Project Avocado - 1971 1200 Coupe - USA

[njoz1200ute]

It was an afternoon in May like every other, checking parts for sale on the internet, when I came across this 1971 B110 Coupe for sale.

Here on the east coast the chance to buy a decent coupe or sedan does not come up everyday. Lucky for me I work in the same town that this car was posted for sale. I went to have a look at it after work and was pretty happy with the condition of the car. However, the car was not running. The previous owner promised me it ran and I came back a few days later after he fixed the points on the distributor and it fired right up. 

Took it for a test drive and was pleasantly surprised by the peppiness of the A12. It is numbers matching engine/body. Ran pretty good but had smoke on start up and sometimes at acceleration so may indicate bad valve seals. So I took a punt and bought the little coupe! Owned about 4 or so 1200 utes before (including my current B120 project build), but never a coupe. Also my first USDM datsun!

The car was missing alot of parts however. No cowl grilles, mirrors, bumpers, glove box, console, trim. Two front seats were in poor condition. Had an original passenger seat and the driver's seat was a dodgy old plastic drag racing seat held in with one screw. Missing seat belts too and few other parts.

Had temporary registration so I only drove the car a few times. Got caught in the rain one day. The wipers were not working so I had to manually operate them by disconnecting the linkage to the wiper motor and reaching in through the hole in the dash were there once was a radio and pull them back and forth. That's my aussie ingenuity kicking in.

Later on I found out the switch was disconnected on the dash. 
Horn not working, interior light not working, license plate light has a smash. Wrong front driver's side lamp. Both fenders in rough shape. Hood has a nice butt size dent in the front. Various rust holes in the body. The usual Datsun rust in all the usual Datsun places. 

Here are some photos from back in May when I first bought the car:

[AtomChurch]

Awesome!

 

Race car seats!

Nice find.

[Lockleaf]

I love these coupes. Very nice east coast find.

[qwik510]

Nice find. Congrats.

 

I saw this one on the local Craigslist yesterday.

 

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/cto/5740313377.html

[dukerollo]

In the north east, that car is rust free! What are your plans for it?

[njoz1200ute]

In the north east, that car is rust free! What are your plans for it?

 

Plans are to fix it up, tidy it up, and drive it daily !!

[njoz1200ute]

More parts that were missing - windshield washer bag, washer nozzle, heater hoses (cut), heater vents, defroster trim, rear seat belts, high horn, ignition switch, crankcase breather hose, and a few other small pieces.

First order of business was some ordinary maintenance. (Late May)

Rockauto is my friend. Oil change, oil filter, drain plug, spark plugs, leads, dizzy cap, new ballast resistor, fuel filter, ignition switch, radiator cap. All new. The ignition switch from rock auto turned out to be for a later model or a B210. So instead I stole the one from my ute.

Oil was very foul smelling. I don't think it was changed in a long time. Also the old drain plug was nearly welded on. It took a 2 foot long pipe on a wrench to pry it loose. 

Also discovered the fuel pump is disconnected. Electric fuel pump installed instead.

Gas cap leaking and needed replacement.

[njoz1200ute]

Some more shots of some exterior rust.

[njoz1200ute]

Had a quick peek under the carpets after the test drive and I did notice some rust there.

However, I didn't take a really really good look only a peek. The carpets were the factory ones which were bolted down to the floor so it was hard to really see.

So after a few weeks, sometime in June, I took the interior apart in the car totally. Took out the dodgy suicidal front seats (driver's seat was mounted by only 1 of the 4 bolts), the rear seat, the trunk cardboard, all the trunk trim, coin trays, kick panels, and all the carpet.

Rear seat belts were hidden below the seat and are pretty nasty. 




Lookey what we have here folks!







Nasty carpets







Passenger side even worse than the Driver's










Rear passenger floor. Only the area underneath the wire got roached out over time




Rear of car interior




This seat bolt was snapped off - passenger seat side.

[njoz1200ute]

Pulled out the old seats that came with the car.






Got some spares from fellow USA 1200 owners.





Chances of finding a matching driver's seat in good condition are slim to none on the east coast. For my 1200 ute build I had a set of Autotechnica (monza knock offs) racing seats that I brought over from Australia... After test fitting them in the ute a couple of times I decided they were too cramped in the cabin.

So no problemo, lets fit them to the coupe.

Easier said than done. This was a massive job. The seats unfortunately did not fit the original stock rails. There is a 1/4" difference left to right and a 1" difference front to back.

I originally tried to oval out 1/8" on each side of the stock rails but quickly found out it rendered the seats immovable. The bolts were blocking the movement of the sliders.

So I resorted to try and fabricate some new seat rails out of 1/8" x 2" flat stock steel.

I have never fabricated anything from steel before in my life. But I enjoy watching shows on TV where people are hand forging metal and making some really neat things and it inspired me to make these rails.

Here is my first attempt:

Took the flat steel and cut a length + approximate length of a bend.
Heated the metal with a MAP gas torch. Set in the vice and bend while hot. It took a few tries to get it the correct length. Had to bend a few of them back and start over.








