Wanted: 240z (preferably modified) - Cash Waiting

[siteunseen]

None of the carpets in my '72 are held down by anything, easily removable.  Have them look under the seat mounts, that's where mine is the worse.  Also the sill where the hatch latch is, far left and far right. 

There is a vin number engraved on the firewall under the driver's side windshield above the brake booster.  It should be the same as the vin tag by the driver's defrost vent. 

Good luck, we all like a satisfied buyer even though it's an RB swapped motor. 8^(

Different strokes for different folks.

Edited June 30, 2017 by siteunseen

[Zed Head]

1 hour ago, Jay. said:

. But they're not z experts at all, so I'll need to brief them when I can. Assuming it starts from cold well, doesn't smoke or make any odd noise, keeps good pressure, drives nicely then I'm confident they'll be okay to check it. I'm more worried about the s30 specific things. Is the carpet easy  to lift to check the floors for rust? 

You can see the weld seams from the floor replacement in your pictures.

Actually, you should probably be more focused on "RB" stuff.  They have their own sets of problems, with coil and oil pump failures, for example.  The DET is a high performance engine so it gets beat on, of course.  And they're bought from overseas suppliers, pulled from used/wrecked cars, if I understand right.  Japanese Domestic Market, aka JDM.  It's not an old Datsun L6.   The Hubridz site has more RB folks.

[Jay.]

1 hour ago, siteunseen said:

None of the carpets in my '72 are held down by anything, easily removable.  Have them look under the seat mounts, that's where mine is the worse.  Also the sill where the hatch latch is, far left and far right. 

There is a vin number engraved on the firewall under the driver's side windshield above the brake booster.  It should be the same as the vin tag by the driver's defrost vent. 

Good luck, we all like a satisfied buyer even though it's an RB swapped motor. 8^(

Different strokes for different folks.

Thanks for that! I'll get him to lift them up and make sure they're not rotting. Also ty for the vin gem, I hadn't come across that before. 

 

22 minutes ago, Zed Head said:

You can see the weld seams from the floor replacement in your pictures.

Actually, you should probably be more focused on "RB" stuff.  They have their own sets of problems, with coil and oil pump failures, for example.  The DET is a high performance engine so it gets beat on, of course.  And they're bought from overseas suppliers, pulled from used/wrecked cars, if I understand right.  Japanese Domestic Market, aka JDM.  It's not an old Datsun L6.   The Hubridz site has more RB folks.

I appreciate it's stepping away from the original design.. But hopefully we can still find a common ground in enjoying the car in our own ways

 

I've tried Hybridz, there is a treasure of information on it. Haven't quite found the same helpfulness that I've seen in my limited time here. Would it be sacrilege to keep posting even if I end up with a horrible JDM engine :P? 

[Zed Head]

It's still a Z.  But it's someone else's vision.  And nobody has really mentioned quality of the swap.  RB25DET swap is pretty generic.  You can swap an engine in to anything if it will fit in to the engine bay, using pieces of sheet steel and not much else.  Just saying, that all you really see there is a cool motor, the RB25DET, some flares, an air dam, removed bumpers, a decent paint job, and some wheels.  The engine and the transmission are generally expensive to maintain also.  Consider that.

There's a guy on Hybridz who often chimes in with his story of buying what he thought was nice small block chevy swapped car, but finding out that the worksmanship was so poor he had to tear it down and rebuild almost everything.

Anyway, beware.  Lots of ways to end up with a pile of unexpected work.

[grannyknot]

58 minutes ago, Jay. said:

Would it be sacrilege to keep posting even if I end up with a horrible JDM engine :P? 

Not at all, just post in the modified section.

[rturbo 930]

2 hours ago, Jay. said:

I've tried Hybridz, there is a treasure of information on it. Haven't quite found the same helpfulness that I've seen in my limited time here. Would it be sacrilege to keep posting even if I end up with a horrible JDM engine :P? 

There's a number of us that post on both forums, so I would think you would. Both forums are pretty slow these days, although if I'm being honest, I think this forum has a lighter attitude. No chance in hell a "boobs" thread would fly over there, at least not in the past. And mind you, I posted on HybridZ almost exclusively, at least until recently. HybridZ used to have some admin that were fairly strict, which didn't help. They're no longer active though. Only one active admin left off the top of my head, and he's a good guy.

 

2 hours ago, Zed Head said:

Just saying, that all you really see there is a cool motor, the RB25DET, some flares, an air dam, removed bumpers, a decent paint job, and some wheels.  The engine and the transmission are generally expensive to maintain also.  Consider that.

There's a guy on Hybridz who often chimes in with his story of buying what he thought was nice small block chevy swapped car, but finding out that the worksmanship was so poor he had to tear it down and rebuild almost everything.

Anyway, beware.  Lots of ways to end up with a pile of unexpected work.

While it may be a good starting point for a project, I get the feeling it's going to need quite a bit redone. Flares, paint for sure, possibly wiring (because it just seems to be a common thing for swapped cars to have bad wiring - easy place to take short cuts I guess). If Jay isn't expecting this, he should be just to be on the safe side. I'm not getting the feeling that the builder of this car was a meticulous fellow.

With regards to maintenance costs, here in the US parts for the motor are expensive since we never got them. He's in the UK, so it might be different there - did they get models with the RB there? I don't know. The transmission I believe is quite similar to a Z32 trans, so, if I've recalled correctly, he could just swap it out with a Z32 5 speed if the RB25 trans becomes costly. But while Z32s are common here in the US, again, I don't know about the UK.

I think the person you're referring to is Miles.

[puma1824]

No longer available

Edited July 2, 2017 by puma1824

[Jay.]

