Previous owner saga

[Pomorza]

To begin with I'm going to state that I am 22 years old and fairly naive. I bought a 1976 280z from a guy in central Arizona. When buying the car I asked him multiple times is there any problems with the car. Numerous times he insisted the car is ready to be sold and has no problem.

When I bought the car it looked great. There is only one rust spot on the whole thing and it looks really nice for its age. Earlier today I found a random wire hanging under my dash. It came from the radio, so I decided just to cut the dam thing. While I was under there I find that there is a piece of cardboard box on the floor. I pull the thing off and come to find there is a quarter sized hole under it. WTF?:mad:

So I finished off what I was doing and grabbed some rubber glue/sealer. Filled the whole and called it a day. (I know its not exactly the best thing to do but I'm short on funds).

At this point I'm really afraid of what else I could find in the car that is wrong. The rear section of the car is solid. I've pulled the carpet off and inspected it. There is a weird rubber thing atop the metal but I think that it came with the car? I've check the passenger side floor board and it looks solid also. (also has rubber stuff on it). I've been under the car five times now and haven't found anything really damaging. The frame rails are a bit dented from a jack that was placed in the wrong place but other than that its solid.

Anyone have any advise here. Was I totally scammed here but someone trying to get rid of a headache? I'm really annoyed at the moment (as one could tell). I love the car but if the thing is going to fall part is there a reason to even own it?

Sorry for the rant

Jan

[psdenno]

Anyone have any advise here. Was I totally scammed here but someone trying to get rid of a headache? I'm really annoyed at the moment (as one could tell). I love the car but if the thing is going to fall part is there a reason to even own it?

Sorry for the rant

Jan

You have the car and it runs, so you weren't "totally scammed". Keep in mind that you bought a car that's 12 years older than you are. It's going to have some issues. What you're learning from this purchase is that you need to really go over a car thoroughly before buying it and not expect the seller to disclose all of the defects. It's a learning process.

Now that you have it, keep learning about it. Drive and enjoy it. The Z is a great car and almost anything can be fixed or replaced.

Dennis

[MEZZZ]

Jan, join a long list of people that got less than they thought in buying a Z, or any used car for that matter. First and foremost, keep in mind you are buying a 33 year old car. Unless it has been meticously maintained it is bound to have problems and/or develop them. The P.O. may not have even been aware of some of the issues, although unlikely.

I made the mistake of buying a Z 2,000 plus miles away on Ebay from nothing with photo's and got hosed pretty bad. Turned out the P.O. bought the car 4 weeks prior to listing it and made a nice profit of $2,250 after spending $1,750 on the car. (If you do the math, I paid $4,000 and another $996 to have the car shipped.) The only thing the P.O. did in the 4 weeks prior to selling it to me to enhance its value was lie and mislead. While I wasnt excpecting a show car for that kind of money, I didnt expect the rag I got either. Then to top it off, it took Ebays fraud dept almost 3 months to finally get a title.

Long story short, if you love the car, take your time as funds allow and fix it up. If it isnt eaten away with rust, anything else can be fixed relatively easily. You will appreciate the car in the long run and gain a sense of pride in your accomplishments.

This has some great people on it that will help you along the way...good luck

[bobc]

Jan,

Sorry you ran into a problem, but what you've described so far isn't a big deal. In fact, it may not be a problem at all. Z's had a couple of quarter size hole in the floor board that had a rubber/plastic plugs in them. Your post doesn't say if this was rusted through, etc. If it was pretty much round, it could have been just one of these holes. See the picture attached.

[MikeW]

The "weird rubber thing" may actually be what we call the "tar mat" which is a thick layer of material glued to the floorpans. In Bob's picture you can clearly see the rectangular outlines of these mat sections.

[Pomorza]

Thanks guys. I may have been a bit carried away with the whole rant there. I've been under a bit of stress from school so finding the whole kind of ruined my day. The car does run and it runs great. The hole I did find was located on the corner of the transmission tunnel right before the dash starts. I filled it in for now but when I money comes I'll fix it more properly. (by corner I mean where it angles off downward.)

I'm not really positive if there is rust on it or not. From the looks of it there is non. I did poke at the metal around the hole and it seems pretty solid. I do believe the rubber mat I was discussing is the tar mat. Its pretty much throughout the entire car for what I can tell. Its fairly hard to get off also.

