wingnutthehutt Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 Last week I paid the registration fees for the next year at my local AAA office and found out that my Z is due for a smog check at a Test Only station. So today I took my 76 280 over to the neighboring shop and had the guy run it on his smog dyno/machine. As I expected, it came up as a fail, running VERY rich what with the miss and lower end knock and all. This didn't please me at all. For those who want the skip the rambling historical account, skip to below the second line of asterisks. ********************* History: I traded the guy I got it from a PRS guitar (that's nice for you non-musical types) and he gave me an extra $400 cash on top of the car. I was under the assumption that it was non-opped and would only have to transfer it into my name. I decide six months later, after getting it running decent and slipping some sticky rubber on, to finally go and register it, as there was no date on the pink and I was in no rush to pay fees on something I did't drive. The demon behind the counter informs me, after handing me a sticker and reg sheet, that the total comes to $387.46. Apparently the car was never non-opped at all, and I am paying back fees for the past 4.5 years. The car has already been reactivated in the system, so I can't wait the extra six months it would have taken for it to fall off the radar completely. I pay the money, take my sticker, and leave. I never had to smog it for some reason. A month later, they finally deposit the check and it bounces, I get a nasty letter in the mail another two weeks later. I have no money but I do have my little red sticker, so screw 'em, they can wait a little longer til I have some cash. Two months go by, I've forgotten about the angry letter, and I get another one in the mail, this time from the state collections agency. In the end, it cost me $453 to register this car. Part of it my own fault, but a large part of it, not. The guy I got the car from was never on the paperwork and had moved to Oregon and the owner before him, who actually came to my house for thanksgiving I found out after the fact, is nowhere to be found either. ************* I knew that I couldn't get any money for this car from anyone who knows anything about Zs, and I also can't sell it in good consience to some unsuspecting kid. I'm looking into the Bureau of Automotive Repair's "Smog Check Consumer Assistance Program" which includes the Vehicle Retirement program. This means, if my car qualifies as a gross polluter and is not worth repairing, they will give me $1000 for it which is, the more I learn about Zs, a better price than I will get from anyone else. Especially since I have $400 sunk into the registration. Does ANYONE have any experience with this program? There are a couple clauses that bother me. 1-Must have failed it's smog check no later than 120 days after expiration of the current registration. 2-Must have been continuously registered in California for two years immediately preceding the current registration expiration date. The first one I'm pretty sure I qualify for, but the second makes me nervous. The vehicle was not non-opped, it WAS in california. Maybe I'm ok becuase registration was deliquent but still in California? The complete rules can be view as a PDF at http://www.smogcheck.ca.gov/ftp/pdfforms/cap_app.pdf Any thoughts are appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boodlefoof Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 Sorry, nothing useful to add, just a rant... The stories I've heard about this program almost make me cry... people sending classic cars to the crusher for a quick buck. I think it was Hot Rod magazine that ran a story years ago about when the program first started... they went to the drop-off place for the "gross polluters" with wads of cash and tried to buy classics off of the people who were junking them. They reported that there were long lines of now valuable antiques. Many a car met an untimely demise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lason Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 Sorry' date=' nothing useful to add, just a rant... The stories I've heard about this program almost make me cry... people sending classic cars to the crusher for a quick buck. I think it was Hot Rod magazine that ran a story years ago about when the program first started... they went to the drop-off place for the "gross polluters" with wads of cash and tried to buy classics off of the people who were junking them. They reported that there were long lines of now valuable antiques. Many a car met an untimely demise.[/quote'] yeah I agree, I HATE that program. So many nice cars going to the crusher BTW the car Hot Rod Magazine built from that story was the yellow "Crusher Camaro", my favorite build up of all time. Dunno why but I was in love with that car and it was probably the car that I read about that got me serious about learning about cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNeedForZ Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 wingnutthehutt, Does the car have a decent chassis? People don't care about the engine condition, people care about condition of chassis (especially us wife swap...I mean engine swappers) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Some-Guy Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 oh man dont do that to car just sell it to some one for a grand or run insane amounts of methal hydrate to get it to pass aircare....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingnutthehutt Posted March 19, 2006 Author Share Posted March 19, 2006 Sorry for the late response. NeedforZ, the chassis is not the greatest, the drivers side frame rail is very warped, it looks like someone tried to jump it over a set of train tracks. The entire front end needs to be rebuilt as well and the floor pans are not the worst, but not great either. As far as selling it to a person for a thousand, I would LOVE to, but I don't think anyone would buy it for that. I'm going to take a whole bunch of pics I think and see if I can get someone interested. I would "sell" it to my dad, who lives in NV, but I really don't want to deal with the hassle of getting it to him in Vegas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingnutthehutt Posted March 22, 2006 Author Share Posted March 22, 2006 I took some pics, I can take more if someone wants, but not for several days. The car is now parked at my mom's in Concord CA as I'm trying to move this weekend to Sacramento. I don't know how to post pics in the thread, and the FAQ wasn't helpful, so here's a link to the pics on my flikr account. http://www.flickr.com/photos/60596288@N00/116108388/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNeedForZ Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 It's really not that bad, better than mine. With a few ounces of POR15 or Rustbullet and a small brush, the rust can be stopped before it begins to infect structure. The rusted areas can be fixed later whenever time/finance becomes available. Most of the people who sell Zs in condition like this for a low value because they believe rust is going to get a lot worse within one year. With technology like RustBullet or POR15, it doesn't have to get worse, especially if the car doesn't see rain. Rust is stopped first, then find some time to fix it. http://www.rustbullet.com/ The shell of my 260Z that is being build is coated inside out with this stuff. The coating is very tough. When I scratch the coating with my fingernail it doesn't feel like the fingernail has digged in at all. It the same kind of feeling you get when you try to scratch glassware with fingernails, very hard and slick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingnutthehutt Posted March 22, 2006 Author Share Posted March 22, 2006 Yeah, I've considered the POR15 route. I know it's savable, don't get me wrong. The company that makes that product makes a lot of really cool stuff that actually works. My main gripe was the frame rail that needs to be replaced. I'm not a welder at all, and I don't have the money any time in the forseeable future to pay someone to do it. Also, as I live in California, doing a SBC swap, which I will do eventually, is not something I want to do on a 280. I have a 240 that I can get for free from a friend. It may be worse off than this car, it was dark so it was hard to tell, but at least it's Non Smog and it's the car I want. This 280 has lots of little issues that make it a pain as a daily driver, which is all I really wanted to do with it for the time being. Passenger door opens from the inside only, driver window needs new regulator, leaks everywhere, the heater stopped working, no power to the radio, spongy brakes, temp guage/sender doesn't work, and the front end is washy. The wipers work pretty well though and ugly as it is people still stop me to talk about it. All these things are far within my abilities to fix, but not when I don't have a garage to keep my tools in. Half my stuff is in storage 60 miles away from me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingnutthehutt Posted March 24, 2006 Author Share Posted March 24, 2006 I've posted the car in the classified, anyone interested let me know. The reg is paid already for the next year so I'm already out fifty bucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingnutthehutt Posted March 27, 2006 Author Share Posted March 27, 2006 No one's seriously interested in the car. I would take $650 for it to keep it from getting crushed if someone came and got it. I am unemployed, just moved, and don't have the patience to wait for someone to give me a gift. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingnutthehutt Posted April 12, 2006 Author Share Posted April 12, 2006 I lowered the price on the car, it's in the classifieds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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