Hello guys & gals of the Z forums!!

AS of right now, I'm counting down the hours till I will be checking out a '81 datsun 280zx for a pretty good price based on what I've read here on the forums.

My name is Walter and I'm located here in Hawaii(Oahu). I've been a big fan of the datsun especially the 710 & 620 trucks for some strange but could never find one here but luckily came across one. According to the owner, he got tired restoring this S130 and said, "all the '81 280zx needs is someone to fix the gas tank and thats it." quote unquote. I dont think this is a big problem until i check it out. Also he had a '79 ZX that he used as parts car so Im assuming he transfered over the '79 parts over to the '81 ZX.

6 hours later:
Ok guys, just got back from checking it out and took quite a few pictures. I probe the guy with a few questions like wats the matter with the gas tank, condition of the motor, and rust details. He told me that he started the car a week ago with the gas tank off running on the gas that were in the lines and idled for awhile before dying. He also changed out some of the fuel hoses, spark plugs & wires. Also he sprayed some sort of solution to get whatever crud build up in the gas tank and I took a picture of the end result. I'll let the pictures do the talking. But what kinda making me step back is my wife!! Gotta convince her somehow to allow me to pick it up since we still have enough space for me to wrench on it. The frame rails is in normal condition based on what I could see during daylight. From the pictures, what are your opinions?

The Gas tank issue:











the rest of the pics are found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dub81/

thanks for your time,
walter

 

Welcome to ZDriver!

That car is beat, but I've seen a lot worse too. I suggest calling some radiator shops to see if they can clean & treat your gas tank, unless you want to deal with the mess yourself. POR15 has a gas tank treatment kit, but it's a lot of work.

 

its not THAT bad... coulda used soem more shots under the car and interior and under the hood though. that hatch is toast though thats the worst thing i saw

 

welcome to ZDriver

there are a lot of gas tank treatments to chose from, the car over all doesn't look to bad, but i wonder what the Oahu sea breeze has done to the floor pans/rails though. also look and see if you can just get a replacement hatch (might be kinda hard due to your location) might could order one from mainland but i figure shipping to be a BIT** high...

hope to see some cool ZCar pics from HA in the future

 

Hey Guys, thanks for the response and deeply appreciate it especially with the warm welcome. I know its in sorta bad shape but the seller was going to throw in another '79 S130 with the sale which is actually the better condition car but used what he classifies it as " the parts car". I'll have to schedule another meet to check out "the parts car" S130 and then from their decide. I was thinking about replacing the gas tank with a refurbished one from black dragon auto. Here's some pictures of the interior and motor.

 

auto eh?


and if the parts car has a few nice interior pieces and a good hatch, might be worth getting. whats he asking? or if the parts car is in that much better of a state maybe use that one as the parts car and swap drive trains haha.

 

Thanks for the reply sir!! He's asking $500.00 for both the '79 S130 and '81 S130.

 

oh well thats pretty decent. 500 isn't a thing. if you have more than enough parts from both cars to make one nice ZX with a little work its well worth the 500 dollars. though, i would go with a manual transmission, this is a sports car after all haha.

 

Yeah, definetly! The good thing is that the '70 S130 is 5 speed which the original owner was planning to swap but due to surgery to his back, he cant bend over too much and the seller is stands at like 6'1-6'2 so you can imagine he would be so cramped in there as compared to me standing at 5'8-'5'9. Yup asians= 90% population are short! No punt intended though. I've been looking through craigslist in California/Los Angeles section at all the Classic Z's.

 

post pics of that 79 parts car when you can and good luck with the wife looks like a good project to me