Should I buy this 1981 Datsun $600 that won't start?
Never owned a car I'm willing to spend up to 1.5 months and $1200 to get it to start.
If I just buy the repair manual will I be good to go? How unreasonable is it to expect the engine to be in an even repairable condition?
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Hello folks, a bit of help would be appreciated,
thanks.!
the body looks fucked.
you'd need to spend at least $5-10k to make it look like a decent car.
You may be able to get it to a running condition for $1200 but it will look like a junkie mobile
As a project car? Sure.
As a first car you'll need to get up an running in order to use? Fuck no, are you stupid?
Unless you're a master mechanic that has already rebuilt several cars, use your money to buy one that actually runs.
thanks man, is body work the most expensive part of buying an old car, is a clean body what I should look for?
i dont *need* a car, but I take your point
yes it usually is. i can't tell from the pic but it looks rusty as fuck. welding jobs are not cheap and a decent respray costs at least $5k.
another pic
bi-turbo maserati for 3k
If it has rust don't bother. fixing rust on the inside of a rear fender will eat up your budget and worse if it's gotten under carpet inside the car.
How are you going to feel having sunk 5k into the rust repair and the car still not running when you could have bought a nice, working car for less?
Especially when your friends will have working cars that they might have gotten for less than 2000 dollars?
Pretty much this
Nope. Unless you're actually gonna pay 15k to get it competely restored I say hell no. For that just get a 350z and be done with it. Hell the ZX line was shit, if anything do it for a 240
No. Absolutely not. There are so many reasons to not do this. I'm a 57 year old man and I love cars, and I have extra resources to get fun cars and fix them up and would run from this one. No. Do not buy it.
As a guy who works and parts them out, I'd pass unless it was for parts car purposes.
The engines and the electrical systems are fairly simple to fix and get going, but the body just looks too rough. The frame rails are going to be shot, the spare tire well is going to be shot, T-Top seals are going to be shot, etc.
It's really not worth it.
Shit, I forgot to take off that stupid trip from the other night.
A sold an '82 280zx about a month ago for $450. It was running, but the body had major rust issues on the roof and spare tire well. You can find better ones out there than that one.
And all Z cars have rust!
How's the interior?
>And all Z cars have rust!
Main reason why there's so few in good condition
It will end up cheaper for you to just buy a decent one. Once a car gets to that state and hasn't ran in years, you won't get it back up and running with a proper rebuild. All the seals and shit in the engine will be cracked and fucked.
>$600
You Americans are lucky motherfuckers with your car prices, you don't even want to know what that would sell for here in Australia
You guys have way better deals on 86s though, ours are like $8000 for a molested one.
this
A restored one goes in Europe for over 15k euros.
Buy for 600$
Drop a few grand for restoration
Sell for 15 grand.
15 grand will require it to be mint. This will never be mint. Or at least not if a newbie tried to restore it with 2 grand.
what is it with all these idiots trying to get some beat up classic as a first car.
short answer: No.
its going to cost more money and time than you think, and is going to have thousands and thousands of dollars worth of costs you didnt think about. do yourself a favor and get some early 2000s jap shitbox
Why in the hell would you spend $600 on some piece of shit 280ZX (Not the 280ZX, this particular example is the piece of shit).
I understand the idea of wanting to take something in really bad condition and making it something incredible, but I don't get why people go crazy cheap? And you sure as hell shouldn't get some shitty project car if it's your only car.
These aren't expensive cars and there are plenty of them around in much better condition.
Must have been a big night indeed
Think of it this way man: People are saying a nice one of these will go for $15k, do you honestly think you can put ~$14,400 of work into it with $1,200?
Cheap RWD is a waning commodity
"No"
My bro literally tried to do exactly this with that exact model car and it never ended up being a driver. Now it's 20 years older than his was then so... no.
Depends on what engine it has... N/A or turbo? And what trans... You could have a fucking rocket if that has a turbo engine and you are willing to tune it up.
As the owner of a 74 dats ill tell you straight up that for $600 this car is cancer
>no hood scoop
>81 so prob auto
>def not the close ratio 5
>Should I buy this 1981 Datsun $600 that won't start?
Can you do rudimentary diagnosis before buying it? There's a lot of very simple issues that could prevent it from starting. I'm gonna assume you tried with gas in the tank and a new battery. Does it turn over?
>If I just buy the repair manual will I be good to go?
You also need tools and parts, potentially quite rare and expensive parts.
>How unreasonable is it to expect the engine to be in an even repairable condition?
Let's say I wouldn't bet 600 bucks on it.
Do it, whats the worst that can happen? you'll lose time and money and the car will never run. in that case find some other moron and sell it to recoup some loses and move on.
It'll make me wonder why I care so much about my friend's cars
All '81 Turbos were Autos. Nissan didn't think their manual was strong enough for it.