So I picked up a 1984 300z yesterday. I drove most of the day, everything with engine and transmission seems Great. Needs power steering but that’s not important.

I’ve attached some pictures. The guy who had it wanted to use it as a drift/toy car so he didn’t really care for the look as much as the function. Unfortunately he got tired of messing with it and basically made a s*** is all that happened.

I’m curious to know what it may be worth as is. I do plan on repairing mechanical, suspension, and wiring issues (it’s very bad) but basically I don’t know the value of a s***, running/driving safe 84 Z that looks like this.

*** Adding pictures to the following post ***

Wow that has so much work that needs to be done I do not know where to start. For me I like a car that looks good. I would say to get this car looking good is at least 5k. I hope you didn't pay more than $1200....

BadQ45t wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 13, 2022 7:51 pm

Wow that has so much work that needs to be done I do not know where to start. For me I like a car that looks good. I would say to get this car looking good is at least 5k. I hope you didn't pay more than $1200....

I traded a car worth about that. My goal is more drive safe and wiring update. Then possibly some extras and cosmetics.

I wrap cars. So body work isn’t an issue or anything. But it’s the other repairs I’m not sure about. I’ve found donor cars around the area that have the cosmetics (mirrors, interior pieces etc). Probably $1200-2k worth of parts cars to Frankenstein this thing. Coil overs, control ball joints and probably tie rods are really the only true new piece I plan on right now.

I’m hoping when it’s pieced together I could try to get $6-8k. But the body will be the last thing I get in to if I can’t sell it before. Really don’t want to mess with the body lol.

What's the rust situation like? Did you check the rear lower quarters and front floorboards/rocker panels? It COULD fetch 6-8K, but it will need a lot of time and effort. The closer to stock you can bring the the car the more desirable it is for collectors or prospective buyers.

Those mirrors and that exhaust has to go.

It is worth 3x less than what you will put into it to restore it. If you go the mod path and do some "road-less-traveled" things to it you may find that one buyer that's willing to fork over major funds for the one of a kind thing you create. If you are looking to specifically make money on it either part it (you may break even) or find an auto in great cosmetic shape with a blow engine and/or bad trans and use yours as a donor to create a good looking, rust free manual Z31. Otherwise it will all be lipstick on a pig.

OKay so you did pretty well at $1200. I agree with Nolimitz, for sure if you are going to think this is a car you'll fix up and sell you will come up losing money. But if you want to get this running in good order and plan to drive it than hell yes go for it. I would second those mirrors and exhaust have to go! You should find a good upholstery shop and get tthe seats recovered or find some seat covers if that isn't in your budget. Those cloth seats did not hold up well I cannot remember seeing any that are in good shape from back in the day, the extra I spent for Leather back in 84' sure paid off.

There are tons or little things to do but first up the status of your timing belt, if you cannot find evidence of that being done I would get that squared away ASAP.

As everyone has said, you're not going to make money by fixing this up. However, if you want to fix it up for yourself, go for it.

The good news about trying to do a restoration of this era car is that things are much simplier than even the next generation Z which has an engine bay stuffed very tough to work on. The bad news is you will be looking around for parts that should be easy to obtain that you'll find hard. The engine itself was used by Nissan on tons of other carss, Maxima's, X-Terra's, Frontier pickups so the basic stuff is out there like rotors, alternators, starters, etc.

Let us know your progress!