Orange Juiced

[dozenhundred]

I bought this 73 1200 coupe from George (MAZDAT) back in July of 09. I am now finally able to start a write up about it.

 

 

 

Overall the body and paint are in pretty good shape. The interior is not so great. No carpet, rear trunk floor gone and plastic side panels all cracked up. The dash pad is cracked everywhere. The gauge fascia was cut horribly for a stereo, and then painted black. Glove box door painted and flaking. I could go on. The headliner is fair and it has some decent seats. I think they are out of an Integra. The steering wheel is not stock but is a keeper.

 

 

 

The engine runs pretty good. It has a carb off a 71 since it has no electric choke and the cable is not hooked up. The air cleaner is not the right one but works for now. The underhood area needs paint and cleanup. There are many oil leaks. It appears to have a new regulator and the alternator is noisey. New battery.

 

 

So my big plans?

 

Well I bought this to be a driver, not a show car, but I do want it to be nice. I will keep the A12 for drivablilty and economy reasons. I have started back to school at 46 for electrical engineering. I may at some point make this an electric car ala White Zombie, but not for drags. That will wait for a few years to decide.

 

My first car was a 72 coupe back in 81. That one even had air conditioning. I will put air in this one too, but since the underdash units seem non-existant now, I will put an vintage air unit in and take out the stock heater altogether. The rest of the interior will get a makeover.

 

Exterior mods will be minor. New or cleaned up bumpers. New or cleaned up trim etc. The only non stock parts here will be the wheels and I will add an air dam. The wheels are old Appliance 14x6 and have 185/60/14's. They fit nicely except that someone replaced the wheel studs on the right front with longer ones and the lugs don't tighten all the way without washers under the wheel, so it rubs a bit on turns. I will have to fix that. The windshield is cracked. All the weatherstripping needs to be replaced.

 

I have already started accumulating parts for a 280zx strut/brake/coilover swap. I like the way it sits, so I won't go lower. It has a 1" block in the rear.

 

When I bought it it really hopped around in the back. I found out the rear shocks only had a half inch of travel left, so I replaced them with KYB GR2's. It is much better but a bit firm. I want to put aftermarket sway bars on it.

 

I will add a post on the rust repair job and other things I completed just before I moved to Utah this month. Since it is winter here I don't think I will get much done for a while but I'll try. I don't think this car has a thermostat at all so I need to do that without a garage and in the snow AUGH. Oh well.

[bonvo]

i like it but please for the love of not hsving to rewire the car get a real battery tiedown

[ggzilla]

Nice, love the paint and the blackout scheme. Wheels look great too. The air cleaner looks stock. This 1200 guy has the entire A/C setup for sale.

[KELMO]

Nice, love the paint and the blackout scheme. Wheels look great too. The air cleaner looks stock. This 1200 guy has the entire A/C setup for sale.

 

The new setup on this site is freakin this old fart out...quoted GG and don't know how I did it. Any way, good looking ride. Orange and black always looks good on a coupe. X2 on what Bonvo said about the battery hold down, PM me if you can't find part #'s for em.

The air cleaner looks almost like a later model with smog stuff but the intake air horn seems a little short.

 

Have fun with it

[datzenmike]

If you click on the small 'reply' button, with the green + and dialogue balloon, directly under the post you will get the quote. (you can always erase it and continue)

 

Better if you look lower down for the' Add Reply' button with the larger circular green arrow beside the 'Start a new topic' button.

[DRIVEN]

Looks good! We have the same steering wheel - 1977 B210GX. Do the 280zx ball joints get used for the strut/brake conversion or something else?

[Charlie69]

Great Pictures Beautiful car. And dont miss the Desert DaTsun Swap Meet on January 23.

[610SSS]

Awesome 1200 coupe mate, Keep the pics coming. :thumbup:

[dozenhundred]

Thanks for the comments all. As to the battery hold down, that was one of my first fixes. It isn't the factory unit, but something I had laying around. I replaced the water pump and had the radiator out in the process, so I cleaned up and painted that area. Krylon pumpkin orange is a pretty good match. I found while I was cleaning up that the coil is a chrome MSD blaster that had been painted black.

 

 

I had fits getting it to pass emissions in AZ till I found that whoever rebuilt the carb had the primary and secondary main jets swapped. I will have to get it smogged here in UT also. Also will have to replace the windshield for the safety inspection.

 

There were a few little things that really bugged me that I worked on right away. I had to put in a new starter switch to get rid of the two wires hanging down near the key that you had to touch together to start the car. The car has H4 conversion housings running through the stock wiring. The fuse box was melted at the headlight fuse. So I put in a new fuse box AFTER I wired in relays and 10ga. wire to the lights.

 

 

To open the hood you had to grab the cable with pliers since it was broken. I made a new one with a bicycle brake cable. I will do a how to on that one.

 

I'm hoping to get the dash and radio in this week. It's just hard to get motivated when its only 20 something degrees and I have no garage now.

 

 

Wish I could hit the swap meet Charlie69, but since I'm now in Utah...

