1978 B310 Datsun Sunny 140Y Coupe.... In the UK! *UPDATE*

uncle silvia · **Posted:** Wed Aug 10, 2011 2:31 am

Hi all...... Me again!!

Well its happened again!! All logic and plans went out the window because a cool rare Jap car became avaliable in the Classifieds lol.

I was looking for something smooth and sensible and a little bigger with a bit of badge snobbery like a merc or something........... So i ended up buying a brown Datsun :lol:

As you all know by now, Retro Jap is always at the top of my list so its a no-brainer really lol :wink:

Well here she is.............

Its a 1978 Pre-Facelift B310 Datsun Sunny 140Y Coupe which I believe are pretty rare over here now??!!
It has the A14 1400 engine mated with a 5 speed manual gearbox with Dogleg First to make it interesting lol.

I picked it up from Westcountry Classics, (nice chaps), near Penzance in Cornwall and they got it off an elderly lady that has been its only owner since new!! Yes I am the second owner

Its done 70500 miles and is a pretty solid car being garaged all its life.
Unfortunately its not perfect with a bit of a knock on the front corner and some badly matched paint on one side........... all fixable tho. The dreadded rot seems to pretty fairly at bay with only a few blisters about the car and I believe only had 2 patches of welding ever! Inside is Mint tho

It also came with some "British Made" dealer option alloy wheels from new and I have a full set of 5!! Ill probably wack on some of my spare Jappy rims tho :mrgreen:

.

She drives pretty well for an old car too and was happilly sat at 70mph on the way home to Plymouth for 80 miles. Good on fuel too!

This will now be my Daily driver while I build up my KE70 Corolla (See link in sig)

Well enough of the chat........... you want some pics...............

On the way home:

If I decide to get keen one day............ this could be an option ;D

Im doing my Corolla first tho lol ;D

Well on my first day of ownership I took it for a late night spin........ and came across more retros.............

And the next day the mods started!! Ive been playing with my Wheels ;D

First I tried my 14x9 Enkei's................

Unfortunately although they look right on the car......... I can even get half a turn on the stering wheel before they catch everything!!!! The arches just arnt as big as my corolla!!

SO I tried my 14x7 Watanabes...............

Well these fit just fine and TBH look good with the black on brown!
Next is to lower it ;D

Oh and heres a better shot of the interior............

And my first "In Car Entertainment" ;D

cheers more soon

Toylex · **Posted:** Wed Aug 10, 2011 4:00 am

Nice, congratulations on this car !!

I have a 1978 B210 coupe, but A12 engine.

KC30 · **Posted:** Wed Aug 10, 2011 5:31 am

Nice find!
As far as how rare it is, for some reason the How Many Left site only has a list for the 140Y autos. But they're showing 7 (4 of them SORN'd) of those registered as of the first part of this year. Seeing as yours is manual, probably even more rare then that.
http://howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/datsun_sunny_140y_auto

slims · **Posted:** Wed Aug 10, 2011 8:56 am

Another B310 owner. :tu:

A little rough around the edges but looks like a solid car. I wish the interior of mine looked half as good as yours. A basic service (oil, points, plugs, plug wires etc.) and these things will run forever.

uncle silvia · **Posted:** Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:29 am

KC30 wrote:

Nice find!
As far as how rare it is, for some reason the How Many Left site only has a list for the 140Y autos. But they're showing 7 (4 of them SORN'd) of those registered as of the first part of this year. Seeing as yours is manual, probably even more rare then that.
http://howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/datsun_sunny_140y_auto

Yea i know......... that site never seems to help me on the cars worth finding out about lol

Ive been told that with this spec tho there wasnt many to start with........ I need to do some digging!!!

slims wrote:

Another B310 owner. :tu:

A little rough around the edges but looks like a solid car. I wish the interior of mine looked half as good as yours. A basic service (oil, points, plugs, plug wires etc.) and these things will run forever.

