Return of Bluebird

For 1966, Datsun went to 11. The durable and Pininfarina-styled Datusn P410 was stepped up with more engine and became the Datsun P411. In 2004 Pete Peterson found this 1967 Datsun RL411 Bluebird SSS wearing various shades of blue and surface rust, and woke it up from a 20-year junkyard slumber. The chronicle of the this Datsun is one of two cars, forty years, and a meandering creekbed road.

Pete nabbed the Datsun out of a junkyard with the intent of driving the car to a family reunion. After a global search for a replacement version of the same car his family once owned turned up with this 1967 SSS version, Pete forked over a thousand bucks and got to work bringing the genie back out of the lamp. New brakes, a front windshield, and the usual restification work, and the car was back from its two decade nap in a Sacramento boneyard.

“Mostly, it was just cleaning it up”, said Pete.

The work paid off. Pete’s plan to show up at a family reunion in a Bluebird like the one that at one time ended up sunk in the Greenhorn Creek was a success, and a reminder to always watch the road. The original family Datsun had at one time almost taken a swim with the fishes. While taking the usual route through the normally shallow water, that Datsun Bluebird ended up floating down creek like Phil Silver’s 1948 Ford in the movie It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

Everyone bailed out of the floating Datsun OK, but the car ended up down creek sunk up to the roof line. Creek extraction, an oil change, and some other water removal methods brought the Datsun back to land use after its rafting expedition. The family car soldiered on for another ten years through traffic hits and repaints, not always in that order, before eventually being sold.

“Every time it got painted, it got hit!”, said Pete.

Today Pete drives this second family Datsun to as many car shows and gatherings as he can. He’s even thinking about repainting the car. Maybe in blue.