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

hey guys in todays episode i'm in hershey pennsylvania to clean a car that hasn't been

wash

ed in over 44

years

my wife's dad who had a 300 zx that she inherited and i bought it and was showing it to my friend who really liked cars like that and told me you know my neighbor has an old

datsun

z that has no

miles

on it people ask him but he never ever wants to sell it good. A couple of

years

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

Here's his number. Give him a call, 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? He drove home from philadelphia and got home realized it was a small dent in t The front fender and dealer wanted to putty it and repaint but he wanted the fender replaced with a new one. They agreed and he took off his fender and they sent him a new one and while he was waiting for that he decided yes. i'm going to fix some other stuff i don't want an am fm radio i want to put in a new pioneer cassette deck so he took out the console took out some interior pieces to run the speaker wires through and put a cassette player in it and he was in the middle of it all these improvements when he had some money problems and just had to put the car aside for those parts to be part is the reason it

only

has 350

miles

on it so after a few weeks of emails back and forth i had need to take a trip to hershey pennsylvania 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 teamed up with another z enthusiast adam eisenhower to oversee the mechanical preservation upgrade and for assuming the eventual sale of the z onc We are done with the details.

This is an amazing car. It's like new. It's like it's still in the dealership showroom. It has 350 miles. It's dirty, but it looks beautiful. It still has the plastic bag on the front seat to store it. clean has a little tag hanging from the visor telling you how to start the car smells like a new car as you can see it had literally been left alone since the week of its

original

purchase over 44 years ago what impressed me the most is that the interior actually smelled new because the doors hadn't been opened for so many years now the windshield had the

original

tag from oct 31, 1976. the keys had the original dealer tag which also matched the tag on the glove box Gasoline looked brand new, like no one had ever opened it, and all of this was covered in a thick layer of dust and grime which, ironically, protected the paintwork underneath to some extent.

Inside the car there was a lot of dust and dirt but it really wasn't that bad vacuuming and deep cleaning is really all it took to get it back into shape as you can see the center console and a few other items have been removed because the Original owner actually took them out for years to clean. before but they all stayed in the trunk before we put them on sheets on the garage floor now one of my favorite parts of a fine

barn

detail is opening the rear hatch because of the way the gas struts worked perfectly , which is completely insane, but that was great, but inside I found a Harrisburg Patriot newspaper from July 18, 1977, a bag of original Nissan parts that appeared to contain a spacer somewhere, windshield wipers, and various other parts that they were protected from the outside for 44 years because they were closed.

In the trunk, so they were dusty, but they were practically like new under the hood. We discovered more validation of its originality. Factory marks on the paper engine tags that could have easily worn off after one use. driving ek radiator decals emissions control info the original fan belt with the part numbers 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 this black spray or splatter marks are from the original base coat application over 44 years ago, under the hood we found a paper decal with the part number on it that would have completely disintegrated after the first

wash

or drive In the rain, so this all indicated that the car was driven home from the dealership and then sat in the

barn

until today.

Hi guys, very fast. I am excited to present you a detailed video game and simulator based on my barn. Find episodes like the one you are watching 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 mercedes 280sl episode once you

find

your dream car you can buy it and take it back to your detailed study where you will

find

lost treasures shampoo disgusting carpets steam cleaning the interior pressure wash and foam the paint then clean the wheels while using your favorite ammo products and tools then choose your pad and polish to restore the faded and rusted paint before you check your work with a paint light, then clean up the chrome and finishing touches before the auction at carsonbids.com when it sells use the proceeds to upgrade your detail study and then head back to the barn and trade the next card of your dreams , click the link in the description to wishlist it on Steam now, go back to the

280z

, step number one was to vacuum the interior just to get an idea of ​​the rugs resiliency and the level of dirt compacted within its fibers because rugs are from the 1970's they tend to not be as soft but are actually a bit more durable than expected normal, so we used the tornador to agitate the encrusted dirt to the surface and then vacuumed it up before it fell back into the fibers.

Here's a good example of the tornado blowing dirt out of the seams of the carpet and then the vacuum grabs it before it falls back into the seams or the fibers take a look at how clean it is under the dash and dashboard area. foot room. I had never seen anything like it in a hundred barn finds over the years. It looks like it just came off the showroom floor. I first had to unbolt the seatbelt harnesses before carefully lifting the mat that had clearly never been removed and carefully placing it on the floor, then I removed the brown foam and uncovered the toyo tires that haven't seen the light of day in more 44 years old.

