OK, please give me your opinions. Is my son biting off more than he can chew?

His 77 280Z was recently wrecked. He and a friend had put many hours into fixing it up. Motor runs great, interior is good, has headers, new exhaust, new clutch, entire suspension redone with urethene bushings, probably much more that I am forgetting. He recently bought a complete body kit from Motorsports that luckily hadn’t been put on yet. The accident ruined the entire front, both fenders, hood, and bent the frame.

Now for the project. They have located an Arizona Z, same year, excellent rust free body and frame. They want to take everything good off the old car and put it on the new car. Engine, tranny, rear end (r-200), suspension parts, exhaust, and the interior including dash, probably all wiring, maybe guages. New car is currently an automatic, they want the 5-sp from the old one.

These are two very intelligent, honor roll students who have put in many hours on the old car with virtually no adult assistance. I haven’t even been in the same city until recently, and wouldn’t be much help anyway. Their argument is that they have pretty much done all the things they want to do once all ready with the old car, and they have several good shop manuals. They think they know the car inside out. But they’re only 17 years old.

The guy with the AZ car wants $1000 for it. I think that’s too much, but if they hadn’t bent the frame on the old one, new body parts would have been almost that much. Actually, if they pull it off, they’ll end up with a better car, cause the old one had a lot of bondo on the body. Please give me your opinions. Thanks.

 

$1000 for a z with no rust isn't a bad deal. If they know what their doing, and they want to put the energy into it, I say go for it. My 1982 280zx was smashed 6 months ago by a mack truck (not my fault) and I let the insurance company take the car and I've regretted it ever since. Now im searching for another z that was in as good condition as mine, and there's nothing out there. You can take a look at the smashed car in my profile. Anyway good luck.

 

I say buy the $1000 car, and let ur son change everything over, if he loves to work on the car, let him do it, its better than nothing, I'm 18 now, and know every inch of my car in and out,

i think its very good life skills, and u take care of it better than people who don't know jack all about cars

<font color=blue>76 260z</font color=blue>
The NiteRider

 

Thanks for the encouragement. For those of you who say “let him try” I agree. I know it will be a great learning experience for him. But what I am wondering, from those of you who have done things similar yourselves, is what kind of unanticipated difficulties is he going to encounter? We don’t have a lot of extra money to put into this project, and he needs a car as soon as possible. His mother says use the $1000 to buy a running car – then rebuild his Z slowly over time. He says between the two cars, he has everything he needs, and he’ll have the new one running in a month or so. I’m just afraid it will take a lot longer and he will run into things he doesn’t expect and will have to purchase other parts or pay a professional to do some of the work. So… anyone out there who has done this and can offer some advice? Thanks to all.

 

i'd say encourage the sh@t out of him, 1000$ for a rust free body is decent. If they had the suspension apart to redo it and claim to know the car inside out then they most likely do in fact have a good idea. These cars are quite simple to work on. The only thing to worry about really is the rust factor and sounds like you've got that beat. Guys at Zcar.com are very helpful if needed.

 

Find out where in AZ the car is located. If it's close to me I can go check it out for you and take other pics if you want...

Bill
77 280Z
www.dsetuning.com

 

Thanks for offering to look at it, but its not in AZ any more. Current owner recently hauled it to Houston where we live. My son and friends have looked at it a couple of times and I'm going to go see it tomorrow.

 

You will run into unseen expenses ... its the nature of the thing .. a broken hose, rusted in bolts broken this and that .. but it will be worth it in the end because everything that needed replacing will be ... also are both cars 2+2's or coupe's ? because then its a bit of a different story ... also do you have the means to take the engine out of the old car and put it into the new ... dont get me wrong im doing this with a couple of cars and i love working on them and being able to say i did all the work myself.

Also how much time does he have and what needs to be changed over ??? that will depened if its done in a month or not.

But i still say go for it


PS would be good to replace all the hardware in the car if possible while doing it.

 

Also if they rebuilt the engine form the other car they know what the yare getting- Some guy say he rebuilt the engine, for it only to [censored] itself a week later

Alan, Australia