Leaderboard

https://www.facebook.com/events/1740352710321182/ All info can be found here. The turn out for 2026 was spectacular! Looking forward to seeing everyone again next year!

Parts and other miscellaneous items are starting to arrive. The OG steering wheel was literally falling apart in my hand whenever I grabbed it to move the truck. Chunks of old plastic just dropping to the floor. So I purchased a wood grain wheel and adapter. Then saw there is a gap and broke out the WW2 era lathe. Started with 3" diameter aluminum and got to work. Spacer is done. I was going to paint it black but now I am thinking of leaving as is. Maybe polish it more. Next i will need to work on getting the cancelation pins longer to activate the switches. And extend the brass horn tab.

Video is up. Did not get very much footage, too busy talking 🙂 Planning to camp next year so I can do more of both.

Well since I have been lurking in the shadows of Ratsun as a voyeur for sometime now I guess it's finally time to make a profile and be part of the crew. Been working on this baby since March. Gonna KA swap it like the "cool kids" ...why not.

Sneak peak of polishing the paint.

I've been in love with my brother's Datsun since it showed up on his farm in 2021. He's got too many vehicles so he's giving it to me. I'm going to name her Hot Daniel, a reference to Adventure Time. Enough typing, photos:

Success !! I was able to not only get the valve to finally move but also pull it out and thoroughly clean and polish. Replaced the old dried up O ring with a new one. Lubricated everything and reinstalled. I now have a smooth operating valve. I hope I dont have any leaks or future issues with the heater core. If I do, at least it is clean and easier to remove than before.

Great to see you too, thank for setting us up once again. 🙂

Mostly because I can.

The final bits for the tank vent arrived... -6 AN bulkhead fitting, -6 to 3/8 hose nipple, and a wee filter. I decided that by drilling into this fuel filler hump... and installing the fitting there... the filter would sit nicely behind the old filler door... So we did that. Then we Adel-clamped a hose to connect it to the tank's vent port... I'm pretty pleased with how that turned out. Then we drilled... and tapped... for some bolts to hold down the panel over the differential clearance hole... We decided not to pookie the panel down, mainly because we forgot. Oh well, there are enough holes in this floor that sealing it would really be a waste of time. With the back of the van "finished," John put a few coats of wrinkle finish black on the dash panel... And while that was drying, we spilled a shit ton of gas while we poured the fuel from the old tank into the new one. I crawled under while John hit the ignition switch. Huzzah! No leaks! We fired up the donk to make sure everything still worked (it did) and then reset the fuel gauge to match the resistance of the new sender. So, I think we can quote my favorite crazy Russians and call the tank swap a 107% success.

Thanks guys! I wasn't super motivated to keep Ratsun up to date since it seems like the armchair critics just want to offer unsolicited advice and tell you what you're doing wrong. I'm just trying to keep it fun. I gambled on my abilities to reconstruct the rear end, and it came out very straight! That was my biggest hurdle of the project. Next up this weekend - welding up the bumper frame supports under the trunk floor. I have a few other metal fab things to take care of before I treat the rest of the rust and lay down some primer.

Hey everyone been a minute. I've had some health problems and can't do much work on my B by myself. Getting it done though. Still daily it. Supposed to be getting some body work done and a paint job real soon. I know, I know it's taken me 20+ years to get there *ouch* Hope you all have a good one and may you be able to find parts and keep your Datsuns forever running 😄

