Youngins: How'd you end up with a Z?

[scooterhulk]

My first car was an 84 300zx na. My granddad gave it to me when I was 16 (I suspect because he couldn't sell it). It was a junker, but had decently low miles. I started learning how to work on cars with it because I had no money. When I sold it, I had fixed it up very nicely for very little money. I spent alot of time on zcar.com finding out how to fix this or that, and I kept hearing about S30's. I'd hear things like, "If you want to make your NA fast, push it off a cliff". S30's kept coming up, and they really seemed like the ideal car for anyone who liked z cars. Everyone seemed to talk about them like they were the holy grail. So, not really being aware of what one even looked like, I looked it up. Turns out, it was one of my favorite cars from when I was a kid, I just didn't know what it was until then. I decided I wanted one, preferably with a turbo swap. When I graduated college, with no money and about to start my first (and worst) real job, I found one on zcar in Dallas. I have a friend who's a pilot, and he got me basically free tickets to go to see it. I bought it for $1500, got drunk and flew home. Had it delivered a few weeks later, and that was 4 1/2 yrs ago.

 

Since then, it's been megasquirted, and I've added a million things that it was missing when I bought it. I'm about to finish a budget resto on it now. Rusty sheet metal has been replaced with new, POR-15's both sides of the floorpan, replaced frame rails, added ac on it (but probably won't have it working until summer, but won't really care by then), and painted Rustoleum gloss white (just put my next-to-last coat on today). I had to learn to do a lot to finish the project, and I'm not totally finished with it yet. I have alot of memories of doing very stupid things, yet fun, things while owning this car. I once stayed up all night changing the clutch before going into work at 7am at my crappy dealership job. I ended up getting in trouble because of my appearance - scrapes on my arms and grime under my nails. I used to spend breaks sometimes washing the car behind the dealership. Here I am now fixing things on the car that previously I didn't know existed. Internal frame sealer? Pfffft!

 

What's interesting is that I remember whey I bought the car knowing nothing about zcars and knowing much less about cars than I do now. It's a little surreal.

 

The last part to the story is that I have to be moved in less than 3 weeks (another city an hr and a half away), and I'm hoping to have the car reassembled by the end of this weekend. So, I've been on pins and needles hoping that this car will both start and run when I'm finished with it.

[dislexicdime]

I ended up with a z because I hung out with hughdogz tomuch .

[RebekahsZ]

Bought my first (and only) Z-car when I was about 25.  I'm 45 now.  I was looking for a rust-free 510 and found a rusty 240z and fell in love.  I've since found some rust-free 240z-s, but I still haven't found a rust-free 510.  Started as a purist trying to build car for BSP autocross.  Met Terry Oxendale (BlueOvalZ) and the rest is history.  When I was 13, my first car was a 1956 Ford inherited from my grandfather.

[xxskcxx]

Last year i wanted one for a while, found one in awesome shape and picked it up for $800 as a 19th birthday present to myself.

Edited December 16, 2012 by xxskcxx

[OilKiller]

I just turned 26 and have almost had my Z for a year. I had a matchbox (hotwheel maybe) of a 240 and grew up with my dad telling stories of the ealry 80s z that smoked his brothers vette. Always wanted a SS or RS Camaro... but i was born into limited means and my engineering income has yet to outrun my student loans.

 

when i graduated i made a pact to buy my project car before my wife and i got pregnant. Well, I found a started project on craigslist for cheap and 3 months later we got prego. Now I have 4 months left to get it into shape!

[m1ghtymaxXx]

I bought my 83 280zx days after my 18th birthday/grad. It had belonged to my high school gym teacher and I drooled over it in the school parking lot every day. In grade 11 he put up for sale for 4500, but I didn't have the cash. Fast forward just over a year and I had saved a lot of pennies from a minumum wage job at Canadian Tire and was shopping for a new sports car for grad. After not having any luck find my dream supercharged AW11 MR2, and expanded my horizons too mkIII Supras. Then while perusing the the classifieds my gym teacher's 280zx surfaced at a nearby sketchy car dealer for 1500 more than it sold for the previous year. At this point it was too late have it for grad, but I did spend a good part of my grad chatting with my teacher about the history of the cars. Some of rust my gym teacher had mentioned no longer existed, so I figured they'd done a fair amount of work to justify increased price. At this point I was too in love with the car to thoroughly inspect the body work, and was the proud new owner of my first classic Z car.

