New Zealand Datsun Club

Well I had to take my big brakes setup off my Crown (6 pot 380/4 pot 356) so I thought I'd upgrade the Hako ones..


After a little bit of custom modification to the dust shield or whatever it is this happened....


That's an 80s Hilux (reproduction) 4 pot caliper. These fit on without any modications whatsoever, exact same bolt holes and fit around the disc fine. There's also one advantage of having the brake disc mount behind the hub.. miles of clearance!

Thinking I'll probably need to get custom lines made up to match the new to the old but otherwise, success. So a decent up grade from almost 50 year old twin pots to 4 pots.

Also I plan to just remove that heat shield thing from the hub anyway or cut it off properly when I finalise the install on these so it won't be all super cutty.

So probably should update this.. a few things have happened lately.

I put the car into Automania (a car show in Auckland for those not familiar), or more Matt (the organiser) asked if they could use it in the Nissan stand, looked all good.


Probably the cleanest it's ever been actually. One of the conditions was they had to clean/detail it and Grant from Final Touch took care of that. Turns out I won a prize too, so now that car has won two prizes I haven't claimed LOL


The second condition was I would exploit their free transport by having them send the car to Strange Workshop to get a whole bunch of stuff taken care of and start the road to road legalness.


I asked him to do a fluid change on basically everything that has fluids and he put all these fancy ones inside.. I would've gone to the warehouse bargain bin personally.


While doing the oil change he found a crack in the sump (which I knew was there but was hoping it would just fix itself) so I gave the go ahead to do a repair on it. The original plan didn't go quite as we expected as there wasn't really any access from the top side so just made a whole new edge bit. Also the diff was seeping so fixed that.


While on the hoist he arranged for some panel guys to come around and check out what we'd be working with rust wise. Unsurprisingly (I also knew about these things) the side sills will need to be cut off and replaced/repaired on both sides. There's probably more stuff too but hard to know until start cutting. So far this area in the rear of each side appears to be the worst.



Jon also replaced the rear brake lines and brake cylinders as both sides were flogged. Found some locally but didn't quite fit so he milled down what needed to be done to get em on again.


Both of the original brake calipers on the front needed a rebuild but a while ago I bought these Hilux 4 pots which bolt right on, just needed to get new lines done up which Jon took care of as well. He bled the system up and it's all minty. I had replaced the discs a while ago with some slotted ones as you can kind of see.


So now it's just sitting there while I drag ass because I want to drive it briefly when I'm back in NZ shortly then will give the go ahead to cut er down and throw all my money in the fire.

Went over to see Jon at Strange the other day and check the car. Was running like dicks, basically on 3-4 cylinders.. found all the spark plugs to be caked up from lots of turning on and turning off quickly. Jon cleaned em up and she went really well. Drives super nice now but the brakes aren't very good because it's missing a one-way valve in the vacuum line (which I've not provided him). I also sent him over new rear brake shoes and clutch line to install at some point. Now I just have to order a bunch of repair parts and away we goooo... might not be going on holiday this year.. 

Just because nobody likes a pictureless update..


Yeah it's got a loud af rotary inside..

Making good progress...

What is your timing on getting her back on the road (all wof'd and reg'd up)?

great to see progress.
Tell us you are planning on having it all sorted this winter, ... in time for the Nats

Not sure on the timeline, it has to go through compliance still after the panel work which will be a couple months out at minimum I imagine