First time I went to take a steering wheel off a car whilst doing work experience as a mechanic (I can see people cringing already) I was told to take the nut off and yank on the wheel as hard as I could... the mechanic in the shop thought it would be real funny not to tell me to put a couple of turns of the nut to stop the wheel from smashing me in the face....

end result? one big yank, off comes the wheel, smashes into face and the next 6 hours were spent in a hospital waiting room coughing up blood with a broken nose.

Actually, now that I think of it he was probably just worried about getting sued...

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Life begins @ 160km/h, 6 feet off the ground!
www.offroadracing.com.au/sorra

Ouch ... a hard learned lesson ....... not Datsun related, but relevant to getting smashed in the face, anyway. A mate of mine had one of those
'bullworkers' back in the eighties. A spring with a handle on each end.
Bend that f^^^^er up, then feel bits of enamel fly off your teeth when it escapes your grip and collects you under the chin. They would get sued out of business these days. Maybe they did then!? Hope so anyway.....

This one still brings tears to my eyes and a smile on my dial.

Bought a 180b SSS a while ago, unfinished project nice fresh 2pac paint.
Picked it up for a bargin with another car and lots of gear.

To transport it back to Adelaide it needed an emergency windscreen
(ie.pvc sheet) fitted. Out comes the Gaffa tape, the good stuff as I did not want it coming off mid-trip.

Gets it home. No worries

Grab first peice of gaffa on the roof,slowly peel the edge back and start peeling it off. Well suddenly the gaffa is peeling off the PAINT !
Down to the primer!!!

I just laughed! What else could I do?

Every peice of gaffa that touched paint ripped the paint right off.

Now I'm sure you are thinking "silly bastard, should have soaked it etc etc" but as it turns out ALL the paint on the car was FU#K#D !
You where able to "peel" off the paint with your fingers!
This "2pac" wasn not even bonded to the primer.

Spoke to friend that paints cars, and he thinks that moisture got into the primer before the paint went on.

I guess I should post this one before Dave does

Somone recently imported a rx7 from Japan. It rolled off the truck and to his delight it was full of bits (including turbo's, coilovers, rx7 4 pot brakes ect). Anyway after cleaning it up and charging the battery he went to give it a start.... Nothing happened, just the smell of fuel.... After a quick search on the internet he discovered it was flooded, so he de-flooded the engine, still no go.... replaced the plugs, still wont start. Unflooded the engine again by cranking the engine without the plugs in.... repeated that like 10 times, still no go. All he could get was like splutters or 5 secs of idling.... Must be the ECU, check for ECU codes "hmm nothing there" check TPS/AFM/ignition coils ect ect ect. Still no go.

After ignoring about 3 females with their "oh has it got fuel?"... "of course it has I can smell it"...

Anyway eventually I (I mean HE) asked someone from ausrotary to come around, 5 litres of petrol in the tank.... and now pers like a kitten...

OMG I've never been so embarassed

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OMG I would have killed myself after that........it's not to late! (hands Mad1600 hammer)

Coming back from the '91 summernats with a friend in his 1948 Plymouth, complete with a Holden 253, trimatic combo (hey, I didnt build it). trying to save a dollar or 2 on the trip home we were slipping it into neutral to coast down hills, We found out you should never go that one click further.. BANG. engine stalls, silence, roll to stop. Push shifter from reverse to park and inspect possible damage. Bugger me, the thing was fine, but a leason learned.

VT2 SS, 6 speed, bit of a drag race from the lights with a fellow SS owner, 1st to 2nd changing on the limiter and Im pulling away.... yayy, big change from 2nd into 3rd.... ooops... 5th... car looses momentum and the lead in a massive cloud of clutch smoke, roll to a stop... 1st, let the clutch out, nothing, 2nd, clutch out, still no movement... After 5mins on the side of the road, the clutch obviously cooled enough for me to get some some forward movement and get it home... next day, straight to holden to complain about a car that is playing up with 10k on the clock... they replaced the clutch under warranty

dropping in a 13B into an RX2. Its a light motor so we use a lump of wood strung over a pair of gate posts to hang a small block and tackle (not my idea). We have got it about a foot from the mounts and I'm beginning to think that my mate had the right idea about this engine install method, when blammo, the lump of timber breaks, driving the water pump pulley completely through a brand new radiator that we were too lazy to remove.

The funniest/stupidest thing Ive been a part of (with the above rx2 mate) was the construction of a homebrew motorbike, we were scrounging the local tip when we stumbled across the remains of a very damaged Husqvarna 450 trails bike, we race home and come back with a wheelbarrow to bring it home, the engine looks ok so we start calling mates to see if anyone has a spare bike frame of any sort.

