LTJ's 1981 DATSUN STANZA (A10) WANNABE RALLY CAR. SOLD and moving.

[Chad T]

Headlights look cool. Not a huge fan of the rally lights tho.

I like that older grill style with the 4 round lights. Depends what you're going for. You could do a funky Mad Max kind of deal with the 4 square lights.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Headlights look cool. Not a huge fan of the rally lights tho.

I like that older grill style with the 4 round lights. Depends what you're going for. You could do a funky Mad Max kind of deal with the 4 square lights.

I think the reason I liked the later grill is because it is blacked out, but of course I can black out the early grill too!

Standard:

Blacked:

Then I went a little crazy... I figured that since I will have two of these early grills and 2 full sets of lights, I could go custom:

I posted the above pic on the 'Datsun Stanza Owners Club' page to gauge peoples opinions on it, most people liked it and then someone posted a pic with the caption "Already done it!"

It looks pretty cool, I may do it...

Of course I had to go one further just for a laugh...

Say hello to the 'Dual Quad' grill!

Not sure what I am doing now, good to know that blacking out the early grill looks the way I want, but I just may go crazy and throw an extra pair or two of the lights in too!

Have to re-configure the radiator air path if I go with the dual quad set up...

Luke.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

After doing the post above, I realised I needed to draw up the dual quad on the actual car pic...

Ready for a laugh?

Luke.

 

[Fv2]

Yea, that's just to busy. The six lights look good tho.

 

[Chad T]

I think the reason I liked the later grill is because it is blacked out, but of course I can black out the early grill too!

Luke.

I thought the same thing that the early grill needs blacked out. That looks great.

More than 4 lights might be a crowd on such a small car.......can't believe somebody beat you to the 6 light grill.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Yeah, the 6 light set up he did looks more 'normal' than I thought it would!
Probably going with just a blacked out early round light grill, or if I get bored I may do the 6 light...

Part of me wants to do the dual quad and make them strobe side to side like KITT from KnightRider...

Luke.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Look what turned up today!

All the parts I need, and some I don't, but I can sell them to recoup some costs!

Not sure how long until I start on the manual conversion, middle of winter here (raining most days) and it obviously leaks bad, smells pretty awful inside, may end up waiting until summer and letting it dry out before I go crawling around under the dash to remove the pedal box, it really does not smell healthy inside...

Maybe I will get it up on stands, rip the seats and carpet out with a mask and gloves, and then see how it is...

Pretty sure my car will inherit the early full chrome bumpers (the rubber caps just slide off), the round headlight grill, the early tail lights, the nicer early steering wheel and the towbar too, already have people chasing me for other parts...

Luke.

 

[GuitarlCarl]

Nice. I knew it was stinky when I saw it cuz it's green.
(I really don't like green cars )
I've been looking at a couple of Ford Rangers to build a rat from myself...
I like how this Datsun allows you backdating options.

It's a 49,50,51,52,53.....
Gotta love the ending.

Carl.

 

[kelvin hahnel]

Looking Good Luke. Gimmie a yell if you need a extra set of hands

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Been neglecting the work on the old Datsun a bit, too busy just driving it around.

Decided to start on the sun visor, I used the donor car for mock up purposes.

I really don't like the curvy style sunvisors that wrap around the A pillar on these, it breaks up the flow on the stainless trim beside the windscreen, I want a visor more like this with the straight sides:

With that in mind I designed some mounts that fit under the trim piece and bolt to the top of the A pillar:

Transferred that design to some 16 gauge steel left over from making Pedro's wheel centres:

Out came the hammers:

Test fit number 1:

And then with the stainless trim in place:

All that remained then was to make the mirror image for the other side:

I will test fit these on the red Datsun tomorrow and then I can bolt them on and start work on the visor itself.

Luke.

 

[kelvin hahnel]

Looking good

 

[LukeTheJoker]

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.

Luke.

 

[Fv2]

I thought you were going to weld the gate piece into the hood.
The visor will look better...clever thinking.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

I thought you were going to weld the gate piece into the hood.
The visor will look better...clever thinking.

I was going to weld it to the hood, but had this idea and I prefer it too!
Glad you are liking my Datsun shenanigans Falstaff!

Luke.

 

[kelvin hahnel]

Will Look awesome once It's done

 

[Fv2]

I was going to weld it to the hood, but had this idea and I prefer it too!
Glad you are liking my Datsun shenanigans Falstaff!

Luke.

Oh yea, you might give me some ideas for my nova. Lately I've been thinking of painting it like a StarTrek shuttle craft.

 

[GuitarlCarl]

I finally found a truck to rat out.
It's actually half way there.

97' Ford Ranger 4.0 six automatic...$600
I already had a 98' 4 cyl. This is my 4th Ranger over the years, I just think they're nice little trucks.

Carl.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Oh yea, you might give me some ideas for my nova. Lately I've been thinking of painting it like a StarTrek shuttle craft.

Oh yes! Similar shape and all!

I finally found a truck to rat out.
It's actually half way there.
View attachment 32242
97' Ford Ranger 4.0 six automatic...$600
I already had a 98' 4 cyl. This is my 4th Ranger over the years, I just think they're nice little trucks.

Carl.

Love it! Perfect ratty hauler at a good price! Did you see the one @yoothgeye did? It came out pretty nice, early model than yours though I think. http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/ive-been-busy-but-i-got-a-truck.94559/

Luke.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

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:

Luke.

 

[Fv2]

It's a donor, it's supposed be cut up.

And yes, I noticed that same shuttle craft image. That's what got me thinking.