Over the years I found some sketchy body repairs, but it wasn't until this passed summer (I'm now 24) that I had started tearing it apart and found the true state of the car and what can be hidden beneath undercoat. After well over 100 hours into repair I realized that it was too far gone. The biggest shame was that all the cosmetic sheet metal was in decend shape except for the passenger side quarter panels/doglegs. Pretty much all the metal underneat along the perimter of the car needed replacement, and I just wasn't willing to tackle that job, so I decided to cut my losses and start saving for an S30.

It didn't take long before I found a very nice, all original 77 280z locally (California car originally) sitting in a garage hear in Newfoundland. The price was right (for a Z in Canada) so I scooped it up after a few minutes inspecting where I now knew where to look. She had sat for a while and took a few evenings work to have it inspection-ready, but I'm thrilled to have clean new canvas to begin with this time around. Plans for it are to run it in stock class at autocross this season for a chance to win free entry into the Targa Newfoundland rally, and then go to town with an L28ET swap (from an 83 turbo parts car I bought a year and a half after my first Z purchase) and suspension mods.


Here's the 83 just months before I uncovered how rotten it actually was:

IMG_1823 by m1ghtymaxXx, on Flickr

 

and the new to me 77:


Waterfront 01 Watermark by m1ghtymaxXx, on Flickr

Edited December 26, 2012 by m1ghtymaxXx

[EastTnZ]

I'm 24 and had been set on a corvette since I knew what they were from my dad... He now has a 73 corvette and is restoring it but I wanted LS power (my generation plus I'm terrible with carb adjusting) and the "I built it myself" feeling because I love turning a wrench in my spare time.

 

Fast cars are a must and motorcycles would get me kicked outta the house and the past few relationships or so they told me so I didn't buy one.

 

I recently graduated from college and already had a build sheet for a new vette and the cost to build a Z because my uncle used to have about 5 of them but of corse sold them right before I wanted in to the z crowd. After checking insurance the vette was $2k every 6 months and anybody can buy one, I wanted something to be proud of and have come to learn that everybody had a z car story to tell anywhere I drove mine.

 

I bought it after searching for nearly 2 years and it was $2k but was in good shape and I drove it 300 miles back home from Virginia to Tennessee. I had never even set in a z led alone drove one and I fell in love with it the moment I drove it home. Cranking up 103.5 wimz classic rock I felt like I had bought a time machine. This thing gets me more looks than almost any other car I've ever owned or rode in all smiles here it's the best car I've ever had the privilege to own.

 

I was Hooked on them after I saw the videos and technical swap how to guides on here and thought I can do that. So I'm currently buying parts like crazy and dropping in a 5.3 t56 combo within the next few months finally!

[Homeboyx]

Thought it would be a fun little car to own, and possibly track one day. So decided to look for one that wasn't too expensive. 3 months later I found 280z for $400 o.b.o. with the passenger fender smashed in, along with the suspension on that side. Figured I had nothing to lose by checking it out, so I went to look at it. Turns out the body was in pretty decent shape. After crawling underneath it to scope it out, I found only minor damage behind the fender and rocker panel, very few rust spots. So I stole it for $325. The next day I went to the junkyard to look for a part for my brother's car and low and behold, I stumble upon a 280z with the whole front suspension intact, which I immediately removed the whole passenger side of and brought home... talk about a seriously lucky break! I am now in the midst of replacing mine with the junkyard find.

[fcdrifter13]

I am 26 now, on my thrid and hopefully final datsun. When I was 14 I worked for a guy moving old cars for scrap and hauling junk to the crusher. I remember going up to his friends place all of the time to work on a trailer and get things welded and there was this funky little car going up his driveway. It was white, black interior, had headlight covers and just sat there. For 2 yrs I remember going past this car wanting it for no reason other than it looked cool, one day it showed up at the guy i was working for house, I traded a weeks for the car and started to work on it, after a while though things became more expensive than what I was making at the time and was deamed to costly and took a ride to the crusher................I hate myself for that everyday, every single day. It was a 72, perfect body no dings or even swirls in the paint, I can picture it clear as day sitting at my house to this day, I still have the title and vin plate for that car and pay taxes on it every year so I never make that mistake again.

