Few cars define the rise of Japanese sports cars in America like the Datsun 240Z, and this early-production 1970 Series 1 is a rare survivor. Listed here on eBay by a private seller, this Z wears VIN HLS30-10683, marking it as one of the earliest cars imported. Even more remarkable, the odometer shows just 7,000 miles. Pulled from long-term barn storage, this untouched original is offered with a clean title, original manuals, and keys.
The photos show exactly what you’d expect from a decades-long hibernation: a thick coat of dust, leaves piled on the body, and the unmistakable look of a long-forgotten car. Despite its barn-fresh appearance, the blue paint is believed to be factory original, complete with the kind of patina many collectors prefer over fresh paint. The Series 1 details are all here too, including the vented rear hatch, vertical defroster lines, and pillar badges unique to these early Z-cars.
The seller describes the undercarriage as solid, with no significant rust-through. That’s a crucial point, since corrosion is the downfall of many Z-cars. Even after years of storage, the body lines remain straight, and the chrome bumpers and trim look restorable. The rear view highlights just how complete this car is, down to the original lights and badging.
Under the hood sits the numbers-matching L24 inline-six with twin SU carburetors, paired to a 4-speed manual gearbox. The seller notes that the engine turns and runs, though it will need a full recommissioning before returning to the road. That’s hardly surprising for a car that’s been sitting for decades, but with its originality, this Z is a prime candidate for a careful revival.
Inside, the cabin is somewhat well preserved. The original upholstery, dash, and switchgear remain in place, showing wear but also clear evidence of the claimed low mileage. Even the factory steering wheel and shift knob are present. A set of green covers protect the original seats, and the dash appears largely uncracked, which is rare for an early Z.
Documentation includes the early VIN plate, manuals, and service history verifying the 7,000-mile claim. With demand for early 240Zs continuing to surge, examples like this, low-mileage, original, and Series 1, are increasingly hard to find. For collectors, the choice will be whether to restore it or preserve its barn-find status.
Would you clean this 240Z up and keep it as a survivor, or take it down the path of a full restoration?
To answer your question I wouldn’t get near this car until the seller does a complete outside/inside clean up on it.
That’s an understatement. The ASK on this is PRECISELY what legalizing marijuana is problematic. All judgement and sense of proportion is thrown out with common sense. GLWTS>
If you get this car it would be a project car and part of the project is for you to clean it up,,,why does everybody just want a car that all they have to do is put gas in it and drive.
Which way I went with this would depend on what was found after a good cleaning. It will definitely need hoses, belts, fluids and tires. If there is no rust I’d say leave it as a survivor, if there is rust repair especially on painted surfaces then it’s a restoration. It would be very difficult to match that old paint. I’d love to have it either way.
The paint formulas are available for these cars and many others this age. The yellow for our racing Sprites is Porsche 914 Sunshine Yellow bought over the counter at NAPA. Color for the Datsun should be on it somewhere on the car and can be used to find the formula.
Forgot… Most good repair shops have equipment that can “shoot” painted surfaces and give you a mix that matches faded paint etc. for small areas.
Looks like it’s had at least a partial repaint after seeing
the overspray on the ID tag.
Located in Panguitch,Utah.Why do you & Jeff almost
never include the location?
And they don’t always give the price. The two things I always look for. Price and location.
And manual/automatic transmission
20K and not one engine photo? And how does the seller know the undercarriage is rust free? With that mud floor in the shed, that car could be a real mess. Meh.
Agee with Rex Kahrs comments all the way!
You can click on the EBay add, they have photos of the engine. That car looks like it’s seen a lot more than 7000 miles, I think it rolled over? Just a quick glance and there are several things missing, the two grills on the hatch, one of the choke levers. The seats are torn in the Ebay ad.
This one is very far from the earliest 240Z. It appears to be the 10,683rd example built. I once owned VIN number 51 (HLS30-00051). This was the 18th earliest survivor: https://bringatrailer.com/2013/11/21/bat-exclusive-the-18th-earliest-surviving-datsun-240z/
I wouldn’t believe anything in the ad with regards to its condition. Looking at the pictures and paying attention to wear items, overspray, seat cover and later model rims aren’t what you’d expect on a 7,000 mile car.
