Dave

Yep, I'm finding it hard enough to squeeze everything in. Dunno how you would do it with the steering box / brakes / clutch on that side as well :confused:

Rear quarter wasn't too hard. We have a place here in Australia that made replacement sections, so I used one of them, plus a few hand-formed bits. The inner piece was completely hand-formed. I used a router to make grooves in a bit of wood, then hammered a flat bit of body sheet metal down into the grooves to form that piece. Spare tyre well - that was difficult :rolleyes:. I'm better at welding than shaping metal, so its made up of lots of little bits welded together. Again, the shaped bits were hammered to shape over pieces of wood that were used as a "former". the rounded grooves in the well were hammered to shape using a bit of 50mm wooden dowel. I'll come over and do your rust after I finish all my projects - after this one, I have two Datsun roadsters to restore, and then a 510 that's even more rusty than the 610. I reckon sometime around 2020 I might be done :lol: Spare wheel well is finished now. Just need to put a coat of POR15 rust proofing paint on, then tify up a few other bits and I can get the complete underside of the car painted in the next month or two. Then I can finally start re-assembling a few bits.

Supercharger modifications also completed. The MiniCooper S runs its water pump of an extension to the rear of the supercharger. Since I don't need this, I thought I'd remove and blank this bit off. As usual, blanking plate was cut out with hacksaw, drill and file, and polished with sandpaper and Brasso :) Simple enough, except I spilled the "supercharger oil" that was in there and had to buy a little bottle of it from the local GMH dealer (the only model of car I could think of that runs an Eaton supercharger and is fairly common was the Holden Commodore). Easy enough, except for having to pay $45 for 100ml of oil :eek: . Since there's no meshing gears in this section anymore (I removed one when I took the plate off the back) I probably didn't need the special oil in there anymore but thought it was better to be safe than blow up the supercharer because I didn't put oil back in. Water pump drive for mini Off it comes (and out comes the oil) New blanking plate

I've decided I want to try to get the shell painted this summer so I can start re-assembly over winter (its just coming into summer over here). So, I've moved back onto bodywork again :mad: This is the 2nd last bit of rust in the whole shell :glare: Last bit is in the radiator support panel, underneath the radiator. I've also had a bit of a change in plan - I'm thinking of painting it white rather than the light metallic blue I originally had in mind. White was its original colour, and I want to use the original door trims, etc which are in perfect condition but are brown (which I don't think would really match the blue exterior) Here's the before pic of the spare wheel well Half-fixed Here's what it looks like now The repaired "floor" of the wheel well - there's 16 new pieces of metal in there, all carefully shaped with just hand tools. Pretty much all the metal with surface rust (lower right hand third of the photo) is newly fabricated. All ready to weld the repaired section back in, and its done :thumbsup:

This is my 510 - runs an L18 with twin SU carbs and puts out a mighty 69 hp at the rear wheels :blink:. The action here is from the Australian Datsun/Nissan national meeting held this Easter. I tried, but couldn't get past the white 510 in front of me :( And here's a "blooper" - I was still getting used to how the new Toyo R888 tyres handled. Nowhere near as forgiving as the previous set of tyres I used.

Thanks guys. The original plan was for it to be finished for the Datsun National meeting in 2007 :eek: Will post more pics as I progress.

Two 200B lower control arms were cut and shut to make one that is 20mm longer than stock (for more camber) My first attempt at a supercharger bracket :eek::lol: And the completed supercharger bracket, made from the stabilising feet on a Hewlett Packard server rack I scrounged from work :cool: Extractors / headers mocked up in PVC pipe Exhaust flanges The finished flanges, plus the primary-to-secondary collectors And some of my collection of NOS goodies :) Well, that's about it for now. I have hopefully finished most of the time-consuming work so the rest might progress a little quicker.

