Time for an update on this project. The body work has now been completed with a new coat of Empress Blue. Reassembly is now in progress.




After polishing up the old bumpers, I decided not to bother getting them re chromed. A new coat of black for the grille and touch up for the emblem has completed the look. The front wiring harness has also been replaced along with the battery wiring. It was decided to leave the Narva Driving lamps in place as these are in very good condition and ideal for rallying and forgotten country roads where this little beastie is likely to spend most of it's running life ahead.




The old indicator assemblies were rusty and have been replaced with a set of Thailand EBay copies. WARNING for anyone buying these. The lenses and back plate are fine but the lamp holders are CRAP! BOTH plates came with BOTH lamp holders BROKEN, the little washer intended to hold the pin had all but disintegrated.




The rear is also taking shape. Several coats of paint and bog means the boot now sits above it's natural position and is very tight on the aftermarket rubbers even with the lock set right up. A new set of smaller rubbers is on it's way to compensate. The rear bumper has come up very nice save a few small rust spots which will be touched up.




A close up of the "Chop shop" approach to fixing the cheapie EBay lights. This is a mod which I also carried out on the older one in the '90s and consists of 2x3w globes for the parker and a whopping 20w halogen burner for the indicator. No more of those dull boy datto blinkers.




Builders' plate still shows "SAUL" (code for Automatic transmission) but this datto was converted to Manual back in 1998.




The slightly wider bell for the Auto, now with the manual installed and a non original stick boot to cover the wider Auto opening.

The 4 speed gearbox in this datto has a long history with me. It is from my first 1200, purchased S/H in 1985. Then, it had approx 280k on the clock with the mile speedo having gone around three times since new. In the intervening time I had it in the first datto (1985-1997) it did another 160k before being swapped to this car when the original one met it's final fate. It then did another 20k before this 1200 was stored in 2000. So a total of approx 460k on this box now, much of it with heavy loads and (in the latter years) towing heavy trailers. The box has never been opened and still works perfectly. (Can't say the same for the numerous diff centres I went through in those years!)

Thanks to all who have helped with this restoration so far including the numerous members on this forum as well as Hi Comp Performance Engines (Minchinbury) and JBK smash repairs (Windsor) NSW.

The interior will now be temporarily restored enough to get the car NSW registered (fed up with moving it around on the trailer!) then the interior will be completely re trimmed.

The failed brakes: There's a story behind that.

When we changed the master cylinder, the new one was sufficiently different from the old such that we needed adjustment at the pedal to get the system to work properly. It seems this adjustment (despite being initially locked off) somehow came loose and steadily adjusted itself until the pedal met the floor.

The adjuster has now been reset and re designed to make slipping impossible.

ZM