The crazy thing is that a little while later I noticed these bootlegger boxes under the rug that house the jack and other tools with everything out of the car. Now it's time to clean the interior with ammo foam, an interior brush, and a microfiber cleaning towel. Giving the seats some life and color, we add mousse to the surfaces before buffing to a matte finish within two minutes of applying to add some UV protection now that you'll be seeing the sun outside with round one. from the interior Done, now we focus on removing external dirt. Now keep in mind that all this happens in the background.

Steven was working on the interior pieces we got out of the trunk. from waiting for this car to finally come out of the garage working so hard to restore those little pieces in there it was really cool to see it in person ok at this point it got a little tricky we needed to get the dirt off but in the end At the same time I kept the integrity from the original stickers and so on, so Dan and I decided to use foaming ammo in the aerator first to avoid getting too soaking the seams with a hose before we had a chance to test its strength, added six capfuls of es othy to a 40 ounce of water before replacing the top the first step is to lubricate the paint and allow the foam to do its job of lubricating and lifting the dirt before using a microfiber towel now consider if we can avoid scratching the paint during the process washed off.

In theory, the paint underneath should be near pristine because no one has touched it in 44 years, it's just been collecting dust that doesn't s There are scratches so after a swipe with a microfiber towel you can see how much crap came off the towel but underneath the paint looked pretty good we also used a bit of steam in the tight areas to take advantage of the pressure the steam engine and the minimal amount of water released in the cleaning process at this point we were trying to sort to be comfortable with the door and door seals before potentially going back to using a power washer i want to be crystal clear , it's not ideal to use a steam engine on painting in most situations b but in this case it's absolutely fantastic because we are trying to figure out and familiarize ourselves with the strength of the seals with steven's permission we feel confident with the condition of the seals to hit them with a power washer very gently to release the last of the surface and dirt hidden from sitting in the barn for that long time my you walk in dan and i delicately pressure washed the paint a local group of dots and friends came over to help us clean every single piece and part we took out of the car or found in the trunk now at this point all hands were on deck and steven really focused on the center console which was covered in dust and i think he was having a lot of fun once the first layers of grime were vigorously removed we went back up with foam and agitated the tight spots with a soft brush to free the Years of built up grime that didn't come out of the power washer before we ran our first test on the paint as we suspected after removing Having the dust and grime on the car's surface, the paint itself isn't really that damaged, it's just Encrusted with dirt after all these years, which is pretty obvious and easily removed with a polish.

It's definitely original, no question about it and plenty of room for some light polishing. We first removed the rubber gaskets before applying the compound to a red foam pad on a rupaus polisher. Think of this process as essentially cleaning up the paint, which means we're not concentrating. in removing blemishes because there aren't many if any, instead we are exfoliating the years of encrusted dirt from the pores of the paint that transfers to the pad, then we blow the pad and release the dirt, this simple process repeats until all pore cleansed after just one pass look how fresh the paint is under the dirt that's what an original barn means find it just sitting there no one cleaned it no one touched it no one did anything to it, the paint will still have a ton of integrity the before and after are amazing after literally one buffing session with a foam pad that is insane with the simple process now its time me and dan give it a quick look a to z With the facelift done with step number one, we buffed the paint with a yellow rupaus pad to get the last five percent shine with Steven looking on anxiously. hovered in the background while we were polishing.

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 microfiber towel while I was working on it. the traffic jams dust without over soaking the original paper stickers or letting water get into areas that may need more mechanical attention later on now at this point with the z looking a thousand times better than the t The team started the process of reinstalling all the removed parts in the car.

You are happy very happy well before the rear bumper could be installed and he hit it with chrome polish and a wheel to remove rust before Adam and his father who was a former Nissan technician. Refitting the bumper for the first time since the car was barn parked over 44 years ago, it was a great time to see the finishing touches in person. All before Stephen reinstalled the Nissan hubcaps, which was very satisfying to see after all the time she had waited to get this Z out of the barn. This was a special moment once we were all done, me and the team got the car out. in the field across the street for his first look at the painting in natural light, all that was left was for steven to apply the latest badge and reveal his old slash new datsun

280z

to his friends and family who expected to be lost for almost 44 years thank you very much for what