Hi all from a fellow enthusiast from "down under" - Australia I posted a few pics of my project in the "610's unite" thread, thought I'd post a bit more info about my project. Its a 180B SSS coupe, or 610 coupe. Here's a rundown on the project anyway (lifted straight from an Australian forum). Here's my 1972 180B SSS project. It was a two-owner car before I bought it. The guy I got it from was a friend of my father-in-laws and I had often seen and admired the car over the years. He had passed it on to his son, who then decided to upgrade to a commodore wagon, so one night I got a phone call to see if I was interested in buying it. Money changed hands, and I then used it as my daily driver for a few years till rust started to take over. I then tried (unsuccessfully) to sell it for a while, before deciding to do it up a bit. The plan then changed to be a full restoration to original. Then after datnats 2005, I was inspired to really go all-out with it. I intended to fit a Z18 that I've had for a while. And then I had yet another change of plan, going with a supercharged L18. This is pretty much set in stone now, as I have acquired most of the bits for the project. Just have to finish the rust repairs, then I can start using all the goodies stashed away in the shed. At them moment the rust repairs are pretty much done, front x-member and steering is done, head has been ported, and the exhaust manifold is well underway. I'll be building and fitting all the mechanical components, before pulling them out again and painting the car. Then refit the mechanicals, fit the interior, and hit the road. Anyway, here are the planned specs. Engine L18 with - nitrided crank - polished and shotpeened rods - ARP rod and bearing cap bolts - Flat top, forged 280ZX JE pistons - U67 head to keep compression down - Stainless 44mm inlet and 38mm exhaust valves - Upgraded valve springs - undecided on cam specs - full custom efi inlet manifold. - Eaton M45 supercharger, done less than 50klms since new - off a current model Mini Cooper S - full custom extractors to clear the supercharger - Subaru Liberty water-to-air intercooler - Water injection - Haltech E6X ecu - LS1 coils - CA18 CAS Drive Line Skyline 5 speed Exceedy heavy duty clutch (thanks Mitch !!) Either 4.11 R160 Subaru clutch type LSD, or R180 LSD, or shortnose 4.375 R32 GTS-T skyline Viscous R200 in a custom rear crossmember, using CV joints. Final choice will depend on how much work I feel like doing and how much money I have when I get to that stage !! I already have the R160 and R200's, so it'll most likely be one of those Brakes Front Z32 4 spot calipers Z32 rotors Datsport caliper adapters Rear R31 rotors and calipers 15/16" master on stock SSS booster (or no booster at all, if the engineer likes that idea) Wilwood proportioning valve Suspension Front R31 struts with home-made coilover kit and adjustable strut tops S12 hubs Tokico Prodra-G Green rally shocks ( NOS from the USA via eBay !!) Modded caster rod to increase the caster (as much as possible without having to mod the guard for clearance) Modified 200B x-member, using slightly extended LCA's to get required camber in a 180B (as the strut towers are further apart than a 1600) Rear Home-made adjustable x-member (or full custom x-member if I go with short-nose diff) Tokico Prodra-G Gold shocks (also NOS from eBay) Adjustable ride height Interior Original trim and seats, with a race seat for the driver for competition use. Seat belt bolts to be replaced with harness eyelet-style bolts so I can fit harness for the track, but retain the original seatbelts for the road. Original '72 model dash with full instrumentation and round guages Real Australian Red Cedar timber veneer to replace the tacky plastic wood in the dash Fire Extinguisher Wheels & Tyres Road 16 x 7 +35mm offset ASA rims (BBS copies) 215/45/16 Falken RT215 Azenis Track Most likely wil share 15" wheels / Toyo R888 semi-slicks with my 1600 (if they clear the brakes) Body 1972 180B SSS Has a fair amount of rust, which is gradually being repaired Colour will be Angel Blue, off a Proton Gen 2 Will retain all badges and chrome trim All nuts and bolts to be replated. All lights to be replaced with NOS ones (only 1 more to find !!) Undercarriage will be fully detailed and painted in same colour as the rest of the car All extra holes in engine bay have been welded up Here's what it looked like before I stripped it down Rust starts to rear its ugly head :eek: Rear corner de-rusted :) By the time I'm finished, there won't be any original paint left on it Interior is treated to a coat of POR15 As is the inderside (POR15 in grey colour underneath so it won't be as obvious if exposed by stone chips) Rust in the rear quarter And on the other side Complete new inner section - completely handmade And new outer section fabricated and welded in Rust at the top of the rear quarter all fixed Starting to look a bit straighter (and less rusty !!) Australian 200B (aka 810) donated its complete front x-member and steering so I could build my own "copy" of the Datsport 510 fitting / handling kit, but modified to work properly in a 610 (the 610's front end is similar to a 510, but different enough that my front end isn't exactly the same as the Datsport 510 kit) Here's the modified end, so it bolts up to the 610's chassis rails And the finished x-member Still plenty more work to be done (including filling the floor of the inlet ports), but I needed to finalise the port shape so I could make manifolds to suit. Inlets have benn raised up as far as possible without hitting water galleried, both to provide a straighter port and to get the inlet manifold up and out of the way of the exhaust manifold and supercharger plumbing. Supercharger pulley - I turned the ribbed section off a CA18 pulley, shrink-fitted a chunk of aluminium (or aluminum to you guys in the USA :P) to the stock pulley, then joined the two bits together

