KGC10 Skyline 2000GT Build

[PurePontiacKid]

I enjoy seeing this thread bumped.

[Gary]

awesome build :D i wish i had such patience for perfection :(

 

these are the coolest datsun by far!

[Babalouie]

Ok, so I couldn't leave the dimple dies alone :) One thing that always bugged me a little were the brackets for the fuel hardline. They were a bit of an eyesore.

 

So I find some 2mm sheet ally and get to work. 2mm is a little too thick, to be honest, but given that this particular bracket is bolted to the engine and will be subjected to a lot of vibration, this probably isn't a bad thing.

 

I cut out the pattern with a jigsaw, and then made the main bend in it by clamping it in a vice and hammering it over. I've covered the metal in a few layers of masking tape, so that we don't scratch the surface (which we'll polish later)

 

Make the holes for the dimple dies with the stepdrill again

 

The bracket has to wrap around the fuel line, so I've clamped a bit of steel rod in lieu of the real fuel line (too delicate to be subjected to hammering) and tapped the bracket around it.

 

Stamp some dimples in the holes, remove the masking tape and give it a good polish...and it's done!

 

Much nicer than the messy old brackets. Stronger too.

 

[Babalouie]

Thought it would be a good idea to take a break from Gran Turismo :) so I sorted something tonight that I'd really forgotten about since I got the car all those years ago. When I got the car, there was no spare wheel, and that screw-in holder for the wheel was in fact snapped off and jammed in place in its nut. Only about an inch stuck out and judging by how mangled it was, someone in Japan had given it a pretty good go. So I sawed off the stub, and drilled out the remains.

 

The ingredients for making a new bracket were picked up during one of those frequent weekend visits to the hardware store. Just some 1.5mm angle ally, M8 threaded rod, and M8 stainless wingnuts.

 

With the old threaded rod drilled out, I tapped a new thread back into the nut that was welded to the underside, and then bolted in a section of threaded rod. For tapping an M8 thread, I drilled the hole slightly undersize, 6.5mm.

 

Cut off a little section of angle, chamfer off the edges on the belt sander to give it a bit of shape, add some dimple died holes and...well it looks a little less like it came from the hardware store :)

 

Add the wingnut and it looks great. The spare is a space-saver off a Silvia I think.

 

In other news, the Hako was invited to the Sydney launch of the latest NFS game, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit: http://speedhunters.com/archive/2010/11/22/gallery-gt-gt-nfs-on-tour-sydney.aspx

 

For the Sydney launch of the game, EA Sports put on a pretty cool car show with 80 cars, plus a concert by ex-Outkast rapper Big Boi. It was a very pleasant event, the guys who had cars in the show got a chance to see the other cars up close and chat with the owners a few hours before the gates opened, and being able to spend a few hours with the new game all to yourself was an added bonus too. I think it's fantastic that EA Sports is happy to make the investment and give something really nice like this to the car enthusiast community.

 

The other event was the Datsun Day Show and Shine a few Sundays ago. Put on by the Sydney Datsun Club, about 120 old Dattos turned up, and I've pretty much never seen so many 510s in the one place.

 

The Hako was entered too, and I had a great time chatting to other Datto tragics all day. Very nice, low key event, as far as I know it's the first all-Datsun classic car show that Sydney's ever had, and everyone's already looking forward to next year's. Many thanks to the Sydney Datsun Club for putting on a great event.

 

I was pretty chuffed that the Hako got the Best Post 1970 prize at the end of the day, given that there were some very nice rides on show.

 

You can find plenty of pics of the Datsun Day here: http://www.japanesenostalgiccar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12182&start=0

[WAGON JON]

I enjoy looking through this thread. This car is the bomb. I couldn't find it the other day and was bummed out. Glad to see it again!

 

Looking through that thread of the car show, I am super jealous. I wanna go!!

[Babalouie]

It's almost the middle of summer, so I figured I'd start to pay attention to the cooling system, which has been a bit neglected, which we focus on other stuff which either looks pretty or makes it go faster :) What I've noticed lately are a few of these here and there, pinhole leaks.

 

The system has to hold a high pressure in order to keep the boiling point of the coolant high. So while these pinholes probably didn't do any harm, it was probably time to pull the rad out and get it restored properly. In the Hako's it's a quick job to remove it, just drain the coolant, unplug the hoses, and then unbolt it from the 4 points on the side.

 

And with it out, you can see that it's a little beaten up looking. Appearances deceive because it works pretty well, and doesn't overheat in traffic or on the circuit. But it doesn't hurt to get it looked at. As you can see, it's made up of the finned core, the top and bottom tanks and the two brackets around the sides, which are soldered to the top and bottom tanks.

 

So off it goes to Alexandria Radiator Service, and within a few days, Sonny has it all in pieces. The end tanks are stripped down to their naked copper.

