Dad's Datsun 180B (610) SSS gets new shoes

It was about the middle of last year that I mentioned to Dad about the possibility of putting some new wheels on his classic 1974 Datsun 180B (610) SSS 2-door coupe. Dad's owned this car for many years and has slowly got the body work into the shape you see it here. But I always thought the rims didn't quite stack up to the quality of the body, so after some 'chops were done showing what a set of Konig Rewinds looked like it was a goer.



Now about 6mths later, I was surfing the OzDat forums and found another 180B 4-door that had a set of Sportmax 002 in the same sizing and thought that's what Dad should get. A little risky considering his age, but he was willing to trust my judgement and we made the purchase through Zi at JDMyard. Opting instead for the XXR/Sportmax 513 model in 15x8+0 offset (see previous blog post for details shots of the wheels) for that more traditional Watanabe/Panasport style. Now Dad likes a little bling (see the rocker cover in the engine bay), so it was decided to go with the Silver/Polished lip combo. Now don't they look the ducks nuts!



Fitted with Kuhmo Ecsta KU31's in 195/50R15 for that perfect amount of stretch, the car is really starting to get that nostalgic JDM look. Now while I was taking some pics, I snapped some of the engine bay and interior - the condition is great considering Dad still uses it for his daily communiting.

- Side profile - very very nice
- Down low at 3/4 front
- Head on to see offset (needs more camber)
- Close up on front wheel
- Down low at 3/4 rear
- Profile from rear
- Interior
- Engine Bay 1
- Engine Bay 2
- Engine Bay 3
- Engine Bay 4
- Engine Bay 5

Next up we'll be taking her to see a suspension specialist to see what we can do about the handling. It's been 7-8 years since it was last looked at and she's a little 'boaty' at the moment. Plans will be to have it lowered more at the front, and a little at the rear (even things up), and fit some new bushes and adjustable parts to get it all tied away nicely.

Thanks Dad for giving me the trust with your baby.

Cheers
Brendan

New shoes for some classic J-Tin

Alright, check out these beautiful rims above. They're going to be fitted to my Dad's classic 1974 Datsun 180B (610) SSS 2-door coupe. The rims are XXR/Sportmax 513's in 15x8 +0 offset finished in Silver with the polished lip. They're based on a mix of the Watanabe RS-8 and Panasport Formula One designs, and this particular spec has 3.5 inches (89mm) of polished dishy goodness! They also feature both 4/114.3 and 4/100 PCDs so they'd fit on some of the Mazda/Toyota/Honda vehicles too.

Some detail photos:
- Front of rim
- Dish Profile
- Dish Profile
- Hub Detail
- Wheel cross section
- Back of wheel
- Model/Offset detail

These were purchased from Zi at JDMyard (http://www.jdmyard.com/) and were delivered promptly. Thanks for the great service Zi. He still has a few of these and other models left in stock, so if you're in Australia and wanted to push the limits and go hella flush, then check out their website or head over to their eBay Shop.

Fitting onto these rims, we've gone for some Kuhmo Ecsta KU31's in 195/50R15 for that small amount of stretch. See next post of these beauties fitted up to Dad's car.

Cheers
Brendan

Another run at AHG

Earlier this month, SilviaWA had another day out at the AHG Driver Training Centre near Perth International Airport. I wasn't originally going to enter as my clutch was beginning to slip (more on this later), but a spot came up on the Friday for the event on Sunday so I jumped at the chance and said "to hell with the clutch!".

My Dad came down to watch so I handed over the camera to him to take some pics and a video too.



