Seriously, less than twenty-four hours since my own Stagea has been let out of the panel beaters all shiny and ready to drive again, I've stumbled on the another Stagea that's gone the completely opposite way and in turn has become ultimate apocalypse cruising war machine you're ever going to meet outside of the back lot of a Mad Max movie.
When the bombs drop, I'm reaching for the sand blaster..
Keeping things PG I can't repeat exactly the first words that jumped out of my gob when I first laid eyes on this fallout warrior but suffice to say, it was along the lines of 'Good golly isn't that impressive, my brain seems to have imploded at the sight of such a vehicle!'
And why wouldn't I? I mean look at this beast! (It covers one of my favorite cars of all time + what it would look like if the world was to end. Glorious!)
Fresh out of a nuclear holocaust, you can just imagine it cruising the blasted highways when civilization is just about done and dusted searching for its next sip of fuel and carrying any many supplies as possible in the back (while easily running over anyone and anything trying to slow it down.)
I'm happy to report that the inside is just as 'end of the world' as the exterior.
Where we're going we don't need safety features!
It's the little things you notice with every look back on these pictures too - the skull emblem on the grill and the drinks holders (Nuka cola anyone?) and then only in writing about it now did I notice the taxi sign up top for the first time (I mean I probably should have, the owner posted it up on Facebook as Skid Taxi). Oh and I found the chain to stop the engine from attempting a break for freedom an absolute hoot.
The story behind this Rusty Stagea
Speaking of the owner of this skid monster that would get George Miller very excited, Jeremy Collins was more than happy to have me pester him with questions about it through Facebook messenger and provided even more amazing pics of this build:
My whole life i was brought up around V8s and Hot rodding, my father was a car painter for many years so I learnt what a massive amount of work went into a nice paint job and the stress around keeping a nice paint job mint so I made a decision early that i would never go down that road as i thought cars are not supposed to be stressful they should be fun and enjoyed any and every chance you get.
I got into drifting and Nissans when i left school. I loved RBs and showing up the V8s when ever possible but when my first child came along it became clear i couldn't enjoy my wild Nissans with my kids in the car as they were death traps and sold them to build a 63 ford Fairlane my father had owned for 20 years or so - it needed everything!
It took a lot of time / $ and a lot of favors but i got it on the road in time to take my kids to school in it as I had been many years earlier. I love going to car events with the whole family in it but I had never lost my love for Nissans. I bought my partner a Nissan Stagea simply because it made sense - it was big enough for the kids and dog but I knew i could fix it due to it being a RB. She never liked the look of it and after daily driving it for a few years she got her wish and moved up leaving the wagon left with no home so my sick brain got to work looking for a car from the 50s to take the body from and drop it over the Nissan floor and drive train.
I found this to be harder than first thought be it wheel base or price issues so I just gave up. Every year I go to a car show (MCM) where we camp for 4 days and cruise around the show grounds at night this is great fun but even better in a car you didn't really care about. I was determined to build something just for this reason when i found a way to rust plastic with a special 3 stage paint so I went to work stripping every bit of paint off any steel panels and hitting them with salt and some other things then I got the very expensive paint through customs and started the look.
My missus thought I had lost my mind but I was determined the end result would be cool. I then took some old steel rims away to get widened rear 11s/ front 9s and cut the car up until it was as low as possible while keeping the massive wheels. This meant the rear door shut is half gone etc
I fitted a big stereo and welded the diff and we were done we took it to the car show and people tripped out on it as I thought they would but we all agreed it was missing one big part: HP.
It was stock underneath which let it down so I set it up as a plus t but soon got frustrated with ongoing problems and felt it just wasn't cool enough. So i looked up lowest price V8 on the market which was a rover 3500 - I snapped one up testing it on the floor first (it ran ok) so in it went.
I wasn't careful about how it was going in, I just cut anything in the way and solid welded it in there. I then fitted a 4 barrel holly carby for the full bogan look and have the exhaust coming out the front bumper - its sick! It loves to smoke those big rears with ease and although it probably makes all of 200hp it has all the torque needed to spin them in any gear.
Some people hate it, some people don't even know what to think but to my mates and I it's the coolest Nissan Stagea on the planet and cost bugger all to do it. I'm looking forward to taking it to burnout comps and car shows in the future as its not long got going but id like to say thanks to my mates who helped me and to my partner for not complaining about what i did to her old shopping trolley lol
Thanks to Jeremy for the amazing story and extra pics and make sure you look out for it in the next apocalypse to come!
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