Past two years at Carlisle there have been running 260Z's in better shape for about $2k. I'd be awful inclined to spend just a bit more and get a much better car.
But, depending on what is under the hood, it might make a good parts car if you can get the price down low enough.
That thing is not going to be a quick fix and drive car. Bet you anything it needs sills, fenders, quarters, floors and new doors. And front frame legs. If you are up for that, it looks like a great car to perfect your skills over the next 5 to 10 years. Budget 20-30k for the whole deal.
Or, turn the logic around, If you bought one for 30k, how nice would it be? You could sell it in 5 years if you got bored and get your money back making the total project cost only be the interest cost of the loan. And that would be far less than the money you would spend on tools and consumables to do a restoration.
FYI, I was thinking more ALA Roadkill. Everyone here seems to be thinking very UN GRM...and full blown restoration lines.
Though I do appreciate everyone's concerns and points. (I've decided not to go with it.)
I had a 83 zx turbo. If I could find one of those I would be really tempted. Were the zx cars any better rust wise?
Mad_Ratel wrote: FYI, I was thinking more ALA Roadkill. Everyone here seems to be thinking very UN GRM...and full blown restoration lines. Though I do appreciate everyone's concerns and points. (I've decided not to go with it.)
i'd at least go look at it. it may be a shocker.
but chances are it's definitely a tuna-esque working late into the night for 10 years rust repair saga.
Mad_Ratel wrote: FYI, I was thinking more ALA Roadkill. Everyone here seems to be thinking very UN GRM...and full blown restoration lines. Though I do appreciate everyone's concerns and points. (I've decided not to go with it.)
Roadkill is a great show, and the Ratsun is a neat ride, but you'll notice how they never drive it and it always breaks. If you truly want a ratty car that you play with, and have no problem with it being a rusty nasty mess that your wife won't want even parked near the house, then that's cool. I couldn't deal with a car like that which I planned to put miles on at all.
In reply to dean1484:
They were a little better but thats not saying much
One of the best ways to figure out just how bad the rust is on any S30Z is to look at the battery tray. There is almost always rust (even on Cali cars that I've inspected) and due to the proximity to the front strut towers the structure of the unibody quickly becomes suspicious.
For ZX cars, it's the spare tire well, hatch and everything south of the drivers' seat including the rear driver seat mounts.
Mad_Ratel wrote: FYI, I was thinking more ALA Roadkill. Everyone here seems to be thinking very UN GRM...and full blown restoration lines. Though I do appreciate everyone's concerns and points. (I've decided not to go with it.)
Guilty as charged since that is the way I roll by default.
That said, if given a budget and the builders context, I can come up with creative options for that car for little money.
Buy it, Jam an old school junkyard small block in there (no matter ford or GM) and beat it like you stole it from the Ex. Collect scrap value after the challenge. Best place to obtain tin for repairing those pesky rust holes is to harvest from dead appliances.
But then again, you have moved on ...
My 240 has rusted in the floors and front dog legs. It looks about like the one that was posted but doesnt have rust anywhere else. I would say go give it a look and try to talk the seller down to 300$
NOHOME wrote:Mad_Ratel wrote: FYI, I was thinking more ALA Roadkill. Everyone here seems to be thinking very UN GRM...and full blown restoration lines. Though I do appreciate everyone's concerns and points. (I've decided not to go with it.)Guilty as charged since that is the way I roll by default. That said, if given a budget and the builders context, I can come up with creative options for that car for little money. Buy it, Jam an old school junkyard small block in there (no matter ford or GM) and beat it like you stole it from the Ex. Collect scrap value after the challenge. Best place to obtain tin for repairing those pesky rust holes is to harvest from dead appliances. But then again, you have moved on ...
That's the kind of GRM comment I was looking for lol.
I mean who cares if the frame is rusted if you've welded a cage into it to hold it goether right?
I really did not want to go all Nohome on it. :P (ala buy a donor miata and weld the body to it...)
Mad_Ratel said: really did not want to go all Nohome on it. :P (ala buy a donor miata and weld the body to it...)
Actually, dont discount the idea. Where that plan goes all difficult and time consuming is when it has to result in a civilized car with a V8 engine that your wife can drive.
A quick check tell me that the Miata is within an inch of the 240Z wheelbase. If you can live with the 1800cc engine, it would be a fairly painless swap to drop the ratty 280Z body on the Miata chassis. If you had a body damages salvage tittle Miata that drove fine otherwise and the 280z you show, I can easily see it for challenge $$$
Peeling a Miata to this level is probably easier than doing a floor replacement on the 240Z.
