[88carrera]

Hi everyone,

Happy New Year and I hope everyone is enjoying the blizzard.

I am actively negotiating to purchase a choice of 1974 Datsun 260z from one seller.

Car #1 has had more work in terms of non running gear upgrades and supposedly has been restored one time.

Car #2 has a hot motor (says he spent $8,000 on it), and had a simple repaint (you can see the original green everywhere), and floorboards were replaced.

I keep going back and forth between the hot motor car that needs more work on the rest of the car (and crappy paint job), or the older restoration one with the stock motor? I am leaning towards the hot motor as I feel replacing other parts would not costs me $8,000 to build an equivalent motor on the blue car? What's your advice?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Car #1 is blue and has the following according the the seller:

"The blue Z was a full rotisserie job. The body is perfect as far as I can tell including the frame rails, floors, door jambs, hatch rails etc. The paint is excellent with exception of some early checking from sun exposure on the very top of the roof. This car has""

Upgraded electrical on everything using popular relay kits and new wires(70's car electronics are terrible)
Rear disk brake upgrade
Refreshed motor with original block
SU-therapy 3-screw carbs
3.90 rear end
5 speed manual transmission
The ultra light Y70 flywheel
Rebuilt half shafts with new u-joints
3- core aluminium radiator
JDM tail lights
Refurbished fuel tank (inside and out)
ST springs
Tokiko blue shocks
All-new poly suspension
Every clamp and bracket was CAD plated for an OEM look
Wiper brackets were removed and replated, this is under the cowel
NEW headlight switch (pretty sure you can buy these anymore)
All new hoses
New weatherstripping (weatherstripping on these cars is tough to get right, the driver door is tight)


Car #2 is silver:

"My silver Z has a new Rebello 3.0 tuned to the neighborhood of almost 300HP and weighs 2440 with half a tank of gas. The power to weight ratio will blow the doors off of a Porsche Cayman S (confirmed) and hit 80 in second gear. There are a few rust scars that have been treated and painted because the damage was in inconspicuous areas. I feel comfortable saying there is no active rust because I would have addressed it the moment it was discovered. The rear defroster doesnt work and the blinkers dont cancel too well after turning, otherwise everything works. This car is also A/C ready which is my next big project. The evaporator is already installed in the dash and i have the rest of the parts in my garage.

The silver car was always built with the intent on function so wherever possible I included modern amenities. The car as a whole is "all-nissan" in that all of the major parts are Nissan (no motor swap) but its not numbers matching and the interior is not stock. All interior mods are reversible and I made sure not to butcher anything in the process."

[HoodPin]

Floor boards and front frame rails were notorious cancer sites.

The cars also had fuse block problems. Worn/poor connections led to overheating and melt downs.

And OEM 260Z had crappy carbs and was prone to vapor lock. Many were upgraded with older 240 carbs or something else.

IIRC, 74 was the last year of the 260Z. 1975 debuted the fuel injected 280Z.

But IMHO, the early Z cars were amazing, simple, & fun to drive. Sorta like an early 944.

[N0tt0N]

Love the Z!

[smdubovsky]

Pricing equal, its a no brainer for the blue car. Stock(ish) and numbers matching will be worth more down the road. You can source a bigger motor and swap or upgrade yourself fairly cheap. Proper bodywork is *EXPENSIVE*. There is easily $8k+++ of work to get the silver car in the same shape as the blue if you are paying someone else to do it.

[Trak Ratt]

Originally Posted by smdubovsky

Pricing equal, its a no brainer for the blue car. Stock(ish) and numbers matching will be worth more down the road. You can source a bigger motor and swap or upgrade yourself fairly cheap. Proper bodywork is *EXPENSIVE*. There is easily $8k+++ of work to get the silver car in the same shape as the blue if you are paying someone else to do it.

#1 for me!!! Full restoration and as SMD says "a no brainer." Beside someone else's "hot" motor is meaningless if not what you'd do. I'd rather have a perfect chassis to work with than someone else's idea of "hot."

[HoodPin]

FWIW, I'm not sure the 260's will ever command the collector interest that a pristine 240 can. On all-numbers matching 260 with OEM everything, is still a crappy running car.

There may be some merit to the blue car from a fun-for-the-buck$ perspective. But as everyone has said, it will never be a true collectible.

If you're looking for a collectible, I'd hold out for a workable 240Z instead; 1970 was the earliest and rarest, continued to 1973. But do note, the late '73 240's were equipped with the same crappy carbs on the 260. It was Datsun's first attempt to deal with new emissions regs. The performance was so bad, they quickly upped the motor to 2,600 CC's, and the 260 was born in '74. But still crappy, and didn't last long. They upped displacement to 2,800 and added fuel injection in '75, in the 280Z, finally resolving performance and emissions. IMHO, a number's matching '75 has the potential to be collectible, because of its improved OEM performance. Unfortunately, the car bloated into a heavier cruiser over the next several years.

[Trak Ratt]

^ yes and you could buy a really nice 356 cab in the '70s for next to nothing, and short hoods in the '90 for a couple of thousand. Looking at the prices of SCs and mid years says a nice 260/280 would be a nice ride today and a good investment for tomorrow.

After having some chassis work done on our 356 and '71 six or 7 years ago I can attest to good body work being pricy

[HoodPin]

^ Point taken.

[Cliff Claven]

Originally Posted by HoodPin

FWIW, I'm not sure the 260's will ever command the collector interest that a pristine 240 can. On all-numbers matching 260 with OEM everything, is still a crappy running car.

this (or find a 240)

[88carrera]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the feed back. This is just a car to use and wrench on for fun. I can no longer afford an air cooled 911 so this 260z is a very low entry price boredom beater. I did search initially for 240z but ok cars have followed the air-cooled market explosion and are already commanding $25k-30k.

I was bitten by the z bug after watching (and listening to this glorious exhaust) this video on Petrolicious http://petrolicious.com/dare-to-be-d...#!kmt-start=30 (BTW does anyone know what exhaust is on this car in the video? I swear it sounds like a Ferrari).

I will move forward with the blue 260z.