Werner's 1300 '69 4-door

[Nerius]

Hi all,

I've recently purchased a 1300 from Belgium.
I've been looking for one for 8 years now, but the market in EU is pretty tough, these cars are rare. Luckily this one presented itself for a low price and so I went with my buddy who owns a 240z to check it out. As we are from the Netherlands, the drive was just an hour away.
After a thorough look, I bought it and rented a flatbed truck to transport and store it at a farmer's shed where I have the room to work on it as well. (I don't have any working space where I live, so I have to drive 40 mins to work on the car).
A little disclaimer, I have no proper experience with building cars or even restoring them. Luckily, my buddy has taken his Fairlady apart a lot of times and he can give me "on the go" insight when working on it. The rest, well, is up to this elaborate forum.

The car looks okay, there is quite the rust going on and the engine made a ticking sound.

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So the ticking sound was caused due to a missing lash pad and a worn down rocker thing. This is resolved and the L13 is spinning again.

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With that I managed to narrow down the steps to get it driving and road legal.
- Get the brakes working. The master cylinder is empty and missing a cap. I'm having trouble removing the left rear drum brake, it won't budge. The front brakes aren't looking ready for work neither. So I've managed to find an address nearby where I can pick up 280 zx struts including brakes. This would mean a bit of lowering and more powerful braking up front. I think I can find a 280z master cilinder for this combination. This would mean, I guess, that I need to get camber plates (getting lost in the jungle of camber plates) and bump steer spacers. And with lowering the front, I'll lower the back as well.
- Understand what is wrong with the windscreen wipers.
- Fix the backing up light.

From there I can work a bit on the aesthetics. Nice wheels, new paint, new chrome. And installing the L18 I've picked up in the north of the country.

1300

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[Nerius]

And apparently, I don't understand how to post multiple images in one post. Here is a happy picture of the L18.

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[tycot1]

Are those fender arrow marker lights stock? I have never seen those. They are very cool. Can you post a closer picture of them and more pictures of the car and interior/ dash please. Nice buy!

[Nerius]

I think they are stock, not sure about the differences between the markets and years.
Here is a artistically approved picture made by a friend of mine.

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[Nerius]

And here the interior

Dash

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[Nerius]

backseat

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[Pista_510]

What a really nice purchase...such a good base to work with.

I particularly like the front fender indicator lights....so unique...

All the best with it, looking forward to your progress and updates!

[Nerius]

Thanks Pista!

[510rob]

Fantastic stuff! Nice find! Fun awaits you!

(Also, I love a space-station era radio in a car from the propeller era)

[RMS]

looks great and in many places it would be considered rust free.

what is the rocker switch beside the ignition for ? and very funky markers

[Nerius]

Fantastic stuff! Nice find! Fun awaits you!

(Also, I love a space-station era radio in a car from the propeller era)

Haha, thanks! I think I'll put in an android headset, so I can stream my music.

[Nerius]

looks great and in many places it would be considered rust free.

what is the rocker switch beside the ignition for ? and very funky markers

It used to run on, er, gas, not gasoline, but natural gas. Not sure how this would translate to English. So that switch would be between "benzine" (gasoline) and "gas" (natural gas). That might've caused the tick on the engine as that stuff burns of higher temperatures.

[Byron510]

Agreed to is is a very cool car.
If the red interior can be salvaged, it would be great.

Before purchasing the 280ZX struts, make sure you can get brakes and rotors for them! This used to be a great upgrade, but now parts are getting more scarce.
If you do go the 280ZX strut route, camber plates are not absolutely necessary. You can use the 1300 spring led and top hats on a 280ZX insert. You will however lower the car by 15-40mm, depending on the length of your original struts. If your car used the short length struts that we got in North America in 68 and 69, then the car will drop roughly 15mm.

A dual fuel car - interesting!! I just zoomed in on the air cleaner base plate and see the gas venturi- now the fuel thing makes sense. Unlikely however the the old fuel conversion was causing the tick. All motor components are available, however camshaft rocker arms are getting very expensive- don’t use the aftermarket ones - they look the same, have the incorrect metallurgy and will fail, taking out your camshaft in the process.

I’m going to guess that your car is a 69 model year, given the dash type and hub caps.
The fender marker light are very cool, but definitely not Nissan. With so many small cars in Europe that would not be familiar to us, I’d be curious to know where they did come from. But it would be cool to keep them.

It’s cool to have you here, and many will help you along your journey. Great that your posting photos.

Byron

[Nerius]

Thanks for the advice!

Yes the dual fuel car is a known mod done for old cars here in NL. As Dutch gasoline is one of the highest in price in Europe, maybe the world, driving on natural gas is a very cheap alternative. For normal cars you pay higher taxes with this setup, but as this is an oldtimer, there are no extra taxes.

[Nerius]

I'm making mini steps towards getting the car road legal again.

Yesterday, I've rebuilt the rear drum brakes. I was struggling a bit with getting the drums on, and was afraid that the new shoes were too wide as I put the adjusters on minimum. After calling my buddy, I understood that I can adjust the handbrake line as well. Next time I should be able to fix that.

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The front rotors have amazingly enough meat on them for a refurbish, the pads have died twice, so back to Rockauto again.
Also, I figured out that the wiper motor has died. Luckily I could find a thread on the realm to use an Acura Integra motor for this.

Just waiting for parts now to get the old man running and most importantly, stopping.