In 1974, I needed a truck. A friend had a 1968 Datsun but he hesitated to sell it to me. It had 80,000 miles, some rust, and it puffed a lot of smoke out of the exhaust. I convinced him to part with it for $150. It turned out to be a great deal. I found the oil hadn't been changed for over a year. A couple of oil changes and oil consumption was under control. The body was solid so I cleaned it up, painted it, added wheels and oversized tires, redid the interior adding carpeting and stereo, etc.
The running gear stayed pretty much original other than replacing king pins and shocks. The engine was a 1300cc developing an alleged 68 hp at 5200 rpm. Actual was probably somewhat less. It was rugged though. With an empty weight of about 2200 lbs I hauled 1800 lbs of gravel in it once. (Wasn't a great idea - handling, braking and acceleration all suffered greatly.) As shown in the picture, I added a home built camper shell and traveled all over the US in 1976 between jobs. At 130,000 miles the valves started to go so I did a rebuild and then, in about 1982 with 150,000 miles, I let it go for about $450. Nice return on the investment.
How did I ever end up with this car? Around 1977 I picked up an old Fiat 124. I thought I could keep anything running. I was wrong. I decided I needed to buy a new car. I didn't want to spend a lot because I didn't drive a car much. But 1978 cars were really lame. The Fairmont was a new model and I came across the ES option (European Styling, I guess). With the lack of chrome, black out paint, black walls and heavy duty suspension, it looked quite different from other Fairmonts. And it was cheap. I bought this one for less than $4000.
Why so cheap? Simple. No automatic, no air conditioning, no power steering, no power brakes. It was a hard decision but I ordered this with the 4 cylinder engine. The 302 was allegedly available but backordered due to gas mileage mix requirements and only available with the automatic. The only manual available with the 6 cylinder was a three speed. So I got the 2300cc 4 with a 4 speed. Turns out it was a good idea. The four had enough power and the lighter front end weight made it ride and handle reasonably. While I owned this one, I rode a motorcycle most of the time so I kept it 8 years and drove it 40,000 uneventful miles.