LTJ Posted August 18, 2016 Report Share Posted August 18, 2016 Hey all! I have been looking at the site for a while, but figured it was time I finally joined up. A bit about me: Mid 30's, living in Victoria, Australia, married, qualified boiler maker/welder/metals and engineering guy, had a couple of 720 utes in the past, worked on a few 910 Bluebirds and then went more modern for the last decade or so, finally decided I needed something with more character than a modern car could give me. So I found myself browsing Gumtree (Craigslist for Aussies) and eBay for something not too far gone, searched for a while and gave up, but about a year later this sweet little A10 Stanza dropped in my lap for the princely sum of $650 including a permit to drive it home, a spare 4 speed, a spare early grill and lights and a full set of Dragway 14's in the boot. (trunk) It was a genuine one owner granny car when the guy before me got it, he replaced some lights and fuel lines, dropped some Kings lowered springs into it and then bought a Holden Gemini (Chevette) because that was the car he really wanted, and so put the Stanza up for sale including all the spares he had collected. The day I drove it home: The wheels in the boot: (There is 4 of them) Test fit on the car: It still has the power sucking Australian BW40 auto in it at the moment, but the little L16 doesn't run too bad, even so I have a 910 series 2 5 speed ready to go in as soon as I strip the flywheel and clutch set up from this donor car I bought: ($250 including delivery) I will also swap over the early bumpers and other parts from the donor... I was going to fit an L20b that I have sitting in the back yard, but the L16 in it is just too good to pull out, only 92,000km's (57,000 miles) from new, no noises, starts perfect, runs great... I have had it on the road and registered now for 6 months, just been driving it around as a daily mainly, not done much, just stripped the side body mouldings and all the badges off as I think they look ugly: Built a vintage style roof rack for it, but I think I will redo it, not quite happy with it yet: I was lost for a while trying to figure out a direction to take it, part of me thinking it was too good to modify, but the other half knowing that if I don't make it my own I will lose interest... Finally decided that I will head the 'Ratsun' direction and build it however I like, almost a ratrod, but not quite. Bought a rusty 720 tail gate for the lettering, was thinking about stitching it into the side of the bonnet (hood), but now I am thinking about turning it into an external sunvisor: Half thinking about combining my two early grills and building a 6 headlight version: Or maybe go completely crazy and go the full 8: Of course if I do that it will be after the bigger radiator and thermo fans go in to offset the air block... I have a few other ideas floating around, but nothing really worth sharing yet. I also do custom bicycle building as a hobby under the name LukeTheJoker, I help out as a moderator over on www.ratrodbikes.com/forum too. Here are a few of my bikes: If you want to see more of my bike stuff head here: http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/lukethejokers-intro-and-links-15-000-posts.65513/ Videos here: https://www.youtube.com/user/UnderaCustomCruisers/videos?flow=grid&view=0 My wife and I did up a '65 Falcon XP 10 years ago, but had to sell it not long after: Any way, I will update this thread as I get stuff on the Stanza accomplished, thanks for having me aboard! Luke. 7 Quote Link to comment
Lockleaf Posted August 18, 2016 Report Share Posted August 18, 2016 Datsun Sun visor. Yes. That would be awesome. I've seen the Hoosier tired bike repeatedly before. And I really like that stretch frame beast. Very cool work. Welcome to ratsun. 2 Quote Link to comment
LTJ Posted August 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2016 Datsun Sun visor. Yes. That would be awesome. I've seen the Hoosier tired bike repeatedly before. And I really like that stretch frame beast. Very cool work. Welcome to ratsun. Thanks Lockleaf! 1 Quote Link to comment
Fat510 Posted August 18, 2016 Report Share Posted August 18, 2016 Sweet deals, man And welcome! :) 2 Quote Link to comment
LTJ Posted August 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2016 Sweet deals, man And welcome! :) Thanks Fat510! 2 Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted August 18, 2016 Report Share Posted August 18, 2016 NOOOOOOooooooooooooooo on the 6 headlites!!!!!!!! Not digging them star wheels either. Some Simmons Yeah!!!!!!! maybe make this a ralley car set up. 2 Quote Link to comment
