Had a friend lend me flares for a moment to test fit.  I think they look cool but i decided i am not going down that road again.  The General Ree i had to hire a shop to do it and help and it was a real pain.   Good result but i dont like the idea of cutting into fresh fenders and quarter panels to make flares fit again.




This is the correct shock absorber part number.   I think someone was asking for that so here it is.




Suspension installed.




I returned the brakes i bought back to Rockauto since they were for bigger B210 version.  My research shows that its possibly 76 and newer that uses the bigger caliper and rotor.  Hence why it did not fit.

Luckilly Stan was able to help me out and give me a pair of Raybestos refurbished calipers that were the right size




When they arrived i fit them bit then I had a new problem.  The rotors were rubbing the calipers and that was a no go.  From my measurements it turned out that the rotors that came with my ute were 220mm in diameter. 

Rotors





Caliper rub










I decided to take the calipers apart to paint them.   I bought a Duplicolor caliper kit to paint them.  I have to say the paint goes on super thick.  By brush.  The paint took weeks to cure so beware.  Put it on as thin as possible and don't follow the directions to recoat after 5 minutes.....let the first coat dry for a few days first then recoat.  Or use a different product.










Wagner brake hardware kit from rockauto.




Paint.










Reassembled ready for struts.




I solved the rotor problem by researching that the correct size for the B110 or B120 is 212mm rotors.  The difference of 8mm was causing the rubbing issue.  I hired a shop to machine the rotors down to 212mm to fit.




Success for now.

Yes, those 220mm rotors used a small factory adapter to space the calipers out 4mm. That size was never sold in USA but was sold in Canada and other countries

I have been obsessed lately with the whole stickerbomb trend.  I even joined a facebook group dedicated to it.  If you ever want to get free stickers from somewhere all you have to do is ask!  For a few months i have been contacting automotive companies and many were happy to send me stickers.  One even sent me a whole decal kit for the entire car!

So my inspiration led me and my toddler to start stickerbombing.   First i started with the door handle estrucheons.  Emojis!




From cabinet grade plywood i made door panels next and continued the theme.













Next I decided to think outside the box and do an exposed roof.  I have never seen it done before on a 1200 so why not try.  If i get tired of it then i can always cover it with a factory headlining.

I coated the surface rust in POR 15 first.  Painting it on a vertical surface is a real pain in the stomach.










This is still a work in progress.

EDIT

I've seen hydrodipped wood effect on dash fascia. Looks nice. Think i will pass on the wallpaper idea

The next big hurdle in the building of this ute was the transmission mount and crossmember.   For those that follow this thread you would recall that the factory  mounts were removed from the body shell by the previous owner.  Why?  Probably because he was planning a CA or SR conversion and needed the extra room in the transmission tunnel.




Unlucky for me.  Keeping the tried and true A series motor with a 60a series 5 speed transmission requires those factory mounts.

So what to do? 

Weld some donors?  Seems too hard.

Fabricate custom mount?

First i headed down the road of fabricating my own crossmember like many others have done.  I managed to get going on this but decided to look and see if there was another way.




I studied the mount that someone had made for the 5 speed and noticed it was different than the usual B110 or B120 mount.  The rubber isolater itself was different.




From my research i discovered this isolator was from another model Datsun.  This gave me an idea so i started researching other Datsun models and how the transmission mounts.

My first idea was using a 510 crossmember.  I managed to find one but when it arrived i discovered that the ends are sloped and would be too much work to try and make it work




After more research I found out that the rubber isolator from my 5 speed is for a Z car.  So i looked into this further.

I found out that the 240z has a good looking crossmember that was flat not sloped like the 510.  Finding a spare early 240z transmission crossmember was not easy.  More research led me to find that Techno toy tuning makes an aftermarket Z car crossmember!   So i purchased one and also a new 240z isolator.







Using parts from my other Pitroad 5 speed mount i was able to slap together enough parts to make this work.   The spacers and the flat face nuts were key to make this work.




Installation begins.  No more rope.










The hardest part was getting the measurements correct and installing it square.  To reinforce the bolts I used my beginning crossmember and chopped it up as plates.






















Done and dusted.

Next problem.  The driveshaft is 1 inch too long.  The struggle never ends.

.

That does look good. You'll need a little mirror to show everyone how beautiful your gearbox mount is

Thanks mik glad to see you still on here. Yes im sure the sticker bomb fad will get old. This way i can always put a headliner on still.

Lamb not a bad idea! I have gone through the torture painting the whole underbody too!

If I was to put this much work into my car, I'd be running in the low 6's.