1980 Datsun 280ZX Questions

B&W_Evader

Couple things off the top of my head...

Look underneath the car. Lower fender corners is usually where rust starts
Check the engine compression. All cylinders should be within 10 psi of each other. (bad valve adjustment can affect numbers)
Check the u-joints. Go under the car and shake the driveline and half shafts to make sure the u-joint pockets are tight
Check the hood door and hatch gaps. They should all be about the same gap and be parallel. Anything that's off usually means major body work

Maintenance:
Fluids, Engine / Tranny
Check trany/diff/engine mounts. They go out when they get old. If there's a knock it's probably a mount or the ujoints
Valve adjustment is critical on those engines
Keep the points fresh and a spare set in the car.
Check how old the tires are. If their 10+years old, replace them even if they have a bunch of tread

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|RIP|6spd-sport|OSG-LSD|XP8|RBF600|Eibach Sways|RE-71R|FI-34Row|Gen3-CAI|Yaw P.S.|

280z/300zx

As mentioned above, check for rust. Fenders, side sills, spare tire well, under battery tray, firewall, floor pans, rails.

With price on these old Z's a lot of times it comes down to what it's worth to the right person. Some may argue a mint condition 280zx is worth 10k but may find that most people aren't willing to pay more than 5k. Also non turbo's and automatics are notoriously worth less. So.....

Assuming it's a mint condition, all original, good running car for a non-turbo automatic that you don't need to do anything to, I'd say it would be worth about 5-6k. With that as a base point start reducing value for any issues the car may have. I'd say on the low end you'd be looking about 3k if there was minor rust or mechanical/interior issues.

Also I'd caution you as to what your plans for the car would be. A car like this you would have to think long and hard about modifying but then again from what it sounds like you may not be happy with a automatic Z. I'll tell you, it will be slow and a bit on the boring side. However for an old Z enthusiast it wouldn't matter. From personal experience my 300zx is a non turbo auto but it was my first Z and it does have a few mods on it for power. I love the car and enjoy driving but it's a cruiser. My 280z on the other hand is more heavily modified and manual tranny. That's the car I like to rip up the roads with and have fun. All I'm saying is make sure if you get the car you understand what you're getting into.

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77 280z, 82 280zx, 84 300zx, 2021 C8 Z51

09 370z sport/touring -RIP// 10 370z NISMO - sold

MicVelo

All totally good advice above. ^^^

Let me add a couple of minor things.

As an investment car, not so great. The S130 lags behind ALL other generations of Z cars in appreciation rate. The highest ones are obviously the Series I and II S30, followed by Z32 turbos, and right behind that, the Z33 Nismo (jury's still out on the Z34N since its still made.) In and around those are the limited edition Z31 models - Anniversary, Shiro. Everything else hovers around "fair appreciation".

However, as a "project"/just-fun-to-have car, the ZX isn't bad. It's the emotional successor to the S30, after all. The only things weighing the S130 down is lack of power and in this case, the auto. trans. But consider this, the S30 (yes Gen 1, no typo) was "manual ready"; that is, the holes for mounting a clutch master and the pedal box have the component accommodation built into every S30 so swapping to a manual was a matter of securing the parts (master, slave, tranny, speedo cable and the hardest thing to find, the pedal box containing the manual's brake and clutch pedals) and R&R of the existing in favor of the manual gear.

But warning: Despite my having owned every gen Z BUT this one, I can't verify if what I said above carries to the ZX so check up on that if you plan to convert.

But in my totally unbiased estimation , any Z in the garage is better than NO Z anywhere on your property.

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Mic's: Z33, S30, SRL-311, SL55, Highlander-H / Gone: Z33 & Z34 Nismos, Z33-Rdstr, Z31 Shiro (R.I.P.), Z32, Q45, 5-S30s, D-Prod SRL311 and a bunch of other non-Nissans.