Dolomite Posted August 18, 2016 Report Share Posted August 18, 2016 6 headlights ftw! That would look badass, sort of have a mad max vibe. 2 Quote Link to comment
LTJ Posted August 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2016 NOOOOOOooooooooooooooo on the 6 headlites!!!!!!!! Not digging them star wheels either. Some Simmons Yeah!!!!!!! maybe make this a ralley car set up. I thought about the rally car style for quite a while, but I am heading more rat/custom now. Not really sure I like the Dragway wheels either, but I have other options, I have a full set of 910 14" steelies here that I was thinking of banding to 15x7, so that may end up happening yet. 6 headlights ftw! That would look badass, sort of have a mad max vibe. I'm seriously thinking about it, also thinking about the 8 lights too, but that is mainly because I could then set up a switch that made them strobe side to side... Knight rider anyone? :rofl: 3 Quote Link to comment
Lockleaf Posted August 19, 2016 Report Share Posted August 19, 2016 Visually, I'm a bigger fan of the 6 headlights than the 8, but knight rider strobe headlight front end seems pretty great too... 2 Quote Link to comment
LTJ Posted August 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2016 Visually, I'm a bigger fan of the 6 headlights than the 8, but knight rider strobe headlight front end seems pretty great too... Not sure I'm committed enough to do the full 8 light thing, but 6 is definitely an option, and I may convince myself to go 8 yet! Forgot about this video I did 6 months ago: I will be doing a new exhaust at the same time as the 5 speed swap... 1 Quote Link to comment
LTJ Posted August 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2016 Started work tonight on the sun visor. I don't really like the rounder ones that wrap around the outside of the stainless trim, they seem to break up the flow of the bodylines, so I wanted to build something that was more vintage, more like this: Designed up a mount that should give me what I want, it will mount to the A pillar but inside the trim piece: Transferred that to some 16 gauge steel: Then went to work with the hammers: Test fit: And with the trim piece in place: Time to make the mirror image for the other side: I will test fit these on the red car tomorrow, then I can bolt them in and move on to the visor itself! 3 Quote Link to comment
LTJ Posted August 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2016 Learned a valuable lesson today, don't expect parts made to fit one car to fit another perfectly! Pretty much completely remade the mounts to suit the red car: The windscreen is wider on my car and fits closer in to the body, so it completely changed the angles involved, plus my car has a slightly different shape on the A pillar too. Anyway, after rebending the mounts I could move on to fitting them up: 5mm metric countersunk bolts, I will change them to stainless and add nyloc lock nuts for the final fit: With the trim in place: I needed a bit of encouragement and direction for the next step, so I just sat the tailgate script piece on there, it looks pretty good! I will do a lot more than just weld that to the mounts though, I need to shorten it and I will add some curve to it as well, but it does give me direction! Finished up the day touching up the pillars with some Rustoleum 'not quite the right shade of red' to stop rust. 3 Quote Link to comment
Lockleaf Posted August 22, 2016 Report Share Posted August 22, 2016 Gonna look awesome. Nothing wrong with a little "not quite right" paint. Check out Just Joel's project "little red wagon". Gorgeous car, half painted in not quite right rattle can. 2 Quote Link to comment
LTJ Posted August 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2016 Gonna look awesome. Nothing wrong with a little "not quite right" paint. Check out Just Joel's project "little red wagon". Gorgeous car, half painted in not quite right rattle can. Glad you like the way it is headed! I have the little red wagon bookmarked to read, but skipped ahead to close to the end to see what you mean... I like what I see! Thanks for the tip! 1 Quote Link to comment
LTJ Posted August 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2016 I was walking beside the donor car today with an angle grinder in my hand and slipped: Ok, so I didn't slip, I did it on purpose. Some might disapprove of me cutting up my donor car, but believe me when I say it looks far better than it is! There is rust right through everything structural and the doors are full of bondo. Some would argue that it could still have been saved, and they would be right, but the cost vs reward of repairing it was way off balance, if it had been something rarer or collectable I would have used something else. I did tarp up the cut out to stop water pouring in, it leaks badly inside anyway, but at least I have not made it worse: Test fit, the mounts are not on, so I just propped it on some steel: The cap itself does not seem too bad, there is some rust, but easily salvageable: The worst of it, not too bad: Looking forward to stitching the letters in! Picked up stainless bolts and nylocks today too: 1 Quote Link to comment
