Your take on the old 72' 240Z?

[MaChu]

I need a different vehicle, so one day I decided to start looking. The $500 87 Dakota wasn't cutting it and needed to be retired(lol it only goes up to 80mph and has 200,000+ miles being put out to pasture as a work/beater truck). Was looking for an old American muscle car to restore like a Duster or Chevelle, but I couldn't pass up on this deal for a 240Z. Brand new paint job, original engine, a few dings here and there on the bumpers, some rust spots under and in, interior needs to be restored, runs ok, and all for the low price of $2k compared to building a car that would run to $5-6k. Ok its not that great, but its better than what I got! Also its better than going the riced out Honda with coffee can and sticker accessories thats for sure plus that would cost more than what Im getting this car for.

I was thinking of doing a Chevy 350ci V8 conversion and make it a sleeper for those Mustang owners who think its just a straight 6 but that will have to wait till I get some more money together Pics coming soon!

Do you think I got ripped off? Have any of the AO had a Z? Any advice?

Here is what Im hoping it to look like when everything is done:



Here is what it sorta looks like now except black. Minus the awesome rims and spoiler. Oh don't forget to imagine some wear here and there lol.(get real pics in a few days):





Matt

[RetroEclipseMan]

Man, that's a pretty good deal if it's in good condition and a V8 swap would be killer. If I had to the time and of course cash to rebuild a car I think it would have to be one of those. You happen to know what kind of rims are on the red one? Those would look awsome on my MKII GTi.

[vf-xx]

Dude You Gotta paint that bad boy silver and black and call him Prowl...

[MaChu]

...or not






























Matt
(regarding those rims, don't have a clue pulled pics off of google sorry )

[PyRo]

It looks like a miniature corvette wanna be.

[Konigballer]

the v8 swaps a pretty sweet idea.

[tony emerson]

this is a link if you want to do the 350 swap.

[ShinyGuy]

A 350 will kill the handling. Now a ford 302 pushed all the way to the back of the engine bay would be a kick... and the car should be ballenced much the same.

[FragTek]

And it would be a Ford engine... end of story.

I used to have a '90 300ZX TT that was pretty kill, I have always liked Nissan's automobiles, they seem to be quality.

[PyRo]

Why would you put a ford in, keep the I6 :)

[Mango]

The Ford 302 is one of the best engines ever built. Why does everyone always say "Oh its a Ford.. blah blah" There is nothing wrong with it! Do your homework before you make ignorant statements.


Oh and that Z car is nice. Personally, I would restore it to factory original condition and save it. 10 years down the road it might be a very collectable item. If you mod it then 10 years later it will only depreciate.

[cphilip]

Those original Nissan engines would last forever. Rebuild it. Or find a junker to rebuild. No unheard of to see them go 300K

[MaChu]

Yeah Ive thought about restoring it to factory condition but that alone with all original parts which are hard to find comes to a total of at least $10k This is gonna be my daily driver and a chevy motor is easy to find around these parts. You can find a donor Camaro for low as $1k and all it will need is a new headgasket. I want to do the V8 swap because of these reasons:

1.350 SBC(Small Block Chevy) are easy to work on
2.SBC's parts are cheap
3.Coolness factor
4.With the swap and some aluminum parts, the car ways about the same, not killing the handling at all
5.Power, gobs of it
6.When tuned, runs at 20-24mpg which is better than what Im getting in my truck now and is about 2mpg less than what the I6 gets now
7.The JTR manual tells you how to do it step by step(www.jagsthatrun.com)

But these are future plans. Im probably going to rebuild the engine anyways and run with it for a year and do the V8 swap later*sigh*

[cphilip]

How about just finding a nice 2.4L Altima engine in the junk yard? make sure you get the Magic box for it too... that would make it screamin!

[FragTek]

Or find a 3.0L TT engine from a 90-96 300ZX :)

That would REALLY make it scream. hehe.