yoeddynz

Oooooooohhhhhh nice! @Sanfiddy you'll like this project, having just laid down some coin for the same sort of pain. For both of you fellas with old Spitfires here's a good thread on RR I have been following... http://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/201146/1978-triumph-spitfire-1500-defeated

Well the weekend just gone saw the end of my part in this Datsun restoration. It has now been passed over to its new owner Greg. More of that soon. First though, let me show you some photos of my final bit of work before the budget pulled its purse strings. I filled in a section of floor alongside the inner sill so making the area strong again. I left the inner edge unwelded because Greg will bechopping out the section of rotten floor that meets it later on and adding more steel. In order to make the chassis rail decent enough to lift the car without a jack going through the floor I had to sort out this mess... Interesting note.. the rails are different shapes side to side. The passenger side rail has more of a taper. Not that it really matters that much but I tried to copy the original shape as close as I could make out from what was left. Luckily the passenger rail was solid as so it just received a vaccuum out. Greg can fill it with penetrating wax once he's finished the car. Repairs in pictures.. Por 15'd the inside of the rail before continuing. Bought some thicker steel sheet from engineering company in town. Done. Greg can continue on with the floor repairs around it. My final task was to finish off the end of the sill near the a pillar. But once I started welding stuff in there it didnt seem rigt. I ended up chopping out a whole load more up the pillar back to decent steel. Again- in pictures... And that was that. I left the suspension off for Greg to fit so he would have decent chance to scrape underseal off around the chassis when he arrived. The next day a group of Oldschoolers turned up, Greg with a very fine wee car in tow. A rusty Imp swap for a not so rusty Datto? Yeah OK.. We unloaded the Imp, got the fire going in the shed, cranked the music up and drank beer. Greg scrapped underseal off the Datsun and then later on he got some slightly drunken welding advice from me, photo taken by Nick J who sat and watched laughing.... Fun was had. Sharns were thrown about in numerous amounts by Bart and Will, the BBQ was wheeled in and much meat was cooked, Sam drew some dick pics on my white board, Kevin the cat got lots of cuddles and the fire did roar. The following morning people woke hazily and started to move. Greg moved in the direction of his new toy, it still not having any suspension, steering or wheels. In a blur of groggy movement the wee Datto got its legs back and was loaded on Gregs trailer... Final photo before it left for its new home in Christchurch (the Datsun capital of NZ)... Greg sent me a photo later that evening after a long drive home.. So I now hereby hand the mighty Datsun 120Y resto over to Greg.....

Quite possibly half of it will remain IMP and the other half will become letter box.....

Their profits were flying out the door...

Maybe I had a bad one. It did not impress me for the price.

I saw you hooning through Nelson in this I think two Fridays ago? Looks good. So small against all the bland blob cars around it.

This turned up last night Watched over by Kevin the cat... Then we had a party. @RUNAMUCK got tired and @Slacker_Sam. drew some dick pics. Marshmellows were eaten. Because that's how we roll here. I'll post up more once its cleaned.

Hey not sure because blurry photos but check the inlet ports. Klze heads have rectangular shaped ports.. Not oval. It looks like that might have the smaller oval ports. But yeah.. Blurry. I hope for your sake I'm wrong and I'd so good find! Edit: I just had another look.. It looks like they are rectangular but someone's fitted the wrong inlet gaskets from a 'lesser' engine Code looks right. Sweet if so!

The yellow ones? Yeah. A bit better but not twice the price better. Is seems to be the crimping that fails. One a few wire strands have gone they get loose and come out easier in a progressively (?) shorter time. I reckon a cup wheel where the stands are held together by weld/bronze/solder so they just wear down rather than fly out.

I'd have done this update earlier and was in fact in the middle of typing it when my laptop ran out of battery. It then wouldnt start again after plugging in the lead and to cut a long story short I ended up with the laptop in parts all over the dinner table and I'm now typing on a replacement given to us by our friend Will (of Willdat fame no less...) Thanks Will! So anyway..where was I?. The back seat area. There was a fair bit of surface rust and glue to tidy up. I used a brand new Bosch wire cup wheel on the angle grinder and created a dust storm. Hard to make out maybe but here's a shot.. And this is what happened to the wheel... Not that impressed. My ever long quest to find a wire wheel that lasts a decent amount of time continues. So after removing all the wire spikes from my overalls I checked out the back seat area. Oooh there's a little bit of rust and some small holes. That shouldn't take long to fix. (you know full well where this is heading) Next minute...(rolls eyes) Oh bug-ger. It just keeps going.. I folded up the edges on the bits where the heater hose comes out to avoid sharp edges. I may well not use heater hoses through the channels but best make it some the choice is there.. Phew. Done. Next up. That rotten parcel shelf. Since most of it was going to be removed in order for the top of the Datsun rocker cover to peak its head through I just did this... With all the floor finished Hannah set to work painting the floor top and bottom with Por15 and Resene industrial 440 epoxy paint. Oh man I love this bit. It always looks so much better. Then she finished off painting in the engine bay up to where I will be welding. This where its at for now. So many other paying jobs have come in and we want to get them sorted so we shall sneak in bits and pieces on this here and there. One thing I have done already is remove the brake and clutch master cylinders. I may well upgrade the brake master to a tandem item if I can locate one that will fit and have a workable bore size. I realy just don't like the idea of a hose blowing out and all the brakes disappearing. The stock M/C diameter is .625". The sport imps have a servo and use a .700" bore M/C. I need that larger bore size at least because this car has front disc brakes fitted. I really don't want a long of travel, mushy feeling brake pedal. There is a Lada Niva M/C that apparently bolts right in. I have looked them up and they have a .750" bore. It'll work but the pedal effort will be a bit harder. I don't mind that though.. the Viva wagon currently has a non operative servo so it has a hefty pedal. Ya'll just get used to it eh

Sorry to see of the aliment your son has. I bet the kids at school are really mean to him.. "oh look.. Here comes pinky head" Glad you got wof. Now build bike rack

Ready for summer.

