New World Datsuns...

This is being driven almost every day,rain or shine, and so far has been 100% reliable.

Wish I had an old pickup to drive.

Pretty cool that your Dad is driving it almost everyday


Wish you could too

My brother drives the black one. It's sitting in my driveway at this very minute.

The one my dad drives is a '36 too, but it's blue.

I would like to daily that thing

It's on eBay right now. Buy it and you can.

Replaced the 20 year old water pump this weekend.

It looks more dramatic than it really was. Only took about 20 minutes to get to that point. We're thinking about rerouting the MAF and intake to the passenger side and finding a prettier upper radiator hose.
Also, just out of view, some asshole keyed the fuck out of the passenger front fender. Happened sometime last week. Rock chips are earned by years of driving. Vandalism is a whole different thing.

Word on the street is that this thing got wrecked. Haven't talked to my brother since Sunday so I don't have any details. Fuck!

Woah fuck no way.... No details? Who was driving, how bad... nothing??


Guessing everyone is OK. otherwise there would have been that news.

I saw a couple pics but haven't seen it in person. It's pretty bad. I guess he hit one of those barrels full of sand near some road construction while reaching for his phone (yes, just like the Allstate Mayhem commercial). Hard hit on the left front. Took out the bumper, fender, grille, radiator, hood, door glass, front suspension, and it won't start. I can't imagine that the frame isn't damaged too. Likely a technical total but still fixable. My brother is pretty sore and has some cuts/stitches on his face.

good to hear your bro is OK.

take it this is the victim that took the hit. V

That's the one.
Wounds heal. Cars get fixed.

Damn dude.... That is rough, and sucks. Glad to hear he is OK tho.

Brutal. Love me an old Ford pickup.


Not a cool story, bro.

Glad to hear he is ok

We went south this morning and spent some money. My brother bought a pair of '36 fenders, a grille (not shown), a hood, inner fenders, and headlights. I bought a pair of '35 fenders and a passenger door.


The door I got is pretty straight, especially considering it's 80+ years, but more importantly -- really rust free. That's a rarity for these things.


He's planning to order a new chassis with a Mustang II, reuse the engine, transmission, rearend, do the body work, and give it a driver quality black repaint. Hope it doesn't take him 17 years to get as far as I did with mine.

Well, here's the update...
The frame was wasted. Bent rail at the firewall and set back (diamond) on the driver's side. The front suspension was ruined too. He put it on a frame rack at work and pulled it close to straight as possible. The CTS was broken off the front of the water pump causing it not to start. It then sat in the back corner of his garage for awhile as he collected parts. He happened upon a frame that was all setup with a Mustang II crossmember, was boxed, and came with a few parts. That's a huge time saver for a guy with no spare time.
Anyway, my dad and I were talking about it one day and decided to see if we can get it over here for the winter. Didn't take much arm twisting so he brought it over with him on a trailer Wednesday.










Updates as it progresses...

Lifted the frame off last night and laid out some of the parts. It'll be a project, for sure.
Also, it does run for the moment. He drove it on and off the trailer and pulled it in and out of the shop a couple times so we could shuffle things around. Still sounds great.

Is he going to switch to the Mustang II front end the frame is setup for?

Yes. It came with the new Flaming River rack, spindles, rotors, and brackets for coilovers. Didn't come with coilovers or control arms. Mustang II stuff certainly isn't state of the art but it's a proven standard and parts are cheap. Given the expense and complication of my Corvette stuff, I'd probably do Mustang II if I was doing it again.