Good thinking :D

My 610 (or 180B SSS as they are called here) is slowly making progress. The first part of the custom made extractors (headers to you guys in the US). Have to be custom made to clear the supercharger. Hopefully I'll have them finished in the next week or two. Supercharger all mounted and extractors mocked up out of PVC pipe :P Supercharger bracket (made from bits of 6mm steel plate from an old computer server rack I rescued from work) My "rip-off" / "copy" / "modified for 610 fitment" version of the Datsport 510 front end conversion and handling kit - basically a modified Australian-spec 810 crossmember and steering setup. I've also extended the lower control arms by 20mm each side for a bit extra negative camber and have used the shorter 280ZX steering arms for quicker steering. Datsport have since added a kit for the 610 to their website as well as the 510 kit they've been selling for a while. Will post more pics as I progress (although progress is slow....)

Yep, thats me. I should have turfed my shell instead of spending two years fixing it :(. Its been rewarding though, and now I have a completely rust-free shell to show for my efforts. I'm currently making the supercharger mounting bracket, once that and the inlet and exhaust manifolds are made I hope to have some real progress to show :D

Nope, we got the grey blanking plates instead. The indicators from the front guards (fenders) on the early model 610's fits perfectly in the hole in the rear fender to replace the blanking plate. Just need to wire it into the taillight wiring harness and it will come on with the indicators :D The Australian front indicator lenses stick out maybe 3/4", compared to the US and JDM ones that are pretty much flat. I've bought a full set (front and rear) of the flat JDM style ones from yahoo japan, and actually sold a set of Australian-spec ones to a guy in the US. Here's all three, OZ rear blanking one on top, JDM / US in the middle and OZ front fender one at the bottom. 2nd photo is an early model (ie 72 - 73) JDM front fender light fitted to the rear of my Australian 610

I'm using POR-15 for the underside of the car. Its brushed on, after preparing the bare metal with the special "Metal Prep" stuff they sell as well. Using it on the inside of the floorpan as well, and other random spots that are prone to rusting (like around the windscreens). I believe its actually an American product. Its a bit expensive, but I like being able to just pour a little out of the can into another container, brush it on with a cheap paintbrush, then chuck the brush away. No cleaning sprayguns out when you finish, no wasting thinned down paint when you over-estimate how much you'll need when mixing it. Once I've finished the whole underneath, I'll spray normal undercoat over the POR-15 rustproofing paint, then straighten it all up and spray the same colour as the rest of the car. Unfortunately, Nissan AU don't have much in the way of parts for the 610. I went thru my parts manual a while back and made a 2 page list of part numbers for stuff I was after. Took it to the local Nissan dealer, and they could only get a few odds and ends - everything else was NLA. I've been lucky and got a NOS weatherstrip for the driver's door off eBay, and one for the boot (trunk to you guys :D). I'm still looking for the rest of the rubbers for mine.

Yep, here's a link to how I made it. Pretty easy, but took me a while because the only welder I own is an oxy set :( . Not the quickest thing to weld 4mm thick tube with :eek: http://ozdat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8205&highlight=rotisserie

Hi all, newbie from Australia here :D This is my 610 coupe currently undergoing restoration. Eventually it will run an L18, with the added benefit of efi and a Mini Cooper S supercharger :eek:. It had a fair amount of rust, but I'm pretty close to having the bodywork finished now. I've just started work on the mechanical side of things. Realistically, its still another two years off being finished. First pic is what it looked like before I dismantled it, others are how the shell currently sits.