73 Datsun 1200 Coupe

[edp]

Well some of you may remember this & since the new site didn't continue my build thread I never got around to re-doing it so here it is. I'm not completely finished (are they ever?) but its pretty far along now & am working out some of the tuning bugs with the weber & other misc items.

So to all who have provided advice, direction, help & professional opinions I wanted to say thank you for everything, I learned a great deal along the way and really appreciate the help thats been offered - as well as a thanks to Barry & Chad for providing great products - again, thanks!!!

heres what I started with, I was really trying to take a pic of my Yamaha but i realized later I never really took any before pic's of the car prior to starting....

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

on frames that roll, stripped to bare metal - did it with a DA & some chemical stripper at times..

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

lots of dent removal - this works pretty good for Harbor Freight junk...

[/IMG]

after pulling & using a shrinking disc

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

new rockers - both sides...

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]
floorpans - 3 in the car & the spare tire well

[/IMG]
quarter patches both sides

[/IMG]

[/IMG]
roof took lots of banging as well as heat shrinking then a skim of glazing..

[/IMG]

most of this got sanded off then I used epoxy then featherfill, that stuff's great!

[/IMG]
Under carriage & wheel wells is sprayed in black SPI epoxy & top / exterior in white epoxy

[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh56/evanp1200
/PICT0192a9.jpg[/IMG]

I think this is SPI 2K or Featherfill - cant remember...

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

in epoxy, this is before the 2K pic's above - I do remember SPI 2K sanding quite nicely...

[/IMG]

Pro Spray base - Magma Orange - VW color

[/IMG]

OK gotta go have dinner, finish this later.

 

[Dub]

Looks awesome!

 

[Bob Hollinshead]

I remember that thread, and the finished project turned out great! And since it's completion let me guess: still shiny as ever, no adhesion problems, excellent response from anyone who looks at the car, excellent chip resistance, no shrinkage problems. Did you coat the backside of all those patch areas? Epoxy under your polyester fillers would have been a better option but it should still hold up ok as long as no moisture can wick through the backside-example weld areas that have porosity or micro pinholes.

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

Very nice. I look forward to seeing more pictures.

 

[edp]

Hi Bob, thanks for the compliments - most of the filler work is on top of the epoxy, I started doing it to bare clean metal as at the time I'd asked on AB101 & had gotten a lot of responses that it was OK to use filler directly to bare,clean metal. I did change that practice not too far into it. I did coat the back side of the patches & inside the fender wells, rockers, etc... I started with POR 15 on cleaned off metal but then switched to Epoxy.

Even with all the errors in the paint ( I need to cut & buff a few spots still) it has been received very well, lots of interest & compliments - kinda makes a guy feel good about his work & that others truly appreciate it. Probable one of the best things is the jarring of memories for people, they come up with smiles on their faces start telling me stories about their car, their boyfriends, past experiences, etc...

My goal was to have it completed enough to enter in our local car show on 9-11 in Edmonds, WA., I did make it & I was most surprised at how many good looking women would come over smiling & start talking to me about it & their experiences - how come didn't that happen 25 years ago!!

anyways back to the build.....

SPI UC - 3 coats

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

rot behind bumper mounting plate - cut out & made new patch, this was a good test of hand metal forming skills

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

undercarriage all SPI epoxy black

[/IMG]

[/IMG]


made custom tranny mount to fit 5 spd.

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

started re-assembly of exterior lighting & trim after cleaning up all wire looms & reinstalling - pre-wired it for a stereo system & my old school Yamaha car amp nicely hidden

[/IMG]

amp above axle location

[/IMG]

5 spd reverse switch - stock banged into tunnel so made this to operate off the shift lever...

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

sound deadening, pad & carpeting, dash is restored - one of only 2 or 3 things I farmed out, guy in Vancouver , WA. re-did it...

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

all LED lights in it for less draw

[/IMG]

headliner & interior

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

on the way to exhaust shop & alignment

[/IMG]

re-chromed bumper

[/IMG]

all exterior trim thats painted - grill, vents, door trims, etc.. are coated in SEM hot rod Black w/SPI epoxy undercoating - all turned out great!

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

engine comp. - Big Block motor!!! 1500 cc vs. stock 1200cc

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

non stock electric fan on 3 core radiator

[/IMG]

here's how it sits today....

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

the wife took the last 2 pic's at the car show. I've got a few systems to finish like AC system - it should work out well, I need to mount the condensor & evap unit then plumb together but I've got everything for that. I need to finish wiring the rear defroster but was waiting till the console was in. i ended up making all kinds of custom parts & altering it from stock but I wanted it to still look fairly original & I think the end result came out pretty good.

Thanks everyone, now I gotta build the Satellite!

 

[crashtech]

That's the nicest B110 most people will ever see! You did a really sweet job.

 

[Stillboardin]

Are you in the Lynnwood area? Pretty sure I saw you driving down 164th last week. Beautiful car!

