Introducing the new project car

So I bought a Datsun truck. I have another car project on the go, but I saw this ad and couldn't help myself.

Daryl had the ad posted on Facebook for a while. He'd taken the car in a swap for a caravan from the guy who built the car. It had been sitting for a while out in the elements so there was a bit of rust on it, but it was basically complete. After a bit of haggling I managed to get the car for $1500. Here it is on the day it was delivered (luckily Daryl was a tow truck driver)

Also included with the car was a large container of spares, including 4 carburetors, a spare head and manifolds. 

So I set about inspecting the car. I must say it's in pretty good condition mechanically. The engine appears to have been rebuilt and (according to the guy I bought it from) the whole drivetrain rebuilt. Certainly looks it. He told me he got the engine started for a bit, but it wouldn't stay running. The steering is a bit loose on the car, but given the age and technology I'm not surprised. But on closer inspection underneath (and with one of my boys playing with the steering wheel) I noticed that the steering box wasn't bolted on properly.

So the first thing was to get the engine going. Given it had started recently I was pretty sure it would go again, so I went and bought some carby cleaner, fuel system cleaner and some lead substitute (as I'm not sure whether the engine had been rebuilt to run on unleaded - i.e. hardened valve seats). I put a battery in and started to crank (had to hotwire it because there was no ignition switch). I managed to get it to fire but it conked pretty much straight away. I took off the distributor and checked the points etc, then reinstalled and checked the static timing (been a while since I've had to do this). After tightening the distributor and giving it a crank it fired and kept running after I played with the ignition timing. I was still getting backfires occasionally but assuming it's because it hadn't run properly for a while. Here she is in action:

Next thing is to get the electricals sorted out and the fuel tank re-installed. 

Stuff on eBay

I've listed a bunch of stuff on ebay for my Datsun too.

http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/tyoung1975/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

Included are horn ring (believe it also fits Datsun 320), steering wheel and some dash components.

Stripping the loom

So I've decided to strip down the loom and rebuild it. I'll probably end up reusing most of the actual wires because they're largely in good condition, but I want to clean it up a bit and get all the relays in the one spot etc.

Extricating the loom from the car was pretty easy with the only really difficult part was having to unbolt the radiator to get the last bit of the headlight loom out. I also had to totally remove the plastic sheath so it would unthread itself from the bodywork.

Anyway here's a pic of the engine loom out after I'd removed the 45-year-old insulation tape

And here's the entire loom after hooking the cabin loom back on:

There's an awful lot of wires that don't really go anywhere. The car had a lot of options such as heater, clock/radio etc that there are wires for but aren't connected to anything so I'll probably lose them. Funnily enough there is also provision for an under-bonnet light and switch so you can have an illuminated engine bay. Guessing that's for all the times that you break down and need to fix the car in the middle of the night.

Next step is to get the fusebox and new relays fitted to my board so I can start piecing the loom back together. 

Weekend work = 12/9-13/9: Gutting the interior

This weekend I set about stripping out the remaining interior bits so I could properly ascertain the condition of the cabin, and also to give the old girl a clean.

So I pulled out the seat (and found a grease gun - go figure) and the remaining bits of dashboard, glovebox and under dash shelf. The shell was originally red but someone has tried to paint it black (badly). Here's some pics:

 The shell after a good clean with some sugar soap

 The underdash. The wires showing there are for the windscreen washer pump

Now I'm not sure what this is. There were some holes in the floor that have been badly MIG'd over. They may be the original seat mounts. I dunno.

The headlining. In pretty bad shape. 

Build update 14/9/15

After some disillusionment yesterday with electrics and fuel system I'm now more positive. I gave the fuel system a good flush out, cleaned the filter and tightened up all the hoses. After cranking for a while we had a full float bowl and the engine was kicking over. Still some timing work to be done to smooth her out but it's looking promising.

As for the electricals - I'm gradually trying to piece together what the original builder did to the electrics. The wiring in the car bears only passing resemblance with the 520 wiring diagram I found online. He'd changed the indicator lights and the parker lights but elected to keep the shitty 60's relays which is a bit strange. 

I think I've been able to fathom the wiring diagram and see where it differs on my car, and will shortly be redoing the fuse box and adding some relays for ignition and high beam (and replacing the existing low beam and horn relays)

I also received my delivery from Clark Rubber of pinch weld extrusion (for the door seals) and the checkerplate 3mm rubber for the floor. The door seal appears to be the perfect size for the car and now the doors close nice and positively. 

NB: The pinchweld is listed as Clark Rubber "PVC Black Pinchweld Door Seal (Medium) 16x10 (SKU 38975)