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The Ratsun Roadster


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Hey everybody, figured I'd go ahead and start a build page on here for my 1969 Datsun Roadster 1600 aka the Ratsun Roadster.  I won't be going into a lot of detail with my updates.  I'll leave that for my Facebook page and YouTube channel, instead I'll post pictures and brief info on what's happened.  So with that I can start my first photo dump to kinda catch everybody up to where I currently am at with this project. 

 

When I first got it home:
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And then the clean-up process begins:

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A few weeks later I finally got around to tearing things down, and power washing everything down.

 

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It was at this point that I knew restoring this car was not an option, too much rust, too much damage.  But didn't mean I still couldn't have fun with it, like in my introduction post I decided to transform this rusty old Datsun into an American style rat rod.  Being RWD, 4spd manual, and a full frame car it has all the makings of one that's for sure.  So I'm chopping the front end off a the firewall to expose the frame.  Rebuilding my R16 engine, and throwing a Ford Model A front end on it.  While keeping things simple and inexpensive.  Purists are going to hate me, rodders and modders are gonna love it.  

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A little history on the car, the original owner bought it new and had it up until the early 80's.  The car was parked outside on a farm one day, the owner passed away and the car sat in the same place it was parked until the guy I bought the car from purchased it just a few years ago.  The previous owner of this car decided he was going to do a full on restoration of the car, started to collect all sorts of rare and hard to come by OEM and NOS parts.  After doing a lot of really nice work to the cylinder head, intake, carbs, valve cover ect.  He decided the project was more than he was ready to take on and was ready to part ways with it.  So I came along and snagged it for a VERY fair price.  And so now here we are...  Below are pics of some of the stuff the previous owner had done before I bought it, which makes my life much easier hehe.

 

Under those parts in the bubble wrap is brand new NOS door glass!

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I was pretty excited to see all these new, and cleaned up shiny parts!!

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And here are some of the fun stuff I've bought to start the process of making this a real rat rod ratsun roadster.

 

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Also, here is a couple of pics of the factory original seats going from rags to riches.  I was REALLY happy with how well these seats cleaned up.  Their gonna look really good in the finished product I feel.
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I love the idea... why not right...

My first though is you should section that ford grill to fit the height of the front of the datsun, and maybe position the lights in about the same location....

 

Not sure how much of the datsun stuff your keeping up front..

 

Another idea on the grill is make something similar to the Ford grill with the datsun pieces...

Use just the front edge of the hood, lower valance and the other parts from the front and make a similar frame...

Then it still looks like a datsun upfront and you will have the ratrod look your going for too..

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I love the idea... why not right...

My first though is you should section that ford grill to fit the height of the front of the datsun, and maybe position the lights in about the same location....

 

Not sure how much of the datsun stuff your keeping up front..

 

Another idea on the grill is make something similar to the Ford grill with the datsun pieces...

Use just the front edge of the hood, lower valance and the other parts from the front and make a similar frame...

Then it still looks like a datsun upfront and you will have the ratrod look your going for too..

 

The Ford grill actually fits pretty well as is, that picture of me holding it up is a very awkward position and angle that just makes it look huge.  If I remember off the top of my head, the width of the frame up front is 27inch, the grill is 22inch, and the mounting arms for the headlights will weld up almost perfectly to the side edge of the frame as well.  It's almost like it was meant to be haha, as for what I'm keeping Datsun and what's becoming Ford.  The grill, headlights, and radiator are all late 20's early 30's Ford everything else is staying Datsun.  I like your idea though, would be a unique and fun look as well.

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Maybe try to atleast get a cool datsun logo stuck in the the Ford grill....

I've seen some different "D"s that would look good there.....

 

This would look killer....

The flying rabbit from 1935...

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OMG THAT RABBIT IS A MUST!!!!  I HAVE TO FIND ONE NOW!!  Thanks for tipping me off to this, that is sooo cool!!

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Don't thank me to much.... i am pretty sure they are super rare and expensive...

I think I saw one on the Japan eBay for something like $3000...

 

I don't think it's reproduced other than maybe a one off reproduction....

Even if you had to make it i think it would be worth it.....

But I have no Idea what that would cost....

If you find someone with a 3d printer and someone with a small metal shop I think it's possible....

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I am thinking the grill surround and radiator is going to be way too tall, if you set the grill surround on the ground in front of the car it likely will still stick up higher than the hood.

This is going to be real tough to do and have it look proper, anything sticking up above the height of the hood is going to send red flags up as far as the cops are concerned, but maybe the cops in Missouri are more lenient than they are around here.

There is this one in this area with a Datsun L20b engine, but notice the radiator is not above the hood obstructing the forward view, the top of the radiator is the same height as the cowling in front of the windshield and notice the bottom of the radiator surround has been cut off to control the height it is sticking up.

 

 

Freaking Photolame messed with the photo so I removed it, hope you seen it before they messed with it.

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I am thinking the grill surround and radiator is going to be way too tall, if you set the grill surround on the ground in front of the car it likely will still stick up higher than the hood.

This is going to be real tough to do and have it look proper, anything sticking up above the height of the hood is going to send red flags up as far as the cops are concerned, but maybe the cops in Missouri are more lenient than they are around here.

There is this one in this area with a Datsun L20b engine, but notice the radiator is not above the hood obstructing the forward view, the top of the radiator is the same height as the cowling in front of the windshield and notice the bottom of the radiator surround has been cut off to control the height it is sticking up.

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That's the beauty of a rat rod, not going to have a hood, fenders, front end, or fender liners.  It's all gonna be cut out and the frame/engine will all be exposed, so there won't be any indication what the original body lines from the fenders and hood were.  And yeah, in MO cops really don't care about modified cars we don't even have emissions testing.  If all your exterior lights work, horn works, windshield wipers work you're good to go.  We'll see how the radiator/cover looks once the engine is sitting back on the frame.  

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Don't thank me to much.... i am pretty sure they are super rare and expensive...

I think I saw one on the Japan eBay for something like $3000...

 

I don't think it's reproduced other than maybe a one off reproduction....

Even if you had to make it i think it would be worth it.....

But I have no Idea what that would cost....

If you find someone with a 3d printer and someone with a small metal shop I think it's possible....

 

Yeah, I was looking into them and like you said if you can find one they are crazy expensive.  Good idea on the 3D printer though.

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Hey everybody, got some updates for you all!

 

Got my new to me vintage steering wheel in:
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Also snagged some frame horns off of a Ford Model A, the idea behind these is to install on the front, then install a cross bar, and install the radiator onto it.  Should lower the rad a few inches when done, will look lots better!

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And I've got the front end of the car cut off at the firewall exposing my frame.

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Enjoy!

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