Mark B

Also finished stripping the old paint from the sill panels, not happy found some minor rust in the RH dogleg, so did some repairs, epoxied inside the box section and made a new outer panel. Have hi filled the panels and the shell, getting ready for paint in the next couple of weeks, still working towards getting it on the road before Datsun day in Adelaide in October.

Hey guys, a bit more info and pics as to where the 260Z is up to. The dash was shit and badly cracked, and being a tight arse, and as this is only going to be a driver and maybe a hill-climber and circuit-sprinter, I decided to have a go myself !! so stripped, fibreglassed from behind, then bogged, puttied, primed and plastic the dash, came out ok, got a bit of texture on the dash by painting it from 18inches away and trying to get a dry finish, not concourse, but good enough.

Hey Simestime, if Doug doesn't take the Harada, can I have second dibbs ? Regards Mark B

If it is $12500, seems like a lot of money to me , just a cosmetic resto is $10k to $12k in parts and materials, paint, trim,etc, and I can see rust in the drivers floorpan,and that is if you can do it yourself !! If you had to farm out the whole job it is probably a $30k resto minimum !! It is after all only a 260z, not an early 240 !! you can buy tidy ones for that need minor work for $20 to $25K, so to me it is more like a $6k car, not $12K !! But hey, someone will pay the ,money !!

First had this car up on here as EOI in September last year. Good looking car , but seems a bit exxy to me with a sunroof , probably about $5K to $7K to get rid of the roof and tidy the rest of it up, so on that basis the price is right up there !! But someone will pay the money and buy it !! Just my thoughts

I called him a week ago chasing a part , and he told me he was moving only, certainly not closing down.

Tony Derose at One Tree Hill did the repair, welded it in with Tig . Mark

Hows good is the quality of this guys work !!! Rolled up a repair patch on the english wheel, grafted it in, all done with metal !! no bog !! I just wish I had the ability to do this , there are some real craftsmen out there, just got to find them. Mark

Well work has been progressing, stripped it down a bit more, spread plenty of KBS rust seal around where I has nice clean metal and took the doors and guards back to bare metal and etch primed them. The biggest job of all was took the car 700 km's to Adelaide to get the sunroof hole repaired. Whilst the car has been away getting the roof done I have also taken the tail lights apart and started to repair the broken and chipped housings with fibreglass, started repairing the console with fibreglass, and generally cleaning up all the bits and pieces from where it has been sitting around for about the last 10 years !! Had a call from the man doing the roof repair today, so another 1400 km's round trip coming up this weekend to go and collect the shell and then into it !! Hope to have it ready for "Datsun Day" in October. A few pics attached for those who like to see what happens.

If you got it for its current Ebay price of about $20k, I would think it would be great value !!, but reality is, he has it on Car Sales.com for Just under $40k, so I reckon you need to be thinking he would be wanting closer to $40k than $20k !!, and at $40k I would want something a lot more original. That's my thoughts !! Mark

I don't have the skills to tackle making a roof skin !! I don't mind doing smaller repairs, and less obvious ones like sill panels etc, and in fact if I could have gotten hold of a roof skin or complete roof I would have had a go at fitting it !! But making a panel which is the first thing that people look at is beyond me !! Its being done by a well know guy in the hotrod/custom car circles in Adelaide by the name of Tony Derose, he had time to do it straight away as a fill in job,and as we all know , most of the restoration blokes are booked up for a year or longer in the future. Tony was keen to have a go, and so far it looks pretty good !! Hopefully he finishes it this week and I can go to Adelaide next weekend and pick it up, then I will put a few more pics up of the finished job and see what everyone thinks !!

Here are a couple of pics, one of what we started with, had a wind back Webasto style vinyl roof, and the other is where it is up to at the moment, hopefully be finished this week !!

Sorry to be negative, but two seater roof is impossible to find !! I have been looking for months, could get one out of the States for about $1k landed, but then had to hope it didn't cop ant damage along the way !! so in the end I am in the process of having one made for my restoration project, pics to go up when completed, hopefully next weekend .

I bought this car a few months ago from old Ray in Wagga, I had been looking for a project for a while, and I learned pretty quick that you had to be just plain lucky or at the right place at the right time to get a reasonably priced Z car !! Following a long 2 day return road trip from Port Lincoln SA to Wagga and back ( 1500 km's each way ) I was the proud owner of a 76 260Z which Ray had started doing a resto on, but had been sitting in his shed for who knows how many years?? Looking through all the old rego papers it was last registered in 1997 !!, and the service sticker on the windscreen says next service due July 1997 at 78000 km's, (showing 75000 at the moment) along with a wheel alignment and balance !! So it would appear that the long term dry storage is what has saved this car from the usual fate !! After finishing off a couple of other projects that were in the shed and moving them out, and collecting 240Z #277 ( which will be next job after this one , albeit and major one ) , I was ready to start on the 260 !! I had a quick look it around when I purchased it, and thought it was pretty tidy, but when I stated taking it apart on the weekend I was shocked to see just how good this car actually is !! Sill panels absolutely rock solid !! Inside the lower front guards again rock solid ( although the LH has been replaced by an early 240z one with evidence of the hole for the mirror being patched ), the panels behind the guards ( the panel that the windscreen goes into and the sill joins at the bottom), again rock solid on both sides !!, the only signs of rust I could find was below the battery tray, where there was a fair bit of pitting and corrosion, and some minor pitting and a very small hole in the wheel well where water has crept in under the factory undersealing !! Even the doors and the hatch are rust free and in excellent condition, only needing a rub back, priming and painting !! Now that is all the good news !! the bads news is there is a bloody big hole in the roof where the Webasto slide back sunroof used to live, and I mean big !! 600mm x 800 mm, about a $2500 repair for a restoration expert in Adelaide to fix for me, I was going to have a go myself, but I think as this is such a nice car body wise and has the correct original motor, I think it is worth spending the money to do it right, and having already seen the work of the guy who is going to do it I know it will come back metal finished needing only prime and paint, no such thing as bog in his world !! I will have to do an inventory of parts, as I purchased this car as seen in the pics while on a trailer, I suspect there will be missing parts, I already notice I have no wiring looms from the bottom of the radiator support panel to the headlights and front lamp assemblies !! and the console is trashed !! I guess as it starts going back together I will find plenty of other bits missing. I have to mention a thank you to Jeff43 , I have been watching his resto and after his reccomendation I also purchased the KBS rust system and can also attest to how good it goes on, I have been painting it everywhere to make sure no rust appears. I have painted under the battery tray with black KBS, but will be painting it factory colour before making the battery tray a bolt in style as seems to be the way to go at the moment. As more work happens I will try and keep the info coming, hope to have it on the road in about 3 months. Regards Mark B

Hey Wayne, I guess you have heard this a heap of times already, but definitely a market in 2 seat roof skins !! I reckon you would sell a handfull in SA alone at the moment !! Regards MB

#227 has a new home in Port Lincoln !! Well whats left of it is in Port Lincoln !!, made the road trip to Adelaide to drop #855 of at the shippers to begin its journey to the UK, and collected #227 from its previous custodian for the last few years. Previous owner has stared the rust repairs, new roof, new floor pans, and collected a lot of new and used parts, but he just ran out of time and energy with to many other things on his plate, so now here I go !! Needs wheel arches, dog legs, some sill panel work and to finish of the front pillars, but biggest job will be the firewall which is very bad near the top. Once I finish my current 260z project I will get this up on the rotisserie and get stuck in !! in the mean time I know it is a longshot, but has anyone seen a roof skin or complete roof for a Z 2 seater recently ? Regards Mark