Your First Datsun? What was it? When was it?

[69Ronin]

Well I'm dating things back a bit. I was 17 years old and the year was 1976. Yep, I have shoes older than most of you guys. I needed dependable car to get me back and forth to school from the Bay Area. I was starting Oregon State University in the fall and it was now June. I saw a 1971 240Z for sale. They were asking $2800. It had a fresh blue metallic paint and slotted mags. It was a 4 speed with that ice blue interior.  Trouble was, I couldn't drive a stick. My sister's boyfriend went with me to test drive the car and see if it was a good one for me. I had $2100 of my own money and my mother said she would cover whatever the difference was. I had worked at Straw Hat Pizza for a couple years at this time. Anyway, my sis's BF and I went out in the car and I was in love. He drove it hard and said it was a great driving car. He tried to get me behind the wheel but I said let me first buy it, then I will drive it. he laughed. Anyway, we negotiated the price down to $2500. I said yes and would return with the rest of the money later that day. Got the money, and had my mom drop me off. I handled the whole transaction. I told the guy I was 18 already. Actually, I wouldn't be 18 until August. Got the keys and a bill of sale, the last registration work on the car and it was time to roll out. Fortunately I didn't have to back the think up and sort of bucked my way out onto the road. It was being sold by a body shop and had I inspected my closely would have seen that it was a salvage auto. but I didn't give a shit at the time because I had a Z!! Dan ( my sister's BF) had coached me verbally on what to do. I watched him drive the stick and he explained how the clutch must be engaged before coming to a full stop etc...Anyway, I'm rolling down the street, smiling like I hit the lotto or something and stalled when I got to the first light. But I was looking good!! I bucked to another roll and and if I was moving, shifts were cool. Its just learning that temperament of taking off. I even had to go on the freeway to get home but first I had to go to the Sun Valley Mall to pick up my other sister from work on the way home!! I was fearless. I made it home and quickly learned how to park and maneuver hills. Our driveway was on a slant and my car was the last one in line. Sitting at a stop with the clutch and brake down I quickly shut it off and pulled the parking brake. I then eased my foot off the clutch and was proud as heck I had made it home.  that was day one fellas and I have been infected every since. Two 1971 240Zs, (1) '69 510 with a '69 4 door donor, (1) '510, (1) '71 510, '77 620, '86 720, '98 200sx, '90 S13 and currently...'71 521 and a '69 Roaster as one of the Ratsun guys dubbed it on a thread. And my future wife had a '69 510 wagon when i met her. It had the red body but the front fender fenders and hood were white. Corvallis, Oregon...1979!

Thanks for the thread. 

[mlw]

1975, 16, learned to drive a stick in a 510.

[Rhino13]

Picked this up when I was 19. 1981 720 4x4 long bed, really regret selling it.

[Jesse C.]

My first Datsun was my 69 2 Door, that I paid a whopping $150 in running condition! Barely ran, but it ran! Hood, trunk and doors where taken from a donor car, that would be a prime build candidate today, that I also got the interpart suspension out of. It some weird E.T. wheels and some sweet super wide BFG tires! Powered by an Import L-18 with an A-87 head, Cannon Cam and sidedraft Mikuni carbs. Had a dogleg trans that was obliterated quite quickly so I stepped up to a 280z 5 speed. 

 

[Sicarius]

32 - I just bought a Datsun 210 4 door wagon for $600. Runs great and is super fun to drive not to mention the amazing mpg it gets running around town. I fell in love with it almost instantly, it's hard not to. Now I just want to spend all my money on it..

[mhub91]

4 years old. Dad had a silver-blue 720 king cab. 5 speed, Z24 and some bitching aluminum running boards. Drove from north Idaho (Couer d' Alene, ID) all the way down to St. Louis, Missouri. Bed stuffed totally full of house hold items and belongings. Went through North and South Dakota and visited some historical sight that, iirc, the movie Dances with Wolves was based on. My fondest memory in that damn truck is when Mom and Dad stopped at a roadside mocha stand and got me a hot chocolate. Me, being a stupid kid, poked my finger into the foam cup and had 12oz of piping hot chocolate going all over..... Dad was pissed.

