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mklotz70 project MEND


mklotz70

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As several of you know, there was a ad on nwde just before it closed. The ad was "Free to a good home". It was a '72 521 that had been owned by the second owners for about 29 years. It was their baby, but they were moving to a location that would not allow them to take it with them. They couldn't bring themselves to let it sit and rot for the couple of years they were be gone. So, they decided to try to find a loving home for it where it would get refurbished and become someone elses "baby". Lucky for us, Brian and Do decided that we were such a home :) This thread will be the evolution of their baby into "MEND", my daughters first truck.

 

Amanda(Mend is her nickname) has wanted a 521 for several years now. I have a '68(pretty dang rare to find one from the first half year of production) that I was planning on fixing up for her, but it has some issues that will take quite a bit o work to correct. Plus...it was actually my rig and therefore a "hand-me-down". The new rig went straight into her name when the title got transferred. I think that it being a runner/driver and in her name makes it much more "real" to her. The '68 was supposed to be a graduation gift for her. This is a bit late, but still a lot sooner than the '68 would be :)

 

So......Mend (as the truck will be refered to) started out in Salem with the original owner. Brian and Do(doe) bought it as their first vehicle in '79 when it was about 7 years old and had 50,000 miles on it. They lived in Eugene and drove it back and forth to Seattle many times, eventually living in Seattle. The WA title was so old that the lady at DMV kept showing it to all her co-workers because most had never come across one like it.

 

We had made arrangements with Brian via pm's and emails to pick Mend up on the morning of 12/9. Brian took the day off work so that we could visit for awhile. On the trip up, we stopped off and visited with Ted and Bonnie in Centralia. We exchanged some parts and I proceeded to eat most of Ted's sweet potato fries :) We made our way to a UHaul place just north of Brian's. I'll avoid making comments about that UHaul...let's just say I'm glad they're not the one I normally deal with! It was so much nicer driving up without the tow dolly. It was well worth the extra $25 to rent it one way. Just towing it empty for the couple of miles back to Brian's proved that it would have been a real headache...or at least given us headaches....had we towed it empty the entire way.

 

Brian and Do met us at the curb when we got there. Serioulsy....they are one of the nicest couples you'd ever have the pleasure to meet. Brian showed me around Mend a bit and we started her right up. She ran really nice! They didn't baby her over the years, but they had certainly taken care of her. Do had alway kept rust at bay by rolling on red Rustoleum. Brian took kept up on the mechanicals. I probably could have driven Mend all the way back to Gresham, but pulling it in the comfort of Paula's Grand Caravan was much nicer!! Her van tows Datsuns like it was made to do it!! :)

 

Sorry....I just ran out of time....so I'll slap up the pics and vid links and head to work. :)

 

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The button heads are actually thumbtacks held in with liquid steel. I thought that was a really ingenious way to plug the hole!! Kept the holes from rusting and helped to protect the inside of the door. Most non-car people wouldn't have even thought to close up the holes :)

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Edited by mklotz70
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nice score mike, does your daugther have a color already pick out for it or are you/she going to keep it Red.

also noticed that its got both shoulder harnesses, original hub caps.

It looks to be straight except of the small ding in the fender.

:cool:

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Thanks guys! That means a lot that you think it went to the right home :)

 

Hopefully, by Canby, it will get the semi-flat black like Paula's. Amanda doesn't want it shiny. The contrast color will be lime green. If I don't change the NL or Paula's rig before then, I can probably get it done :)

 

Yep...stock shoulder belts and hubcaps :) Even the AM radio works :) It will get disc brakes ...of course :). The rims that are on Paula's rig will go on Mend...at least that's the last plans I heard. Mend will get Paula's bench seat and Paula's will get factory 510 buckets. I will probably put a 3.89 diff in it to help on the highway. It will stay stock height.....sorry....Amanda doesn't like the lowered stuff....neither does Paula....so maybe I'll have to keep the '68 for myself!! :) ...probably not though....I have too many projects already!!

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That is way cool that your daughter is into datsuns, Mine like's the BMW,

My daughter thinks I'm nuts for spending so much time on what she calls old ulgy cars, When she was in JR high I would pick her up from school in my 240Z All her friends liked the loud 240, Then in high school all the guy's would come over to the house just to check out what I was doing to the car, I think she was a little jealous, :lol:

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I'm hoping she's down with helping!! She's always talked about wanting to work on a car project. I showed her how to check the fluids and she changed the door pulls to chrome 520 pulls :)

 

They liked the yellow...it matches the rims. It's certainly an eye grabber!! :)

 

She's given me a hard time before when her boyfriends talked to me about cars. I think a couple thought about marrying her when they saw my shop :)

 

Gotta get caught up on a couple of things, then it will come in for some more work :)

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was a joke, and that's clean, i only asked her age :D

 

I took it as a joke so no worries.

 

Actually she is 19. Neither of our boys were/are into cars so I think Mike is still holding out hope that Amanda will be. When she was in High School she took a small engine class, and her biggest complaint when she got home was that the guys would never let her do anything nor would they listen to her input. Maybe now she will be able to do some of the stuff that needs to be done and actually enjoy it.

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I didn't take offense either.....but I can see where it would seem that was leading somewhere. Thanks for watchin' out for us Slo :) She's not here to defend herself, so we'll have to........................but if you had seen some of the comics she put up for my 45th bday a few ago......let's just say she's not a prude :)

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