 

The next z I had I posted about on here. Sadly she was just to far gone, I still have most of the pieces but the shell was just swiss cheese.

http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/90080-my-not-so-epic-z-build-with-epic-time-limit/

 

The z I have now is a mash-up of different cars, tags say 71 240. I have a feeling it is actually a 280 as the seat belt is in a different position and it has big bumpers. Never really looked into it, dont really care. I have only driven the car 2 miles in the 2 yrs I have owned it. She sits beside my shop everyday cleaned up, washed and waxed, waiting for the day I can actually get around to fixing her up. Between the customer car and trucks I just dont have time right now but every once and a while we push her inside for a couple of days and tinker around. But when we get covered up her lift gets taken by bigger thigns that pay. I have this feeling I will grow old before I get done with this car. I dont care. The Z was my first car, my first step to becoming a mechanic, and now 10yrs later I can say that my business dreamed of, learned from, and even started with a rusty old datsun from the 70s.

[calvin280zxt]

Bought an 82 s130 na 5 speed flintstone mobile for 100 bucks when i was 17, knew nothing about it. I actually bought it to crash up in the woods ended up loving it but it was so far gone. Can see all tires from inside the cab! Sold it for 400 bucks. Then bought it back a couple years later and drove it till tje shock towers poped through the hood! Always said id get another one if i found one and a couple years later i traded my car for an 82 turbo which i converted to a 5 speed and am in the process of restoring and making it fast

[Mace.un]

I'm 26.

 

My first Z-ish car was a G35 coupe.  I took it to a track day and one of the instructors had a yellow 240Z that I rode in to learn the track, and I was very impressed with the way the car felt through the corners and while braking, as compared to my heavy luxury cruiser.   

 

This was 4 years ago in Houston TX.   I just moved to LA from Austin this past summer and sold my G35 before the move.  

 

During my search for a new sports car I was dead set on getting an S2000 until I saw a picture of a 240Z with fender flares and I thought that not much else looked as good as that.   Also, 240Z's are cheaper than S2000's, so that helps. 

 

I then recalled my ride in the instructor's 240 from years ago and decided that that was the car for me.  

 

So after about 3 months of thinking about it and searching I found my Hunter Green 240Z, with fender flares.  

Edited January 24, 2013 by Mace.un

[R3VO 3VOM]

I bought my Z when I was 15 and looking for a first car. My dad had a 280ZX and I always thought it was cool, but I just didn't think it looked "right". So one day when I was wikipedia-ing I stumbled upon the 240ZG and fell in love. I looked for a while and found a silver 280Z. It had rust issues but had been gone through and fitted with all new bushings, r200 diff, tokico suspension.

When the guy I bought it from told me he had an RB20, I bought it. I drove it around a bit and the engine just sat in the garage. When I got a 240SX, I parked the Z and pulled the engine. That was 2 years ago; the swap is now in it's final stages and the rust is almost completely fixed. 

Getting ready to order some BAMF flares for these rare JDM Riverside wheels (look just like the work CR-01) I picked up off craigslist for $350. Picking up tires for them this weekend. 

[Turbo72-240]

well, i have had quite a few already and im definately keeping the one i have now...but heres my story...

