Welcome, 2k a month on nursery fees, do you have 2? I know I pay 1k/month for the one, the other is in school, I can't wait to have that breathing space when the second one turns 3. I can relate to your situation and maybe I can give you some perspective. I've been trying to finish my 260z for ages, I bought it before I had kids, then I had 2, then it slowed up and realised I'd been too lazy when I didn't have kids! I do find it a huge balancing act being a parent and having a project car alongside maintaining another toy car but everyone is different. What's your budget for the car? My only advice would be that the S30s are much like kids, you buy them with the rose tinted specs on then find out that there are bills you didn't realise, put it this way I've never totted up what I've spent on mine!
Yes, 2 kids so a similar boat. The older one started school in September but we had the 30 hours “free” childcare from the gov’t so overall it dropped from £2,100-ish a month to £1,450-ish a few months back. The younger one also reduces from Jan but my other-half had a promotion recently so we’ve reassessed who pays for what in the family and I’m free.
Initial budget is hard to answer, if I found an immaculate, rust-free/ready to go Japanese-import, in blue, with the fender-mounted mirrors and a good original black leather interior I could probably make upto £60k work. Looking what’s actually out there, I’m working on the basis of finding something I can consider a blank canvas/compete rolling chassis with a solid base for under £20k to just immediately start stripping to a shell and have that professionally cleaned up, stitch-welded allover, strengthened with roll bars etc and then resprayed.
From there the free childcare money comes into play and every few months I’ll tick off the more minor projects I can do myself like…
- Speed Forme Wideboy/Carbon Aero - £5k?
- KW Coilover Kit - £3k?
- Rays/Volk TE37 wider wheels and tyres - £4k?
- Some sort of big brake setup - £4k?
My main variable/unknown is the engine. I’ve never owned/worked on a pre-1995 car so not sure what to expect there. It’s not so much power I’m concerned with but the reliability/usability, I need to read up on carbs especially (I’ve heard the name Weber a lot in relation to non-Nissans, that’s about it). An engine swap seems like a common route to guarantee first time starts, add aircon and make upgrading brakes easier but that’s beyond my skill level and so another professional job (£30k? factoring an engine and the accompaniments that make it worth the effort).
Overall I expect it’ll run close to/into six figures over 3-5 years with the standard I want to get the build to - which sounds mental as I see it written - but a Nismo R35 would be significantly more and the Z build is at least an experience/hobby along the way…