Test fitting to the car, measuring and cutting, scribing the rails to the transmission tunnel

[njoz1200ute]

Once I had all the rails scribed and fitted well, I started fitting them to the seats:






Once bolted I set them to the car. Found out a major flaw I forgot to account for.
The bolt heads that bolt up into the bottom of the seat, foul the mounts on the car when placed in the car.

So I figured I had to resort to spacing the seat rails up higher. Unfortunately this meant I had to redo a few of the mounts because I didn't have enough meat on the bends to accommodate a spacer.

At this point in the build I did not own a welder. The only thing I could think of as a spacer was to cut out some 1/2" plywood shims.








I epoxied these to the steel seat rails. This gave enough clearance to bolt the seats in the car. Seat rails work fine. Job done. The seats are very comfortable.

 

[datsunfreak]

I like this.   :thumbup:

 

Also, never realized you were an Aussie...   ^_^

[njoz1200ute]

Sure am mate!.   :thumbup:

[Lockleaf]

Nicely done first fab. To me fabrication is one of the absolute most fun (and yet most piss me offish) part of building old cars.

 

Get a welder. It opens whole new worlds :)

[Charlie69]

Congrats on the find and I am so happy to see you change out those racing seats.

 

Lock leaf said, "Nicely done first fab. To me fabrication is one of the absolute most fun (and yet most piss me offish) part of building old cars."

 

This statement rings home for me as my brother and I have built 11 different steering columns for my 520.  We fab 4 different transmission tunnels for it.  We were lucky on the firewall and only had to do it once!

 

Keep at this and fix the floors.  You can probably source some good used floor sections here in the west. 

 

Here are some pictures of a car I know of but I am not knowledgeable B210 person.  This car is about 50 miles from my house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If these floors will work the next time I am out there I can see if the floors are good and how much Reed would want for them.

[njoz1200ute]

In preparation for the rust repairs I bought a cheapo Fluxcore MIG welder. I cannot afford a good welder it is just out of my budget.

I know that TIG or gas/MIG is best for sheet metal but the Fluxcore will have to do until the next Datsun comes along. So far it has been tedious work. Lots of blow outs, lots of welds that look like boogers. I made a copper heat sink out of some pipe pounded flat and that seems to help alot

Here is the start of rust repairs. 

Damage from rust


Preparing a patch panel


Cutting out the rust



To be continued.

I also took the opportunity with my new welder to make some cross braces for the seat rails that I fabricated. Hopefully this will make the sliding operation a bit more smooth and give them overall strength.












The passenger seat rails had a few extra holes drilled in them where I mis-calcuated the 1/2" shim. So with the welder I was able to fill the figure eight shaped holes and redrill just one circular hole. Maybe a little pedantic but it was bothering me. OCD kicking in.

So far for my third time welding anything in my life it turned out okay.

Next I pulled the dashboard out of the car. Had to buy a steering wheel puller tool to get the cracked and worn steering wheel out. Can't figure out why but someone epoxied the screws for the horn pad onto the steering wheel so I had to drill the screws out. Then pull out the horn pad, then use my steering wheel tool and remove the steering wheel.

Dissassembled the heater controls. Removed a few wires and taped them with labels.

Observations so far. 

Speedometer was disassembled. Seems a bit dodgy.











Tacho wiring is a bit weird. Is this the reason that the tacho lights did not work?
What in the hell is this jumper with a white cube?








Some other mystery wires. What do these go to?

[thisismatt]

The white cube is just a little buzzer. Looks like someone was using it as an audible circuit tester

[njoz1200ute]

I have finished the rear passenger patch panel.

Here were some progress photos and other happy snaps along the way.

Photos taken at 80% complete on the patch panel.
More photos to come.

[njoz1200ute]

The white cube is just a little buzzer. Looks like someone was using it as an audible circuit tester

 

Weird.  I think maybe someone made a buzzer if the lights were left on and the car was turned off.  I never really noticed a sound.

[datsunfreak]

Are those 12" slots?!?

[S30Jay]

Was this the car that was for sale near Allentown/Bethlehem? I remember wanting to go have a look at it but I really want in a buying position at the time.

[njoz1200ute]

Was this the car that was for sale near Allentown/Bethlehem? I remember wanting to go have a look at it but I really want in a buying position at the time.

Yessir

[njoz1200ute]

Are those 12" slots?!?

 

I thought they were 13" but I had a closer look and they are 12" !!  Wow.   :confused:

[njoz1200ute]

Here are some pictures of a car I know of but I am not knowledgeable B210 person.  This car is about 50 miles from my house.

 

 

 

Thanks for the generous offer of going out and having a look for me.  That is very humble of you.  I had considered this but instead I forked out $450 for new floor pans from Automotive Panel Craft in Australia and will be getting them in the mail soon.

 

This way they are new and are supposed to fit right in.   If not I am going to get my money back!

 

I already noticed from their pictures on eBay that the new pans extend past the seat cross rail which means they expect me to take out the seat cross rail and put it back in.    :blush:

 

I questioned them by email and they told me to trim them how I see fit.   Very political answer.

[datsunfreak]

I thought they were 13" but I had a closer look and they are 12" !!  Wow.   :confused:

 

Makes sense as the factory wheels were 12" . Those used to be somewhat common, but haven't seen any in 10+ years...