With a timeless silhouette, stout drivetrain, and sublime handling, there are plenty of good reasons why the early Nissan/Datsun 240Z, 260Z, and 280Z have become the darlings of the vintage sports car collectors market.
And now that these once-overlooked Z cars are enjoying renewed attention, Resurrected Classics comes to the plate with an ever-growing mix of OE-spec (or better) restoration and replacement parts for these iconic coupes.
Our pal Max McCroskey is the guy behind Resurrected Classics. As you’d imagine, he’s a huge Datsun Z Car fan and has owned a lot of them during his wrenching career. We sat down with him to learn some of the history behind the Datsun Z cars and get some insight and tech advice behind restoring and upgrading them.
You can catch the entire podcast interview in the embedded audio player here, and we’ll give some snippets from the conversation below. If you’ve got a Nissan 240Z, 260Z, or 280Z (or are hoping to get one soon), this interview is a good one to check out.
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Explain the Early Nissan Z Generation & Naming Conventions.
“What we focus on is the S30 and S130 generation. So technically the Nissan S30, it is the Nissan Fairlady Z in Japan—they used a different name. The 240Z is how they badged it for export. So the 240, 260, 280 Zs are all the S30 generation, but they’re badged for export.
“From 1970 to 1978 is the S30 generation. In 1979, it became the Nissan S130—what we saw in the U.S. was the Datsun 280ZX. The ZX had additional submodels, luxury packages, and stuff like that.”
Fun Fact: The 240, 260, and 280 designations reflect the gradual increase in engine size for the Nissan L-series inline six. In the United States, we got the 2.4L 240Z (1970-73), then the longer stroke 2.6L 260Z (1974), and finally the bigger bore 2.8L 280Z (1975-78).
So Which One is Most Desirable for a Collector?
“Generation wise? I would say the early SR30, it has more of like that classic look. And with anything, everybody wants the earliest, most desirable stuff.
“It’s just more rare and has the most minimal styling—it doesn’t have the big bumpers yet. It is a very raw sports car.
“So that’s kind of the most desirable. But even the later cars are roughly the same as the 240, there are some minor differences but there’s a lot of interchangeability.”
Are There Any Special Editions or Submodels to Look For?
“One of the major terms for early 240Zs is a ‘Series 1.’ This is not a factory term, but it’s an accepted term by collectors.
“It refers to early 1969 and 1970 production date cars. They have different features, very minor stuff, but it does matter—the hatches were vented with chrome vents, they didn’t have defrosters, they had different radios. They had different plastic panels, different toolboxes.
“To a collector, things like that matter a lot. So those are the most desirable.”
What Should You Look for in a Good Datsun Z Project Car?
“The best way to start is try to find one as original as possible—even if you do plan on modifying it. It’s just easier to fix things, and then you get to decide what to replace.
“If you find one that’s modified, you just don’t know what was done and it can end up being a lot of trouble to undo things that were not correct. It gets confusing because then you can no longer look at factory manuals or data because your car has been changed.
“And try to minimize the rust. I mean, it’s hard to find a rust-free car—it really is. But if you can find one that at least doesn’t have severe frame rust. Things are removable, like fenders and doors, and that’s workable.
“But definitely focus more on the body and originality versus things like the engine—that stuff is typically very simple to work on and fix.”
Anything Unique to Consider After Buying a Vintage Z Car?
“Mechanically, they’re very stout, reliable cars. It’s very rare that an engine is completely seized. I mean, they just were built very solid. They just need average maintenance for any car that age, you know, things like bushings or maybe a brake drum gets seized, stuff like that.
“I would replace the fuel pump for sure. The diaphragms get dried out on there—check out the brake master cylinder, clutch slave. That’s all very common, pretty basic wear items, you know.
“A lot of times, the dashes will crack just because of sun exposure. The interior was a made a bit cheaper. The door cards were just like a vinyl, almost cardboard-like material that can peel off.
“But mechanically they’re very, very sound. Rust is really the main concern.”
What Other Maintenance Do You Recommend?
“Battery tenders are really good. If you can try to get non-ethanol fuel, for the carburetors. For oil, you want to add like a zinc additive for the camshaft, because a lot of new oils don’t have that zinc.
“But just running it every now and then is good for stuff like your fuel pump and circulating the oil, it keeps things lubricated.
“Really just standard maintenance.”
You can learn more about ZDDP in this tech article from Summit Racing.
How Hard is it to Find Replacement Parts?
“It used to be that parts were just not made at all. And so that’s kind of what Resurrected Classics went for first, and so now parts that were really rare a couple of years ago, are easy to find because we make and supply them.
“Things like trim and stuff can be kind of rare or pricey to track down. But really, that’s about it.
“We’re really trying to target the rare stuff first, because we know how hard it is to find those parts.”
Is There Datsun Enthusiast & Community Support Out There?
“Yeah, a lot. There are a few major online forums that are very good, with posts dating from the 1990s that are still on there. So it’s a very good archive, a very good wealth of knowledge. And then there are Facebook Groups with, you know, 40,000 members. So a pretty large pool and everybody’s pretty helpful.
“And at ResurrectedClassics.com we share whatever knowledge we have, even on stuff that’s not our products—just general advice on these cars that we’ve learned over the years. So we do try to offer whatever advice we can, from what we’ve gathered from being around these cars for so long.
“And if we can’t directly help them, we can give them a resource, or lead them to a place that we’ve used in the past—anyone who we think may help them better than us.”
Any Advice on Performance or Drivability Upgrades?
“A big one is a points-to-electronic ignition conversion. I would recommend that. Some people might add air conditioning.
“People upgrade stuff like front disc brakes with a larger, master cylinder, along with different radios, headlights, and stuff like that. I’ve done a coil pack conversion.
“And then you’ve got engine swaps like a RB25 swap or LS swap. That’s a whole different direction. People enjoy that because you get the look of the car, but the powerplant is modern. They’re not super difficult to do either. The engine bay on these cars is very wide, so you have a lot of options.”
Learn more about an ignition conversion: How to Upgrade a Vintage Points Distributor
Would You Say a Datsun Z is A Good Project Car for a Beginner?
“They’re really pretty simple, the engine bay is very spacious. I feel like that makes a big difference, to me at least. You don’t really have that stuff in the way—it’s not very daunting.
“It’s just very easy to get around stuff: remove things, do a spark plug change, take the fuel pump out. I mean, a lot of times, even just something like an oil pump is somewhat difficult to take out—these can be taken out with four bolts.
“It’s really not bad. You know, the design is straightforward. It’s got an independent rear, so you can kind of get around and it’s not super heavy—it’s not like a Ford 9 inch. So you can grab that stuff and let it down. The transmissions were aluminum, the head is aluminum, also somewhat lightweight.
“Nissan really did think about this. They really thought about it. And I think it’s a really simple car to work on.”
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You can check out this and all our other episodes in The OnAllCylinders Podcast section.
And if you’ve got a Datsun Z car in your garage, Resurrected Classics offers a trove of reproduction parts, like these:
- Hoods, Tops, Body Panels & Sheetmetal
- Emblems
- Interior Pieces, Upholstery, Carpets & Trim
- Indicator Lights & Taillights
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