Howdy all,
I've owned my 180b for about 7 years now and though it about time I put together a build thread so you guys could have a look. It seems only fitting seeings how much help I've had from ozdatters over the years.

I first fell in love with Datsuns before I could drive. Up until I was about 12 mum owned a 120y which I thought was pretty cool. It just seemed so different from anything else on the road. When I was at school a teacher drove a white 1600, which got me into dattos event more. Then one day when I was about 15 I saw a 180bsss for sale on the side of the road. I was instantly in love and new I had to have one (not that one though it was full of rust) My first couple of cars were not Datsuns though. I looked but couldn't find one in good nick.

Then when I was about 21 I started looking for real and eventually bought a 1976 180bsss for $600. Mechanically it was pretty good although it didn't have the twin carbs. It did have a 240k 5 speed gearbox though. The body was a little rough. It was a pretty grotty silver colour, the paint was faded and it had what I thought was a little bit but turned out to be a lot of rust.
Once I got it registered I hit the wreckers pretty hard. It was missing a number of interior bits and pieces. I chucked in some seats from a series 2 bluebird, a 240k steering wheel and a 22mm sway bar and away I went. I had lots of fun with it at this stage cause the rough body meant I didn’t have to hold back.
I knew very little about cars and one day whilst swapping the carby for a rekitted 1 I dropped a washer into the head (without knowing it). This wasn’t real good for the engine but was the perfect excuse to swap the l18 for an l20 and learn a lot along the way.
The next thing to tackle was the body. I took the car of the road for a while and started rubbing it back. This was when I discovered the rust. I got a local panel beater to weld in new metal and paint it and it came up pretty well. I chose a commodore colour called red hot
After that I got into the mechanical side of things. It’s currently nearing the end of it’s 3rd build. The first was pretty simple but still a big challenge for me at the time. I kept the block from the l20 (bluebird series 2) and put a recoed a87 head on it to create a high comp combo. I fitted a wade 65deg cam, some extractors, a 2.25 inch exhaust and some twin sus. I got the whole lot dyno tuned and was pretty impressed with the results. It made 70rwkw, not bad for mostly standard parts. It ran great and was awesome out on the road.
It wasn’t long until I got the itch for more power. I decide to go turbo and bought a draw through kit from a fellow ozdatter. It was a t4 turbo and a pretty pissy little carby which I scrapped for a 34adm weber of a falcon. I fitted it and got a 2.5 inch exhaust made up. I switched to a 200b l20 for lower compression, got her running (with much trouble, in fact I killed a turbo due to poor oil supply) then off for another tune. Again the results were pretty good. She made 115rwkw on about 10psi.
Round about this time I had a litte prang and bent one of the struts. So I converted to vl calipers and verada disks, I also replaced all the bushes and steering parts. I invested in a set of 15 inch superlites which look awesome I reckon. It was also time for those grotty bluebird seats to go, replaced with a set of ‘ebay special’ race seats.
I didn’t stay happy with the draw through for long though. It was a pig to drive when cold and when off boost. At this stage it was still my daily driver so I started looking at fuel injection. I didn’t have the dollars for a sr, ca or fj, but found a pretty good l series combo. The turbo is off a rb25. I’m using a standard l18 efi manifold , a falcon tb, a little (tiny) intercooler, a turbo grind camshaft and a microtech lt10. I had the headed modded for the injectors and put a small port into it as well. I got it started for the first time this week and just need to get the ignition timing right before I send it off for a tune. So stay tuned for results.
My future plans for the car are for another respray as the cheapie I had 5 years ago isn’t holding up so well, followed by lots of fun driving.

some recent pics

Nice job looks the goods!!

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My FJ20ET 180B Build

Thanks mate,
wish it still looked like it did just after the respray. but I'll get her back to that soon enough.

Nice work, whats wrong with the paint, it looks like it just needs a good wash and polish

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My garage:
180b sedan daily (needs some TLC)
180B sss (under restoration)
180b Wagon daily
http://ozdat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f= ... 9&start=30

Awsome car! Looks really nice...

Can i asked what mirrors are those...they look cool...

Nice car mate a good combo with the l20. You should bring it to the buxton cruise

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120Y 4DOOR SEDAN SR20DE WITH ITB'S

http://datsun1200.com/modules/newbb/vie ... post494892

Yeah not sure about the mirrors, sorry. they were on it when i bought it. Someone told me once they were ford gt mirrors, but this may or may not be true.

As for the paint, all the top surfaces have weathered really badly. Probably because they were poorly sealed. It also has some rust breaking through.

Buxton cruise sounds awesome! I'm really trying to have it ready.

Looks like a beaut setup to me, Cam.
The mirrors look like XA/XB Falcon mirrors. I had some on my old red SSS. Back then you could buy aftermarket reproductions of the Ford mirrors.
BTW I have a BA Falcon Turbo intercooler I'm not using. Size is good for a 2litre turbo and inlet & outlet point to the same side. Let me know if you're interested...

Ilike the sss nice job and a good story to read.
i will be doing a draw threw turbo in the near future i was wondering was the turbo and what was the box under the 32/36 weber that conected to the turbo it looks liek it was made for a factory purpose of somesort.

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1600s arent the only datsun

The turbo was a t4 flange and it was way to big. Draw throughs can be hard to drive of boost so a small turbo is much better. I'm not sure about the manifold the carb sat on. It came with the kit when i bought it. I'll see if I've still got some photos, but basically it had a circular outlet on one end which connected to the turbo intake via silicon piping. It then curved 90 deg and had a flange for the carby. As per advice in the other post. I would definitely be going with an su if i was doing it again. Also your turbo will need a carbon seal to allow fuel to pass through.

cheers

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1600s arent the only datsun

Great build story Cam. I owned two 180BSSS's in the 1970's. They were comfortable touring cars for their time, and sometimes I wish I owned one again, but as you found, its hard to find a good body these days.
Your story shows your Datsun enthusiasm and how you have evolved your classic Datsun into a desirable "modern" machine, whilst keeping the "classic" theme intact. Keep up the good development work and enjoy the driving.

P.S. I love red paint on this model.

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RichardC
SSS016

Thanks for the positive feedback Richard. I'm certainly pretty happy with how it's come up, I love the red too and can't wait to get some fresh paint.

I made some progress today. Found out part of the reason it was running rough on the new setup was that 1 injector wasn't friing. A quick bit of fiddling with some wires and it smoothed out a lot. I rang the tuners today and should be shipping it of shortly.

may just make the buxton cruise. I'm booked in at the tuners for the w/e before. It'd be great to see all the other Dattos.