Water Cooled

[Sarge]

What a throwback!!

That's my favorite Mini Truck right there...

Sarge, I used to hang out with the "West Side Truckers" along with the "California Camaros" back in the 70's.
California Camaros used to cruise out to Colorado Bl, uncork their very "built" V-8's, cruise the Bl. and drive 'em home that way... Nothing quite like the sound of a bunch of open header cars going through a tunnel at freeway speeds!

~DR.

I also think that was the best lookin mini truck made.  My high school buddy was in west side truckers, I used to hang out with them alot back in the late 70's.

After the first chapter of DKP closed and we sold our cars, some of us got into riding dirt bikes.  Ron Fleming, Greg Aronson, Mike Mahaffey, Mark Thurder and I all took that route.  We'd ride most weekends at Saddleback Motorcycle Park, Escape Country or Claude Ostein Park.  That meant having to get something to haul bikes in.  Ron bought a '72 Datsun and, when the '73's came out with the new rounded body style, I knew that's what I had to have.  I was totally blind when I bought that truck... I'm 6'2" tall and after a few months of smacking my head on the roof, realized I'd made a "small" mistake.  Those trucks were WAY oversprung in back, so I pulled the load leaf out and added a 3" set of lowering blocks to soften things up a bit.... MUCH better.  I had Brad's Upholstery re-do the seat which helped a bit with the head room.  After ripping a belt loop off a couple of pairs of Levi Cords while gassing up, I had all the bed tie-downs shaved as well as the logos on the front fenders.  The tail light surrounds were painted white and the tailgate bump stops removed.  The tube bumper was big back then... I liked the Gasser style look and had mine chromed.  Unfortunatly, compared to Ron's '72, the '73 proved to be quite a sled.  I was working in Riverside at the time and found a guy who knew his shit with Datsuns.  He recommended a 3" exhaust with a "turbo" (read Flowmaster) muffler as well as taking a 1" chassis punch and adding a dozen holes to the back side of the air filter housing to get more air to the engine.  The biggest improvement, though, was getting the souped up 510 motor from Darrell Vittone... that was the shit!

[Bugsy]

You're right... I dig wagons. Mostly European ones and only the pre 1973 U.S. made ones.

My daily driver since my sons were born in the early '90s:


It's been a reliable and fun car... a 1987 245DL European delivery model with 5 spd. roll-up windows, and vinyl interior. 99% of the Volvo estates/wagons in this country are automatic, electric windows, and cloth interiors. I removed the cat, the front muffler, and did some mild engine mods. Best car I've ever owned and will never sell it. 

Nice car Mark, love those wheels. I have had 2 stationwagons and 3 sedans of the 240 in the 80-90's, but the wagons are my alltime favs. Especally the GLT/Turbo. But they seems to be more or less rusted away here now. Hade lots of acessories for them but all is gone now, except some catalogs. If you wish i could send you one Swedish acessoriecatalog from 1994? Almost unread .