apsilon

Good to see you made it home safely. I'll look forward to any updates.

Update for those still waiting in line, my Z has been sold and is rolling off to it's new home state via trailer right now. I regret it already. I'll let the new owner post if/when they want to. I hope they get to use her more than I did.

No, to Melb at this stage.

I've agreed to take a deposit (just waiting for the deposit today) to hold the car until a buyer can get to Sydney to inspect in the next few weeks. As part of that agreement the car is still open to offers however the current buyer will have the option to counter the offer. Of course there's always a chance, no matter how small, that the buyer won't like something once they do inspect in which case the car will be back on the market so I will take refundable deposits if someone wants to be next in line should the current buyer decline to carry through with the purchase. Not surprisingly given how hard they've become to find there's been a lot of interest in my car and with my current situation I haven't been able to reply to all the enquiries for which I apologise.

No not trying to justify (not that I need to), just thought given the questions that people might be interested.

Quick follow up. I've had a couple of notes telling me I'm not asking enough $$$. I'm well aware I could ask for more but there's a reason to my madness. As I've said I spent 3 months searching daily for a car and was getting nowhere. The gent that owned this one previously was the father of a friend of friend sort of thing. The car actually wasn't for sale but being an Zed enthusiast himself he sold it to me for a cheaper price than he could've. I greatly appreciated that and am now looking to return the favour in a small way to the Z car community. So I'm masking enough to cover most of my costs and not looking to make a big profit on a rare car. I would hope that the car isn't bought just to resell at a higher price and that the new owner will appreciate what they'll have. That said I will be advertising it later this week to the general public and the price will be higher.

OK all, sorry for the delay. Time has been at a premium lately as dad is recovering from heart surgery and mum doesn't drive so I'm spending a lot of time helping them out. Anyway, the good news for someone is that I have decided to sell. I hate doing it. I just took some photos and looking at that beautiful shape I almost changed my mind. 37 years old. Why can't they still design something that looks so good? Now the bad news (not so much for me). I've looked around and done some research and as a few of you indicated $8k is to cheap so I'm going to set the price at $11k. I think that's still a good price. If it doesn't sell here I'll put it on some other forums and carsales for more. As a special offer for members of this forum only: If you're reading this thinking "Damn I don't have the cash right now and it'll be gone by the time I do." then this is what I'll do. Put down a $1k non refundable deposit and I'll hold the car for you until the end of Oct. She'll be parked exactly where she always is, won't be driven and I'll continue the insurance. To clear up some things. Rego is until Mar14 2010 and is standard, not historic. Manual trans. Orange, not red though it is a reddish orange. I think the colour is original but I doubt the paint is original. Rust, I'm being honest when I say nothing that I know of except what I just noted while washing her: - There's some bubbling in the bottom panel under the bumber near the exhaust. - There's a spot of rust on the front bumper right in the centre As I said in my original post, let's be honest, there's probably more. This is a 37 year old car afterall. Having said that though in the 3 months I spent looking I didn't come across anything that appeared as rust free as this one so I do believe it's a very good example of an unrestored 240Z. There are some shallow dings and ripples around her. This really would suit someone looking for a great base to form a project which was my intention. I think she needs a tune and probably some fresh fuel given how long she's been sitting. She had all fresh fluids (and I mean all, engine, trans, diff, brake, coolant), all filters, spark plugs, sway rubbers, heater hose, springs a few seals and battery back in Mar 08. I connected the battery and with a bit of cranking to get some fuel through the line she started up and idled fine. Inspection is welcome however as I'm 37 she's not insured for under 25s so if you're under 25 I'd prefer if you brought an older friend or were content to be a passenger for a test drive. If you're happy to bring the $1500 excess in cash for me to hold during the test drive just in case that would be OK also. Not trying to hide anything, just covering myself. I know there's several PMs which I haven't replied to or called and I apologise for that, I just haven't had the time and have to race off again now. I gave her a quick hose to get rid of the layer of dust and snapped some pics. If you want close ups of anything please list them and I'll get them done asap but as I said time is tight so that might take up to next weekend. Pics:

Thanks all. I've been thinking about it a lot since last night and still can't decide if I should sell or not. I'm really torn on this even though selling is the only option that makes sense. There's certainly been a lot of interest so I guess they haven't become any easier to find since I bought her. I will PM or call those that have contacted me but may not be today as the day as got away from me and I still have a doctors appointment to make. I'll also grab fresh photos tomorrow and check/charge the battery. Just in case anyone has wondering if I received your message because I have replied yet, I still need to contact oldZman, MickyG, Tappets, ZedBrothers Inc and 24OZ. Others I've already contacted.

Yeah and I've basically done nothing in all that time. The kid in me really wants to keep it and have a track day and weekend car but the part of me in touch with reality knows that it's not going to happen. I just don't have the time to do the work or drive her and the $20k+ that would go into the build could be better used elsewhere. It's just depressing me. Only upside is it hasn't lost any value while sitting there the past few years. oldZman, I got your PM and will give you a call tomorrow (Thurs) afternoon. MickyG I'll reply to you in just a min.

