First Z-car buying advice

[heinrich]

Howdy. I'm looking at a '71 240, and have a couple of questions. The body is straight; only perceivable rust is a small amout of bubbling on the bottom of the left door panel, and another small line at the seam on the inner edge of the back hatch; none in engine compartment, wheel wells or trunk (that I could see anyway). Paint is good (although it's a sort of ugly pale yellow). It does have some cheesy wheels on it at the moment, which I'd probably change if it were up to me. The engine has approximately 135K on it, with no mods or major work having been done. Runs strong; no fumes or sludge under the oil filler; no smoke from exhaust. Interior is quite nice, with the carpets having been replaced recently. The seller is asking $3800. Does this sound like a reasonable price for the car? Despite the apparent health of the engine, I'm wondering if it's likely to need some head work soon, since it does have close to 140k miles on it. I love that it's a '71, and I'm already chomping at the bit to adopt it. Just don't want my enthusiasm and ignorance about the z-car market to get the better of me! I do need something that can function as a daily driver.

Thanks a lot for any suggestions.

--Aaron Heinrich

[MikeW]

If you're concerned about the engine you might want to simply get it checked out by a reputable shop where they can do a compression test. Keep in mind that the engine on these cars is easy to deal with. In the absolute worst situation you could simply drop in a new engine and you're done. More likely it might just need some minor tweaks.

The body, on the other hand, particularly rust, is something to be concerned about. You could easily eat up thousands in rust repairs. From what you say it sounds fairly good but you might want ot check it out a little more thoroughly. I'd particularly look at the floor pans under the carpet as well as the frame rails which run beneath the floor pans. If you search old messages here for rust you'll find out that it has a way of hiding and a lot more information about where and how to look.

$3800 may well be reasonable for this car. If you go to http://www.nadaguides.com/Values/ValueCategoryReport.asp?UserID=52071F82B81C2&DID=38089&wSec=2&wPg=1207&CategoryId=7&MakeId=1254&VehicleId=24918&Year=1971&ColorId= you'll notice the price range for a '71 goes from $5225 all the way up to $16,500.

For some reason this site is operating very slow today but you'll find a wealth of infomation from some very knowledgeable people here.

[beandip]

Some of the value will depend upon where you live. Higher on the east coast because of the salt rusting away so many of the older cars. You said that there was some rust bubbeling in the paint on the door. This is most likely coming through from the back side. It was said eailer that rust is the largest cost with these cars and it is so vary true. Lift the carpets and look at the metal of the floors on both footwells . Look below the battery in the engine compartment , the frame rail passes under the batt. look close there. The rust in the lower sil of the hatch can just be the tip of the ice berg there as well. If the floor pan is shot , you are looking at about $1000. + to have one done right. Mag wheels are not plentifull for these older cars , so dont assume that you can just go to the local tire shop and look at a selection. You said the interior was in good shape , this is good . Is the dash cracked and , or , does it have a cap on it . These are some things to look at. All the electrical components should be in working order , wypers , heater fan and so on. Good luck Let us know what you find. Gary

[kenz240z]

Another area to check is the cowl area in front of the windshield. There are some drain passages there that can sometimes clog up, leading to rust.

I had some rust on the A-pillars (the sides of the windshield) in the area where they meet the cowl. The rust had eaten small holes through on the underside, towards the front of the door jam area.

Be as thorough as you can with your visual inspection, those tiny rust bubbles on the exterior can often mean lots of rust on the other side, just waiting to get out...

The biggest expense I encountered while fixing up my '73 was getting the rear wheel arches repaired (there are before & after pics in my gallery). I paid about $720 to get them fixed: just under $120 for the replacement panels from Tabco (tabcobodyparts.com) and $600 for the bodyshop to install and primer them.

Here's a link with some great photos of typical Z car rust spots:

http://www.geocities.com/gramage2000/the_rust_file.htm

Hope this helps,

Kenny P.