 

[keith]

Looks great. Nice choice of color. A friend of mine had a bright green one.

 

[Senile Old Fart]

Very nice! A coworker had a butterscotch colored one . He drove it back and forth to work for 15 years or so, about 80 miles rt. a day ( Deer Park to Trentwood WA). I do not ever remember it letting him down. His name for it was - butterscotch- lol.

Now the $64,000 question- do you actually fit in it?

 

[edp]

Thanks for the compliment Crash & all.

Stillboardin - wasn't on 164th but back & forth to Seattle on I5 a bunch, maybe you saw it there. There's also an older Opal Kadett paint the exact VW color around here somewhere, saw it at the Greenwood auto show in July, maybe you saw that one.

Compared to early american compact car junk that Detroit created like the Vega, Monza, Pinto (dodge colt was a Mitsubishi, they were a little smarter then GM & Ford) the japanese throwaway cars from Toyota, Mazda and like this one kicked ass on the engineering of Detroit. some of you guys must of worked on a Vega or Pinto at one time or another, if so - I rest my case......... So yes, I can understand your co-workers reliability claims for his 1200, they were wrecked or rusted away before they expired mechanically.

I do fit, quite comfortably in it. It is small but surprisingly roomy for a small car, plenty of head & leg room - dont know about sitting in the back seat though, could be tight

I didn't put up too many of the mechanical pic's & re-work I did but I'll post up some of the AC system the cars getting when I start on that side of it.

Side question - does anyone know how long it takes for rings to really seat in?

 

[professor]

On the rings seating, it depends on many factors. Material and thickness of the rings, the honing texture and angle ot the cross hatch on the cylinder walls, and the type of oil used. Don't use synthetic oil for the first 6000 miles, use the throttle, (half throttle or so) to put some pressure on the rings but don't rev past 4000 RPM. On a properly built motor the rings should be seated enough in a couple hundred miles (less in a race motor) where you are not getting blow-by, but I feel that it takes 6000 miles before the motor is at its best.

Scott

 

[professor]

And, I wanted to say how cool it is to save a car that was part of many peoples lives but most of them were thrown away. I say that these resto projects like this are like "time machines" for the people that see them.....and brings them back to simpler times.
Well done!

Scott

 

[crashtech]

Side question - does anyone know how long it takes for rings to really seat in?

Once the cam is broken in, drive it like you stole it. Full power runs followed by high vacuum deceleration will help seat those rings.

The reason I say that, in contrast with the above post, is due to my experience with dyno operators on high horsepower engines. It turns out that there is no benefit to "babying" an engine once the cam has been properly broken in. On roller cam engines, virtually no break-in is required.

 

[edp]

No kidding about simpler times, I swear as I get older ( a whopping 47 now) there are certain aspects of life I like less & less. Embracing technology is great but losing all our privacy sucks & nobody seems to really care - especially 20 somethings & under.

Thanks for the rings answer - Its running Brad Penn 30W break in oil. I've had it past 4K but not too much w/a couple of hundred miles on it so far but I seem to be getting a bit a smoke after idling a while, like at a light or warming up in the driveway.

I was thinking about running a compression test to check but haven't got that far yet. Playing with the jetting as well as its running rich so thats part of it but I think its using some oil.

Thx.

Evan

Hey - does this new system time out a log in pretty quickly now? Its booted me a few time before I'm finished completing a post???

 

[edp]

Crashtech - this is a re-ground cam from Delta in Tacoma, should I check with them as to whats broken in for a cam or is there a good rule of thumb to go by? I'm hoping its not stem seals or I have to pull it down again as maybe I placed a ring in the wrong position, dont think I did but who knows..... be nice for the smoke to just go away as well - I like self fixing cars

 

[Max]

Nice job, thx for posting progress pics!

 

[Stillboardin]

Stillboardin - wasn't on 164th but back & forth to Seattle on I5 a bunch, maybe you saw it there. There's also an older Opal Kadett paint the exact VW color around here somewhere, saw it at the Greenwood auto show in July, maybe you saw that one.

I think you are right, it was the Opal that I saw. Very distinctive color, can't miss it.

 

[crashtech]

Crashtech - this is a re-ground cam from Delta in Tacoma, should I check with them as to whats broken in for a cam or is there a good rule of thumb to go by? I'm hoping its not stem seals or I have to pull it down again as maybe I placed a ring in the wrong position, dont think I did but who knows..... be nice for the smoke to just go away as well - I like self fixing cars

If it has been run for more than 20-30 minutes, the cam is broken in. It would have been good to follow their advice as far as the break in procedure went, but that is water under the bridge.

Smoking at idle is usually a sign that excessive oil is getting past the valve guides for whatever reason. That's good news, compared to a ring problem. If you see smoke on hard acceleration, you have real problems. Stem seals can usually be done fairly easily, though I am not familiar with that engine.

 

[kerristallax]

I know a few things about the L-series motors, but wouldn't be much help on the A15

 

[Chad.S]

Nice looking car, I really like that color!!