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Hitachi Alternator Restoration

In Electrical, In the Garage by GeorgeLeave a Comment

Much like the starter motor, the disassembly took place in April 2020 and the assembly months later – in this case December 2020. Without the reference photos this task would have been puzzling to say the least. That’s how things go when you need to wait a minimum of 4 weeks for parts to be blasted and plated. I had two alternators to play with. The one with the pulley that splits in to two pieces is for an early 240Z and it accepts an 11mm belt. The later style switched to a 13mm belt and used a keyway. I …

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Starter Motor

In Electrical, In the Garage by George1 Comment

I’m here to repent. I’ve neglected my one true love for too long. I have not appreciated her and turned my eye to her needs. Well, no more! It’s time to spark up our love again… time to start respecting her… OK, seriously though, I’ve made very little progress since April and it makes me feed depressed thinking about all of the lost time. Where have the last few months gone!? To start back up I thought the starter was an appropriate task to complete. Like a lot of my sub-projects, I started this one months ago and it has …

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Summer 2020

In Brakes, Driveline, Electrical, In the Garage, Interior, Seasons by GeorgeLeave a Comment

There are some parts that you just know are abundant but you struggle to find anyway. The transmission crossmember for an early gearbox had eluded me for months and months as I persisted in limiting my search to Australia only. I relented and after posting on Instagram one was on its way from the US in less than a day. In early December I decided to free up some floor space and take the engine in to Stewart Wilkins Motorsport. He has already reconditioned my differential and transmission and I trust his many years of working on these cars will …

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Spring 2019

In Electrical, Fuel, Interior, Seasons, Suspension by GeorgeLeave a Comment

Delving into a variety of systems designed in the 1960’s gives you an appreciation for the elegance of engineering and its restorability. Where on modern cars components are designed to essentially be replaced as a unit, almost everything I’ve come across on the Datsun is rebuildable and you get the feeling that it’ll last another 50 years thereafter. This spring I continued underneath the car with the half shafts and prop shaft. Simple elegant engineering built to last. I can’t stress how satisfying it is to take something full of decades-old grease and rust, clean it, strip it, and rebuild …

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Dash, Wiring, Gauges, and Ducting

In Electrical, In the Garage, Interior by GeorgeLeave a Comment

Like many jobs, the dash restoration started many moons ago. It was in fact March 2014 when I sent it to The Dashboard Doctor. They did a fantastic job recovering it and it sat in its box wating for all the other pieces to be ready. Later in 2014 the wiring was sent to Vintage Wiring Harness who took a touch under two years to complete the restoration due to a number of circumstances. In any case, the results are fantastic as I found out this year when I went to install the 3 harnesses. The dash harness fell in …

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Winter 2019

In Driveline, Electrical, Seasons, Suspension by GeorgeLeave a Comment

I sat down to write this post and I tried to recollect what I had accomplished this past winter. I feared another season had slipped by without much progress and I would need to squirm my way around this update. Fortunately my photos tell a slightly different story. It starts with some work on the half shafts. I have two sets and for some reason one of the four half shafts is shorter. I suspect it’s a later model shaft that was on the parts car. In any case, I battled with all of the uni-joints and only had to …

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Winter 2018

In Electrical, Steering by GeorgeLeave a Comment

It’s Getting Crowded In Here You go through life thinking you’re a tough bugger and then you watch your wife give birth. What a humbling experience. We welcomed Lillian to our little clan this Winter. She’s a bundle of joy. 🙂 Chipping Away After fumbling around with the heater box a while ago the blower was an easier task. I tried the molasses trick to remove the rust and had less success this time. I only left it in for a week where last time it was two weeks so I’m guessing that’s the difference. I’m finding that the most …