This is my story.

[littlekeeley]

they told me i could never make it work again.

 

if it wasn't for this single moment of negligence - my life would be much different.

 

"They are like driving a Go-Kart"

"He says he will sell it to you"

text messages from my brother saying there was a 4-door 510 with lots of parts on it for sale in washington. living in colorado, i raised the money and bought a ticket up there.

 

i bought the car from a pretty well known drifter here in the northwest. krylon paint job, grass clumps stuck in the wheel wells and mud tracks looping to the back wheels where it sat outside the house. you could ash your cigarette on this car and take no shame.

 

the test drive around the block to the gas station was most exciting when the brake pedal fell to the floor just before a stop sign. quenching the datsun's thirst with brake fluid and fuel, we went on a half hour trip to bothell to get the title. greasy hands, reeking of gasoline and being blinded by a shift light; love at first drive.

 

"Remember to keep putting coolant into the radiator, it leaks."

 

Fast forward, after the road trip back to colorado. Fast forward, after all the crazy looks from ricers in their neons and civics. Fast forward, after being chased by a street bike down a mountain pass, and giving him a run for his money. Driving on the interstate, uphill. The sun is up, it's hot and blinding my vision. 5th gear and dropping rev's. downshift to keep it moving at least 70mph... 60... 50... 3rd gear meant the pit of my stomach dropped out. steam was creeping out from the hood, "if only i can get to the gas station," i told myself. 40... 30...

 

the shell station staff were entertained for a while i would imagine as i called for a tow truck. another frantic phone call to my brother's mechanic asking for the signs of a cracked block, being told it was merely a head gasket.

 

"Shit."

 

i had never worked on a car before a day in my life. Hainz' video of how-to-L16 for newbs, many hours studying the art of "where the fuck did i put that bolt," calls to professional mechanics asking "why doesn't it run? ...the hell is ignition timing??"

 

After all that...

 

... the horror i put that neighborhood through.

 

it was around 2pm on a sunny day in our pleasant golf-course neighborhood. people walking their dogs, enjoying the birds chirping, maybe doing some gardening out back, or catching a tan. It coughed to life, first sputtering, then came the roar. and what a roar it had. no time for hooking up exhausts when you do the seemingly impossible. dropped that thing off the jacks like it was an F1 pitstop, rolled it down the driveway, flipped the fuel pump switch, started the car up and off i went. the heat from the sun bearing down on me - windows down, wind in my hair. with the aggressive cam and no carb tuning, you can forget the idle.

 

stop sign, heel + toe to keep it alive... look both ways... blip the throttle and get on 1st.

 

2nd...

3rd...

roundabout taken like a champ.

4th...

turn around,

repeat.

 

watching those neighbors faces, was like watching the audience the first time the exorcist was in theaters.

 

follow the oil path back home, park it. i was like a kid overdosing on chocolate after a candy shopping spree.

 

After getting the car kicked out of the neighborhood, after several failed attempts at re-gasketing to fix the oil leaks, after having to adjust ignition timing via the oil pump while doing delivery, after popping the alternator and parking it somewhere under a tree for a year while i moved to washington, i came back for it.

 

having spent all my 3 1/2 hour bus rides studying mechanic books while going to work, and working on go karts for almost a year, it was finally time to bring it back. covered in leaves, dirt, sap and grime the ground underneath kept dry after the harsh winter. tires still held air, car still smelt of gasoline, the die-hard battery still held its last charge as i flipped the fuel pump switch on. a heartbeat, this was encouraging. we got it onto the dolly and began our road trip back to washington.

 

a popped tire, destroyed rim from 1970 whatever the fuck, a night spent at a bar called "the hole in the wall" in the middle of wyoming, then fresh tires slapped on - we got back in under two days.

 

over the next week we pulled off the head and found why the car felt like it had lost power when it was in colorado. the rocker arm over the exhaust valve jumped off its guide, there's a chunk of cast iron missing from the block at the top of the 2nd cylinder wall, two bent valves thanks to where it hit the pistons on 2 + 4.

 

"Shit. Were they right?"

 

needless to say it was kept quiet about my newest failure in attempting to revive my car. now however, something more important has come of this car than my already butchered reputation. the lesson of patience and desire was rekindled when i saw a video on youtube.

 

 

this is why i will keep on trying. i don't care how many times it will take and how many busted knuckles and how many people tell me "you just don't learn do you." In a time of trendy people that judge you by just the car you drive, i know in my heart that this car is a test of my own character - not my ego. it may just be a datsun, and it may just be a ratty hunk of shit according to some people, but i started this, and i'm going to finish it.

 

they all told me i could never make it work again... yeah, right.

 

cheers.

 

jeremy.

[ariascarlos1990]

I like it.

[Figbuck]

Yeah, it's an emotional thing. It doesn't make any rational, logical or pragmatic sense. I have been driving Datsuns for 42 years and have been through a few and tons of other vehicles too. The others were just hunks of metal, tools to be used. Somehow after driving my truck for 36 years, it has grown on me. I look at it and know every single thing that has ever happened to it or been done to it. There is no previous owner, just me.

