View GarageAnyway, I wanted a wagon that had quirkiness that appealed to me, needed to have a bench seat in the front and an in-line six, obviously needed to be manual, had to be made between 1960 and 1980 and really needed a paintjob that made it look like it had been sitting neglected for a while (more patina would be preferred but that can be arranged). I got pessimistic about finding something Japanese so I started looking at full sized Holdens and they were all overpriced, auto, distasteful with boganized interiors and filled with dodgy repairs and backyard paintjobs aging in really ungraceful ways
Then some time in Feb my mate found something for sale that was a bit out of the ordinary. I'd never even seen one before. $950 later I had some mad car not many people understand hahahaha.
It's a 1973 Datsun H230. In Australia this one was called a 260C but there are a myriad of names for it internationally, for all intents and purposes, it's a Cedric - Nissan's answer to the Crown, but Nissan also have a more upmarket version called the Gloria which is pillarless (not available in a wagon). We never got Glorias in Australia unfortunately, but we got Cedric sedans, pillarless coupes and wagons. Not that you'd know because you never see them. What you do see a bit of is the more recent model, the 330 series 260C.
This one is a 2.6L L-series 6 (L26), cast iron block, alloy head, SOHC, non-crossflow, two barrel carb, points ign. Backed by a 3spd manual on the column with a hydraulic clutch and a Banjo-style live axle with big drums, rear end suspended by leaves with canted shocks, no swaybar. Front end is double wishbone with a swaybar, steering box with linkages, twin piston calipers on solid discs. Fortunately it's a twin circuit braking system too.
Bench seat front, bench seat rear, two person dickie seat in the back that faces the opposite way.
It's got all kinds of important factory features like a hidden map light in the dash, cooling vents in the front footwells like you get on an 40-series Landcruiser, only these ones are more subtle than the steel flaps on a 40. It's got a light that sits on the underside of the bonnet so if you break down at night, the whole engine bay is illuminated well. It has an electric window above the rear left quarter that can be activated by the key barrel in the guard or a switch on the dash. It's got storage space under the rear seat, and it all folds flat with hard rubber on the back of everything (not like a Holden wagon where they trim it with vinyl! Yeah good one dickhead) so it's good for chucking diffs and gearboxes in the back (which will be a common activity in this car). Four windscreen washing jets, intermittent wipers, two piece tailshaft, five stud wheels (5x114.3), mechanically sprung tailgate and bonnet, etc. The spare wheel is stored up under the arse and it has a mechanism for lowering it gracefully, it has a nice original toolkit which has a few things in it including 'Datsun' folding wheel chocks and a speed-wrench with rotating grips so you don't rub your skin as you lower the spare wheel or jack the car up using the scissor jack that is stored under the bonnet which has its own reduction gearbox incorporated into it!
All of those shots were taken the day I bought the car, I've done a fair bit to it since, it's slightly more presentable, updates will come shortly.
