Matt sent me a PM and I started to tell him the long and sordid story of my collection. Then I thought "some of the rest of the group might be interested in this too." It might take a while so feel free to click the back button and ignore this story. Note, all 1200s in this story are Coupes as I have never been fond of the Sedan's styling. Sorry to offend Sedan lovers, but that's how it is.

It started almost ten years ago whe I began to hang out at a racecar shop instead of going to class. After it became obvious I wasn't going to finish college at this rate, I was hired. (As a side note, I dropped out needing four credits to get my degree. I went back in the summer of '95 and finished it though.) Marty, the owner of the shop, was a Datsun man and found a pretty straight 1200 one day. He bought it and poured money into making it look really nice. (Incidentally, this is the car that recently was sold back to him in the post "One of my babies...") He convinced me that the 1980 510 (Stanza) down the road would make a decent first rally car. I bought it and started to collect hotrod parts and stripped the car to a shell. (Ok, to be honest, my friend Pat stripped the car when I went to Road America for a race.) One day, a kid showed up at the shop to inquire about a Saab Sonnet shell we had. He saw Marty's car and informed us that he had "one of those sitting in his garage." He was strapped for cash and wanted to sell it. I went with him to his house, expecting to find a B-210, and there was my first 1200. I paid him the $75 he needed for summer school and dragged the thing back to the shop. The tank was full of rust so it went away and was replaced with the fuel cell and fuel pump I had bought for the rally car. I drove it with the tired old A-12 until winter when the engine "got tight." (Ok,it was probably just a weak battery that wouldn't crank the motor in the cold, but it made for a good excuse.) I pulled the A-12 out and put in the NAPS-Z two liter from the rally car. At this point, it was pretty obvious the rally car wasn't going to happen so it went to the crusher. That freed up a pair of Cobra Clubman seats, full Autometer guages, a Painless Wiring switch panel, the parts to build the header, and I forget what else. That was the birth of the Chickenhawk. After several years of using that car as my daily driver, including 110 miles a day to finish the one college class I needed to graduate, the stock bottom end decided to stop making compression in the #4 cylinder. I parked it and bought an actual new car to drive. During this rebuild was when I got "the most radical cam that will fit in a NAPS-Z without modifying the rockers" and built the header. The car went from being "stupid fast" to "insane fast." Now that the Chickenhawk was a play toy, spare parts were needed. Another Marty told me of a junkyard that was selling off his stock, including a very sad 1200 automatic. I picked that up and drug it to the shop. That got me a good Grille and spare glass. Flash forward a few more years. Remember Pat who stripped the rally car for me? He calls one day and says he has found another 1200 in the "abandoned car position" in front of a house. We drive to it and sure enough, it is another 1200. I yell to the house, as there was a large Chow dog on a chain in the yard, and the owner comes out. I ask if he has plans for the old Datsun and he says "take it and it's yours." Three hours later I'm back with a trailer to pick it up. As he's handing the title over, I say "you know, money really needs to change hands for this to be 100% legal. Would $5.00 insult you?" As he was originally going to GIVE it to me, the answer was no. Back to the shop where we unload the new prize. The rest of the night, I'm trying to convince myself I need another 1200. The next morning at the shop, I get an ear full from George as to how lucky I was to stumble on to another 1200 and how I didn't need another one and what was I going to do with it and so on. During his tirade, I asked if he wanted to buy it. That shut him up. I said to him "I've got $5.00 in the car and $15.00 worth of gas in Marty's truck to drag it home. Give me $20 and it's yours." He gave me the $20 and took the title. As I was thanking him for his business, he felt guilty and handed me another $20! "George, stop! I just want $20!" I said and he hands me another $10. So, having owned the car less than 24 hours, I have made a profit. He flushes the gas tank, changes the cap, rotor, wires and plugs, installs a battery and the thing fires up and runs! This is his daily driver for a while and somehow I wind up with a B-210 that I throw some money into. Well, he decides that he'd rather have the B-210 since it runs better (at that point in time at least) and trades me the 1200 and a lump of cash for the B-210. Now I have three 1200's again. (Well, two and a half since the JY car just barely counts as one.) George, in his travels, finds yet another 1200 in Louisiana and drags it home. It will be significant later. So time passes and John (tensandtwenties) calls me up and says that he has found a 1200 he wants to buy, would I like the A-12 and spare parts this guy has in his garage and by the way can you tow it home for me? Well, the morning we were supposed to go get it, I was going to buy a 1980 810 Maxima for $400 which just happens to be the amount the owner of the 1200 is asking for the 1200. The Max sold out from under me so I've got cash in pocket as we pull up to get John's 1200. After, and I want to stress this point, AFTER John had haggled and sealed the deal with the guy, I decide to be a prick and say, "Hell, I would have given you $400 for it. I've got it right here." Needless to say, neither of them were very happy about that. Oh well. So, on the way home with this car, John decides he really doesn't have a need for it after all and asks if I'd buy it from him for the $400. "Sure," I say and on I-635 in North Dallas at 65 mph, I buy another 1200. It is now obvious I'm the 1200 guy in town as I have all but the Louisiana car of George's and the original car of Marty's, remember that one? Well, one day George and I are driving down a street that I must have travelled twice a day for three months, when he notices a 1200 in a back yard. We ask about it and find out it is headed for the crusher. George rescues it for the sum of $40 since that is what the crusher was paying. A few months pass, and I somehow convince George to sell me his two cars. Now I'm the undesputed local 1200 Guru! Marty decides to sell his car, remember the really nice one from the beginning of the story? I cash in an old 401k and buy the car. So it sits at my shop waiting for something to be done with it. One day, we drag the Chickenhawk to a swap meet with a rediculous price tag on it and a guy stops to tell me he has one of these cars. I give him a business card and tell him if he ever decides to sell, call me. He does, but his price is a bit high a that time. It was a good price, but I couldn't do it then. He was cool with that and everyone was happy. A few weeks later, he called back and really needed to get rid of the car and came WAY down on his price. This time I jumped on it. (That car became Gil, which was the guy's name and I tend to name cars after whoever I buy them from.) While getting Gil running, John sells his 510 and makes it one day as a non-Datsun owner. He buys his car back from me. One day I get an e-mail asking if I have any cars for sale. I tell them about the louisiana car and Marty's car. He is interested in Marty's and doesn't balk at my asking price. Now, I had promised Marty that he would be able to turn down this car if I decided to sell it and had to explain that to the e-mailer. He was cool with that but disappointed. Marty and I came to an agreement and the car became his again. That just about gets us up to today. Hope you all enjoyed reading my saga.

