KROz Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Terrible title, I know, but this is the most messed up Z I've seen on the internet thus far. Check out that engine bay! DAAAAIIIIMN! Only 10,500 estimated dollars to repair it! Dead 300zx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getoffmyinternet Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Wow I'm just amazed that someone's actually trying to sell it! What happened, did it catch fire and later roll into a lake? Repair Cost: $10,500 USD Title State/Type: VA NON-REPAIRABLE CERTIFICATE FTW I suppose that's the price of a replacement car? This would be great as a war/post-apocalyptic movie prop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taz240Z.V-8 Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Can't hardly believe that's repairable....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B00STDZ Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Why would you buy that hunk of ****! Or even try to sell something like that... Scrap it, throw in the towel, theres more out there, z31's arent that desirable... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Why would you buy that hunk of ****! Or even try to sell something like that... Scrap it, throw in the towel, theres more out there, z31's arent that desirable... There are people here who argued with me extensively on why you should spend huge dollars repairing rust instead of taking a California/Arizona Vacation and picking up a rust-free shell... Same mentality figures it's worth 'saving'.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getoffmyinternet Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 (edited) Perhaps if rust was the only problem. I've seen people selling something like a 54 vette in better condition and am still not convinced it's worth it. Was this thing owned by Elvis or what? How a restoration project ever gets like this is beyond me. Edited February 19, 2011 by getoffmyinternet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 Actually for that price that is not bad. The car will be worth far more than the restoration costs. Chevy stuff is cheap.Most every panel on that car is available. Then again, it was also THICK metal, and you can acid dip it and still have more than enough metal to fillcoat and smooth and it will look just fine. That looks like many a 'desert car' here in SoCal, and they go for anywhere between 1500 and 3000 depending on if they run or not. A Chevy Belair 210 is a bit different than a rusted S30 in Jersey. You would be better with this car from the desert than one with no rockers and frame rust from Jersey. Same thing applies: start with the best you can find. They aren't making them any more, and that one looks relatively solid. It's a project. Some rattle can black primer and it's a rat rod runabout... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getoffmyinternet Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 I don't know it looks pretty darn rusted through in a lot of places to me, perhaps I'm just a skeptic about a project's potential. The more expensive the car, the more expensive and hard to find the parts are. I don't think a bel air is worth all that much in the end. A pristine corvette for example would be worth several times more, but then the parts are priced accordingly. Right now there's a '59 roller at 13k and that's probably a bargain. Even the final details can be costly. i see them selling all the time looking almost done and just needing a paint job go for only a grand less than ones that don't, and you know you'd have to spend way more than that to give it one. It seems to me that most times a car that is already restored is cheaper than the sum of its parts though. People don't rebuild a car from the ground up to turn a profit, they just do it because they love to. Once a car is cherried out it's no fun anymore and you spend most of your time worrying where you're going to keep it safe from people and the elements, so you sell it for a loss and start a new one (unless you're wealthy enough to build a collection of trophies). Hence, if you want a nice car, buy a nice car, if you want a fun project, buy that barn find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 "People don't rebuild a car from the ground up to turn a profit, they just do it because they love to." Some do it to turn a profit, and that they love to do it is an aside. If you have the right business head about it, you can do that. Most guys have too much 'love' and not enough business sense. Much as everybody would love to restore a Z, the costs will be higher than the sale price. Now, my 62 Microbus? I could pay someone to do it ground-up first class and still sell it at a profit given their selling price now. Sitting next to it a 1970 Opel GT---love the car, but face it...anything I put into it will be a hole, no payback whatsoever. Similarly Corvairs (which sit nearby)--- most you will spend on a pristine resto will likely be under $20K, and you can easily spend that on a resto. Likely a looser no matter which way you do it. But a Bel Air, like a VW Microbus, or some other 'icon' vehicles can sell for stupid money. If you