The Crusty Impulse Buy — 1986 Nissan 300zx Z31 3.0l v6

The CarFax has an abrupt 8 year gap between 2011 and 2019. On April 13th, 2011 the car failed smog at 236,430 miles.



Eight long years later, the car was donated to Kars 4 Kids by the original owner and sold at auction on September 11th, 2019. The odometer read 236,435.

That means the owner drove it home from the smog station in 2011 (approx. 5 miles) parked it, and never drove it again.

 

A real testament to Japanese design and engineering.

 

Something surreal about playing an arcade game, and coming home to the actual car in your driveway.

 

So a common issue with these cars are water leaks. Water leaks from the T-Tops, water leaks from the mirrors, water leaks from the tail lights, water leaks from the hatch, water leaks from the rear quarter windows. A colander in a rain storm has more protection against water intrusion than this car.

I worked on re-sealing both rear quarter windows. I noticed what I believed to be dog poop on top of the speaker grilles when I bought it, but it turned out to me melted Butyl sealant dripping from the windows. After 30 years, they’ve disintegrated into nothing. See below.



First, I removed three fasteners that holds the window in. The plastic clip that holds the triangle trim, and two 10mm nuts. You can’t realistically remove that plastic clip without breaking it. BUT the last owner was nice enough to include a bag of brand new OEM Nissan trim clips for me.

Then I used a heat gun and slowly heated up the butyl around the window until it was soft enough to push out.



Now comes the fun part. Cleaning all that nasty Japanese Butyl off. Use a LOT of WD40, that stuff is magic and will melt Butyl. You’ll also need to do a lot of scraping.





Next, I bought 3M Windoweld Butyl Ribbon sealant. This is usually used for windshields. I formed a continuous band, and kneaded the ends together at the bottom.



Next you carefully replace the window, tighten the two 10mm nuts, and press the window evenly to seat it properly.

And you’re done. Rinse and repeat for the other side. Next I will be doing the tail lights, which also leak badly and are sealed in the same way.

 

Not enough 80s.

 

Are you kidding me, I even spent extra on the Louvres!

They’re some Uber rare Aluminum Shadow Chastain branded ones.

 

Awesome work, and it's great to see this car saved from certain demise. I'm actually a little jealous and would love to have a project like this, but it's insanely difficult to find older cars in this part of the country that don't have horrible rust problems. Keep at it!

All I can think of is "Mad Max" when I look at this picture.

 

Even here they have terrible rust. The parts car I’ve been pulling wiring and other things from is in better condition than the actual DD of the guy who owns both of them.

I’m fortunate that my car has zero rust except for minor surface rust from the leaking windows behind the wheel wells.

 

Any new developments?

 

I stripped the entire rear interior of the car to do a deep cleaning. I couldn’t believe how exceptionally clean the carpet was. This is after I vacuumed it once.



And you guys will love this. This is a two owner car, the first one owned it from 1986-1987, and the second owner owned it from 1987 to 2019 and put 220,000 miles on it. He donated it to Kars 4 Kids and thought he’d never see it again, presumably it went to a junkyard.

I found his name and address on the pink slip and sent him a certified letter. I heard back from him the other week:

 

Awesome!! You made his day, I'm sure of it.

When I bought my Taco, the guy selling it to me was the original owner and had personally put 215,000 miles on it. He drove it across the country several times and explored many national and state parks with it.
He had a big emotional connection to the truck and told me flat-out that it was very difficult for him to sell it because of his history with it, and how great of a truck it had been to him.
When I told him about my overall automotive knowledge, as well as how I take care of all my vehicles and how meticulous I am, he was pretty relieved. Once he knew the vehicle was going to somebody who would continue to take care of it instead of let it go to wrack-and-ruin, he was finally comfortable with handing over the keys.

The carpet looks great, by the way. I had a red '88 Cougar XR7 with a red interior (Ford called it Scarlet) and it was so red that it hurt. We all referred to it as "porno red." Ah, the 1980s!

 

The other pile of junk in my life has been consuming my time haha

 

Well that aint right

 

Yeah. It was stripped when I installed it, I just never fixed it. Figured I’d try to Helicoil it now but it’s a tad difficult when it’s at a 90 degree angle near the firewall. So it’s coming off and off to the machine shop to be welded shut and re-rapped.

 

JB weld the throttle body on and call it a day

 

a crossed thread is a tight thread.

 

tell that to the guy that replaced my frame in 2012.. (Why do you think i spent money on a new frame)

 

How do you mess up that badly?