Thats why it makes a good daily...... Simple and reliable :tu:

Yea Im in the middle of tidying the outside so it looks respectable. The insidet was really good so not much to do there :mrgreen:

king bee66 · **Posted:** Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:48 am

nice ride bro

KC30 wrote:

http://howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/datsun_sunny_140y_auto

that is a really cool website, i wish they had one for the US

carina · **Posted:** Wed Aug 17, 2011 4:25 am

Nice. I think that coupe looks way better than sedan (which I have).

Can you tell, how much ET you have in those wheels?

Here is mine with narrow 13" hoshino´s

uncle silvia · **Posted:** Sat Aug 20, 2011 4:20 am

To be honest Ive got no idea what ET they are.......... ill try and work it out sometime!!

UPDATE

Well ive been busy getting the Datty ready for the Retro Rides Gathering this week in the UK. Heres an update................

First off it said Goodbye to my Micra before it went to its new home...

Then it said hello to its new partner in crime..........

First off was to try and repair that front end damage the best I could without actually buying any parts for now lol.
This is how I straightened my bumper HAHA.........

Taaa Daaa ;D

I then decided to convert the bumpers back to as near "Jap Spec" as I could....... meaning removing the horrid plastic end caps and bumper extensions and moving the bumper back closer to the car in full chrome mode ;D

So I stripped the whole front down..........

And while I was doing this I thought I'd tidy up the rest of it a bit INC trying to fix the dent in the N/S wing.........

Beat the wing with a big hammer until it was pretty good and then stonechipped all the bare bit of metal and around the edges......

Stone chipped the inner arch where it needed it.........

And the front panel...........

There will be pics coming up of what it looks like all back together 8-)

Then I had an oil leak on the rocker cover so I stripped that off.......

Found the culprit.............

And replaced with new...........

Next it was the fun bit of trying to lower it,
SO I stripped the front down.......

Marked where I needed to "modify" it lol (not to much for now just to see how she sits)........

Them trimmed a little off ;D............

Next was to Strip the rear springs out.........

And gave them the same treatment........

NEXT I had to get some modern tunes in here as I was getting fed up with the MW/LW and the not so loud Ipod Dock lol............

First up was to run power wires........

Next was to hide some speakers up under the dash.........

I had to make a hole on the passenger side to get the wires through neatly...........

And protecting the wires..........

The headunit was fitted neatly under the glovebox and even matches the colour or the dash and trim (and the dash lights 8-)

).....

Tidy up the wiring under the rear seat...........

Mount sub in the boot on a removable plug......

I think it looks pretty neat...........

Now for some nicer shots at this stage with the car back together................

Next was to touch up the black and tatty bits around the car as the weather was better yesterday............

It was only a quick job but it looks much better! Unfortunately I wont have the time and don't have the paint to colour code the bad paint job on the drivers side before the show.

Ive also now filled the holes in the bumpers with dome bolts to neaten it up.

Hope you like it ;D 8-)

Drive510 · **Posted:** Sat Aug 20, 2011 8:47 am

Very nice Sunny. With the exception of that little rust near the window, I'd say you have a pretty nice looking car.

I hope you can take constructive criticism (more of just my own opinion), but I think I like the Enkeis better than Watanabe wheels.

Watanabes compliment the car really nice though. You have a few really nice options on wheel choice. :tu:

uncle silvia · **Posted:** Sat Aug 20, 2011 2:56 pm

Drive510 wrote:

Very nice Sunny. With the exception of that little rust near the window, I'd say you have a pretty nice looking car.

I hope you can take constructive criticism (more of just my own opinion), but I think I like the Enkeis better than Watanabe wheels.

Watanabes compliment the car really nice though. You have a few really nice options on wheel choice. :tu:

Yea thats cool and I liked it on the Enkeis too but they just plain old didnt fit!! Massive arch mods would of been needed and I dont want to do that!

I love the Wats on it anyway and thing the Black suits the rest of the car. Both my Corolla and my Datty have a set of nice wheels each now

The rust will be delt with in due course lol

slims · **Posted:** Thu Aug 25, 2011 1:35 pm

Nice progress. The car park shots of it look great. :tu:

Garant · **Posted:** Fri Aug 26, 2011 9:35 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g45uzZvF0L8

uncle silvia · **Posted:** Tue Aug 30, 2011 5:50 am

matt wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g45uzZvF0L8

HAHA Im famous LOL

Obviously my car is there but im walking around the White 160J at the opposite end of the row with my 2 mates!

