Datsun 1600 Fairlady / Roadster

[anonymous-user]

Hello Gents,

As per a previous thread I have been looking for my first classic car the usual, Sprite / Frogeye / Spitfire / Midget have been investigated but a colleague showed me a Datsun Fairlady / Roadster a few weeks ago and I am off to see one this Thursday as its a bank holiday - and in fairness having seen a Spitfire in the flesh it didn't really live up to expectations ...

My only problem / concern is that I cannot seem to find much information on the internet about them with respect to spares, even the 'Datsun' forum is relatively dead or is quite broad in the models it covers.

There is a chap called 'Datman' or something similar who seems to stock some parts but just wondering if anyone ahs first hand experience of this car?

[PositronicRay]

That's an interesting looking thing.

[anonymous-user]

I don't know why it has linked to the Smart Roadster, that's not what I am on about ...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datsun_1500,_1600,...

Any MY, probably 69/70.

[texaxile]

A rare and beautiful beast if ever there was one , although I've never seen one in the flesh!.

Regarding spares, I can only recount personal experience with my mitsubishi which is a 1981 model, spares have been sourced primarily from a donor car and the mitsubishi main dealers themselves, but many are NLA and if they are available, they're a 6 week pre pay special order from Japan. Also, many dealers aren't interested in helping as a majority of the spares are on microfiche and were never transferred onto PC.

That and the MLR forum are the main sources, but I've seen that as cars become more scarce people tend to hang onto spares more. It might also be the case however in that the model concerned shares parts with later ones of that era, even up to mid 70's or so.

Trim is arguably the hardest to source.

Good luck, it's a stunning car !.

[devs]

I looked at buying one of these once, however the car wasn't complete and having looked at the spares market, decided to opt out as I already had a 63 Alfa Romeo 101 spider and obtaining spares for it is close to impossible.

If it's complete and original, you're sorted. It not ..... consider carefully, unless you're not overly concerned with what is missing.

Lovely looking cars though.

[CAPP0]

No idea on relative specs and values but if you like the look of it, have you also considered a Fiat Spyder? Spares availability may be better?

[Keep it stiff]

I was half tempted by a Fairlady a couple of years ago. The one I looked at needed some work and I decided against it as the cost of buying and light restoration was looking well north of what the car would have been worth upon completion. It appealed to me being somewhat non-mainstream, rare in the UK but not the US or Japan. Another positive for me was that the Fairlady, like the 240Z (which shared the name for a while) came out that era when the Japanese were seeking to get into the UK market by cloning what was being made here, there is a real familiarity when you delve into detail.The Fiat suggestion as an alternative is a very good one, there are some cracking 124s about without being silly money with good club support etc.

[uk66fastback]

Don't think they were sold here, but in the US there are loads so spares not really a problem. Would certainly be rare ...