 

And the pinholes sealed up with solder.

 

And here's the new core! Would you believe this is made from scratch?

 

You starts with a triple row of copper tubes, which Sonny lays in a jig. Then he lays on a layer of brass W-shaped fins. Then more tubes, then more fins. He builds it up like a big metal lasagna, and then adds the end plates. At this point its all loosely held together and if it falls out of the jig, you start again. But all the parts are coated in a layer of solder. And when the assembly is put into an oven at 385 degrees for 15mins, the solder melts and fuses the brass fins to the copper tubes. The runny, liquid solder also naturally will seek out and flow into all the nooks and crannies and fill all the gaps. So that when it all cools down, you have a nice, solid core.

 

The new vs old core.

 

The old core has plain oval section tubes, and as you can see, there are three rows of tubes.

 

The new core is also triple row, but uses dimple tubes, which have raised indentations on the tube walls. This increases the surface area and Sonny reckons is worth an extra 20% cooling capacity. By the way, the old core was actually in good shape and 90% of the tubes were working. But I figured we might as well get the whole thing done while it's apart.

 

According to Sonny, the Hako's radiator was already treated to a heavy duty triple-row core about 20yrs ago, and normally he would expect a two-row core in a stock application. As an upgrade, installing an even thicker, 4-row core was an option, but Sonny advised against it, saying that the radiator is not very wide and already very thick, so adding a 4th row isn't necessarily going to improve matters as the first 3 rows just heat up the fourth. So sticking with a triple row was the recommendation, with the dimple core tubes as the only upgrade.

 

I'm pretty stoked that there are still guys around who make things like radiators by hand (Sonny had some vintage Rolls Royce radiators to tackle next) and the end result is great, it looks brand new. I also asked for a fan switch to be added. It's a VDO unit, which switches on at 95 degs and off at 90 degs, and I also sourced a brass nut which was soldered onto the tank as a fitting.

 

With the new rad in place, the first challenge as you can see, is that even with the fan removed, the bell-shaped water pump pulley is very close to the radiator. There is only 55mm of clearance, but unfortunately the thermofan I bought is 60mm thick...

[Babalouie]

The L-series is mounted on a slant, so the water pump pulley is not in the middle of the rad. This leaves just enough room to mount the fan on the upper left corner, but even so there was scant clearance between the fan and the pulley.

 

To make even more room, I cut a notch into the fan housing.

 

 

This allowed the fan to sit about half an inch higher.

 

The thermofan, like most came with a fitting kit of zip ties that go thru the radiator fins. Sonny strongly recommended against these, as over time they loosen, and allow the fan to move about and rub against the delicate fins, so eventually you get pinhole leaks. So we start the entirely fun task of making brackets, and I start with some carboard templates :)

 

Once I've mocked up all the brackets, I transfer the shapes onto 2mm aluminium, and cut them out roughly with a jigsaw

 

Test fit them, and mark the mounting holes for drilling

 

A bit of work with the dimple dies and then clean and shape them on the belt sander, and they're done.

 

The end result is about 20mm gap between the fan and the water pump pulley, which should be plenty.

 

The brackets turned out pretty nice. They hold the fan 5mm away from the radiator core, so even with a bit of vibration they shouldn't touch.

 

Wiring it up was quite easy, since I'd already added a neat little Narva fusebox next to the radiator. The relay for the fan is on the left, and the relay on the right is for the ignition. The VDO fan switch is rated at 100W, so it can handle the full current for the fan, which makes it easier to wire up. The relay feeds juice to the VDO switch all the time when the ignition is on.

 

After a quick burping, it seems to work fine, the fan only kicks in when the car is stationary for a while.

 

The only thing I think I might change is the thermostat. The new one is 82degs and I get the feeling the old one was 71deg, since the water temp sits higher than before.

 

So far I've only drive it at night (!) so can't say if it cools better or not, but I'll track down the proper thermostat and I'm sure Hako will have plenty of oppotunities to test out her new cooling capabilities in the summer heat.

[Bob3]

.

 

Nice work.

 

I love this car!

[fisch]

Excellent update. Thanks for keeping Ratsun informed on the progress of this rad machine! (Now I want some dimple dies!)

[WAGON JON]

I will have to do that to my z-car radiator. Looks great!

[Babalouie]

Ahh, I think we have found the culprit. I drove Hako to work this morning, or rather attempted to, but had to turn back when it ran rather hot. Not hot at standstill, but while moving!

 

Tonight I pulled the thermostat out. On the left is the new one, which is rated at 82 degs. The one on the right is the old one, which is a Tridon unit...also rated at 82 degs. So I was wrong about the two thermostats having different ratings, they are in fact the same.

 

So how about a fun science project....first I get some 90 degree hot water, which should be enough to make both thermostats start to open.

