G'day Everyone.

Almost 2 years ago, (2 years this Sunday i think) I bought a 1971 Datsun 1600 out of the trading post. Now I want to tell the story of my ongoing project.

Being 16, I was quite excited!! After a quick check-up over the car we finalised the purchase and went and picked up the car a few days later. A few things came with the sale such as a spare boot lid, spoiler, spare drivers door and another set of wheels.

Would really like to post all of the many pictures I have of the development of this car on the topic but i don't know where I can upload them to, to link from . Any help would be appreciated lots.

The rest of the story will have to wait really until I can get some pictures up.

Look forward to telling my story.

Think I figured out the picture thing: Here Goes...

Well The car I bought was a piece of crap really. As you can see... It is green and Yellow and even undercoat showing through in some places. Rusty bumbers and crappy indicators were a highlight, but to me this was the most exciting thing ever.

I owned my own car!! While this car wasn't perfect (really), I saw opportunity.

Footy is Starting... Go The DEES!!! Hopefully we can beat the Hawks. Will post more asap.

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Why walk when you can drive a datto?

Jeesus christ

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If in Doubt ... Call Datsport

...superstar

footy is prettymuch over, i think we know who's going to win!!
now...more pics, i wanna see how it came to look like your avatar picture, presuming thats it!

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Dave W

The 1600

Recommended traders: Nissanman, pro240c, 2door510, Datsport, mkyle, Green510, Um_510, jdmdatsun510, Ludachris

Consider it a starting point

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Previously owned Datsun's:
71 Wagon - WAG510 SOLD now is sa "datto"
71 Sedan - P510M0540
1980 JDM styled Suzuki Carry SOLD

Yeah Go The Dees! Woot.

Well I'm not too sure how quickly the next few steps went or how long they took, but here are some more pics. Sorry to keep you waiting but I think it adds to the excitement.

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Why walk when you can drive a datto?

The extras that came with the car are shown in this post.
Spare drivers door: much needed.
Vents lights guards etc.
Spare Boot Lid: Not needed in the end.
Extra set of Wheels: rusty white but started polishing the white off.

Plus the speedo is on 09,896.1 miles which is equivalent to about 15,833 k's.
Unless it is 109,896.1 miles which is 175,800 k's or so.
I think it might just be the latter.
I guess cars weren't expected to run that long in 1971.

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Why walk when you can drive a datto?

Time to get some more pics up here...

Starting to prepare the car...

Doing it myself with help from a panelbeater on how to do it all.
Took quite a while as I was doing it in my spare time.
These pics took place over 5 months.

Great to start seeing some clean lines and straight colour on my beautiful car!!!

I know that you all know the feeling.

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Why walk when you can drive a datto?

It's a bit of a pity about that avatar picture misleading you all about what my car turned out to look like. That is a pic of me that i love in a 1600.

I was actually choosing between Red, Blue and Yellow for colours to paint it.
And by the looks of the photos now, i was getting close to needing to make a decision, without having any idea which i wanted.

Taking a photo of a 1600 in each of the 3 colours i liked around with me,
I proceeded to ask almost everyone what colour they thought it should be.
From Grandma to little cousin, i got quite an even range of answers.
This didn't help me at all, as each day i woke up, i liked a different one.

I've included pics of those three colours.
What colour do you guys (being the experts) think I should have/did paint my car?
Even a different colour if you have any other ideas.

The idea for my colour was that I wanted to stand out, but have the car still look bloody hot,
without being over the top.

I'd Love to hear what you think

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Why walk when you can drive a datto?

Hi. Must say I like that blue 1600 the most. Looks smart and neat. But I would only go with this colour if you are going to respray the entire car inside and out.

What is the original colour of the car? Is it Orange?

Unless you are going to pull the engine out and spray the engine bay, I would lean towards an orange colour, to go with whats in the boot and engine bay. A different outside colour to that under the bonnet or in the boot looks awful in my opinion, unless it is a close match.

Depending on the paint condition in both engine bay and boot, you may be able to touch up the orange colour, removing the yellow, without it looking half bad.

Also depends on the colour and condition of the paint on the insides of your doors as well.

Mark.


Mark.

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Datsun 1600/H510 PRC Rally Car - L20B under 2 litre, EFI, 5 speed Hollinger, 5.1 LSD.

Datsun 1600/H510 PRC Rally/Road Car - L20B under 2 litre, downdraft webber, extractors, 5 speed.

Datsun 1600/H510 Classic C2 Rally Car - Autech SR20 EFI, SR20 5 speed with 3 gear close ratio conversion, 4.8 LSD.

hey mate, looking awesome
color just comes down to personal preferance, just look at tons of pics before makin a decision and see what you like.

alos some advice, make sure you have allowances in your rear qtrs for your bumper. the qtr originally has a small indentation that allows the bumper to clear the body. other wise youll go to put your bumper on your fresh paint and scratch the sh*t out of ur guards.

keep us up to date

jack

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'70 1600 L20

IMHO white is the best colour for a 1600!!!

But then agian, I'm biased..... (HAHAhahahha...)

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1972 Datsun 1600, S14 SR20DET Engineered (204rwkW @ 17psi.)
viewtopic.php?t=6579
#SR20Datsun @SR20Datsun

ever thought of silver?

Haha

It is great to hear all of your opinions on colours. I guess it does just come down to personal opinion.
Haha thanks for that. Learnt that the hard way when the bumper came back from the chromers. wouldn't even go close. We had to bend it so it would fit!!! One of the rear quarters is totally sqaure and lost its shape. A lot of work/damagae must've been done there.

Well to the colour, I was never going to take the engine out and spray the engine bay, but I wasn't too worried as my car was never going to be a 'show car' and 99.9% of people who see this car hooning around the streets (lol) will never see under the bonnet.

But one fateful day at Sandown Racecourse, I saw a 1600 there that was orange and it had white wheels. It looked fantastic! Still with some doubt, my father pressed the idea and it finally stuck.

ORANGE. I loved the look of the fords in that orange so we went to the ford dealership and got the code for the colour and had the paint made up. 'Blood Orange' they called it. (the paint shop, not ford) I think ford called it 'Mandarin'.

After all the preparation was finished, wet n dry and all, the paint went on.
On paint day, we had perfect weather. I was soo nervous this day. Don't be fooled by the red colour of these pictures, I was orange. It started a red but faded into a brilliant orange. In some of the shots where the sun is hitting it, the orange shows through.

Doors off, we painted the jams, gave inside the engine bay a bit of a lick, and really just all of the 'inside' bits. Then the roof.

Then in another session, we finished it off. Geez it looked (and felt) great. My car was ALL ONE COLOUR!!!

Have a look.

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Why walk when you can drive a datto?

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Why walk when you can drive a datto?