1982 280zx Datsun

Thinking about purchasing this as a project car. The one im looking at is for sale for $1000 and has been garage kept so HOPEFULLY rust isnt an issue. The owner says it hasn't ran since 2013.

Rust is always an issue

A L W A Y S

Does the owner have any idea what the problem is? If not I hope you have good troubleshooting skills.

nope , here's a run down of the ad:
>hasn't ran since 2013
>will need smog
>"newer plugs and wires"
>fuel drained, replaced fuel filter

so here's my question : do you guys think this is worth the time and money to restore ?

How soon do you expect to start driving, how much are you expecting to dump into this, and do you have the time to dump into this?

Come and take this piece of shit off my neighbors driveway. Hasn't run in over 20 years, both original owners are deceased.

I'm tired of looking at it and wondering just how much work it needs, its sad, it belonged to the old guys wife, she died like 30 years ago and he just let it rot, never was willing to sell, never fixed it up or drove it.

Now he's dead too, and his children dont want any of his hoarder-trash.

So its for sale along with 2 broken down Ford Econolines and a 5spd Ford Escort that actually runs pretty well.

Is that a stock image or the actual car? $1,000 for a 2.8 sounds good to me, but be fucking warned Z parts are rare and expensive.

You know when you're at Walmart buying spoons and they have a 6 pack for 88 cents (GM) or 6 pack for $19.99 (oneida) and you think what kind of retard is gonna pay $20 for spoons? You will be with any parts for these sexmachines.

t. Z owner

expect to start driving within atleast a year. im expecting to dump a max of $5,000 every 6 months. I have really only the weekends to work on it.

stock image

Where? Ugly paint, needs to be yellow in honor of that Veeky Forumstist who got rear ended.

Sonoma County, California.

And please, take one of the shitty vans too, I want my fucking parking spot back.

The senile old fuck lost the keys after parking it in front of my house. Isnt that a nice, neighborly thing to do? Get a car running just long enough to limp it in front of somebody else's house and then let it die and stop caring until the day you die.

If you've never done any heavy work on a car before, you're in for a rough time. Don't expect to just fix it up in your driveway without some serious headaches. I don't know how much mechanical experience you have, but it'll burn you out if you're working a day job and then going home and in all your spare time fixing up a project car.

Expect to fix just about everything too. Fuel system is most likely trashed, carbs are going to have to be rebuilt and synced, suspension is most likely trashed, etc.

There was a guy on >jalopnik who rebuilt a 300ZX TT after dumping 8k and 5 months worth of weekends into it, and iirc parts for the car you're looking at are a fair bit more pricy.

I won't stop you, just know what you're getting into.

Oh and I forgot the best part, they had a really nice paint job done after the wife died, and they just left it in the sun and rain for 20-something years.

What a lovely way to honor her memory.

And it gets weirder, the dude was a pastor, so he got all these Asians who obviosly dont have citizenship to come and live in his house.

24 hours a day there are at least 2 Asians smoking on the front porch. A tree fell onto the roof last winter and they didnt do anything about it for 2 weeks, just letting the rainwater leak through the holes in the roof, with the fucking massive tree still sitting on the house.

So yeah. For about $50 you could probably have everything in the driveway and back yard, just bring a big truck because you'll need it for the 200 bicycles sitting in the tall grass.

Like fp said, it doesn't matter how nice it looks, it's going to have rust somewhere.
The EFI system and the car in general is pretty easy to go through, and there's plenty of people on the forums and facebook pages that can help you troubleshoot.

this guy is sort of right. Some body panels and shit can be expensive, but engine, trans, brakes and suspension is pretty cheap in general. You can find parts cars cheap enough and often enough for things to be okay.

Shit, if you're anywhere near SW Ohio, I've got a bunch of parts for both ZXs and Zs. I've got spare sets of carbs and manifolds as well, if you want to ditch the EFI

the Z32 is a special kind of bullshit, but even then that jalopnik article was kind of shit and doesn't even reflect the more vintage generations

Z31, S130, and S30 chassis are much cheaper to play with in general (other than the heftier buy in price on a not as rusty S30 chassis), and 1k should get damn near any Z running and driving well enough again. Probably still need body, frame, and paint, but dailyable at the least.

I've been fucking with them for the last decade and me and a lot of other Z guys have done this exact thing plenty of times.

Have anything for a 300zx? Are you in dayton?

Only Z31 stuff I got is the turbo ECU, dizzy wheel, and ecu pigtails I'm throwing on my Z later.

Middletown. Know a few guys up in Dayton though. What are you looking for?

Very cheaply priced passenger fender for my 87 and some interior pieces, window motors are btfo too. Hood/rear badge.

post yer Z nigger

Only one.5 of them. The other, much nicer chassis is tucked away in another garage I have so I can just do a full restomod. And the S130 in the picture was a turbo donor

This one is going to be the turbo beatermobile. Fun fact, I bought it like 5 years ago, got it running with a turbo swap I got for 250, couldn't get a title. Said fuck it, sold it to a friend, sold the turbo swap for 750, played around with an Z31T for a little while.

Friend offered it back to me, I have another turbo swap laying around. I have a car to use as a title for a while. It's destiny

Z31T* not twins

My usual contact for Z31 shit is a guy up in Cbus.

A friend of mine had a lead on a pair of Z31s, one a turbo, in a junkyard in cinci. They were kind of hidden away in the yard so are probably still there. Want me to see if I can get some contact info for you?

>Cincinnati

Is he referring to Besslers or U-Pull? Don't see anything on their inventory but I'm a newfag at this, typically use ebay but

>$200 for 32 year old fender

You fucking cunt i was gonna get it first!

Nah, neither of those though Bessler's did have 6 or 7 Zs last I was there. That was a couple years ago though. Smaller junkyard.

Now that you mention it though, I know of another that probably still has some Z31s still in there.

Olinger auto parts, out by Auburn

4840 Layhigh Rd, Hamilton, OH 45013

Guy was really hard to work with though. Alright dude, but he was just a little weird about actually selling anything. Wanting to save shit for himself, or he wasn't sure what he wanted out of stuff. So I'd say don't lowball him, but have an actual offer in mind.

Couple years eh, doubt it's still there but may take a trip. Thanks for the tip bud.

No problem, good luck broski. If you come over to the S30 side, I've got tons of parts and contacts for that shit.

What I just don't have is time to do this stuff :V

Don't bother. just buy a mint one.