Lew's Speed Shop truck

[restoman]

IN 1973, Lewellyn McGinty opened up his own little business, wrenching on muscle cars, street machines and hot rods.

.It's always summer in Florida, so business was good. Within a year, he got into selling speed parts to supplement his income, and saw a whole new market in Japanese cars and trucks, just waiting for someone like him to come along and take advantage of it.

By 1975, Lew figured he needed a better parts hauler than the back of his old station wagon. With gas hard to get sometimes and the wagon's thirsty big block eating into his profits, Lew turned his eyes toward one of those little import trucks. This little orange gem caught his eye, and soon enough it was parked in front of Lew's shop. With some added hi-po parts and a snazzy set of wheels & tires, Lew  was the talk of the speed world in Florida.

 

Comments always welcome.

[espo]

Great back ground story on this little hauler. I like the paint and the stance looks perfect. I'd love to hear that little 4 banger run thru the gears with those glass packs. 

[Sam I Am]

That turned out great! 

[Lordmodelbuilder]

You did a great job on that Datsun!  Love it!

[PappyD340]

Very nice!

[afx]

Turned out great.

[David G.]

Nicely done! 

I always thought that those 4 cyl engines sounded a little obnoxious with twin glass packs though.

David G.

[James2]

Very nicely done, I'm liking the basic not overdone look of a nice daily driver...

[TarheelRick]

Got to love the Datsun pickups.  I really like the direction you took with this one.  It is driveable and a work truck.  I owned two of these in the past and wish I had either one of them back; had a '74 regular cab and a '78 King Cab.

[average_joe]

Really beautiful work, and a great story! The staging is also great - very well done all the way around.

[LouO]

Turned out great! Way better than the parts delivery Chevette I had to drive! LOL!

[Scalper]

Looks great cool little truck with the Cherry Bombs 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Exceptionally clean, well lighted and photographed, and as mentioned, staged.

Combining all those, the first impression is of a real truck...always the goal, rarely achieved.

VERY nice. 

[Plowboy]

That's a cool looking little Datsun shop truck! Where did you get the wheels? This has given me ideas for that long bed Courier I have in the stash.

[slusher]

Looks great!!

[restoman]

Thanks for the comments!

It was a fun little truck to build, and like most of my stuff, I built it to represent what I would want my Datsun truck to look like, if I ever had one. ...And, I would most definitely want one of these in 1:1!

The wheels came in the kit, but the tires are leftovers from the parts bag. The supplied tires just looked too big for my tastes.

I did some work on the front spindles to lower the front. The back springs are as-supplied.

Some clear headlight lenses over top of the kit's chrome units, homemade duals, a bit of embossing powder for the carpet, and a shot of Tamiya orange with automotive clear over top rounds it all out.