mrt1trd brought a new vehicle without rust

[MRT1TRD]

So I purchased this in march for a decent price compared to repairing rust on my other cars,

It’s a 1962 Datsun Bluebird sold New in Chch and after two family owners I own it. 
 

needs a bit of mechanical refinement but came wof and reg

[MRT1TRD]

For the Christchurch historians 

Cockram Datsun - Hansa - Porsche

[MRT1TRD]

So I made went to check it out, looked it over, started it, drove it back and forth in the driveway and said I would pay asking price.

went to pick it up a couple days later and drove out of the driveway went to select 2nd … nope it will not select any other gear while stuck in 1st??? Stopped tried it with engine stopped- no problem except for a bit of play in selectors 

eventually just drove it to my lockup with 2nd and 3rd gears #pooroldclutch

[MRT1TRD]

So before I picked it up I had already planned its first outing in two weeks but had a few things to fix (tho lockup rules state no working on vehicles) first was the LH Indicator not selecting.

so after carefully removing the cracked bakerlight wheel I cleaned and played with the mechanism to get it working again. 

[MRT1TRD]

So  then Looked into the gear shifting issue 

first was the play in the shift rods, the joints had a lot of play on the 1st - rev rod, so I replaced the bushings and washers, the split pins was half the problem, being soft so best I had lying around was some key rings.

this improved the selection but still had play inside the box, so I was able to select 2nd while driving if I’m slow and almost grind reverse that is

 

[MRT1TRD]

So for the first outing I joined the local VCC for a run out to little river for a school fair/ pumpkin festival 

was quite the test for the car, it did OK, going up the steep hills in mt pleasant was difficult to keep momentum when doing a 1-2 shift. Also was a test that the cooling system is good as it’s a long way up for a 63yo 1.2L to go but it did it.

pic stolen from os spotted..

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[MRT1TRD]

The front seat base needs some repair,

it’s not missing any vinyl so I think it’s possible to do a internal patch to hold it together if matching colours are not available, or does anyone have suggestions?

 

[MRT1TRD]

Discussion here and pic of rear seat 

https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/91418-mrt1trd-‘62-bluebird/

[MRT1TRD]

So like the battery was not that good to start with and then you get winter time in the south and you add that with a generator that is only charging 11v at idle you get a recipe for break down right in a busy intersection .

happily there was some good people around to help me push it out of the street one was driving a very tidy 2nd gen Swift GTI sadly I didn’t get to have a chat before he ran off 

 

[MRT1TRD]

So once I got it started again I was able to drive home but had to keep the revs up I had to use the method of using my right foot I learned in my youth.

but I got it back to my new garage where hopefully I can work on it more 

[MRT1TRD]

[MRT1TRD]

Went to a car meet today and bumped into a old friend of mine 

[MRT1TRD]

One of my struggles in the lock up was the tide going out and lots of turning over to refill the pool until one day the starter motor decided to seize up while engaged, from then I normally had little bottle of fuel to pour in when I wanted to drive it 

[MRT1TRD]

So I could not find a new gasket set online so tried CDL which I had used previously for carb rebuild sets, and with a bit of back and forth I was sent a correct gasket set, which they claimed was the last one that they can get.

[MRT1TRD]

I then brought a cheep ultrasonic cleaner and cleaned the parts, worked but I didn’t think it was any better than soaking parts in solvents 

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Reassembled and swapped over the carb with the rebuilt one, I had to remove rocker cover to access the bolts, so I de-adjusted the rockers to spec while I was there (might need to remove head and fit valve seats one day) 

good thing about rebuilding the spare carb other than continue using vehicle is you can spot differences, the throttle cable on the car was cut short and they had reclocked the throttle cam which could of caused the engine to over rev with the return spring placement .

 

[MRT1TRD]

So after I got the cable remade to the correct length and a bit of tuning, I took it out for a test drive and to sign up to a new club.

Didn’t perform any faster but was smoother at low rpm and idle so I was quite pleased with my effort 

[MRT1TRD]

I am doing a few things at once on this but doing it as micro updates rather than a update once every four years seems to keep the momentum going 

This arrived this week 

[MRT1TRD]

Got a spare fuel pump from my collection, one on car is still working but primer lever was a struggle to fill the bowl