Following the departure of the red Trump (my oh my we had some fun old chap) the clear and obvious step to take was to fill the space left in my garage.


God speed my British friend....

The obvious solution was to slap another red car in there. Who wouldn't? The particular red car that I've purchased to fill the right hand bay of my shed is none other than the ex-Old Man Southern '72 H230 Datsun 260C/Nissan Cedric if you're JayDeeEmm inclined. 95000 original miles, very solid original condition if not a bit patchy paint wise. Massive bonus of a very clean, original interior - possibly one of the most important features in an old car for me.

Bloody hell, I hear you exclaim, but that car is all the way down in Invercargill! How on earth are you going to get it up here?! The answer - roadtrip! You see, some time ago during a beer fuelled conversation forum member "sheepers" and I made a pact of sorts that yeah, we're going to go for a hoon around the South Island in his glorious 1UZ powered RA28 Celica to visit not often visited folk, drink some beers/cider and generally not go to work. Essentially, everything tied in neatly to pick up a car from the bottom of the earth, and bring it back ever so slightly more towards the centre. Of the earth.

For you jokers offshore, here's an idea of how far I drove it:

http://g.co/maps/ah9hx - it says 1800km, but with extra little diversions and so forth, it totalled just over 2000km!

And so begins, the chronicles of El Cedrico.

Anyway - on with some photos I suppose?

Poised for departure with the Celica, outside it's old home in Invercargill.

IMG_1619 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_1622 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

Stopping next to Lake Wakatipu, to enjoy some breathtaking scenery and take advantage of a photo op

IMG_1623 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_1628 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

Parked outside a historic building in Arrowtown... I heard the girls inside talking about it when I jumped back in... "that's so awesome... what is it?" "I think it's some kind of Datsun...?" so yeah this is a great start.

IMG_1637 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

Up on the Crown Range Road... awesome climb to some absolutely fantastic panoramas of the surrounding areas.

IMG_1656 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

Further up the Crown Range Road, those twisties in the distance were the more tame ones...

IMG_1665 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

Me not drinking Speights. Outside the famous Cardrona Hotel! Note crafty camera angle to alleviate the obvious Mexican stance the car was exhibiting throughout the journey due to a boot chock with the stock steel wheels and other parts.

IMG_1670 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

More scenery... mountains, snow, bridges and rivers. Just out of Fox Glacier Township. Those of you who have been viewing attentively will notice that the hubcaps are missing, and beneath them is a set of 14x7 low offset Bogan Uglies. Reason - one hubcap flung itself off the right rear rim with reckless abandon as I was negotiating a bend alongside Lake Hawea. That hubcap ended up pitching itself off the cliff, and into the lake. Rats.

IMG_1737 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

Just proof that the car actually has a rear, as well as a front. This was shot just out of Hokitika, after an officer of the law kindly stopped me on the roadside and informed me that I was travelling at 103km/h in an 80km/h area. After claiming ignorance of the local area, I was let off the fine. He was still grumpy nonetheless.

IMG_1753 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

Family shot, in the campground where Alex (yoeddynz) is based in Nelson. The Viva is way, way too cool for school.

IMG_1802 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

And finally... queueing to board the ferry in Picton. At this point, the fuel pump was playing up and the car was dying intermittently. Massive thanks to my good mate KK for organising a replacement electric pump when I got to Wellington!

IMG_1838 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

That's me for now. Car's safely tucked away in the shed, awaiting a good clean ready for the run this coming weekend. Then, we'll get into doing some work on it.

Plans involve first getting rid of the grotesque wheels (have since been informed they're Dragway Indy's) and fitting new tyres to the original steels... will then have them whitewalled with a 5/8" stripe and fit the set of NOS hubcaps. Then, a hearty dose of slam (advice may be required) to achieve the desired look.

I'll pop up some more detailed photos in the next few days, the interior is super clean, the bay will be with a small amount of elbow grease... stay tuned

Welcome to this site.

That's one great looking car! Looks to have been very well maintained.

Please post up some more photo's of your machine and NZ is one very nice backdrop. You have an eye for photography, there are some great shots.

Regards.

_________________
1971 240C P230 coupe L28 10.5:1 comp. N/A Haltech Elite 750. ITB's, tuned exhaust, 6 speed manual trans 4.625 LSD

'Nissantiques - Join the Club'

nice car, love a good quality cedric!