If the seller has any form of documentation, show it. I’ll never figure out why a seller wouldn’t show at least some of the cars documentation in an ad, if the actually have some.
The seller is on a fishing expedition, they’ve read too many articles that show dusty cars bringing good money, those days have largely passed. Take a couple of pictures where and how you found it, then clean it up, that will go a long way towards making the seller look serious.
Steve R
There is no way this car’s actual mileage matches the odometer reading. If it does my expectation would be the tires are OE. The date-codes on the tires will the truth.
If there ARE date codes on the tires that’d be a dead giveaway. I don’t think date coding started until 2000.
Date coding has been around for a long time. 1970 tires would have had a date. It did change in 2000, as it went from a three digit date code to a four digit code. Pre-2000 you couldn’t be sure of the decade the tires were made because the first two digits were the week of build and the third digit was the year of the decade built (8 for example could be ’78, ’88, ’98, etc.). After 2000 the third and fourth numbers were the year (’04, ’14, ’24).
The odometer on these cars only have 5 positions. The odometer would show 7000, if the car has 107000 actual miles. Without a lot more pictures and other documentation I can’t see this car topping $5K. The overspray on the ID plate says this car has been resprayed. Would be nice to see the seats under those seat covers.
I am still mad about that Pearl Harbor, so I’m out
50K bin? Good observations by others. Overspray on the vin plate, missing parts on the back interior, non factory wheels, no way it’s 7k. Also they incorrectly state the manufacture date as 9/69. It’s clearly shown as 9/70. WTF? You all have said it before, how can you ask big money for a car you can’t be bothered to clean? I would love to get 50k out of my good running ’71 vin of 11516. But that’s beyond a pipe dream.
This car has been repainted in a two stage (base/clear) paint, which is not a factory process on these cars. The clear is peeling over the driver’s quarter glass, along with a prodigious amount of what appears to be body filler cracking and rust present. Having seen that, I would definitely peel back the vinyl covering the inner rocker access holes, and have a look around the seat belt mounting point with a borescope, as this area is composed of four layers of metal, if my memory serves me. Fortunately, most problem areas on these now have quality panels available (KF Vintage), but they can be pricey.
The iron cross wheels appear to have all their caps (at least from what can be seen), but they are also from a later ZX as they were shipped on 79-80 vehicles- another indication of lack of originality.
It is also missing some pretty expensive emblems, as the hood emblem, lower front fender scripts, and C pillar badges have all been shaved, and no doubt went missing long ago.
Clean bumpers without the rubber cover bolt holes are tend to be almost always out of stock.
The wait list for a set of rebuilt and rebushed SUs will run you about a year and around $2000. I’m curious if the original air cleaner is present- another expensive item!
This is long term neglect not long term storage. Good luck with that asking price they can not even clean it up much less even one engine photo.
Hagerty shows a #4 car is “only” worth $9300. A #4 car runs and drives.
According to Hagerty, 50K should get you a #2 “excellent” car.
Great example of selling “the idea” of a barn find rather than selling the car. I get the idea of taking a few photos in situ and then cleaning it to show the rust. You don’t drive a dirt encrusted car around. Remember not all surprises are pleasant!
50K? Nope.
Rubles?…Sheckels?…
Looks like mice been into it. Probably chewed all the wiring up.
WOW. Spectacular pictures. They answer any and all questions I could ever dream of asking.
This is either a scam or the seller has no clue, for a 7000 mile car the paint would not be as faded especially setting in a barn, the overspray on the data plate takes out his all original paint claim, if you look at the pics I can see heavy cracking in the paint on upper part of the rear quarter, there is more than 7000 miles of grim on the seat cover that’s not from sitting it’s from being sat in. I’m going with 107k and the seller needs to lay off the sauce with the asking price as high as one in excellent condition.