My advice is free....

So this is currently a 1256? With the lovely light steering. Great first car choice Sr20 will be a great swap. Try to mount it as far back as possible, relocate the battery to the boot and do what ever else you can to keep the weight from creeping up in the front. Stock vivas with light (ie the 1256) engines in the front handle and steer so sweet so in my future viva power upgrade I want to avoid adding any large amount extra weight. Double check what clerance issues you might have between the Sr inlet manifold and the brake booster. You'll need to add in a clutch master cylinder (easy to do) unless the Nissan box is a cable clutch (I know little about Nissan boxes)

Photos of slammed beagle in school carpark with Will the peaked cap wearing teacher doing gang signs please.

Yeah give them a try. They are still on the Viva rims.

Yeah 13s. Excellent tread.

I think you need some rally tyres.... I happen to have some. But guessing beagle has 14s

Russian steel?...... Joke. Yeah ask Greg and come up. Bring gun. Shoot deer. Fuckers are back for winter. We can chat cars then. There is quite a list of rotten cars building up and I'm trying to get away from them. Rust dust and grinding dust cant be good for me/building woodstoves and metal art more fun...

This little Imp has now got a nice solid floor I really needed to get some solid work done on the Imp so I can get it off the hoist. I also wanted to see the end of a rotten floor so yesterday I decided would be nothing but Imp day (in between important coffee, music listening and posting cat photos on social media of course) Oh and also reading the latest Impressions magazine that arrived ( I joined a club!...) I finished the last bit of rot on the side of the tunnel behind the drivers seat area. Then moved on to the passenger side. Not anywhere near as bad as the drivers side but bad in different places. I pondered for a while at which bits I should keep or chop out. Then I set to work.. Hannah kept busy with an ever so exciting ball joint replacement on a customers van so I could I fritter away on the Imp I remade the wheel well bottom... Then I wheeled over the magic machine and made a snake.. Snake thing goes here... Followed by the beginnings of the firewall heel... The heel bone connects to the floor bone... Before I knew it there was a nice new floor upon which I can mount the MX5 seats I have recently bought Next step while its on the hoist is to deal with the parcel shelf which is rotten. Luckily most of it gets chopped away to allow for the top of the Datsun engine to peek its little head through. I think I'll also be a lovely fella and gift the job of slapping Por15 on the underside to Hannah. Because I'm nice like that.

Hippy trailer now evicted and time to do some on this before a big dirty Toyota Dyna van turns up with a rotten roof The sills on both sides are all solid again! I was halfway into the passenger side on my last update. So continuing from there.. I had to remake the bottom of the outer A pillar/sill end first. I was going to re-use a tricky step down part within the repair but even after cleaning it up it just didnt appear solid enough among all the new steel. In pictures.. I then folded up some more outer sill panels, using the gauge/template I had made for the other side and started welding them in.. When I got down to the other end I had some issues I needed to tend to. Mainly to see what was going on behind the bottom of the where I had cut the rotten arch away to and also what lay beneath a frilly looking area inside the well. I called in my new toy/tool. A teeny tiny holesaw for removing spot welded panels. Cheap on Aliexpress.. I went deeper.. ..and deeper. How many layers?.... Not surprised there was rot lurking. So many moisture traps. So I started fixing it all up.. I could now finish the last section of sill.. Then the final bit- the lower guard. On both sides of the car these had rotted away from crap getting through a gap at the front where they overlay the sill. I painted the back with zinc and welded the front edge on both sides. Its not like original but going by the amount of dirt and water traps Ive found original wasn't best. Just cheap. This along with a future flooding of wax penetrant inside the once the car is all painted and it should last much better Its all done. Yay. Now I have to replace a section of floor where it meets the inner sill- rot had been cut away. Then I think while the car is on the table I'll tend to a horrible mess under the dash that was once a heater plenum area. Then it can go up on the hoist to fix a rotten chassis rail. Greg will be taking it on from not long after that, budget soon to be met. But first I must finish some bits on the Imp project so I can remove that from the hoist.

My parents replaced this car with another Datsun/Nissan sunny that we only just sold on about 5 years ago. Everyone in the family owned it and trashed it. It was called the Nissan 1.3 Racing Sunny by us all. It racked up some good mileage and it never used oil and took major beatings from us all in its stride. My brother crashed it in the early 90's after a driving pissed at xmas time. Fuck did the olds let some fireworks go then! Silly boy. Hannah and I painted it black in 2006 and added a fake front mount for shits and giggles because it was still mum and dads daily. Damn it was a good little car that. I just carjammed it and it look like the young fella who bought it aint done anything with it since This car, that sunny, my sisters Sentra and Dads two bluebirds that never let us down are what cemented Datsun/nissan as good workhorse cars in our family. Hannah and I still own a Sentra but its for sale now as doesn't get used enough. Only photo I have of 1.3 Racing Sunny

Cool. Glad you're excited. Dad wants to take it for a hoon this summer

I'll have what Steve's smoking please.