_________________
1971 B110
1971 P510
1974 H230
1974 B120

Nice car Richy, and nice photography, how were all those curves with the De-Lux Datsun marshmallow ride?
That paint on your car looks pretty good in the pictures, as they all do I suppose.

Thanks fellas! The curves were um, plush, to say the least... definitely couldn't attack them with any real gusto once the powers of 40 year old slush-o-matic suspension and god knows how old perished, cracked tyres were combined.

Paint is largely pretty good, just some areas where it's been blended in the past that are evident, as well as the usual nicks, scrapes and three minor dings. I'm intending on leaving it as it is, there is something special about a tidy original paint job with a few battle scars... just the character of it appeals. My other Japanese car is my "make it super mint" project.

A month down, and not much has been happening with the car. Thus far, I've binned the cracked original tyres from the steel wheels, and replaced them with a fresh set of 195/70/14's which is basically the same as the original spec 175 SR14's as far as diameter is concerned. Horrendously uncool, but great for retaining the originality. Had these whitewalled just prior to New Years by Dave Hawkins in Mt Wellington, great old joker who's done an equally great job.

IMG_2598 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_2632 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr




IMG_2661 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_2623 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

If you recall the previous update, I lost a hubcap while en route to Fox Glacier via the Haast Pass... well, as fate would have it, during our journey South in the Celica, we happened upon a small outfit called "Hinds Motor Services" operating out of an old motor garage in South Canterbury. This chap had mountains of weird and wonderful old car stuff - the majority being British - but as I was rummaging through a stack of hubcaps, I did notice some that to my (at that stage very vague) memory belonged to an H230 Cedric. However, because at this point I didn't realise I needed them I made sure to make a mental note that they were there, in the case my memory served me correctly.


IMG_1537 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_1543 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

Long story short? Well, I called the proprietor of this Aladdin's cave of discarded automotive treasures, who promptly packaged and sent me what were a set of NOS hubcaps to suit none other than an H230 Nissan! How stoked was I.... Lastly, I've added a wooden Nardi Classic steering wheel to the cabin, as the original is Interislander spec and interferes with my lanky frame!


IMG_2547 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_2546 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_2647 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

I think I need to remove a heap of the ride height... any suggestions on getting this at least 3 inches lower?

How lucky are you? Your car deserves those new wheel trims. Love the new whitewall tyres.

Wow, what a great looking workshop, if we could all have something like that.

And your photography..........

_________________
1971 240C P230 coupe L28 10.5:1 comp. N/A Haltech Elite 750. ITB's, tuned exhaust, 6 speed manual trans 4.625 LSD

'Nissantiques - Join the Club'

The hubcaps and whitewalls look amazing!

Thats the look im going for with my 260c

_________________
1971 B110
1971 P510
1974 H230
1974 B120

Ooooooo yeah!!!

I was wondering what was going on with the aggressive offset wheels with hubcaps at the start, wouldn't have thought they'd be Dragway Indies luking underneath lol!

_________________
1973 H230 Wagon, 'ILL-260'
1975 911S Targa
1978 Torana Hatch
1999 GXE10

Richie, your mate Hinds has a great shed, usually those sort of places everything is covered in dust (not that that detracts) but it's lovely to see a hoarder who is organized.
Like you wheels too mate.

Shot out today for a few photo's of the car, with some changes!

Result of a couple of late nights before Oldschool Nats (the national meet for an NZ club I am heavily involved with) getting the height just right on the old girl, got my springs back from Archers engineering at 4:50pm on Thursday night, prior to departing at 5am the following day, so was cutting it pretty fine!

For those interested, the front is using a set of HQ Holden shocks, matched to a pair of Dobi springs also intended for an HQ. These are a substantially uprated spring rate, and a substantially lower free height (125mm shorter) than a stock H230 spring, however they are extremely captive and with the modified bump stops (still have 30mm on them) it has around an inch (25mm) of travel, so for the most part rides really well.

Rear is simply a set of 2" solid alloy blocks, extended U-bolts and a 25mm reset on the leaf springs. Shorter shocks originally intended for a Landcruiser keep it all in check.

