Monterey 2023 - Mecum - several rare z's

AD240Z

AD240Z

Club Member
AD240Z said:
Z432
https://www.mecum.com/lots/1088316/1970-nissan-fairlady-z432/
1688659629214.png
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I've been expecting this one to come up. This is the car that was sourced (from an auction) and imported for a customer by the self-styled 'GTR Heritage Centre' here in the UK some years back. At that point it was fitted with overfenders (the rears were mounted on the wrong sides of the car...) and it was soon featured in a UK magazine article. At that point it was being described as - and I quote - "immaculate".

Some time later the owner sent it down to Fourways Engineering, and I was asked to inspect, authenticate and make a report. Even from metres away I could tell that there was a lot wrong with the car. A closer look shocked me and, after some interior panels had been removed, the truth started to become apparent...

The car had been bodged up in Japan - by a non-specialist - just to put it through the auction, and virtually the whole rear half of the car was made out of sections cut out of a '75-up North American market model. The quality of workmanship was unbelievably bad. Some of the worst I've ever seen. Just gobsmackingly poor and - in some cases - bizarre.

The car has come a LONG way since then (it went through a huge body restoration) and it was massively improved, but I still think the Mecum auction estimate is way high. Personally I would value the car at around half of their low estimate. I just hope any new owner does their due diligence on the history, condition and detail originality of the car.
 
Albrecht said:
I've been expecting this one to come up. This is the car that was sourced (from an auction) and imported for a customer by the self-styled 'GTR Heritage Centre' here in the UK some years back. At that point it was fitted with overfenders (the rears were mounted on the wrong sides of the car...) and it was soon featured in a UK magazine article. At that point it was being described as - and I quote - "immaculate".

Some time later the owner sent it down to Fourways Engineering, and I was asked to inspect, authenticate and make a report. Even from metres away I could tell that there was a lot wrong with the car. A closer look shocked me and, after some interior panels had been removed, the truth started to become apparent...

The car had been bodged up in Japan - by a non-specialist - just to put it through the auction, and virtually the whole rear half of the car was made out of sections cut out of a '75-up North American market model. The quality of workmanship was unbelievably bad. Some of the worst I've ever seen. Just gobsmackingly poor and - in some cases - bizarre.

The car has come a LONG way since then (it went through a huge body restoration) and it was massively improved, but I still think the Mecum auction estimate is way high. Personally I would value the car at around half of their low estimate. I just hope any new owner does their due diligence on the history, condition and detail originality of the car.
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A new owner's diligence will not uncover all that you know surely. Buying secondhand cars and especially rare valuable cars is a minefield.
 
Rob Gaskin said:
A new owner's diligence will not uncover all that you know surely. Buying secondhand cars and especially rare valuable cars is a minefield.
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It is indeed a metaphorical minefield, but I guess - at some point - somebody who is buying a rare variant like a PS30 Fairlady Z432 needs to either know their onions or engage the services of somebody who does.

In this car's case, the last two owners didn't know their onions and both of them were 'advised' by paid consultants who didn't know what they were looking at. I kid you not, some of the stuff that was clearly evident on the car - without even touching it - was mind-bogglingly stupid.

A single example, one of hundreds... The car had turned up from Japan with the outer ring of its harmonic crank damper totally missing. Gone. Very likely the rubber bonding had rotted and the outer ring had parted company with the solid centre. It happens. It usually would make a heck of a racket and interfere with the water pump/dynamo drive belt on the way (meaning it would be noticeable, to put it mildly). But - and this is the shocking part - some clown had then painted timing marks onto the remaining inner ring (FFS!) in order to set the ignition timing. So not only was the rare and expensive to repair/replace S20 twin cam engine running without an effective crank damper, but somebody somewhere had known about it and not fixed the problem properly (by replacing the damper) and had bodged the issue by adding timing marks to what was left. The self-style 'GTR Heritage Centre' here in the UK had not ony passed the car through their hands in this state, but had also been driving it around and had featured in a magazine article. It beggars belief.

They simply did not know what they were looking at:

20160506_152103.jpg

Here's what a tired, but complete, S20 damper looks like. Note the difference to the above:

S20 damper.JPG
 
Albrecht said:
I've been expecting this one to come up. This is the car that was sourced (from an auction) and imported for a customer by the self-styled 'GTR Heritage Centre' here in the UK some years back. At that point it was fitted with overfenders (the rears were mounted on the wrong sides of the car...) and it was soon featured in a UK magazine article. At that point it was being described as - and I quote - "immaculate".

Some time later the owner sent it down to Fourways Engineering, and I was asked to inspect, authenticate and make a report. Even from metres away I could tell that there was a lot wrong with the car. A closer look shocked me and, after some interior panels had been removed, the truth started to become apparent...

The car had been bodged up in Japan - by a non-specialist - just to put it through the auction, and virtually the whole rear half of the car was made out of sections cut out of a '75-up North American market model. The quality of workmanship was unbelievably bad. Some of the worst I've ever seen. Just gobsmackingly poor and - in some cases - bizarre.

The car has come a LONG way since then (it went through a huge body restoration) and it was massively improved, but I still think the Mecum auction estimate is way high. Personally I would value the car at around half of their low estimate. I just hope any new owner does their due diligence on the history, condition and detail originality of the car.
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“Some time later the owner sent it down to Fourways Engineering, and I was asked to inspect, authenticate and make a report. “

“The car had been bodged up in Japan - by a non-specialist - just to put it through the auction, and virtually the whole rear half of the car was made out of sections cut out of a '75-up North American market model. The quality of workmanship was unbelievably bad. Some of the worst I've ever seen”


Did they pay you for the report Alan ?
 
There’s so many stories about the the ‘GTR heritage’ place that it’s surprising they have any business at all. Isn’t he also one of the guys who calls his car a gtr even though it’s not?
 
AD240Z said:
Did they pay you for the report Alan ?
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Who?

Fourways recommended me to the then owner as a suitable person to appraise the originality/condition/authenticity of the car. I had a look around the car at Fourways and subsequently met up with the owner of the car at a later date to go over the car with him there. I made a preliminary report to him and then Fourways embarked on further - deeper - investigation of the structure (stripping paint in certain areas). This revealed further problems. EG:

105-fw-04.jpg

The proper rectification of the bodyshell problems would have been prohibitively expensive at Fourways' rates, so the car was stripped at Fourways and shipped out to a provincial body & paint shop (I believe it was in Wales?) and then returned to Fourways as a painted shell for reassembly.

I didn't charge for any of my time. Was happy - and interested - to help.

The car was eventually sold to the self-styled 'collector' in the USA who is selling via this Mecum auction. I've had some interaction with him and - by extension, unhappily - the "specialist appraiser" in the UK who inspected the car for him, and they are - lets say - fairly typical of the type.
 
Thanks for bringing all this to light for us on this forum.

It really is a good education and wake up call regarding the pitfalls of buying a vehicle w/o the due diligence that's needed beforehand.

As prices continue to rise on these cars, the unscrupulous people enter the arena to make their money and sometimes get burned in the process.....no problem as they just pass it along to the next chap and try to make a little or a lot along the way.

None of this surprises me as i spent 30+ years investigating crimes and interviewing criminals about what motivates them to act in such a manner.

Not saying all those involved with this car are in the criminal category but in the end, money is the motivating factor for this kind of bodged workmanship or lack thereof.

It's great to see everyone helping out each other on this club site, proud to be a member here.

Mike
 
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