New Zealand Datsun Club

Well after some more pressure from tlssunny and Bartman I have finally conceded is indeed time for a build thread. So here it is my one and only 1982 (registered 83) Datsun Sunny 1.5 ZX. This is me on the exact day I bought it in December 2013 complete with original ownership papers, no second gear, no clutch cable left, leaky diff, buggered rear bearings, blown head gasket and a whole heap of other problems and missing bits. Of course it had the usual Datsun rust although it isn't the worst I've seen. Oh and of course, two weeks WOF left and two days of REGO. The first thing I did was get another years rego while it still had a WOF (foolishly thinking I would have it done in a year).

Not a lot really happened in that first year, I fixed the blown head gasket, replaced thermostat and tidied a few other things. I drove it all of 200 kms before the clutch REALLY went and then it was time to park it up. Around December 2014 I started stripping it down and sourcing parts I would need to completely factory restore it. Thanks to Jesse I pretty much have everything I needed, radio, dash, parcel tray and so much more.

I also started deciding on how I wanted to go about repairing it. As I was a poor student in my last year of Engineering I decided that stripping it completely would be the cheapest method...... but this is my first car so I had no idea about the headaches I was going to give myself.....

Anyway I finished up at uni last year and so now I am earning far more than I was and have a lot more time up my sleeve! Shoutout to my mum for letting me store the "piece of shit Nissan" in her shed for a year and a bit.
That was the day it left my mums farm and arrived at my swanky new flat complete with double garage! So in the last month I have been furiously taking it apart and saving money so it looks like this now. Also if anyone has the bumper shown below complete with end caps I WILL PAY VERY GOOD MONEY!!!!!

Anyway I have also acquired some 240Z brake drums and backing plates which I'm going to use to upgrade the rear. I also have two H165 diffs ready to straight bolt in, one of which has a phantom grip mechanical LSD. I also just bought a very very rare dogleg 5 speed (63a) gearbox of Bartman which was a massive massive item crossed off my wishlist (the other being my bumper end caps).

So now I have everything I need to reassemble a complete factory sunny (minus the bumper and the interior plastic screws that Jesse is getting me) so it's looking good. Luckily the house is abound with storage space, see below:

Attic space above the garage: The cupboard under the stairs: Three boxes of Datsun bolts haha: So the plan now is a full restore full of sandblasting, plastic interior repainting, sound proofing, nice shiny paint throughout and a relatively stock car at the end of it. Every nut and bolt will be looked at and either restored or replaced so it'll be a brand new car when I'm done!
I say relatively stock as I will have a few..... tasteful mods. The five speed dogleg, H165 LSD diff, bigger rear 240Z drums, new KYB gas shocks and king springs in the rear, R31 coilovers, camber plates in the front alongside 4 pot R32 GTR brakes, braided fuel and brake lines, external fuel cell and pump, strut bars throughout, battery in the boot, discrete secondary sound system (factory radio will still work), new brake master cylinders, electronic dizzy etc etc.

I also decided to go down the super charger route thanks to Bartman again (such a good salesman haha) and Kelford cams are helping me hot up the motor to about its limit (but thats a secret for now)

In case anyone is interested as well in my last year at uni I designed a new type of camshaft for Kelford cams and built it by hand. I can't go in to too much detail but the lobes are laser welded on if that gives you an idea of the strength of them

This is the dirty RVR I tested them for 500 kms: As well as that in my last year at uni I helped to design and build a Formula SAE race car that we competed with over in Melbourne before xmas. It runs a single cylinder turbo motor from a Husky dirt bike and runs on E85. 0-100 in 2.3s. It was the most fun I've ever had driving. So that is where I'm at! Any hints or tips are gladly received as I really have no idea what I'm doing as this is the most I've ever done with a car before!!! The next step is to finish stripping it bare this weekend and then get it ready for blasting!

I found a b310 bumper end cap up in the roof of the shed ay Mums the other day. No idea at all which corner it's from. I'll drag it down in case it's of some use to you. I should try get your gearbox out for you this weekend too.

Bartman wrote:I found a b310 bumper end cap up in the roof of the shed ay Mums the other day. No idea at all which corner it's from. I'll drag it down in case it's of some use to you. I should try get your gearbox out for you this weekend too.

Legend man. If it was the right corner that would be ideal (looking at the rear) as I have the left which I use to measure up against other peoples end caps. Yea weather gods look like they may be playing fair this weekend for you finally!

great read , like the bits about the engineering work, looks like your getting plenty of practice with the car stuff, you will be an expert in no time. curious about the new cam, obviously you cant say much, I thought apart from lift and duration , and being sort of round, all cams were pretty much the same.

2 doors wrote:great read , like the bits about the engineering work, looks like your getting plenty of practice with the car stuff, you will be an expert in no time. curious about the new cam, obviously you cant say much, I thought apart from lift and duration , and being sort of round, all cams were pretty much the same.

Yea I mostly worked with the engine and drive train part of the car last year which is my sort of interest so I learnt a heap from that. In fact this year and next I am thinking of returning to uni to do my phd and build a fully electric car!! Yea have to withhold information on that one for another 8 months but after that I have full intent to put it to use!! Most of what I did came down to improving the method of manufacturing (cost, time and ease) but it resulted in one of the toughest cams out there which actually weighs bugger all as well. Rather than being cast it is formed from two pieces resulting in a much lighter end product.

Great write up mate. Interested to see your build progress, keep the updates coming.

Sweet little restoration going on here, Can't wait to see the updares roll in

Didn't end up getting too much done in the weekend as it was a 7 day working week for me still managed to remove the front wiper mechanisms (no idea how I'm going to get them back in), old sound proofing by the firewall, remainder of the dash loom and disconnected the engine loom harness ready to take out. Also discovered that in an accident I had a while ago involving a battery and a fan blade I manged to destroy the connection plug going from the main point of entry in to the harness from the positive battery terminal. Shouldn't be too bad to fix as it's just a single wire with a current loop on the negative side but annoying none the less.

I also sanded and smoothed the outside of the factory radio and cleaned it out and rewired the inside of it as it was looking a bit dusty. Does anyone know where I can buy the old 2A glass vacuum fuses in the back of the radio? Appco and supercheap don't stock them and neither does my old work so I have no idea where to get one from. The one I have still tested as working but it'd be nice to have a spare in case my new wiring harness I made has a few bugs.

Also I tried consulting my Haynes book but it wasn't very clear. Is the wiring that goes from a four pin plug off the main engine harness in to the back of the gearbox (under chassis) the tacho reader? If it is is there anyway of removing this or is this something that's embedded in the gearbox? Had a quick squiz and it didn't seem to be able to be unhooked from its entry point in the gearbox with out pulling the rear shifter panel off. Doesn't matter too much as the main harness will still come out without it.

blitzballa wrote: Also I tried consulting my Haynes book but it wasn't very clear. Is the wiring that goes from a four pin plug off the main engine harness in to the back of the gearbox (under chassis) the tacho reader? If it is is there anyway of removing this or is this something that's embedded in the gearbox? Had a quick squiz and it didn't seem to be able to be unhooked from its entry point in the gearbox with out pulling the rear shifter panel off. Doesn't matter too much as the main harness will still come out without it.

Negative. The tacho is fed from the ignition coil. The wires going to the gearbox are the reverse sensor, and if its an auto, the 'not start in gear switch'. The ones for the reverse sensor (side of the bearbox) should just be able to be pulled off the sensor (two wires)