I'LL Bite .... latest pic

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A bit of rust, but she's straight, inshe? that's a nice project, and i've always been partial to sunshine white

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I miss the days of this forum/forums in general
Thank goodness the Techwiki is still alive and running as I always find something new to learn, especially coming from 76'-91' 1200 Utes and stepping into the world of a '71 1200 Sedan.

Not too much of a story but I love a yarn.
Over the years have seen 1200's around, got to drive one around a workshop that a friend was fixing up for a client 18 months ago, as you all know there is no getting rid of the Datsun bug.
A friend purchased this Sedan from somewhere outside of Ipswich and fixed a few things up to get it on and off a trailer. He was sick of dealing with Facebook Marketplace and I was toying with the idea of getting a Long-Term project. I quickly realised that a) 1200 Ute Shells are exxy compared to when I was last looking and b) I'm getting too old and stiff (28) to be cramming myself into a Ute cabin.

Worked out a deal with him trading cash, my wiring skills and the use of his trailer to transport it back to my workplace to sit in the corner of the yard (until I have room at home to move it to) and that's pretty much the origin story.

General idea for this car, spend far too much time reviving this shell, make it into a comfy Saturday morning Cruiser so I can take my Mrs and my little doggo to get Eggs Benny in the morning as my drift car is far too rowdy nowadays for them

She's definitely had a hard life but I wanted something long term so here I am. Here is how it looked when I towed it to work on the 5th of Feb. Hot tip, it doesn't look any different now.







Where it currently resides until I have room at home




Original ignition keys and door keys had been lost, a previous owner had attacked the ignition barrel with a screwdriver, which ended up not being successful and embedding a piece of metal in the teeth, and levered off the column to allow the steering wheel to unlock. I made a makeshift ignition system for the car to move it around and verify things working. It does drive, shifted from P into D and R perfectly fine, but had no brakes so made use of the surprisingly good handbrake to slow it up.




It didn't have any carpet in it which made life easier spotting rust and any issues it has. Cockroaches and little beetles weren't too stoked about me cleaning the interior out which I found out quickly
















Further pulled down the interior, removed the Dashboard and the Heaterbox. At some stage the heaterbox plastics must have failed and it had a rag jammed into the fan cavity which a family of Rats had made a home in at some stage in the cars life. Removing the dashboard made the rust in the waterbox/firewall evident which wasn't surprising considering the car is 50+ years old and it spent a good part of its life outside being neglected

At some stage, someone tried jacking the car up but either didn't locate the sill pinchweld or the whole floor gave out, because its been pushed into the car as seen in photos










Motor was full of crap as expected, unsure how it ever ran to be honest. Ripped the thermostat out, scooped as much gunk and corrosion out as I could and filled the system with Vinegar and let it sit for a few hours. Ended up skulldragging it into the washbay at work and letting it sit there for a while with water flowing through the system via a hose. It seemed to free up a lot of crap that was within the motor but I am not holding too much hope for it, it will get removed once day in place of something else.






Found a set of almost new 12" tires to slap onto the factory steelies, they are comically small compared to my stock Hilux wheels








I did this to reliably be able to move it around as the old tires were properly dry rotted and leaking air out of every place they could. I moved it inside during Cyclone Alfred because lets be honest, if a car was going to get damaged during the cyclone, it wouldn't be one of the 1000 brand new cars around it, it would be the Datsun . This was also my attempt at putting some good Juju out into the Datsun Universe to help me with what is to come with the rebuild






The Locksmith my workplace uses was very helpful in rejuvenating my ignition barrel and door locks. I purchased a Tub load of spare sedan parts off someone down the coast and in the load was a set of doors. I used these locks in conjunction with my original locks to make a single working pair which were keyed to each other. They also cut me a key to suit the original ignition barrel which oddly makes me happy that I am able to continue using it, even though it has definitely seen better days.

The end result of my little month plus long endeavor, two working door locks with new Nylon Rod Holders and a working Ignition Barrel with fresh keys for all three. Even managed to find the original boot lock (which looks like it was levered out of the boot with a lever) which works with the news keys I had cut (as they are cut to the original code for the vehicle)








I find it comical that I focused so hard on getting working locks etc for a car that currently looks like brown swiss cheese, but it itched a spot in my brain. Here's a few more photos of the cars rust, haven't been game enough to remove front panels yet but surprisingly the engine bay and frame rails (both in the engine bay and underneath at the back of the car) look good. The boot/spare tire area are a definite cut and replace job but that is a future job for me








Will finally stop editing this initial post now, I'll upload some photos in posts to come as I comb through my phone.

At the moment nothing in particular has happened to the Sedan but I am excited to get into this project soon. Snagged a Dashboard with limited cracking/decay in the dash pad (just needs to be recovered) with a Coupe Dash Insert including an almost perfect condition OEM Tachometer for $60 a suburb away from me which was unreal.

Can't say I have ever seen one (or if I have I took no notice)
We got them in Aus according to Wikipedia but that's as far as I am searching

Yes, that's right. 0 means TDC for piston #1




With a distributor, you need to know which TDC (compression stroke or exhaust stroke) but with wasted spark i think it's irrelevant

I'm 90% sure that's right, but before I do anything stupid: if the timing mark is set at 0, that means cylinder 1 is at TDC.
I'm setting up a DIY spark controller with a ford EDIS spark module and I want to make sure I at least have the initial hardware correctly positioned.

Thanks for any advice

Good question and quite a puzzler first time i had to work on it

It is a "normally on" switch. So that, should it fail, the brake light will likely fail "on". When the pedal comes up and presses the switch, it turns the lights off. As a side-effect, when the brake-stopper plastic piece inevitably fails, the lights will be stuck on

Hey Guys,

can anyone tell me how the Brake light switch works that screws into the the pedal box.I don't understand how it works as when the brake pedal is not in use it sits on the switch,i thought that when the pedal is pushed it would engage the switch but thats not the case with its position.I need help understanding this just out of wanting to know.I just thought,is the brake lights of when the pedal is engaged with the switch and the brake lights on when the pedal is in engaged moving away for the Switch.

I haven't seen a vanette since 2010. They were only sold in USA for three years?

Nifty, Vanette (?) intake is different, haven't seen one for a while