ol' 320

Ray, I am sure this will be another beauty when you get it together! Will it be green like the rest of your fleet?

This has certainly been a long, lengthy project ... just look how old the thread is! As of today, there have been 19,333 views and 490 posts! DHL is on track to deliver my gasket set next Tuesday. These will make a great Christmas present for my buddy, who now owns my old 320 and will likely keep it "forever" since he uses it all the time to haul his old restored Nortons and BSAs to m/c shows - and to shlep stuff home from Costco and Home Depot:) After seeing the prototype set in Las Vegas a month ago I an=m highly confident that I will be delighted with what I receive next Tuesday! Could everyone who receives their new 320 vent window gaskets please take a moment to post back here with their product review? Even better, perhaps folks can post a pic or two of their installed gaskets in their truck with their own review? Advance Auto Supply has really taken a leap of faith financially on the tooling and production of these gaskets. I doubt that the company has received orders for more than 40 or at most 50 gasket sets to date. Again, my only personal stake in this venture was to be able to buy the one set of new gaskets for my old truck, which will now make a great Christmas present for my buddy, who will probably have this truck forever. For Mr. Kitisak to even break even on this venture he will certainly need to sell a great deal more gaskets than have been ordered to date. In my conversations with the company owner, his motivation was to try to help the relatively small community of 320 owners be better able to enjoy their trucks, and he thought the only practical way to do so was to take a chance on this extended preorder process to help mitigate as much up front costs as possible. If you like your new gaskets, please post a review here so other 320 owners can feel better about dealing with an overseas vendor who has gone to extraordinary lengths to reproduce these items. Better yet, please let your friends know these 320 parts are available again. I have no idea how many extra sets Mr. Kitisak has or will make in the future, but at least a reputable company has now made the effort to make quality molds. If you need a set of gaskets, order them soon before the initial run is sold out. I consider the price I paid for a new set of 320 gaskets to be a bargain, considering this current run of gaskets is the only known source of 320 vent window gaskets in existence! Finally, a note to DatsunMike. I appreciate your patience with keeping this thread going. I am 100 percent convinced after being involved with this project that without the obvious interest this project would not have succeeded: * At least a couple dozen folks stated they serious buyers for a set of gaskets, and * The 19,333-plus views to date * Trakker98 extensive research and effort to find thisThai manufacturer * Trakker deciding to pull his truck apart and send his personal set of 320 gaskets overseas to someone whom he had never met in the hopes of jumpstarting this project. * Wayno's (Wayne) willingness to send a set of 320 door frames to me to hand carry to the manufacturer in Las Vegas, in order to fine tune the finished product which Ratsun buyers should start receiving next week. Good luck with your 320 project! Eric

Hi Tanik: I am comfortable paying the entire amount now for the pair I have pre-ordered. Just send me a PayPal invoice. Tanik: I just checked.....I have not yet received a PayPal invoice for the one set. Eric

Wayne: Your donated pair of 320 wing vent door frames were very helpful. As Trakker stated, he was able to install the prototype gaskets and discuss some very minor tweaks that the production foreman will make to the molds before producing the final version of the vent gaskets. Of additional interest to some Ratsun members, this same Thai rubber manufacturer lists rubber gaskets and parts for more than 40 different early Japanese and German vintage cars of the 60's-70's era. These include every gate needed to restore or rejuvenate a Datsun Fairlady roadster, some parts for 510s, Datsun 1200s, and some BMW and Mercedes parts. he test fitment, I The manufacturer suspects, but has not personally verified, that the 320 truck vent rubber gaskets may also fit Datsun 310/311 and possibly 312 models. If anyone happens to own a 320 and a 310 and can verify if these gaskets are the same, it would be good to get the word out about that. Kitisak, the company owner, could not have been nicer to work with. Lots of very interesting manufacturers at this show. I did determine that Kitisak is very well respected by the Thailand government folks who organized a group display of approximately 18 Thai parts vendors. Evidently this rubber parts company has been attending and exhibiting at AAPEX for the past 7 years. The owner bought out this business from his father, who made a great many parts for easy Datsun, Toyotas, Mazdas and other early JDM cars starting decades ago. While the vast majority of the company's rubber products are for a wide range of relatively late model Asian market cars and trucks, both consumer and commercial, the company does make parts for a lot of older cars and trucks. Regards, Eric

Tanik: This post and pic was a lovely surprise today! Kudos to your team for all their hard work to get to this point in the project. Trakker: When I started this thread in 2011 I wasn't sure we would ever get to this point, but I was hopeful. You get all the credit for picking this project back up and pushing so hard to find a solution. I am looking forward to meeting you in just a few days. I have the 320 window frames that Wayno donated to this effort all packed in the car and ready to bring to AAPEX for the test fittings Tuesday. Any Ratsuners going to SEMA/AAPEX: It would be great to meet up at the show.

With the metal-forming skills you have learned and continue to develop, now is the time to sawmill the cab and stretch this front to back 3 inches in the door. I am sure you could pull this off, and when you are done the truck would be so much nicer!

That shop looks nice and deep. If you can trade off the Barracude, you could probably fit two 510s in that spot:)

Looks great! What size are those wheels? The NL model with the longer doors really ads some comfort over a L320 with the shorter doors. Hope you get it back on the road soon!

Good luck! I had a '68. Not the same thing, but I enjoyed mine with just a slant six. I had a chance to buy one of the rare all aluminum slant sixes to put in it, but didn't realize what a rare find that was at the time. The stock six would cruise down the freeway at 80-90 anytime I wanted, tho. Liked that engine. I looked at a '64 Barracuda before I found the '68, but I decided to buy the seller's '64 Valiant signet 200 convertible instead. I would still have the Valiant convertible if it hadn't been a rust bucket. Always liked that cool back window on the early Barracuda....

Dylan: Do you have a build thread on your 320? Pics?

The only pic of your truck that shows up for me is of your dash. Any chance you can post a coupe of pics?

Wow. I just discovered this thread. Nick you have done some awesome rust repairs on this. What are you working on now? Did you ever identify that what that trans is... L series 4 speed or? More pics, please!

Thanks for the update, @MIckey 1845 (Tanik). Looking forward to seeing the test sample. Eric

Steve: I wonder if 320 wing vent rubbers would fit this thing? Boy, that would be a hoot:) PS: If the Tesla swap doesn't work out, will we shortly see custom sets of REDEYEYE KA-1000 motor mounts offered up here?

Steve, you will have to add some mighty fine brakes to this Datsun 1000 to compensate for "Tesla torque.." But if you pull this Tesla swap off, I would be very interested in going for the third or fourth test drive.... the one right after you take your lady for a spin and the rig is reasonably safe! My brother has a mid-level Model S and it is more than fast.