Well it's been about a year since my last post, and as many of my fellow Datsun project owners know, this means I've been making slow and steady progress but not as much as I'd like to have. Here's a quick update: The physical location of the car has fortunately changed to somewhere that's closer to where I live but still not at my home. Initially I thought this would make progress go faster but after about the 4th weekend in a row of dragging my heavy tool boxes to the car and constantly forgetting that one special tool that kills your entire day, I decided I had to take a break from it and walk away for a bit. But before I did, I managed to chuck this bad boy in - Now originally I never planned on installing the original L18 in just because I wanted something a little more modern and powerful. However after discussing with friends and fellow enthusiasts, and looking thru all the spare parts bins that came with the car, I figured why not at least pay the car some respect and make an attempt at starting it up and driving around while I prep the forever engine. I had to make some custom aluminum adapter plates that interface between the 240Z crossmember and the L18 engine mounts which worked beautifully. The block and rotating assembly were previously assembled at a machine shop that's no longer around, and the head was recently put together by the PO. I purchased a new timing kit & gasket set with the hopes that this would be a simple drop in and go. It was anything but that. Take another close look at that picture - did you see the garbage bag oil pan? As with any suspension modification/engine swap goes, the 240Z crossmember I'm using lands right where the L18 oil pick up tube and sump are supposed to live. Great. That's not even the worst part - the hydraulic steering rack I installed actually sits higher that the crossmember, so there's really only about 0.75" of clearance between the bottom of the block and the top of the steering rack. It was at this point that I was throwing in the towel on the L18. My plans were never to install it, it isn't the forever motor, and I knew I'd still have to dump money and time into it before actually being able to enjoy it. In went the garbage bag oil pan and off I was with the rest of my life. I probably let it sit like this for about 3-4 months (i lubricated the rotating assembly with oil so it wouldn't rust out) before my friends inspired me to take another look at a custom oil pan, since that was really the only thing stopping me from getting it to run. The transmission was in its factory location, the shifter was mint, the driveshaft bolted up to the differential, and the axles ready to spin. I decided I have to give it the old college try before totally giving up on the little L18. With such little clearance, I knew the pan would have to be flat and low profile for the majority of its body. That means the sump would have to be right at the front end, and large enough to hold 4.5 quarts of oil. By the way, this is why I was looking for an original front sump oil pan - I'm not a fan of permanently modifying original equipment that someone else might otherwise use for their cars. When it comes to modifying chassis, fenders, etc. - fine but it at least has to be tastefully and mechanically done well in my opinion. But I couldn't get myself to chop a perfectly good OE L18 oil pan for this purpose. So I set off to make a completely 100% custom one: Don't mind the garbage ban dumpster still on there - it was simulating the gasket! Oddly enough, a 0.625" flange and some sheet metal did the trick. I don't have a picture of the finished product (partly because it's not something I'm necessarily proud of) but you can see the various tack welds and general shape of the thing. Once this mock up was satisfactory, I had the pan fully welded and also installed a drain plug (which sits uncomfortably too close to the ground). I filled it with water in my kitchen and measured ~4.25 quarts right that the brim of the pan, which means in order to get the full 4.5+ quarts per the manual, there would be oil sitting above the engine block/pan interface. Knowing this I figured I RTV the heck out of it and cross my fingers. The oil pickup was another thing to tackle - fortunately I've chopped and re-welded/reinforced pick up tubes in the past. I don't have a picture of this, but you can imagine I had a flange plasma cut out, some mandrel bent tubes chopped and re-welded to place the filter mesh opening right at the bottom of the pan. Like you the reader are now, I was absolutely skeptical if this setup was going to work. Nevertheless I installed both custom units onto the car, filled it up with ~5 quarts of oil, primed the brand new oil pump, and cranked the starter for a good 30 seconds. To my surprise I was able to get about 15 psi read by an analog gauge at the stock pressure sensor location and even found very wet camshaft lobes! A huge sigh of relief, now knowing after 4 months of sitting outside the engine was getting properly lubricated by itself, and only produced a tiny leak from one of the pan welds and the oil pump mating interface (I removed and re-installed the pump probably about 4 times due to stupid timing - so I need a new gasket). Stay tuned for fuel being ignited.

Well it started and drove just fine this morning, so it was likely the plugged fuel filter, I hardly ever call it right on stuff like this, it could have been the screen in the banjo fitting on the bottom of the lift pump, I suspect the screen I installed fixed that issue in the past. This has been my daily driver for years, it is all I want to drive, and is the hardest to work on as there is no room to work in the engine compartment, I got it all to fit in there, but to remove/replace anything other stuff has to be removed and replaced also, a starter remove/replace takes me two days to do now, but the truck has power, I get comments about it at every parking lot/gas station, I have been driving it for 16 to 17 years now.

