This 1970 Datsun 240Z was supposedly under restoration before the owner developed health issues and could not finish the project. Based on the description, the Z car will come with a ton of useful spares for finishing the project, and it sounds like the previous owner was a stickler for using OEM parts, as the 240Z will even come with a factory battery. Find the 240Z here on eBay with bids to $11,100 and no reserve.
The vents in the rear deck lid indicate to me that this is a desirable Series 1 car; of course, the gate could have always been swapped on from an earlier car, so if there are any other ways to tell whether this is a genuine Series 1, please let us know in the comments. The orange paint is one of my favorite shades to find a vintage Z car in, and I’d like to know if it’s original. The seller indicates that the previous owner never got to the paint stage, so if you want a perfect finish, the Z will need to be repainted.
Personally, I wouldn’t touch it. The interior suggests that the paint is original, given the color of the floors beneath the carpeting and the door jam. The black interior is a perfect pairing for the orange exterior, and all but guarantees this will be a stunning car when it’s complete. Although the market has cooled a bit for the original Z car, the earliest 240Z models are still sought after, so this one will most likely be completely restored.
The seller indicates that most of the restoration work completed before the previous owner fell ill was of the mechanical variety. He calls out the fact that the “…. engine head (was) completely worked and going back with it, new plugs, wire’s, motor mounts, suspension, clutch, brakes…..” and plenty more. The seller indicates rust is minimal, so hopefully this is a straightforward restoration without the expense or time required by an extensive body restoration – and it’s made even more tempting with the no reserve listing.
Seller obviously not a car salesman but this car looks to be a good one. Even with things still to do finding a rust free Z is rare these days. This is the color on the Z I ordered new and and never got.
What air filter! I see no carbs!
Vertical rather than horizontal grid wires in the rear defroster indicate that this is a very early 1970 car.
nice, just plain nice!!!
Bingo! Love these!
I agree with Bill – I owned #00248 as well as #1793 and based on those cars, it appears to be a nice, solid low vin car.
In addition to the vertical defroster, it has the early non vented emblems – the originals should be metal. Also, the center console looks to be the early type, with the fuse panel cover. It doesn’t have the hand throttle, so it’s most likely not a super low, sub-1000 car. Early style steering wheel. It would be interesting to see what mph the speedo starts with – that was changed earlier on in the 240 build cycle. Battery box looks solid, the tail light finisher seems to be the right color for early cars. Another nice piece that it has is the early style air cleaner.
No affiliation’s with the seller, but from the pictures, someone is going to get a smoking deal!
Best year. Buy this, they are constantly going up in price.
Watch out for hidden rust ! Parts are worth their weight in gold as nobody makes them ,not even MOTORSPORT, NISSAN made a production run of all the parts in the late 90s when they were restoring the cars but no more!
I bought a shiny new Series 1 240Z in August, 1970. Blue/blue. What I found distinguishing is that the headlight ‘buckets’ were fiberglass. And there was a drivetrain rumble above 80 mph that Datsun denied ever existed.
Bryan , the center console is correct for early ’70-’71 240Z . USA cars only had a console mounted “choke” lever , non-USA Z’s were fitted with a choke lever (controlling both carbs) and a console mounted “throttle cable” to be used to let the engine idle be raised especially in colder climates and weather so the carbs wouldn’t load-up on the choke settings only. These throttle cables were a carryover from the 1600 / 2000 roadsters, pull out and twist to lock in position.
Yeah, where are the Hitachi’s? This car appears to hold a lot of promise!