cool.

Yeah Tim, thanks for posting the story. I love reading about Datsuns.

After reading your account, I'm wondering if it just kinda happened, or is there something about 1200s in particularly that got you hooked?

To tell the truth, the first one, the Chickenhawk, just fell into my lap. I was actually more fond of the longer and swoopier style of the B-210. I even dabbled a bit with one B-210 but the trade with George was too good to pass up. That was when the addiction really took hold.
But that didn't really answer the question, did it? I guess it is the fact that the 1200 is getting to be pretty rare that I like them. That and they are tiny and weigh next to nothing. Problem is, I think of a 1200 as a normal sized car now. My Subaru Legacy is a big luxury sedan to me.

A slight correction... by way of a retelling:

I found a 1200 for sale in the back of a car lot in Garland. It was easily 100 feet off the road and I have NO IDEA how I ever saw it. When I told Tim, he was convinced I was dragging him to buy a Corolla or some other Japanese crap-box that looks similar to a 1200 (this happens OFTEN). Well, the owner bought it to put a Chevy V6 in, even going as far as starting to build the motor mounts for it. I make an offer on the car (which has no running gear in it), but the owner tells me his wife is forcing him to get rid of it and if I get it I have to take the two engines and trannies he has with me. Well, I had only enough free cash to buy the shell so I asked someone who shall remain nameless (not Tim) if they'd give me half the money if I kept the shell and gave them the parts. Well this person came with us, loaded the parts in his truck, then proceeded to leave without paying me telling me he'd "pay me later, whenever he could". So I'm out the whole amount and all I have is the shell. Well, on the way home I'm thinking about how I'm going to pay my rent since I spent too much on the car. So, knowing Tim had $400 burning a hole in his pocket I sold it to him. I also knew Tim had the cajones to go to Mr. Nameless's shop and take back all the parts he just carried home, since technically they belonged to Tim now. Well, I really hated selling the car to Tim, so when I sold my 510 about a year later, Tim was kind enough to feed my Datsun sickness by selling it back to me.

Quote:

Also, as an aside, I really started to regret selling my 510 too. So about 6 months ago I made a deal with Marty (the one who has Tim's nice 1200 now) to buy his 510. I knew since he wanted his 1200 back, he'd need the money so I made an offer and brought it home. This was mainly because progress on my 1200 was moving slowly and I knew it would be awhile before I could drive it. The 510 was closer to being "finished" than my 1200, so... but work will continue on my Coupe, have no fear.

I HAD forgotten those two storylines. We live in a soap opera here in Fort Worth.
"All My Datsuns?" Or "The Datsuns of Our Lives?"

Dimlight65 how many Datsuns have you owned all together?

and whats the most youve owned at one time?

I had to stop and think on this one. I think in total I have had 16 Datsuns over the years. I still have 9 of them. They weren't all 1200s though. Here is the breakdown as I remember it, in no particular order:
1) 1980 510 (A-10 Staza 2-door sedan).*
1) 1980 510 (A-10 Stanza wagon).**
1) 1972 or so 510 (PL-510 wagon).**
2) 1978 B-210 coupes (at different times).*
1) 1962 Nissan Patrol (just a frame, engine and drivetrain).
1) 1980 200SX (S-11?).
1) 1976 620 pickup.
8) 1200 coupes of various years, two of which I don't have anymore.
* indicates ones I don't have anymore.
** indicates ones I don't own, but still store for other people.


I just remembered another one:
1) 1984 720 pickup.

That makes 17 total. I think that is all.

Oh, and I think 11 or 12 is the most I've owned at one time.

Wow. And I thought my having three 1200s and a 510/1600 (at the same time) were a lot.