CW240Z72

Sunshine yellow, or Safari Gold? Looks a bit dark for Sunshine, but photos can be deceiving. most likely a late series 1 if it’s a ‘71. I don’t think the 2400 valve cover would have been there originally.

"The chance to own a one-owner car with its original paint and such low mileage has clearly been enough to coax at least five bidders to offer more than the #4 value." Highly doubt both of those are true. Hints of overspray in the photos, and for it to only have 44K on the clock, you'd think a majority of the worm screw hose clamps, incorrect oil pressure sensor, universal radiator hose, and the general poor condition of the car, would not be there or replacements for the factory equipment. 144K and a cheap respray seem more likely.

He was asking $30K for that truck on Facebook. Seems like he should have went the BaT route for serious money

Not too far from this one (12070). Best of luck to you, hopefully by then with a stronger market to support your sale.

Ha! Thanks. Who knows what the market will do over the next few months. I am trying to have reasonable expectations for the sale, all things considered in the world.

Not to thread jack but for more details on this Z head here I took a lot out of the video. I figured at 30 minutes most would lose interest.

Maybe not with a better attitude 😀

I recognize that car 😁

Some outside photos of the Z.

$50K-$60K to do a ground up restoration for someone else and make enough money to keep the lights on? Maybe 10 years ago, for a driver quality build, but not today. I don’t want to derail this thread for what it was originally intended for, but you can easily eat up that amount or close to it in part costs alone today - if you’re going for 100% factory spec. Ask me how I know… I can’t see getting one of these cars restored with less than 1000 man hours into it. I understand your time is free, but that is still value added. Think about the guy who can’t do body work or interior work. That’s A LOT to fork up in labor alone that he’ll have to pay. I build up these cars because I like them and enjoy the community. I agree most BaT keyboard jockeys are not in the comments because they love the cars, and do try to fluff up the audience and facilitate a bidding war.

Definitely a good amount of hyping in the comments as an attempt to boost bids. I do agree with some, it's very difficult to do a factory restoration and not touch 6 figures of investment. Even if you are able to do most the work yourself, you can't get away from a full blown restoration with less than 1000 hours poured into the process. Value your time at the lowest shop rate you can find, plus just part costs, and it's amazing what it truly costs to build up one of these cars today.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1970-datsun-240z-79/ So what's the verdict on this one? Looked like a nice car to start with. I feel the presentation of it was less than ideal with heavily edited videos, some poorly staged photos, and the lack of basic cold start/driving videos to get a sense of the true car and what quirks it may have. Not very many Z specific photos to show things like the battery tray or good shots of the frame rails for instance. $65K seems like a good starting point, especially considering it was listed in the middle of a holiday and ended just a few weeks away from Christmas. I was shooting that it would make it to $70-$75K and sell. Really nice Z though, nicer than a good amount of the ones recently listed on BaT. It did have a few flaws - antenna, wrong finish on the tail light panel, center console wear, HVAC panel held on with (wood?) screws, and the RH rack boot just hanging - which didn't seem to get picked up by a majority of the people.

Call me crazy, but that shift knob is original to the car, and unrestored. I had to leave ONE thing untouched 😀

Here are a few of the professional shots from yesterday's events

Each restoration, rebuild, tear down, and frustration is experienced gained and an opportunity to do better on the next project. Keep up the work and enjoy it the best you can!

I have my personal '72 sitting next to this one waiting for it's turn. Along with that I have a few non-Z Datsuns that need the same treatment. I really enjoy the build more so than having a car too nice to use sitting in the garage, so if someone else could enjoy it and enable me to fund the next one it's a win win situation in my eyes. For some reason I am a glutton for punishment. The increased popularity of these cars has definitely made scoring a "barn find" example difficult and more costly. On the flip slide restored examples are fetching healthy numbers, so in a way it all evens out. From what I have seen recently, a good restoration candidate can fetch $5,000-$15,000 depending on year, condition, rust, completeness, etc. Hard costs for parts and materials can vary greatly depending on the restoration direction - factory spec, resto-mod, track car., you name it. Labor will probably be the biggest factor in determining what kind of profit (if any) you can pull from one of these cars. Over the past 16 months we have racked up nearly 1500 hours to build this car. Being that combined we have 35+ years in professional auto body/paint and mechanical engineering, all the labor minus the engine machining was done in-house. I could imagine paying someone else to redo the interior, complete the body work, assembly the rolling shell, etc would quickly eat up any margins.

Thank you. Yes, once the professional photos and videos are complete I’ll work on the listing. Most likely I’ll be going with BaT, have had great success with them in the past. Always hate to see these cars go but each one funds the next build. Can’t keep them all unfortunately.

Sneak peek from today’s photoshoot

Good eye, I wonder what the original color was to the jute? Curious how much 50 years of living under carpet and vinyl affected the color of it. Similar to how nearly every plastic piece turns yellow or opaque on these cars over time.

One of the last details for the front end, replicating the factory paint markings. Last will be the tie rods once we get an alignment.

I could definitely see that being confusing to someone who’s first language wasn’t English. Don’t worry, I work with several people where Dutch is their first language. You guys have it all twisted up! 😁

Some of the last details getting wrapped up. AC system charged up and working nicely. Also working on getting the rest of the stickers installed and a window sticker made up for the car.

Fisheye lens has the rear muffler angle distorted, was the only way I could capture the whole system under the lift. In "normal" perspective, it is perfectly parallel to the chassis. Muffler is also an excellent copy of the original, in OD and length. Reverse wheel thingy - perhaps the spare wheel well? There's a good 3/4" - 1" gap between the muffler and spare wheel well. No hard contacts at all.

Factory tool kit back in its original home. Pretty cool the inventory list was still in the bag!

Got the Z back from the exhaust shop last week. Guys did a great job on the system, very happy with the final results. With that complete, I was able to dial in the carbs and get a few miles on the Z as we complete the shake down process. Being 50 years old I am amazed how tight and smooth this Z is cruising down the road. Much nicer of a ride than my "survivor" '72.