A couple months after I bought my 510, my brother Andy snagged a 1969 Datsun for himself. It was a bright yellow “BRE Brock Buster” with 14” BRE Libre wheels and some… questionable fiberglass fender flares. The car had been sitting in his neighbor’s yard for about 15 years. After leaving several notes with no response, we thought it was lost—until one day I was scrolling through the classifieds and saw it listed for sale. We texted immediately, got radio silence, and finally a week later the owner replied: we could come check it out. I raced over on my lunch break, and we struck a deal.
Getting into the car was another story. The battery was dead, and the shaved door handles meant the solenoids wouldn’t pop. Luck was on our side though—the rear wing windows weren’t fully latched. After crawling through the side window, I was greeted by a swarm of angry wasps. Only a few stings later, we were inside, popped the hood, installed a battery, and discovered the tires were completely flat from years baking in the sun. We pumped them up, rigged a rope, and towed the car home just a few blocks away.
I was greeted by a swarm of angry wasps
Once home, we wanted to see if it would start up. The previous owner claimed the motor had “just been rebuilt” and “ran when parked,” which we took with a grain of salt. Removing the valve cover revealed a surprisingly clean motor—it was an L18, a slight upgrade from the stock L16. A little fuel in the carb got it to turn over, but when we got a bit too ambitious with more gasoline, the car caught fire. His wife sprinted out with a hose, and we extinguished it quickly with no lasting damage.
Next up: stripping the car for media blasting. We built a cart to hold the body and dropped the drivetrain in one shot by unbolting the subframe and struts. Once the car was blasted, it became painfully clear that the quarter panels were toast. They’d fallen victim to the infamous “cave it and pave it” bodywork method, leaving huge rust holes and filler everywhere. Luckily, Andy is a talented metal fabricator. He’s been painstakingly repairing rust, and hand-fabricating new quarter panels to bring the car back to life.
