Cheers wards, the main idea was that it wasn't on the outside like the original hinge and that the tailgate at least opened to a position flat with the tray floor. I also have one of maddat's hard lids so it will be hidden with that on.

thats a awsome idea for a hinge but they are not very "hidden" was that the inital concept?

Nah I wasn't thinking of selling them. I had all the parts machined up and in the end I was a lot more expensive then I expected. I'm happy to share supplier details and my design files etc once I'm back a work on Tuesday.

The latches are out of a Toyota hilux. I picked up a complete tailgate and the bits that fix to the body for a reasonable price. I made up some 20mm spacers to bridge the gap between the datsun tailgate and body.

Are you thinking of making up a few sets of the tailgate hinges to sell. Must admit I was never a fan of the factory hinges.

Also, I notice that you are using a latching mechanism on the tailgate from something else too...whats the setup there?

Cheers mate.
There isn't to much to the S13 wiper conversion as i'm already installing a CA18 and decided at the start that I wanted to use the S13's wiper & indicator stalks. When I had Kev Rowley start on the wiring harness I just asked that he didn't strip out the wiring for the this gear. The wiper motor bolts straight into the 1200's wiper position with 2 of the legs lining up with the original three bolt holes/nuts. I just drilled out for a third nut and bolt and then cut the forth leg off the wiper motor - most of that can be seen in the pics though. The 1200's wiper mechinism fits straight onto the S13 wiper motor but I don't think the wipers will "park" in the correct spot with out drilling this out a re-welding the keys/blockouts. I still haven't hooked up a battery to see if this works but I don't see any reason for it not to.

Nice- be nice to see a full write up of the s13 wiper conversion

I have finished the hinges now and they are all mounted up. I still need to brace the mount on the body as it has some flex but it is all operational.

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Ok guys,

I have started on the hidden / tray mounted tailgate hinges and mounting the washer wiper motor in the cab.

Tailgate Hinges: I don't like the how standard tailgate hinges are exposed and started working on a tidier solution years ago. Original I had tried some normal hinges mounted just a little further in but the tailgate would only open about 60 degrees. I doubt I'll ever use my tray but it just didn't look right that the tailgate didn't open properly. These one should have the tailgate open to level with the tray. I just need to look for some better clevis pins as I think it has just a little to much slope at the moment. The nuts and bolts in these pics are just to hold it together for the pics.

Washer wiper motor: This is the S13 motor that I had already fitted in the engine bay but i'm sure you could use the same process with the original datsun one. I used M6 threaded rod in the original mounting nuts - just into the cab instead of into the engine bay. It will need stand offs and a brace as the threaded rod has a fair bit of flex to it. I found that the original wiper arm still attaches but it may need about 15mm taken out of its length as I couldn't get the wiper motor to do a full revolution without binding. I'm also going to put a kink in it to push it back up a little higher.

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