I heard that it had something to do with safety and the bumpers not sticking out far enough to prevent anyone/thing touching the actual if there was a small crash. The earlier models had the smaller bumpers, but from about 73/4 they changed all of them to the "510" ones.

However the possibility is good that they are 510 ones and that they were just made narrower to fit the 1200. These models were built locally, so they probably figured it was more economical to stamp out just one type and use it for all the cars.

Best writeup regarding the swaybar.

The later ZA 1200s were equipped with Datsun 510 bumpers. Any ideas why they did that? Maybe they leftovers from 510 production.

LOL, ya didn't really figure it out ourselves, that's why I said, "It was found that the 120Y swaybar is a direct bolt in for the 1200 and is also 20mm."

The information was read right here on the 1200 forum. I must stress that I post more frequently on another local ZA forum, and mostly copy/paste the posts directly onto here without much editing. All credit is always given to the Datsun 1200 forum though, except where I really did figure it out myself...hehehe

I actually made that post here mostly because the pictures in the Wiki is a little scarce on exactly what the differences between the two swaybars are. I'll soon add the info and pictures to the Wiki so it's more informational to anyone looking at this swap.

Anyway, I try to do a good job and strive to get to the level of professionalism some of the other members on here display in their handy work.

120y swaybar is an old known trick but it's always good to refresh us. He'll half the mids we learn have usually been nutted out before nut it feels good to work it out yourself.

Great work. Keep it up

ddgonzal, please feel free to download and post any of my pictures you might need for the wiki. I'll also try spend some time to update some of them into there where applicable.

Ok here's some pictures comparing the two versions of the front bumper.

In this one you can clearly see the corner that come around are much shorter. The bumper also has a lower profile.



Here's the two corners close up. Big difference. Sarel will be using my old one, but he'll be trimming it to suit what he wants.



And here's a very cheap, but very effective suspension upgrade everyone with a 1400 bakkie or 1200 car should do. All the 1200's and 1400 bakkies only had a 17mm swaybar in the front. The GX models however, both sedan and Coupè, had 20mm swaybars in front. It's only 3mm thicker, but that translates to a 144% increase in stiffness. Unfortunately the GX swaybars are very few and far between, so an alternative was found. My car of course was a GX so it had the 20mm already. It was found that the 120Y swaybar is a direct bolt in for the 1200 and is also 20mm. The only thing is, when you fit the 120Y bar, you have to put the dip to the bottom, so it's a dip, otherwise you have clearance issues with the sump. The right way around it's perfect. Also when you buy it, get the brackets and rubbers with, becaus it doesn't fit through the normal brackets or rubbers.

Here's some comparison pictures, I picked this one op for Sarel today for R100.

The 120Y on on top of the 1200 one. Either side there's only a small difference in width, if you are familiar with the 1200 the little arms that bolt into the swaybar lean inwards, when you fit the 120Y on they lean slightly outwards, they have rubbers which are more than capable of handling the slight difference.



Another picture with them side by side, you can see they are the same.



It's only in profile that they differ slightly, you can see the 120Y one has a dip in it, which should be installed towards the bottom.



It's a very worth while upgrade and helps a moerse lot with keeping your car stable under cornering, it even helps in the straights when you hit bumps and/or dips. Sarel alredy fitted the one I got for him tonight, and he says the bakkie feels much better. He can fill in some here if he wants.
19

As promised some pichas.

The electroplated parts so far, more has been sent in and will be sent in, but these are the ones I've received back so far.



Painted and part assembled front suspension. I could have fitted the hubs to the struts, but haven't got any more high speed wheel bearing grease left. The ordinary stuff we use for trailers will unfortunately not do in this case... :twisted:



And last but not least, two of the most important parts that are integral to the look I'm aiming for. The grille is the original stainless steel one(yes stainless steel) as found on the first sedans and bakkies that came out. The grill looks a bit tacky, but it's just faded, they polish up to a mirros shine, and with a bit of paint in the right places they look like a millon rand. The bumper was also only fitted to those very first cars and bakkies, and are very, very scarce. If you find one, just send it to me... The bumper has shorter ends that go around the corner and fit in the impression in the fender, the later ones has a longer end that goes over the impression and will hit the newly acquired wide flares. I'll post some pictures of it next to the one that was on my car so you can see what the difference is.



More parts to be collected from the platers, will also post some pics of the other parts I've finished off.
18

Ok so I've finally got around to finishing that pre-circulation pipe on top of the water pump. What it does, is it allows the water to circulate inside the motor through the waterpump before the thermostat opens. The way the thermostat is designed, it has the normal hole that is closed when cold, but it has another level which opens the pre-circulation circuit when cold. When it starts to open, that second level closes the pre-circulation circuit and opens the main cooling circuit.

This is what it looked like before



And what it looks like now, notice on top of the waterpump. Now All I need to do is add a rubber pipe between that fitting and the one that just out from beneath the top water housing.


I silver soldered a piece of the original pipe to another bent one I had, and added the little bracket with the hole. Then I drilled and tapped a hole into the water pump which takes a 6mm bolt to hold the lot in place. The piece of pipe that goes into the waterpump has a groove at the bottom and a rubber o-ring which seals the water in.



Maybe a picture would explain it better... :)


17

Ok, finally after a long wait I can reveal the new colour Boksie will be sporting.

Me like, me like very much!!!













14

Actually the SW would mean that it receives AM... don't know where my head was when I typed that...lol

Quote:

Interesting - I didn't know that. Is that like the AM band here ? Hey, it must be if its talk radio

I remember seeing portable radio's as a kid that were shortwave, pull in stations all around the world, now not so popular, replaced by HAM radio mostly I think. You can still buy travel radio's like that by Grundig ?? Anyways, nice job!