1967 1/2 Datsun 1600 311S Fairlady Roadster
Vehicle Identification Number
This is the story of this little Datsun 1600.
This project was started because of two reasons. First, I love to play with cars as everyone knows. I have a Jeep I'm rebuilding, a GoKart I race and I did a four year project rebuilding a Baja Bug from the ground up. But this project is different which brings me to the second reason.
This is a special car. From what I understand, Marshall, my father in law, loved this car as you can see in the picture. This car was purchased in July of 1967 by Marshall Pollack, the father of my wife Debbie. The 1/2 on the year has a meaning as it was a later year car that was required to be updated to the US Department of Transportation specs before it could be sold in the United States. So a 1/2 version of the car makes this car somewhat valuable.
Marshall drove this car for years before he passed away in the 80's. The family talks of this car fondly because it was such a large part of their life. They all have stories about this car from learning to drive in it to sitting in the middle of the intersection trying to figure out how to get it in gear.
The car went to Debbie's sister Linda after his passing and over the years, Linda's husband worked on it and got it running but upon the first drive, forgot to add oil to the rear end and froze it up. The car was then towed back to the house where it sat for years in their barn.
Some years later, it was relocated into a normal garage with all the rubber and some vinyl eaten up by rats and other animals. This car had acorns, plants, dead birds, dead mice, etc inside but it was still alive. Linda contacted Debbie and I in early 2008 and asked if I was interested in bringing it back to life in memory of Marshall. I jumped on the idea of refurbishing a car but best of all it has memories that makes it even more special.
In November of 2008 when I saw this little car I was excited too see it was going to be a fun project and we prepped the car to bring home as you see on the picture above. We dislodged the axles, put some air in the tires and pulled it up onto the trailer shortly before the tires went flat again. We towed this gem home and started this project of love.
There are so many memories of Marshall in this car, it deserves to be rebuilt. I've decided to do the largest car project of my life on this one. This car will be torn down to the frame. Every part cleaned or replaced to keep it as original as possible. Everything will be repainted and hopefully in the end, be almost a brand new car.
So from this point you will see the progress and everything I have done and still am doing to get this going.
Enjoy
This project was started because of two reasons. First, I love to play with cars as everyone knows. I have a Jeep I'm rebuilding, a GoKart I race and I did a four year project rebuilding a Baja Bug from the ground up. But this project is different which brings me to the second reason.
This is a special car. From what I understand, Marshall, my father in law, loved this car as you can see in the picture. This car was purchased in July of 1967 by Marshall Pollack, the father of my wife Debbie. The 1/2 on the year has a meaning as it was a later year car that was required to be updated to the US Department of Transportation specs before it could be sold in the United States. So a 1/2 version of the car makes this car somewhat valuable.
Marshall drove this car for years before he passed away in the 80's. The family talks of this car fondly because it was such a large part of their life. They all have stories about this car from learning to drive in it to sitting in the middle of the intersection trying to figure out how to get it in gear.
The car went to Debbie's sister Linda after his passing and over the years, Linda's husband worked on it and got it running but upon the first drive, forgot to add oil to the rear end and froze it up. The car was then towed back to the house where it sat for years in their barn.
Some years later, it was relocated into a normal garage with all the rubber and some vinyl eaten up by rats and other animals. This car had acorns, plants, dead birds, dead mice, etc inside but it was still alive. Linda contacted Debbie and I in early 2008 and asked if I was interested in bringing it back to life in memory of Marshall. I jumped on the idea of refurbishing a car but best of all it has memories that makes it even more special.
In November of 2008 when I saw this little car I was excited too see it was going to be a fun project and we prepped the car to bring home as you see on the picture above. We dislodged the axles, put some air in the tires and pulled it up onto the trailer shortly before the tires went flat again. We towed this gem home and started this project of love.
There are so many memories of Marshall in this car, it deserves to be rebuilt. I've decided to do the largest car project of my life on this one. This car will be torn down to the frame. Every part cleaned or replaced to keep it as original as possible. Everything will be repainted and hopefully in the end, be almost a brand new car.
So from this point you will see the progress and everything I have done and still am doing to get this going.
Enjoy