I was leaving for the library today and this truck died a couple 100 feet from my house, I could not fix it in front of another person's house because I had determined in front of their house my diesel fuel filter had plugged up, one has to bleed things to get the air out of the system, and that causes drips on the street in front of their house, I will not do that. So since I believe the filter is plugged, I walk home and grab my tow bar and all parts needed to tow it the half block to my house, it has been so long since I have towed any automobile, I load up the 521 work truck with everything and drove it there, but as always happens I forget stuff and the tow hardware was very rusty with had to be wire wheeled clean, I finally got it all installed and towed it to the front of my house, lifted the hood and tried priming it, nothing happened in the diesel fuel screen, so I went inside and got a diesel fuel filter, filled it with diesel fuel, removed the old filter and installed this one, bled all the fittings and it took about double the time for it to start than a cold engine, it did not turn over so long to worry me that the starter was getting hot, it never even missed a beat after starting, but it had ran for a 150 feet before it died, this was the easiest restart I have ever had after air got into the system, I did not even think of trying either, I cleaned up and went to the library like I do every day to use the WIFI. I concluded that when I thought about how long it has been since I changed out he diesel fuel filter a month ago that it was already too late, I should have done something then, I was very lucky that it basically happened almost in front of my house, anywhere else would have been a major hassle.

This year was super fun.........great seein everyone!!!!!!!! Great turnout......hoping my car will be done for #8!!!

Just got back from vacation at my new little fishing cabin in NY. Not too far from our neighbors to the north. Such great times. So many memories and strong desire to spend more time out there. Hawaii is amazing. And I love my home here. But those long ass days and sun that doesn't scorch is hard to say anything bad about. This was remote living. No power. No water. No sewer. No internet. No cellular coverage. Disconnected. And I loved it.

This dude drove up when we were a Fred Meyers ,, didn't hear about show but has a 720 and is local so he was pretty psyched to come next year.

ratsun award Not sure who it went to? See y'all next year 🙂

Our success with firing up the palletized engine which had been kicking around my shop corners (and lugged across the state with home changes) for 30+ years immediately resulted in the desire to get our Datsuns rearranged so we could start cleaning up Red, which has lived in the RV shed for 20 years, stuffed with Datsun parts. This thread will be the story of it's rebirth. Old license tag shows it's last outings were in... '90! After emptying it of stuff we dragged it out. Couldn't inflate tires...so old the sidewalls were all rotted. Then we got a look at the moss/mold/crud on the paint...

I attended a back yard carbbq today, food, live music,and Datsuns. Ok there were Nissans there too, as well as a smattering of other makes but all were cool. It was put on by a member of the Facebook group but open to all. I like meeting like minded people and one I hope to be able to help with his car. I took some pictures but spent most of my time talking. I drove there in the 710 wagon and it handled fabulously, took the coast highway most of the way because it is nice and curvy but with too many tourists I couldn't do it as fast as I would have liked, and on the big 4 lane highway I kept up to traffic easily. It feels so good to do it in a Datsun.

Thank you. But as long as this site continues to discuss politics as one of it's main daily threads, I'm gone. Just figured you all might care to know that Ralph died. What was his handle here? kpgc10 maybe?

*you're...

Truck Bed repair before mounting. She's running now. Electric fan and an upgraded alternator with a Holley Sniper. Confused pre setup displacement settings. Set it to 1999 ci thinking it was cc so it was dumping way too much fuel. Started right up with the correct settings. Fuel pump setup. AN6 lines. Had to extend the drive shaft since I'm using a 5 speed from a Hardbody. Repaired both rocker panels All body mounts were done. Only one support bracket was usable so have to fabricate 3. Bought pressed floor panels from thailand.

I've sheared two lower alternator bolts randomly this summer. It leaves two bolts intact and stays tight but I need to install a stronger bolt and buy more brown pants because the broken half has bounced off the road and hit the floor right under the gas pedal both times. Just posting so my complaint can echo somewhere. No pics of a broken bolt because that's boring but spring was fun.

A very nice shop view for a couple of Datsun fanatics.... We put Red up on four fat oak rounds...why use up jackstands for who knows how long. Interior view also. We both hate the late dash, which is riddled with cracks and funky wiring...so we pulled it. We'll fabricate a custom flat dash, and probably pull all the heater system, these are summer cars for us.

