Back in June 2019, I purchased a blue 1972 Datsun 240z (it’s not blue anymore). It was my second 240z since I sold my first one and regretted it, so I bought another one. The car wasn’t in the best of condition so in October 2019 I dropped it off at a garage to get it fully restored. The project was estimated to take around 5 months, 3 months for bodywork, and then 2 months to put everything back together again. That didn’t happen, instead, the project ended up taking over 2 years to complete! 27 months to be exact and last week I finally got my car although still not 100% complete with a bunch of things that I still need to sort out.
Photo I took when I first found the car
So where did things go wrong? Everywhere really, issues popped up every step of the way. I had issues with the body shop, the mechanic, the electrician, with parts I ordered, and then to top it off Covid hit and slowed everything down considerably. Generally speaking, everyone was super slow or very sloppy and I had to and still am double-checking all the work that was done myself. When we first started stripping the paint away from the car we spotted issues that weren’t noticeable before and so that took longer than expected. Thankfully the body shop guys were chill about it but they were also very slow, and with Covid lockdowns and curfews, it brought the work down to a stand still a number of times. Then I had issues with the mechanic who a friend had recommended and that guy’s work turned out to be really clumsy. I brought in an electrician that specializes in Datsuns to wire the car back up and his work also turned out to be very rushed. So now I’m taking note of any issues I spot so I can get them sorted.
I also ran into issues with some upgrades I had for the car. Since I wanted this car to be a daily driver, I upgraded the engine with a modern electronic fuel injection system (FAST EFI), I installed AC and I upgraded the brakes to much more powerful Wilwood’s. The problem is nobody I dealt with had fitted a similar electronic system into a 240z before and I couldn’t find someone who did. So I had to learn everything about it and install and set things up myself.
The previous sentence really summarizes the whole experience. There was no way the car would have been done the way I wanted it to be done if I wasn’t very knowledgeable in the car or researched and learned so much about how things work. When I picked up the car last week for example I barely got it home. Actually, I only made it home with the help of a tow truck since the car switched off on my way home after misfiring and running terribly. After getting home and googling the car symptoms, I realized I might have a problem with the spark plugs so I checked them. Turned out the plugs weren’t screwed in properly, were the wrong size, and were carbon-fouled (you can see how black they are in the photo above). I had a new set of correct plugs that I had previously purchased and after installing them the car started and ran perfectly.
I even ran into issues financially with the car even though that was under my control. When I first started the project I wanted the total thing to cost me KD10,000 including the cost of the car (I bought the car for KD2,750). When I started the project I created an Excel file to track all the expenses and late last year I realized I was going to exceed my budget by a pretty good chunk. The car has to date cost me KD13,800 including the car purchase price. I really didn’t want to pay this much yet it was all my own doing since I kept wanting more and more things.
While thinking about this post one question that popped into my mind is if I’d recommend a full restoration to anyone. I was going to say no at first but that really isn’t fair. I currently actually have another classic that’s being restored right now, a 1980 Toyota FJ40 (the green one above). But, I chose to restore it in the UAE and not here. There is a garage based in Abu Dhabi called Classic Drive (@fj40uae) that specializes in restoring old FJ40’s and Landcruiser 60’s. So far they seem to be doing a great job with the car and moving at a fairly quick pace although they are also behind schedule. All the parts they’re using to build the car are either brand new or restored back to new condition so I’ll basically be getting an FJ40 that looks like it rolled out of the dealer today. So what I will say is this. If you are thinking of restoring a car know that it is going to be a big project and there will be things for you to do as well once it’s done. You need to really love cars, understand them and be patient with them. I know of a lot of people who had their cars restored only to sell them right after since they didn’t want to deal with sorting out the issues that would pop up. It also doesn’t help since we don’t have that many if any specialized garages for classic cars here.
And that’s where I am with the car right now. I’ve been driving it daily since I got it and loving it. Now I just need to finish going through the to-do list and sort all the issues out as they pop up. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments.