i am 20 right now, but it all started a long long time ago.when i was growing up i always remembered stumbling across an old picture of a really old car, it was bright red and looked really slick...eventually i got curious enough to ask my parents about it and they told me that the car in the picture was a 1970 240z and that particular Z was the very first car i ever sat in because that is what i was driven home from the hospital in(backwards...apparently all of the gears were shot except reverse.)...so not long after that my father had to sell it for $100 to pay bills, and then 16 years went by before i ever saw another one.i was a junior in high school and i really didnt give a flying **** about cars or anything to do with them until i came home from school one day to see an 81 280zx getting dropped off in our driveway by a towtruck.i thought it looked amazing, and i fell in love with it, so i went ahead to ask my dad about it and he said that he ended up picking it up for $800 a few hours away and he has missed being into the Z cars......a couple months passed and the z didnt really go anywhere because the first couple weeks my dad went to get it inspected and unfortunately found out that the frame rails were shot.so my birthday was coming up and my dad asked me if i wanted the Z, and of course i was ecstatic about it(i didnt know anything about cars, frames, motors, anything at all)...so when i got back home i immediatly started messing around with it, fixing the floorpans, putting in new carpet(walmart carpeting), making my own homemade sub box(out of a wooden crate and an organ speaker....sounded pretty good for not knowing what i was doing.haha)...but eventually i managed to get my license and with the frame the way it was i wasnt going to be able to drive it for a long long long time(i was working part time at McD's)...so i threw it up on craigslist.i ended up selling it for $600 and after i sold it to the guy he told me that the motor had just recently been rebuilt.but he ended up keeping me up to date on everything and restored it and painted it cherry red...but anywho.that is it for my first Z.my next Z was again, from my dad.it was an 87 300zx that i got from them because somebody had totaled my saab and i didnt have any money to get another car.he gave me the 87 because he now had an 86 that looked pretty good for it being a z31.haha.a few months into having the 87, i ended up getting a speeding ticket in it going 95+...(127 to be exact), so because im a "jr", my dad has the same name as me and sold the car from under me even though the title was in my name....about a year passed and i had been looking and looking for another z and finally i found one.it was another 300zx, but this time it was an 86 with bitchy betty.right before i baught this Z for $800 my mom ended up flipping my dads 86 7 times because she was avoiding a deer...but she came out fine.(she just despises Z's now...shes in the wrong family then...haha)...but i got my 86, and it was a hideous gold color so me being the amatuer body man that i was trying to be i decided to try something other than spray bombing it...i did the rustoleum roll on paint job.and to be honest the black turned out great...then i decided to add lime green stripes and that was my downfall.so after that fun little project the transmission started slipping really bad in the mornings(it was an auto) i ended up trading it for a jeep just so i could get rid of it before anything worse happened...from that point i was REALLY REALLY starting to only like the s30's.i couldnt stand the body styles of the s130s or the z31s anymore.i grew out of them and only wanted any kind of s30...and about another year passed and i found my 77 280z on craigslist for $400 listed as a parts car.so i decided to try to restore it...almost $1-2000 later i saw that i wasnt really getting anywhere with it...this was coming up on xmas 2012 and i was upset because i really wanted to drive the car that i have been putting so much time, money, and definately blood into...but it just wasnt going anywhere....so now back to my dad really quick.within the past year my dad managed to pick up his final 2 Z's.first he picked up a 72 240z from a woman because her husband had recently passed away, and he was actually a priest as well..but the 72 240z he tried building up to make a replica of the african safari Z's.so there is custom bumpers all the way around, theres a roll cage in the back, theres some motor upgrades, new headers, dual exhaust, and my favorite big ol' silver titties.haha.there are 2 big rally lights on the front bumper that look like silver tits when your driving.but anyways, he got that z, and about another month later he found a 70 240z for the same price...so he was having issues with both...the 72 had an excellent motor, the frames have been supported and it was all around a safer car, but the 70 was the lightest out of all of them and he wants to put a crotch rocket to the test at a stop light so he wants to make a very quick 240, but the floor pans and frame was shot out on the 70 240...she he had to make a tough decision.he liked the 70 more because it was sentimental to him because it was his first z, and it is what i was brought home from the hospital in...so he ended up choosing to keep his 1970 240z, but it is now in the shop getting $5000 worth of framework done to it...and for the 72 240z, he gave that mighty fine baby to me so i can have her forever.he didnt want me putting anymore time or money into the 77, so he gave me the 72 so it would be much more worthwhile.so now my 77 i am parting out, and my 72 African Safari 240z is my daily driver and my baby, and i will have her forever.she may go through quite a few changes, but i will have her forever.

 

so that is my history of z's and why i am intrigued with them.they really just run in my family.

(:

[noelawinslow]

I was in the middle of summer following high school graduation. I wanted a faster car, and smaller, coming out of a 1992 Cadillac Deville. My sister's fiance has been fixing and selling Z's since he was in high school, and I saw his for the first time, and it clicked with me that I really do love Z cars. It's right next to a 1981 Corvette in cars I absolutely love the body style of. 

I bought this car and went through hell to get it to my home, involving broken keys, the inability to drive standard, and my overall ignorance with engines. I've learned a lot and I plan on learning more. I've now had this car for about half a year.

[zmyz?]

