pete280z

Er, I meant to say "pro street." Fixed that. No more posting before coffee. First things first. Yeah, if it's going to be a drag car it should look like one.

I voted for the rewinds, but the RBs are nice too. The draglites look good on purposeful drag cars. On the street they make me think "1980's pro street Malibu"

Yes! I've been riding for years. The trails here in Texas aren't quite like they are on North Shore in Vancouver. The sickness that those guys navigate is mind-boggling.

Oh yeah, at the Tokyo auto show the C6 corvette was on display behind ropes as if it were some sort of exotic. I'd imagine that cars with LS series V8s are rare enough in Japan that swaps don't really happen. I get the impression that there are people who value performance over branding and marketing everywhere. Using what's available just makes sense to those people.

I hear you about the lack of trust. The best thing you can do is get educated about identifying markings on a vehicle and confirm that everything matches the title. VIN numbers, dates, names, addresses, etc all have to match. I consider bonded titles and salvage titles worthless at this point. If the seller doesn't have a title in hand that meets all of these criteria, don't even consider making an offer. I'm confident that the guy I returned the car to owned it legitimately. I ran a title history through the state. He owned the car from the mid-70's. The last time the registration was paid was in the mid-90's and it was paid by him. So if he wanted to apply for a lost title, he could have a new copy in his hands in a couple of weeks. I even delivered it to the address that was on the title history. If he was trying to pull a fast one, he had the stones to lie to the auto theft detectives over a car that in restored condition would be worth around $5000. But I don't think that is the case.

I would like to think that I did the right thing for the guy. I told him that I'd be willing to take a couple of parts that had been added to the car since he had it in exchange for my expenses in tracking him down. He stalled for a while and finally said that he'd sign the title over to me last summer. I could tell that he never really trusted me and I'm sure his story is very different. In the end, life is just too short to worry over what to do with this car any longer. A project that goes nowhere is a burden. I'd be out the same amount of money had I wrapped the car around a telephone pole. It just happens that this way was a lot less fun.

I bet it does. This experience really changed the way I buy cars. I bought the 240 from a guy that helped found the local Z club and by reputation was a decent enough guy. I thought I had done my homework and was ready to buy. My 280Z was purchased from the orignial owner. He was a classy guy who answered all of my questions honestly. No money exchanged hands until I verified every single detail for myself. Buyer beware.

I've only been to Japan for about 10 days but attended a couple of Z car events while I was there. Many of my questions went unanswered because the language barrier was tough to fight through. I did not see any V8 swapped Zs or many American cars at all. I saw a few Cadillacs with gangster types inside. rb26 swaps seem to be a popular move. Saw one s130 and heard quite a bit about a z31 with the swap. The popular thing to do with s30 Zs seemed to be wild N/A L6 builds. And those guys were not shy about revving a cold motor to the moon.

Me == Envious I had my eye on one of those a few years back. Decided to get back into Z cars instead. One day...

I know a few people that put significant miles on their stroker L6s. I think a lot of it comes down to tuning. Most people that build a stroker are going for "big" horsepower. One guy has a 3.2 with a stock/stock-ish cam and that thing can sit in traffic all day without problems. That car does have an upgraded radiator, but it's dead reliable.

Heh. Over beers one night some buddies suggested that we strip it to a shell and throw it on a trailer. One end of a chain around the mailbox, one around some part of the shell, truck in drive and away we go. I guess my hooligan streak has gone soft. As pissed as I am over this situation, it's not really this guy's fault and he owes me nothing. Now if I ever see the jerk that sold me this car, that's a different story. If I ever see that guy again he'd better start peeling back $100 bills or start running.

Well, it's gone. The story behind this car is that apparently the last owner was restoring it in the mid-90's and had "around $8000" in it at that point. He took it to a driveway mechanic to have a blown head gasket repaired and some "other performance stuff" installed. The mechanic moved before the work was finished and took the car with him. The owner couldn't track him down but inexplicably never reported it stolen. There was also no mechanic's lein on the car. 10 years later it shows up with a new maaco paint job, decent interior, "recent rebuild," and a VIN flip. I eventually found the flip and started making phone calls. Went through all of the hoops laid out by the state and wound up in contact with the last owner. Ironically, if I hadn't done so much homework the police would have given me the paperwork to get a bonded title. Since I had the last owner of record's information they tried the phone number. Lesson learned. The photos are taken from the good side of the car. The car was hit on both right corners and lightly in the rear. The radiator support was pushed back along with the wheel well in front. The right side door wouldn't fit up no matter what I tried, so I'm thinking there was some sketchy body work there. My estimated value might be a bit of a rationalization, but who knows. I'm just glad to be rid of the headache. Good riddance.