I got to finishing something I started the first week of June after snagging my pants while climbing in to get something in the back seat. I made some paper patterns from the left hand side, laid them out on a section of 720 hood, then made some profile templates to bend up. I basically got the piece made up when I had to jump over to fix the hole at the left rear window. So when I got back to it I started inside the door opening, first along the wheelhouse then onto the rocker sill. I formed the edge that rolled into the door opening and trimmed it to fit then I removed the rear portion of the rocker and the bottom just crumbled. I found holes through the inner panel. I am going to have to replace the outer rocker panels but I'm going to leave that till later by just putting a little inner piece in so I can just put the rocker over top when I get to it. I made a patch for the inner panel but found more rust when I cut out for it, so I tacked a off cut bit to fix the spot then trimmed it, then fit it in. I tacked in my patch panel a little at a time closing and opening the door to make sure things lined up not just for gap but also to sit flush with the surface of the door. After it was welded in and the welds grinded, I covered it with primer then paint. It's good enough to use to go to work, but will have to fill and sand it before I can call it done.

I switched to Amazon LED bulbs on my 710 Datsun, much brighter at night. You can actually read the odometer now.

So this was bugging me. I thought about it, and realized there had to be a configuration where that thing would fold up flat against the door. I removed the relatively easy door end and reattached it so it would be aligned with the floor pivot point when closed... fiddled with the length a bit... and now it closes, all folded up just before hitting the vent fitting... I might still do a false floor to protect the return line... and I might not. We'll see.

Got the two oil pick-ups frankentein'ed together yesterday. Wasn't too bad. Felt good to weld again. It had been too long. I could have done without the Phoenix Az heat tho... Didn't turn out half bad for never welding with such thin wire before. I have more confidence in fixing that cut our section where the battery sits. I still need to do some surgery on the truck's oil pan baffle before I can call this task complete.

Not a freedom of speech guy Tommy?

I had a very thick one once. She was very good looking, younger than me, smart and worldly wise with brown eyes. We worked together as good friends for years and after I quit she wore me down. She had more moves than an India-rubber man. She couldn't have been more motivated if I had held a gun to her head. I, on the other hand was a third each of drunk, rebel and bad boy. Every so often I think of her.

That's Peter Frampton on the far right.

I enjoy creating things like my 521 kingcab, I do not enjoy changing out a starter in it, what a pain that is, but in the end I will change out the starter(takes 2 days) because the 521 kingcab is all I want to drive as a daily driver. I do get the not slowing down aspect, I ride my bike 5.5 miles every day, sometimes twice if I miss a day because of rain, I cannot walk far or run because of joint issues, I will get the bike out to ride a block rather than walk.

Not much going on other than driving the truck... luckily nothing else has failed.... The wife finally drove my truck for the first time ever.. She snapped her clutch cable last weekend and had been missing driving her bus around town... So she drove us to the store and back in my datsun... She did pretty good... No complaints from me... Gratuitous picture of truck at work...

Exhaust is all welded and reinstalled. The main section of the bumper went on as well. That thing is large and heavy. Cherry picker and ratchet straps continue to be very handy tools.

congrats, Mr. Veep!

Geez it's been 8 years since Canby.

We had found a bumper at a garage sale a little while back. My brother started working on it over the weekend looking over what needs to be done to make brackets and mount points as well as any straightening that's needed. He also reinstalled the air dam and mocked up the bumper and like where things are headed. Looking more complete.

Great seeing you Last weekend Redeye! Thanks for the great video again this year, we sure do enjoy them!

⁷

Great pics! I will have a ton on FB soon as I can get on my PC to take em off the cameras.

Welp .. back in the "olden days" the guy who won the last one gives it to their choice .. Whoopsie daisies there ,,, Mr. Last winner guy. Big John Humpachicken got this one by default . BUT It's all good ,, Cuz there will be something welded together for next year , Just push the tail (edit) .. FUCK!! , it was a nice day . .

it was a very good time I really hope this went to someone that will get it back on the road. Drove one just like it in high school, my moms car. 🙂