Hi my names Tim
I've been looking at the build forum for the last couple of months and thought I would share my car.
I've owned this car for over 10 years and it's been off the road for 99% of that time haha. I have always loved cars but I first got interested in Datsun/mazdas when a friend who i worked with introduced me to them. I,m pretty sure he still owns a couple of Datsun 1200s now.
We used to get the trading post every Thursday and go through all the cars looking for Datsun to buy even tho we couldn't afford 90% of them. After getting some money together we found a young bloke who was selling a 1600 in Lithgow.
As soon as I seen it I had to have it. It had an L18 in it with a blow thru turbo ,a roll cage and the thing I remember the most was a sticker on the rear windscreen that said kermit performance. So I paid the man in cash and off I went the only thing was I couldn't drive it home as I had lost my license so i had to get a mate to drive it home for me. The whole way home I remember shitting myself as my mate was flying down the mountains in it at night, in the rain, in a car we knew nothing about.
Looking back the car was a heap of sh*t and I should of bought a 5.0L vs haha
To cut this long story short I drove the car a handful of times and it drove like a pig so I pulled the engine out and stripped the engine bay paint and had the rust in water drain fixed and the bay sprayed .I bought an sr20det and put that in using the dat-sport kit. Then I wasn't happy with the paint work on the body so I stripped that back, got the rust fixed in the boot and around the windscreen and had it sprayed. Put it back together, got the engine started and basically from that point lost the plot and went on a bender for about 7 years partying and everything in between haha
In that period of time the car was moved to friends houses and to workplaces who my father was working for or he knew. It ended up finally at my parents house 7 years later and was left to rust away under a car port.
Well 8 months ago I decided I was going to finish the little muthafucka.
I'm going to copy a template from one of the other builds so I can write down what's been done to the car so far. I also get someone to load some pictures up for me tomorrow
Thanks Tim

Keen to see pics.

Since the car had been sitting for so long and had collected 7 years of dust, over spray and the chrome and suspension components had started to rust. I decided to start the car all over again.
So I basically set the car up in my factory and pulled everything out of the car.
I was a bit worried about the engine as I had only had it idling before and being an import motor I didn't know its history, so I thought it was worth while to get it looked at while I had it out of the car. I took the motor to Graham Wilkins he stripped the engine down and crack tested the crank. He said the motor was in good condition but there were signs of detonation on the cast pistons. After thinking about it for all of 30 seconds we decided to rebuild it haha. Can not say enough about Graham. He is a top bloke always picks up his phone, is honest, trustworthy and a master machinist from the old school. It refreshing to meet a performance shop owner who isn't a wannabe drug dealer.
Give him a call if your in Sydney and rebuilding an engine on (02) 9674 7037

Here is what was done to engine and some photos thanks Tim
Engine Sr20det
Rebuilt by Graham Wilkins engineering
Mahle Motorsport Pistons and rings
Cometic Metal head gasket
Manley Conrods
Main & Conrods bearings H series
Thrusts
Adjustable cam gears
Arp head studs
Superteck valve springs
Bore and hone block
Deck block and timing cover
Chem clean block and parts
Full balance
Linish crank journals
Service head
8 exhaust valve guides
Nitto rocker stoppers
Crack test crank
Orbit oil pump
Genuine Nissan water pump
Genuine Nissan timing chain kit including new guides etc
Mazworx chain tensioner
Tomei oil sump
Greedy t518z My favourite street sr turbo
All Brand New genuine Nissan sensors
ARP bolt Engine Kit

