1983 280zx ?

[Bergerman]

So there is a kid in my neighborhood who has a t-top Z for sale and I just wanted to put it out here to see what I should be on the looks out for. Being 27 years old, I'm wondering what I am getting into. Looks like rust below the front bumper and starting on the hood where the air intake is. The paint appears to be in pretty good shape but it will need a new clear coat for sure to make it shine again. Looks like it has a cloth interior with seat covers so not sure of the condition there.

The kid is asking $2900 for this car and I think it might be a nice hobby car but I don't want it to turn into a money pit. What does it usually cost to restore these? I saw one guy trying to sell his after sinking $20k into it. What should I be looking out for if I decide to move forward on this?

[evildky]

turbo? manual trans? 2 seater? you didn't tell us much about the car, a turbo, 2 seat, manual trans with bad paint but otherwise a decent driver I'd expect to see int he $3k range which is about where this one is priced the question is is that what this car is? for an n/a car I'd expect to see closer to $2k

as for a $20k car, it woudl have to be an anniversary edition wiht under 50k miles and cherry condition


the paint will need mroe than new clear, it will need a strip and respray, you can't just clear over it, it'll pop back out in no time

the big killer on these cars is rust, look at the floor pans and frame railes, look aroudn where the rear subframe meets the flor pan, look at the rocker panels, rust repair gets real expensive real fast, mechanically these cars are cheap to own and maintain, they engines last dang near forever and are pretty simple, most issues are due to aged fuel injection components and deteriorated or corroded connectors