Gather 'round, it's story time!
If you've been here for a while, you may know member Pseudosport, aka Greg. He loves his Z cars, and was perusing FB Marketplace recently and found a disassembled 1978 280Z for sale. Clicking on the add, something didn't add up: It was in NH, and it was NOT rusty. Like, at all. Huh?
Intrigued, he went to see the car. It was disassembled, but all of the parts were in the little garage where it sat. And upon closer examination, it was in fact NOT RUSTY. How does this happen, especially when these cars disintegrated near-instantly in New England? Even the paint was shiny. He agreed to buy the thing, messaged our friend group, and then asked if I'd go up to grab it with him to document the find.
So, we roll up to a back alley in a city in NH, where there are a bunch of small, rented garage bays. A guy meets us and opens the bay door. This is what I saw:
Yep, that's certainly a Z surrounded by its component parts. But what was the story here?
From what I understand, an older guy bought it new in Florida and drove it sparingly. His grandson took a liking to it in the late 90's and acquired the car after asking for it repeatedly. The grandfather relented, and the car was shipped north to NH where the grandson lived. He drove it for a very short period of time, and then claimed the car had a "cracked block" and pulled the engine. Then, he lost interest. The kid then stuck the grandfather with the car again, and he paid about $150/mo for the garage where it sat since about 2001. Fast forward to a few months back, when the grandfather stopped paying rent. He offered the car to the garage owner, who took ownership and immediately listed it for sale, trying to both recoup his backdated rent and clear it for another tenant. Enter Greg, who saw it and scooped it up immediately.
Parts of the car were scattered about the small garage, albeit neatly. Also, this came with stacks and stacks of paperwork, some of which we have never seen before.
Like this thing. It's an old computer punch card, and Google Translate indicates that it has something to do with confirming that the car can be shipped. Cool!
Clearly, the engine has been removed. But that gave us a good look at critical subframe structural points, all of which were rock solid. We are used to seeing holes and having to make our own patches. There was one little rust spot in a non-critical part, and that's it. ZERO body rust as well!
This is one of those situations where you had to concentrate and take a step back to see all of the stuff in the garage. All of the bits and pieces were there, and fairly well organized. And yes, that's the original exhaust leaning against the wall. More on that in a minute.
Also included with the car was this amazing OG Pioneer Super Tuner stereo! I have never seen one in person, and as a car audio enthusiast, this was a real treat.
Tucked in the corner was the hood, engine block, and other parts. Since it's a 1978, it has the cool vented hood. Nice.
The seats were strangely hanging in the rafters.
We loaded the car onto our other buddy's sketchy trailer (Greg's was occupied with another Z car!) and the car saw the light of day... err... night for the first time in over 20 years. Check out that original, unused Space Saver spare!
I told you we would get back to the exhaust. It was too long to fit in the car or our borrowed tow rig, so we had to break it down. Luckily, it just unbolted like it was a couple years old and totally not a nearly 46-year old Japanese car. Again, how???
We loaded it on the trailer and secured it by the tow hooks. Yes, it actually still has its factory tow hooks! Most Z's in New England self-deleted these early during Reagan's first term.
20+ years of garage dust aside, the car was unbelievably clean. It wears a shade of metallic beige that on most cars would put you to sleep, but looks cool on this one.
After bolting in the nearly new-looking OEM radiator, we bolted the hood on for transport.
Side shot! The car has a few dents and scratches, but overall is in phenomenal shape. Those BFG Radial T/A's are smoked, but super early ones, which is cool to see. LOVE the wheel covers, too.
Folks, they are still out there. We rescued this one from purgatory, and Greg's plan is to simply reassemble the car and enjoy it. I think that's a sound plan. It's way too clean to do heavy mods or cut up. I'll convince Greg to start a build thread if there's any interest. 
