Remember that it's the attributes that made the 1200 so popular are what's been killing it for decades.

People with no money, big ideas & no driving ability have been buying them cheaply, starting projects that they couldn't finish, or driving them & smashing them.
How many paddock bashers do we have in this forum.

It's the rising price that will save them.
Once they are priced out of the poverty stricken end of the market, people will actually spend money to get the rust repairs done properly, will do modifications that are practical & well engineered, & will take care of them in ways that many cars haven't experienced since they were new.

Once the car is seen as an investment & not as a cheap & disposable toy, manufacturers will see the value in producing quality pepro parts, like that have with other Datsun classics & better quality builds will be seen because the finished product will be less of a black hole into which we just throw money.

I'm not gazing into some crystal ball here & predicting the future, I'm looking in the rear view mirror & simply describing what has happened to so many cars in the recent past. I can clearly remember going with a friend to Simms metal & watching him buy a 1943 Ford coupe for less than $50 & then turn it into a speedway car that lasted 1 season before being returned to the scrap pile. It wouldn't happen today.

So, ... while I lament the rising cost & the pain to my wallet in the small picture, & in the short term, I feel vindicated in my selection of vehicles in the long term as it's intrinsic worth is now slowly being seen as a market value too.

Perhaps my signature has a deeper meaning than I originally intended.