The Datsun B10

[KB10]

Any hints on the system you will be running? O that reminds me I meet the dude that works at Haltec. He was at one of the biggest car shows in the US call "Sema" in Vegas. I met him there, cool dude. He drives a ca18det powered 510. So it turns out I know one Australian :)

Now you know one Australian? Well I'm sure that your life has been enriched as a result. LOL :) :) :)

 

Firstly, no, I haven't had a chance to see the movie, but I hope to, particularly since it was a come-from-behind winner at the Oscars.

 

As for the computer, no, I have not made a choice & I will wait until the last minute before I do so as there will probably be some dazzling breakthrough in the technology by then [at least, that's what the glossy brochure will say] & of course we all want the latest & greatest. There are several quite good ones made right here in Oz & the upside of that is that if my purchase doesn't work as advertised, I can go to the factory & give them grief on a face to face basis. Well, that's the plan anyway.

 

This is my assortment of Factory EFI stuff & there the major components of two systems, plus additional pieces from a third. Sorry about the quality of the picture.

These inlet manifolds feature a relatively long runner & this is good for torque, which is what I am building this engine for. I have never been too crazy about listening to an engine spinning about 4,000 rpm at 100 kph [60 mph] when it could do just as well at something much closer to 3,000 rpm.

 

The picture on the right is not my manifold, but it will give you a better idea of what the runners look like.

 

 

Torque & light weight is the key. I can handle a tall diff because the F5W56A five speed has four intermediate ratios & not just three as in an overdrive five speed. [The close ratio F5C56A option 1 ratios should be even more fun.]

The 56A five speed is direct in fifth remember & not an overdrive box, it's a true five speed.

 

The exhaust pipe in the picture is from a 1200 GX & I will use it in my 1200 coupe when I install the A15 with GX induction. Yes, I have another GX exhaust manifold.

 

Off to the car races tomorrow & I will see if I can garner some pictures of the 1200 racers there. I will see if I can also shoot the Carpenter Bros. KB10 racer, it's quite competitive in its class with its A15 engine.

[Icehouse]

You do have a BIG collection of EGI goodies. I can see some EGR bits in the lower corner of the picture, are you planning on running it? I really like how the throttle body has 2 flappers like a carb.

[KB10]

You do have a BIG collection of EGI goodies. I can see some EGR bits in the lower corner of the picture, are you planning on running it? I really like how the throttle body has 2 flappers like a carb.

EGR? I think that I will 'fit' it, but just how operational it will be is a matter to be determined. At this time I am leaning towards full funcionality, but through a much restricted orifice.

The interesting thing is that at full throttle, there is no vacuum to speak of, so the EGR system becomes non operational, so it has no effect on full output anyway, like so many vacuum operated smog devices. I want to keep it as simple & clean on the engine bay as possible, while trying to be a good citizen smog-wise. It will be a delicate balance, keeping in mind that it needs only comply with 1970 requirements & I should be able to excede that by a wide margin.

Something for me to mull over for a while untill time comes for the engine build.

[Icehouse]

I feel the same way, after watching "An Inconvenient Truth" I felt really strongly about make my datto more "green" I was talking to a friend who said "Jeff you converted your cars to EFI I'm sure just that alone has reduced the pollution by a lot." So in the end I feel the same way about it as you, I would like to run a hight flow cat. Anything else is just to little to late. It's not like I'm driving some carbed v8 that is very poorly tuned (my cousin) How much could an EGI A15 pollute anyways?

[ggzilla]

Wow, some good writeup on a nice little Datsun 1000 Coupe.

 

Yes, I had an A-series EFI manifold. The exhaust manifold looks exactly like the old A12GX one. The EFI (Nissan EGI) manifold looks exactly like a 280Z EFI manifold with two cylinders cut off and slightly different intake ports. You could use 200SX/S110 Silvia parts (fuel pump, air vane, computer, and wiring, see information). I sold mine intake/exhaust manifold to the guy from the Z-carb shop. After doing nothing with it for a year, I decided to pass it on. They were only used in Asia markets 1980-1982. The 2007 A14 engine still uses a carburetor.

