Being the hands on type of guy that he is Glen soon set about straightening out the 1974 1200 body but not without the aid of a friend by the name of Ezy Santos. While Glen took car of the rusty panels and odd ding or twelve, Ezy went at the wheel arches, flaring them out to accomodate the planned wider rolling stock. The flaring is only subtle and is nicely rounded to accentuate the large, for a 1200 anyway, 15 x 7 and 15 x 7.5 inch Simmons V5's. Under the front guards Glen squeezed 195 50 series Fulda tire and managed to cram 225 wide 50 series under the rears.

The finish of the metallic Malachite (SV5000) Green is a lot better than your average back yard acrylic job don't you think? Other finer points inclue the Ford tear drop style inverted side mirrors and body trim work that's been re-chromed by the Chrome Exchange.

As you may have realised, Glen is a tad partial to having a bit of power under his right foot, what with the 1200's stable mates. Naturally the Datto had to have its fair share of horses under the bonnet as well.

A Nissan A15 engine taken from a Sunny served as the basis for the re-power and once stripped Glen had the block sent to L. W. Perry in Armcliffe where it was machined and deburred. Glen did the rebuild himself using new internals including a set of Ford Laser 9.5:1 pistons and rings capping finished rods on a standard balanced crankshaft. Another friend, this time Jason Borg, did the headwork. The standard GX based head was ported and polished and a 3 angle valve job was done.

While everything was out Glen took the opportunity to replace the standard 4 speeder box with a 5 speed unit also sourced from a Sunny, which meant fabricating a custom gearbox crossmember.

To ensure the 1200 would handle a bit more poise, a set of KYB gas struts and 3 inch lowered springs were installed. The standard front and rear brakes were up to the task but Glen opted to replace the standard master cylinder and booster with a dual master cylinder and booster set up from the same Sunny.

The interior is mostly stock the the exception of the Momo twirler and Alpine CD tuner. The ute is an ongoing project and I guess next on the agenda would be a decent set of seats to replace the nasty stock buttbreakers, but finding a good set of cheap sports seats with a thin back isn't easy.