 

Driven- for the 280zx swap from what I have read you use 310 (US 210 but not B210) ball joints, lower arms, castor rods, outer TRE, and steering arms. I have the struts with the coil mounts removed, disc's and calipers. Need the 310 stuff, strut inserts, and coilover kit.

 

All for now. Rust pics coming soon.

[ggzilla]

Love that snow picture. By the way "Datsun 310" is a front-wheel drive car, while "Datsun 210" (model B310) is the rear-wheel drive car with the good suspension parts.

[OpelWagenGT]

nice coupe I love the color and I do like the wheels. What are you planning on changing the wheels to?

[mazdat]

Looking pretty good Kelly, keep those pics coming, switching the jets, did it made a difference on the way it runs? I'll let the shop who did the carb rebuilt know that they f**ked up, i use them all the time, this is a first for them.

 

I like the pic of the 1200 in the snow

[mazdat]

Nice, love the paint and the blackout scheme. Wheels look great too. The air cleaner looks stock. This 1200 guy has the entire A/C setup for sale.

 

Those are the wheels I got from Zrac3r

[OpelWagenGT]

If we can't get pics of progress lets at least get some of you doing mad drifts in the snow in your 1200! :D I have an addiction and we aren't getting any snow here this year.

[bonvo]

beautiful mani love how the wiring is nice and clean not a jumbled mess i have seen way to many people just throw it in there (my friend down the street for example ran he wiring for his stereo above the carpet over the back seat to the amp ) im glad im not the only one who likes clean wiring

[dozenhundred]

Thanks Bonvo, I believe in being neat with the wiring. I had to remove quite a few bad wiring jobs on this thing.

[bonvo]

i bet alot of people see wiring as a nightmare i personally enjoy it and when its done right most wont even know its there and it will do its job better then expected

[dozenhundred]

I'm finally getting to the rust pictures and repair job I did back in December. First here is the damage (can you say flintstones) :P :

 

Front pass side, the worst area:

 

Pass side rear floor (the lighter area is a hole):

 

Drivers side rear:

 

In these next two you can see some odd damage at the seat mount risers. Mazdat thinks someone tried to jack it up in the wrong area. I have no idea how this could have happened.

 

And the drivers side front:

 

It was honestly much more damage than I wanted to deal with, but I was moving to snow country and had 3 days to get it sealed up. I bought some sheet metal at Home Depot. It is 18 gauge and a bit thicker than the stock metal. I also bought some clamps at Harbor Freight. I used my father in laws Miller Challenger 172 MIG welder. It was way overkill, couldn't turn it down enough so had to work very slow. I would recomend a smaller 110 volt welder if you want to do this stuff. It is done now, and I rattle canned it for now. In the spring I will do a POR 15 treatment inside and out.

 

How the clamps work:

 

And the finished areas:

 

 

 

 

Glad to have it done honestly, don't really want to do that again. I also put in new door seals along with this job. I thought that the water was getting in there, since they were half missing. Made the car pretty noisy with bad door seals and holes in the floor! <_< But it still leaks. It is coming from the body seam up under the dash. I need to look into cleaning out the drains and sealing that up too. The back window seal leaks too.

 

I bought one of those 5 piece seal kits off e-bay, and I can say the stuff is good quality but be prepared to wait a while for it to arrive. It took 45 days, and they do warn of that in the auctions. I haven't done the rear window seal yet, for now I cover the car.

 

Thats all for now.

[dozenhundred]

Just added a How To thread on fixing my hood release cable.

 

See it here: Hood Release Fix

[OpelWagenGT]

How much did the seal kit run you? What seals did it exactly come with?

 

I whas thinking about trying to get universal door seal by the yard from JC whitney by finding the closest thing but I'm not sure if that will work.

[dozenhundred]

Hey OpelWagonGT,

You can find the five piece kits on ebay quite often. Four piece kits are available too, without the trunk lid seal. It cost about $150.00. It includes a windshield seal, rear window seal, trunk lid seal and both door seals. The price seems in line with what i have found onlne for these. a JCWhitney seal may work on the doors but you would have to miter cut and glue the upper corner as it makes a 90 degree angle. I'd try that myself if you don't need the other seals. I needed the windshield and back window seal also so I bought the kit.

[OpelWagenGT]

Cool thanks for the info. My idea is exactly what you are talking about. I really just need the door seals and the stupid little pivot window seals. :angry:

[KELMO]

Opel,

 

I just put door seals on my coupe and used ones for a 720 P/U. 80830-01W00 and 80831-01W00. Granted they were a little too long, but they had the 90 degree rear corner already there. Not perfect but they worked and only had to cut out about 5 inches. Still workin on the vent glass seals.

 

Kelmo

[dozenhundred]

Still workin on the vent glass seals.

 

Kelmo

 

If you're talking about the quarter window seals I have seen them listed on at least four Australian sites but they aren't cheap. 150 to 230 aussie dollars. If you want to spend that much and haven't seen them let me know and I'll post some links.

The other Kelly

[OpelWagenGT]

I like the idea of the 720 seals. I am assuming they are easier to find? and cheaper?