[KB10]

Wow, some good writeup on a nice little Datsun 1000 Coupe.

Thanks for the kind words, & I assume that you have readily recognises the car & its owner as we should be well known to you by now. ;)

 

More instalments to come, but pressure of work & other issues have taken up all my time for now.

[KB10]

Well, after a workload that would drive just about anyone insane, I have decided to take a day off [sunday] & I will now see if I can continue with the saga. I had to read back over this thread to see where I was up to.

 

OK, once the body beautiful was completely naked, it was subject to a very careful preparation & given a coat of primer, as seen in the last photo's. The unsightly blemishes [spot welds] that spoilt her good looks are now gone, but you already know that, so it was time to give it a new paint job.

 

This was a time of anguish as I wanted to paint it in a lovely & very classy silver/Gray, but could not convince myself that it would work with the black vinyl top. After some encouragement from 'The Nice Car Doctor' at the 'Car Hospital' I bowed to mediocrity & went for the good old standby, .... the original white. At least I knew what it would look like in the end, but I still have wistful moments where I think that the Gray would have been a better choice.

If the car had not come with a vinyl top from new, I would have ditched the white in a flash & gone for the Gray. There is a photo of another KB10 in this colour in an earlier post & I just love it.

 

Anyway, 'Sunshine White' it was to be. This is where the pictures kick in.

 

This is it back on its wheels & we decided to paint the front panel black to avoid the white from being seen through the grille.

The headlight buckets are a short story in themselves. I was in the habit of buying lots of Datsun 1000 parts from my local dealer as they were becoming obsolescent & were available to me at a 50% discount on the ten year old list price, so I just bought stuff because, ..... it was there.

I called in to pick up something or other one day back in the mid to late 80's & the manager [who has been selling me parts from there for 27 years] threw two boxes on the counter & said, "ya want these?"

The boxes contained a matched pair of headlight buckets, so I said "emmachizit" [how much is it] I forget how much, but it must have been cheap enough as I said "yair, ... OK, I might need them someday." Twenty years later, & 'someday' came around, so there they are.

Note that the 1970 model uses the longer blinker spear & these are in fact new 510 items. The only difference between KB10 & 510 lights is in the electrical plug on the end of the wires.

 

 

We decided to use some self adhesive insulating material under the bonnet [hood] to tidy up the looks a little & to reduce the heat on the panel as well as reduce the noise level a little.

 

So here we are at the stage where it is beginning to come back together. It's still at the panel shop, but there is more to report, so stick around for the next update, ...... soon.

[Icehouse]

That engine bay is amazing!!! WOW! and the headlight buckets are the icing on the cake!

 

gotta sleep :(

[KB10]

Damn problem with the engine bay is, .... how do I get the engine in without scratching it. I think I will have to lower the body over the cross member & engine trans assembly, just like they did at the factory.

 

I want you all to understand that this is a project gone HORRIBLY wrong. It was going to be a cheap & nasty 'fix up', but you know how it goes, when you fix one thing, it makes the part next to it look bad, so that needs fixing up too, & so it goes, ... on & on & on until it ends up like this.

 

A smart man would know when to quit, but I'm still going, so what does that tell you.

[]2eDeYe]

I know that feeling :D

[Icehouse]

Damn problem with the engine bay is, .... how do I get the engine in without scratching it. I think I will have to lower the body over the cross member & engine trans assembly, just like they did at the factory.

 

Thats how I did my 4 door, its kinda easy for a one man crew.

 

 

I want you all to understand that this is a project gone HORRIBLY wrong. It was going to be a cheap & nasty 'fix up', but you know how it goes, when you fix one thing, it makes the part next to it look bad, so that needs fixing up too, & so it goes, ... on & on & on until it ends up like this.