The best we could find was an old "lawnmower" bike, you know the kind, the ones with the pullstart motor and wheels that look like they came off a wheelbarrow. Using a bottle jack we managed to pump out the frame enough to squeeze the 450 into it, welded it into place and managed to get a pushbike chain to fit (welded bike sprocket onto the huskys front sprocket), armed only with teenage bravery (read stupidity), we fill up the 2lt cokebottle that will serve as our fuel tank, and wheelbarrow this thing to the local track near the creek.

I give dean an almighty push start, and bugger me if the thing didnt fire up first push... off he screams, both the 450 and him as he roars along the track at full throttle, fishtailing with his legs flailing along like a rag doll, straight into the creek.

rgds Eddie

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'80 810 wagon, EFI L20B, 5spd, Verada front discs, VL Turbo calipers, Bluey rear discs, H190, Gold TRX wheels.

Never argue with an idiot, they'll drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.

Here are some confessions not so much from me, but from the 200B

1 Thye shall not let my window break/shatter even when its been thumped with a 4 foot 2inch round piece of tubing.

2 Thye shall not let the plastic shroud around the steering colum break in any fasion even when getting beaten with a 5 pound hammer. Let alone the dash or anything else in the cabin.

3 To thye rusty death shall I not part with my taillights.

first one, my friend got bored with a wrecked 200B and tried several times to break a window...he failed...miserably

second one was me trying to get to the ignition unit without having to use a screw driver...I failed miserably...This was only because some half witted mechanic at Kmart tyre and auto decided to SOMEHOW pull the key out of the ignition while it was still on and f$^K my ignition tumblers up...meaning i had to go and get another ignition thingy to fix their #$%k up...Not happy.

third one...i just wanted some tail lights from the abovementioned 200B...the metal was about as soft as cardboard it was that rusted...yet with 2 blokes pulling as hard as they couldn't, couldn't get the damn things out due to 1 rusted bolt....1!!



Oh and too all those people that put in confesions about taking the steering wheel off....THANK YOU. I learnt from your wise teachings and made sure i left the nut on abit until the steering wheel was loose

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78' 200B. 5 speed, extractors, 2 1/2" exhaust, 32/36 weber, 14" mags, Elec ign, Redlands motor. Slowly Pulling parts off while still driving around. Tree unfortunately signed its death cert.

Recommended Traders: Datsport

25+ yrs ago, my younger brother and I thought (Ok, mostly my idea ) it would be a good idea to tow him up the steep hill home. Attached a rope to the back of my trailbike and to the handle bars of his pushbike. It seems obvious now, pivot points and all that, that this wasn't the way to go; but all credit to him, he did a mighty fine job of balancing it on the front wheel while clinging on to the rest of it as it swung (slowly) on the steering head from one side to the other.

In school days, a mate had a Honda Elsinore 125 motocross bike. It had some serious power - at about 8000 rpm, not much anywhere else. Took it down to the local park one day. After instructing another (complete novice) mate on the finer points of the controls .... something like 'snick it into first, twist the throttle a bit and let the clutch out slowly' we stood back to watch. Chris can't have been listening too closely cause he snicked it into 1st alright, then twisted the throttle right round and dropped the clutch. Did it stall? Ummmm, no.... Took off upside down (yes I KNOW that defies the laws of physics, but thats how I recall it). He hung on, grimly, just long enough to ensure a perfectly vertical fall onto his head, while the bike cartwheeled into the distance. Lucky the ground was soft.

Another mate had a 250 Suzuki with some massive carb that he'd stuck on it. It basically ran like a dog and stalled all the time. You couldn't kick start it to save your life. I was trying to bump start it, but only while I ran along side - duh - not hopping on or anything. It fuck8*g started alright, did about 3 donuts at max revs with me hanging on with the throttle twisted open before it threw itself into the shrubbery.

My mate Colin had a Rover P3 (1948 model) in the early 80's, that he had done some resto work on. Black with a sunroof. Pretty classy car. I had a later model P4/75 about 1955. Not so classy cause it had a fruit box for a front seat and was painted canary yellow. Still it only cost me $400 (and some seats). Its most interesting feature was the small round wheel in the centre of the dash that, when rotated one way, disconnected the engine from the wheels whenever you backed off the accelerator.... Nice idea, but freakin dangerous when you 'free wheeled' your way into town and encountered an unexpected stop light. That thing weighed aboout 2 tons and wasn't overly well endowed in the brakes department let me tell you; it needed all the engine-braking it could get However, from Colins point of view, its most interesting feature was its towbar; he had long harboured a (mad) plan to retrieve a wrecked P3 he had located near Sydney. As we lived in Canberra, this would involve a round trip of some 300 miles, with the underpowered, underbraked P4 required to drag a massive tandem trailer (at least it had its own braking system!!) and the wrecked P3 - should we ever get it ON to the trailer, seeing as it had no wheels (Colin never did let me in on that part of the plan) - up the infamous Razorback.

