First Wash in 44 years! Barn Find Datsun 280z with only 350 Original Miles

Hey guys, in today's episode, I'm in Hershey, Pennsylvania to clean a car that hasn't been

wash

ed in over 44

years

. It's a Datsun

280z

. Could this be the rarest

datsun

ever found in a

barn

? I found out today in this episode of Drive Protect. My wife's father owned a 300 zx that she inherited and I bought it and I was showing it to my friend who really liked cars like that and he said you know my neighbor has an old

datsun

z that doesn't have

miles

. People ask him but he never wants to sell it well. A couple

years

later, he emailed me and said, "You know," he was talking to my neighbor and he thinks it's finally time to sell the z.

Here is his number. Call him, so I called. The

first

thing people say when they see this car is if it's new, why are these parts missing when the owner bought and drove it? home from Philadelphia and when he got home he realized it was a small dent in the front fender and the dealer wanted to putty it and repaint it but he wanted to replace the fender with a new one, they agreed and he took it off and They sent him a new fender and while he was waiting for that he decided: well, I'm going to fix some other things.

I don't want an am fm radio. I want to put in a new Pioneer cassette deck, so he pulled out the console and grabbed some. interior parts to run speaker wires and put a cassette player in it and he was in the middle of all these upgrades when he had some money problems and he just had to put the car aside for those parts to be part, they are the reason why It

only

has 350

miles

on it, so after a few weeks of emails back and forth I had to make a trip to Hershey, PA to see the Z in person for the

first

time.

Now, at this point, we moved the car to a larger work area as Steven We partnered with another Z enthusiast, Adam Eisenhower, to oversee the preservation, mechanical upgrade, and of course, the eventual sale of the Z once it We finish with the details. This is an amazing car. It's like New. It's like it's still in the dealer showroom. It has 350 miles it is dirty but looks beautiful it still has the plastic bag in the front seat to keep it clean it has a little tag hanging from the visor that tells you how to start the car it smells like a new car as you can see This had literally been Left alone since the week of its

original

purchase over 44 years ago.

What caught my attention was that the interior actually smelled new because the doors had not been opened for so many years and now the windshield had the

original

October 31, 1976 sticker. The keys had the original dealer sticker that It also matched the sticker on the glove box. The gas store looked new as if no one had opened it and all of this was covered in a thick layer of dust and dirt. which, ironically, protected the paint underneath to some extent. Inside the car there was a lot of dust and dirt but it really wasn't that bad, a thorough vacuuming and cleaning is all that was needed to get it back to shape as you can see.

The center console and a few other items were removed because the original owner took them out to clean years before, but they were all left in the trunk before we put them on the sheets on the garage floor, now one of my favorite parts. A great touch is opening the rear hatch because of the way the gas shocks worked perfectly, which is crazy, but it was cool, but inside I found a Harrisburg Patriot newspaper from July 18, 1977, a bag of original parts from Nissan that appeared to contain a spacer. at some point, windshield wipers and other decorative parts that were protected from the outside for 44 years because they were locked in the trunk, so they were dusty, but they were practically like new under the hood, we discovered more validation of their originality, factory marks on the motor. paper labels that could have easily worn off after a week of driving radiator stickers emissions control information the original fan belt with the part numbers and then a nissan engine plate with the datsun type numbers the engine numbers and card numbers that matched the existing parts now, if you look here, these black spray or splatter marks are from the application of the original base coat over 44 years ago, under the hood we found a paper sticker with the card number piece that would have completely disintegrated after the first

wash

or driving in the rain, so all this. was indicating that the car was brought home from the dealership and then remained in the

barn

until today Hi guys, real quick, I'm excited to present to you a detailed video game and simulator based on my barn hunt episodes like the one they are watching.

Right now in this simulator, you will walk through a barn full of lost cars and discover some of the rarest parts in automotive history. Then you can choose your favorite car like in the Mercedes 280sl episode. Once you

find

the car of your dreams, you can purchase it and take it back to your detailing studio where you'll

find

shampoo for lost treasures, disgusting floor mats, steam clean the interior, pressure wash and foam the paint, and then clean the wheels while You use your favorite ammo products and tools, then choose your pad and polisher to restore the faded and rusted paint before checking your work with a paint lamp, then clean the chrome and final touch ups before the auction at carsonbids.com, When it sells, use the profits to improve your detail study and then go back to the barn and negotiate.

For your next dream card, click the link in the description to add it to your wishlist on Steam. Now go back to the

280z

. Step number one was to vacuum the interior just to get an idea of ​​the strength of the carpets and the level of compacted dirt. Within their fibers, because the rugs are from 1970, they tend to not be as soft, but they are actually a little more durable than normal, so we use the tornador to agitate the dirt embedded in the surface and then We sucked it in before it fell again. into the fibers Here is a good example of how the tornado pulls the dirt out of the seams of the carpet and then the vacuum cleaner picks it up before it falls back into the seams or fibers.

