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What have you done to your 1200 lately


OpelWagenGT

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just noticed is your 1200 originally RHD?.....i see your master cylinder on right side?

 

Not originally RHD, no. It's a LHD USDM car that's slowly being converted into a RHD JDM-spec car.  :thumbup:

 

Also what would you sell your second set of soup bowls for?

 

I'd rather hold onto them for now.   ^_^

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Dad's 2 dr. Sedan rolled out into the sun for the 2nd time in 7 years. Loaded on the trailer for it's trip home.

 

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That's the original spare tire and wheel that still holds air after 40+ years.

 

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Sighted today on U S 287 Southbound between Bowie and Decatur TX. Me moving Dad's '72 1200 2 dr. Sedan from 7 years of storage in Childress TX, 230 miles to it's new home in Sanger TX for a full restoration. Dad bought the car new in '72, and I took my driver's license test at 16 years old in this car in '76. Excellent original condition. I inherited the car 15 years ago when Dad passed on and I have been waiting for this day a very long time. Single family owner since new. Time to get it done and back on the road. Laissez les bon temps rouler.

 

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Couple of pics of my ute at the last All Japanese Day Classic car show in Brisbane. Put the lowering blocks in the back and painted the side stripes and tires Friday night, painted the grille and installed the GX centre badge Saturday morning, chucked the plates and tape on the headlights Sunday morning at the show. Had a few people hover around it.

The drive down on Saturday was pretty eventful in a bad way, the A12T kept overheating on the trip from Bundaberg to Brisbane to Toowoomba. On the way to Brisbane the temp gauge slowly crept up as we got closer. Stopped at Autobarn in Caboolture when the needle hit the gap between the 2 hot marks and bought a new thermostat and swapped it in the car park. The gauge still hovered slightly above about 3/4's on the way to Boondall and out to Toowoomba.

On the motorway up the steep mountain range (40km/h speed limit, very very steep) the oil in the gearbox all ran to the back and started starving the gears and bearings, I thought the noise was coming from the truck next to us but once we pulled away from him it was still loud haha oops...

On the way from Toowomba back to Brisbane about 10pm, the temp gauge was still hovering up high. Stopped in at another ute owner's house and pulled the radiator out. When I swapped the standard A12 out for the A12T, I never flushed the A12T block out with water and the thermostat removed. So my recently re-cored radiator tubes were all plugged up with crap :-| Poked a few of them out with an old diptsick that was lying around my mate's garage and gave the tanks a good shocking with a block of pine and it freed up a bit more of the debris. Refilled the system and continued our journey back to Brisbane, temp gauge now sitting stable about 1/4 of a needle above halfway....close enough...and arrived very exhausted at our motel room at around 1230am...only to have to get up at 6 to go to the show lol

Sunday was pretty cruisy, about 200 cars went in and out the gates of the showground. Met a few cool folks and their cars. And no cooling issues on the trip home :-)

Only for the carby floats to crack and sink 2 weeks later FUUUUUUUUUUUU....

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Just for the US crowd, bundaberg to brisbane is a 4 hour trip or more and from brisbane to Toowoomba about 1 hour 3/4s. Then Toowoomba sits on top of a mountain range which you have to climb, very steep road. The Great Diving Range. Divides the entire east coast much like the Apalachin Mountains.

 

Theres your geography lesson.

 

Sorry I missed the meet Sam. Was planning to go even though my Ute is back home in NJ.

 

Next time in Toowoomba call in. That's where I'm living at the moment. Glad your ute kept running. Looks much nicer since the last tmie I saw it.

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> up the steep mountain range ... the oil in the gearbox all ran to the back and started starving the gears and bearings

 

Datsun fixed that with the 56A fitted to 1973 1200s and to all utes.

The smooth case 4 spd? That's what it's got and that's what happened, must only work up to a certain point lol

 

I left the front ones on and put the horrible looking 15" Bluebird TRX rims on the back for the long trips because it gears it down like overdrive (probably more effective than a 5 speed OD box and about 17000 times cheaper) to save on fuel.

 

The stenciled tires are just the factory 155R12 radial tires that I washed and sprayed top to bottom with matte black paint and matte white for the stenciled letters LOL Was going to make them Goodyear Eagles but they seemed too small so I named them Finches instead X-D

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I had no problems driving my 1200 up mountains. With the stock A12 engine it would match the speed limit even on the steepest parts of the US interstate system.

Under the hood.

The Mighty A12! Isn't it wild that the battery is nearly the same size as the engine. 38 mpg with a 4 speed and 2 bbl carb in 1972. No electronic or computer controlled anything! Just Kick Ass Old School Engineering! The family drove to Colorado Springs CO from Amarillo TX for vacation when the car was about 2 years old and I was 13. Going up Raton Pass in New Mexico we were doing 70mph at almost 8000ft., in the left lane, while new American Cars, Chevrolets, Fords, Cadillacs and Lincolns were huffing and puffing and maybe doing 30 mph. Did I mention I got the lead foot DNA from my Dad? I will never forget the look on the faces of the drivers we went blowing past in this little beast. And you thought I was being facetious when I called it the Mighty A12!

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It never struggled, I was stuck behind someone in a new Toyota Corolla only doing 35kmh. The other lane was closed due to roadworks, I would have shot past them had the other lane been open.

 

I love the A12T, I put sewing machine oil in the dampers of the carbs, nice and thin so they are super responsive. It's a bit of a challenge when in the city to take off slowly to avoid drawing attention haha my girlfriend hates how touchy it is when she drives it, if you open the throttle a bit quick it just wants to take off haha.

 

I can't wait to drive the injected supercharged A12 I'm building at the moment and an A12GX I'm going to put together once the supercharged one is running right.

 

Supercharged one is pretty much going to be built on the standard bottom end, a standard round port head modified with double valve springs from a motor I picked up for free, GSXR 600 coils, 18LE throttle body and sensors, a pair of injectors from a 3.8L supercharged Pontiac mounted in more or less the same position as the throats of the standard carb, and an AMR500 supercharger mounted below the pipe in the block for the lower radiator hose. Will be controlled by a MicroSquirt ECU. Set limiter at 7500 with 15psi boost. I don't think it will last long but it should be good fun before the standard pistons let go, I'm hoping it's a spectacular mess when it explodes lol

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