Taking a ratsun to Hawaii.

[8m0untainman8]

Ive recently had a few things happen in life, leading to a desire to move back to maui, where my family is, but i dont want to get rid of my truck. Im really set on keeping my 620, because i love it, and i wont lie, i never saw datsun pickups while i lived there, only toyotas. My fear is that when if and when i take my truck, its going to rust away before my eyes. The fenders have pretty bad rust along the bolt holes in the engine bay, and down at the bottom by the door, a couple small spots.

 

the truck was weather proofed at one point. Would new weather proofing be sufficient for keeping rust at bay in the underside? Should i lose hopes of keeping my truck? Should i look for new fenders, or try and patch these ones? Im just not sure how logical taking a slightly rusted vehicle to Hawaii is going to be, i guess, and i want feedback.

[Crashtd420]

I was in a similar situation... like you said life happened, i grabbed my dog my datsun and headed home.... sounds like the datsun is the only thing keeping you from heading straight home... If you luv it take, I wouldn't give it up.. I don't think there's a datsun out there without rust, but the metal on these old datsuns is nice and thick so repairing what you have shouldn't be that bad. Alot of time you can wire wheel the rust and recoat with something like por 15.... might have to take the fenders off to really get it ... even if your truck was a total p.o.s. it's your, you like it, keep it, and give it the luv it needs....

Goodluck to you and your datsun....

[racerx]

have you gone on line and see what the locals do to protect their cars from the sea water?

[tr8er]

Full strip. Epoxy primer. Good paint. Closed garage. Live Mauka.

[8m0untainman8]

Im not sure that i will be able to take my truck honestly, but if i figure it out, im going to treat the bad spots before i go.

[tr8er]

In my experiance, shops on the mainland don't get it. They are far cheaper, like half, but just can't understand what Hawai'i does to sheet metal. You may want to ship it here, buy a daily driver here, and find a good shop to do bodywork and paint.

 

The ONLY way to find a shop for this is to go to a real car show and ask several of the nicest cars you see who they trust. The majority wins.

 

Price shopping for body/paint is like price shopping for boob jobs. It's just not worth the discount.

[8m0untainman8]

That seems like the best way to go about it, hahaha. The end of the response got me

[505plus5]

Those are good responses. And there's the other, much cheaper way too: take it as I is- it's not like it won't last you several years of current enjoyment; fix it as it needs the bars fixing, so you cannleep enjoying it just like you enjoy I now; then, after many years when you see its no longer worth fixing at all: get a well fixed chassis/complete body all finished up, weather proof ready to go and just transfer ALL your good, current parts to the newer body and keep on surfing, bruh!