Jeff G 78

Unless the camera is playing tricks, it looks to me like the LF fender is bent in at the bottom. If you follow the body line from the back of the door forward, it should continue straight on the fender, but it bends inward just below the 280Z badge. Like others have said, the engine bay looks old and cruddy and the overall condition isn't THAT nice. It might be a nice car, but it might also be a turd with a decent paint job.

Very nice Z! I'm bummed that my Z has to hibernate six months out of the year. We have had around four feet of snow so far this winter and it's only mid-January.

I never thought of using a Halloween smoke machine. I tried something very similar to this last summer, but I removed the C pillar air extractor emblems and taped the shop vac hose to one side of the car and taped off the other side. Unfortunately, I didn't have a helper, so I tried to do it simply by looking through the hatch glass with a flashlight for a smoke trail with no luck. I didn't feel comfortable getting inside the car during the test since I was using a chemical reaction HVAC smoke bomb rather than a Halloween smoke machine. I think I will try again this spring while inside the car. I did extend the tailpipe which greatly reduced the fumes in my car, but I'd like to completely eliminate the problem like Derek did.

Welcome! Where in Michigan? There are quite a few Z's scattered around the state. You don't see many but they are around.

Looks good so far. I can't wait to see the finished product.

I haven't seen it come up yet, so I thought I'd remind you that you must have 6" thick concrete under your hoist. A friend of mine built his garage with a 6" floor and after many years when he finally got a hoist, the floor cracked within a few months. He took down the hoist and had a contractor come in to cut up the floor. They found that the original contractor had skimped and the concrete was only 4-5" thick rather than the 6" he called for. Once they repoured it to 6" he hasn't had any problems.

Are you still in the area? There aren't a ton of Z's around, but way more than you'd think. Check out www.niodetroit.com . It doesn't get much traffic in the winter, but we do several events a year which draw quite a few Z cars.

Hmm, let's see. 280Z 6 Toyota 4x4 6 Toy 4Runner 6 Parts car Z 6 Spare engines(3) 18 Lawnmower 1 String trimmer 1 Leaf blower 1 Power washer 1 Snow blower 1 Dirt Bikes (3) 3 model planes(3) 3 Total 53

Ronaldo, what part of Michigan are you in?

Looks like a great Z to start with. It appears to have custom leather seats. Are they stock seats that have been recovered or some other seats? BTW, welcome to the club! You won't find a better bunch than the group we have here.

Dang. At this point I'm curious if the VIN tags even match. He really should try to contact the seller and see what's up. If the car was stolen, then he will be screwed.

Perfect wording. Thanks Mike. Hopefully, the buyer takes a look and can take action if warranted. With any luck, everything will work out for the buyer.

I'm purely speculating here, but the seller might have bought the car and once he tried to buy parts for it, figured out that he had been duped. At that point, he put it on Ebay and claimed that he "bit off more than he could chew". When asked by members here about the VIN, he got defensive and blew them off. I think he KNEW the car wasn't legit, but he was just trying to erase his own mistake by screwing someone else. If this is the case, it doesn't matter if he did it himself or bought it that way. It was his responsibility to keep the car from going back into the system.

Really? Even the 260Z is now 35 years old. Is there a difference between 35 and 39 years old? I thought most states consider a car an antique after 25 years.

Is there any way to find the buyer or notify Ebay? We KNOW this isn't a '71 240Z, so whether the seller knows it or not, he sold a car that was not as advertised.

Sorry, no such thing as an investment project Z. Most people on this board would agree that Z cars are lousy investments. Most of us could not get 50% of our money back unless we bought a car that some other schmuck already took a bath on. :disappoin We do it for the love of the car and are happy to throw good money after bad, but we all know that we are throwing our money away.

The problem is that there is no real benefit to cloning a 240Z using a 260Z. My guess is that the 260Z was a stolen car and a junkyard 240Z VIN was used to launder it. Turning a Tempest or LeMans into a GTO makes sense in some ways, but dialing a Z back three years is a bit more sinister sounding to me. He only swapped the VIN, he didn't try to clone anything. I am not accusing the Ebay seller of anything, but SOMEBODY broke the law.

I agree about the repositioned pulls, so now I lock the door if I want to put my arm on the window sill.

Nope, the doors do NOT interchange. In '77 they changed the latch mechanism.

Cool. I assume all the bad areas were PROPERLY repaired? How bad WAS the rust before it was repaired? Be sure to post pics when you pick up the car. You can look at the door panels when you pick it up, but the lock pull moved forward by several inches in '77. Unless you cut a big hole in the panel, they won't do you any good. On the other hand, if the '77 panels are in good shape, take them and sell them to help pay for the correct panels.

So, what does the car look like? Do you have pics?

After doing a little surfing on Cardomain, I agree with Arne. The '71 240Z is actually an early '74 260Z. Everything I originally thought looked like 280Z parts are really 260Z parts. The inspection lamp, VIN tag, vacuum reservoir, radiator, dash, door panels, tail lights, etc. all fit 260Z designs. I would say that there was some VIN swapping going on. I wonder what he did about the stamped firewall VIN? Here is a random 260Z I found on cardomain. Look at the picks and compare them to the "240Z on Ebay" http://www.cardomain.com/ride/1932829

It could be losing fuel pressure due to a stuck injector or bad check valve. Will it restart once shut off while warm? When it does run, does it continue to run for long periods of time, or slowly run poorly and then die? We need more info.

Since I posted in this thread, I found your other posts and I am now even more sure that this probably isn't the car for you. It sounds like you have ZERO experience with the Datsun Z. I would strongly suggest that you search this and other Z forums for someone in your area (or wherever the car is located) with strong Z knowledge that is willing to go with you to inspect the car and give you an honest assessment of its condition and completeness. Do whatever makes you happy, but don't jump at this car unless it is complete and in very good condition. If you do buy it, your next purchase needs to be a Factory Service Manual and the parts microfiche which can be purchased from this website. Good luck.

It "runs great but is currently stripped" means that it's a basket case and doesn't run until proven otherwise. Unless you can start it and drive it around the block, assume the worst. Also, the '76 and '77 door panels do not interchange. The door lock pull moved when the latch changed in '77. It might very well be worth $750, but basket cases make really bad restoration candidates. They do make good parts cars, however. Unless every part including every nut and bolt is bagged and tagged, you will go nuts trying to figure out what you do and don't have and you will be nickel and dimed to death buying little parts to replace the ones that are still in his garage that he forgot to give you. Unless you have owned many Z cars like a lot of us, you will not know what you are missing until you start reassembling it. Personally, it doesn't sound like the car you'd want unless you already have a basement full of spare parts and fasteners. Trust me, I was you 25 years ago when I bought my first Z. I became very frustrated , it turned into a parts car and I wound up buying a real Z a year after buying what I thought was a great deal.