Charlie69 Posted August 23, 2016 Report Share Posted August 23, 2016 Welcome, sweet ride. Love the bicycles. It is great to have another creative mind on board! 1 Quote Link to comment
Charlie69 Posted August 23, 2016 Report Share Posted August 23, 2016 Just a suggestion, move this thread to Project Datto. 1 Quote Link to comment
LTJ Posted August 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2016 Welcome, sweet ride. Love the bicycles. It is great to have another creative mind on board! Thanks for the welcome! Just a suggestion, move this thread to Project Datto. Ah, cool! Wasn't sure if I had the right spot or not, not sure how to move a thread on this forum though, or do you mean start a new thread in the Project Datto area? 1 Quote Link to comment
Dolomite Posted August 23, 2016 Report Share Posted August 23, 2016 PM datsun mike and ask him to move it for you. 2 Quote Link to comment
LTJ Posted August 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2016 PM datsun mike and ask him to move it for you. Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment
Charlie69 Posted August 24, 2016 Report Share Posted August 24, 2016 He means Datzenmike. Redeye can also do it. The reason I suggested moving this to Project Datto is you will get more exposure. Love the idea and the work on the windshield visor. Quote Link to comment
LTJ Posted August 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2016 He means Datzenmike. Redeye can also do it. The reason I suggested moving this to Project Datto is you will get more exposure. Love the idea and the work on the windshield visor. DatzenMike took care of it for me, thanks for the suggestion! :thumbup: Did some more mocking up on the visor today, it is going to work well, but I am starting to lean away from stitching the D A T S U N lettering into it, think it might be too much. I will get it built and fitted with out the lettering and then make a decision, might go back to the idea of stitching the lettering up the side of the hood, or find some narrower donor tail lights and stitch it between them on the back. 1 Quote Link to comment
Charlie69 Posted August 24, 2016 Report Share Posted August 24, 2016 That is the way all projects go they get adjusted along the way. Mark Pacific Coast Datsun has done with the tail gate letters what you are wanting to do. He cut them out as Squares and stitched the squares down. That was much easier then trying to cut the shape of each individual letter. You could Just tack them on as the rectangle you have. Then a little grinding and a skim coat of bondo and it will look the same. 1 Quote Link to comment
Charlie69 Posted August 24, 2016 Report Share Posted August 24, 2016 See the links in my posts for my trucks. You can do the same with your car thread. Just edit your Settings/Signatures and copy and paste the web address of your A10 thread into your signature of your profile. http://community.ratsun.net/index.php?app=core&module=usercp&tab=core&area=signature 1 Quote Link to comment
LTJ Posted August 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2016 See the links in my posts for my trucks. You can do the same with your car thread. Just edit your Settings/Signatures and copy and paste the web address of your A10 thread into your signature of your profile. http://community.ratsun.net/index.php?app=core&module=usercp&tab=core&area=signature Ah! Thank you! I had been trying to find the 'edit sig' link! That is the way all projects go they get adjusted along the way. Mark Pacific Coast Datsun has done with the tail gate letters what you are wanting to do. He cut them out as Squares and stitched the squares down. That was much easier then trying to cut the shape of each individual letter. You could Just tack them on as the rectangle you have. Then a little grinding and a skim coat of bondo and it will look the same. I was thinking of the square method, I would use the whole piece, but it needs to be shortened by removing some of the gap between each letter. The one that PCDatsun did with the letters on the roof rack was awesome, still slowly going through threads, so no doubt will find his other examples soon. 1 Quote Link to comment
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