Talk me out of it: Datsun 1600

If you can keep from doing body and paint work, do it.  The mechanical parts are all available, not inexpensive but you can find everything.  You might find the car has lots of parts on it that might be a compromised.  Lots of Datsun 510 parts are close but not correct.  The rear differential in my car is now completely correct, down to the stainless brake lines.  Fortunately the rear brake shoes cleaned up with out having to be replaced.  The rear shoes are now new, ouch.  Correct is pricey, but it was my choice.

Now, any car of this series from 1968 on has a smog motor.  The distributor in these cars has a cam gear that the points operates from that you will want to back date. You can follow what I did on my car, it only takes money.

I f you are willing to take one on knowing it going to bleed you, do it.  They only made 40,000 of these.  The attention to detail is amazing.

Any questions, reach out

David    

Would want to have a good look at the structure, but from what I see that might make for a great survivor car. Mechanical can always be dealt with at reasonable cost and effort, bodywork done to a high standard is a labour of love and $$$.

These are wonderful cars. There is no reason to engine swap one unless you want to go silly fast. The 5 speed gearbox swap is pretty easy if you find the correct pieces, and is worth while if you want to do long distance touring. Do examine the frame carefully around the suspension mountings and the body mountings. The separate frame makes body integrity less critical too.  

Hi everybody, I'm new to the Forum by I'm Joey M's wife. This will be my car (yes, I talked him into it). Look out for my build thread coming soon!

In reply to FairLady70 :

Congratulations! Welcome and excited to see your build thread. Kurt (Sarasota) and I (Dunedin) built a 1600 Roadster for the Challenge but with a KA24DET swap. We still have lots of parts that we took out of the car so reach out when you start making lists of what you need.

In reply to FairLady70 :

Awesome !

If you're coming here to ask us to talk you out of a Datsun 1600, you're in the wrong forum; we're not that kind of support group.

Congratulations on the purchase. We did our job well.

hobiercr said:

In reply to FairLady70 :

Congratulations! Welcome and excited to see your build thread. Kurt (Sarasota) and I (Dunedin) built a 1600 Roadster for the Challenge but with a KA24DET swap. We still have lots of parts that we took out of the car so reach out when you start making lists of what you need.

That is wonderful!   I'm sure she'll be reaching out to you.  Check your PMs and I'll let you know a little bit about the plan.

Look on the bright side.  It doesn't have a check engine light.