Hi all, while i await the arrival of my new ride (RUSTO REALLY) lol I have been making a checklist of to "do's" and to "gets" apart from the rust removal i have many different components and parts to source. I am looking for suggestions on whom you find great service at a reasonable price, i dont mind shopping interstate or os as long as i get what i need at a fair price. My ride is a coupe 180b so some parts or most are starting to run scarce i realise. so i will be looking for things like door rubbers/trim clips for mouldings on drip rails, clips for front and rear screen mouldings.wind lacing felts..bonnet and guards (bootlid i am trying to get from a member here) taillights/ brake components and suspension parts and all other Datto parts in general. I rang a couple of nissan dealers in Brisbane today, one laughed and told me to buy a new car basically (Obviously not a real Datsun/ Nissan man or didn't understand the meaning of classic vehicles) and the other just din't really know where to start looking.... I also had unpleasent experience recently after picking up a 1 owner 30,000k Diahatsu Applause for my nearly 17 yo daughter as her first car and needing a few cosmetic and general parts from a BIG Name auto parts distributor whom basically told me its a 20 y/o (DERRR i knew that) car and to try somewhere else. Seems the days of pulling a catalouge from behind the counter and manually looking for a code is gone....and if its not showing a code in their online web punchout system, to them its obsolete and they don't want to know you.... Sad really not service....So if you have someone or a few different suppliers you recommend and don't mind sharing your experience i would greatly appreciate the assistance.

Happy Datin

Sadly, even if you find a helpful Nissan dealer, there isn't much available for the 180B SSS.

I am currently restoring a rusty one as well. I have a genuine Datsun Spare Parts manual which I "acquired" wen I worked at a Nissan dealership, and went through it getting part numbers for a lot of the stuff you're chasing. Took the list along to a mate who still works in the spares dept of a Nissan dealership, and all he could get for me were a couple of clips and other odds and ends. Everything else was NLA.

Most of what I have has ben picked up off forum classifieds, eBay and yahoo japan. I've been slowly collecting stuff for over 5 years now, and still need quite a few bits

Mechanical stuff is much easier - places like Stewart Wilkins / Datsport have most stuff, whether you want original or modified parts.

And how did you convince your daughter to drive an Applause ? I have an almost-16 year old daughter and have had my father's one owner, immaculate Applause sitting in my driveway since we made him stop driving last year. Offered the Applause to my daughter to learn to drive, and she doesn't want it because "its old, it shakes when it drives, and it smells"

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1970 ex Group A Rally P510
1971 P510
1972 180B SSS
1965 SP310 Fairlady
1966 SP311 Fairlady

Awww shzzzz thanks Dave, just knocked me back a cog... lol getting excited to get into this 2door, well i'm going to keep looking.... i notice and have read alot of your posts and some of your replied to posts and admire your knowledge and wisdom on Datsuns.... I am sure alot here are thankful that you are passionate about and show enthusiasm toward other owners of these vehicles, keep up the great work...... ! I will start a puchase ledger of critical components and fittings and try those suppliers mentioned and for the others i will search the forums and classifieds for. I di read one post/topic you had input toward if i recall correctly and i will have to try find it again that you used a clout/plaster nail for the weld on rivet for the retainer on the front and rear screen clips? how did that go and was it sucessful. did you tig/mig or sweat those in??

Anyway i am sure there will be many more ?'s if your happy to respond.

Cheers

I used a clout with the correct diameter shank and a slightly-too-large head, then turned the head down in the lathe. They were brazed onto the shell after that.

Don't know if they work as I stil don't have it painted, but I don't see why not. The windscreen clips do fit on OK. Speaking of which, I took the windscreen moulding clips to a swap meeting quite a while back, found a bloke selling that sort of stuff, and matched them pretty closely. That was a year or two back and I can't remember what they were . If memory servers me correctly, they were off a Holden of some sort.

If you want to make a list of everything you need, I can get part numbers for you to take to a Nissan spares dealer and see how you go ?

You can still get (or at leasat you could a year or so back) the clips that hold all the little chrome mouldings on the body - the ones under the windoes on the side of the car, and across the boot lid / around the taillights. I'll have a look in the shed for the part number on the boxes tonight.

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1970 ex Group A Rally P510
1971 P510
1972 180B SSS
1965 SP310 Fairlady
1966 SP311 Fairlady