Next stage of this creation is looming, this will entail some much needed maintenance consisting of rust work (bottoms of guards, and rear edge of bootlid need attention), some minor repairs to the drivers seat vinyl and removal of the head, installation of new head gasket, tensioner, cam chain, waterpump and new valve stem seals.



IMG_4704 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_4737 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_4760 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_4771 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_4739 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_4792 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

Oooeeerr....


IMG_4691 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

Nice!!!

_________________
1973 H230 Wagon, 'ILL-260'
1975 911S Targa
1978 Torana Hatch
1999 GXE10

I bet that car turns heads everywhere it goes.

What a great looking car! Very nice.

_________________
1971 240C P230 coupe L28 10.5:1 comp. N/A Haltech Elite 750. ITB's, tuned exhaust, 6 speed manual trans 4.625 LSD

'Nissantiques - Join the Club'

That car is REALLY cool. I love the look you're going for, and the way you're keeping the interior original. Road trips to get cars are always more fun, I'm impressed that you didn't just get it towed. Keep the photos coming. And that Viva is really cool too if it's the car I'm thinking of.

_________________
green200b - aka Alistair

The fleet:

Australia:
'80 200B GX - the green200b - hibernating
'81 RX-7 - 12A extend port - daily
'74 RX-2 - 13B bridgeport - cruiser

Europe:
'93 200SX - CA18DET - tourer

As some will know, it turned out the the small, relatively innocent looking bubbles of rust that were making an appearance near the base of the front guards/leading edges of the sills (see photo in 2nd post of the hubcap/whitewall for an idea of what they looked like prior to investigation) were in fact representative of a far larger and more aggressive colony of rust, hiding away in the sills having a good old munch on solid metal.

I enlisted the services of a well recommended craftsman metalworker/panelbeater to assist in rectifying this problem - I guess it was only once he'd had a poke around and emarked on the job, that the expense of having a job well-done was apparent. So the story thus far goes as such - the old girl was dropped into the panelshop, panelman has a gander and starts work on the car, several days into it I get a price update, and freak out and suspended progress whilst my already derelict bank account (due to other circumstances) recovers and I can afford to have the job completed.

Today being a beautifully clear, mild mid winter morning, I decided to roll the car from it's cosy little spot in the shed, and attack what little I am able to do on the panels (as per panelbeater instructions) with some modicum of "vim and vigour" associated with the recent mojo I've been experiencing (the KP has seen a share of progress also...).

Pictures speak a multitude of words - so I am told - so below I've taken the opportunity to share some shots of the depressing, expensive, progress hampering mega shitcunt of a thing, rust.


IMG_8362 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_8359 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr
Passengers side rust, the brace/bracket which is part of the guard has been rebuilt on this one, and the end of the sill/inner guard is only tacked in place at this point, requiring final fitment.


IMG_8366 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_8371 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr
Drivers side rust. Apparent here, is the state in which the end of the sill on the passengers side was also in, prior to being rebuilt. The brace/bracket on this side is yet to be completed. Overall, the steel on the inner sill on this side is actually better than the passengers, with no holes through the steel or close to it.


IMG_8389 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_8393 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr
After a clean and removal of all the scaly crap with a range of wirebrushes on the drill. First coat of PA10 applied as per the panelbeaters instructions.


IMG_8383 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_8381 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr
Drivers and passengers patch panels, all steel and handmade. Fit well, and look good, should be very little bog required in the finished product.


IMG_8405 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


IMG_8398 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr
2nd coat of PA10 lies beneath these panels, which are now mocked up and the car's basically ready to drop back in for completion once my wallet feels up to the task.

Hope to have the car solid again within a month, then the next point of attack will be the bootlid, which is the only other part of the car to have any real rust issues.

I've acquired a set of 4 XA Falcon wheels at long last following a few months of searching for the right ones - you'd think such a task would be simple, given how common these things are comparatively, but alas the lions share of these wheels appears to have gone to FoMoCo heaven as they've been overruled by the might of the 12 slot (or something to that effect anyway...). Also in my possession is a set of mint XA/XB poverty spec hubcaps, these are a small centercap style with a slight pointed shape. Eventually, the plan is to have the 14's taken out to around 8" wide, run a small tyre, polished hubcaps and the wheels in a colour which has been decided upon...

There is another wheel possibility in the pipeline, but not yet confirmed... you can never have too many sets of wheels anyway, right?