 

I know to, painted parts look so nice mmmhhh mmhhh

[KB10]

Along the way, like all good students, there were times when it was necessary to 'hit the books'. In my case it was the parts books, & I have several for these cars [different sizes] & the research included original sales brochures. My parts books are for the Australian version of my car, which was sold as the 'Datsun 1000 Coupe', however, the Japanese version, known simply as the 'Sunny Coupe' differed in a couple of subtle ways.

 

Additionally, there were differences in equipment levels, along with an additional model within the range.

 

As far as I can tell [so far] the Japanese Sunny used the 'Deluxe' as a base model, but it was pretty plain Jane at the entry level & the option list was fairly long, while the only version we got was also the 'Deluxe' but with better specs.

To bring the base Jap model up to the Aussie spec, they included, from the option list, the following items as standard.

Heater, Tach, Radio, External mirrors, & the side stripe looks to have come from the accessory catalogue.

I had always thought that the rest of the option was was not sold here, ... but it was & I have found everything from that list, but have yet to acquire the headrests.

 

The car that we never saw here was the GL, [Grande Luxe] however, a fellow KB10 nut has some Japanese brochures that he kindly loaned to me & I scanned them before returning them. Good thing that I did too as my old & senile brain took some months to realise that one of them covered the GL & showed the additional & different parts that make it special.

 

It's about now that you get some pictures. OK, the first ones are portions of a brochure that shows the factory Sports steering wheel, the matching gear knob [GL], the optional clock & the accessory 8 track stereo player.

The second picture shows the GL console. This is just an ornament & really serves no usefull purpose.

 

 

To duplicate the GL model, it would be necessary to aquire all of those parts that were different from the regular Deluxe version, & also those parts that are different from the Aussie version. Fortunately, there are not a large number of differences, so the job is not too hard & I now have about 95% of them.

Here are a few.

 

The Sunny Coupe emblems are fitted low down on the front guards [fenders], so the Datsun ones that have already been fitted will need to be removed, the holes filled, then these emblems fitted. [see previous posts for pictures of Datsun emblems on car]

The fuel cap was actually listed for the Van [wagon] only as this was the only model without a lockable fuel door. I bought it because it thought it looked better than the original stock one.

 

 

The front park/ blinker lights were the same for Jap & Aussie models except for the lens colour. Aussie ones were white while Jap ones were amber. My lamp bodies were a bit 'used' so these new assemblies were a godsend.

 

The clock was provided by a fellow 1200 club member in Adelaide [The capitol city of South Australia] which is about 1,000 miles away

 

 

The steering wheel I bought new through my friendly Datsun dealer back in 1980. I have since aquired another one.

 

The console is really a waste of space, but it looks cute.

 

 

The new differential is my newly aquired Nismo LSD for the H150 which was used used in B210 models from about 1975 onwards, including the 210 model [b310] The H150 differential assembly will bolt into the H145 axle housing [b10 & B110 models]. It will work just fine if a 2mm spacer & a second gasket is used as the centerline of the differential is 2.5mm further back from the gasket face, so spacing it forward by a like amount rectifies all problems.

I paid more for this than I did for the whole car when I bought it & it's the only H150 LSD that I have ever heard of, let alone seen.

 

The knob is a new & is the right one for the GL model.

 

 

Well, this post has become far too long, so I'll end it here for now. More later.

[Icehouse]

Well, this post has become far too long, so I'll end it here for now. More later.

 

Its a good read though :D

 

I can't believe you found all those parts, you must have been planning some sort of rebuild for 30 years :) haha I have a few rare parts but nothing to compare to your collection. I would be nervous to drive it.

[KB10]

Mate, the parts list is longer than this & I have been gathering parts for B10 models since I bought my first one in 1980, so it's only been 27 years.

 

As for being scared to drive it, I already am, & it's still in pieces. It will probably spend most of it's time under a cover in the shed with occasional trips to selected 'Datsun' events as I already have too much money tied up in it. I have a 1200 coupe to drive & I will need to buy a bigger vehicle, either a wagon or a pickup, to cary & tow when it comes time to build my 1933 Dodge street rod. Neither the 1200 or the 1000 will do the job there.

