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Thinking of selling my car...


Phyxius

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I don't really want to, but my parents and significant other are tired of all the money I'm dumping into it.... I was hoping some of you may be able to kinda tell me what I could expect to get for it. It is located in Mississippi.

 

Here goes with the description:

 

Body: It is a '79 280zx. The body is in average-poor shape. It has many small dings and 1 noticable dent in the driver's fender. Rust exists near the windshield, hatch, and 1/4 window rubbers. The paint is chipping in a few places, but not too, too bad. It has been painted maroon. The original color was a light blue, I think. The passenger side frame rail has rotted out on the bottom in a stretch about 15" long. The other frame rail is dinged up, but not rusted. There is some light surface rust in the usual places in the engine bay. It needs new struts for sure. It has 14x7 or 8 mesh wheels: black with polished lip. Cheap 195 70 R14 Sumitomo HTR-4 tires with 90% tread left. The body is what I would call a 50 foot car. Meaning that as long as you are 50 ft. away...it looks good.

 

Interior: Interior is decent for the age. Black. Carpet is torn up in the front, and the seats are starting to rip (they were recovered at some point). There are cracks in the dash, and no radio. Headliner is a really cool feeling material...lol... hatch mat was replaced by PO with vinyl covered piece of plywood. Rear hatch panel is missing.

 

Engine: '81 turbo motor. I rebuilt it about a year ago. Less than 8k miles. It was bored 1mm over to take care of some pitting in the cylinder walls. New cast pistons were installed. The crank bearing surfaces were polished, and the rods were bead blasted. Clevite bearings and the associated gaskets were used. The motor is sealed pretty well. The oil pan has a very, very light coat of oil on it near the rear, but I've never seen a drip on the ground where I park it. Compression is excellent on all cylinders. I check it regularly. The oil cooler from the original '81 car has also been installed. At the time of rebuild, I put a new Garrett T3/T04E turbo on. It's specs: 60 trim compressor wheel, .60 A/R compressor housing, .63 A/R exhaust, stage III turbine wheel, HPC coated exhaust housing, and internal wastegate. The 3" downpipe's first bend is mandrel, and the rest of the exhaust is 3" crush bent. It is a pretty ugly job, but the muffler guy I took it to for that was a moron. It has a 24x12x3 FMIC with 3" mandrel bent aluminum piping to and from with a greddy type-s bov. It also has a scratch built water/alcohol injection system that is not active at the moment. It has the yellow Accel high performance coil and a gm HEI module for an ignitor. I have a palnet fuel rail, and some used 460cc injectors on the way which will either be installed or included in the sale. 255lph Walbro fuel pump. All of the AC components from the firewall forward have been removed, but I still have them. All emissions components have also been removed. The motor has never seen more than 12psi. With all of these components installed and tuned correctly, 300+ hp should be attainable.

 

ECU: Megasquirt running the MSnS-E code. Main board and relay board included. I'm running it on a slightly rich tune right now for safety.

 

Driveline: KA trans from a '91 240sx. It is a little notchy going into 2nd and 3rd, but it doesn't grind at all. I have a new copper-ceramic clutch, hd pp, and resurfaced 240mm flywheel to be installed soon. Driveshaft has been shortened to accomodate the ka trans. R180 differential.

 

That pretty much covers what I can think of at the moment. I'll be happy to answer any questions. I'm not one to try and hide the bad stuff about the car. It is what it is. Some pictures of when I first got the car about 1.5 years ago can be found here: http://bellsouthpwp.net/F/i/Fixius/car/

 

EDIT!!! I have a clear MS title for the car in hand. It has an antique tag, but of course I'd be keeping that.

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I guess I do not understand why your parents and significant other is wanting you to get rid of the car? So you spend money on the car...big freaking deal? Its a hobby...that's what happens with ANY hobby. could be Radio Controlled cars, gun collecting, cake baking....whatever...

 

Anyway...sorry to rant...to answer your question....your car is very clean from those pics and you have a very nice turbo set-up...so I would say that $5000 is attainable (prob. more).

