Old Datsun Truck

Here's the latest project I finished with my Dodge Dakota. It was an old Datsun pickup that a friend of the family had left sitting for as long as I can remember (which means at least 26 years), and he wanted it gone. The problem is that he lives up in the mountains, and there's no public road to his house, so you have to drive across my property, my uncle's property, then through the creek for about a mile before his driveway comes up out of the water. I usually load everything onto my 15 foot flatbed and then haul it off when it's all ready to go to the scrap yard, and use the pickup to shuttle in and out of places like this hauling a truck load at a time out to the trailer. However, there were places that were so narrow and muddy or steep that my trailer wouldn't have fit without busting out the brake lights and such. The engine bay of the Datsun is sideways because I got tired of rusty bolts snapping off so I just knocked out two windows, wrapped a chain through, hooked it up to my pickup and yanked the cab off the frame and the engine bay twisted sideways when I did it.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ing-datsun.jpg

Here's the trailer loaded down the body of the pickup. This is not including the frame, engine or transmission.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ler-loaded.jpg

As always I cleaned the place up as good as I could. The only signs that I had been there was the fact that I took all of the 40 pound blocks he'd had the thing sitting on and put them in 2 or 3 stacks, and left the back windshield propped up against a tree because his wife likes to do little projects with things like that. For some odd reason when I ripped the cab off, the back windshield remained intact and just popped out.

Where there is a will.. there is a way! Nicely done! Long hard days I imagine.. but good on!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sledge

Where there is a will.. there is a way! Nicely done! Long hard days I imagine.. but good on!!

---

It took me two trips to the scrap yard. I hauled the body out in one load, then came back and pulled out the engine and transmission, loaded them in the bed, then cut the frame in half, wrapped a chain through it and drug each half down to where my trailer was sitting and loaded it with the help of Sidewinder. I would have left the frame in one piece and drug it out that way, but I wasn't 100% certain my little Dodge Dakota had enough weight on the drive tires (Only 2WD) to drag that much weight across rocks, up sandy hillsides, through the creek, etc. because all 4 wheels were froze up, and two of them had no tires so I was just dragging the rotors across the ground for a mile or so. Between the two trips I think I made a little over $300, part of which (the frame and engine/tranny) I split with Sidewinder. It took me about 2 days to get it out of there and cleaned up.

I've got a couple more spots lined up to go scout out as soon as the weather clears up, and may have to enlist his help again because it may involve winching several cars out of a hole.

I think I have a doctors appointment today, and an eye appointment Friday; But otherwise free to help out.

I've been scouring EVERYWHERE for wire (One of my main focuses) and large shred items (AC Units, Deepfreezes, etc)

No bueno so far.

So the Datsun was all rusted out...... I often go the local you pull wrecking yards, and see vehicles that belong in a garage being restored rather than being scrapped, breaks my heart....... If I had the money, a big shop (on acreage!!), and a big big flatbed dually I could make dreams come true. I'm rolling Old School. Don't make 'em like that no more. Dying breed. That will outlive the competition.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Soobthang

So the Datsun was all rusted out...... I often go the local you pull wrecking yards, and see vehicles that belong in a garage being restored rather than being scrapped, breaks my heart....... If I had the money, a big shop (on acreage!!), and a big big flatbed dually I could make dreams come true. I'm rolling Old School. Don't make 'em like that no more. Dying breed. That will outlive the competition.

---

The engine looked like it could have been restored, but we literally cut the frame in two with a hand-held hacksaw, I pulled the sides of the bed off by hand, etc. The cab looked mostly fine, and the frame underneath it was in "better" condition having been a little more protected, but I took off the passenger door and was trying to kick the driver's door open since I couldn't get the handle to work so I could take it off, and when I climbed in the whole cab rocked on the frame, so that's when I figured it would come off pretty easily if I just yanked on it. The transfer case had a big piece busted out of it (the original reason he parked it). About the only thing on it that somebody "might" have been able to re-use was the engine and transmission, and having sat there for 20+ years, you'd have had to put a lot of time and effort into taking the engine apart and cleaning all the congealed oil sludge out of it.

Here they don't really check for titles to the vehicles, but if it looks remotely drive-able, they take a picture of you standing next to it. I mean if you show up with a frame that's rusted in two and car doors full of mud from sitting in a riverbed for years, they don't say anything, but if it looks like the car may have been in decent shape recently, they take your photo with it.