Yeah, live and learn I guess. I was new to s30s when I bought the car and was a little too eager to find one. That thing wound up having a ton of "issues." I regret losing the money, but overall I'm glad to be rid of the car.

Just wanted to add that the photos make this car look better than it is. That Maaco paint job is 4 years old now. Engine needs going though, and the wiring under the hood is all red wires with crimp connectors. Tracking down gremlins is a bear. I'd say the car is worth about $800 at best. Whatever, it's worth that to get rid of it.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, but it's leaving today. I've pulled what I wanted off the car. I got the bumpers seats and turn signals (which were in sad shape anyway). Application for lost title, bonded title, lein, etc won't fly. This is technically a theft recovery, but was never reported to the police. It's entirely a civil matter and getting ownership of the car via lawsuit would cost more than I could get by parting it out. Not to mention time. It would be really nice if the owner would reimburse some of my expenses, but that won't happen. In the last year I've called him probably 125 times. He has returned about 5 of those calls. When I talk to him he says he will get me the title. Action has been another matter. He called out of the blue yesterday (after at least a dozen messages) with the same old story. Until then he didn't even know the car was coming back.

The forms I used outlined about 4 specific cases that justified a title search. If I remember correctly most of them had to criminal investigations and leinholders. None of them would apply to someone who was just curious about what happened to their old car. The back of the form was basically a longwinded, small-print warning that boiled down to "lying on this form is a felony." The case I was instructed to use was for property holders in the process of applying for a mechanic's lein. From the instructions for this form, it doesn't appear that it's allowed:

The only way to get valid ownership of the car is to get the title from the owner or sue him for it. My plans had been to build a dedicated track car or possibly an FP autocrosser. At this point, my circumstances dictate that I keep only one project car at a time. savage - Car is not for sale. It's against Texas and federal law to sell a car that has had it's VIN information altered. The police wouldn't do anything about the guy who sold it to me because they couldn't prove that he knew. Since I took it to them trying to do this the legit way, now there's proof that I know. These photos are a few years old. In the past year, I've removed the seats and bumpers to be fit to my 280. I did one track day in the car and blew the head gasket. I've also stripped the weather sealing looking for rust. In the process I discovered that this shell has been in two significant collisions and would probably have to be pulled. He's not getting much for "free."

A few of the guys on this board know the long, tortured story behind this car. By tomorrow afternoon the story will be over. To sum it up, I bought a car with a fraudulent VIN. I spent over a year dealing with the police trying to figure out how to handle it. Then I've spent nearly a year waiting on the last owner of record to make good on his promise to get me the title. No more. I'm dropping the car off with the last owner of record tomorrow afternoon. This car represents a significant monetary loss for me not to mention the time I have into resolving its "issues." Anyway, photos:

The first s30 I bought (and overpaid for) turned out to be a VIN fraud. I found the "real" owner and convinced him to sign the title over to me a year ago. He never did. I'm out a bunch of money and time. So far my new build has been uneventful, but it hasn't been back on the ground yet.

I managed to get a title search done in Texas with just a VIN. My situation was a little different though. The car was on my property and I needed to figure out who owned it. I wouldn't be surprised if privacy laws restrict access to that kind of info these days. Either way it's worth a shot.

Mine didn't have the allen hole either. Or if it did, it was what the adjuster turned and I didn't want to put any torque on it. Can't remember. Either way, the allen wrench idea went out the window. I got all four of mine by securing the shaft with a strap wrench or two. One of them was particularly difficult and required two of us each holding a strap wrench and me turning the nut on the top.

strap wrench

Maybe he meant Monaro?

Nice work. With how common layoffs have become these days we're all basically self-employed anyway. You're just doing it the old fashioned way

Differences in business aside, this point is well made. We've always struggled to find people with the work ethic we look for. When we find it we reward it. If everyone here expected to walk out the door ar 5PM, the rules would be different.