15 hours ago, Zed Head said:

It's still a Z.  But it's someone else's vision.  And nobody has really mentioned quality of the swap.  RB25DET swap is pretty generic.  You can swap an engine in to anything if it will fit in to the engine bay, using pieces of sheet steel and not much else.  Just saying, that all you really see there is a cool motor, the RB25DET, some flares, an air dam, removed bumpers, a decent paint job, and some wheels.  The engine and the transmission are generally expensive to maintain also.  Consider that.

There's a guy on Hybridz who often chimes in with his story of buying what he thought was nice small block chevy swapped car, but finding out that the worksmanship was so poor he had to tear it down and rebuild almost everything.

Anyway, beware.  Lots of ways to end up with a pile of unexpected work.

Many thanks for the detailed reply. It is someone else's vision but to be honest it's quite close to what I'd want too... Not personally a fan of the way it sits, but that easily rectified. 

It's been fitted using mckinney (?) mounts and appears to be done properly, but you're right that any shortcuts that have been made will be my problem. It has been running quite happily for the past 4 years/20k miles with no issues. 

 

13 hours ago, rturbo 930 said:

There's a number of us that post on both forums, so I would think you would. Both forums are pretty slow these days, although if I'm being honest, I think this forum has a lighter attitude. No chance in hell a "boobs" thread would fly over there, at least not in the past. And mind you, I posted on HybridZ almost exclusively, at least until recently. HybridZ used to have some admin that were fairly strict, which didn't help. They're no longer active though. Only one active admin left off the top of my head, and he's a good guy.

 

While it may be a good starting point for a project, I get the feeling it's going to need quite a bit redone. Flares, paint for sure, possibly wiring (because it just seems to be a common thing for swapped cars to have bad wiring - easy place to take short cuts I guess). If Jay isn't expecting this, he should be just to be on the safe side. I'm not getting the feeling that the builder of this car was a meticulous fellow.

With regards to maintenance costs, here in the US parts for the motor are expensive since we never got them. He's in the UK, so it might be different there - did they get models with the RB there? I don't know. The transmission I believe is quite similar to a Z32 trans, so, if I've recalled correctly, he could just swap it out with a Z32 5 speed if the RB25 trans becomes costly. But while Z32s are common here in the US, again, I don't know about the UK.

I think the person you're referring to is Miles.

The forums are significantly slower than what I'm used to (previously miata.net and rennlist.com/6speedonline) but thr answers appear much more thought out here. 

 

Skylines are common here, we don't have any import restrictions so finding specialists and parts will be reasonable, I'd say probably easier than Datsun specific stuff as they're not common at all here. 

 

My brother has built a few cars himself and will hopefully be able gauge the quality of work.. If it'd bad then he'll walk away. If it's  average then I guess I'll shoulder that and slowly improve it. 

 

 

[Jay.]

A question hopefully you guys can clarify for my brother and myself, in terms of buying a car itself. He's working and living in Detroit, and the Datsun is located in NC. The car is unregistered since the seller moved from MA a few months ago, which is his motivation to sell.

 

Is it as simple as turning up, paying the seller for the vehicle and having them sign over the title?..

Do I need to then register the car in order to drive it home? I assume I'll also need insurance in order to register it (state of North Carolina).

What if the car is currently not registered? Do I just head to the DMV and register it myself, even if I'm driving it to another state? 

Could I register it in detroit via NC DMV? Or can I drive it unregistered to detroit and then register it then? 

He currently drives a company car on his UK license.. I read something about having to apply for a NC license... Will that be required? (appreciate that may be too specific of a question, but thought Id ask just in case) 

 

Thanks for help. In the UK it's as simple as turning up and buying the vehicle, then having them sign the v5 (title) over and then drive home once insured. No need to register the car etc 

Edited July 1, 2017 by Jay.

[siteunseen]

just an FYI.  In Alabama you just show up and pay, they can write a bill of sale on a napkin if it's a '75 or older.  No titles for cars 1975 and older.

You can go to North Carolina's DMV website and see what their laws are.  There sounds like a problem going from MA to NC apparently or he would have already registered it?  Talk to the owner and find out why.

Also in Alabama your insurance on your other cars will carry over to the new purchase for 10 days.  I would think the bill of sale would also be good for ten days until you get it back home to register it there, no need to keep registering it.

Edited July 1, 2017 by siteunseen

[Patcon]

North Carolina is probably not too bad but I have found North East DMV's to be really difficult! It would be easiest to call the dmv you want to register it through and have them tell you what they want. I have done that several times when buying cars out of state. Here in SC your regular auto policy will cover you for 30days after the purchase of a car but that probably varies by state

[Zed Head]

Some states will issue "trip permits" that are recognized by other states.  They're usually good for 30 days and allow the new owner to drive the car to its new home, to be titled and registered there.  If you're going to title the car in Michigan, you probably don't need to title it in North Carolina.  If you're going to transport the car to England you might not need to title it at all.  But there are probably customs rules that need to be addressed, I'd guess.

If the owner doesn't have a title in his name then it's a whole other world of forms and fees and waiting, maybe.  There could be a lien on the title, or it could be salvage.  Better put a list of steps together before you even make an offer, or you might just end up spinning your wheels.

Some states are really strict and bureaucratic and others super loose.  I would start where the car is going to end up and work backward.  You might find that you don't even want to deal with certain states.  For example, California keeps track of ALL vehicles, registered or not, and charges non-operational vehicle fees.  If your brother is going to hang on to the car for a while in Michigan, he might need to title, register, and insure it.

Here's the NC site - https://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/vehicle/title/transfer/

Here's Michigan - http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,4670,7-127-1585_1587-76278--,00.html

Here's CA non-OP stuff - https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/brochures/fast_facts/ffvr01