Once upon a time...

It's hard to say exactly when I fell in love with the Datsun 240z.

Suffice to say I was pretty much ignorant of the marque's history, but there was just something about them. I became consumed with lust for those curves, so one saturday afternoon some time on the mid 1980's, I wandered into a car yard on Main North Rd and slapped down a $400 deposit on my first z car. The car had two seats and a sunroof. It was midnight blue. It was ludicrous.

In the years that followed I'd ask myself, repeatedly, what the hell was I thinking? How on earth could I justify owning such an impractical, albeit pleasant looking, 70's automotive relic?

This is the story of what happened in those years, and how a stalled restoration got kicked back into life after 18 more laps around the sun. The rebuild project is my second 240z, which I have owned since 1994. It has spent most of its life in the garage, enduring not one, but two restorations before I got my turn.

I am hoping to get the car into the best shape it's been since it rolled off the factory floor. This is a particularly big ask, given my budget is virtually non-existant. That being the case, corners will be cut, best quality will be shunned over most affordable, and things will go sloooowly. 

So here it is. A 1971 Datsun 240z restoration on a shoestring budget. Enjoy the ride!