Hi everyone,
I've been on here for quite a while and thought I would share with you my latest retro build, as well as having somewhere for a reference to the build.
So, the story goes........
After deciding to sell my BMW and buy a cheap diesel for daily use, that idea went completely out the window as I was out in the works van and drove past an old boy putting 'FOR SALE' signs up on an old 1989 Nissan Bluebird sedan 1.8L automatic.
I couldn't help but pull over for a look as I have always liked the boxey Bluebird's when I was younger, tho never massively keen on the hatchbacks.
This square and somewhat rare Nissan, thanks to the banger boys, sat there saying 'buy me!'
A chat with the guy lead me to a test drive up the road!
The car drove pretty well tho it stank of ciggies and damp but none the less, lead me to make an offer!
£300 later and a back full of mud after slipping on a slight incline on the old boys wet & muddy front garden (proper you,ve been framed moment! legs in the air, flat on my back), I was now the proud owner of the old girl!
Here she is!
Got her back home and gave her a full valet, cleaning out years of dust, dirt and an ash tray full of cigarette butts! yuk!
The car had been owned from new by the same couple, well looked after maintenance wise with service history rom about 40-50,000 miles.
There was a few issues to begin with, speedo lights intermittent and none of the electric windows working.
The lights eventually slowly sorted themselves out which was a bonus!
The windows all worked after cleaning the switch, all except the passenger front window.
I took the switch out to find the wire running from the back of the switch and connecting into the loom was missing.
A bit puzzling, until I removed the doorcard!!
Yes! That's a piece of 2x4 holding the window up!
Bodging at it's best!! haha!
The window runners had obviously rusted out and for whatever reason, the previous owners couldn't be bothered to replace them.
I whipped the drivers sided off and the runners are quite rusted but working for now.
Did a few jobs on the car in preparation for the m.o.t as after checking the advisories on the last one, some of the work hadn't been done.
With the rear shock & front anti roll bar droplinks replaced, including a tyre dated from 1980!!! she was ready for the m.o.t.
Also re-undersealed the rust free chassis and changed the headlight bulbs for some xenon performance bulbs.
You might not be able to see the difference much in the pic, but definitely a worthy upgrade!
She passed the m.o.t with just the o/s/f cv boot needing replacing as it's just starting to split on the seem, not bad for 25 years old and the tester said he couldn't believe how clean it was underneath and that the brakes stopped the car better than some modern cars! bonus!
I brought another hatchback bluebird, the prefacelift model, and broke it for parts such as the door runners, a few other parts that were worth swapping for better condition, like door seal rubbers, top rad hose etc and an uncracked dash which is going to be sent off to be flocked along with other interior parts.
Also retro fitted the pre facelift grill which looks miles better imo and also to satisfy my ocd, I swapped the indicators over from English made units for Japanese units!
Right, now on to the bit in the tile that some of you may be wondering about, the Shakotan Sedan!
For those that don't know, Shakotan is a Japanese style and literaly translates to 'low car'.
Shakotan cars are generally extremely low with wide low-offset wheels, big arches and funky exhausts, kind of a toned down Bosozuko style.
That basically is the style i'm going for with the old bird!
So, the hunt began for parts!
I'm having some custom made springs made up for a big drop!
Wheels! I really, really, really wanted to get my hands on some RS Watanabe's, but genuine wheels in a 4 x 114 over here are rarer than poor quality wobbly children's play pony doo doo! so I started searching and debating what to go with.
I settle with either banding the steels or getting some wide Rota Grid's, until.................
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABY!!!
(Anyone that watches Savage Family Diggers will get that)
I couldn't believe my luck! A genuine full set and right on my door step of all places!!!
Picked them up for a very cheap £300!! they also have the Bridgestone Potenza RE-01 tyres that are import only and a favoured tyre of choice by the Japanese Kanjo racers!
Anyway, here's them fitted!
You can see in the pics I've fitted an air dam for that retro Japanese look.
Its a deep chin caddy spoiler, it's too short tho and I only did a rough job to get it on.
It's now off and I've had the fibreglass out, extending it to fit the width and i'll get the edges fitting nicer, pics to follow when done.
I had a bit of a nightmare with a crack in the windscreen!
Not the worst thing tho as I needed the window seal rubber replacing as the old one had gone and the previous owners had put some curse word black sealant on it.
Had National Windscreens come out at a cost of a £60 excess, I couldn't really complain, that is, until they pulled out the old screen!
Well, there had to be some rust somewhere I guess!!
I arranged for the new screen to be fitted the next day and to my bosses delight, I spent the next few hours grinding, treating and repairing!
Decided to do the scabs on the roof too and revealed a few holes
That's it for now, more updates soon, hope you enjoy!
