars to Buy Now' article this past February, the average values of #1 and #2 Condition 240Zs have soared, with #3 a nice little bump and #4 Condition cars a small nudge. Here's the link: https://www.hagerty.com/valuationtools/HVT/VehicleSearch/Report?vbe=36595

Velocity must have shown this episode 10 times the past couple of weeks. I'm OK with that -- anytime a 240Z gets airtime, especially in a positive way, I'm all for it! At one point Velocity showed the 240Z episode of 'Garage Squad' right after the 'Wheeler Dealers' 240Z episode. Two different TV shows in a row featuring 240Zs -- this has to be a first in television history!

Hi Carl, Yes, I wasn't sure if you were being sarcastic or not, so that's why I had ask if you were really serious about the $3,500. figure. You also made some good points about salvage cars- you really don't know what you are getting into with a salvage car. Steve