I have also freshened the rear end of the car with the same setup that most people use.
So out came the single spinner r180 diff and in with an r200. The r200 was sourced by Stewart Wilkins Motorsports, he changed the diff ratio to 3.9 and also installed a Kaaz Lsd. Next the worn out old half shafts were tossed for Stewart's CV setup. I think they are a originally from a Nissan 300zx or early skyline with r30 flanges (dont quote me) and modified to suit a 1600. They defiantly look tough and you can't go past Nissan factory quality parts. In my opinion most of the other CV setups have to much going on with adapters and sh*t.
I also decided to upgrade the rear drums to disk. I ended up going with the r31 rear disk conversion from Datsport. I sent the rear control arms to Baz and 2 weeks later they came back all assembled with brand new bearings/bushings and all I had to do was install the rotors and calipers.
I cleaned up the KYB shocks and king springs and reused them as I had bought them of Datsport 10 years ago and they never has seen the road. I used the Datsport braided hose kit and I bent up new stainless steel brake hard lines for the rear also to finish it off. I had already drilled a bigger hole in the rear cross member from when I first had the car going so I got it powder coated to match all the new parts.
Both Baz and Stewart are great blokes who produce quality gear with excellent service.
Thanks Tim

Before I pulled the engine out I decided to test fit a large can booster I had bought from Datsport. After talking to Baz on the phone, fitting the booster involved drilling out 4 holes and a little panel beating on the wheel arch.I basically taped up the area with some 3m tape and softly hit with a rubber mallet . I also had to drill a new hole in the brake pedal as the fork comes out at a different height on the pedal. I decide to use a s13 clutch master cylinder. The holes on the cylinder didn't line up with the factory holes in the firewall/pedal box which turned out wasn't a big deal as I had to move the clutch master cylinder over about 4 mm to accommodate the bigger booster. Thanks Tim

Nice work you're making a neat datto there i also agree with you about the cv's

Some good bits and pieces going in....How about a full shot of the car? Always makes it a bit more interesting.

I like your CV axle set-up.
What roughly did it cost you?

Thanks guys
Hey sutho510 I assume you live in sutherland mate Im at Taren point ill let you know when I get the car get back you could come around and tell me what you think.
I've found some old photos of the car from 10 years ago. There's one picture of the full car Jimmy ill try and find some more, I dont have any recent ones of the whole car. The car is currently getting the engine bay cleaned up and shortly will be sprayed again ill put some pictures up off that next got heaps of photos of that.
Here is a picture of the car coming back from having the engine bay sprayed Some rust repair done in the boot Installing the Datsport kit When engine was installed and was running Thanks Tim

Looks nice mate! some good work going on. You going black again? Black cars scare me, I don't have the patience anymore to polish constantly, I used to be a detailer many moons ago, now I am very much over that kind of thing. Plus the body work has to be SPOT on because black shows everything

Hey tim im in the east mate but am keen to come past n check your car out when its done im going to pull mine of the road soon and do a body rebuild but hopefully we can take them for a run through the national park when there done. Keep up the good work
Cheers adam

Best bet would be to give Stewart a call 02 45772400
Ill message you what I paid

So the idea was to give the engine bay and steering components a quick wash and then just install the rebuilt engine back into the car. Well after cleaning it up I was happy with the paint but not with all the factory holes. Also I wanted to change the way I had mounted the intercooler/radiator.
In order to do the job the right way the first time(usually also the most expensive/time consuming way ha). I decided to pull the dash out and all the wiring so the painters could access the firewall easily. I then spent a day paint stripping the engine bay back to metal. I decided to go to a local paint/panel supply and pick up some professional paint stripper and it worked like a charm. Unlike most strippers I've used when left on it would peel the paint but also dry up and flake which made it easy to scrap off.
The engine bay back to metal Once I got the car to the painters we came up with the plan to delete and smooth out the engine bay (NO BOG all metal), but leave the spot welds and seams.We also decided instead of welding up all the small holes that we'd just cut a section out and replace it with a complete piece. This would also allow us to open up the transmission tunnel up a little bit more making the gearbox a cleaner fit. The painter also noticed a section near the bonnet hinges that was previously repaired by just welding in a angled piece of sheet metal over the rusted area which we weren't happy with so out it came. The old Girl all cut up Thanks Tim

Great progress Tim, looking forward to following it & good luck.

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1600 Build: http://ozdat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=22694

Thanks mate

Here' more photos of the guys fixing the old rust repair. The finished product Datsport transmission tunnel cover welded in. Thanks Tim