I've been on here for quite a while and thought I would share with you my latest retro build, as well as having somewhere for a reference to the build.
So, the story goes........
After deciding to sell my BMW and buy a cheap diesel for daily use, that idea went completely out the window as I was out in the works van and drove past an old boy putting 'FOR SALE' signs up on an old 1989 Nissan Bluebird sedan 1.8L automatic.
I couldn't help but pull over for a look as I have always liked the boxey Bluebird's when I was younger, tho never massively keen on the hatchbacks.
This square and somewhat rare Nissan, thanks to the banger boys, sat there saying 'buy me!'
A chat with the guy lead me to a test drive up the road!
The car drove pretty well tho it stank of ciggies and damp but none the less, lead me to make an offer!
£300 later and a back full of mud after slipping on a slight incline on the old boys wet & muddy front garden (proper you,ve been framed moment! legs in the air, flat on my back), I was now the proud owner of the old girl!
Here she is!
Got her back home and gave her a full valet, cleaning out years of dust, dirt and an ash tray full of cigarette butts! yuk!
The car had been owned from new by the same couple, well looked after maintenance wise with service history rom about 40-50,000 miles.
There was a few issues to begin with, speedo lights intermittent and none of the electric windows working.
The lights eventually slowly sorted themselves out which was a bonus!
The windows all worked after cleaning the switch, all except the passenger front window.
I took the switch out to find the wire running from the back of the switch and connecting into the loom was missing.
A bit puzzling, until I removed the doorcard!!
Yes! That's a piece of 2x4 holding the window up!
Bodging at it's best!! haha!
The window runners had obviously rusted out and for whatever reason, the previous owners couldn't be bothered to replace them.
I whipped the drivers sided off and the runners are quite rusted but working for now.
Did a few jobs on the car in preparation for the m.o.t as after checking the advisories on the last one, some of the work hadn't been done.
With the rear shock & front anti roll bar droplinks replaced, including a tyre dated from 1980!!! she was ready for the m.o.t.
Also re-undersealed the rust free chassis and changed the headlight bulbs for some xenon performance bulbs.
You might not be able to see the difference much in the pic, but definitely a worthy upgrade!
She passed the m.o.t with just the o/s/f cv boot needing replacing as it's just starting to split on the seem, not bad for 25 years old and the tester said he couldn't believe how clean it was underneath and that the brakes stopped the car better than some modern cars! bonus!
I brought another hatchback bluebird, the prefacelift model, and broke it for parts such as the door runners, a few other parts that were worth swapping for better condition, like door seal rubbers, top rad hose etc and an uncracked dash which is going to be sent off to be flocked along with other interior parts.
Also retro fitted the pre facelift grill which looks miles better imo and also to satisfy my ocd, I swapped the indicators over from English made units for Japanese units!
Right, now on to the bit in the tile that some of you may be wondering about, the Shakotan Sedan!
For those that don't know, Shakotan is a Japanese style and literaly translates to 'low car'.
Shakotan cars are generally extremely low with wide low-offset wheels, big arches and funky exhausts, kind of a toned down Bosozuko style.
That basically is the style i'm going for with the old bird!
So, the hunt began for parts!
I'm having some custom made springs made up for a big drop!
Wheels! I really, really, really wanted to get my hands on some RS Watanabe's, but genuine wheels in a 4 x 114 over here are rarer than poor quality wobbly children's play pony doo doo! so I started searching and debating what to go with.
I settle with either banding the steels or getting some wide Rota Grid's, until.................
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABY!!!
(Anyone that watches Savage Family Diggers will get that)
I couldn't believe my luck! A genuine full set and right on my door step of all places!!!
Picked them up for a very cheap £300!! they also have the Bridgestone Potenza RE-01 tyres that are import only and a favoured tyre of choice by the Japanese Kanjo racers!
Anyway, here's them fitted!
You can see in the pics I've fitted an air dam for that retro Japanese look.
Its a deep chin caddy spoiler, it's too short tho and I only did a rough job to get it on.
It's now off and I've had the fibreglass out, extending it to fit the width and i'll get the edges fitting nicer, pics to follow when done.
I had a bit of a nightmare with a crack in the windscreen!
Not the worst thing tho as I needed the window seal rubber replacing as the old one had gone and the previous owners had put some curse word black sealant on it.
Had National Windscreens come out at a cost of a £60 excess, I couldn't really complain, that is, until they pulled out the old screen!
Well, there had to be some rust somewhere I guess!!
I arranged for the new screen to be fitted the next day and to my bosses delight, I spent the next few hours grinding, treating and repairing!
Decided to do the scabs on the roof too and revealed a few holes
That's it for now, more updates soon, hope you enjoy!