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'79 620 daily


Gary

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ratsun!

 

after lots of 'gdamnn i want one of those', 'nah cant have one', 'no room', 'already got a daily', 'already got a datsun', thoughts running through my head - i found one local, price and condition was alright so thought fuck it ill get it

 

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sorta hard to find over here, specially styleside. its a late model (79) long wheel base job, not kingcab :( equipped with the furious power that is the J15 (definately needs some L series in there)

 

plans arent extravagant, first problem is getting it prepared for a RWC which im gunna need to get it registered in my name so i can haul about legally. its in previous owners name for now, he's happy with that until i get it sussed so not so bad. needs quite a lot until its up to scratch, but most of the body is solid, chassis is solid so its not all bad

 

along the way ill be trying to make it a little more daily friendly;

ill try find a bench seat, very hard to find down here though

exhaust could do with some attention, might look into making some extractors. i think a fair whack of noise is coming from poor flanges, pretty noisy under the bonnet

wheels need some white paint

tub needs cleaning and holes welded up (had a canopy)

bits of rust here and there need attention before rego man

ill probs take towkit off

make up some nice seatcovers, depends if i can get me a bench

get some noise inside, cheap stereo or something

fix guages, most are busted

fix glovebox

retrim dash

engine is leaky and not overly maintained, needs a good clean flush and tune, tappets are noisy and carb is missing filter and some linkages (i think for the autochoke bit), running rich as too. better than lean i spose

rear shocks are busted

shackle bushes are gone, ill probs make some urethane jobs

ratsun sticker will be on the way soon :D

if ive got time i was thinking about making a hard tonneau cover for the tub so no sneaky rats can pinch stuff out of the back

if i do ill de-hook it too i think

 

and whatever else needs doing before rego

 

in future ill look into;

720 front brakes, ive got hubs at either end but its balljoint front end so swap is simple i think

once rego'd ill lower the front and rear so it sits a little nicer

ill look into a nice L16 or L18 (later chassis, i think L series bolts in?), depending what i can get away with without engineering (i think L18 might be pushing it)

remove the stupid idea that was the column shift manual :\ (fun for a while but doesnt feel natural) get it on the floor where it belongs

ill look around for an earlier series front end (grille etc), kind of like it more

rising sun somewhere, havent decided where yet

not sure if ill get some workshop action on the doors yet, ive got a small business but dunno if it'd be suitable. suss it i spose

id like to make some toolboxes to sit in the tub just before the wheel wells, not required at the mo though so that might wait until ive got time to mess about

 

all in all ive got lots of work to do and will be working on it every day i can! ill update as i go, will be good to see what it was and what it'll someday be

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i did get it off dan, ya :D found it on ozdat when he was advertising both the white and orange one. so far as he tells me the orange kc is quite fargone :( shame hey, if i had the space id at least give it a crack

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when mine had the J series it shat itself majorly as the gearing was incorrect...

 

still its your car id imagine a L series swap to be quite easy without any problems

 

It may be like the 520/521s that had J13s in them. The L series won't just 'drop in' because the mounts for the J are differently placed on the frame.

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thanks for the nice comments :) its not that clean in person though, its had a top coat of white put onnit in the last few years im told, but rust is coming through in quite a few spots. authorities here are pretty anal with rust so it'll all be cut out and replaced or treated depending. does look good in pics though hey hehe

 

sparkle i dont hate column shift as such, just dont really like it. im sorta used to it now so its not so bad, just on the floor would be nicer i reckon. plus id love a 5th gear in there someplace. cool that theres NZ'ers here :D you get some nice cars over there, authorities are lenient with conversions too so i hear!

 

dehooking looks goooood but i see your point, might have to have a think about that one

 

mike im told the later chassis for these were a touch different with the how the engine mounts, and L series can bolt in with the right mounts and without messing about with the frame. i dunno myself though, ill suss it

 

ive been working on it today, nothing interesting just a few tidy ups;

debadged the front quarters and the grille, badges werent so good lookin as they were and looks cleaner without so off they came. ill cut back and weld up the holes when i get into bodywork a bit later

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towkit is off and numberplate isnt held in by an ockey strap anymore, wiring was pulled up out of sight and so were the chains for the spare wheel winch

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tub was pretty filthy (nice cocktail of dirt, oil, bolts, wheel nuts and screws) and had a toolbox full of spares i didnt really want in there anymore, so removed the box and and degreased and pressure washed the tub. paint was chipping off with the pressure washer, looks like it'll need a strip back and some POR15 so thats added to the list

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gunna hit my local parts professionals tomorrow to see what they have in books that i can order from. i dont think there'll be much but we'll see i spose

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Zendar sent me some pics of how the J15 mounted in his 620, and the mounts weren't in the normal J-series place (on the timing cover) but mid-block like the L-series, so it's quite possible the frame mounts are mostly compatible. The only issue will be the oil filter, which will likely interfere with the steering shaft. I know most RHD L-series engines have an adapter that sets the filter at an angle so it will clear, but that was for cars like the Silvia, Bluebird, and Violet, which don't have solid shafts.

