Spam log: Datsun 1200 Strut swap

I'm swapping over my 1200 struts for some 120y ones. The 120Y having discs instead of drums being the reason why :) There pretty much a straight swap over, you need to keep your 1200 springs and strut tops to put on the 120y struts though as the 120y springs and tops sit a bit higher.

I got some discs out of the second car I ever had! A Blue 1976 120Y. Oh yeah. Now after July 1976 due to new import laws put in place, the 120y strut changed as the brakes were made locally instead of from Japan. This could cause some problems for me as these discs will increase the line pressure on my 34 year old master cylinder. Might spring some leaks so I'll have to keep an eye on it. If it does I'll can replace it with either a 1200 coupe master as they came stock with discs or get a Datsun Sunny master cylinder to replace it with. The Sunny master is a bit bigger.

Of course I'm not just swapping them over. I have to clean up the new ones first.
Heres what I'm up against:

There Dirty, very dirty. Rusty aswell.

I started out by taking the strut completely apart. I'm taking one apart at a time just in case I run in to trouble putting them back together. Once all apart I started with the main strut body. After chipping around it with a screwdriver and then using a wire brush all over it I sanded it with some 80grit sandpaper. This left it looking much like this...

The Insert needs replacing but I dont have a Spanner big enough to get it out yet :( So thats still in there for now. After all the sanding I rubbed it down with a rag to get all the dust and crap off. I then rubbed it down with some wax and grease remover ready for some paint. After spraying with some etch primer it looked like this...