Hi guys, my name is Camilo Monroy, I live in Colombia, I have a major in Geology and a Datsun lover. I have been reading this forum for some months because I found that Australia and Colombia had some Datsuns in common, wich weren´t commercialized in USA or even in another country of America like the Bluebird, or the Cedrics (130, 230, 330 and 430), and I decided to make a post because today Mitchell AKA Wormtail1 convinced me to do it.
I have three Datsuns, a 1980 2+2 280ZX, a 1982 910 hardtop Bluebird with megasquirt, and recently purchased a 2 door hardtop 1973 260C.
Let´s begin with a little family story ...
One of these was my first car after having been for years the family car, in 1992, when I finished the school my dad gave it to me because of my great love for the car, but a year later my dad had a terrible accident by the negligence of a truck driver and the car was totaled. For a long time I kept seeing the few 260C that survived getting in worse shape ... when i finally had the money to buy one I couldn’t find one, until last week that the car showed up on a local car sales website , and immediately did the purchase without even thinking about the mechanical, exterior and interior .. .. why? You´ll see later
First, the pictures of the website.
As you see the car needs a lot of work but I don´t care, is the car of my dreams and now I have it, is mine
The objective is a resto -mod, I´m thinking of using the engine and gearbox of a 280ZX.
Mechanically, the steering is loose, (don´t know how to describe it in English), the gearbox is really bad and the suspension is too soft, I feel like I’m sailing while i drive.....
The exterior needs too much work, but i don´t care... why?, at the Nissan dealer, where I buy the parts, there are doors, fenders, rear quarters, roofs, hoods, trunk lids, glasses, chrome trim, everything is NOS.
Also found some lights, light bezels, and a part of the grill.
I have a spare electric fender mirror wich I was going to use on the 910, but I think they will fit nicely on the 260C.
The interior is decent, but again needs a lot of work, but i have found the center console, door sills, a cluster, Radio bezel, steering wheel and the column cover, a tray that goes under the dashboard. Also, i’m so lucky that my car had a Panasonic "cockpit ", the cockpit looks just like this ...
Now, the worst things considering there is no chance i could find NOS pieces or even used.. the left rear window is sealed and has no motor or switch; door panels are in really bad shape; the tail lights are really really bad , i have only found the red part of the right side; the badge that goes over the trunk lock is completely damaged; the trunk remote opener system is missing, I found an electric motor that works on the 430 remote system, and I think it could be adapted; and the hood opener pull knob is missing, but I’m almost sure that the one that goes on the 240Z is the same, as long as the armrest, that’s why I purchased a pair on ebay.
Here are the pics of the things that I found, some of them are the last one here.
Once the car will be painted, i'll buy the chrome trim, and the sheet metal parts.
I hope you enjoyed reading my post, and could be understandable.
cheers