A few things on the video:
- you can hear the clutch slipping from the outset as I head off through the centre
- that was my first ever handbrake turn in an event, pretty proud of the results
- car has had suspension tweaked since last event and was so much easier to place wherever I wanted on the track

Photos from the event:
- Staging
- Staging
- In the starters box
- Some cornering action
- Some more cornering
- Up through the middle
- And yes some more cornering
- Braking into the garage

So, I have no idea why my clutch is slipping. A quick recall on the clutch - it's an OS Giken STR2CD twin-plate. It's been in and driven almost daily for about 12mths, for all intents and purposes, it shouldn't be slipping. First noticed under max load - ie. all passengers, on the freeway in 4th hit boost and there it went slipping (and shuddering). It's progressively gotten worse, so when the head gets done in a couple of weeks we'll look into the clutch and rebuild with new plates if necessary (more than likely from the sounds/feel of it).

Another thing to note were the brakes. Basically they're phenomenal...once they're up to temperature. The combo of R33 GT-R Brembo's, Nismo pads, DBA4000 slotted rotors, braided lines and the correctly matched R32 GT-R N1 (non-abs) brake master cylinder are just brilliant. If there was something to pick, it would be there's a smidge much rear bias, but really can't complain. The new suspension tweaks also allowed me to hit the picks harder too without the previous lockups.

Cheers
Brendan

I'm still here

Damn, didn't realise it's been so long since my last post. Well, simple reason is I've been busy. Not with the car unfortunately, but work and life in general.

The car though has been used on a daily basis for to and from work duties, and the occasional weekend outing. Even some family transport duties thrown in for good measure, although only when there's four of us (I have three kids, but only two can fit in the back at one time).

Last October, we had the Powercruise come to Perth for the first time. Different to Motorvation, which is more a show and shine with a bit of cruising up and down the drag strip and around the car park, Powercruise is two days of watching the Power skids, and taking you car out onto a race circuit with 20-30 other cars. Racing per se isn't allowed, but it was fun nonetheless. The majority of the those in the event were V8's, many of which had 300+ horsepower, problem was though was having to wait for them to go around a corner. They mostly had no brakes, and suspension setup for drag racing or straight line work. Very frustrating when your car has power, brakes and handling. So I, and others with a similar setup, spent our time weaving around the traffic in a safe manner. At one point I took a died in the wool V8 lover for a drive, and he was amazed at the handling and braking on the car, and it wasn't too shabby when it came time to going in a straight line either. Will definitely be doing it again this year and hope the same guy I was following around in the Commodore ute is there again, we had great fun dicing around the track together.

Now, there has been problems since the car has been on the road with regard to response, which was mentioned back in September after the time out on the skid pan doing a motorkhana. Well, I took it into Sean at Allstar for him to take a look at it on the dyno and basic diagnosis was that either a lifter was sticking, or the heat at high revs was causing the valve to get pinched and stay open. After further conversations with Marc, Josh and Boney over at C-Red, it was decided that a head replacement could be the best solution...but why? Well the head that was used way back then was taken from the block that it sits on, it was ported already so seemed to be logical. It was then sent off to get a full service, but the problem we now have deduced is because it may have already been serviced a couple of times, too much meat had now been taken out of the heads and specifically the valve seats (note this is basically my understanding). As there's now less meat on the seat, the valve sits up in the head too far, and having used way undersized shims, the rockers are now also sitting at an angle they're not really meant to. This would explain why changing the adjustable cams gears during the tuning process didn't make too much of a difference.

What now you say, well during November and December I found and bought a head from Donny at Street Forced Performance in Melbourne. The head has already had porting work undertaken among other stuff. It's now been sitting at C-Red for a couple of months, but finding a time (and cash) to now get the change over done is the problem. I'm now working for myself, which means time off means money I'm not making...and I don't need to tell anyone what takes precedence at the moment.

So, that's where the cars at. There's a few paint problems starting to rear its head now the car has been on the road including some massive ones on the rear bumper where the old bog that was put on it before I started is cracking under the paint. Car still looks a million bucks, and for something that was taken off the road and rebuilt in such a way, it's had relatively minimal problems. Have another day at AHG on Sunday, so hopefully get some pics up from that too very soon.

Cheers
Brendan