I thought that it was about time to say 'Hi' to all the members having joined in December.
I have never owned a classic car before so I'm completely new to membership forums and all things 'Z', but I am learning...
Firstly, my Z is a 1978 260Z 2+2 RHD. When I 'acquired' her in April 17 she had been shut up in a damp garage at the end of a garden in Surrey since 1987. Her owner put her in the garage when she developed a fault with the clutch master cylinder with the intention of carrying out the repair himself but never got around to it.
Fast forward 30 years and the car needed to be moved so the house could be sold. As a friend of the family and knowing that I was interested in classic cars I was given first refusal. I did hesitate, but my friend said that if a taker could not be found quickly they would be scrapping the car. Blackmail did the job and I agreed to take her on. It was a challenge just to get her out of the garage as a mountain of rubble had been dumped in front of the garage door, the brakes were seized on and of course she was sitting on four flat tyres (which incredibly all inflated). Negotiating a flat bed recovery truck down the narrow service road and around several tight corners to the garage was a challenge in itself, but she arrived safely on my drive in Hertfordshire in one piece.
Having got her home I could see she was riddled with tin worm (of course) however she had solid floors and rails, was completely original with a very tidy interior and only 53k miles on the clock.
I then 'tinkered' for a few months until I came to terms with the fact that I did not have the skills, tools, space and most importantly the time to deal with this massive project. So I found a local company to do the restoration for me and they are doing an amazing job. The engine has been completely stripped down and rebuilt and the bodywork has been stripped to bare metal and made good. My contribution has been to source parts and renovate some of the rusty engine components.
She was originally wine red but had been resprayed black at some point in her short time on the road. My plan is to respray her metallic blue (30742 or 30885).
She has turned out to be far more of a money-pit than I could ever have imagined but that's down to my naivety. However I am smitten with my 260Z as she is a great looking car (or will be) and she is certainly not your 'usual' classic GT. Also the fact that she is one of the less coveted of the Z models (she's not a 240 and has 2 seats too many!) and is apparently quite rare makes her all the more appealing to me.
Hopefully she'll be ready for the summer when I plan to drive her to the Silverstone Classic instead of my Mondeo, which is what I usually pitch up in.
I wonder what she's like to actually drive.....?
I have never owned a classic car before so I'm completely new to membership forums and all things 'Z', but I am learning...
Firstly, my Z is a 1978 260Z 2+2 RHD. When I 'acquired' her in April 17 she had been shut up in a damp garage at the end of a garden in Surrey since 1987. Her owner put her in the garage when she developed a fault with the clutch master cylinder with the intention of carrying out the repair himself but never got around to it.
Fast forward 30 years and the car needed to be moved so the house could be sold. As a friend of the family and knowing that I was interested in classic cars I was given first refusal. I did hesitate, but my friend said that if a taker could not be found quickly they would be scrapping the car. Blackmail did the job and I agreed to take her on. It was a challenge just to get her out of the garage as a mountain of rubble had been dumped in front of the garage door, the brakes were seized on and of course she was sitting on four flat tyres (which incredibly all inflated). Negotiating a flat bed recovery truck down the narrow service road and around several tight corners to the garage was a challenge in itself, but she arrived safely on my drive in Hertfordshire in one piece.
Having got her home I could see she was riddled with tin worm (of course) however she had solid floors and rails, was completely original with a very tidy interior and only 53k miles on the clock.
I then 'tinkered' for a few months until I came to terms with the fact that I did not have the skills, tools, space and most importantly the time to deal with this massive project. So I found a local company to do the restoration for me and they are doing an amazing job. The engine has been completely stripped down and rebuilt and the bodywork has been stripped to bare metal and made good. My contribution has been to source parts and renovate some of the rusty engine components.
She was originally wine red but had been resprayed black at some point in her short time on the road. My plan is to respray her metallic blue (30742 or 30885).
She has turned out to be far more of a money-pit than I could ever have imagined but that's down to my naivety. However I am smitten with my 260Z as she is a great looking car (or will be) and she is certainly not your 'usual' classic GT. Also the fact that she is one of the less coveted of the Z models (she's not a 240 and has 2 seats too many!) and is apparently quite rare makes her all the more appealing to me.
Hopefully she'll be ready for the summer when I plan to drive her to the Silverstone Classic instead of my Mondeo, which is what I usually pitch up in.
I wonder what she's like to actually drive.....?