I know I'll regret this but I'm thinking of selling my 240Z ('73 compliance, '72 build). I'm coming up to 3 years ownership and I've only driven her about 5 times. I just don't have the time let alone time to do the ground up build I wanted to do so she just sits neglected at home. In good condition I believe (I haven't seen many to judge by) with no known rust (let's be honest there probably is some somewhere in a car this age). Has an L26 with twin carbs, aftermarket steering wheel and gear knob and MX-5 seats. Has an aftermarket headunit but I don't even know if it works. Rego'd to Mar 2010 (need to confirm that but it's definitely next year). When I got her registered in 2008 (I bought unregistered) I put in new springs as the ones in it had been cut and wouldn't pass inspection and new but cheap rubber and probably some other things I've forgotten about. She's been driving twice since then. Dash has the usual cracks as does centre console. This is all off the top of my head so if anyone has any questions, please ask as I'm sure I'll forget things. Might need a new battery given how long she has sat for but battery has been disconnected so might be OK with a charge. Other than she always started and ran fine (once I fixed a fuel line issue). Doesn't even leak oil. Would be a great daily or excellent starting point for a project IMO. These pics were taken when I picked her up but I can supply new pics upon request. Car is in Sydney in case you haven't noted my location. Price? I really don't know what's fair. $8k? Would put her up on Car Sales at $10k as I know I had a hell of a time finding her spending 3 months of daily searching. Everything I looked at was a massive project compared to this one which was ready to go. Not ready to actually advertise her yet but wouldn't be too bad seeing her go to an existing owner. What do you think? Pics removed. Updated pic on next page.

You're right, you can do anything if you're willing to go the path of moving away from production status. Now that I'm at home and have my notes I can see the RTA weight for the 240Z is 1041kg. Under the yet to be introduced rules the allowed capacity for an NA was 4x that so 4162cc. I can't see a 260Z, even a 2+2, weighing that much more. If going for an ICV rego I'd love to hear more about what's invovled etc as it's something I didn't even consider as it was outside my area of interest.

How? The VH41 only scrapped into the allowed capacity by 34cc?

I'd say that's still the case. You still see a lot of massive turbos being bolted to small engines so they produce high peak power. Only thing they're good for are drags and brags IMO. As for engine choice I understand both sides of the fence. On one side the appeal of a modern engine and the conveniences of them as well as being a good starting point for a build (less work to achieve a goal as you've got a head start) while retaining the unique style of the car offers something that simply can't be bought in a production car in the current market (excluding a few exoticars that are out of reach of most of us). On the other side I also appreciate the effort and nostalgia that goes into keeping it within the vintage. This will be my last build, I feel. I decided it may as well be something with great style so the 240Z was obvious but I also would've liked a V8 as it's about the only engine that I've never owned and they're not available in any decent cars that I can afford (no Falcodores aren't a decent car IMO, sorry) so this was sort of a last chance. As such I wanted to build my modern interpretation of what the Zed could and should be today, especially after owning a 350Z which I felt really missed the mark in terms of heritage. To that end I chose a modern V8, even a Nissan one to keep it in the family, the VH41. Then I ran into the roadblock known as the RTA. While it's a legal swap they make it far more difficult than it needs to be. Realising that I'd like to get it done so I can enjoy the car I decided to take an easier path with the RB26 conversion. Afterall the RB series is pretty much the direct decendant of the L6 series so it seemed a fitting swap. That was going to cost more however so that delayed things and work and life got in the way as they tend to do. That was all pretty depressing that my goal had been delayed further. I had intended to finish the project within 2 years but 2 years down the track I haven't even started. So here I am today. My goal now still being a full restore/rebuild and for ease (in terms of engeineering approval etc) I'll be staying with the L series. I've done a lot of planning over the last 2 weeks, more than I've done in the last year and am determined to be on the home stretch of the project by this time next year. Time will tell I guess.

OK that's good. I'm only going on the information from my engineer, I'm by no means an expert (which is why I'm working with one). Perhaps it's the complete rail replacement inc those in the engine bay that pushes it over the edge. Something for me to ask about next time I see him but that's unlikely to be until next year. Oh and having dealt with the RTA a lot over the past 20 years, make sure you got that in writing from them in case you need it in the future. EDIT: Just a thought but you did tell them the type of vehicle and stress that under their classifications they'd refer to it as a unibody didn't you?

To be honest it's one of those things that if it looks factory, you're unlikely to get picked up on it. The underbody rails in particular shouldn't attract attention but if you're doing an engine swap and other mods all at the same time, the engineer will obviously pknow about it. There are some dodgy ones around that'll let it go but there was a crack down on engineers not long back and several lost their tickets which to my understanding also means any certificates they'd issued were also invalidated. It comes down to the risk you're willing to accept. My old MX-5 didn't have an engineers certificate for any of it and I never had any trouble in the 9 years I had it but that was the risk I took. If I had been picked up (and the second owner after I sold it was, rego was cancelled and the car flagged as unregisterable) I would've been screwed.