Only one picture today, but an important milestone in the project: The bodywork starts again! A few hours ago, i was at the new bodyshop to discuss the first steps and bring them some parts. The car is in good company and the workshop is huge. This is just one little messy corner where it is temporary stored until work begins next week (fingers crossed). The rest of the shop is clean and busy with many people at work. I met the panel beater the first time and he seems to be a really nice dude. They promised me to send pictures every now and then, and since they’re basically…

Just a very small update. While preparing the passenger side fender for the bodyshop, i realized i dont have any nice fender emblems anymore, so i immediately ordered a set, since i saw they were still available new from Nissan: Nothing crazy, but another little piece of the Puzzle is ready to be installed, once the shell and body panels are painted…

Finally – the day has come, where the car left the home for the second time for a visit at a bodyshop. This time a different one… The agreed timeline is to complete the body until the end of the year (roughly). I said quality comes before a tough timeline, but also they agreed on not letting the car sit in a corner for 5 years like the previous panelbeater did… The plan is to straighten the chassis, which needs a bit alignment, replace all rusty panels and then add the bodypanels and align all gaps, before having everything dismantled again and ready for the paintshop…. And until then i’ll…

Yes! On monday the shell is going back to the bodyshop. I chose a new panelbeater with a bit more professional background. The other one was OK, but this time it goes to a specialist which is usually handling cars in a more exclusive price-range. Also he’s not alone but has a hand full of people on hand and compared to my previous guy – has all the tools required in-house. Also he just seems a bit more of a “do-er” and less of a “talker” – my kind of guy. And he promised me to complete the body until the end of the year for a fair price. So…

Today i got a special package from germany with an old dusty “thing” The thing is an stand for microfiches for various datsun cars. I think this was never an official stand, but one that the dealership probably set up themselves: It includes 16 different chassis types plus a german price list from 1979: A closer inspection turns out that the S30 chassis microfiches which i already have are from a different date. Nice to have two sets 🙂 The 6/6 fiche btw, is from the GRLS30 btw. The second item i got is a rallye clock replacement oscillator box by E-ZA in Japan. The original one often fails when…

KFVintageJDM has been pushing out new panels almost weekly. i saw they now even released a whole damn reproduction rear quarter panel! Something many people have been looking for for a long time! One of the lately released parts are the inner rocker seatbelt mount’s. I’m  not even sure if i need those, but since they were available, i added them to the package. I got myself a partial firewall. I only need the lower section, which is quite messed up in my car, but thought it might be easier to have something to work with than make it from scratch: As you can see on the left the part…

This is the seventh part of a multi-post series about the (hi)story of Datsun, Prince and Nissan in switzerland.  Check out the other parts HERE. In this installment we have a look at probably the least interesting part of this all, but in my opinion still an important part of the Datsun / Nissan Switzerland story: Industrial service and commercial vehicles. This includes small trucks, Transporter buses, forklifts, pickups and much more. This story has two different starting points than the normal datsun / Nissan car business and is slightly complicated, because the brand names switch from Nissan to Datsun to Nissan again and commercial vehicles (busses, pickups, etc) are…

Long story short – i got a new panel beater aka Bodyshop to finish this project. He visited today to check out the car and panels and see if this project would fit into his schedule. Luckily he approved that the previous one did a good job mostly and he only needs to refine a few details. The reason i was looking for a new one was mainly the time. In the previous shop, the car spent more than 5 years with only half a side done and a lot of money spent, before i suddenly got a call to get my car back from the shop because he needed…