Hi all,
I joined this forum over 2 years ago, about the time I met Old Datto Fan at Southwards open day and I've been lurking about ever since, trying to learn more about the 240Z and keeping an eye out for a likely project.
I had hoped to get one a while ago, but life had other ideas and it had to be put on hold.
Things are back on track now and so I've been looking seriously for a while. This of course leads to nothing being for sale, or it goes for over $30,000!!
I wanted a project I could strip and rebuild, but not a hopeless case, or one that looked great, but hiding a hideous past or shoddy repairs, as seems to have happened to so many Z's
Well the other week one came up on Trademe, that seemed to fit the bill; an abandoned project already mostly stripped to bare metal, so nothing hidden. Owner seemed pretty upfront about what needed doing and its condition, so although I wasn't really ready to buy now, I thought I'd go for it. The only problem was the bidding went over what I was prepared to pay, before I'd even started, so that was that.
However, a few days later, it was back up for sale as the winning bidder didn't have the funds (why would you bid, with no cash), so the sale fell through. This time I got it, still paid a bit more than I wanted, but it doesn't matter. So yesterday, I set off with my son from Paraparaumu at 5.30am and drove a van and car trailer up to Hamilton, met the owner, became the owner, loaded up all the boxes and the car onto the trailer and drove home.
The weather on the way back was wild, huge thunderstorm and winds, felt like driving through a tsunami at one point, but we got back about 10.30pm and got the car off the trailer and into the garage.
From what I can gather, its been off the road for about 18 years and in its current state for about 4 years. Even so, it's managed to travel from Christchurch to Hamilton and now to Kapiti!
Lots of work ahead, but hopefully it won't be off the road for too many more years.
Next job is to do a thorough inspection, but so far doesn't look to bad and the dashboard doesn't have any cracks!!!
It also has the original engine, which the last owner did manage to get running.
Thanks to Tim (previous owner) and good luck with your move.
If I'm feeling brave I may start a project thread, once I know better what I've bought and once I've got 5 posts, I'll put up some photo's too.