Look how clean it is under the dash and foot area. I have never seen anything like it in hundreds of barn finds over the years. It looks like it just came off the showroom floor. I then removed the trunk carpet to do this. I first had to unscrew the seat belt harnesses before carefully lifting the mat. which had clearly never been removed and I gently placed it on the floor, then removed the brown foam revealing the toyo tires that haven't seen the light of day in over 44 years, how crazy is it that a little later I noticed these smuggler boxes below. the mat that houses the jack and other tools with everything outside the car, now it's time to clean the interior with ammo foam, an interior brush and a microfiber towel to bring some life and color back to the seats , we add mousse to the surfaces. before buffing to a matte finish within two minutes of application to add some UV protection now you will see the sun outside with the first round of the interior finished we now focus on removing the exterior dirt now keep in mind tell all this.

In the background, Steven was working on the interior pieces we removed from the trunk. It was really special to see someone who loves the Z so much and waited for this car to finally come out of the garage working so hard to restore it. those little pieces were there, it was really cool to see them in person. Well at this point it got a little complicated, we needed to remove the dirt but at the same time maintain the integrity of the original stickers etc, so Dan and I decided. I used foam ammo on the aerator first to avoid over-soaking the joints with a hose before we had a chance to test their strength.

He added six plugs of foam to 40 ounces of water before replacing the top step. One is to lubricate the paint. and let the foam do its job of lubricating and lifting dirt before using a microfiber towel. Now keep in mind that if we could avoid scratching the paint during the washing process, in theory the paint underneath should be as pristine as possible because no one has done that. I touched it in 44 years it has just been collecting dust not scratches so after one pass with a microfiber towel you can see how much debris came off and was left on the towel but underneath the paint looked pretty good we also used a little steam. tight areas to take advantage of the pressure of the steam machine and the minimal amount of water released in the cleaning process at this point we were trying to get comfortable with the door and door seals before moving on to potentially using a power washer. pressure again.

I want to be very clear that it is not ideal to use a steam machine on paint in most situations, but in this case it is absolutely fantastic because we are trying to find out and get familiar with the strength of stamps with Steven's permission. We felt confident with the condition of the stamps and hit them with a pressure washer very gently to release the last of the surface and hidden dirt from being in the barn for that long time while Dan and I delicately washed the paint with a group local. of points and friends came to help us clean every single piece and part that we took out of the car or found in the trunk.

Now at this point all hands were on deck and Steven really concentrated on the center console which was covered in dust and I think he was having a great time once the first few layers of dirt were removed we went back to using foam and shaking Scrub tight spots with a soft brush to release years of built-up dirt that won't come off. The pressure washer before doing our first test on the paint, as we suspected, after removing the dust and dirt from the surface of the car, the paint itself is actually not that damaged, but just encrusted with dirt after all these years, which is pretty obvious and comes off easily with a polisher, luckily we tested the depth of the paint and it read four mils, so it's definitely original, there's no doubt about it and there's plenty of room for some light polishing.

We first taped the rubber gaskets before applying the compound to a red foam pad on a The Rupaus polisher thinks of this process as essentially cleaning the paint, which means we don't focus on removing defects because there aren't many, if there is any, but we exfoliate the years of dirt embedded in the pores of the paint that are transferred to the pad. then we blow on the pad and release the dirt, this simple process is repeated until all the pores are cleaned after a single pass, look how fresh the paint is under the dirt, that's what an original barn means, you find it simply There, no one cleaned it. no one touched it no one did anything to it the paint will still have a lot of integrity the before and after are impressive after literally a polishing session with a foam pad which is crazy with the simple process now it's time for dan and me to giving the z a quick facelift once done with step number one we polished the paint with a yellow rupaus pad to get the last five percent shine with steven watching anxiously from the background as we polished the z team removed all the badges to Clean and polish them before reinstalling them later because the doors had been closed for 44 years, the door jambs were dusty but in good shape, otherwise we used spray wax to lubricate the area and then wiped it down with a towel of microfiber while working through traffic jams.

Dan steamed the engine to remove dust without over-soaking the original paper stickers or getting water into areas that may need more mechanical attention later. Now at this point, with the z looking a thousand times better, the team began the process of reinstalling all the I removed the parts back on the car, happy, very happy, well before the rear bumper could be installed and hit it with chrome polish and a wheel to remove rust before Adam and his father, who was a former Nissan technician, reinstalled the bumper for the first time since. The car was parked in the barn over 44 years ago, it was a great moment to see it in person for the finishing touches and I cleaned and wiped the windows, applied mud to the original rubber and leather to the paint, all before Stephen reinstalled the Nissan hubcaps, which was so satisfying to see after all the time I had waited to get this Z out of the barn.

This was a special moment once we were done, Dan and I and the crew pushed the car into the field across the street to get it. the first glimpse of the paint in natural light, all that was left was for Steven to apply the lastbadge and reveal his old and new Datsun 280z to his friends and family who were waiting for him after being lost for almost 44 years. Thank you so much.