Thanks to the help of some really great folks on this board, I've recently purchased an incredibly stock, mostly original paint (Sora Blue) 1500 roadster from a suburb of Seattle.
http://groups.msn.com/badroc/dansnewspl ... paint.msnw
It all started off with an email (on the Datsun Roadster list) posted by Sid about a beautiful 1964 3 seater for sale. Originally, Sid initially thought it was the same car as Mike Young's almost identical 1964 1500. But I looked & compared the photos between the two cars and noticed that they were actually two different cars.
Well, during the time spent comparing the two cars, it got me interested enough in speaking with the owner. After several weeks of discussing with the owner, a 311s board member, Leigh Brooks was kind enough to drive out to Maple Valley (suburb of Seattle) and check out the car for me. A HUGE, HUGE THANK YOU TO LEIGH for his help!
After Leigh made his assessment (and took some additional photos) I purchased the car!
Now, Leigh started to uncover some interesting history about the car. He found that under the front WA license plate was rivited the original Black California License Plate. After I spoke with the owner, the story came out about the history of the car.
The car was an original San Francisco Bay Area car. After a NorCal earthquake (presumely the quake in 1989) the car was discovered in a garage in a damaged house in San Francisco. The elderly owner was unable to exit/enter the house, so a younger neighbor was able to climb through a window to get into the house and help out the neighbor. While in the garage, the younger person saw the Fairlady and asked the elderly owner if he'd like to sell. The owner responded that he'd never sell and would take the car with him till the end.
Then, three days later, the older man went to the house of his younger neighbor. He knocked on the door. The younger neighbor opened the door, and the older person said he'd had a change of heart. He wanted to thank the young guy for his help and said he wanted to give him the car! Shocked the younger neighbor offerred to give him a undetermined amount of money for the car. The transfer took place.
Back to the present.....the car arrived, back in the bay area this past Sunday. It has far exceeded my expectations. The car looks great! The transmission & front suspension just feels like new! The car is in such good original shape, it still has its original fabric on all three seats.
Inside the driver side door jamb, I found two oil change sticker sheets (remember the type they used till the late 70's/early 80's). Both were of the 1970's vintage style. One was from a shop in Palo Alto, CA, the other from Mountain View, CA . Now both of these places are within 10 miles from where I live! One oil change sticker read 24K, the other read 27K. The car's odometer now only has 30K miles!!! To further underscore the originality of this..The car still rides on a set of original 4 Ply tires ! The tires must be at least 20-25 years old! They are still in pretty good condition!
Within 2 hours of the car arriving, I was able to drive her on the 101 Freeway at 70MPH...Nice and smooth, no rattles! I got a bit startled when on the freeway this Sunday, someone in a maroon dodge caravan honked at me . I turned to see the driver giving me a BIG thumbs up and the passenger video taping me driving the roadster
The car will need some minor work to bring her back to complete road condition. Need to replace all the fluids and put in a new temp sender. The brakes will need some work/adjustment, carbs need some tuning/parts and I will replace the 4 plys with a set of wide white wall radials.
But...I'm thrilled with the car. You'll be sure to see this car at upcoming BADROC events in the future.