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thanks :D

 

mr aholic, sounds good :) i can get relocation kits if i need, which is basically a sandwich plate with lines out to a fitting for the filter you can put whereever you like. see how it goes when i do it :D

 

ordered a pile of fresh bits today, hopefully be in by monday ready to go

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gossome stuff on saturday, the chap at the shop said monday but when i rocked in on sat to get some plugs for a mates car he dropped all the bits i ordered on the bench as well :D legend

 

shocks, plugs, gasket kit, some nice oil etc

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also got one of these from ebay, the chap i bought it off came to the door in his underwear :\ obviously comfortable with strangers heh

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i picked up some 2mm steel sheet too so i could make some tuff door trims to house speakers for the new stereo, will get onto that soon. probs when i get some 4 or 5way 6x9's, hopefully get an alright result doing it that way (ie with only two speakers)

 

this weekend was taken up working on this little beast;

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its a milano X1-e, a very rare version of a nissan pulsar which you chaps might know as a nissan sunny :D dramas with compliance here so the owner had to put a CA18DET innit so it'd be legal (go figure), so now its an AWD 1.8 turbo hatch :D pretty close to having it on the road legally

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swapped out shocks for new ones today, the old ones were busted up pretty good. a lot less squeeks and knocks while driving now which is nice :D ordered some cheapish 6x9's today which should be here soon. tomoz im planning on resealing engine bits and servicing it while im at it. might have a go at tuning the carb too

 

heres new rears, ive gone for KYB over monroe, i see less busted kyb's with more km's than i do monroes so kyb it is! i cleaned up the diff housing a touch, hopefully RWC wont pick on it. the bottom pins on the old shocks didnt have rubber bushes and the pins were actually bent. shocks themselves still seemed to work alright though

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new front ones, the old ones were in baad shape. the steel sleeve was loose enough to fall out of the eyelet when i removed shock, and had lost all damp and rebound function

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heres part numbers if anyone needs. i got some 720 KC ones (what the listing said anyway) but according to monroe they're all the same between 520, 620 and 720. they fit fine so no arguments there :)

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more stuffffff

 

over the last 3 days ive opened up the bonnet for some attention in there

 

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valve cover came off, valve tolerances were all up and down the shop, got them all even. painted the cover too while i was there, looks slightly better than blue/grease stained/flaky paint. back down with new bolts and gaskets (two were the wrong thread pitch and just forced in :\)

 

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while i was there, sump came off cos it was leaky as hell, so cleaned and painted that also and new gasket

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removed water pump fan and replaced it with a thermo i had lying around

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removed front timing cover to do front main, still had most of a can of paint left so painted that too. removed and replaced water pump and thermostat (wasnt opening), cleaned up rad hoses cos they werent bad, radiator mounts were busted so araldited em back on, and gave the radiator a quick flush, cleaned up stuff like lower crossmember and the steering linkage bit, all covered in a quarter inch of grease. fresh plugs, oil and filter

 

also got some 6x9's off ebay, might get into that before bodywork, see how it goes

 

tomorrow ill make blanking plate for fuel pump removal (its got an elec one, so mech one isnt doing anything but making noise), refit the airbox to carb (will probs need a clean), i'll pull off exhaust and intake manifolds for a clean and new gasket, then start it up see how it sounds with its new valve tolerances and oil etc, then see if i can stop carb running rich

 

then just drop the box if i can be bothered to check rear main and give it a clean, maaaybe stereo too before i can get into bodywork next week, i might have some stuff worth taking pics of then :D

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last couple days have been alright

 

made blanking plate for fuel pump and fitted it

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made a blanking plate for EGR crap (currently acts as a pretend thermal spacer until i pass RWC, then egr stuff comes off and plate stays on :D)

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while i had the grinders out i removed the mounting bits for the intake filter box etc. no real reason other than it looks a touch smoother

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i opened up the pushrod inspection plates and resealed em, manifolds came off for some cleaning, made new carb gaskets and cleaned up carb a little, pulled busted studs from head and carb (seems previous owners didnt like fine threads and just forced normal threaded nuts on em) and replaced most of em, im getting more tomoz to finish the job

 

and whilst rummaging through the spares that came with, i found this! win!

