The story goes a doctor had this green car, he wrecked it, then someone welded the back half of another car to it. he wrecked it again, then decided to make an electric Z. took most of the interior out of this one, and stuck it in his barn. Meanwhile the electric Z caught fire in his garage and burned his garage down.

Along side this green car was this 65 Datsun pickup. I thought why not, Merry Christmas to me

When did the work on it start? It wasn't 18 hours ago. Is it done now?

What are your plans?

Edit - is this the 4 year restoration car you mentioned in a different post? Those first pics are four years old?

Edited April 10Apr 10 by Zed Head

That's correct, I started working on the car when I first got it, January of 2021. I took photos along the way, but never planned on doing what I did. I've restored a few gas pumps, but never anything like this. One thing led to another, then Covid hit. I had it in a body shop which took my money, but never finished the paint. It languished there for almost 18 months, and the car was held ransom for bogus "Storage Fees". It's called "body shop prison". I hope none of you ever go through it. Made me sick. Got the car back home fall of 2023. Time flies. Found another shop to finish it, and the restoration continued. I'll continue the progression with photos, but yes, the car is done. Here's a sneak peek.

Edited Friday at 02:45 PM5 days by Parman
Wrong date

All right, where were we back in 2021........I started removing more parts, pulled the engine, dismantled as much as I could to get a batch ready for plating. I bead blasted the pieces, really nice for getting into the crevices on phillips head screws, bolts etc. It was a long tedious process, but I liked it. Then I wire wheeled each piece to give it smoothness and shine. It worked amazing. I bought a nice small paint gun, good automotive primer, activator, reducer and 2 gallons of high quality black paint, one was a gloss black, and one was flat. I could mix the 2 and get the desired sheen. Fortunately I had plumbed my shop correctly for eliminating moisture out of the air lines. My compressor is in the loft, the copper air line 15' off the floor slopes gradually down with drops that have valves for releasing water. Then the air line goes up, then drops to an outlet. It goes all the way around the shop this way, with water drop lines, then tees off for air.

In the upper right corner of this phot, you see the air line leaving the loft above that Conoco Germ sign. The first tee down is a water drop.

the second tee down is the air drop, which runs under the wall lights. and it continues above the door and same principle on the next one.

It actually goes back into the loft and drops again, this is the one I used for painting. Never had an issue with water in the line. I built a small paint booth under the eave of my shop and proceeded to refinish parts that were not going to get powder coated. Such as the steering column, pedal assembly box, fan and heater box, any part that I could not find replacement original style bushings for. Here's the half shafts getting sprayed.

The blast cabinet made it easy to clean parts.

As far as repairing rusty panels on the car, I was lost. So I continued what I could, disassembly, and refinishing.

Reading through the restorations on this site, I decided what would get powder coated, and in less than a week it was done. the price was $250 and I didn't have to clean them, but I did plug all the threaded holes with threaded plugs I made. I showed them what to tape off as far as bearing surfaces etc. They did a great job.

I later added the brake backing plates, I liked the fact that brake fluid would not hurt them.

First batch back from the platers. It was like jewelry! Now I'm getting excited.

But some of the larger pieces were blistered.

More plating damage seen on these throttle linkages, if I had to do it over, I wouldn't send those in.

I sent those back and they re-plated them. I believe they were with the smaller parts and didn't quite work out. I also folded the long fuel, vent or brake lines like I read here, and made them fit into a 6' long box. Shipping was very expensive for those.

Edited Monday at 09:27 PM2 days by Parman
added photo

I refinished the steering wheel

meanwhile, I had dismantled the engine and found some rust in the cylinder closest to the firewall, damn! So off to the machinist it went. I bought this book, a must and ordered a master rebuild kit, but they were no longer available. I scrambled to find parts but by January of 2022, I had the engine done. I found out that a water pump failure had scored the timing cover water channel. I found a brand new cover assembly, front for the cost of a used one from NENGUN CO. LTD Fukuoka-shi, Japan.

I didn't mess with the cylinder head since it had been rebuilt right before the car was forgotten.

so, by spring of 2022, I had done everything I could. I needed help. My Nephew works at Napa in Kalispell, and said, "hey Rich! this guy just came in and all he does is restore 240-Z's. He's from California, just moved here. I said that's the guy I'm looking for. So, he came up with a cart and we discussed the car. I would pay him for the body work. He would teach me how to do it, and we would put it on a rotisserie. I tried to buy a rotisserie at this time, but covid had messed everything up. I had already ordered the repair panels from KlassicFab in Columbia or somewhere. I could get a part shipped from them in less time than it took from Colorado. So, here we go.

Also not seen here is the hatch slam and the rockers.

Edited Friday at 03:34 PM5 days by Parman
added photo

The paint job was his responsibility, I wasn't interested in that part. I would pay him separate for that.

stripping the car with aircraft stripper.

There's me, gettin the rust out! Gotta love it.

In a couple months, I had welded in all the repair panels myself. It was easy to blow right through some areas, like the toe boards. The rotisserie made it nice, just go to the other side, attack it from both sides.

I replaced both frame rails, the tub, both outer rockers after cleaning inside them, doglegs, and fender bottoms, and hatch slam. It was time for me to go build roads and go logging. Spring break was up.

The inside was painted, the engine bay, and bottom undercoated. Sometime that summer, I brought the lines down and installed them before the car was taken off the rotisserie.

Edited Friday at 09:11 PM5 days by Parman
added photo

Meanwhile........I had found my missing pieces, 4 wheels and d-hubcaps found by a guy cleaning an attic in California.

one year later............my hubcaps are speaking to me.......

Well, We're waiting............

I had enough waiting, went and got the car and pieces as is.

Time to go home.

I spent the winter of 23-24 assembling the suspension, and installing the tar mat. I don't remember who put the templates on here, but I really thank them. I had them printed at the print shop. I bought the porsche wurth tarmat that was also suggested on here. It was fun assembling this.

The only clear coat on the whole car. Now I have a roller!

It's time for the tarmat!

There's a clear plastic film over this tarmat. It keeps it clean until it gets painted. Yup, Why didn't Nissan do it this way.