[BeLCh]

My first Datsun was a 1981 310 .It was an A15 with a 4speed.I currently have an 80 720 2wd :thumbup:  kingcab with original automatic.Love this truck.

[71Hustler]

When I was 18 years old, I bought a 1972 510 4 door in my hometown of Salem. $800. Learned to drive stick the same day so I could make it back to Eugene. Started out as a 4 speed, switched to a 5 speed a couple years later.

 

Sold it in Portland six years later, 1999. Ran into the gal that bought it just last year, she sold it to someone else locally. I loved that 510--keep thinking I'll see it someday.

 

My older sister's first car was also a 510, 2 door. She used to scare the shit out of me driving crazy fast on HyLo road in South Salem.

[Tolkmod]

I was 17, worked for a year and a half doing odd jobs here and there to save up enough cash to buy my neighbors 74' 710 (4-door, 160j version)  It was a nice deep red, with a black racing stripe down the middle of the hood that flowed over the top to the trunk.

 

Loved that car for 5 years before it blew the heads (had over 300k miles on the original engine).  So, in my amazingly endless wisdom I let it set in my parents driveway for another 5 years before i was forced to sell it (forced being my stupidity cause I wouldn't fork out the $1k to have the engine rebuilt :angry: ).  

 

Soon as I signed the paperwork over to the guy that bought it from me, my heart broken into a billion pieces.  

 

Still looking for another one, been almost 10 years of searching and haven't come across one that wasn't Swiss cheesed out with cancer.

 

BUT I WILL HAVE MY 710 DANG IT!   :hyper:  SOONER OR LATER I WILL FIND ONE!  AND IT WILL BE MINE!!  :pirate: AND I WILL LOVE IT, AND MAKE IT PRETTY!

 

That is all..  

[RandyWanger]

JDM Bluebird SSS Coupe imported last year.

Had a couple Nissans before that, both SR20DET red top powered. 180SX and a Silvia K's.

My old dear had a 280ZX years, I begged her to keep it but the silly old boiler sold it dirt cheap.

Mainly been a Mazda Rotary man and one day will own an old Capella, Savanna or Luce.

[Phantom]

My wife got me a 1977 S30 for Christmas when I was 38.  When I was 41 it was stolen and i replaced it with a 1983 2dr, 5-spd. B11.  When I was 44 i bought another 1977 S30 and a year later my oldest son totaled the B11 in a 10 car pile-up.  He was fine, car wasn't. When I ws 54 I bought an 83 S130 to drive while the S30 was in the shop getting a heart transplant and the same year I bought a 1993 Z32 convertible for my wife.

[btd19m]

81 720 bought it 3 months ago for 250 with rego. she runs and has a good motor but that's all shes got going for her. wouldn't have it any other way. still on my lerner's and needed a car (still do) got to get 100 hours in the datsun now. got 213 hours in a v8 7.2L 1988 ford f150 xlt then found out they don't count and to pretend i never drove the car. im 20 and well i have a job that just paid for a 5000 dollar computer (only parts though built it all my self as i know how much of a scam prebuilts are) so i figure why not use the cash for something productive. my boss is pressuring me to do a mechanical apprenticeship after i replaced the injectors and a ton of other misc parts on 4 different cars. honestly i want the datsun to be something i can enjoy. i could buy a brand new Holden Colorado but i wanted a datsun since i was a kid growing up dad had one of them it was tempermental as all hell. so is mine. i like the car it has personality and spirit and a long history. hell the car spent the last god knows how many years as a vet transport. 

[Lockleaf]

I was 23 and bought a beater single cab 84 720 off my parents for $500. It was my second car manufactured by Nissan. My first was 1990 240sx hatchback. I bought the truck because I needed something to drive while I yanked out the 240s auto and put in a manual trans.

