The Legends, JDM Legends - Shop Visit
With the popularity of Japanese classics on the rise, the prices of the Hakosuka’s, Kenmeri’s, and the Fairlady Z have increased - dramatically. Not forgotten are the Celica’s, Corolla’s, or the Crown’s and the rotary classics of the RX’s, which brings us to a visit to JDM Legends. One of the few shops that specializes in restoring, modifying and importing Japanese classics.JDM Legends is tucked away in the outskirts of Salt Lake City, 15 minutes south, on a long stretch of road.
Inside the humble 2000'ish square foot automotive man cave are neatly placed, dream cars. A Subie STi, a Nissan Hakosuka GT-R, Ultra-rare 1970 432 Datsun Fairlady Z, Nissan Hakosuka GT-R Sedan, Nissan Hakosuka shell, and an early 70’s Toyota Celica with a Beams engine are placed side-by-side waiting to be transformed or restored. A prized 67.5 Datsun Roadster 2000 also marked its territory, center stage.
On JDM Legend's photo wall, sits a very mint Mazda Cosmo and Nissan Silvia (CSP311), the precursor to the infamous S chassis.
On the flip side, a pair of 2-post lifts accompany 2 classics, a Hakosuka GT-X and the Fairlady Z. Molested, massaged, and restored to the customer’s liking.
The Fairlady is a complete ground up build. Every single nut and bolt was removed, re-plated, and installed. Every trim and sheet metal was repaired, prepared, and finished. There is not one piece that has not been touched. Custom suspension, upgraded brakes, and new RS rollers on sticky R888’s.
Josh Martin putting on a few final touches.
The Hakosuka GT, imported, corrected, and restored is being prepped for delivery to So Cal.
Eric Bizek, is the humble owner of JDM Legends. He is one of the few that performs the art of restoration. It’s even more rare that they are of Japanese Classics. Eric and team often travel to Japan in search of more treasures and shows off some of his talents at the famous JCCS in Long Beach, California. We had the opportunity to see the completed Z last summer, but even more appreciative to see it in the phases of restoration.To show appreciation of our visit, Eric and team, put together a last minute meet for us. There lies ultra-rare and clean old school rides. I never imaged that the Utah Japanese Classic scene was on point, until that day.
Loving the air set up on this Datsun wagon.
We love JDM Legend's parts hauler, a Datsun 620!
We are going to close out with this sequence shot of a slammmmmed Cressida rolling out!
Visit... Www.jdmlegends.com, Instagram: @jdm_legends
