Pic from Datsun day 2013. Inspiration much?
More pics at http://visualcocaine.net/blog/2013/11/datsun-day-2013/

As for your current car, Mechanical upgrades get my vote. I always prefer seeing as much original paint as posible, but hey, that's just me.

Just a bit of an update. I finally pulled my finger out and started doing some work on the beast. Picked up some new brake and clutch hydraulic parts on Saturday. Just standard replacement parts at this stage as the plan is just to get the car registered and back on the road again and then I will maybe look at some upgrades.
In this first stage of work, I'm replacing the brake master cylinder, rear wheel cylinders, rubber hoses front and rear and overhauling the calipers. Also doing the clutch master, slave and hose.
I'm also going to replace the ball joints, ties rod ends, idler arm and all bushes in the front end. Surprisingly, the front strut inserts and rear shocks seem to be as good as you would expect from standard units and they're not leaking so I'll leave the as is for now. I took a few "before" pics and will follow up with a few "after" shots when the new bits are all fitted, hopefully next weekend. Not that they're anything exciting but by keeping a bit of a log on what I've been doing I'm hoping it will help with the motivation to keep going
I finished the day with basically the whole front end out of the car but ran out of light for pics.

Let the work begin


Master cylinders eagerly awaiting removal


Huge standard brakes!


Mmmmm.....greasy tie rod ends


Just a few decades of crusty grease build up around the ball joint


Clutch slave and hose to be replaced


Paint code decal. Does anyone know if there is someone that does replacements of these decals?


And a sort of "arty" pic to finish off with just for the hell of it.

love this car.
ive got the same sticker for my cars engine bay, i just repainted my engine bay so i had to rremove the sticker i was going to try and get someone to remake it. just havent got around to enquiring yet.

theres alot of places that do silver foil stickers so it shouldnt be to hard to find someone.

i also wanted to get a few others remade like the sticker thats engine rocker cover(i dont have one of these)
brake caliper anti rattle clip sticker
the tyre info sticker thats on the drivers door
the stickers that are on the air cleaner
probably a couple of others i have forgotten

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When the sign says "don't feed the bears", man you better not feed the bears.

A few things popped up that held me up in progress with this but I have been able to spend some time on it the past couple of weekends.
Have managed to rebuild the front calipers, replace the master cylinder, cleaned up all the front suspension/steering parts ready for reassembly with new ball joints, tie rods ends and bushes and then realised last night that I have the wrong size ball joints. I need the smaller BJ146. If anyone in Perth has some lying around they want to sell, or know any parts shops that may carry them let me know. Otherwise, further reassembly will have to wait until next weekend. Done a big ring around today. Plenty of BJ85 ball joint available but not the BJ146. Will have to call on Baz next week to see if he can help. Failing that, may have to order some that are on ebay.

I've also replaced the original steering wheel, which was starting to crumble all fall apart, with a SSS wheel. It fits in nicely while still looking period correct. Also replaced the indicator switch with a new one as the other was quite worn and fitted a new second hand steering column shroud as the original one was cracked and held together with black electrical tape.

A few weeks ago I also "rebuilt" the tail lights and refitted them. The car is still stuck in the garage so I haven't managed to get some pics of these yet.

I did take a couple of dodgy phone pics of the steering wheel etc as below. I might have to spend the weekend cleaning up the rest of the interior seeing as I can't put the front suspension back in. I might have a go at fitting the tacho instrument cluster too.

Your model 1600 used the BJ85 joint. To have the 146 joints, the steering knuckles would have had to be replaced at some time in its life.
Very unusual to go backwards to the small joints.

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A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
www.datsport.com

"R.I.P. Baz. 29 April 2022. Thank you for all your contributions to the Datsun community over the years. You will be missed." - OZDAT

Hmmmm....interesting. Thanks for the tip.

It surprises me to know that they've been changed. It all looked quite original when I disassembled it and I guess just assumed that given it was otherwise an original car with relatively low mileage, all the parts would be original.

I guess it is highly possible that they have been changed due to worn/damaged boots for registration purposes at some point during its life. But as you say, highly unusual to go backwards with the size of the joints/steering arms if this is the case.

I'll have to go and triple check that the 555 BJ85 joints that I have don't fit. Maybe I'm better off to try and source some different steering knuckles and stick with the larger joints anyway. Would the steering knuckles need to be 1600 ones, or could I use some 180B, 200B knuckles? I'm just not sure if they would affect the steering geometry.

Well I triple checked the ball joints and I definitely need the smaller size joints to fit the steering knuckles. Still got no idea why/how it's got the smaller size joints. Anyhow, I managed to find some this morning after a bit of running around so i basically have the front end all back together. Just need to put the wheels back on, get it back on the ground and tighten the control arms etc.

Then to start on the rear end where I need to replace the shocks and brake hoses.

Nice 1600 mate.. see you rocking a maroon rs turbo too like me...
the smaller joints came on 68/69 models,prehaps some of the early 70 models got them too...do you have the 12mm or 14mm adjusters in between the tie rods? what inner lower control arm bush does it run,early or late?

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68 510 - soon to be restored into a replica 68sss
69 510 - current build - L20b turbo
91 GT turbo legacy
GET THAT DATSUN DIFFERENCE!

Possibly right datdrift that it could be an early 70 with some left over parts from 69.
The fact it has the chrome vertical sash piece on the rear doors hints at this as they are normally only on the early model aussie 510's...

I was thinking that it must have been something along those lines dd and nick. Anyhow, it's all back together now. At least in terms of the front end.

I'd never noticed that little fact about the chrome trim on the 1/4 window nick. But I suppose due to my two pevious 1600's being a 69 and another early 70 model, I was just used to that trim being chrome.

After spending a bit more time over the past week or two in the little tin shed that I call a garage, you realise how good it was to have a decent garage or access to a workshop as I did in the past. Time to find a new abode with better garage facilities me thinks!

Good spotting of the RS dd. Unfortunately the RS Turbo has just been a shed ornament for the past 5 years. I really should have sold it ages ago before the prices of them plummeted so much.

yeah theyre definalty under valued now...alot of people just dont know what theyre anymore...but like the 1600,the prices will go back up eventually
mine sat at the farm for 6 years after blowing 2 gearboxes,just got it back rd

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68 510 - soon to be restored into a replica 68sss
69 510 - current build - L20b turbo
91 GT turbo legacy
GET THAT DATSUN DIFFERENCE!

Well it's only been a year since the last post but I have been working away on this again over the past couple of months. And as of this afternoon, it has number plates and is back on the road! Just been out driving for the last hour or so and now have a big sh*t eating grin on my face.

I'd spent the past week trying to track down an intermittent misfire which was all that was stopping me from taking it for a rego inspection as it was chronic when under load. Finally found the culprit which was a dud spark plug. Had me baffled. I had gone through everything in the fuel, ignition and compression side of things multiple times. I'd recently replaced everything in the ignition system (including the plugs) and rechecked and cleaned/gapped the plugs again. There was nothing visually wrong with the plug from the outside. It was only when I made a point of trying the plug in a different cylinder that I found the misfire moved with it. I was almost on the verge of giving up and taking it to someone else to sort out. Glad I didn't now.

I also finally got around to installing a tacho that I bought about 10 years ago. The cluster looks so much better now, as well as being much more functional than the blanking piece that is there originally.

Now to chip away at all the little bits and pieces to bring it up to scratch such as the cracked dash pad. Should be a bit easier to find the motivation knowing that I can actually drive it again.

Looking good Graham.

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Nice work

Congrats for getting it on the road. It looks awesome!