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| The squared off roof line is a dead giveaway of a 2+2. |
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| Not my car, but a twin. |
In all honesty I had never liked these cars when they were new. And I had never liked the owners. They were even less liked by the automotive media as the cars aged. For some reason they were always thought of as posers or even worse as low level drug dealers. A lot of them were "gold chainers" using this as a low buck substitute for a Vette. I could never see a reason for all the hate.
My Son saw one of these things in a parking lot back in the early 1990's when he was just a few years old. He became fascinated by the Z. It wasn't my kind of car, ( yet!) but I was happy to see him displaying the beginnings of an interest in cars, any car.
He became fanatical about these things. Pointing them out whenever he saw one in traffic. I renewed my vow that I would never own a small car.
But of course that wasn't true. Hadn't I bought a couple of old Honda Civics?
I kept to my course. With big Cadillacs. At least for a few more years. Though I was ready for a change.
So I moved down to a "smaller" model of luxury car, the Buick Riviera. I guess that smaller is a relative term.
I bought a couple of old Honda Civics. One was a coupe and the other a clean little wagon. The wagon I must admit was quite useful. Hmmm, maybe these things aren't so bad.
Then I bought my first brand new, small car. A 1990 Civic SI hatchback. It was pretty much just a practical sports car. This was an imminently usable car. It could comfortably seat a full load of passengers. I was driving my Daughter's high school car pool, carrying a full five passenger load a few days a week. I found that by folding the rear seats, and laying the front passenger seat back, I could carry fairly long objects in the car. When I replaced all the doors in my house with panel doors I transported all of them home from the supplier in the Civic. It did take two trips however.
So I decided to look into the Z thing. Back in the day when I had my first real job out of college several of my co workers drove first gen Zs. All were young, single. active guys. This seemed to be the real owner demographic.
So now it my turn to look for a classic Z. These cars were now over twenty years old. Auto Trader magazine to the rescue. They were at the age where use, abuse, and neglect had become the norm. Still, there had to be a good one out there at the right price, somewhere.
I happened to find a very good example at the local Salvation Army donated car lot. I was cruising by and saw the front end sticking out of a line of cars. I made it a point to go back and check it out as soon as possible. I sure hoped that it wouldn't be sold before I got a chance to take a look at it. There was not going to be much chance of that.
It was a super clean, local, one owner car. But it was a 2 + 2! Oh man, who would ever want a 2 +2?
The 2+2 has never been the focus of the fan base. It had a roof line that was too long, it had those tiny back seats. This example was completely original, with a perfect interior and good paint. Original wheels and hubcaps. It even was equipped with factory A/C. But the best was yet to come!
This one came with the optional five speed! The 2+2 actually would fill my needs exactly. I actually liked the longer, somewhat squared off roof. The seats were small but I managed to squeeze myself back there once! They would be perfect for my kids. In fact it was pretty much perfect for everything.
Prices for anything other than an early 240Z were quite low at the time. Subsequent 260Z models were not as highly valued. The 280Z was even less esteemed, as it had much larger energy absorbing bumpers and fussier tail lights. But it's saving grace was the fuel injected engine. At least for the coupes. The 2+2 s, not so much. So this car was going to be cheap. I paid 1,100.00 for it, but without a smog check, that was going to be my responsibility. It passed with flying colors.
Of course once I bought the car I delved into all the history and lore that surrounded the marque. I like to be well educated about my car's back story.
The Z was a different breed from the typical old Mustang or Riviera. It was technically much more developed in it's specifications. The fuel injected straight six OHC engine was a strong, well proven runner. The five speed transmission gave good flexibility of ratios along with a higher cruising top gear. It had rack and pinion steering, front discs brakes with aluminium drums out back. Even better, out back it had independent rear suspension. The small folding rear seats were just right for the kids and they allowed me to get much more practical use out of the car.
I joined a Z oriented online forum which showed me how large the current fan base was for this car. I also discovered that the Datsun 510 had an even greater following.
This car will always be special to me because I taught my Son how to drive in it. He loved the car and especially the manual transmission. He was a quick learner. We spent many happy hours together driving on all the local back roads that I was familiar with.
One day my Son and I were looking for parts in a local help yourself wrecking yard. We found a 280ZX with a whale tale type spoiler and a front bumper skin with a built in front air dam. The idea occurred to us that even if we couldn't use these particular parts on our car, we could sell them on CL and make some money. So we bought them together as partners.
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| 280Z tail lights did not prove to as good a seller as the earlier models. |
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| Window regulators sold pretty well. |
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| These small wheel center caps were hard to come by. |
What would we do without Craig's List. I don't know how they make their money, but I'm glad that they offer us this free marketplace. At first I needed my Daughter's help to list my inventory and handle the e-mail responses. Eventually I learned how to photograph and construct my posts. I got to be pretty good at it.
After experiencing some initial success I decided to up my game. I started looking for people selling their cache of old Datsun parts. Pretty soon I wasn't content to just buy parts, and I started buying whole cars to part out.
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| Gold is where you find it. |
One thing that I learned from this was how to buy cars at a low price. When you have cash in your pocket, just make a low offer! And walk away if they don't accept the offer. I picked up a couple of cars at a really good price. One was even free!
This whole enterprise lead me to buying several more cars and even launching a little parts business. More on this to come.
I guess this could have been called my "side hustle."
Who knew that there was an entrepreneur hiding somewhere somewhere inside of me?
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