New Shite on the block

[MrBiscuits]

I love seeing these. A red coupe like yours was the first family car I remember. It was quite an early one M reg, with the pie tin wheel trims and black vinyl seats - which I burned my legs on in the summer.

In the mid 80s the saloons seemed to be everywhere, less so the coupe

[sierraman]

20 minutes ago, AnthonyG said:

One of these, great styling:

That’s a Corolla Liftback. When I was a kid a relative had one, rusty as fuck. 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Oh that’s rather lovely. Does the seemingly unblemished paintwork hide some ginger horrors, or is she as clean as she appears? I wonder what the back story is before Sam, for the old girl to have survived so long?

[Spottedlaurel]

Looks great! Same running gear as my little 1200 but rather more swoopy and stylish. The A12 engine has a lovely, sweet nature to it.

I think do have some 12" Datsun wheel trims, but they're the rather plain ones off this very 100A FII:

1977 Datsun 100A FII 2dr (F10) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Good luck with it!

[Uncle Jimmy]

2 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Oh that’s rather lovely. Does the seemingly unblemished paintwork hide some ginger horrors, or is she as clean as she appears? I wonder what the back story is before Sam, for the old girl to have survived so long?

There are no major rust areas apart from a substantial patch behind the steering box on the offside inner wing. Lots of small areas to attend to, the slam panel, a few blebs around the suspension turrets, the complex areas like the A posts are very good that's the main thing, in fact it's in better condition than my 96 was. Having said that it's only got 37k on the clock. Prior to a stint with Sam (it was his first car) which ended in 2003 when it was laid up it belonged to an elderly woman, it's first owner, in Cheltenham. 

Like ALL 70s cars the truth is that it is how they were looked after that determined their fate; a Datsun which was garaged will indeed last longer than a Volvo which is left outside covered in mud! 

[Uncle Jimmy]

2 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Looks great! Same running gear as my little 1200 but rather more swoopy and stylish. The A12 engine has a lovely, sweet nature to it.

I think do have some 12" Datsun wheel trims, but they're the rather plain ones off this very 100A FII:

1977 Datsun 100A FII 2dr (F10) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Good luck with it!

Shame that little motor met it's end, I can see the front valance is totally shot for starters though. Any more pics? 

[stilo_active]

That 120Y Coupe is FIT. My Dad had a Coupe as his first car, resplendent in vivid turquoise complete with mag slots. 

My Uncle had a 100A FII at around the same time

[Uncle Jimmy]

Dashy pics...

[MorrisItalSLX]

I do like a fastback coupé, and that looks like a real honey.

The side profile reminds me of the Sunbeam Rapier Fastback, very sleek.

[Timewaster]

A friend of mine had a 120Y as his first car.

He used to say it would go round any corner at any speed.

Compared to everyone else's Avengers or Escorts it probably did handle pretty well and I doubt the speeds were particularly high.

The MOT man finished it off sadly.

 

[Tamworthbay]

1 hour ago, Timewaster said:

A friend of mine had a 120Y as his first car.

He used to say it would go round any corner at any speed.

Compared to everyone else's Avengers or Escorts it probably did handle pretty well and I doubt the speeds were particularly high.

The MOT man finished it off sadly.

 

I used to make extensive use of Albert Looms scrapyard as a teenager, in the stores were racks of engines and gearboxes. There were never any Datsun ones judging by the labels, I asked the stores guy why and he said no one ever came in for Datsun engines or boxes but there were row upon row of rotten ones in the yards. Presumably with immaculate drivetrains. With hindsight someone should have worked out how to drop them in a Ford and they would have made a packet.

[Uncle Jimmy]

Had a bit of time this evening so pulled the fuel sender, gave it a good clean and set up and I have a working fuel gauge now.

I also swapped the old aluminium  thermostat housing which had a 5mm sized hole for a new one, all the way from Thailand. I tried to fill the hole with chemical metal, should have known better as it still leaked...

The A12 engine is very smooth running.

[Spottedlaurel]

On 8/24/2019 at 10:13 AM, Tamworthbay said:

I used to make extensive use of Albert Looms scrapyard as a teenager, in the stores were racks of engines and gearboxes. There were never any Datsun ones judging by the labels, I asked the stores guy why and he said no one ever came in for Datsun engines or boxes but there were row upon row of rotten ones in the yards. Presumably with immaculate drivetrains. With hindsight someone should have worked out how to drop them in a Ford and they would have made a packet.

In the 1990s the exporters caught onto this fact, rusty RWD Sunny/Violet models with their A-series OHV engines became surprisingly valuable.