Datsunrides

That looks to be a fine starting point! Surprising (to me) how different the sedan is from the coupe as far as interior and trim. What are the plans? Clean up and drive or restore or ??? As for the dash, there are a couple companies that can restore the pads to new. Not exactly cheap to go that route, but since yours is not that bad, you may want to try to fill in the cracks with plastic bumper repair filler and top it with truck bed liner and flat black paint. (saw it on a couple different sites and the results look good!) Mark

No reason it wouldn't technically work. Both an evaporator and intercooler are heat exchange devices. I would imagine the biggest problem would be that under a constant load, the heat generated by the turbo would overwhelm the freon's ability to transfer heat, and thus stop the cooling effect as there would be no liquid to gas transfer. The high pressure switch would probably cut the compressor before that point anyway. Just rip the bumper off and throw an obnoxiously large FMIC on and call it good! Mark

Why must it cost so much to ship even light items from down under? I may still hit you up as it will probably cost about the same here if I have to pay for the part and add shipping onto that. Can you check if they are in good shape when you get a chance? Mark

I should clarify by sedan, I do mean the 2 door version. Mark

Can anyone enlighten me as to if the coupe and sedan front side glass "holders" (the part that holds the glass and connects it to the winder) are interchangeable? 2 cars and 4 holders and they are all rusted to pieces! (looks like a poor design that trapped water) I will probably end up fabricating new ones, but if the sedan ones are the same, I may have some options vs. coupe ones. Mark

Thanks! and a little help from zzz Mark

List updated 1/3/10

Got the parts car yesterday evening and started tearing into it this morning. Bad news is the car is rusted beyond hope. Front pans are swiss cheese and pretty much all the metal from the rear seats back is either gone or hanging on by a thread. There is also bad rust under the quarter windows and it looks like the roof is starting to rust thru in places. Anyways, the good news is I will be able to score some nice parts from it and some spares to boot. Luckily, most of the parts I need for the yellow one are present and in good shape on the parts car. I'll get some pic up later. Mark

So the trip over christmas to pick up the parts car was a failure. I made it into AZ on Thursday, then got a message from the seller that a blizzard had just rolled into Oklahoma. Woke the next morning and the news was no better. All interstates in OK were still closed and the forecast was for them to maybe be open later in the day, when I would potentially be getting there, but would most likely be covered in ice and basically undriveable. Well, never having driven on ice, and with a good possibility the car would not be accessable anyways due to the snow, I decided to turn around and head home Friday morning. I have since made arrangements to have the car shipped to me (for a surprisingly good price. Why could I not have gotten a price like this before I tried to get it myself?) with the tenative arrival Jan 2-3. I had managed to finish some sub assemblies before I left, so here are a couple pics of that progress. Rebuilt knuckles. Has new bearings/seals/rotors/pads/brake hoses, and disc hardware. Rebuilt calipers and all metal parts were sandblaster and repainted. Cleaned and repainted crossmember/steering rack. Replaced tie rod ends Mark

double post

Stop it, I'm blushing.

Well, these cars, let alone parts, just don't seem to turn up at all. You gotta do what you gotta do to play the game. Since I don't personally plan to put it on the road, I'm only getting a bill of sale. There has been some interest in buying the car from me after I pull what I need so I will ask if it would be a big deal to try and get a title for it. I really won't know the extents of the rust until I pick it up. I was told it does have rust, but can't really see it in the pics I got, so hopefully it's minor. If this one ends up cleaner than what I have, it will be a no brainer to use it instead of the one I started. I must admit the thing that sent me over the top to go and fetch this one is the Dealer (I assume) A/C! This will make adding A/C much easier than going the universal aftermarket approach I was planning. I know these old systems don't really work well compared to modern, but period correct is cool in my book. (+ I still have 20 lbs or so of R12!) Mark

I just finished finalizing a deal to buy another coupe to use for parts to restore this one. This car has most the parts I need for mine, and seem to be in decent shape, or at the very least much better than what I currently have. I will have to travel about 1500 miles to get it, but what are you going to do when these things are as hard to find as they are? I am planning to drive to Oklahoma over christmas to pick it up and bring it home. Good news also is anybody else searching for coupe parts is I will be parting it out. Some must die for others to live. Mark

Been a while since I had a chance to work on the old girl, but did manage to get some stuff done over thanksgiving. Did nothing to the car itself, but managed to sandblast, epoxy prime, and paint a bunch of the parts I removed from the front of the car. I hope to finish up the rust repairs and spray down the undercoating before the end of the year. I'd like to get the color in the engine compartment down, but it looks like I will have to wait until spring, as it does get "cold" in cali (well, cold enough that I can't paint), Still am looking for parts, so if anyone hears/finds something, I'm all ears! Mark

That looks pretty well pitted. I would suggest replacing the metal if you plan on a long lasting repair. If that is not in the cards, be sure to use a good rust neutralizer on the bare metal, followed by an epoxy primer. I would try and weld the holes shut, but that would probably create more work due to the hole getting larger because of the thin metal around it. Try a reinforced filler in those areas like metal to metal for your best shot at a long lasting repair without metal replacement. Mark

Cool. One big step closer now. Love the bench stand. Is that an old factory "tool"? Mark

