Found old Z pictures. I’ll start!

[Carl Beck]

Chilliwack Datsun - BC

[CanTechZ]

1 hour ago, Carl Beck said:

Chilliwack Datsun - BC

This is the dealership where I purchased my used '70 240Z in 1978, traded in a 610 sedan.

[Namerow]

2 hours ago, CanTechZ said:

This is the dealership where I purchased my used '70 240Z in 1978, traded in a 610 sedan.

OK, I'll ask first.  Who is the trophy girl in the first picture?

[siteunseen]

Cristina Applegate's mom?

[CanTechZ]

On 4/15/2021 at 11:00 AM, Namerow said:

OK, I'll ask first.  Who is the trophy girl in the first picture?

I have no idea who she is, but I like @siteunseen's guess.

I'm pretty sure the above pictures posted by @Carl Beckwere first posted here:

http://www.the510realm.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13223&hilit=chilliwack+datsun

There are quite few other cool old pictures on there as well.

[grannyknot]

3 hours ago, CanTechZ said:

I have no idea who she is, but I like @siteunseen's guess.

I'm pretty sure the above pictures posted by @Carl Beckwere first posted here:

http://www.the510realm.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13223&hilit=chilliwack+datsun

There are quite few other cool old pictures on there as well.

The rest of that thread is great and also has a link to "Against All Odds, vintage racing footage of John Morton smoking the Alfa's.

 

[siteunseen]

I remember that movie!

The music really. "Take a look at me now"

 

[Namerow]

14 hours ago, grannyknot said:

The rest of that thread is great and also has a link to "Against All Odds, vintage racing footage of John Morton smoking the Alfa's.

Agreed.  That was a fun read (even for those of us who didn't grow up in the Fraser Valley).  Nice to a mention of my old racing acquaintance from Kelowna, Keis Neirop (1983 Sebring winner and also responsible for the only all-wood 240Z rotisserie that I've ever seen).

I poked around on the internet this morning and tracked down the location of the old Chilliwak Datsun dealership.  As someone else on the linked thread pointed out, it's now only a shadow of its old self, reincarnated as 'Campus Auto Sales' and 'Classic Cars'.  You can clearly identify the original showroom building by its roofline (looks like a little mini-racecar in the display area), with the service department entry to the left.  The building behind the trophy girl with the big 'Datsun' logo would be the long wall on the right, now painted red.

[CanTechZ]

Here's my car in the summer of 1980, getting ready for the big brewery strike that didn't really materialize into much. The strike in the summer of 1978 lasted over four months. At least I wasn't thirsty that summer.

Edited April 19, 2021 by CanTechZ

[jayhawk]

On 4/17/2021 at 5:50 AM, Namerow said:

I poked around on the internet this morning and tracked down the location of the old Chilliwak Datsun dealership.  As someone else on the linked thread pointed out, it's now only a shadow of its old self, reincarnated as 'Campus Auto Sales' and 'Classic Cars'.  You can clearly identify the original showroom building by its roofline (looks like a little mini-racecar in the display area), with the service department entry to the left.  The building behind the trophy girl with the big 'Datsun' logo would be the long wall on the right, now painted red.

 

At least it is still a car dealer.  I tried to find on Google Maps my original dealership location and cannot even find it (probably due to highway routing or name change or something similar.)   My dealer was Gubrud's Valley Datsun in Mt. Vernon, Washington,

 

According to my logbook, I went through Chilliwak in 1974 in my 240Z and stopped for gas in adjacent Sardis.  If I'd know about the models at the Chilliwak Datsun dealer, I certainly would have stopped by!   (I'd just been discharged from the US Navy at the Oak Harbor WA Naval Air Station and was driving back to the Midwest via the Trans Canadian Highway. great trip!)

 

My blue Z in line for the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria, 1974

 

[Namerow]

12 hours ago, jayhawk said:

At least it is still a car dealer.  I tried to find on Google Maps my original dealership location and cannot even find it (probably due to highway routing or name change or something similar.)   My dealer was Gubrud's Valley Datsun in Mt. Vernon, Washington,

 

According to my logbook, I went through Chilliwak in 1974 in my 240Z and stopped for gas in adjacent Sardis.  If I'd know about the models at the Chilliwak Datsun dealer, I certainly would have stopped by!   (I'd just been discharged from the US Navy at the Oak Harbor WA Naval Air Station and was driving back to the Midwest via the Trans Canadian Highway. great trip!)

 

My blue Z in line for the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria, 1974

 

It looks like the owner, John Gubrud, sold the dealership to another local businessman, Don Gordon, 1985.  By then, it would have become a Nissan franchise.  Somewhere along the way, the business also picked up a Suzuki franchise.  There doesn't seem to be a Nissan franchise in Mt Vernon any more, but there is a Nissan-Suzuki dealer called KARmart not far away, in Burlington, so the guy who bought Gordon's business probably decided to re-locate it there. 

The only likely property that I can see in the vicinity of 1575 Memorial Highway in Mt Vernon is a boat sales & service operation on the river just to the north of the new highway.  It seems that Mr. Gubrud was a boater, so it wouldn't be surprising if he sold his old car dealership property to a fellow boater-business person who re-purposed it into a boat sales/service business. The Datsun showroom and service buildings are probably long gone. 

I visited Mt Vernon a couple of times back in the 1980's, when my company was doing business with the PACCAR test centre.  Nice countryside.  One of the members of the founding family of PACCAR, Pat Piggot, was prominent in the west coast sportscar racing scene back in the late 1950's and early 1960's.  He was killed in a race at Riverside in 1962.

I see you got popped for speeding in Moose Jaw during your cross-Canada journey back in the 1970's.  The Trans-Canada Highway can get pretty straight and endless after four or five hours, can't it?  'Time to let the car stretch its legs a bit'. 

Edited April 19, 2021 by Namerow
insert missing content

[CanTechZ]

12 hours ago, jayhawk said:

According to my logbook, I went through Chilliwak in 1974 in my 240Z and stopped for gas in adjacent Sardis.  If I'd know about the models at the Chilliwak Datsun dealer, I certainly would have stopped by!   (I'd just been discharged from the US Navy at the Oak Harbor WA Naval Air Station and was driving back to the Midwest via the Trans Canadian Highway. great trip!)

 

That loop looked like a great trip(s). Lots of scenic drives along the coast in Washington. I've been through Oak Harbor many times on the way to Fidalgo Bay. In 2017 the Zed club I'm a member of, did a run from Vancouver BC down to Fort Casey going also through Oak Harbor. My drive was little longer as I live in Chilliwack.

Edited April 19, 2021 by CanTechZ