1897 s12 Nissan Gazelle MkII - Old school cool

[DaGa]

cheers guys. cant wait to get it into my new garage! then the real fun shit starts to happen

[Chillin]

Looks great mate! top work!

[DaGa]

so im now settled into my new home. set up most of the garage so far. still need to do the floor and maybe paint the walls. both of which should have been done before i filled it with my shit. also need to weld up my wheel rack and bolt it to the wall.

moved the s12 from essendon to avondale heights 2day, was an interesting ride. the guy at the servo made me pre-pay because it looks like such a banger with no plates lol plus all the looks i was getting was hilarious. rocking no exhaust, it was soooo loud i really thought i was gonna get stung by the popo, temp reg or not they weren't gonna like it haha. so now to start working on this beast again. im first goin to strip, clean and repair the interior then stat back on the body work again as its taken quite a beating being stuck in my old drive way. i've noticed my dad had put some nice dents in the front drivers side panel the bastard! anyway he it is in its new home.
















stay tuned for more updates, things are going to get alot more serious now

[DaGa]

time for an update. i've been flat out with the house and work etc. but i've still managed to get some work in on the s12.

made up a top for my castrol drum so i've got a table for beers


moved my vice bench in on my own (lazy mates lol) thing weighs like 170kgs. that was a struggle



i found these car ramps in the shed of my holiday house a couple of years ago. they were pretty rusted and shitty so i was gonna throw them out. instead i thought i'd take to them with a grinder and a welder and make myself a pair of low ramps. i've only cut and shut one of them but u get the idea.




perfect

while i was in the mood for creation i knocked up a portable work table/welding table to wheel around the garage. just a steel frame with a 3mm steel top. and can either house my toolbox underneath or fit 2 milk crates for storage.




started removing more parts from the car and whilst removing the sunroof i noticed some rust starting to appear on one of the mounts for the wind deflectors. so i drilled the spot welds out and stripped the mount back and treated it. welded it back into place and gave it a lick of paint. no more rust, easy as.












next on the list is body work. so many parts need to be repaired, striped, prepped and painted. today i started on the passenger front guard. now i've never used paint stripper on a car before so i thought i'd give it a go. the paint was very very thick so it took me almost a whole day of applying the stripper, waiting and scrapping off the paint. but the result is flawless. the panel is alot better shape than first thought. so i just need to tap out a couple of little dents weld a couple of crack and then onto prep.








as it stands now

[cssss]

just spent the last hour or so reading this whole thread. my kudos go to you for absolutely everything you have done this far.

[DaGa]

thanks mate, hope u enjoyed. i'll keep updating at the build progresses. at the moment im doing some panel beating and panel prep

[DaGa]

so i finally got around to modifying an old s13 strut brace that i picked up ages ago and fitted it to the s12.

pretty easy, i'll do a small tutorial as this type of brace is quite common.

so to start find yourself a strut brace in a style like this. theres plenty around, i just found this pic on ebay ($50)



mine i found at a wrecker for about $50 its just as old one from jp.

take it apart and bolt the strut top mounts to the car.

now hold the bar over the bay and line it up to the centre of the engine bay to make a rough mark of where the new hole will need to be drilled ( dont need to be too accurate at this point)


now remove the mounts and measure in from the edge nearest the original mount to make both sides the same. also measure the centre of the brace tab. then find an appropriate round object or a drawing compass to mark the new rounded edge of the tabs.


drill a pilot hole no more than 1/3 of the final hole. my final hole was 10mm so a 3mm bit was sufficient. same process for the other side.
tip: put something between the two tabs to minimise flexing when you clam it. i used a socket as i always do for this type of thing.


then grind the end off and shape up your rounded edge.




then paint /clean/polish and bolt it up.



plenty of clearance


bonnet closed


size comparison of s13 and s12 braces.



so im still getting through the panel work its very tedious as im a bit of a perfectionist but it'll get there. im also going to start reconditioning my hoshino's and my southern ways so expect some updates in the coming weeks

enjoy!

[pen15]

build looks good man

[hollywood89]

keep it up mate, quality write up!

[DaGa]

cheers fella's

so today i headed over to my dad's factory to pick up my three spare engines. the s13 sr20det black top, the s12 fj20e and the dr30 fj20e. all went ahead without a hitch and got them lifted on and off with no problems.

while i was there i knocked up a couple of engine trolleys using some 38mm mdf scrap and some HD castors. worked a treat and they are perfect for wheeling the motors around the garage.

now that the motors are finally in the garage i can finally inspect them thoroughly and make the decision of whether to rebuild or just clean, paint, change all gaskets and seals and whack it straight in the s12.

so hers some pics of the disassembly and inspection process.





sump off, has suffered a bit of damage but luckily i have a spare. this one will give its life to an extended sump conversion.




damaged the pick-up as well but again i have a spare no metal deposits trapped in it though which is a good sign.




so far as far i can tell the bottom end appears to be in really good shape, still all lubed up, clean and moving freely. i might pull the bearing caps off the con rods to take a look at the bearings.




oil pump appears good from the outside


these are the 2 versions of fj20e intake manifolds one is out of a dr30 skyline (larger) and the other is out of the s12 silvia (smaller)


took the thermo housing off and other that all the shitty rust there is very little corrosion. i discovered later that the rust was caused predominantly by the steel wire coils inside the 'universal' flexi radiator hoses used in the previous setup.



next i dropped the intake manifold wont be using this manifold going to use the smaller of the two. the gasket used was actually a weeties pack or similar lol




lots of carbon deposits on the valves but not the worst i've seen.


gasket all gone, scraped and ready for a new one.


pulled the plugs for inspection. all appear to be in very good condition. last one is a little rusty so there must have been some water down the plug hole at some stage.


cylinder 1.


cylinder 2.


cylinder 3.


cylinder 4.



now the motor is here i hope to get alot more progress done on the car. still chipping away at the body work and i'll begin to recondition the hoshino's tomorrow

i also managed to get my hands on yet another mkI rs-x fj20 grille so that'll be here in about 6 weeks or so

pictures from YJ



along with a few other goodies including....

an impul gearknob


and some epicly rare s12 side mirror shades as well as a spare pair of mirrors lol