Most of the story - now in the hands of
Eddie Rattley who hasn't kept to his end of the bargain!
I am rather annoyed about this as he promised that he would
get the car MOT and taxed then transfer my private no. plate back to me.
Eddie has disappeared into the wilds of "Suffolk" I think to
open a Nissan museum
go home | back to Cedric | go to Skyline | link to datsun owners club |
The day I decided to start work
As you can see I started with the LH front door (notice the tropical seat covers)
The door repair panels with the front door in primer
The boot (trunk) lid came in for the same treatment as the rest of the metalwork having new steel panels made up and welded in. Where possible I used 'body solder (lead) for filling imperfections but the contours of the boot lid made it unwise to use too much heat here. The boot floor was rusty in several places and again new metal was welded in. A weather seal was obtained from the local wrecking yard and came from a late Bluebird Estate (and boy was it in a state). You can see from this picture that this model has a different style boot lid to the UK sedan (saloon car) being straight across and fitted with different tail lights.
Lots of elbow grease and several coats of primer but very little filler or repair needed here. As you can gather the "CEDRIC" badges has been removed (but I still have them). The filler flap is a new one, not that the old one was broken but it seemed a good idea at the time (as most idiotic thing do). The wheel arch contours were a pain in the neck to get right but as there was no rust or damage there it was just a case of primer and rub down time and again. Notice the BMW 14" x 6" wheels. The standard PCD is very similar but the holes are larger on the Nissan. So by using a radial drill press and picking up on the BMW PCD and moving the arm outwards to the Nissan PCD and drilling the holes to fit the Nissan Wheel nuts one cannot tell whether the wheels were made for the Nissan or not.
New scuttle panel from a wrecker I bought. Strangely enough the wrecker had many new parts fitted most of which came in handy. Some of the mechanical parts used were the brand new gas shocks and the heavier UK spec front and rear anti-roll bars. The UK spec diff came in handy as the Japanese one was 4.11:1 and the UK one is 3.54:1 thus giving better fuel milage and a higher cruising / top speed but lowering the acceleration somewhat (but hell - who cares that much with petrol at £4.00 (US $7) an (imp) gallon)
Well here we are! All painted except for the two doors on the other side. As
you can see the windscreen still has to be fitted and so has the new bonnet
(hood). I am still undecided as to use the original oval headlamps and sports
grille or keep the UK version. The reason is that the oval lamps are no longer
available if anything goes wrong (some idiot breaking one or a bulb blowing)
even if they look better (different). (Can't usee them as some B***er stole
one)
Here is the
engine. It is
basically a 2.8
ltr injected ZX
high comprssion
motor (8.6:1) but rated for unleaded petrol.
It has full elecronic ignition, uprated ECU and of course the car has full Air Conditioning, a nessessity in our extremly hot British climate.
BHP is rated at 180 but it feels a lot more even with the higher ratio diff. Top speed indicated is 210KPH which is equal to about 130MPH but I'll give it 125 genuine as it is about the same as my Skyline.