 

Good story... I like stories... cool avatar too.

[hang_510]

stop sign, heel + toe to keep it alive... look both ways... blip the throttle and get on 1st.

:thumbup: :hyper:

 

theyll run on 3 cylinders, but when its down to only 2 its time for a rebuild ;)

[jonesy510]

:D :D this is awesome man as soon as i bought my goon all my friends and family asked me y i would buy such an ugly pos. but its my loud ugly annoying pos and i love it!!!! i got my goon to so cal and noticed everyone and there audi and bmw and blah blah blah and its funny cause i have seen people in nice audi stare as they drive buy me I have had a lady in a mercedes follow me to a couple stop lights and tell me she loves my car loves how it sounds and she was grinning from ear to ear :)

 

 

i love my datsun

[banzai510(hainz)]

So is it running OK or not?

[The Dat-side]

I sold my 2005 car and bought my 510, I love it! Everyone else hates it though. My mother told me she likes it, later I heard shes been telling people it's a heap. I caught one guy in a newer domestic station wagon, neck turned full 180, mouthing "nice car". His wife looked embaressed. Someone asked if the car was for sale the day after I drove it down from Washington.

I'm new to cars as well, but the datsun community is so tight knit. I'd actually feel comfortable if my car gets stolen, some ratsuner is going to spot it.

[gokiburix]

Good story! Plenty of patience wins!

 

To add what Jonesy said, you just can't buy the charm an old Datsun has.

Sure there are nicer cars with more luxurious EVERYTHING, but people will stare at your old 60's/70's/80's Datsun before that stare at any 2000's car on the road...no matter what mode...stock, JDM, RICE, "fixed up", "suped-up", VIP, etc and whatever else is out there.

[jefe de jefes]

Cool story man.

 

Keep proving them wrong.....

[racerx]

Whatever we do in life like deciding to drive/work on ol skool cars, we have to realize that these cars are like over 35 years old and they will break down and frustration sits in..this is where our patience gets tested. It's just a journey...in the end of one of those journeys we find what's wrong with it, find the part and fix it and off we go again till something goes wrong again.

[INDY510]

Everyone called my 510 a POS ten years ago.......

 

 

 

 

Oh wait........ they still do

[JDM510]

when i bring a new datsun home every one is liek WTF did you get that thing for.... then about 2-3 weeks later when i roll it out of the garage and throw a forsale sign.... they all say WHY YOU GOING TO SELL IT....no you have to keep that one lol....

 

 

 

only thing this thread lacks is some pics... very good read though

[denveratsun]

Drove by the Longmont exit the other day and thought of you. Great writing...goood stoorY!!!!! I remember my little part well...dad wondering WTH? Mom making the bombest cookies ever :P ! Glad to hear from you man...glad your still at it. The Northwest is the place to be with a Datsun! :rolleyes:

[Nismopunch]

you weren't joking about grabbing a drink while reading haha. that's awesome you got to come back and bring the car home after it was just sitting around. keep at it! since it came back to you, its meant to be haha

[Skib]

great story :cool:

[pharouh]

bravo!!!!!!! :thumbup:

[hang_510]

Drove by the Longmont exit the other day and thought of ...

 

thats what i think of :)

[sick620]

now that was some inspiration :crying: im sick as a dog right now yet i want to go wrench on one of the datsuns

[littlekeeley]

colorado

exhaust

no more exhaust

wyoming

back home

 

hainz, it needs a new motor.

 

Lefthand brewery sticker on my skateboard, sawtooth is their best last time i checked a year ago. glad someone else is enjoying it.

 

denveratsun, you got me started on this journey and i am infinitely grateful for your time and effort. i'll let my mother know you still think highly of her cookies.

 

everyone else, thanks for living up to the communities' reputation of being accepting. i live in bellevue near uwajimya - if anybody enjoys wrenching i've usually got beers and tunes.

 

... how tough is it for a KA swap?

[banzai510(hainz)]

how tough is it for a KA swap?

 

 

Learn L motors 1st. L motors are EZ. cheapest!!!!!

 

then do a KA. Or have Jeff and frank do the swap.

KAs cost money to have all the parts,unless you have alot of friends/(know How) that have the parts already

 

lots of L motors out here. Frank was taking them to the dump or offering L20s to me for 250$ running with weber DGV

 

I like that car give it a good cleaning and soem TR3 polish and look cool

[Dirttrack510]

Great Story!!! I really enjoyed it. I have 3 Ratsuns now. They seem to be like a good drug. I have two that are almost ready for racing and the third one I'm planning on a custom restoration. I really love the third one. I recently bought it from a fellow Ratsun member in Colorado and drove it (against the previous owners advice) more than 800 miles to get it home in Missouri. The entire way home sniffing exhaust fumes, and topping off the oil level. LOL. It seemed like every time I looked out the window someone was giving me a thumbs up :thumbup: !!! It was the most fun I've ever had gagging on exhaust fumes :sick: !!! Keep that car and keep it alive. Old Datsuns should never die.