Remember this car, you’ll be seeing it everywhere when shots of it with it’s new wheels start to surface.

1974 Datsun 610 currently for sale in Oregon for $12,600. This little beauty is a sure fire head turner at just about any meet you decide to hit up. It’s got all the great vintage JDM styling cues we all love but way more rare than a 510 or 70’s Celica. It will probably be a very long time before you see one this clean available again and is a great, well sorted driver thanks to it’s well executed KA24DE swap. More info here

]]> http://ekhatch.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/very-rare-opportunity/feed/ 2 ekhatch DSC_1221hf rear corner DSC_4438 engineKA http://ekhatch.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/datsun-710/ http://ekhatch.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/datsun-710/#comments Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:54:41 +0000 ekhatch http://ekhatch.wordpress.com/?p=5199 ]]>

I’m not that good with chassis codes so you’ll have to forgive me, I do think these were called Violets in Japan though. This is not the best one you’ll ever see, but I love it. There’s an old saying in the car game; “It’s only original once”, and I’m a firm believer in it. Other than being lowered and given a set of staggered SSR MKIIs this 710 owned by Jose Mendez is all original and bone stock right down to the 100hp L20B engine. To some this is the perfect starting point for a teardown, paint, and swap but I love that he chose to let it be. The car’s soul and spirit are intact, the patina telling the story of the life it’s lived. You don’t look at it and wonder how big of a mess it was when it was found and how much bondo is holding it together, it’s just an honest, REAL car.

]]> http://ekhatch.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/datsun-710/feed/ 1 ekhatch datsun_710_1 datsun_710_3 datsun_710_5 datsun_710_4 74datsun710 http://ekhatch.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/rockabilly-hardcore-sled-style/ http://ekhatch.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/rockabilly-hardcore-sled-style/#comments Sat, 25 Jul 2009 03:11:53 +0000 ekhatch http://ekhatch.wordpress.com/?p=4726 ]]>

Vdubs. What’s the the first thing that pops in your head when I say that? For me it’s rat/hood style. I love it, the patina, the stance, wacky stuff strapped to the roof. What I love most about it is that it draws it’s inspiration from the roots of hot rodding in the 50s, tattered old pre war cars put back on the road with some heat under the hood. Admit it, the hood ride VWs have a lot more fun and creative freedom than the hard parking JDM Honda guys.

This Golf is on a whole other level, drawing more from the heavily reworked cruiser sleds of the 40s and 50s. It’s like the builder totally ignored the fact that he had a Golf and built it just the way you would a 1950 Mercury.

Big chrome toothy grin just like so many lead sleds, proper satin paint rather than rattle can flat, with a period correct contrasting pop color

Details everywhere, just check out the hand pinstripping where no one will ever see it

Beautifully weathered shop logo on the door, somewhere between WW2 aircraft nose art and a Sailor Jerry tattoo

Head liner that could hang in a museum, done in the same style

Theme is carried over everywhere

More beautiful tattoo style airbrush work over ghost flames

This thing is done RIGHT, it stands alone.

and yes me and ceiling cat know, you fapped to it. It’s the Wall of Fame that’s blown up the internet this week. Turns out it was made by Slappy at Slide Asylum. I added him to the blog roll last month, it’s a great site so if you haven’t checked it out yet pay a visit.

The patina on this Z is so perfect

Call me crazy but I dig it!

It’s like a who’s who of cool old school JDM wheels, how many can you name? Hint – there’s no prize for getting them all.

You sure don’t see many 1979 Civics around anymore, and this is by far the nicest I’ve run across. 1.6L high comp twin carb motor, Ground Control coilovers (from a 1st gen CRX) with Konis, all poly bushings with front and rear sway bars, custom camber plates, 15×7 Minilites, 4 wheel Brembo discs with Hawk pads, and of course some bitchin custom flares. As you might expect from the specs this car sees regular Auto-X duty. Freakin clean!

A couple of quick favs, the Celica pace car is just too cool for words, and a Land Cruiser hot rod? That’s just bananas