Well I have a bit of a history with z's, at 25 I've had six z31's, one s130, and one s30... It started with a light blue 84 I got from an old guy for cheap to fix and never did... I got distracted by a red 85 I snagged because it needed an ecu. When I threw a rod in the 85 I got a maroon 88 with really low miles and got rid of the others. I still have the 88 and completed a na2t at the 55k mile mark. Over the last few years I traded a Honda mc for an 86 to fix and sell, traded a Kawasaki mc for an 87 that I didn't keep either. And picked up an 89t that had a funky title so I parted it and kept the turbo stuff. With the cash I made off the 89 I picked up an 81 cb750 that I ended up trading for an 83 280zx, and with the cash I made off the 87 I bought a corvair. Well I got the itch for another bike so I traded the 280 for a ducati and ended up trading the corvair after (3 years of restoring) for a 74 260z. So that is a really quick 10 year fast forward leaving out a few Porsches, mitsu's and a few more boring things... I currently still have my 88 na2t, my 74 that I'm going to fully restore, a 94 ducati that's also a keeper, an 86 and 87 Porsche 944 and 924s and a new mazda 6.

[iDev]

I just bought my first Z yesterday, a 1976 Datsun 280Z with 101K, Near perfect interior, some minor body work here and there, new FI system and rebuilt engine, needs a new fuel pump/filter for 1.2K. Im 17 at the moment but I'm in love with this car even though the fuel pump is hindering my ability to drive it (plus it has backfees, curse you california and PO for not putting it as non-op lol), hope to share my little build with everyone in the coming months. My godfather had a 280ZX back in the 80's up until early 2003 when the 350Z had hit dealer showrooms so the Z car presence has been in a good majority of my life. Long live the Z!

[Homeboyx]

Bought it for $250. 

[ls240z]

Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm 23, and when I actually took note and really looked at a 240z, I realized "damn, that's a beautiful car." I started researching about Z cars and fell more in love with the S30's. I was obsessed and had to buy one. I like to be somewhat original and/or have stuff that is different, and S30's are rare up here. Not only are they rare in Canada, whatever Z's are here would be rusted from all the snow and salt. I wanted one as rust free as possible.

I looked on Craigslist for 240z's in LA, found one I liked, and flew down. I got screwed over by this guy who stopped answering my calls, so I was stressing out. The plan was to drive back up the coast to Canada, but that would be real hard without a car. Last minute, I found a 280z a guy was selling. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but I wasn't going home empty handed. I made it home and have been planning my build since I don't have the funds for it yet. I've always worked on my own vehicles, but this will be my first full on project car.

Expect a journal to start this summer.

Edited March 25, 2013 by ls240z

[stev_font]

I am 25 

 

I was in the Navy earlier this year stationed out of Norfolk, Va. 

 

My dad used to always say he wanted a Z as a project car, so one day earlier this year I was like I want a Z! I am very impulsive when it comes to these things lol so I sold my 2004 Nissan Frontier (that which i loved by the way) and bought a 1977 280z for 4000 bucks. 

 

Got out of the Navy just a few weeks ago and drove in 2500 miles back to Vegas. 

 

I love it.

[Jakk24a]

I... I am so damn jealous of you lucky sods hah. Where I live in the UK, it's damned expensive to buy pretty much anything. Cheapest Z's around (read S30's) are asking about £7k and that's for a 'needing restoration' state. Anything that's had even a tiny amount of work done or is lucky enough to have been restored completely is in the region of £12k+. I've even seen up to around the £24k mark.

 

Being that I'm also a poor ass IT student working my ass off on a BSc degree in networking, holding down a part time volunteer job at a private school and doing part time work elsewhere, having to pay for everyday stuff and kit pretty much eradicates anything that would resemble 'funds'. But sometimes, I will just sit and stare at photos... Did I mention I daydream of driving an S30 round? Apart from purchase cost, insurance for something like an L26 is around the £1.2k mark per year if not slightly more (in a weird twist, insurance actually costs you more, yes more, AFTER passing your driving test of which I have yet to do because guess what, that costs a crap load here too) and that's not even factoring road tax etc. into the equation...

 

Suffice to say, life's a bitch.

 

While I'm here have a look at my current desktop: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62633079/scre.png

 

And for those interested here is all the photos of Z's from Japfest @ Castlecombe circuit in the UK in May 2013 that I took: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1mfdaww7cd8bab2/tlAD6Ut82R

 

And because they're all quite nice, the complete collection of photos from the same event: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/46ob4phej5f9vtc/MgT11-_TMm

 

Note: If the photo collections would be better placed elsewhere please do tell me (similarly if they don't work, Dropbox can be quite finicky at times) as I am quite busy so I don't /always/ know where to stick stuff.