If the front seal is not available, a local bearing/industrial supply should be able to match something up. On the rust repair, best thing to do is get rid of it completely by grinding/sanding if possible. At the very least, get as much as possible and get a good rust inhibitor product from a professional autobody supply and follow the directions. I myself use a variety of sandblasters (depending on the area) to blast out the rust then use either a self etching primer or, prefferably, an epoxy primer. If you managed to pull the gasket out without damage, I'd say chances are good you can reuse it. I have never tried it, but I hear giving the rubber a good slathering of baby oil over a week or so will soften the rubber up a bit. If you are worried about leaks after re-install, you could always run a thin bead of silicone adhesive in the channel before you put it back in. I do this even with new rubber as extra insurance. As for the bodywork, if the dent is minor, you would be better off using a product that has a general name of "icing". It is basically a thinned out filler that I find easier to work with on small imperfections. If you do need to use a filler, also check a professional autobody supply as the "Bondo" sold in most parts stores is not good at all and much more difficult to work with (and tend to shrink bad over time- not good!). Be sure to have some sort of primer under the filler. Mark

I was at the JCCS show Saturday and was surprised to not see any. I thought I looked pretty good, but if anyone else went, did I miss them? Well, if indeed there were none, I hope to remedy that situation next year. (I took a Honda Accord this year) Mark

Made some progress on the rust repairs. After taking a closer look at what needed to be fixed, I decided against the panel adhesive. I just felt with the curves and such that it would be almost as much work as welding in new metal, so I am going to weld the new metal in. (yay) Here are the pics of the progress. 1st layer of new metal fabbed up. This goes from under the dash to the firewall and forms the bottom of the cowl. Welded in. 2nd layer of new metal fabbed up. This forms the vertical part of the cowl area and separates the cowl from the underhood area. And welded in. I still need to fab up the top plate for this section and work on filling in the center part with new metal. I hope to make a good dent in that tomorrow. I am still comtemplating whether I want to rebuild the tire well area (difficult) or simply weld a flat piece across the area (easy) and call it good. Probably will go with the easy option as I won't run a spare under the hood anyways and would look "cleaner" this way. If anyone reading this happens to have any NOS control arm and/or sway bar bushings collecting dust, please let me know as I will hopefully have the rust exorcised shortly then in color and I'd like to replace these parts while I have it apart. Mark

That's the same problem I keep having! Always seems to get another "deal" out there that I can't pass up, and the current project gets pushed to the side to play with the new toy. Mark

I managed to cut out the rusty parts under the cowl/shelf areas over the weekend and I think I will be able to fix it easier than I had initially thought. Before I start to explain, some pics of the weekend progress, since I know you all love pics. Sandblasting complete! (well, at least the area where I was working) Overall, the underside is pretty solid. I did find a little more rust on the left front corner of the front crossmember and a couple small pinholes in the drivers floorpan. There is also a bit of rust in the lower part of the drivers wheelwell. The floorpan/wheelwell rust was known to me, but I did not know about the crossmember. Not very bad, but there. I will deal with those after I fix the cowl. Now for some more pics. Sandblasted areas in epoxy primer! So, then I decided I want A/C in the car, and there is no time like the present to get it done, so my car now has A/C! Now, here is the plan of attack to repair the grot. The area is made up of 3 separate pieces of sheetmetal. What I plan to do is first bend up the piece that will go from the vertical area above the shelf to the shelf itself. Next will be the piece that forms the cowl and goes to the shelf. Finally will be the shelf itself. What I am hoping will be a huge timesaver is using an automotive panel bonding adhesive. I will make the new metal a little oversize and basically epoxy it in place. This will be done on all the areas that will not be seem in the finished product. The shelf area will be the only part actually welded in. We'll see how it goes. Mark

First, the carnage. The commentary, This is a sad day. So I pull the dash and heater out, and it does not look too bad so far. Then I notice some rust above the steering column/ brake brace. I pull that piece out and the sound deadner above it and my heart sank. It is pretty much eaten thru to the shelf under the hood. Note that this is not in the cowl area. At this point, between not being able to so far find/get a lot of the parts I would need to restore this car to my expectations, and the amount/difficulty of work it would take to properly repair the rust, I think I am leaning toward either parting the car out or selling it to someone who might be willing to tackle the repairs. It's a shame as the rest of the rust I know of is minor in scope and very easily repaired. I think the part that makes this such a downer is that it's not THAT hard to fix, so to speak, it's that all the repairs (cutting/welding/grinding) would have to be upside down, and those that have done it know that it is no fun at all. I'll probably do some more cutting over the weekend before I condemn it to parts car status so we'll see what direction I go in a couple days. Mark

Got the tire plate thingy off and the news is not good. The area underneath the very rear part of the plate is gone. I can see the inside of the car from under the hood! Hoping for some better news, I cut some of the grot out to access the area under the cowl and initially it looked good, until I started poking around. Turns out that part is completely rusted thru also. I guess I will have to pull the dash out and see just how far the rust has gone. If it's not much worse than what I see now, I will probably go ahead and fix it when I get a chance. If it's worse, it may mean the end of the car as a driver. Well, this sure throws a wrench in the plan for a quick turnaround. RUST SUCKS! Mark

Well, I guess I need to amend my "cowl area is in great shape" statement. While doing some more blasting this evening, I uncovered someones attempt at a repair right at the seam where the horizontal "shelf" meets the vertical firewall. It is pretty much centered around the plate where the spare tire would sit. The "repair" seems to have been some sort of material similar to fiberglass. Anyhow, I started grinding out the spot welds that hold the tire mount to the shelf to see the extents of the grot. BTW, where in the heck were they expecting that thing to go? Must be 20+ spot weld holding it down! Mark

The buildup of the wagon is here http://classiccolt.forumcircle.com/viewtopic.php?t=246 Have not done anything to the coupe, yet. :cool: Mark