Effective scams are priced under market, the perpetrators want people (victims) to drop their guard and make a rash decision out of fear of missing out. The internet refers to that as FOMO.
Steve R
There’s no way the floor pans aren’t rusted through. Even if it didn’t touch so much as table salt, these cars, as everyone knows, are VERY rust prone.
50k and 7k original miles? yeah, right looks like 107k. this thing looks it had its a** handed to it then thrown in a barn. also has late model wheel as well. i think he will be sitting on this for a while unless seller gets real about his price
Any more dirt you could lease it to an Iowa farmer for next year’s corn and soybean crop. Should get 200 bushels off of it during harvest season!
One of the worst listings ever, but the seller is a newbie and beside this car is only selling sub $10 items. I’m tempted to e-mail the guy (or girl) and give them a quick lesson. The back story on this car could be interesting.
Horn button is missing, steering column cover missing, heater control missing, ashtray filthy, heavily worn seat covers and it looks like the shift knob has damage. Maybe a 107,000 mile car?
Just what is “no significant rust-through” mean?
I take that to mean having rust-through, but it’s not a significant amount.
Still 0 bids. I agree with everyone else. 107,000 or 207,000 miles. The wheels are from a much later “Z” (280Z maybe?) Amco shift knob and paint overspray? Why additional tail lamps lying in the luggage area? This car was wrecked and in the last stages of repair when engine issues raised its ugly head. Being 107,000 miles, my bet is that the valves had never been adjusted and it was running poorly. (Had a 240Z come in running on 3 cylinders. Left running on 6 cylinders very nicely.) Or it puked a head gasket due to lack of cooling system maintenance. IF the car is not rusty. (And sitting up to it’s body in dirt makes me REALLY anxious about body rot) I’m guessing that you could easily spend an additional $6,000-$8,000 on this car (doing the work yourself) just on mechanicals. I love 240Zs, And all make me nervous not just for the body rot. But I have not good memories of rear parking brake corrosion making rear brake disassembly ‘A LOT OF FUN!” NOT! . So far no bids. The 240Z crowd knows enough to stay away. There is enough scary things about this car to consider it anything but a parts car. And the price is enough to scare the parts car people away.
No one has mentioned the presence of winter tires. That is a very scary thought, considering this is a model that started rusting on the trip from Japan.
That odometer has rolled over at least once.
In the last picture with the maybe spare tire, looks like a lot of wear for only 7k.
Would b a great project at 15k
Do you think it’s worth 15K dogwater?
I’m curious as I own a good running one that truly is close to rust free, but has an old terrible repaint.
My question is how many mice are included in the deal?
If it has only 7K road miles on it, perhaps the final mile was logged when it was driven into a lake, polluted with preservative chemicals.
Even if it only had 7k miles (which I am certain that it has at least 107k miles). It has been stored extremely improperly. Requires a complete tear down restore. Which would put the price at half of the 15k starting point which has zero bids. It does appear to have most of the parts and is dent free.
I’ve enjoyed all the informative comments on this car. All I can say is if I wanted this Z I would have to do an in person inspection and have a knowledgeable person with me.
Keep it encapsulated!
So, how do you get an odometer to only show the last 7,000 miles of mud driven road?
Had a buddy that decided to sell his car and play with the odometer reading. He hooked an electric motor to the speedometer cable to roll the miles around. (Evidently not a reversible drill) He watched and timed the progress so that he would know when to turn off the motor. Initially the motor had the odo whirling around at 340 mph. So he set his alarm to wake him when it would be getting close to “believable” mileage. Well, evidently the motor slowed down during the night because when he got up at 3AM to turn it off. The motor was now only spinning a out 220 mph. So decided to wait it out. Fell asleep and woke up to the approximate mileage he started with! He hooked the speedometer cable backup and now the speedometer made noise.
The odometer on a 240Z only has 5 digits so that when it turns over from 99999 it will be zero again. The car was then driven another 7000 miles. What we don’t know is if this is 107000 or it could be 207000 miles.
All righty then!