 

Bought my first 510 just a couple months ago, a 71 510 wagon, and bought an L18/4 speed to go in it since it has no drivetrain.

 

Beyond those, I've owned 3 other 720s, one of which I still have and never plan to sell, my stepdad has purchased another 720, 2 other 240sx, 2 R50 pathfinders, a 300zx, and an M30. I still have that first 240sx and one of those pathfinders.

[Z_Karma]

1990: First Datsun, First Car Truck.

Moms boyfriend was moving back to Texas for family reasons and needed something to haul a trailer from Oregon to Texas.

 

He finds a mustard 77 620 deluxe "mechanics special" for 600.00 at a gas/repair station in Troutdale Or.

He drives it around for a few months, and i get to learn how to drive stick in it. When he goes to buy a 

trailer, somehow he's told that there is no way that it will make the trip to Waco pulling a trailer. He gets

rid of some furniture, trying to lessen the load but it's not enough.

 

He doesn't have time to sell the truck so he buys some large Oldsmobile...boat of a car.

He parks the 620 at my moms house and makes the trip. I only found out afterwards that he gave it to me, for free.

 

I drive it until 2001 when the birth of my daughter and finances meant i had to lighten the vehicle load

(my 75 280Z project, a motorcycle and the spouses TJ also wend byby).

I sold it to the friend of a neighbor named "Sonny" in Beaverton for 600.00.

He quickly put headers on it and then i never saw it again. 

 

I cut my mechanical teeth on that truck, and made a lot of memories in it. I'd love to find it again.

[kb25t17]

I was in my early 30's when I got my first Datsun. It was a 720 KC, barely used as I recall it was a 1983 or maybe even a 1984.  I really loved it. Shortly after I bought it I was looking at a consumer digest edition that was for used cars and it was the ONLY vehicle in the whole book they gave a 4 star rating for. I thought I must have gotten it wrong but I went through the book several more times and verified that was indeed real. I never had a repair on it other than the normal brakes and shocks kind of item that has to been done now and again.

 

I kept it until it had just over 100K on it and sold it to my best friend's son. He put another 100K or so on it and passed it on to one of his friends.

 

I now have another 720 I got a couple of years ago, its a turtle with a big shell on its back that is my part time home. Its a mini motorhome :)

 

[Datsu93]

I was six years old back in the late 90's when I got my first Datsun from my dad. It was a 1975 Datsun 120Y B210 2 door sedan. I started restoring it a couple of years ago and it is still a work in progress. I hope I never have to sell it :) My second Datsun was actually just last year when I bought a 1982 Nissan Vanette C120 1.5 GL. I have been taking it apart and selling the parts I don't need. Engine (A15) and the rear axle will go to my B210. Only two so far, but I bet there will be many more to come.

[1Low620]

14, worked for my grandfather on the weekends at his salvage yard and ended up giving him a few paychecks for a 76 standard cab 620 that looked like it came from south of the border.... three tone brown, funky bed cover, awesome wheel flares and some chrome mods with some killer knock-offs. Learned to drive 5 speed in this until the engine blew and I didnt have any more money to fix, the young teenager in me decide it would be best to trade it for a 92 YZ 250 dirt bike...

 

at 15, I bought my 2nd 620, a 74 standard cab with engine for $200, my friend gave me a 71, 521 and we swapped the engine over and got it on the road, my dad drove this back n forth to work to save on gas but a drunk driver rear-ended him and it was a total loss.....

 

at 16 my dad gave me his project car, a 1967 Dodge Dart GT, to kind of make up for the datsun mishap and he wanted to continue the father/son project but my mom figured the 340 big block was a little too much power at that age so he bought me a 78 Standard cab 620 instead and I drove that for a year until I was offered ( what I thought ) a deal of a lifetime for it, a 1966 Impala SS and $1,000.

 

at 17 I sold the impala to a relative for $5,000 ( nice profit B)  ) and bought a 77 GMC Jimmy that I drove for 5 months before I found my true love, a 79 customized KC 620 that I traded the jimmy straight across for, I drove that little KC daily until my son was born a few years later and the wife and I realized we needed a more practical family ride.

