Thursday, January 10, 2013

Z Build Recap pt.1

At long last I have my 1973 Datsun 240z painted and ready for reassembly. I have been looking forward to this day for years.

When I first bought the car (for those of you who don't remember) I was the happiest I have ever been. I had finally purchased my dream car.

Emily and I had taken the Redline to Quincy to see the car. The guy came and picked us up from the train station in a pair of spandex shorts. I have done my fair share of shady Craigslist deals but I had all my cards on the table with this one. With no way home and about $4000 in my pocket this car was coming with me.



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Emily and I took these pictures before I had even left the previous owner's garage.

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I will never forget the ride back to Arlington from Quincy. 

It was pitch black out and starting to rain. Even a perfect 240z has laughable wipers, and this Z was far from perfect. I remember laughing out loud while the wipers smeared an opaque white film of grease and water across the windshield in moving traffic. To make matters even more exciting my directional signals weren't working and I am quite sure we resorted to hanging our arms out the window to signal as if we were on a bicycle.

Somehow we managed to get Emily's dying IPhone GPS to guide us north to 93, all the while being "gas chambered" with fumes from the carbs and exhaust. I will never forget the feeling when I first hammered on the gas to get out in front of a dozen sets of headlights reeling up behind us on the highway. Bouncing in my seat to try and make the car go faster. I can't imagine what was going through Emily's head.

High on adrenaline and gas fumes we roll into the driveway knowing full well that it was the sketchiest ride we have ever taken. But there I was. After years of searching and browsing Craigslist out west, down south, and the mid west for a clean rust free chassis to ship up here, I had found my holy grail only a stones throw from Boston.


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Driving around in the Z that summer was the greatest. Every where we went people would be yelling out of their windows about how they used to have one just like it, or their father had one when they were growing up. 


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We could feel their nostalgia.


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At the end of the summer we started the process of buying a house. Two car garage was my only requirement. I couldn't wait to tear into this car.

Not that the lack of a garage would ever stop me. :)



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But as luck would have it, we went under contract on New Years day that following summer we moved in.

We all had a home now.


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It wasn't long before the teardown had begun.


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I went all out.


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To be continued...

3 comments:

  1. Love it. Seems like yesterday when we all started blogging about our builds.

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  2. love the pic of the z in the empty garage ready for work with the datsun flag on the wall, keep it up

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  3. ditto, and to see the garage now it's amazing progress. I used to live in Mass, but didn't get my Z till moving out west. man, love this.

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