well, went out on a road trip this past weekend and got to look at
the prototype 1500 roadster that was shown at the NY auto show.
strange serial number- C285. owner has a letter from Nissan declaring
it to be a prototype 1500, and the car only had 2 previous owners,
father and son, before he acquired it. from a distance, the car
looked pretty decent, but the closer I got, the more apparent the
extensive bondo and fiberglass became. the floors are bad, the frame
is rusted out. the car had sat outside for a number of years and then
had a cosmetic makeover and now sits inside. fiberglass wrapped
around rockers, up inner sills to floor. floors covered underneath
the car with fiberglass. it's a real shame, as the car has very nice
dash, bumpers, grille, original wheelcovers, etc. the back panel,
instead of having an indent like the factory brochures with Fairlady
script on the left between the indent and the taillights, has a wider
indent that comes to around 4-5 inches away from the taillights on
both sides, and the Fairlady script is mounted up on the trunk. I
took some pictures and will try to get them posted somewhere once I
finish off the roll of film and get it developed. when the cosmetics
were done, I believe they changed the original doors out for later
1500 doors, as they have outside door handles and rollup windows.
owner told me way back when, to become a Datsun dealer, it cost
something like five hundred thirty six dollars for the franchise, and
that included the big Fluorescent Datsun dealership sign. yow! I will
be trying to locate a 1500 shell with good frame and floors for the
current owner so he can restore this one. if anyone knows of one that
is available, please let me know.
picked up a 2000 down south this weekend that has a really decent
body, my wife, Elaine, wants me to fix it up for her and paint it
that deep amethyst purple Chrysler has had these last couple years.
well heck, yeah! maybe I'll even get to drive it from time to time. :-
)
Craig Halsted
roadsters
|