Ddgonzal's Sunny Truck

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Friday June 20, 2008 I bought a Sunny Truck down in Los Angeles. At that time, as far as we knew there were five 1200 Utes in USA:
- two south america-built LHD
- three Japan-built LHD They are becoming less rare every day

My Datsun 1200 Pickup Ask a Question/Discuss

The Search

Sunday June 22, 2008: My quest for a Sunny Truck began almost five years ago, about the day after I bought my 2-dr sedan (Aug 2003).

I considered getting a ute from Japan or Australia, or even Costa Rica. The latter is probably a good way for Americans to buy. As we found out, the 1200 "camionetas" (little trucks) were built in a Nissan factory in Ecuador for some time. The price in Costa Rica is average but shipping is half the price compared to Japan. And if you are so inclined it could be driven up to the States on the Pan-America highway.

Anyways, after these five years of searching, researching, talking and dreaming, one finally came up for sale, out of Los Angeles. This was Jose's red Sunny Truck from South America.

Jose's truck was reported to me as fair condition for a 35 year old vehicle, which means it had quite a few small dings and you might say could use a new paint. He was asking $6500 on craiglist in May 2008, which apparently did not sell because on eBay, June 2008 the same truck was offered, and the high bid was $2850 "reserve not met".

At this point I called G-speed again. They had shown a nice 1200 Sunny Truck from Japan at the October 2007 JCCS -- America's Japanese Car show.

G-Speed is an import/export business, specializing in 'Japanese engines', especially hot ones like SR20DET and CA18DET. They can get you a JDM car too. USA fans, ask for a pre-1985 Datsun so there are no USA registration hassles, and be ready to make a deposit. Ask for Kenji.

Previously G-Speed had told me "not for sale" as it was a good promotion for their business. But this time when I called they were willing to talk about selling. Within a couple of days we had made an agreement on the phone. I made arrangements to fly from Seattle to LA (distance: 965 miles), and called everyday to check on paperwork and other questions.

Yes, it made the 1,000 mile journey up to Seattle without any major problems. Although there were many minor mishaps along the way ...

Here's one along the drive home.

ddgonzal's Sunny Truck at Mount Shasta

Datsun Road Trip

What were the minor mishaps? A 1000 mile (1600 km) journey is no light undertaking -- unless you are driving a Datsun.

First, instead of the 19 hours I expected the drive to take, it was 23 hours ... too long for one person in one day ... but all pumped up by Datsun 1200 driving excitement somehow I did it.

So the day before, on Friday, I drove it about three hours in LA, out to a friend's house, then hunting down air filters for the sidedrafts, and getting back to his house.

Those Solex/Mikunis ran flawlessly. What a wonderful sound dual sidedrafts make, something 1200rc has been telling about for years and now I hear it myself. I'm guessing this engine was either built in Japan (because of the Solex brand) or tuned by the 'experts'. It looks like a new A14 done with brand new carbs. They are jetted rich but run great. The idle is lopey, but smooths out as RPM climb -- and "revs" hard as they say. On the deceleration it burbles and has little (good sounding) backfires. Like a race car.

Fandatstick There is nothing quite like the sound (music?) of sidedrafts burbling away.

So I put on the air filters, aired up the tires, top up the radiator, etc. get everything ready for the trip the next morning. I left at 5:30 am just after sunrise ... and the truck barely runs. I figured it was just because there was no choke cable -- but anyways it ran when I floored it. So I get on the freeway and am doing the 65 mph (106 kph) no problems except it doesn't sound quite right. Unfortunately, even after it warms up it won't run part throttle, it backfires etc. It will idle but not well. But since it runs OK at 55-65, and great at 70 ... I just keep going.

Minor Gasoline Credit Problems

The next problem is I have to stop for gasoline about every 200 miles. The little 10 gallon tank isn't very big when it's only getting about 20 or 25 mpg ... then I put in Premium (high octane) because I'm worried why it running lean and have no idea what kind of compression ratio this A14 has.

On about the third gasoline fillup, my credit card wont' work at the pump for some mysterious reason. Oh well, I have a few dollars in cash.

Later, not even 1/2 way home, I have spent all my cash on gasoline, but it doesn't even fill the tank .... I eventually thought to VISA from my cell. They had stopped the card because of all the "unusual activity". Is it because of the $400 plane ticket? The thousands charged for the vehicle? (I charged the vehicle purchase) . No, they are worried about all the gasoline "fill-ups" that were charged that day. Anyways the phone call fixes that. (They also stopped the card once again on Sunday for the same thing).

Carburetor Problems

Around noon I stop for lunch in Sacramento and lurch around town. But when I hit the freeway again it won't go over 50 mph...

I stop again and finally figure out the rubber insulators between in the manifold and the sidedrafts are cracked. They look new, but but maybe it's just a flaw. Well I've got a bag of zip ties I bought to put the license plate on (American plate doesn't fit Japan plates holes . I pull up on the carbs and tie them up. Yep, it works well enough to get up to 70+ again. The faster I go the better it runs.

I had to keep stopping every few hours and tighten the zip ties .... it would get to running worse, tightening it would help.

Then it got bad and the zip ties didn't help... I looked around a while and found two intake manifold bolts were loose. I spend all my cash but it doesn't even fill the tank ...

Fandatstick Regarding the airleak, you're probably already onto it but the "O" ring type insulators between the carbs and manifold are a good bet (Either the metal type with rubber molded to them Or the plastic type with an "O" ring on each side.)

I put some RTV silicone on the outside as a "road fix" (bush fix) but it didn't seem to help. Time to just unbolt it and see what's up.

cracked

Road Repair: Zip ties and silicone sealer

Overheating

California is a Spanish word meaning "Hot Land". I had both Air Conditioners rolled down, and the center air control on high (just like a 1200 sedan) . Once I got over the Grapevine mountain pass heading out of LA (even at 6am, there were already three cars overheated on the Grapevine. The little Datsun passed 'em like they were standing still which come to think of it, they were ...) ...

In the central valley, it was so hot it was almost cooler to roll the windows back up. it was so hot when I stuck my arm out the window it felt like a blast furnace. When I got to Sacramento for the next three hours or so it was around 100% humidity occassionally raindrops fell on the windshield but it never actually rained. Temp was only 97 degrees... but with the humidity I was chugging bottled water all day. The water eventually got up to about 90 degrees hot, but I kept drinking it.

Initial Plans

Ask a Question/Discuss this Project 1200:

what are your plans dd...are you going to do anything to it like a respray, bigger engine???

23 June 2008: The A14 is surprisingly powerful, so let's see how it goes. The company I bought it from had all these CA18DETS, RB sixes, SR20s, etc sitting there for sale ... it was tempting for guy with a credit card, but I successfully resisted.

My plans are to change the loud muffler for a more quiet one (my ears are still ringing). And I suppose I should take all the company stickers off the car but they cool in their own way. The blue metallic paint is flawless and there are no dings in the body. It is show-quality.

It really doesn't need much done to it, just minor stuff. I'd like a bench seat but I guess only South African's got those.

And fix the speedo and add a tachometer. It was kind of a pain driving for 20+ hours and having no idea what speed I was actually doing ... Sounds like it was running about 4000 rpm mostly. If it wasn't before, it will be 'broken in' now. Maybe I should re-torque the head bolts and adjust the valves

And hook up the temperature gauge. It was kind of unnerving not know if the engine was overheating. But after a few hours I stopped worrying about that.

wolki101: i'd definitely be taking those stickers off pretty quick, you'd hate to have the paint fade around them.