Question for the EXPERIENCED restorers...

[Cruzn620]

how the heck did you guys restore anything before the internet? everybody around me thinks i am some kind of wizz because of how i can track down parts, but if you take the net out of my hands, im useless. 20 years ago, how would you have tracked down 620 drip rail chrome? or even a dog leg 5? my hat is removed for you guys who did this before the net, because i don't understand how you did it. oh yeah, i want to take this time to thank all the guys on here who i have bought parts from...and a big shout out to my good friend ebay!

[Voleurz]

i dont know how one did alot of things without the internet.

maybe before the internet these hard to find things didnt need restoring..

and what did they must have had catalogs.

[1lo620]

You got to alot of swap meets, read the nickle want adds, and just get lucky on alot of the stuff. Ask other Datsun owners, keep your eyes open fr Datsuns in driveways, back yards etc...I had datsuns in the 80s and I got stuff, mind you the availablity of parts for say, the 620s at the dealers was alot more plentiful. They where only a few years old when I got into them. 84/85.

But man this internet stuff in pretty cool.......I like some tech stuff and other stuff just makres me feel old and dumb...by the way I am both of those...:lol::lol:

[datrod]

back in the day (pick a part) still had some good cars to rummage thru. Heck I remember like 8-10 of us would get together on a sunday and hit 3-4 yards. And we all came home with something. Plus friends looking for ya.

[DISLEXICDIME]

when i was a kid my dad new all the junk yard guys and he would tell them what he wanted and they would call him when they found it. plus they had the hotline!

all the junk yards by our house had it. it was a cb and the junkyard would say i need this and some one would respond and you went to pic it up. and the nickel ads where like craigslist on paper

[SHADY280]

i only just got internet, so ive been doing this resto thing like the rest have said, dealership, junkyard and cataloges. oh and the local parts stores.

[dat521gatherer]

phonebooks and telephones. ads for parts and junkyards in the auto mags.

[mklotz70]

People actually interacted more in person back then!!! Email and forums are cool, but how many years have some of us been in contact and yet never met?! Anytime you would meet another car guy from a different area, you'd actually talk to him face to face!! Exchange phone numbers. Of course, parts counter guys were actually car guys back then and they'd increase your circle of connections a great deal. Want ads and for sale ads use to be put on real bulletin boards at grocery stores, mini marts, car parts stores. Now days, people just want to stay encapsulated...even when they're in public....afraid eye contact will commit them to some kind of interaction. I know....I'm guilty of it to....at times.

 

maybe...through the 70's-80's, people were more about buying new stuff...restorations weren't as popular...not near as much competition for parts.

 

When I talked with Steve Epperly(owner of ZTherapy) a couple of years ago about discs on the 521....his response was that they used to do it all the time. Since that was pre-internet and never put into print, we have to re-invent a lot of this stuff that was common before. He said they used to just buy the 620 disc upper tower from the dealer....cut the old one off the frame, weld on the new one. Prior to that, they simple made new control arms. Anyway.......

[Eastcoast521]

I've asked that same question a million times. An acquaintance of mine here in Maryland has a red truck (whatever was before the 320 I think) and back in the day (early 80's) he broke his windshield and couldn't find a new one. He wrote in to Mini Truck magazine asking about one but never found one. He finally metalworked the windshield area to fit another windshield. He also changed the door frames, made his own bed and dropped in a small block Ford (back in the day it had a Buick V6 I think). You may have seen a picture of his truck in the 320 gallery - it is red with a stepside bed and has Centerlines on it. It's a cool truck and he originally brought it with him from Cali.

[hang_510]

20 years ago...

...everything was easy to find in a JY

 

i used to able to go to (san fernando) JY's and find what i needed.

i remember ripping apart a goon cargo window seal, just for the glass :eek: but there were 3 avail at the time

 

today i cant even find a 510 in a JY, even with them searching for me

 

actually 'talking' to people is still important today :blink:

[Jester]

There are so many good points here. The Nickel adds were my best friend. Of coarse20 years ago, the auto "parts" section was about six or seven pages (that's both sides) instead of six or seven lines. With the internet, a lot of the local looking is gone.

As others have stated, treasure yards( remember, one mans junk is another mans treasure:D) were full of the not so old trucks and cars we love. Back then you fixed them instead of restoring. This last point also means that things like window felts and chrome drip rails were in stock at the local stealership.

 

Jester

[Z-train]

how the heck did you guys restore anything before the internet? everybody around me thinks i am some kind of wizz because of how i can track down parts, but if you take the net out of my hands, im useless. 20 years ago, how would you have tracked down 620 drip rail chrome? or even a dog leg 5? my hat is removed for you guys who did this before the net, because i don't understand how you did it. oh yeah, i want to take this time to thank all the guys on here who i have bought parts from...and a big shout out to my good friend ebay!

 

20 years ago every single part for my 620 was available at the dealer.:(

[airedout]

The best resource for finding rare and hard to find parts before the internet is the Hemmings Motors News Almanac. You can still find things in there that you wont find on the net!!!!