Well, alrighty then. This is a color you don’t see every day, but the car underneath that bright hue sure looks great. This is a 1972 Datsun 510 Wagon and it’s on eBay with a current bid price of a ridiculously low $560. But of course, the reserve isn’t met. This car is located in Pierpont, South Dakota, 45 minutes east of Aberdeen in the northeast corner of the Mount Rushmore State.
The seller has owned this car since 2002 and it was “put in shed never drove over 2 miles.” They say that it was stored indoors for 14 years and the body looks fantastic. They do mention that it “was hit in rear reardoor was repaired.” I’m not sure which side they’re referring to but I don’t see a ding or a dent on this entire car. How this car isn’t bidding at several times the current $560 is mind boggling. 510 wagons are as hot as almost anything out there right now and this one looks great. Add in two or three thousand (or, more) for a trim-off paint job and you’re in business. Potentially the car-flipping business. Did I really just use the f-word?!
That this car was painted from it’s original color, which I think was beautiful, highly-desirable orange, is.. I don’t even know what it is. Obviously someone had a very good reason for doing that, and that’s a-ok, who am I to judge anyone else or their choice of colors. Sure, I judge photo quality quite a bit, but that’s another story.. Has anyone else noticed that this car has all of it’s original wheel covers? That has to be good for almost half of the current bid price just for those.
There are no engine photos, unfortunately, but the seller says that the “motor runs good”. This one has a 1.6L, or “L16”, inline-four cylinder with 92 hp. Normally that would be enough for a fun ride in this 2,100 pound car, but that automatic zaps a bit of the power out of that otherwise fun ride. The interior looks reasonably good, with some rips or seam separations in the driver’s seat. And, of course it’ll need to be detailed to within an inch of its life. I would take the seats out and go nuts inside cleaning, maybe add some dynamat under the new carpet that I would put in. This is a super, super desirable car right now, I can’t believe that it’s sitting at less than $1,000 right now on the auction. How would you finish this car, would you go back to stock and try to preserve one of these little gems, or would you go all out with drivetrain, suspension, paint, wheels, paint, and interior mods?
I drove an orange Datsun 610 wagon for a few years in the late 70’s. Wasn’t a bad little winter beater. I think at the end it had well over 50lbs of tiger hair filling in all the rust holes this car had.
Only someone on meth would ever paint a car pink. What a shame.
I don’t know, some Cadillacs look good in pink. A lot cars from the 50s do as well. This Datsun, not so much, but I’m pretty sure some folks would take offence to the meth comment.
You think the automatic zaps power, wait until you added enough dynamat to cover the floor. That stuff weighs tons!
Sweet looking little car, but you’d have to wear your sunglasses just to get in the car.
It reminds me of a small funeral home here in Texas that many years ago had a pink hearse and a pink ambulance. They were a somewhat lighter pink than this car, but still pink! The place sold to the family who has now had the place for close to 40 years. When they took over the cars were repainted a medium gray color. Much more professional looking.
I could just see the looks on the ER crews at the hospitals where they would’ve responded when the ambulance was still pink. That would’ve put Mother, Jugs and Speed to shame!
I have mentioned her on BF before…Donna Mae Mims was a pretty good race car driver back in the last century. I think she passed away not too many years ago.
Anyway, the first time I saw her race at the Thompson, CT track she was driving a bugeye Sprite that was painted in just about this color of “shocking pink”. She did well, and I think that was the car she won an SSCA championship with.
Then she moved up and got a TR3 and had it painted in the same pink color. The first time I saw her race in that pink TR was also at Thompson, and she came around the corner from the back of the course into the big curve where lots of people watched on the hillside—and flipped it right over. She just overcooked it. She was OK and climbed out from under the car, which was being help up by the roll bar.
For some reason I think of her and those pink cars whenever I see a shocking pink car like this old Datsun.
Is this available ? Color can be changed narrow minded people.. highly interested
Had I known about this I would have purchased it in a NY minute. Great little cars. Strip it down, totally dip it and put it back to bare metal. Do any rust repairs, a couple of good coats of primer, a choice of original paint codes (Blue) and a complete redo of that interior (Ivory w/nylon loop brown carpet). I like the idea of the noise insulation. These cars were not very quiet at speed. My biggest expense would be re-wiring the chassis to outfit it with a couple of custom features like power accessories, a much nicer than stock stereo and a glass moonroof. A custom roof rack on top and a split rear hatch without those dangerous sharp corners (trust me, we had one as a kid and those were hell!), a rear wiper set up with integrated defrost. It would be great!