If nothing else, my kids will benefit most when the little KB10 realises a good price at my deceased estate auction. :) LOL.

[KB10]

Well, next came the perplexing problem of the mirrors.

The JDM version of the KB10 did not come with external mirrors as standard, however, they were listed as an option. The coupe got the rectangular [sort of] mirror head while everything else got a round mirror head with a slightly convex lens. Almost all Aussie B10 cars came with the external mirrors from the dealer as standard, & all of these were of the round head variety.

 

Now, both my Japanese sales brochure & my Aussie ones list the mirrors as an option, but the English text brochures would be a straight copy from the Jap one, so the 'option' part about the mirrors, along with the heater, the radio & the tach would not apply as we got them as standard on all of the Coupes.

 

Anyway, the brochure says, "External mirrors, on fender or door" If someone in Japan ordered the external mirrors, then the default mounting position was the fenders, slightly ahead of the centreline of the wheel. This gave a good view, but was an absolute pain if they needed adjusting after somebody bumped one in a car park, particularly the passenger side mirror.

All of the Aussie cars came with this fender mounting.

 

However, ..... the brochure says that door mounting was a factory option mounting point & after some anguish, I decided that I would go with the door mounting as this left a clean fender line, & provided greater ease of adjustment, so, after sourcing a correct pair of new Deluxe Sunny Coupe mirrors, we mounted them on the doors. They look a little funny as every other B10 that I have seen has had them on the fenders, but I figured that I would get accustomed to it.

 

 

Now comes the dilemma

The Sunny GL, which I am attempting to replicate, uses a completely different type of mirror, & worse yet, I was able to source a new pair of them [at vast expense] They look quite similar to [but better than] the 1200 GX mirrors & to find a new pair was an incredible score.

 

The picture below shows a white Sunny GL Coupe. It has both the GL mirrors & the GL blackout grill, which could be ordered on a new Deluxe model if so desired. [Yes, I have the grille]

 

The yellow coupe is a new Deluxe Sunny Coupe with the standard [non black] grille & the standard coupe mirrors in the default location.

 

 

So what do I do, strip the doors again & remove the mirrors, then fit the GL ones on the fenders, or just hang onto the GL mirrors & see how it feels with the Deluxe ones on the doors?

What about door mounting the GL mirrors?

 

I gotta say, they really are a nice looking mirror. What would you do?

 

[Icehouse]

I gotta say, they really are a nice looking mirror. What would you do?

 

That is hard question for 2 reasons. First 100% factory is second to what I really like. For example, on my 68 2 door (rares car I own) I'm going to leave the "car" stock but Its going to be slammed with nice wheels. Also I will eventually get ride of the pogo stick suspension and go the Mazda FD suspension. To me I don't really care about cutting up a classic, I never intend of having a bone stock Datsun :D

 

The second reason is some times the parts just get to expensive, I bought a stock rear window gasket 2 or 3 years ago for my 510, it was about 65 bucks now they go for about 165. Some of the rare grills and tail lights go for over a what I paid for any of my cars. Sometimes its like a contest, who can spend the most money. I have never been in a situation such as yours. I would leave them on the doors just to be different and you always have the "It was a factory option". I think your idea is the best though, just the idea of having all the factory options is so cool! I could see myself building an A series car (unfortunately a 1000 is a difficult one for my to get my hands on) So I would have to do a 1200. There is a 1000 for sale in Canada that I've heard about, maybe I could get my hands on that car. One last thought, when you get the car completely done you could get a photo of it and put it on photoshop and move the mirrors that way to see exactly what you think. Then if you really had to change it you could. :D

[KB10]

I think I will leave the door mirrors in place for now as you suggest as the reasons for placing them there in the first place are still valid.

