#31245 in OZ

well Ive just bought at auction this 78 400I, it was cheap so not too much of a gamble, the motor is out and complete and turns (not that that means anything haha) has been converted to a small block chev to use as a burnout car, chev is now removed,
tidy condition ,rockers have been repaired well and also bottom of rear quarters, interior is good just needs carpet mats and refinish of leather, sooooo,
my plan is to piece it together, go through the CIS and see if it runs, then decide where to go from there, Im pretty hands on and can pretty much fix anything myself,
my background is air cooled porsches and vw's
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wow thanks for the info Ramboy,
I dont pick it up until next week, I guess I need to look at the motor condition before I do anything, I am thinking compression test it on the ground as fist step and go from there, although I bought it for chump change I dont have $50k to put into a restoration for a car thats not worth that, decisions decisions haha,
Simon, if you could find out about that bonnet that would be great although I am hoping the cut section is in with the parts, should be able to tig it back together,
Cheers Russ...

 

Adrian, interesting about the year, I just decoded the vin online and also the seller all be it an auction house with no knowledge listed it as the same,
good to know some history and the original colour, Im not a fan of red haha

 

thanks sam, that was my plan,
either that or just wing it and plonk the motor back in there ,
go through the essentials and see what happens haha

 

haha handy with spanners welders and small machining just not handy with large wads of cash, and I thought the P tax was bad, at least a 911 a full gasket set was only $400, a full set for the v12 is $2000!!!!
heres hoping its a reasonable runner,
it would have been bought around 2012-13 so prices were still quite low then for a tidy runner, fingers crossed, and toes...

 

I like the idea of megasquirt conversion, but I have a soft spot for CIS, not sure if the soft spot is my head haha

 

small update, I now have all the motor and other parts home and gone through what I have, Im missing the air filter bases (one has since been sourced locally off ebay) shifter bezel, windscreen centre pivot and both linking rods and wiper arms,
motor is missing the oil pressure switch ,gauge sender and temp sender and that's about it,
I had a disastrous week with all my other cars so havent had any time to look at it, hope to clean it up and get the compression/leak down testing done next break

 

it is ZFFEB06C000031245 and its an auto, I couldn't be that lucky haha
I just used an online vin checker and it said 1978 and was advertised as such but as you say it wasnt really used until 1980, thats prob why those sections of the vin for year is 0,
any info is helpful,
as Ramboy has said above its UK RHD delivered with export plates so I would assume the owner flew to the factory and drove it home?
appears to have left the UK MOT system around 1990 so it may have gone to Australia then or may have gone to hongkong like a lot did and ended up in Australia, who knows maybe we might stumble across something,
Cheers Russ...

 

I paid $12K AUs so about 50c US haha

 

well just had a stroke of luck, my wifes father actually moved this car to auction (has a tilt tray bussiness) and is mates with a previous owner, he has a box of the missing parts haha, better go buy a lotto ticket...

 

well development, not a good one but something, I repaired the oil cooler line and plugged the oil sender holes and went to crank her over to do a compression test, so it rotates one turn then stops solid, hmmm I fingered all the exhaust ports and found number 3 has dropped a valve, Bugger, looking into the port it seems to have happened at low speed or while not running, heres hoping its not too bad,
heads off next week when I get home and see what Im in for,
may still end up dropping an LSX into it yet haha, no only kidding,
Cheers Russ...