 

At this point after I got a family car, I focused more on the american muscle and continued to work on the 1967 Dart GT I had finally inherited and a few other cars passed down until about 28.

 

at 30 I found a pretty straight little 75 Standard cab 620 in PDX for $400, well, a $400 ride is a $400 ride right? while it looked solid on the outside it had hidden dangers all through out it. The backhalf of the frame looked like it was cut off and re-welded, didnt notice this till I got it on the road and it tracked hardcore, the reciept I got for the " freshly build L20 " had to have been a fake, after it became road worthy, the engine blew and once the motor was torn down, the crankshaft looked like someone took a grinder to it, timing gain gear was missing a few teeth. The front end was no better off, looked like it had been totalled and frame work done that was also unsafe to be put back on the road. I needed a ride bad as this was to be a daily driver so I parted it out and bought my 94 GMC that is still my daily driver till this day.

 

at 34 , I bought a little White 74 Standard cab automatic from Denmarkboy, it is currently on jackstands now a year later being worked on so I can daily drive it, build thread is in the project datto section and will be updated as progress continues :thumbup:

 

When I got my last Datsun from Denmarkboy, my wife just laughed and said something must be wrong with me to have owned so many 620's. I've always liked 620's since I first set eyes on one my uncle had one back in 1985, I just love the body style as much as an old timer loves the body style of a 57 Chev. The plus side on this 74 is it is an automatic which will help with my back issues as a 5 speed really iritated my sciatica nerves to the point my left leg goes numb. And, the wife keeps asking when i'm going to get it on the road.....I think she wants to drive it too.

[Rotsonsforlife]

My first was also my first vehical period its a 1985 720 4x4 kingcab my dad got it when i was six and told me it was mine the day after he got it i just turned 25 a couple days ago and i still have it i blew the spider gears out of it a few months back so its not driving currently will probably be out till tax time then im going to buy a limited slip rear in it

[Wagonmel]

I was 16.my neighbor won a sweet coupe at street race for pinks from the registered owner's bro in LA. He keep it tucked in and cover in his garage cause the owner wanted it back. It was an appmt complex so our parking spot was next to it, whenever i could i'd get in it and dream i was driving it to high school.well thats the story of my firts love.now i have a 71 wagon. Love it d;)

[datzenmike]

Welcome to Ratsun mel. The first rule of Ratsun is you really should post a picture of your goon.

[Three B's Racing]

1972 16 years of age a `71 Datsun truck with cap for band equipment and girls 8>)

[Mr.Dean_Yates]

19, August 10, 2010. 1972 240z. The guy who sold it to me helped me rebuild it from the ground up in his driveway. Took us 3 days to go from parts piles to running, driving zcar. She smoked so bad the first couple miles home, only had the carbs rebuilt once and put an electronic ignition in her because the point would always go out on me. Still have her, but not for long...she is rotting away in my back yard with no motor, tranny, wheels, interior...sbc swaps are not fun when short on cash.

[TENDRIL]

shame on you..... i have no pity  :sleep:

[B-Mackin]

In 1999 I bought a dark Shit Brown 1983 280zx 5 speed that had a fresh top to bottom restoration for $1500 (guy was moving out of country). In the year I owned that car, I beat the living shit out of it. What can i say, it was my first car. I sold it with a non operating clutch for $1000 dollars.  

 

High school cool mod list:

Cut springs

2 1/2" exhaust with flowmaster 40 series

white badges

black spay tinited side marker lights

datsun seat belt pads

momo wheel, pedals and shift knob

all red spay tinted tailights

2 12" subs and a mini disk player

[ccwade81]

Blew up my 88 Toyota Celica and went to the SF Bay looking for a Mazda MX6. Turned out to be a bust. Saw an '81 280ZX on the way home and fell in love. I was 19 at the time. So glad things turned out the way they did!