 

Yasin

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$5k? wow...I was thinking of numbers much less than that. No doubt, I've put that much into it, but I never thought I'd be able to get it back out. I would consider selling my engine and drivetrain seperately from the car, but I wouldn't really want to deal with selling an empty shell or parting it out.

 

Like I said, I really don't want to sell it, but the situation really does put the need there. Other than the loved ones being tired of all the money I spend on it, it would help me get out of debt. That is always a good thing. If I do sell it, this will certainly not be my last z car. I've fallen in love. When I finish school and get a real job, I plan to build a very nice one....but now that I think about it...I'm already on the road to having a nice one...it would suck to have to start over...

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How can you have parents AND a significant other dictating your life at the same time? Sounds like you are suppose to be in those in-between years where you get to be stupid and have no one to answer to but yourself.

 

Have you checked out the prices of new cars lately? If you scale back your mods to the car and just drive it, do you think you will average less than $500 a month on repairs (not to mention added insurance)? How much money are you really going to save buying a different car with a different set of problems?

 

Man, live life when you are young. Wait until you have a wife and kids to start sacrificing your own interests for other people. As a wise man once said, you ought to be out riding around in a convertible bird dogging chicks and banging beaver.

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The thing is, I already have a '97 Grand Am GT for a daily driver that my parents are paying for. If I could sell the zx, I could pay the other car off and have some cabbage left over.

 

The way they see it is that I've already had my fun...it's time to get serious...or something...geeze...i'm only 21 years old.

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Honestly? I think it's worth 4k at most... but maybe I'm wrong. The thing is in this case is finding someone who's willing to spend 5k on it, you know?

 

The question is, why do you HAVE to sell it? because you're pressured into it?'

 

On the other hand, you could make the smart move, sell it (it's probably worth more than the grand am), and go to school and save some $$$. Get a toy later in life when you're settled in?

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On the other hand, you could make the smart move, sell it (it's probably worth more than the grand am), and go to school and save some $$$. Get a toy later in life when you're settled in?

 

That was kinda my idea...and 4k does sound more reasonable.

 

Honestly, I also see it as a distraction from school. I have 1.5 years left, and they will be the hardest. I think this is a smart move. Even though, I know I'll hate myself forever for selling it.

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Good lord. Do I have to figure everything out for you?

 

Sell the Grand Am and use the money to finish the Z.

 

Some people sure needlessly complicate their lives. You have until you are 30 before you need to worry about such grown up things. And by "ex" I hope you mean "girlfriend" and not wife.

 

Kids these days. Everything is like an episode of "Party of 5".

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Something else to think about is the fact these old Z cars are not getting any more common. Trust me, you will always be able to find a girl you can talk about in overly dramatic terms, but rust free Z's are getting fewer and farther between. The value of the Grand Am is only going down with time. Baring an accident, that Z is probably worth as little as it ever will be, and with time should go up in value. You are chasing the wrong investment.

 

When I was your age, I was belly up to a bar in the Philippines watching one of the local women pick up a stack of Pesos from the top of my San Miguel. And now look at me. I am 47 with two degrees. I make a comfortable living designing billion dollar sensor systems for delivering weapons of mass destruction. I have a wife of 12 years, two kids, house in the burbs, and with the exception of my mortgage I am completely debt free with my 401K’s and kids college funds right where they need to be.

 

Now is your time to live life. Don’t wait until you are 50 to realize life is something that happened while you were waiting on something else.

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Something else to think about is the fact these old Z cars are not getting any more common. Trust me, you will always be able to find a girl you can talk about in overly dramatic terms, but rust free Z's are getting fewer and farther between.

Did you read his original description? Rusty ZX = no resale value. Trust me, the farther you get into the car, the more rust you're going to find. If you already have a large section of the frame rail GONE, it's rusty. Really rusty.

 

Personally I'd sell the Pontiac and use the $1000 to buy a shell to transplant your drivetrain into. That shell sounds like a big problem to me. If I were in the market (and I'm not) I would prefer to buy the engine and MSnS and the trans separately without having to haul a crapped out ZX to the JY.

 

Just my $.02.

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