[Broke_as_****]

Not to burst your bubble but this place is average at best. Fortunately twinturbo.net is probably one of the best forums for anything on the entire internet and is devoted to the Z32. Also try 604z.com to hook up with some local Z owners in your area.

I just took a look at a JDM Z32 NA, '90. The current owner is a college type who sounded like a tuner, and I think he drove it hard. It's got 70k km (roughly 40k miles I think?), with lots of cosmetic damage. He's asking for $4,000 (cdn) at the moment. (on the upside, it's got kakimoto exhausts, which according to my friend, are the best you can buy).

The price seems high for a non-turbo with damage. Perhaps Zs are a bit rarer up north (I'm just south of Seattle) but I certainly wouldn't pay that much for a NA that I'd have to fix, especially cosmetic damage which is always expensive. I don't know how much of a premium RHD cars normally get but I wouldn't pay extra for it myself.

With the car being from Japan, is that even possible to know its history before it came to North America? I wonder if this deal is too good to be true. I heard from a someone who works at a dealership that JDM imports can sometimes have their odo's rolled back before they ship them here. Anyone ever heard of that?

Unless you can somehow get in contact with the company that imported it and just hope they have some kind of record for it I really don't think you're ever going to know.

As for the cosmetic damage, here's a list of parts I will need to restore the Z. Can someone give me an estimate on how much they will cost and the best places to find them?
- one door mirror
- cover for tailights
- fixing a seatbelt so that it would wind up again

Parts are plentiful on the twinturbo.net Classifieds, you can usually find just about anything you need. If search doesn't bring it up, just post a wanted ad and you'll probably have multiple responses in a day or two. Those parts that you've listed would probably end up being $300-$400 if memory serves.

The paint on the spoiler is also peeling badly, and I was thinking that, in order to save money, I'm just going to take it off. What's underneath? Will there be marks/holes/other undesirable blemishes?

There will be mounting holes and of course the paint underneath will at the least be a different shade due to lack of UV exposure. It's really not something that you can pull off unless you're getting that section or the whole car painted. Unless of course you could find a wing in good shape that matches your car and replace it with that, however that's unlikely.

Also, the owner said that some JDM Z32s have engines built left-right opposed compared to the US-built versions. He said that luckily, his Z's engine is of the US spec. Do I have to get that checked out? I don't feel like taking his word for it.

I'm not sure what he's referring to with the "left-right" bit but I know that the US and JDM motors are for the most part the same. The only differences are some mounting and hose routing related stuff to work with the RHD/LHD layouts. I myself have a JDM motor in my car and there wasn't really anything different between the two other than the aforementioned and some model year differences that applied across the board.