Hello All,
I'm giving my long time project another breath of life so thought I might document it this time round to see if it helps in maintaining my enthusiasm...
Its been a long journey so far, marred by dodgy and dis interested panel beaters, missing/disposed parts, financial priorities etc etc you get the drift..

It goes like this...

1999 - Purchase 1600 warm L20b, SU's, 4 spd "custom" paintjob (lets not go there 'cept to say its main colour was yellow)

2000 - 5 spd dogleg box Install and rebuild of L20b (with webers) which had developed a large bottom end knock (after a 4hr trip at 4300rpm damn 4 spd )

2001 -2003 happy years of dattoing

2004 - Saab driver on phone runs up 1600's back end - R.I.P 1600 #1

July 2005 - Purchased stock 1600 L16 auto from Ozdat classifieds

2005 - 2008 Prepared the body (fairly rusty) for paint (rust removal, fill, prime)

2009 Enter "spray painter" number 1, "yeah, i'll have it rubbed back and painted in a month tops" long story short, after numerous attempts to convince him to actually work on it (had to be nice as it was a good mates brother) he cracked it and wouldnt answer my calls, answer his door or speak to anyone related to him... had all but given up on seeing my car ever again until one day..

2011 Get a call from "spray painter" - "if you want your car its on the nature strip at my old house" - turns out had been evicted and landlord had put what he could find belonging to the datto together on the front lawn. Frantic calls to tow driver made, but nowhere to tow to having no garage at home at the time Enter Panel Beater # 2.........

2011 - Through my employment at the time, i was sending a heap of work to panel beater #2, and given we had a decent working relationship it seemed logical to have them complete the work required.... to be fair, my datto had sat in the rain with grass growing around and through it since some time in 2009, so pb #2 did manage to remove re formed rust and re seal it in 2k primer filler.
Sadly, pb #2 was "spooked" by a datsun nay-sayer who convinced him it was not worth working on and would NEVER get back on the road.... strange given I was paying the bill at the end of the day, but anyway bummed out again to say the least - again with no where to store it pb #2 said he would store it in the corner of the workshop till I moved.

2012 - 2013 My fault this time, I actually had somewhere decent to work on cars again so I went through a few meanwhile my datto had been moved outside under a large pine tree and had lost a few of its panels, a set of rebuilt hinges and a diff

2014 - Finally some time and a bigger shed to work on the datto! plus im over volvos at the moment, well almost washed pine needles and sap off, re - primed some areas and guide coated, rust killed some surface rust and started looking for some hinges and missing panels - Many Thanks to Anth510 for the doors and bootlid
After a busy last 2 days here are some pics of where im at:

Any updates? looks like it will be a bit of fun!

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1979 Datsun Stanza Coupe
1979 Datsun Stanza Coupe Project
1979 Datsun Stanza GX
1982 Datsun Stanza GX
1966 Nissan Cedric Custom Six
1972 Volkswagen Beetle
1974 Toyota Landcruiser Stallion (SWB)
EziAutoParts

Very little progress for the amount of work done over the last week!

Finished sanding back the bonnet in prep for primer filler, re welded the repaired section on the underside, filled and sanded.

Made a bit of progress on the boot lid I got recently, welded up the holes, had a go at tapping out a few of the dents and re-worked the boot lock area as best I could, might be better off blanking and having a remote release I'm thinking.

Started filling some of the dents and imperfections on the drivers door, many MANY bouts of filling/sanding, after just finishing up for today I can say I *think* its getting there (theres about a half inch of sandings around it lol) most of the lows and highs around the mirror mounts etc have been sorted anyway

Wire wheeled and rust killed another door bottom where the rust had taken off, started to sand back the door skin itself, its amazing how the primer has been applied by the first painter, can see brush marks in it lol

My goal was to be ready to prime the bonnet, 2 front doors and front valance by sunday, however its been raining pretty much all day and night so might have to wait till later in the week.

Anyhow, some pictures

Also found some pics from somewhere along the line in its first resto attempt

Got a bit distracted over the last couple of days so not much work done, did have a look over the body of the datto to see how bad the rust on the underside of the roof was going since I last looked - really need to look at doing something permanent about that...

Had a look underneath, sills still appear in decent condition, same cant be said for the passenger side chassis rail, well the extension of the rail that goes under the floor plan, appears fairly rusted out... not good news! however I guess its just another item to add to the list.

Been following the chassis strengthening thread -great info there, but wondering if anyone has had to repair this section (rail extension) before and can offer any suggestions about strengthening this particular area once repaired, apart from the obvious seam welding etc - I'm thinking more along the lines of bracing ie additional plating etc any info/suggestions appreciated I do recall something about this on ozdat years ago but my searches have brought up nothing..

Anyhow! some pictures