Mikewazowski's Datsun 180B Sedan

[Mikewazowski]

Discussion here:

http://www.oldschool.co.nz/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=28024

Here we go. Ignore the dates on any of the photos...they are wrong.

I bought this car when I was at Uni off an older guy who lived down the same street as my parents. When I took possession it was a tired looking little car which also sported a 3 speed auto gearbox.

After driving around for a couple of months I decided to get the rust fixed and paint it.

Front inserts were poked, so I got new shocks and dobisport lows as well. I paid a workshop to do it and to be honest I was never really that happy with it. I'm glad I later decided to set the suspension up myself.

I drove it round for a few more months and then picked up a 5 speed dogleg gearbox for it. I then proceeded to do my first manual conversion on a car. It went quite well. I got stuck sorting out the inhibitor switch for a while, but once that was worked out it ran like a treat!

I knew that someday I would probably do an engine conversion, so I decided the brakes could do with an upgrade. If I did upgrade the brakes I knew my beloved Hustlers would no longer fit. I bought some Impul FZs to take their place. I really like these wheels, and since I've had them I don't know if I've seen another car with ones just like them. They are 2 piece, 6.5" wide and I think +19 offset. They ended up fitting quite well...although the rear ones could do with being a touch wider.

I also snagged an R160 Clutch LSD out of a Subaru Leone Turbo that a guy was setting up for rallying. Score!

While putting the diff in I also converted to R31 Skyline struts and brakes on the front and R31 rear brakes. I only have a photo of the rear disks going on though.

I drove round for a while with just the standard L18 under the bonnet, and considered a few different engine conversions (got quite close to putting a CA18DE into it). Eventually I decided on a Z18ET

I had to alter the engine mounts and fabricate up some stuff for the radiator, but I used the original gearbox crossmember, driveshaft, etc which made things easy. One of the guys on NZDatsun came and gave me a hand wiring up my ECU and fuel pump, but we couldn't get it started. Eventually found that it had blocked injectors and once they were cleaned out it fired up and has run pretty darn well since. I've replaced the ECU with another standard one and replaced the second hand VL fuel pump and that's about it.

Whew. A bit more to come...

[Mikewazowski]

Long story short: I got the car running and went for a cert. Tidied up a few minor things (WOF stuff, nothing to do with the modifications) and got the cert no problem. I took the engine and gearbox back out to fix a few patches of rust that didn't get done the first time and so I could paint the engine bay and exterior of the car again. So it basically looks like this now:

This car is my daily and to be honest I just love getting out and about in it. I literally had someone bail me up for a yarn at every gas station between the Bay of Plenty and Christchurch last year when I travelled down for Datsun nats.