Located in Myerstown, Pennsylvania, and listed for sale here on eBay is this 1977 Datsun 280Z. The car has a clear title and is listed with a BIN of $1,800, but there is the option to make an offer.

The seller only provides two external shots of the car plus this close-up of one of the corroded areas of the 280. He states that it has rust and filler in all of the “normal spots”, so we’re looking at the bottoms of the front fenders and the rear quarters, the bottoms of the doors as well as the rockers. I would also be taking a pretty close look around the windshield and the side glass for good measure. There is some pretty severe rust in the rear hatch. However the seller is including a replacement hatch with the car. Given the environment that it appears to have been sitting for an extended period I would most certainly want to have a pretty decent look at the underside of this little Datsun to rule out any possible structural issues. There is also a hole in the windshield (bb gun?) that may be able to be repaired, although the windshield may need to be replaced.

The interior is going to require some work. The seats are from a 74-76 model, except for the passenger seat. The rear seat and rear plastic trim both look to be in pretty decent condition, but the front seats are going to require new covers so that they all match. It’s a bit hard to tell from the provided shots, but it appears that the dash may be intact and crack-free. If so then that’s a huge bonus. The console also looks to be in good condition except for a hole where the factory radio would have been. The rest of the plastic trim looks like it would restore okay, but we can’t accurately assess the state of the door trims from the provided shots. The carpet will need to find a new home in the back of the nearest garbage truck.

The good news under the hood is that the L28 engine is a runner. The seller has fitted a new coil and fuel filter, and with a fresh splash of gas and some tinkering it burst into life. The L28 engine is notoriously bullet-proof, so that’s a real positive with these cars. Depending on your point of view, either fortunately or unfortunately the engine is backed by an auto transmission. Whether it remained that way would depend on your own personal tastes, but I would be tempted to replace it myself. Before it hits the wide-open roads it is going to need to be checked as there is a real possibility that there will be some further work to be done to make it both mechanically safe and sound. The car does sit on new tires which is another plus.

The 240/260/280Z has become one of the more desirable series of cars to have emerged from the Japanese car industry in the 1970s. Prices continue to soar as people really begin to appreciate what a nice car these are to own and drive. The seller states that it is too good to part out, and if it is structurally sound it would make a good basis for a project. What I will say is that I’ve scrolled back through any of these that we’ve featured here on Barn Finds since the start of this year and this is the cheapest that we’ve seen by a very long way. That alone might make it worth considering.