1975 C110 (KHGC110 240K) Build

[Adzmax]

Hi everyone, I thought I'd share the build of my C110 coupé.

A bit of a back story, I purchased a white coupé back in 2008 sight unseen (just pictures on eBay). While the car looked OK the listing wasn't completely truthful and the car was really rough and full of rust.

It had been patched up very poorly and a lot of the rust was hidden. As I dismantled the car, the more parts I removed and the more filler I stripped, the bigger the problems were. Sure it was repairable but it was not the base I was looking for and it was too incomplete. The floor pan, around the windows and the sills etc were all rusted out so it was more than just your usual 240K rust.

[Adzmax]

Whilst I owned this car I managed to get onto another 240K though a work mate. His friend’s father was into Datsun in a big way and had many Z's and what he thought was a 240K. It turned out he was correct and the owner also had a shed full of panels and parts. I picked up this car and all the spare parts in December 2008. It was a tidy looking car, It was filled in the usual places and had a back yard spray job so it was a bit of an unknown quantity but along with all the spares it made for a good deal. It was also running and resisted. Some pictures at purchase -

Between 2008 and 2012 I bought a house and part of a business so I became pretty weighed down, at one point I had both cars for sale. I was lucky enough to get rid of the white car and a lot of parts for a reasonable price and decided to keep the blue car, this was a good decision

[Adzmax]

Over the last few years I've been collecting a lot of parts locally and from Japan and I've now got pretty much everything I need including JDM tail lights, badges, mirrors, centre console, dash and other interior parts. My plan is a full rebuild from the ground up, a GTR replica in white. I started stripping the car down recently and as I remove a piece, I'm restoring it, bubble wrapping it and then shelving it. As time and space is a problem for me this is the easiest way. Once I'm left with a shell it's off to the body shop.

I started by stripping out the carpet to get a closer look at the floor pan etc. I will need to redo the whole interior as this coupé has a blue interior to match the factory blue paint job. Not a fan This isn't really as issue though as it's pretty crummy and not really up to standard.

Next I removed the front and rear end, I also took of the guards to have a peek, very little rust so far which is a good sign!

[Adzmax]

My first task was the tail lights. I picked these up from Yahoo Japan. They were complete with genuine GTR surrounds but they had seen some hard times. The lenses were very faded and the chrome on the rings was chipped and marked. I disassembled the tailed lights and removed the lenses and stainless steel rings. I also removed the reflectors inside which had started to corrode. The seals on the lenses were deteriorated and had let water into the housings. One of the lenses had taken a hit and was cracked inside. The lens had to be repaired and we had to re-facet the larger red lens to remove a chip from the hit.

With the help of my good friend Troy I cleaned and prepared the lenses then a layer of clear was applied, the end result is pretty nice.

[Adzmax]

I had the small stainless rings polished and the reflective housings plated in the same coating they use in modern head lights. This should provide some serious light! The actual housings had some damaged and missing threads so I ended up using another set I had. I cleaned these up as best possible.

I also cleaned up the bulb holders that screw into the back of the lenses.

I pulled a nicer set of backings off a 3rd set of lights and started to reassemble the tail light assemblies. I bought all new stainless screws and used mastic to reseal the lenses after cleaning the seals as best possible. Mastic is horrible, horrible stuff to work with, it's so messy. If you don't get it right the first time or used to much, you'll spend a while cleaning up!

I was missing a cover from the back which I managed to source here in Australia

The other cover was really dirty and scuffed so I hit it with some wet/dry and the polished it. It came up like new in the end. I then finished reassembling the housings and swapped over the JDM loom.

Over all I'm very happy with the way these turned out!

[Adzmax]

I picked up a new horn pad and Skyline "S" emblem. It was a GTR badge but had cracked with age which seems to be pretty common from what I've seen.

I dissembled the pad and removed the badge. I rubbed back the original backing paint and then hit the font of the badge with progressive finer grades of wet/dry to remove the cracks which appears only surface deep. We then polished the surface and sprayed the backing in a candy red.

[Adzmax]

I started on the headlights next.

I stripped whole assemblies down and removed the nylon grommets by shaving some material from the back of the plugs with a dremel. I took off just enough material so I could push the plugs through with some force. I then hit them rust with a wire wheel and sent the assemblies off for gold zinc plating. The springs and clips were acid bathed and coated in blue zinc. I managed to source some head lamp retaining brackets from a local NOS dealer. The parts came back looking like new!

I re-fitted the plugs and used epoxy to fasten them. They are used to adjust the lamps so it's pretty important that they stay in place.

I reassembled the housings and polished up the lamps. They came up looking fantastic, especially next to an old set!

[Adzmax]

The sealed beam lamps are not the brightest of lights so in keeping with the Japanese theme I picked up a set of Koito semi-sealed head lights. These use a standard H4 and H1 halogen light which means I can fit any bulb for optimum brightness! Here's the new compared to old and the finished light.

[Adzmax]

Fender mirrors are expensive! I've seen sets go anywhere from $500-$1000 delivered which is pricey for a set of mirrors. I picked up a separate left and right hand side mirror from Yahoo Japan. The finish of the mirrors didn't match but this wasn't really a concern as I planned to rub them back and respray them anyhow. One was NOS and the other was used.

You can see how different they were in these pictures and the damage is apparent close up. I rubbed them back to remove any imperfections and them masked them up for respraying.

My friend Troy sprayed them. While I was moving them to bake I managed to bump a door frame and gouge the fresh paint but Troy with his expertise was able to fill the gouge then once baked, rub the overfill back and then buffed them to perfection! :wink:

I have another lot of parts to be electroplated so I'll send the bases down and have them refinished also. More pics to come soon!

[240KtoGTR]

Looking good,

I wondered where the blue coupe ended up. Good to see you're restoring it properly and methodically.

A white G.T.R clone? That's what I'm planning as well with my coupe. But I'm going to be building

a new house soon, so my coupe has taken a step back for now. I'm just collecting parts now for the

future build. Your progress so far is inspiring, I'll be waiting for updates.

[blk180]

Damn those front lights are so sexy.

[uras1]

nice, good to see another one under way