260Z acquisition

[DatsunDave]

So I got my hands on a great little car yesterday. One of these (S30) has been on my bucket list for a long time.

It was last registered in San Dimas, CA, made its way into Canada through Vermot (in 2008) and ended up in Nova Scotia for a month. It then enjoyed a lovely cross-Canada train ride (highly recommended) all the way to Northern, BC where it sat in a garage with next to nothing done to it aside from the new owner buying parts!

Here is just a partial list of parts (not even installed):

Seats
Complete carpet kit
Manifold
Rebuilt SUs
One of those plastic dash covers (not a fan but whatever)
A ton of weather seals (looks like a complete kit for installation after a repaint).

This is a perfect project car for a relative noob like me. Body needs some very minor TLC. The floors, rails, wheel well lips, quarters, hatch, rockers, fenders, etc, etc, are all 100% rust free! So, the body is in fantastic condition.

The bad:
Driver's side window won't go up or down;
No hood or hatch latch;
Both door locks don't work.
...and the paint sucks.

This car likes to travel it seem. At 1:30 AM, I completed a 19 hour round trip to get it in what turned out to be the first snow (storm) of the year. Good thing I got the snow tires put on a couple of weeks ago.

Had booked an auto-carrier for the trip back but wisely I switched to the tow dolly. The extra weight would have guaranteed a visit to the ditch on a particularly slick section that claimed a couple of 18 wheelers.

First task? Lose the automatic transmission!

So, not sure if this should be called Project Epic Road Trip; Project White Knuckles; Project Kermit or...???

[FergO2k]

Cool ride, and glad you made it home in one piece, a bit of skilled driving to say the least, I'd have kissed that tailpipe (from thep pic provided) at least once on gas and french fry stops (the other hybrid fuel form).
I drove a Gen 1 Z for a weekend and a half just this year, and they are a kick in the seat. Very different than the roadster experience, but the "haul a$$" torque was ever so fun, getting on the on-ramp, checking the mirrors, then saying "where is the nearest 911 that I can jump-start his blood pressure!"
and that was just a st of free-breathing SU's and a 280ZX 5 speed, nothing exotic.

[DatsunDave]

That tailpipe isn't as close to the ground as it looks.

The back end of a truck does strange things when it breaks loose on ice going down hill (trying to split the difference from gearing down and using the brakes) with a loaded tow dolly yanking on it left to right.