Kelmo's Coupe Build(?)

[KELMO]

Well, the camera died and I been trying to figure out my phone camera. So lets see how that worked out for me.

 

Hood back from paint and installed

 

Far off shot with hood on

 

test run for the grille. gotta do some painting and repair first.

 

Well cool they worked. been driving it to work for the past couple weeks, just runs a little hot for my liking but it is summer time.

Edited June 27, 2010 by KELMO

[KELMO]

So, I have put about 400 miles on the car and started to hear something clattering around the motor. Determined it to be rocker noise. Now, I am not really a mechanic...and adjusting valves I almost have down but not to the point that if I do something wrong I can get it back to right. So I work with a guy who is an old school mechanic and drove it to his house today to adjust the valves. Well, we start at cyl#1 and the intake valve wont close all the way and has about a 1/4 " gap between rocker arm and valve stem. So we adjust the arm down as far as it will go, start it, no run. Long story short... there is something rattling around cyl #1 possibly the valve seat. So the head is coming off tonight or tomorrow and I'll see what I got to deal with. Will post pics as soon as I see what I got.

[KELMO]

So what I got was......Intake valve seat at # 1 piston came loose. No real damage but we are going to switch to a different motor that I have and may possibly be putting on 2 webber side draft carbs if we can get em to fit. Here are a coouple pics of the cyl head and top of the piston.

 

 

 

you can kinda see where the valve was hitting the piston in the first pic and at the top of the intake valve you can see where it has been hitting the head.

[KELMO]

Well since I had it apart, I thought I would do a mock up with the side draft webbers............

 

 

 

 

Gonna have to do something about that brake master.....maybe later. Just gonna go stock carbie

 

 

 

Always put your header in position FIRST on an A motor....lesson learnt

 

Wasn't that attached earlier?

 

 

Well, thats all I can stand for today

[goes2fast]

I started following your build for a couple of reasons, I used to live in Albuquerque in the 70s, and when I did, i had a 72 1200 coupe. It was red with 13X7 American Libras like BRE used on the 510 transam cars. Your garage looks just like the tiny one I had when I lived in "The Heights", no room to work inside. I liked living there, but tough making a good living, so moved back to Colorado, where the pay is better. Your build is looking good, I always liked the 1200s, I used to get 42mpg with mine on trips, put a Weber DGV on yours, rejet it, and you could do better than that even. The best I ever did with my stock 620s when they were new was 27mpg, the 76 I have now gets 30 or better on the highway with a DGV. I was thinking about buying another 1200 that was for sale here a month ago, but decided I didn't have time for another project, so passed, and I'm buying an almost finished project from a neighbor down the street that is a brand X. I've always been a Datsun guy, but this car was too cool to pass up, and a good price too. When it's home I will post about it in the other makes section. Good luck with the rest of your build. :cool:

[KELMO]

Yep, I live in the "Heights", only in the 70's this was open space...north and east of the academy. Any ways, car is running again but its gonna sit this week....crankshaft bolt backed out and I'm too tired to EF with it.

[goes2fast]

Yep, I live in the "Heights", only in the 70's this was open space...north and east of the academy. Any ways, car is running again but its gonna sit this week....crankshaft bolt backed out and I'm too tired to EF with it.

 

Bummer, better locktight it next time. I lived about 5 blocks east of Manzano High School. I just bought a new toy, a Lexus SC 300 with Supra twin turbo engine, suspension with coilovers, and brakes. I've wanted one for years, but couldn't afford one til now, but only because I got a deal on it. What a kick to drive, when that second turbo kicks in, it mashes you back in the seat. :D

[KELMO]

So, the car is back together and runnin (well mostly), so here are some pics of the grille

 

What I started with

 

half way there

 

meh, looks like my connection on the other session got lost.. try to post some more up later

 

KT

[ggzilla]

Nice that you are restoring the Coupe grille. Most guys purchase a new pickup grille, they look similar but are the wrong color.

[KELMO]

Thanks GG. My grille is the wrong color too, but like they say....."its your car,build the way it suits you. I went with white for the accent part instead of silver. just couldn't find the right shade and well, I had the white already so what the heck.

 

close up finished....

 

finished, installed

 

Gonna try a little hiway drivin today (60 to 70 miles), see if I can cure some smoking issues (still not sure the rings are seated). Then next week its time to check and or replace the carb float....never done that before either

[goes2fast]

Looking great, just wish we could see how you got there, big jump from ugly green and beat up to mostly primed, and some white, would like to see how you got there. :unsure: Keep up the great work though, I still think you would be happier with a Weber DGV carb, much easier to tune, and more reliable. :cool: You might want to think about changing to a flat or satin white on the grill to give it a little contrast to the white on the rest of the car, but will still tie it in, just an idea? If it was mine, I would have painted the whole grill satin black, with just the emblem contrasting colors, but that's my taste, a little more subtle. ;)

[KELMO]

Sorry, I'm just not that detail oriented, and only spend a short amount of time on the copmuter ;)

I still have a can of Krylon semi-flat so if I decide I don't like the white on the grille....back in black baby.