Ive got the backback on with the camera :mrgreen:

Camshaft · **Posted:** Tue Aug 30, 2011 8:53 am

This car looks really tough with the Wats! The subtle lowering really made a difference. A lip spoiler would be nice, if you ever come across one.

uncle silvia · **Posted:** Thu Sep 01, 2011 4:16 am

Camshaft wrote:

This car looks really tough with the Wats! The subtle lowering really made a difference. A lip spoiler would be nice, if you ever come across one.

Ide love a front lip or even a box dam like the ones on the TS race cars in Japan! Im also looking out for a nice Ducktail Spoiler that will fit the rear....... All the propper ones from Japan are £££££££££

te72_sunny · **Posted:** Sat Sep 17, 2011 11:41 pm

Nice car you have there! BTW what a coincidence we both own 2 of the same cars. I too own a xE7x Corolla and a B310. You're my UK clone... or is it the other way around? lol Liking the progress keep it up! I was thinking of doing something similar with my radio, but hiding it in the glove box. The previous owner put on an ae86 radio din, but it was too tacky and I ended up taking it off.

uncle silvia · **Posted:** Sat Mar 02, 2013 11:53 am

te72_sunny wrote:

Nice car you have there! BTW what a coincidence we both own 2 of the same cars. I too own a xE7x Corolla and a B310. You're my UK clone... or is it the other way around? lol Liking the progress keep it up! I was thinking of doing something similar with my radio, but hiding it in the glove box. The previous owner put on an ae86 radio din, but it was too tacky and I ended up taking it off.

LOL that is very cool........ hello my Clone :mrgreen:

uncle silvia · **Posted:** Sat Mar 02, 2013 11:55 am

UPDATE!!! FINALLY!!!

Ok I havent done any updates for bloody ages so I thought it was about time ;D
Ill try and whip throught the last year or so to get up to date 8-)

Firstly it got a polish and went to RRG11......

Needed a bit of welding for the next MOT..........

And then a fresh MOT ;D

Then I wanted to make a shelf to cover the boot area...........

I used a load cover form an old Escort estate...

The wood will be covered later!

The I went to the Brean beach meet 8-)

With SOS Southern Old School 8-)

I moved from Plymouth to Torbay so took the opertunity for some nice sea-side piccys 8-)

Unfortunately my drivers seat had a spring break so I decided to fit a bucket seat I have sitting around. I know its a little modern but its comfy and I don't think it looks out of place.......

A new gear gator was made from the sleve of an old leather jacket.... (Thanks Mum ;D)

I got set on tidying up the bodywork and getting rid of the miss-matched paint on the side. I couldnt afford a proper spray job so I got some aerosols made up and had a go myself............

Then a few days later it got a bit of a polish ready for japfest 2012

The off to Japfest 2012 we go........ into the queues LOL

Datty even made it onto the pages of the Speedhunters Website ;D

A few more pics after getting back.........

Time for a new addition...... FENDER MIRRORS 8-)

Right..... RRG12 time ;D

First up was some new J showplates 8-)

On the way up with friends...

At the camping ground..... with more friends...

Datty in the show on the Datsun Stand ;D

Made it into the top corner of the Retro Cars Magazine coverage of RRG12 ;D

And the RRG12 Time Lapse film ;D

And just a bit of PHOTO WHORING which brings things up until the end of the 2012 season.......

And a good one to end on .......... for now ;D

The car has since been off the road for the winter BUT I now have some new ideas for the car and hope to get it back on the road for Japfest 2013 in May! Watch this space

te72_sunny · **Posted:** Sun Mar 03, 2013 11:07 am

Simply Amazing... I need to take mine out soon! Damn this winter season!

MikeRL411 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 03, 2013 12:13 pm

Congratulations! Not a Hangar Queen, you are actually driving and enjoying it. Keep up the wax and you won't turn into a kit car donor.

1978 B310 Datsun Sunny 140Y Coupe.... In the UK! UPDATE

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