Smokey

OK, I just got back from talking to Rock. I saw the last repair order for the '70. $1500 worth of work between radiator, hoses, master cylinder, and some other things were done. Only thing left to do was sway bar bushings. He worked on it before the paint job, and said that it had very little if any rust on it. He remembers it to be a nice car. This was about a year ago. Since then the $4000 paint job has been done, with new emblems, and new rubber seals. This one is looking very promising. Talked to loan officer too. Gonna try and get it by the end of the week. Hope I can get it all worked out.

The arm rest is a nice piece. Pretty soft for comfort, and easy to remove when you want to row through the gears. Carl, I do understand that danged Z bug. My '72 I bought cause my CRX got totaled, and I liked the body style. While I owed it, I became very fond of the car on so many different levels. As the buyer was driving it off, I choked back a tear and vowed I would have another one, when I could treat it right.

Yeah, the one in Florida has some concerns for me too. The amount of work under the car will make it very difficult to assess the condition of the rails and pans. It has been for sale on trader for about 4 months now. It really does look nice, but I think it has had quite a bit of body work to get where it is. I really appreciate you guys checking on cars for me. I just can't convince myself that I don't "need" a Z. I feel a fever comin on.

Here's an interesting twist. I just saw oncollector car trader the very same car. They are wanting 12.5K for it there. They are calling it restored there instead of original. Still gonna check it out.

Hey thanks for the link ZmeFly. I might have to look into that one. I gotta do a quick check on the VIN to see if anything looks strange with the history, I love my job . Asheboro is not that far from me, so I might be able to go check it out before the bid is over. From the look of the pictures, it appears that the car was not jambed when they painted it. They appear a different color than the exterior sheet metal. Also, it looks like the shock towers are carpeted instead of the vinyl diamond mat. Does look nice, and I will keep my eye on the bid. I go and check out the other one on Wednesday. I am fortunate that it has been serviced by Rock Vest. I will call him on Monday to see what he says about it (I love connections from my former job).

I think you have a good idea there, but it has been covered (at least indirectly). Wick Humble's book "How to Restore your Datsun Z" has wonderful info on that. He has a diagram with areas prone to rust out. There is a chapter detailing how to repair major and minor rust out. Also, there is tons of info here on the board relating to rust and repairs. The best part of your idea is the before and after rust repair pictures. There should be a gallery topic for just this. Where the before is followed by the repair process and finally the finished product.

And, one more of the interior. By the way he is asking $11K for the car. Looks like it is worth it here on the East Coast.

Check out those hatch vents

Here is the engine compartment

Here is the latest Z I am looking seriously at. It is a '70 240 #4804 which is all original with 77,000 miles. It even has an original radio in a box ready to go in the dash. No rust anywhere except for some very small surface rust under the battery. There are no blisters on the car. It was painted by a guy that does old Chevys in Stateville, NC last summer. I am going to try and go look at the car sometime this week. Here is the car.

They were a dealer accesory. Not too hard to install, but requires drilling in the buckets. Might be able to mount it up with adhesive to keep from drilling, but they might grow wings and fly off.

The starting problem was due to the flat top Hitachi's. Since you will have the round top SU's you will be fine even with the E88 head. Look for some parts cars. Classic Auto Trader has a couple of cheap (750.00) cars with the E31 head. They don't run, but the head might be in better shape than your. Plus, you will have some parts from the car.

:love: :love: Don't know bout the wheels, but DANG!! I am in love.

Whether you should pass the car up based on the mods is solely up to you. Do you like what has been done to the car? If you plan on doing performance mods to the car in the future, are these the type that you would want to do? If so, you are ahead of the game. What you need to be looking at is the body and frame rails. You say "decent", but that has a wide range of meanings. If decent means it has some rust then you must address that pretty quick. If decent means that everything is rust free and sound, but the paint is faded, you are all set. Paint can wait, rust can not. The price you mention seems pretty fair for what you have described. If you don't like the mods, and he does not have the original parts, figure out how much it will cost to put the way you want it. Decide on the purchase based on that. Hope that helped

300hp is attainable with enough money for sure. However, make sure that the car can handle the grunt. If it is an early (70 or 71) Z then the car is not as rigid as the later ones. Also, if any rust has been found in the rails, or pans that will need to be cut and replaced and strengthened. You will also want to make sure that the tranny and diff are up to the new power. I would hate for you to reach your 300hp goal and then snap the car in half. Always remember: With cars, if you change one thing, a half a dozen other things are going to be affected. Think through this chain of parts and you will have a successful buildup. Good luck.

