Mr.Mk1

I jumped in on some free powdercoating and had the Silvia and falcon (rear) covers done after I sandblasted them. came out great! Decided to chuck them together for a pine and realised they dont clear the calipers (need to trim back the curved edges but not a lot) and since it’s got larger discs, they sit hard up against them too! c.l.e.v.e.r. B.o.y Live and learn didn’t realise the discs were murdered out, it’s cool but was expecting nice clean raw look lol.

Classic! Can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter ;- )

It drives really nice now and brakes are epic. Who would have thought. The tidy bonnet is lovely. The top needs wheeled back and etched but its bloody good to be fair. Next phase is reset the leaves 2in. Have ordered new bushes for these, and some lower control arm bushes so then the whole front is lush and ready for another wheel alignment

The yellow bonnet wasnt flash in person, the skin is mint but the frame has rusted away around the whole front edge and down the sides some..so it flaps within its self. It’s fixable but I’m not interested right now. i ended up winning the auction for the tidy-as one so will get it this weekend. i had an unholy cunt of a time trying to get the pitman arm off. Broke my pitman puller and several tools along the way, rooted my jack handle from wailing on it with a hammer trying to bash it off the spline. The go was taking the whole drag link off which frees up half the battle and some tension I guess, brought a new puller and introduced more heat and it slid off. Then a bad part number crossover Means the new one turned out to be for a powersteer model, no bueno. Deep breath. saga. Idler arm was easy as, a joy almost. Bottom ball joints.. one was aftermarket so was bolt on, pretty easy. The other side was factory and has fucking great Steel rivets holding it on. Much drilling, grinding, bashing and swears later in a tight spot it started to move but wasn’t pining. Turns out there’s two spotwelds holding the cast part to the bottom arm.. lovely. In the mean time the cable tie holding by the hub and brakes up out of the way snapped and crushed my wrist, so that was cool. Also burnt a finger unexpectedly on a hot drill bit. won in the end but pretty worse for wear. The wheel cylinder for the lame side was fully frozen so binned that and got another set.. ive done one side, the other can wait. Fanged some hose clamps on fuel line too. There was no chance of leakage cause I could barely pull the line off but it does look safer. And a recycled picture So you dont feel too ripped off after reading this shit

Bugger all use In the last 6 months due to it living outside and being unsavoury To defrost/demist on the Colder mornings meant i was a bit surprised it needed another warrant this week! She passed but it needs love, so now I have a new pitman arm, idler arm and lower ball joints to install. I was kinda putting this off because I’d planned to convert it all to power steer (hard parts differ) but never really saw anything promising pop up in the market so have flagged that for now. Also want to put a urethane isolator ring on the coils to lift the front a little as it scrubs a lot. Need to put some clamps on some fuel lines, buzz up a hole in the muffler and see why rear brake is dragging on one side. All pretty straight forward! Since last update I had a go at repairing the bonnet.. the leading edge had cracked. When sanded back I found that some weapon has put a new front on and only welded about 1/3 of it. Their welds on the swapped portion of frame We’re shit too and breaking so gave it all a fizz along with trim holes in bonnet and guards.. it’s still shit and doesn’t sit nicely. Bonnets are rare in good nick for the XD and I didn’t want to spend ~$350 for a goodun...then one appears locally for $25 start no reserve! I won that un-rivalled and will collect tomorrow. Its missing some frame and has crust but much much more workable. The morning I won that another appears in the city and it’s in great shape but paint stripped and has pin dents in places. Someone else is bidding but if it stays reasonable I’ll try get that too and run instead. ..almost a picture less update and we can’t have that, so here’s crummy pics. (the gaps in bonnet are about 6-8mm) and a lockdown pic while I was doing a bit of everything and cycling between jobs.

Still enjoying trouble free daily motoring. finally did the shock bushes commented on the last warrant sheet. they look like they were cut on angles in the dark with a hacksaw! bit ashamed I didn’t notice when I did the diff swap. Or did i conveniently note it and forget?

Trying to get more project time in recently, all pretty sporadic and spread between many projects but all forward progress! yes, it took ages and cooked my back feeding tape into the fins to retain the Look of wound Internals and stuff kitted the calipers. Couldn’t get correct pistons Cheaply so matched by size To a Renault one and machined off bits off each end until they were functional. the listing had a typo and it ended up measuring the exact diameter 40.4, chur. also scored a sandwich plate. unboxed all spares and sorted the best parts, doubles and rubbish (Some of my ‘New’ rubber gaskets was perishing) so now engine is basically packed for the machine shop. Made a pile to sandblast and paint ( hubs, backing plates, brackets etc) brought another timing belt, I’d sold mine a few years back when a mate was in a pinch after hours.

Put the clutch fork together and pulled the starter apart to clean, paint and lube. Cleaned the outside of the alternator too, Years ago I tried pulling one apart to polish it (I know) and it went crunch and was ruined instantly.

I also got multiple ‘works escort’ Hillman imp front indicators and housings for something a bit different.

Still chipping away in the very, very background. Between the last post & now, it’s been decided this car won’t see the road again in my ownership. I haven’t even found a good set of black plates and tags in the 15 odd years I’ve had it! Im just going to build what I want and take it to hillclimbs, track days and car shows, take it to work once in a while. It can just be a LifeSize model that’s fully functional. The money I’d have to spend to get back on the road legally is equal to what I need to finish it. This way I’ll be enjoying it sooner for less. Minus the revin stress. I found an alternator and starter finally, a lead on sandwich plate too. I’d lost my skimmed flywheel from way back (I stashed it somewhere way too safe) so brought another and had it skimmed too. I do believe I forgot to mention before I left BNT I brought new bearings for each corner, caliper kits, pads, Uni joints, rotors etc. not knowing I was going into another parts job, I was able to score the bits I couldn’t get prior from the new place! I re-discovered another set of mint badges. And the build tag Despite having 2 boxes, I had no fork or carrier or springs. Springs new via Amayama. Split the Nissan calipers and cleaned up. Brake specialist thru work offered to blast them for me..I though that’s the last thing you’d want to do, but apparently no. I’ll save his generosity for a job I can’t do, and used my wee home kit to knock the crap off bodies and fully blasted outer shells.(body not fully, still paranoid). I filed off the casting marks too, kept me warm on a cold morning. Blew the hell out of them and brake cleaned, Flicked some of the leftover caliper paint (I was disappointed with on datsun wheels) to seal. Will be a darker gold when finished. 3 out of 4 pistons were shit and it’s an odd size of 40.4 I can’t get, so will use a common smaller 40mm and change the seal out of the Sieken kit I already brought + linish pad side to be same height as stock. The mrs sold her 302 so I got my engine stand back and hung the CA off it for motivation.

That’s a bad photo of a good headlining. lewis at tinwald canvas & upholstery had a pattern from a previous job so knocked it out for me. Standard as black, with all pillar pieces included

All back together and you can barely tell, lol.

Well that VHT was a fail. came out sandy brown despite the cap being pretty lush and yellow..spewing. Quick dash to Mega and I got some more stuff as nothing suitable at work or repco BRO! Not even close, looked like arts n crafts time sans macaroni elbows. Wasnt about to go and get a $40 can of hammer-rite gold cause it was suggested it was a lighter gold and it’s a bit of a gamble/Jew. SEND IT. Actually looks great in person. The back is smooth yet the front is stippled so it calmed it down nicely, and the shadow effect from inner of spokes helps. Gonna let them sit inside overnite and smash some clear tomorrow. Fine print on VHT wheel clear says 7 DAYS to cure. god damn it. Let’s hope it’s hardy AF.