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also wanted a desktop background so took a few photos in the garage, and found my brothers laser pointer so had some fun with that too;

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whilst putting stuff together i found the elec fuel pump was wired up by twisting wires together :\ ground was exxy and the fuel line was right next to open wiring likely to have shorted. all fixed now, pump works harder too now with a decent ground. i got some new hose and redid the feed fuel line, replaced the nasty filter that was already on it, got the breathers going to where they should go

 

now its all back together and running again :D rad now has a leak thanks to my accidental drilling of a tube, suss that later. runs quite a lot better now, still a bit noisy but doesnt choke on WOT anymore only slightly hesitates (a bit more careful fiddling i think will fix), and is quieter cruisin about. noticeably smoother too which is nice

 

i got some of these in the mail today too;

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ive got one spare now thanks to handsome mario, gotta think of somewhere cool to put it

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bit of an update

 

i dropped the box to clean it and check rear crank seals, the box was under a good 1/4in of gunk and still isnt perfect but a lot better than it was. the slipyoke bit seal was busted so new one of them is now in, clutch looks alright so that's going back in, i resealed the box's sump while it was out, and had a peek inside - nothing untoward which is nice. while dropping the tailshaft noticed the center bearing rubber bit is busted, and a few more problems

 

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i came to find the rear main wasnt like other rear mains id done, and needed the sump dropped again, which isnt so bad cos the cork gasket i used had already failed, on the sump, timing gear cover, waterpump and the plates that cover the pushrods. fuckinnnnnnnnn

 

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onto some bodywork while i wait until i can gessome more seals :D existing ones have already failed :(

 

i took the tub off today, was held in with 4 out of the usual 8 bolts, all mismatched and using wheel nuts as nuts :\ will all be replaced with what should be there. no chassis rust so far, except for the rail just below inbetween tub and cab, that's rusted out bad, so i'll chop it out and make a new section to weld in. ive noticed the cab is in some strife, looks like someone has jammed inside full of styrofoam and bogged over the top. ive poked lots of holes through the sills, and a few other sections. floor seems alright though

 

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tub isnt so bad, in corners its gone through and has had some work done to it already. ive decided to dehook it, and smooth out whereever i can. ill just make hooks to suit the channels inner lip so if i need to tie anything down those can just be at the end of rope and not actually attached to the shit

 

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hoping to kill all the hooks tomoz and weld up at least all of the top rails tomoz, see how it goes

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progress over the last couple days

 

i managed to dehook it all, still needs cleaning up underneath the rails

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hack job still, wont be perfect but enough to seal the tub with a tonneau onnit

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ive made this rail non removable, im not ever gunna take it off now that that headache bar isnt there any more, all the bolts are gone, and ive welded the gaps either end so it looks a bit more flush. again not perfect but looks alright. dunno why i didnt take a pic of it, but this was before i welded the ends

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just got into this at the end of the day, rusted through the panel and the 2mm supports for it :( ill cut it all out and replace it with the fresh sheet i picked up yesterday

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tonight ive pulled the engine down again to replace the stoopid gaskets that've already failed. also having a crack at replacing the rear main which needs doing, most of its apart, im half half with replacing bearings (reasons other than cost), see how it goes i spose

 

ive sorted out how i'm going to effectively remove the cab cos that also needs work once the tubs complete, one less 'wtf am i gunna do there' to worry about :D

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Cool man! I hear the ones with a real bed rather than a tray are harder to find down there.

 

You know, about that J-series. I'd be curious what bolt on goodies from the MG crowd would fit on there. (Your engine is a evolution of the BMC B-series, and folks would bolt your J head on their British blocks.) The British guys have done about everything they can to get a few more horses out of that design. Cross-flow heads, Moss superchargers, etc!

 

Also you might be able to source a J16 or even a J18 (Though the latter may only be in mexico.) I am pretty sure the 16 and the 18 were 5 main engines too!

 

Finally, a MGB 1800 might work too! Though I'd imagine the mounting points are up on the timing cover like the early J's. I've seen pics of a j18 where they had the mounting point in both places still, but they used the mid mount like I'd guess yours is.

 

This said, since you have the mid engine mount, an L might bolt in!

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interesting :D

 

its true tubs are pretty rare over here but i did find a chap on ebay pressing completely new shortbed tubs for 2k (around 1800US) so we're not completely short of getting one :)

 

cool ideas with the J series :D i didnt know any of that. i hadnt really planned on keeping it in there for too long, just long enough for a few long trips about the place while i get L series bits together for a quick conversion

 

that said i cant imagine selling the J series (who'd want it here!) so if it finds use for something else in future - swapped into a basic rail chassis for some fun or something - its history with MG stuff will be very useful, thanks!

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