I'm just a bit pissed at the previous owner. I've always believed that telling the truth is a big thing, so when I get lied to I get a bit agitated.

Thanks again guys

Jan

Edited September 23, 2009 by Pomorza

[MikeW]

Keep in mind that it's possible the previous owner didn't know some of what had been done to the car unless he was the original owner. He may not have known some of the problem spots either - things tend to deteriorate over time without being noticed. Why don't you post some pictures and let the experts here give you an idea of what needs to be done. It may end up being not a big deal.

[JohnnyO]

The "weird rubber thing" may actually be what we call the "tar mat" which is a thick layer of material glued to the floorpans. In Bob's picture you can clearly see the rectangular outlines of these mat sections.

WARNING: HIJACK AHEAD (sorry)

Are "tar mats" still available or is there an after market solution.

Thanks,

John

[MikeW]

Are "tar mats" still available or is there an after market solution.

Like many people I removed mine (using a heat gun but others have been successful with dry ice), painted the floorboards with POR-15, and then added a layer of insulating material. I used Dynamat but there are plenty of good products out there. I did cover much more area than the original tar mats. The purpose of this material is to add a layer of mass that helps prevent the sheet metal from vibrating and therefore helps reduce sound entering the cabin. Some people have even added mats inside of the doors to make then sound more solid on closing and further reduce noise. On top of the Dynamat I added a layer of heat insulation and then finally the carpet.

[bobc]

Ok back on topic! Jan, one thing you'll learn on this board is the more info you give us the better info we can give back to you, so pls try to describe the problem or question the best you can or attach a picture.

I'm going to go out on another limb here and suggest that someone put that hole there for something. There's a big difference in a rust hole and a man made hole. One has thinning edges, isn't perfectly round and the other shows no metal thinning and the hole is round.

It could have been for an A/C drain. You didn't say if your car had a/c or not or if it could have in the past. That's not an uncommon place for the drain to go out towards the bottom of the transmission tunnel.

Try the hardware store for a plug that will fill the hole, or just go with the repair you've already made. Sounds like it will work. There's nothing structurally wrong with the car because of this hole and the P.O. probably didn't even consider this as a problem with the car.

Try to relax and as someone else said, learn your car. It takes a while and not one of them is ever perfect. I had a Vintage Car that was supposed to be restored by Nissan to better than the original specs. It had only 2000 miles on it since it was sold by Nissan. I spend a good month getting that car in order after I bought it! So, Kimosabi, don't feel like the Lone Ranger!!!

[EScanlon]

...

I'm just a bit pissed at the previous owner. I've always believed that telling the truth is a big thing, so when I get lied to I get a bit agitated.

Thanks again guys

Jan

It may be that you have NOT been lied to.

Did you look at the picture in post #4? That "quarter sized hole" may just be the NORMAL and OEM Rubber Plug for the floor. There are two plainly visible in the picture.

But you must be extremely careful of "a random wire hanging under my dash. ...so I decided just to cut the dam thing" as that can lead you to MORE trouble. If you don't know what it is, and aren't sure of how to fix it, don't apply spur of the moment repairs. Just a word of caution.

Otherwise, your next post will be... "It was working yesterday, then I (insert next spurious "fix") and now it won't run at all. Any ideas on how to fix it?"

That extra wire may be why your antenna stops working, or why the radio dash plate no longer lights up, or... get my drift?

FWIW

E

P.S.: Johnny'O you've been here around the block at least once. Top of page... Blue tool bar... "Search"... "Tar Mat"

Or start your own thread.

[MEZZZ]

It may be that you have NOT been lied to.

But you must be extremely careful of "a random wire hanging under my dash. ...so I decided just to cut the dam thing" as that can lead you to MORE trouble. If you don't know what it is, and aren't sure of how to fix it, don't apply spur of the moment repairs. Just a word of caution.

QUOTE]

Great point EScanlon! I learned this lesson, finding what I thought was speaker wire coming out from under my dash and running behind the vinyl on the dogleg where the stock speakers went, the wire had been nutted off. It was clear, just like speaker wire. Now while I didnt cut it, I left it hanging out of the car and rolled over it one day, breaking it off.

I couldnt get my car to start for a long time after that..it turns out, it was wired into the ignition and at one point went to a toggle "kill switch" behind the drivers seat.