1978 Austrailian Datsun 200B GX
I bought this car in 1991. I must say it was in a bit of a state even that it has only done about 50k miles there was no wings, bonnet, front valance, or bumpers on it. I paid £150 why you may ask when you see the car. Well the only answer I have is if you have never driven a Datsun you would not understand. Also as any Datsun owner will agree there is never a time that you will go to the car and it won't start they just run forever.
Well the work started refitting the front panels to make sure that they did in fact correctly fit the car. After that I never done anything to the car, it was moved from place to place and not really bothered with.
In 1996 my garage was broken into. The person smashed both rear quarter and right hand side front window even when the car was unlocked (why do people do that), I spent 3 months trying to get new windows I finally found a front end smashed 160B I bought the windows from the scrap yard and fitted them the only problem is at pacific angles you can see the tint color difference, I bought a new battery and again the car started with no great effort so I decided it was time to start work on the car. I ran the car for a couple of weeks checking every thing and found no real problems with it.
I started by removing the full interior and all glass, door seals, handles, locks etc. then out came the engine, gearbox and all the parts under the bonnet, and lastly all the lights I was left with a bare shell. A friend with a tow truck then delivered the car to the paint shop. The painter decided because of the condition of the paint it would be best to remove it and start from scratch. All the panels that where bolt on where removed (wings, doors, bonnet, boot lid, front valance, etc). I then got a couple of containers of paint stripper; I started to remove all the paint I could. The car looked even worse by time I had finished with the paint stripper.
It was then sprayed in primer from which it started to look a little better all one color (even though it was grey primer) then all the repairs where done, the lip at the rear was removed and 2 new sills fitted. Ah time to get the paint that was a bit hard taken paint code from production card and a sample (petrol flap). I was amazed a perfect match (well all most). The next couple of days the paint was applied to the main body, all the door checks boot and engine bay was painted, Then the panels painted and fitted to the car except for all the front panels (wings, bonnet and front valance) they were put a side for now why I hear you ask will I will explained it in a minute then arranged with my friend to collect the car and take back to my garage. The day came to get the car home and he did not show up disaster I had a shell with no brake out side a full paint shop so it was phone call to dad who went to garage and got hazard light and fixed tow bar and a seat. I quickly bolted the seat into place and attached the bar to both cars and we towed the shell home safely.
Now I will get to why I wanted to leave the panels at the paint shop, I replaced all the brake pipes form front to rear also replace both front struts with new discs (vented discs from Laurel C31). It was then to the engine and gearbox I steam cleaned and polished some of the engine it looked great sitting on the bread trolley which it lay for about 18 to 24 months. Putting the engine back in was a bit of a problem I ended up doing it my self could not get anyone to help but I managed nether the less. Then the rest of the panels where fitted (reason I never fitted them I did not want them damaged). The interior was cleaned and refitted the car looked great after it was all back together.
I then booked the car into local MOT station where it failed on a loose seat and handbrake reading to low so after a new bolt and adjusted the handbrake it passed it's mot in march 1998, I joined the Datsun owners club in January 1999 from that point it was very easy to find parts for my cars thanks to William Lightburn (Datman) in early 2000 I found a 160B that was beyond repair so I removed as many mechanical parts I could including a 4 speed manual gear box which was put into the 200B and has now been changed for a 5 speed from my 180B SSS.
In July 2000 I drove the car to a JAE show at billing Aquadrome in Northampton where we had a great weekend and looking forward to more like it.