gilltech

Yes, as dat2Kman says, there should be (embossed ie. raised letters) 'Nissan Japan E88', if that's what you have. Both my early 260Z engines have E88s. Later 260Zs had the N42. But there are also N47, P79, P90 & several others, off 280ZX or Skyline or whatever motors, which one could perhaps have if the engine has been played around with by a PO.

No, I wasn't suggesting you should have kept it registered all this time but simply asking whether the car is such that it could get a road-worthy & be registered (now) so that someone could buy it & drive it away (legally) which would be very tempting for a potential interstate buyer & - surely- give you a better payout. If it's been sitting in dry storage all that time then overall it should be pretty close given that you drove it in there.

Great colour. Have the seats been replaced, or the door trims? (Tan vs black). Not too cheap if it's as-is, where-is - but can you not get a road worthy & register it?, you'll get better $$$ for it that way.

When installing they twist into place & hook themselves over the steel when the respective curves are matched. Install or remove by hand or you run the risk of damaging them, they can be tough depending how much paint build-up there is on the gutters.

I agree with your friend, oil first into every possible crevice, & allow a good week or more for it to set up, but clean off the excess oil trickling out wherever it's not wanted on a regular basis. Then apply the selected stone guard on to a thoroughly clean surface as it's so much thicker & is more likely to bridge crevices than soak into them. Different products doing quite different jobs.

Both my Mustangs have been LHD & I have never been tempted to convert either of them to RHD. One gets used to LHD & learns to work around any shortcomings such as sight lines for overtaking etc. Easy enough for weekend & hobby use. However, sitting LHD in a Mustang fastback there is a massive blind spot across the area of the right rear pillar, so one has to be super careful & position the car at a different angle at intersections & half climb across the passenger side if one is to have any safe field of vision at all before pulling out. I suspect a LHD Zed would be much the same. So really not that great for daily use. Yes if you import remember the Aus GST tax across the car's cost or value, shipping & insurance, there's another 10% on top right there. But there are some good Zed cars in NZ, don't get me wrong. In NZ, vehicle safety checks are mandatory every 6 months in order for said vehicle to be registered for the road, not just at resale like here. But in any case a road registered vehicle is the best starting point, as unless you really know your Zeds inside out a parked-up barn find or project car may well be the way it is for one or more good reasons! So, find a really good car & pay what is required. It's not like it's going to depreciate!

"a importer one house up from me which has 3 280's and a US 240 in his shed . I know he is looking around the 13-14 mark" That sounds realistic, the way the exchange rate is heading it'll get worse. Then you still have to get it on the road, in LHD or RHD, with whatever repairs & sorting out the car needs along the way. So better to source one already here, hopefully with known Aus history, ideally a well sorted enthusiast's car. Japan, dunno, I think they're worth too much over there now aren't they? NZ is a distinct possibility for the right car, but the Aus/NZ$ exchange rate doesn't help much at present. A number of JDM Z cars were imported into NZ several decades ago now as used Jap cars, 'grey' imports they would be called here. Many I saw had rust issues. Many also had the JDM 2L engine so owners typically swapped in a 2.8 out of some crashed or rusty parted-out 280ZX 2+2 which were once very abundant imports in NZ at the time. NZ has got a spread of Zeds from all over the planet, RHD sold new, but RHD & more than a few LHD imported used, some no doubt converted to RHD since. So like anywhere you'd want to check out a car's provenance before parting with $$$. A NZ car sold new or used should have registration records dating back to the first owner/operator on-road & date.

Well you'll have to look at the realistic costs of buying a 280Z against buying a local car, & whether you'll want to convert it to RHD & if so what will that cost, as against leaving it LHD which limits its appeal for resale down the track. I think you'll find it's impractical & uneconomic to buy in the USA, by the time you get a car or three inspected, pay the exchange rate for the one you decide to buy, then get it transported to docks, then shipping & insurance costs, then pay GST at this end on the 'landed value' - which includes the car's cost or an assessed value, & also applied on the shipping & insurance costs; possibly inspection, quarantine & cleaning fees; then whatever costs you'll incur to get it on the road in whatever form LHD or RHD. Also, before a car is shipped you must get an import approval for it, so while that's under way you may incur storage charges at the USA end. So do all your homework & crunch the numbers, might as well do both for a 240Z & a 280Z (you may find a 260Z but they were only sold there for one year). [PS. IIRC there were two different impact type bumper systems used on the US market Zeds. So if looking to swap in the 240-style skinny bumpers check out the differences - a friend in NZ some years ago found it wasn't that simple for his LHD car, much to do with fixings in the chassis rails both ends, & even different panel shapes adjacent???, but I don't recall all the issues now. Others on this forum might know. You might have to make some structural alterations which in Australia would surely require an engineer's approval].