I honestly wonder..., if they are that close then maybe I do not actually fit in one anyways. (I have driven a 2002 miata and it required me to use the side of my foot for gas, then i had to left foot brake and clutch, big toe brake, little toe clutch...) It was teeny.
and no I could not live with 1800cc of notsoglory. Though it always seems to be the answer...
hmm. back to theoretic's. How would you manage the firewall? Looks like the miata's is several inches if not half a foot further forward than the z's.
To me you'd keep the miata's floorpans. add sheetmetal in front to account for the longer sitting area of the z. cut the firewall out of the miata.
I bet the shock towers are too high on the miata?
(goes back to nohome's thread to research).
Measure center to center of the seats to get an idea of where your line of vision is going to end up when looking out the 280z window.
Measure from the middle of the front wheel to where the steering wheel is on the two cars.
The above roller-skate will run and run well for well under $1000.
Lots of 240z dimensions on line
I literally just found that image and was on my way to post it here. The miata is 3" wider track wise and 2" wider width (66"vs 64.1"). (not sure what they are measuring)
craigslist shows me at least one shell for free (no motor and some body panels gone) another for $500 has no motor but has tranny and a 4.1 lsd dif.
No access to the 260z as I have not purchased it. But i'd like to continue researching first then decide.
How would you deal with the 1.2" shorter wheelbase of the miata? How would you "stretch" it to look properly? (1/2" would be fine but 1" will be noticeable).
Looks like center of cockpit area to front wheel is 3'-11 1/8" on the miata. (~47" vs 50" on the z). (L to F)
Mad_Ratel wrote: How would you deal with the 1.2" shorter wheelbase of the miata? How would you "stretch" it to look properly? (1/2" would be fine but 1" will be noticeable).
center front wheels in opening then appropriate flares to cover the extra track width cheated toward the front of the rear wheel opening effectively hiding the entire difference.
yeah, i've thought about that before.
3" track increase is only 1.5" per side.
The wheel wells look like they can stand a bit of filling out. Plus, the Miata 4x 100 mm bolt pattern gives you a world of wheel choices with many offsets.
Pretty sure I could hide .6" in the wheel openings without having to stretch anything on the chassis. Trust me, you dont want to mess with the Miata wheelbase unless you like problem solving.
If it was not a recession for my industry I'd have already gotten the z picked up... Nohome is in my head and just being abusive.
You are welcome.
The "not mentioned yet" caveat to any chassis swap is the amount of room it takes up. You are going to have (at least) two dismantled cars in-house, and that is more like 4 cars worth of space.
If you are willing to go ghetto and not mess with the running Miata rollerskate, this should be a no-brainer chassis swap; you could do it in a month. If it has to be civilized and seamless, it requires a lot of thought, a lot of Beer and a lot of work to finesse the scar where the two come together. Not doing the V8 swap would have saved me $15k (cause all new/rebuilt drivetrain and accessories) and a LOT of time. If I am being honest, also would have made the wife unit just as happy or happier than the V8 swapped car.
I've found two maybe even three miata donors for free. (not running but chassis intact).
I still see a fair amount of rust fixing though. i.e. The rockers and door's will still need rust repair. Adding both chassis drawings into Autocad and I've found that the above two drawings are both not to scale. (GRRR I HATE it when a designer does not use scale.) I see a few things that jump out at me though. The normal z has the wheels closer to the body than the ends. (i.e not centered in the openings already). Which might mean 1/2" each would push the tires into the body some. (I do agree that the fender extensions everyone loves on the these cars could fix that.) Leg room could be a potential issue as well. I'll probably have to cut the rear of the miata chassis up in order to SHIFT the seats another three inches or so back from where they sit in the miata. It also appears The biggest issue is how to weld the two (unibody of one to the frame/unibody) cars together. I doubt I'll be as lucky as you and have the widths be similar.
Mad_Ratel wrote: to E36 M3 the seats
They get real smelly when you do that.
I don't know how much of this you're going to be able to internet engineer. If you want to make it happen, I think you just buy the Z and acquire the Miata and just start cutting.
But but, it's free to internet engineer and it does not cause divorce when I've got two garages filled with E36 M3.
Tuna is right, but then so are you. Proper planning prevents piss poor execution.
Here is my take on how I would want to do the graft. Cut along the red line and remove the entire Datsun floor and firewall. Then start lowering the Datsun over the naked Miata until the Datsun once again looks like it has sills; they will be Miata sills, but who cares. Weld along doted line. Go to challenge and drink beer.
Don't bother starting with a rusty Miata. Not worth it. Rust free ones are available for reasonable $$$ even if not free. Big part for doing a chassis swap is to escape from the endless structural rust repairs needed on most old cars.
North Carolina so rust "should" be minimal in my area though it is a consideration. No sense in replacing a rusty frame with a rusty frame.
If you do the red line how do you account for the z being potentially wider than the miata at that point? (hard to tell dimensionally.)
You'll need to log in to post.
