“Just lost interest” are three words many of us with long-term projects can understand. If you’ve got a few coins in your pocket and can pick up a project for cheap, it always seems like a good idea to simply grab it and decide later what to do with it. In general, cars like this 1977 Datsun 280Z here on craigslist can seem like smart buys provided they aren’t rusty, as the market for vintage sports cars like this one continues to go up and up. This particular Z is equipped with an automatic and partially disassembled, however, so the asking price of just $800 seems more than fair.
$800 is nothing these days in the old-school Z car market, even for one with these options. Obviously, the early cars are the most desirable, as are those cars equipped with a manual gearbox. The later models got saddled with a few different detractions, from heavy-handed emissions equipment to big safety bumpers to heavier curb weights. The seller’s car also has the added “ding” of being somewhat torn down, so the next owner will have re-assembly to do if they choose to move this immobile project from his garage to their own.
As you can see, the 280Z looks reasonably straight (and dusty) down the sides. I can’t tell if the glass has been removed or if that back quarter window has been smashed out; it looks like there are the rough edges of a broken window visible. The Datsun is sitting on jack stands at the moment, so someone had big plans to re-do this car, and the seller mentions he grabbed it while on state’s orders with the National Guard in 2010. The Z was found in Tullahoma, TN, so it presumably has been a southern car for quite some time.
The engine doesn’t appear to have been messed with too much, and in general, it’s hard to tell what work the seller did do. The interior is still intact and underhood doesn’t appear to have been messed with, so was this a situation where he simply got the car home, put it up in the air, and decided what to do with it? Hard to say. You can see in one of the engine bay photos that the firewall is a robin’s egg blue in color which was absolutely a factory paint job back in the day (“Light Blue Metallic”, perhaps?); personally, I’d love to see it returned to that color if the next owner pursues a proper restoration.
I lost interest too.
Not even a stick shift.
Parts car?
Worth way more in parts, automatic not.
Not only is it an automatic, but it’s also a 2+2, so it’s even less desirable. However, $800 is pretty cheap.
Owners of the 2+2 model rarely seem to differentiate between their’s and the normal 2 seater. Z car purists don’t usually care for the 4 seater. I don’t. So this one has 2 things going against it. The second being the transmission.
Worst Zed car ever produced, but at 800 bucks? Did a time portal open or something?
2+2 version with an automatic, has had a color change and is in rough shape in and out. $800 makes attractive but you won’t get much change from a $10,000 bill after you’ve fixed it up, made it roadworthy and addressed the interior.
This one looks like it has potential, at least it’s priced right to sell. I wish I lived closer I’d snap this one up.
I had a 79 [i think] ZX 2 seater/5speed, was a lot of fun but was unfortunately rusty. I fixed most of it, but it was another one of those somebody wanted it more than me. Driving it around with primer replacement fenders with 15″ Enki wheels and fat tires, a header with a full Ansa exhaust made it desirable even needing paint.
it was a very fast interstate cruiser for sure ….
Got a far as pulling the radio out. That didn’t take long to lose interest.