New Zealand Datsun Club

Well after not touching the coupe for some 2 years, I have decided that my financial situation has now stabilised enough from recent employment changes to enable me to get going with my coupe project again, of course the sedan jumped the queue for some attention, which sucked all the time and money for quite a bit of the time.

I figure a good way to motivate me is to start a thread, so I can progress through the next few months with enough impotance to prevent sledging and stirups from you guys on this forum if you don't see acceptable progress

Who knows but Akaroa may be a realistic target???

Below are some photos of the car stripped shortly after I purchased it off Taylors Dad, Paul in July 2007.

Unfortunately I don't have many photos of the car when I first brought it...

I Had it fully sodium blasted inside, outside and upside down, to show all the sins.

Been coated in epoxy primer, and been in dry storage since.

In typical 1200 fashion it needs the bottoms of the A pillars rebuilt from rust, and new sills stitched on, and rust around the guards around tops of wheel arches. and a few bits around rear beaver panel where it joins rear guards, and a few holes around the tail light openings.

Bonnet is pristine, as is roof and all pillars, stut towers, firewall and around windows (except some holes under rear 1/4 windows, where water must have gotten under the chrome) wee punt in the boot, and a couple of knocks to the front valance, but very straight and original car, no big punts or hits evident in its history.

I have replacement rear 1/4 cuts which have basically no rust, but the hassle of stitching them on is a little off putting, and they are not as immaculately straight as the ones on the car already.

Also I now plan to flare the guards slightly and will be just as easy to cut out the rear wheel arche tops and customise to accomodate the new wheels I have rought for it.

nice, what are your plans for it? any pics of wheels?

So Here is my current inspiration, but unsure about whether I go in full Bre Livery


Shot at 2010-02-25

Plans are (like everyone else) to go for the whole JDM type look, I have brand new original mirrors, and all new badging and quite a lot of new chrome, lights etc. and brought some new wheels this week:



Luckily all the original plastics and interior are in pretty much faultless condition (for a 39 year old car at least!) not a mark on the dash, got some solid door cards, and all plastics are there and in real good nic. got NOS shifter, mint console, NOS interior door handles and winders etc already

Basically I have everything I need except the S13 brake conversion parts, carpet set, NORS front gaurds and I need another couple of chrome and rubber bits I have perked for the sedan.

I currently have the sedan off the road for a few tidy up jobs, and to go back to a (more or less) standard A12 and sack it on hubbies and white walls, and make that the smooth, quiet cruiser for family drives, where as the coupe I plan to build for a bit of a toy for me , that may occasionally see the track even (???).

After much deliberation, and ideas, I have decided to stick to A series running gear (due to my in ability to undertake any custom engineering owkr that goes with a CA or SR conversion) and to keep it largely original body wise.

I am going to run a roadstar ute rear end, and probably reco the synchros in the 60A box that is currently in my sedan

Up at the business end, I am going to run an A14 bored probably 40 thou oversize with ITB's, fuel injection, with a V3.0 megasquirt and go to electronic distributorless igniton

So thats about the plan really. I want to spend the next couple of monthes building the motor and the custom injection setup, and get all the mounting and the likes sorted before, getting the rust repairs done, guard flaring (doing in metal) and start the paintwork. then chuck her together and get it running.

Easy.....


Shot with FinePix J150W at 2010-02-25

full bre styles will be awesome, its what makes shanes car 1 step above. loving the wheels. will look epic sweet. as for your injection setup, what are the throttles off. sorry for all questions, but i like all this stuff

PS, my throttle bodies came up mint after having a play with my new toy (Boxed sand blasting unit)

wheels are 14x6.5" up front and 14x7" at rear, I am just gonna fit my 185/55's I had on my mini-lites for a start and see whether they fill out OK. my calcs show that they will stick out 19mm more than my minilites did (assuming the guard geometry is roughly the same as the sedan.

Up at the business end, I am going to run an A14 bored probably 40 thou oversize with ITB's, fuel injection, with a V3.0 megasquirt and go to electronic distributorless igniton
You going to build your own ? been looking at this lately by the time i get the j on the road they should have MS3 out and working

I Had it fully sodium blasted inside, outside and upside down, to show all the sins.
how much for that if you don't mind me asking

dirtyleppa wrote:full bre styles will be awesome, its what makes shanes car 1 step above. loving the wheels. will look epic sweet. as for your injection setup, what are the throttles off. sorry for all questions, but i like all this stuff

me two
keep up the good work I've been slack 34c in the garage don't help

The ITB's are the usual that everyone uses = 43mm, ex 4AGE 20V ones,I was looking at some lovely aftermarket ones, but they can be quite pricey, especially by the time you buy all the accessories you need

The 4AGE ones are within 3mm of exact fitment to the DCOE manifold inlets, and only about 2mm larger in diameter, So I can dye grind to match nicely, I can get even more aligned to one another little bit more after tickling up the butterfly rod ends and linkages etc


I may have a bit of an issue with choking, due to being a little too big for my ~1500cc but the dellortos neck down a fair bit before I introduce the fuel, I have done a rough 2D of side elevation below - damn I wished I had 3D modelling software and the skills to use it like NIck and few of the other boys on here!

Sodiumblasting down here in Timaru was pretty reasonable ( 3 years ago at least it was..), although I put it sort of through my mates business for an even sweeter cash deal.

The whole car was like $750 with some extra panels, and they took real good care of it, no stretched or warped panels!

I got another set of doors done and two full rear 1/4 panels down later for like $120 from memory.

I am a pen pusher by day, so stripping and sanding is not my gig - so money well spent I reckon! cost me another $500 or so to get my mates painter to blow it all down in epoxy 2 pac primer or whatever it is called

awesome dude, sounds like you have your head screwed on the right way and know exactly what you want

ITB's on an A series will be nice and different to, as well as being a sweet little engine to have some fun with.

really looking forward to see how this turns out. keep us posted