You're right about parts pricing being damned expensive & some of the pieces for this car have given me the cold shivers, but to offload it now would cost me much more that the price to finish it from the present position. Besides, I have wanted a car like this for over 25 years now, so to quote Margret Thatcher, when she was discussing the first Gulf War with Pres Bush [senior] "This is no time to go all wobbly on me", so I just need to suck it up, work all the overtime I can get & pay, pay, pay. [sob, sob]

 

I have chosen to go with factory components because I believe that a right ripping little car can be built this way, & made to look as if it could have been a factory job. The secret to great performance in these things isn't gobs of power [although that works too] but light weight. The weight reduction of a well tuned A series over, say, an FJ20, means that lighter drive line components can be used, including smaller & lighter brakes, ... along with smaller & lighter wheels & tyres. This last bit ensures a nimble suspension & good ride. [minimum unsprung mass]

To get a car like this to perform well, you don't need as much power, & a smaller fuel tank with a lighter fuel load will give you the same range as a big engine & big fuel tank. Costs less to feed too.

 

Now you just KNOW that a small & light package will handle well. It will stick to the road like sh*t to a blanket, & all the tyre smokin' performance in the world will not be enough to catch it in the tight twisties, ... so that's the path I have chosen. It's an attempt to build a modestly powered lightweight package, with sporting pretencion's, from 'selected' dinosaur-era factory components. in a [relatively] common Datsun model, but in a rare body type.

 

Can I pull it off? I don't know, but I'm in too deep to worry about that now, however you can guarantee that I'm going to give the whole concept a bloody good shake.

 

The plan is to keep it all under 700 Kg [about 1550 Lb] dripping wet, with spare wheel, & ready to drive. If I can get 85 to 90 Hp at the wheels I will be a really happy boy, because that's all I need to scare myself sh*tless. :eek:

[ggzilla]

Personally, I like the semi-rectangular deluxe mirrors better (the chrome looks good on an old-school car).

 

"They look quite similar to [but better than] the 1200 GX mirrors" ... say what? The 1200 GX mirrors have a nice chrome ring around the black, while the 1000 GL mirrors are just flat black. Not that I've actually seen either with my own eyes...

[Icehouse]

Not that I've actually seen either with my own eyes...

 

We can dream can't we :D Hey ggzilla maybe we could fly down under and stay at kb's house. He could take us on a datto tour :D

[KB10]

Well, the first picture is of a new pair of JDM Sunny 1200 GX mirrors, while the second is of the Sunny KB10-GL ones. This should give a better comparison.

Oh yeah, I lashed out & bought these 1200 GX ones too, & both just reek of late 60's & 70's style. I love it.

 

 

Icehouse, come on over. I have only one bed, but I can throw a matress on the floor for you in one of the other bedrooms. I'm sure that you will feel right at home in among the carefully stacked Datsun & Dodge hemi parts that I have been gathering. :eek: ;)

[ggzilla]

My cousin works at the airport now and gets $40 tickets. Next year he'll get int'l travel privileges ... he wants to go to OZ with me ...that travel savings will leave more money in my pocket to buy a RHD Datsun!

 

What kind of vintage Datsun 1200 ute can I get for $3000 US Dollars? Shipping will cost me about $2000.

[Grahem]

hey i have a 1970 datsun 1000 deluxe, in desperate need of rear brake cylinders (at least one) and a proper clutch slave cylinder (has a 620 one now but i can only use one bolt). Would you happen to know of a source for these parts? or if i can cross them over to a more common car? thanks for your help

[Grahem]

 

heres a pic

[]2eDeYe]

You might try posting up in the wanted section for those parts. You should start a project thread as well :D

[ggzilla]

Hi Grahem,

 

If it has the original A10 engine and 4-speed transmission, then a new clutch cylinder for 1971 Datsun 1200 will probably work. Most places can get them.

Only $5.45 at RockAuto, new not a repair kit. Canada was perhaps the only place LHD Datsun 1000s were sold. The RHD models used a clutch cable, so I don't know for sure if the Slave cylinder is the same.

 

 

For the rear brake cylinder, the 1971 Datsun 1200 part is exactly same as Datsun 1000. Rear Brakes. Get the 13/16" cylinder, they are only $12 new, not a kit.