KYO Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Hi i am looking to getting my first S30 Z A 1973 in fact this is what i was told about the car and what pics i have can i get your opoin on whether this is worth the $1,200 he is asking 1973 100K + auto VIN hls30149383 and a copy of what he sent me ""The rust is not too bad, as far as these old Z's go. It has holes only in the rear of the front fenders, the driver's side door, and the rear quarters in front of the rear wheels. The under hatch area has some rust, but no holes as yet. The floor on the drivers side under the feet has a hole about 1" in diameter. That is about it. The rails are fine, and the car appears to never been in an accident, as things line up well. The car runs out well, and I am sure the charging problem has to do with a bad ground somewhere. Interior is fair. It had no console, so I bought one for it, but I have no hardware to install it properly. There is no radio. The guages all work, with the exception of the clock The trani goes through the gears very well, shifts nice. Yes, if the charging problem was fixed, it would make a good daily driver. Another thing: the car has the earlier S.U. carbs on it, and they are much easier to tune, and to keep in tune. The stock carbs were Hitachi, and they were prone to huge problems with tuning"" now i dont mind that it is a auto as i have a L28et with 5speed motor set i pulled from my brothers wrecked 280zx but i know little about body work and i do not want to get over my head as of yet with rust.. so is it worth his asking price and is the rust he told me about a major problem? I thank you for your advice all the best Kyo sorry for the long post thanks for your help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pharaohabq Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Well there's a lot of stickies you should read before you buy a "new" Z. Search and read a lot of those, both on here and also on NICO.com. I'll summarize some of it. There's a lot of considerations when looking into an old Z. First: They ALL have rust. it's how much is what the issue is. Some places you need to look: 1. Just behind the front suspension, there's a "reenforced area" look for rust through here, press of it with your thumb, sometimes it is rusted through and just looks okay. 2:Look around the rear hatch/deck and in the spare tire area. 3. if you can, look under the carpet in the front to see the floorpans.. 4. look under the battery/tray Rust in these areas is common, and any of these combined with the rust you've mentioned might be a deal breaker, but it also depends on where you live. WA is a wetter climate so it might be harder to find cars there. Repairing rust requires Welding. Can you do that? do you know people who can help? There's a lot od places you can find replacement panels, but you'll also be fabricating some replacements too. Look up Tabco, MSA, Blackdragon Z and Datsunrestore. These places can help you get things sorted. Make a list and make a realistic budget, then add 50% and you'll be close to the actual cost. Take this into account before you buy the car, know what you're getting into. you'll also need to think about what you want to do with the car, you said you have an engine/tranny, so that's good. you'll have that part 80% already. But what other updates will you want? Add that to the list. Read read read, there's 1000's of pages of info on these cars and how people have fixed and modified them, and you're bound to find information on the exact problems you'll run into. (the charging might be the problematic 240Z fusebox, plug in replacements are availiable) once you have a really good idea of what you want and want to do with the car, then go talk to the guy and see what you're getting into, then I'd recommend walking away and sleeping on it. Tell the guy you'll let him know in the morning yes or no. Add it up and decide on wither to keep looking or to go for it and make him an offer. IMHO $1200 is high priced for needing so much work. (I bought my 78' 280Z for $300. very little rust, but I'm in NM. and there are fewer S30's in WA.) Phar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KYO Posted February 24, 2009 Author Share Posted February 24, 2009 Phar Thanks for all the advice I am off to go read up some more on rust Cheers Kyo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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