are a business minded individual, and pick the cars based on their selling price when completed, you can make money at it. The guy who painted the ZZ Top Eliminator while working at Boyd's shop (the late Dennis Graham) went on his own and worked ONLY on pre 65 vehicles. He would routinely flip Belairs and 210's that were picked up in the local desert for $2500-3000 and sell them off in the $25K range. He had a formula that worked, the market was stable, steady. Someone ALWAYS wanted one. So no matter what was in his shop that was on 'piecework', there was always the bread and butter box somewhere on it's way to a custom-resto to be sat in a parking lot somewhere and sold for anywhere between $25 and 30K. It was a done deal, they never sat around long. Now $25K S30? It's gonna sit for a while. Someone eventually may come along and want it for that price... but not with the frequency of a Belair. And a Z31? Hell I wouldn't give you scrap value for that hulk. Paying money to tow it from the yard will put you in a hole deeper than you will climb out of, much less if you tried to restore it! No matter how muh Kiwi you put on that one, everybody is still going to smell it... And know it's still a polished turd! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getoffmyinternet Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Yeah I was about to say you'd end up losing money just having to pay to get it hauled off to the junk yard eventually. I agree that you would have to have a strong business sense to flip a classic like that for profit -- being frugal as hell, not pouring your heart into it like it's your baby. By that token, if I were to buy one I'd want to want to make gain on someone who did pour their heart into a restoration that they planned one taking to the grave but had to give up in the end, that way it's less likely to be mickey moused together. I would expect nothing less from someone who just wanted to profit off of the vehicle than to just make it look nice enough to sell when under the surface it's a piece of junk and a week after you buy it the engine is going to crap out and cancer is going to show up all over the place. I just couldn't do it myself, I would be too much of a perfectionist. Seems to me that the best route to go if you want a project with the most potential would be to get one half completed by some poor soul who did all the leg work and just got way in over his head to complete it. It's like if you could get what would basically be a kit car where he sourced most of the parts and had the body completely reworked, now all you have to do is put it back together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaparral2f Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Try to think about it this way. It cost hardly anything to put it on the net for sale. The price is really high, but in the age of Barret Jackson everyone who has a pile of rust with a hood ornament is worth billions. I just came from the local hot rod show where I saw a ratty Model A 5 window coupe roller (if you could call it that) with no floor, firewall, or front body work for sale for "just" $19,000. Granted, it was in better shape than that Z31, but the idea's the same, and somewhere might be an idiot who will think its a hot deal. Just my two cents, Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 The chassis I ship to Europe are bought with a specific criteria: If at all possible get cars that have not been worked on or restored. They just don't want surprises when they come out of the acid dip. Many times the body work put into these cars, being 'cheap jap crap' just wasn't up to par, and for someone competition prepping the bodies, it all ends up usually needing to be done over. I have gotten cars that looked like the front half was run over by a semi because they wanted spares for some of the stuff they previously prepped and was involved in shunts at the track. When you buy a 'desert car' like in the photo, where you can see the body is all original, the paint having simply erroded off over time and exposure... You have all the ills revealed. There should be no surprises. You know what you got and it's an acid dip away from starting prep for paint. Now you got one all shiny and painted up...you NEVER KNOW what is under there. It may LOOK great... I remember a Box Skyline I worked on in Japan. The ENTIRE rear of the car had bondo on it---from the paint job on it you could never tell. Nice job, but instead of clipping the car or putting new quarters on it, they simply banged it all out close and skim coated everything with polyfill. Some places like the "Godzilla Arch" were almost entirely constructed out of bondo---close to 10mm thick! Car LOOKED GREAT. Buyer paid a premium over other cars that were 'tired looking' with faded paint and good interiors because car buyers are like crows: "They like shiny things" Me, I'm no crow. I'm more like a racoon, I'll take my catch down to the river and wash it before I get too involved with it! Maybe bring a bag of tools and a tasty beverage with me and make a day of it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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