I had my doubts; but being young, impressionable, and eager to please, and Colin being a good - if more than slightly unhinged - mate, and my older sisters boyfriend to boot, I agreed. One fine day we hitched up the (hired) trailer and set off, we had cleared Canberra and were skirting Lake George. I had had my foot to the floor for about 15 minutes, gradually working the hefty rig up to about 70 mph when we both heard a sort of ping, and felt the car lurch forward. I looked in the RVM (!) and saw the trailer gradually receding from the car, just like in a western where they disconnect the guards van from the locomotive. Except that a car was overtaking the trailer as I watched!!!!!! Probably the best thing they could have done. It wasn't the tow ball that had snapped off, but the two-bolt goose-neck, complete with safety chains. (Probably SHOULD have checked that the bolts were good and tight. ) Anyway, luckily, nobody got killed or maimed, luckily it didn't happen up the Razorback. Colin hitched a ride back to Canberra to co-opt the services of another mate with a towbar and retrieved the trailer - surprisingly intact - from the ditch where it had finished up. He never did get that P3. Perhaps it was the P4's way of bailing out of the whole deal, can't say as I blame it.

Cheers, Neil

Hahahahahahaha. I was seriously laughing at that. Good job!

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USA Daily: 2014 Nissan GT-R, very minor modifications for the track
USA Project: 1978 280Z, minor suspension upgrades, VK56DE conversion in progress. SOLD
AUS Race Car: 1973 240Z, L28ET, Autronic, GT35R. SOLD
AUS Project: 1972 1600, 3200km old S15 SR20DET, ground up rebuild. SOLD

my blue 200b sss---10 years ago.
My motor was blowing heaps of smoke and running sick so i bought a cheap l20 very second hand motor.
After doing a rushed 1 day motor swap, the new(old) motor fired up and ran great, so i took off to bris from toowoomba late that nite.
All was going great until along the logan toll way I hear thumping and grinding from under the bonnet.
Turns out the bolts from the starter motor had disappeared and the starter had fallen down dragging on the tar(@100kph) and was hanging(dangerously) by the thick + cable from the battery- which had pulled the battery out of the tray and onto the motor...
It was dark and i had no bolts anyway, so i undid the starter(put in in the car) and wrapped the cable in tape and lead footed it to my bros...Doing everything NOT to stall it.

Or the time when one of the brass float's sunk in one of my SU's flooding 10L+ petrol over the extractors(?why is the fuel gauge going down so quick?)- also in the 200bsss...
it had a mech fuel pump, so id hook the fuel line up to the dead carb and run the motor for 10 seconds until the carb was full(overflowing) , then i'd undo the fuel line and stuff a bolt in it....Then drive for appox 400m until the fuel ran out---then repeat again---and again- countless times untill i got home.

after a recent 4x4 outing in wombat state forest we somehow managed to sink a mates Turbo Diesel nissan patrol and found out his snorkel didnt work it resulted in a bent rod and pitted the top of a piston.

Due to lack of funds and equipment we decided we could pull the motor down in the car and just replace the bent rod, bearings and rings

after spending a good half day pulling all the manifolds, sump, head and the rest it off. We cant spin the crank to undo the last 4 conrods, close to an hour of swearing, blood, sweat, and almost tears went past. Trying to "force" the motor over from pushing the car in gear, levering the crank over, clicking the starter and drinking beer.

Thinking we're gunna have to bite the bullet and go hire an engine crane big enough to get the diesl out, buy an LS1 and "fix" it properly. my girlfriend points at the air con pump and says "is that belt still meant to be on"

Much to her delight and more swearing on our part the engine started spinning nice and freely once we undone the tensioner

datfreak

Ah!!! The thrill of SU's.

I had the same experience, only I drove 30 - 40km home.
It was only when I got home that I realised how lucky I was to be ALIVE !

Come to think of it, I drove it to the mechanics the next day.

What the hell was I thinking???

If i disclosed all my confessions I would be typing forever.

Way way back in the dark ages was asked to replace the speedo on a new
Austin 1800, strip type speedo.
You had to be a contorsionist to work on BMC vehicles.
Some of the dash screws were real hard to get at and i found that getting close to the steering wheel they were easier.
So I put my head through the steering wheel to get closer to em.
You Know whats comming.
Yeah , my head got stuck
The guys in the shop had to put petroleum jelly over my head to slip it out.
Got sh*t canned for it for months.

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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

Baz,

Hahahahahahahaha. Wish i'd been there to see that.

Dave

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USA Daily: 2014 Nissan GT-R, very minor modifications for the track
USA Project: 1978 280Z, minor suspension upgrades, VK56DE conversion in progress. SOLD
AUS Race Car: 1973 240Z, L28ET, Autronic, GT35R. SOLD
AUS Project: 1972 1600, 3200km old S15 SR20DET, ground up rebuild. SOLD

Nice confession brother Baz!!!