New Zealand Datsun Club

Hi all...... Im Scott all the way from the UK

I joined on here as i was in NZ last year and loved it (particularly the amount of cool Old School stuff out there!) and thought it would be a good sourse of info.
Im into my old Jap stuff and have an 81 KE70 Corolla as well but is currently off the road as a project. This means i needed another cool ride to keep me going



Well its happened again!! All logic and plans went out the window because a cool rare Japanese car became avaliable in the Classifieds lol.

I was looking for something smooth and sensible and a little bigger with a bit of badge snobbery like a merc or something........... So i ended up buying a brown Datsun

If you knew me, Retro Japanese is always at the top of my list so its a no-brainer really lol

Well here she is.............

Its a 1978 Pre-Facelift B310 Datsun Sunny 140Y Coupe which I believe are pretty rare over here now??!!
It has the A14 1400 engine mated with a 5 speed manual gearbox with Dogleg First to make it interesting lol.

I picked it up from Westcountry Classics, (nice chaps), near Penzance in Cornwall and they got it off an elderly lady that has been its only owner since new!! Yes I am the second owner

Its done 70500 miles and is a pretty solid car being garaged all its life.
Unfortunately its not perfect with a bit of a knock on the front corner and some badly matched paint on one side........... all fixable tho. The dreadded rot seems to pretty fairly at bay with only a few blisters about the car and I believe only had a few patches of welding ever! Inside is Mint tho

It also came with some "British Made" dealer option alloy wheels from new and I have a full set of 5!! Ill probably wack on some of my spare Jappy rims tho

She drives pretty well for an old car too and was happilly sat at 70mph on the way home to Plymouth for 80 miles. Good on fuel too!

This will now be my Daily driver while I build up my KE70 Corolla

Well enough of the chat........... you want some pics...............



































On the way home:


If i decide to get keen one day............ this could be an option


Im doing my Corolla first tho lol


Well I took it for a late night spin........ and came across more retros.............





And the next day the mods started!! Ive been playing with my Wheels

First I tried my 14x9 Enkei's................










Unfortunately although they look right on the car......... I can even get half a turn on the stering wheel before they catch everything!!!! The arches just arnt as big as my corolla. Im not going wide arched just yet lol

SO I tried my 14x7 Watanabes...............






Well these fit just fine and TBH look good with the black on brown!
Next is to lower it

Oh and heres a better shot of the interior............


And my initial "In Car Entertainment"


AND NOW THE WORK BEGINS

Well I was busy getting the Datty ready for the Retro Rides Gathering last month................

First off it said Goodbye to my Micra before it went to its new home...


Then it said hello to its new partner in crime..........


First off was to try and repair that front end damage the best I could without actually buying any parts for now lol.
This is how I straightened my bumper HAHA.........




Taaa Daaa








I then decided to convert the bumpers back to as near "Jap Spec" as i could....... meaning removing the horrid plastic end caps and bumper extensions and moving the bumper back closer to the car in full chrome mode

So I stripped the whole front down..........


And while I was doing this I thought Ide tidy up the rest of it a bit INC trying to fix the dent in the N/S wing.........




Beat the wing with a big hammer until it was pretty good and then stonechipped all the bare bit of metal and around the edges......


Stone chipped the inner arch where it needed it.........


And the front panel...........


There will be pics coming up of what it looks like all back together

Then I had an oil leak on the rocker cover so i stripped that off.......


Found the culprit.............


And replaced with new...........


Next it was the fun bit of trying to lower it,
SO I stripped the front down.......






Marked where I needed to "modify" it lol (not to much for now just to see how she sits)........


Them trimmed a little off ............


Next was to Strip the rear springs out.........






And gave them the same treatment........


NEXT I had to get some modern tunes in here as i was getting fed up with the MW/LW and the not so loud Ipod Dock lol............

First up was to run power wires........


Next was to hide some speakers up under the dash.........


I had to make a hole on the passenger side to get the wires through neatly...........


And protecting the wires..........


The headunit was fitted neatly under the glovebox and even matches the colour or the dash and trim (and the dash lights ).....


Tidy up the wiring under the rear seat...........


Mount sub in the boot on a removable plug......


I think it looks pretty neat...........


Now for some nicer shots at this stage with the car back together................


























Next was to touch up the black and tatty bits around the car as the weather was better yesterday............






It was only a quick job but it looks much better! Unfortunately I didnt have the time or have the paint to colour code the bad paint job on the drivers side before the show.

Ive also now filled the holes in the bumpers with dome bolts to neaten it up.

Hope you like it and there will be more updates very soon

Nice work bud, and welcome to the site by the way.

Looks like a good solid orignial base there for you

You have some nice JDM rims there too, the Watannabes look good (although flares and Enkeis would be awesome!)

I am impressed with your bumper straightening skills!

Get rid of your KE70 and spend some more coin on the coupe!

Nice Photo shoot, looks like an awesome daily, good low but usable, looks sweet but if it gets a knock the world doesn't end. You guys got much nicer interior than us, we were in the 'Tan' era, (Error) in the time these were sold in NZ everyone got it, I don't think I have seen a Black interior, ever, although tan wouldn't have been too bad with your Brown, didn't work with Green here!
Enjoy, I do fear the Toyota may just sit now as you enjoy the Sunny Awesomeness!

Lower it more! U dont have height rules you predator!

Siiiick!!!!

nice work man. you have done some amazing repairs, that bumper is awesome. looks really good on the wats to

thats a good wee machine looks awesome mate!

Welcome scott!
Good to see you've finally got a datto!

liking the DIY panalbeating/bumper repair job

WOW 5 replies and 3 people I know from CHCH already lol..... cool to hear from ya!!

Cheers for the comments guys!

Yea i love the wee Datto............ but im not selling the Corolla! If i can have both, then why not lol

Its just gonna get some DIY tidying as im currently job hunting. As long as it still goes and looks respectable then thats good for now! It will get some propper love later lol

It is a pretty solid car, but it did fail its MOT this week (WOF to u guys)......... however only on 3 things that i literally fixed in 5 minutes and 2 small patches of welding i knew about........... not bad for 33 years in the UK lol

As for ride height (Andy), Ok we dont have height restrictions by law, but what we do have is Mountainous speed bumps bloody everywhere that makes almost every street look like your west coast!!!
I will be getting the front down a little more i think so the arch gap is the same as the rear and the nose sits down a little. Im struggling to get down some main roads now!!!

Anyway Ill post an update soon

cheers