This car is what it is..a true POS daily driver. The only reason the hood is painted is cuz I think it was the last new one in the states when I got it and it only cost me $60.00 to paint it. And well quite honestly, It is the only straight panel on it :lol:

[goes2fast]

You may think it's not that important, but even though it's just a pos daily driver, it is still one of the best economy cars ever built, and an important part of Nissan's history. Plus there are other people with no experience that go to these build threads to learn how to repair their own cars. It is good to share your experiences with others, you both get to learn from them. I just gave a pointer to a guy in Australia on how to do his seat covers a better way to make them come out better, if he wasn't posting every step of his build I wouldn't have seen that he was having a problem keeping his fabric smooth while he was sewing it. You have a car that if you take care of it, will last for a long time, and give you lots of great memories like I have from my 1200 that I had back in the early 70s, pos or not. When the day comes that you want to sell it, keep me in mind, I may be done with some of my project cars by then, and be ready to start another. Keep up the good work on your coupe, and remember, your pos may be someone else's diamond in the rough! :D

[M.Creer]

Get those sidedrafts back on. Nice build.

[KELMO]

the sideys will have to wait for now. Brake master needs to be relocated....no time, no money, and need to learn how to do that :blink:

[M.Creer]

the sideys will have to wait for now. Brake master needs to be relocated....no time, no money, and need to learn how to do that :blink:

The sell them to me lol

[M.Creer]

Updates?

[KELMO]

was a little warm out this weekend.....lets see what we got

got some new tires for christmas for the 14's I have had since Feb of '10

up in the air

on the ground

on the ground from the back

believe it or not she just climbed in and sat down....she is a car dog

 

 

Edit: guess a little narration would have helped :unsure:

So, I put on the rears because I am still jacking with the fitment of the front wheels. The front caliper bracket sticks out a little too far for the wheel to fit flush with the hub ...so I have an offset issue. The pads and calipers are brand new OEM. I have ground down the bracket on the caliper that is interfering with the wheel but am starting to think about a spacer...1/8th inch or less.

The dog, well she's just nuts ;)

[KELMO]

So, I finally got around to puttin on the front whees/tires....he he yeah right. I had to grind down the caliper brackets about 1/4 inch. Car still stops well and does good when slamming on the brakes. Still got a little bit of rub so gonna see about maybe a 1/32 (?) spacer. So there is that issue. Next....I get wheel rub at the back of the right wheel/fender well, didn't have this issue on the left side as there was well....a dent in the perfect spot. Pound the wheel well back a bit ....fix the wheel rub. Where does it rub next you say?...left front fender, lead edge on right hand turn...damn.

 

Well, this car had a clip from a donor welded on so that could be part of the problem,) I also measured tire width front and back just to get an idea (flat on the ground measure side to side at the back of the tires and then repeat for the front). Royghly 1/4 out at the front compared to the rear measurement.

 

Now is it time to venture into body work and see if I can roll the bottom of the fender in a little? Never done any of that before, so bought some tools, got a piece of door skin to practice on and some spare fenders. Tried the search function with "body work with dollys" and got a whole bunch of threads with the words "work" and "body" and one that named teh spatula lookin thing as a slapper(?). Started reading through Bonvos build thread to see what I could learn in there and guess I'll keep lookin through some others

 

OK enough of my rambling oic time

 

tools

 

 

with just the rears

 

without the fenders

 

before I discovered wheel rub

 

gonna put the left fender back on and take a look see how bad off I am. Back to work

[KELMO]

So, I never did find anything about body work or using dollys etc so I worked a little on a spare fender.....here is the latest.

 

How close the tire was to the fender

 

The next ones show what I did with a dolly and a body hammer

 

 

 

Well the fender is on, got no fender rub. Looks like I didn't take a pic of it installed, have to do that today. Workin on a shift boot set up, car has a square hole cuz it was an automatic once upon a time and a standard is a round hole.

[bonvo]

lol started reading threw my thread? thats not gonna help you much, the only body work i did was work on my fender a little with borrowed tools. still glad to see this car progressing. the slots look bad ass even whith the modifications needed to make them work, though i cant help thinking a lower profile tire in the front would solve all your issues. i also think i would run slightly taller tires in the rear to take some of that gap out.

[KELMO]

Ya, I got through 10 pages or so and decided that wasn't gonna get it. Got to the point where your ride got t boned and gave up. I tried looking for a lower profile tire with no real luck in a 14" and staying with a 195 or 185.....so,there's that. As far as the fender modification, I just worked the spare fender to get an idea as to how to shape it and got sorta lucky

 

Next up: Car was originally an auto so I got a square hole and a round boot. I have a feeling theres goan be some redneck engineering on this ;)

[rusty12ver]

There are 185-55-14 tires, as well as 195-45-14, available in the states, Toyo makes the 45's and I think federal makes the 55 series tires.

[KELMO]

Was kinda set on the Falkens, well that and I already had 4 so...plus it seems that everywhere I looked people were puttin 195/60/14 on without too much of an issue. Anyway, these will work for now and when they are worn, well, I'll investigate other sizes...or pu=ound out some more metal :lol:

[patra_is_here]

hey I see a lot of sanding and painting and stuff, but what are you doing to prevent rust from coming back? are you using metalprep or rust inhibitor? hate to see all your work be for nothing when rust starts bleeding through in a year.

 

sanding rust away doesn't really get rid of it. need to chemically treat the metal.