I'm with Ed on this one. If you are wishing to bore the motor, you obviously want more displacement. The L28 comes stock with about 400cc's more of displacement. If you wish to bore that block you will still have the same options as with the L24 since they have the same bore. The L28 paired with a good high compression head will yield better results than just a bore job on the L24. Just a thought.

The manual steering is one of the great parts of the car, why would you want to alter it? So much of the road is transmitted to you via the steering gear. Unless you are parking the car, the steering is very light and gives great feel.

That is why they call it "getting some Z's"ROFL . I have not slept in four months since my wife said I could get another one.

With Z's, it is not how much they are worth, rather, How much is it worth to you? I would venture to guess upwards of 15K is what the car will bring in that condition. Shoot, I've looked at ones close to the 8K it's at now that need about 5K worth of work just to look like that. If your wallet can take it--go for it.

which is why you aint seen me bid on it:stupid:

OK, digging this one back up cause, so far it is still my best option. After all I have looked at, the body is in the best condition with only some minor surface rust. I recently sent him an e-mail seeing if he would entertain $3500 for it. He, of course, declined. He has said that $5800 is acceptable, but after doing some thinking about it, that seems high, and since I did not really "offer" that (I said would he even think about $5800?), I don't feel overly obligated to stick with it. Should I keep bidding on it? He has had no more bites since I looked at it over a month ago. Might help my cause. Any further opinions or comments welcome.

OK, here is the rundown on the '74. Looks pretty good at first. The motor is from Jasper, but was a little different than factory specs. It is running a P90 head, with a hot cam in it. The carbs are 32/36 redline webers. Runs great. Same original 4 speed tranny. Interior is almost complete with new carpet and shift boot. All new seals either installed, or in a bag. The bad stuff--All exterior chips which developed rust have been POR15'ed and painted black. The floor pans have have been POR-15'ed and covered with rubberizing paint. The passenger side is already splitting open. The driver's door is rusting from the inside out. Two blisters showing, and inside the drain hole you can see a large amount of rust. All that is acceptable, but here is the REAL BAD STUFF. The rear quarter panel that I spoke of is a real bad repair. The seam where the quarter meets the rocker is unsealed. They did not weld it, or put any kind of seam sealer on it. It just lays there with a hairline opening. Behind that, you can see the original quater where the metal butts togeter. It, of course, is rusted. Externally that is the worse part of the repair, the rest looks good. However, inside the trunk shows the history of the damage. Once you pull the carpet back you can see the waves in the floor to the right of the spare well. The inner quarter, behind the finish panel, has been fixed with a BFH, and is rusted pretty bad. Looks like the back righ was hit HARD. This car has been hurt, and the repair is questionable in my opinion. That was the breaking factor in my decision not to purchase the car. :disappoin

That is great!!!! I love the part where the shop assistant tried them on. Still laughing.

I agree, the way he was talking is there is just a slight bit of surface rust under the battery from where he left the battery cooking too long one day. I have only briefly talked with the owner because I really wanted to see a Z that was worth 11K. Man, that has to be a nice one, I thought. The more I talked to him the more I was not too sure it was worth the money. He only drives it about a hundred miles a month, and from '99 to '02 it was not registered. The suspension is all original and needs to be redone to make it a "road" car. Same with the hoses under the hood. The cooling system is newly serviced, but fuel, and vaccuum lines are all original. Seems like to get the car dependable for a weekend cruiser, I would need to outlay some money on the mechanicals. And then there is the inner fender under the battery. I may wait and see if the price starts to drop. I doubt he will get his asking price. He says that 5K of it was what he has done to it over the last 5 years. I would be willing to bet he payed 5-6K for it originally. I am sure he is trying to get 100% of his investment back, which is unlikely. Carl, thank you--and everyone on this board who has contributed for keeping me thinking with my head and not my heart. I have never had the trouble before the Z. It is just an emotional car. BTW, I love the eye:love: