Copart Salvage '09 Nissan 370z

[cammmy]

Hi All

After the positive response to my friends salvage S3 restoration. I figured I should put up the car we did before that (seeing as it's original owner is on here!)

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Some back story.

I've been a petrol head since I was 17. Growing up in New Zealand, one of my first cars was a '74 Triumph TC2500 that I got for my 18th birthday. A new work colleague knew how to swing a spanner and convinced me to convert it from auto to manual... "we'll have it done in a weekend"... 4 months later (and many, many noodles consumed around a brazier) the job was done and I was hooked on wrenching.

fast forward a few years and a move to nearly the exact opposite side of the world and I've been working away on my Lotus Esprit for some time when I find a youtube channel called "B is for Build". Chris (who runs the channel) buys crashed cars and rebuilds them. I have a light bulb moment which goes along the lines of "what if I could feed my addiction/affliction/hobby for cars and have them pay for themselves?!?". At this point I start browsing copart for something easy to dip my toes in with. One day I stumble across this:









I think to myself "probably doesn't have any structural damage, it's got 34k miles and it's only 7 years old. How much could be wrong with it?" I pull the tigger and get it for about £9.5k (including the copart fees that I didn't know about) in 2016.



Once home:



To me, it was an amazing two car garage/single outdoor parking space. I had two, two seater sports cars and I would choose which one to drive based on which end of the car I wanted the engine to be at that day.

We started stripping it apart and thankfully, the damage was fairly light:



Smashed headlight, broken headlight washer, broken headlight support, dented wing, dinged bumper, slight bent bumper support (which I literally pulled back into position). At this point I started looking at parts and realised why it was written off...

Headlight - £1,700
Headlight washer and cover - £250
Wing and bumper I didn't even check

Being rather tight, I spent a good while scouring the internet for parts. Originally I was going to get a headlight from the US and swap in all the RHD gubbins but I saw one for sale in NZ that went unsold. I messaged the seller and got it for £150. Then another £150 to get it over (including some NZ treats). Next was the washer jet. I managed to get one from the 370z forum for about £70 if I remember correctly. then about £30 for the cover from some random car parts supplier in Dubai. The headlight support I epoxied back together.

Broken washer:



repaired support:



The bumper actually popped itself back into shape one night, so I just filled in a couple of small holes from the back.

I got a panel beating set and had at the wing:







At this point I gave her a full service of oil/filter, g/box oil and diff oil with all good stuff. Then off to MOT, which she flew through!!!

The wheels were reeeaaally scabby, so after hour upon hour of filing, filling and spraying:









At this point, I met someone at work who's friend owns a bodyshop. They finished the front end for me for about £500, which included fixing a whole bunch of other little things.





I then got myself some more plastidip and went at everything on the outside. If it was silver, it got done to match the wheels and I did the inner bumper black. I also stripped the interior somewhat and did everything to match the wheels with the exception of the triple gauge surrounds and the starter button, which were done to match the body.













And that's how she looked when I sold her to a really nice guy from up north. He still occasionally texts with updates. He's putting some money into her with more mods.

In the end, I proved to myself that it could be done. It wasn't really a money maker but I can say that she thanked me for my efforts by covering the tax and insurance for the year I was driving her.

I also learned a valuable lesson. Don't ever, ever, ever bother trying to restore wheels yourself unless it's only very minor work. It's just not worth the time vs having a pro do it.

Edited by cammmy on Thursday 2nd January 22:04

[gf15]

Looks like a job well done. Thanks for posting. Lotus looks wonderful.

[cammmy]

Thanks, there is an old thread for it but I should probably update it. I've put a fair bit into it since then.

[jonnyconnor]

Great effort OP, your Z looks great! I learned the same lesson regarding repairing your own wheels a number of years ago too, the hours and cost of materials massively outweighed the small cost of farming them off to a pro! Never again!

[hxc_]

The black on the nose looks bloody brilliant. Should've come from the factory that way.

[EarlofDrift]

£1700 for a headlight

[cammmy]

hxc_ said:

The black on the nose looks bloody brilliant. Should've come from the factory that way.

I think so too. I've seen people in the states who open up the headlights and do the inners black as well. Looks amazing but I wasn't too keen after seeing how much they cost to replace if you break them...

[cammmy]

jonnyconnor said:

Great effort OP, your Z looks great! I learned the same lesson regarding repairing your own wheels a number of years ago too, the hours and cost of materials massively outweighed the small cost of farming them off to a pro! Never again!

Thanks. Yeah, such a painful process especially since dip needs about 5 or 6 coats

[cammmy]

Oh I forgot. The bonnet lifter system light was also on (if you hit a pedestrian the bonnet pops up at the back) but the rams didn't look like they had ever fired. Took it to a 370 specialist who said the ECU for that system wasn't responding. £80 on a second hand one and it was all sorted.

[Cambs_Stuart]

Good tip on the wheels. I've bought a cheap set that have been painted an odd colour, which i was debating sorting myself. But i think I'll get a professional and soend the time elsewhere on the car..

[samoht]

Well done on getting it back on the road and looking good, the blacked-out trim makes it look more modern and cohesive to me. How did you find it to drive?

Scary to see the parts prices and how easily these can be written off. Good reason to leave the stability control on in winter! Did you try the 350Z UK forum for parts?

Not that surprised that it worked out around break-even in the end, £9.5k isn't that cheap and as you found getting all the little things fixed adds up. But you had an experience, both mending and driving it, and broke even so all good.

[Bright Halo]

Looks like you did a great job on the 370z
It’s ideal if you are going to keep it for your self but difficult to make money on if you do it right like you have.

[cammmy]

Cambs_Stuart said:

Good tip on the wheels. I've bought a cheap set that have been painted an odd colour, which i was debating sorting myself. But i think I'll get a professional and soend the time elsewhere on the car..

Yeah, the only time it makes sense to me is if the wheels are fine and you just want to experiment with colour. Then you just give them a clean and plastidip them. If it turns out crap, peel it off and no harm done.

[cammmy]

samoht said:

Well done on getting it back on the road and looking good, the blacked-out trim makes it look more modern and cohesive to me. How did you find it to drive?

Scary to see the parts prices and how easily these can be written off. Good reason to leave the stability control on in winter! Did you try the 350Z UK forum for parts?

Not that surprised that it worked out around break-even in the end, £9.5k isn't that cheap and as you found getting all the little things fixed adds up. But you had an experience, both mending and driving it, and broke even so all good.

Thanks, I thought so too, especially the interior. All the silver that was in there makes it look dated to me. It drove really well. heaps of torque but also pulled all the way to the limiter. Handled well too (it came on pilot super sports). They're much better to drive than you might think. It came with an aftermarket exhaust that sounded amazing. Burbled down low but an awesome raspy v6 wail up top.

Yeah, I believe that's where I got the washer jet but headlights are absolute hen's teeth.

Yeah, the intention was to learn some skills and own it for a bit with the car paying for itself, which it did. Unfortunately being a copart newb at the time, I didn't realise just how much their fees are when you win an auction! Without those I would have probably been about £2k up. Not a good return if you include the amount of time I spent on it but it was for fun, not to make a living.

[Dids444]

HI Cammmy

I'm a bit like you and subscribe to B is for build and love the idea of repairing a car but I don't think I've got the skills to do it - your 370Z looks ace


If you've not seen them have a look at the Goonzquad boys as well as they did a 370z as well as some huge trucks and a Huracan

p

[Bat28]

I'll add a bit of back story on the car : I was looking for a 350z to replace my Mazda 3 MPS and while watching the ads on ebay I ended up following a really st advert of this very car on eBay (pictures were really bad and hardly any info).
It was cheap as it wasn't that great cosmetically (scuffed wheels, stone chips, scratches on wing and rear bumper) and needed a bit of love (good service, front brakes and drop links IIRC).
The auction failed to meet the reserve so I contacted the guy a offered very little for it - and we agreed on a very good price for the time: under 13k and it had 25kmiles.

First thing I did was to take it to Cougar Store in Leicester (which I highly recommend - great guys !) for service and few bits and bobs. And then I could have confidence in the car, knowing it had been well looked after



I eventually fitted a Cobra catback exhaust - which sounded absolutely beautiful - it absolutely transformed the car.

I also eventually added a nismo gearknob to brighten up the interior.

The car took us in quite a few places, but the most memorable was a tour of Scotland :




I had a few plans for the car : have the wheels refurbed, paint front and rear bits of the bumper in black, but I ended up crashing it before I could do any of that ...
In june 2016 I pulled out of the work car park and couldn't see because of the long bonnet ... ended up barely touching a fast moving battered old mondeo. The guy said there was no need to involve insurers has my car didn't have much damage ...





Headlight, bonnet, wing, bumper, and also the pedestrian safety thing (that props the bonnet opened) ment that they quoted more than 11k to repair it ! They wrote it off and gave me 15.5k (more money than I paid for it two years prior !). I didn't have the skills/patience to fix it so took the money and bought a Jag XF SV8 to replace it ...

I do have some service history saved on my PC so if the new owner is around, I can send it ...

Thanks for writing all this - It's really good to see that my Zed was well looked after !

[Bat28]

cammmy said:

Handled well too (it came on pilot super sports)

I had them on the car for a handful of miles before I crashed it, but for what I remember the car handled well with them on !

[cammmy]

I'm surprised to see that the bonnet rams deployed! They looked untouched and a specialist agreed. I wonder if someone swapped them out while the insurers had them. All I had to do was replace the ECU for them.

Now that you mention the paint, I spent hours filling scratches on the rear quarters and doors, then buffing it back. Turned out okay in the end.

[cammmy]

Dids444 said:

HI Cammmy

I'm a bit like you and subscribe to B is for build and love the idea of repairing a car but I don't think I've got the skills to do it - your 370Z looks ace


If you've not seen them have a look at the Goonzquad boys as well as they did a 370z as well as some huge trucks and a Huracan

p

Thanks for the tip, will do.

My advice, just keep an eye out for anything that looks like a decent deal, go view it and resist auction fever. Worth doing for the experience though as you learn a lot