Project - Datsun 120A F11 Coupe
Timewarping me back to the 80s as I try to recreate my first car

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March 30th 2008

Bit of a change for me as I move up to full-scale models! This is a 1978 Datsun 'Cherry', but its full name '120A F11 Coupe' sounds more impressive. Apparently there's less than a hundred left in the country.

It came up for sale on ebay in January after being stored in a garage for 10 years. It's more than a bit tatty, the insides a mess and it looks like its run into something hard on the lower front end.
It's a non-runner at the moment but I'll charge the battery and see what happens, you never know it might actually start.
Generally speaking the car looks quite solid with only surface rust. It actually looks better than the one I had 20 years ago!
First problem spotted, the radiators leaking caused by the impact breaking the plastic drain plug. The old impact on the front lower body panel had also gone underneath and bashed the bottom of the radiator and twisted it slightly. There's not much that I can do with it, probably best not to mess with it so I'll just paint it to stop any corrosion starting.
I bought a new plug - the old broken thread was removed by pushing a hot flat-bladed screwdriver into the plastic to create a slot, once cooled I could then use the slot to unscrew it.
April 3rd 2008

In a scene reminiscent of the film 'Flight of the Phoenix' the engine coughed its way to life, so I guess that the car isn't just going to be a garden ornament!

Lets see - Minor damage to radiator, fault on cooling system, engine servicing required, brakes need stripping, bodywork needs attention and paint, interior needs refurbishment, bumpers damaged, lights damaged, new front grill required, new exhaust and alloys need to be refurbished.
Easy! What shall I do first? Think I'll get my 'Brasso' out and try polishing the bumpers, well you have to start with the important bits!
April 8th 2008

Managed to remove the main rubber water pipes. I always wondered why the pipes on old cars were hard and made a cracking noise when you squeezed them, I thought it was the rubber perishing but it turns out to be a built up layer of rust particles lining the tubes.
April 10th 2008

One problem has been quickly found, I noticed that the engine water temperature gauge wasn't working. This is possibly caused by the fact that the connecting wire (yellow) isn't actually connected to anything! The hole on the left should contain the protruding end of a sensor. I wonder how many other things will turn out to be missing?
April 19th 2008

Spending my time just checking things over and cleaning up the engine bay - so I can see what I'm actually doing. Main parts that are filthy and rusting are being cleaned and painted. Radiator is fixed up and reinstalled. Got a new engine temp sender but the old one is jammed in the block.
April 22nd 2008

Well I tried to pull out the remains of the Temperature Sender and gave up, even after applying lots of penetrating fluid it still wasn't moving. How a smooth cylinder in a smooth tube can be so seized I really don't know. So I decided to remove the Thermostat housing in the hope that I could then see the inside and perhaps push it out - with the help of a hammer!

The 'Haynes Workshop Manual' simply says remove 3 bolts, but the reality was that one was an Allen screw put on by a previous owner (now referred too as Mr Bodge it!) and 2 of them seemed to be anchored to the Earths Core! Cue more swearing.

The Thermostat itself was a rusted broken unit that was jammed in the open position. Luckily I had already bought a new one on ebay, together with a great many other items.
After 20 minutes of sweating and cursing I decided that I would have to drill it out. I started with a small drill bit and slowly increased the size until I was almost at the Senders full diameter - then suddenly it was out. I was a little concerned that I might damage the engine block, or thread, but it worked a treat.
April 29th 2008

Continued working on the cooling system with the removal of the smaller rubber hoses to the interior heater, and then removed that as well as the centre console. The heater consists of a plastic casing, fan motor, radiator and a lot of dead leaves and insects!
I cleaned out the unit and removed the previous owners wiring additions, looks like he had fed off the fan motor to power another electrical device, which is possibly why it didn't work anymore. Overall the parts looked good but the vent flaps are covered in a foam that simply fell to dust due to age, this had to be replaced. The radiator and pipes were flushed out till they were clean of rust particles and the unit was reinstalled. I found an electrical wire break in the process, and fixed it, so now the fan works in all its settings.
More general clean up work. The airfilter housing and rocker cover were rusting up so they were stripped down and painted. I had hoped to get a nice bare metal finish on the rocker cover but it was just too rusty, so I ended up spraying it Silver instead.
May 3rd 2008

Managed to remove the front wheels today and examine the struts and brakes - think they will require 'a bit' of work. I started with a wire brush and hammer - and a visit to ebay in search of new parts.
May 8th 2008

My biggest worry so far was the noise coming from the gearbox, everytime I've started the car so far I have kept the clutch depressed to stop the racket! Time to sort it out so I bought a new clutch kit.
First job was to remove the primary drive gear and I found a new fault, part of the metal casing, including one of the bolt holes, has been snapped off. Luckily there are five bolts on this part so I'm sure (read I hope) four will still do the job well enough.
The Haynes book says this is easy but it took me hours, still it was the first time I've changed a clutch. The whole thing weighs quite a bit, taking it out wasn't too difficult - getting the new one in was. Turns out I was being a bit of a wimp, sometimes you have to force these things into position.
It said in the book that I would need special tools to remove some of the parts in the primary gear but they flew apart - not sure if that means I'm good or just a ham-fisted buffon?
The old bits weren't too bad, although the release bearing seemed a bit worn, so it wasn't really the source of the noise. After a bit of further investigation I found that there was hardly any oil in the Gearbox, no wonder it was making a noise! Sometimes the answers easier than you think.
12th May 2008

Lets see, I've charged the battery, fitted new battery terminals, flushed the old engine oil, put in fresh engine oil, gearbox oil, radiator fluid, new air filter, fitted new temperature sender, new thermostat, new clutch and release bearing, removed all rubber pipes and cleaned them inside and out, flushed the water system, cleaned out the radiator including the internal cabin heater, new rocker gasket, new radiator plug, made a metal battery support bracket, cleaned the engine and engine bay, dismantled many of the parts and cleaned them like new or painted them a fresh, found and sorted several electrical faults and mechanical faults. And it actually works now, amazing.

Still from this picture I think its obvious that I'm more of a model maker than a mechanic, lots of pretty colours!