Pretty hard to find 260Z 2-seaters in any case, most 260s around are 2+2s. Pretty much anything priced under 10K is needing a lot of work, 2+2s included. IMO prices for 2+2s have climbed by the same proportion as the 240/260 2-seaters have. You just have to forget what you could have paid back then, & pay what someone will accept today, or you'll just get further & further behind & still have nothing in a year's time. Simple as that. It's all to do with supply & demand. Your friend made his move & won't regret it.

Sources say that it was actually a very well finished replica GTHO & a thoroughly nice car. The owner must be inconsolable in any event.

Once the steel is heated to fire temperatures the tension is taken out & the steel buckles in all directions & is ruined. I doubt that the alloy ID tags would have survived the temperatures but if they have then the best way forward for continuation of that car identity (1 of 300) IMO is a re-shell; but how legal or ethical that is, is another topic in itself. And clicks into Gav240's other recent post about "how original is original..."

Good link. Maybe it's a percentage thing. But too involved for everyday life. Leave it to the concours d'elegance crowd. I agree, back to the shed. Like I said, "Each vehicle to be assessed on it's individual merits."

Hmmm...mine's uncracked, or maybe it is - there is a tiny amount of what could be surface crazing at each end if one looks hard enough. Car spent it's first 30yrs in NZ, more like the UK not so much sun... "Original"??? Outside of the concours d'elegance crowd, the term seems to be most commonly used by those describing a vehicle in unrestored condition...ranging from a tidy well maintained vehicle with mileage & the usual replaced consumables, to a decrepit worn-out junker that's one block away from the crusher & seldom if ever received any love. Each vehicle to be assessed on it's individual merits. I'd argue that a vehicle is only original once. Even a top-end restoration to factory-correct detail doesn't make it original, it just makes it replica-original.

They are indeed different, as one would expect the 2+2's sill plate is longer than the 2-seater's plate.

Ouch! Nasty. Perhaps try Gasoline Alley in Brendale. They restore classic cars, they seem to do a lot of Mustangs, American & Aussie stuff anyway; check out their website. I'd want to get the car body shell measured up on a car-o-liner seeing as your windscreen has been hit on one side right at the bottom edge whereas the side damage is on the other side. No point in trying to fit a new screen if the frame has been compromised for example, our S30s are fairly lightly built.

Well there you go then! It has got a shape to it after all so will fit a S30 bonnet. No don't throw it away, it may be beyond restoration if it's pot metal (had same type of issues with old Mustang badges) but a good souvenir if nothing else. Maybe your car had some imported used JDM panels fitted.

I had a set of rear arms off a '76? 2+2 here at one time & while geometrically the same as far as I could tell were slightly different in construction detail to the ones I have on my early 2-seat. So that would explain the part number differences if nothing else. Maybe the 2+2 ones are a heavier gauge steel as they could carry more load, and/or maybe Nissan improved them just as they made other changes to the S30 or 260 rear suspension over time.

Yeah I shouldn't call it a '280ZX' badge, I'll get in trouble with the Z car experts. But I have 3 here, they came off trashed S130s, most likely all ex-JDM cars 'grey imports' either 2L or 2.8L. All 3 are chrome plastic the same as Gav's pictures. GTI-Z's one is also dead flat, which doesn't properly fit a S30 bonnet; if you look at a 'Datsun' bonnet badge it has a concave shape to it to accommodate the S30 bonnet swage line. That one has been glued on with a big gob of black urethane or something. Certainly looks die-cast or pot metal though with all that corrosion pitting. My chrome plastic ones would be the same age but in way better condition. Maybe it's off a more up-market S130, who knows where it came from.

It just looks like an identical but metal version of the standard chrome plastic 280ZX bonnet badge to me. The 280ZX badge is dead flat to suit the flat bonnet face of that car, so doesn't properly fit a S30 bonnet which has a side-to-side curve & swage line through it, but that doesn't stop people like myself using it, as a preference to the 'Datsun' original, with adhesive tape to keep secure.

Thanks Cozza.

Thanks Gav, I've seen the '555' brand around, will inquire with Moorabbin, many thanks!

Many thanks, I'll pop into Bursons as they're close by. (I'm now thinking the BJ146 is for the 1600 & early 240, has smaller stud I think).

Looking on eBay I see both BJ85 and BJ146 ball joints advertised for 240z/260Z & other Datsuns. Can anyone advise whether one or both is/are correct for late 240/early 260? TIA

Ouch! As if anyone is going to know what it is anyway. Maybe if you had the rest of one of his cars...

" Looking for any project 240's out there! Preferably: Under 10k Limited rust Complete Interior " Define 'limited'... I don't wish to rain on your parade & squash your enthusiasm but join the queue of every man & his dog... The years are passing & Zeds are getting fewer & fewer, not enough to go around, so prices are rising accordingly. Most people know what they've got when it's time to sell. Budget more realistically for 20-25K & find a tidy one & do your transplant if you must, try & ensure that it's reversible if you want to maintain maximum value. Any project car under 10K will be so riddled with rust & so bodged up & stuff missing you'll spend years on the body shell alone, before you even get to the engine transplant.