 

And as you can see...the one on the right, which is the old Tridon one, starts to open (the plunger in the middle is drawing itself downwards). The new one on the left....who we shall refer to for convenience as The One That Isn't Tridon...does not open.

 

And yes it is stamped as 82 degrees, it's just a dud.

 

So a mental note has been made to avoid The One That Isn't Tridon in the future. With the old thermostat reinstalled, the temps stay at a rock solid 80 degrees on the gauge while moving, and it's only after idling for a few minutes that it goes up to 95 degrees and the fan comes on. I'm thinking 95 degrees is rather a lot, if only from a cosmetic point of view, since it's 3/4s on the temp gauge. I'll see if I can source a fan switch with a lower range.

 

But for the time being it's all working again...I'll venture a drive to work in Hako tomorrow and we'll see.

[banzai510(hainz)]

I alwasy drill a 1/8 hole in my stats.

 

Of coase I dont live in Australia where the temp can get really hot.

 

you can always get the stats that are the fail safe kind that open up when they go bad.

 

Like your write ups!!!!!!!!

[67 411]

Great info, love you car.

[82sunny]

welcome! its great to have an old skyline on here. thats pretty much my dream car!

[Babalouie]

I decided that the 95deg switch-on point of the old fan switch was way too high (it's higher than the temps it reaches on the track!). However, this was the coolest-temp fan switch that VDO offers, so I had to look elsewhere for a solution.

 

So I went and ordered a Tridon TFS110, which has a 82-87 temp range, which I reckon would be perfect. It's a 3/8 gas thread, so I went to Pirtek and got a 1/2'-14 to 3/8 reducer.

 

Bung it all together and had to rewire it a little, since the new fan switch is single wire and opens to ground. The old one was a heavy-duty switch that was in-line on the power line to the fan, but the new one has to be wired up so that it switches the ground to the fan relay instead. BTW, I learned the hard way that it leaks if you don't use thread tape :)

 

Fan now cuts in a lot earlier and the fan switch-off point (82degs) seems to be slightly higher than the cruising temp, so I think it's about right this time.

[izzo]

Very nice!

[Babalouie]

The Hakosuka has these wierd rubber gaskets that go under the cowl panel, that in my car have obviously been bodged over in a past life.

 

I was rummaging around the garage when I found these, and I'd completely forgotten that I bought a new set of gaskets a few years ago :)

 

The cowl panel is just held on with a few screws and comes off easily enough, and the old cowl gasket was obviously quite perished and at some point, somebody in Japan painted on a generous helping of seam sealer to seal it. And I notice that the gasket is actually the wrong way around btw.

 

After scraping off the sealer goo, the remains of the gasket lifts off. Now this part I have been dreading for years...any water that goes into the slotted vents in the cowl panel drains through this box section. And being an old Nissan, the question is not whether there is any rust but how much there is :)

 

Thankfully it doesn't look too bad. There is a liberal smattering of surface rust, but nothing flaky. That's the intake for the heater btw

 

This is the centre section, and you can see that Nissan designed in a little channel with a 10mm tall lip, to keep the water away from the front seam, where the cowl panel is welded to the firewall. Those little nozzles are the wiper squirters in case you were wondering.

 

The worst of it seems to be on the left side, where the surface rust is a little more serious. Obviously that little lip doesn't prevent water from getting to that front section, and in fact that is where the surface rust is worst! I guess maybe that's because water and debris that gets in that front section tends to pool and stay there, whereas the rear section is always flushed with fresh water every time it rains or you wash the car. I don't think it's in trouble by any means, but it's not something to be left alone.

 

But the first thing is to remove the rubber sealer, and prepare the top panel for some primer and paint. I scraped off the rubber and sanded down the area a little.

 

There was a little bit of surface rust under some sections of the sealer, so I hit it with some rust convertor.

 

I also got out a long thin brush and painted on some rust convertor along the seams, as best I could under the cowl.

 

As a final step, I'll be bombing the entire cowl area with some cavity wax, which will seep into all the seams and joins and hopefully keep water out of the nooks and crannies for a long time.

 

But before I do that...does anyone have any bright ideas about what else we could do for rust prevention? I could brush on some waterproof primer in there maybe? I'd like to POR-15 everything, but I know that it's very sensitive to surface preparation, and I can't really get in there to do it properly.

[PurePontiacKid]

I haven't ever heard POR-15 being sensitive at all, in fact the instructions on my can said it's even okay to lay it over the surface rust as it gives the paint something to stick to lol

 

I painted the whole trunk of my Firebird with it, didn't even do any prep work besides blowing most of the dust out of it, and it has stuck just fine ;)

[Gary]

just be sure you use that metal prep stuff to shut the rust up before you paint over the top if you're gunna use POR15

[Babalouie]

just be sure you use that metal prep stuff to shut the rust up before you paint over the top if you're gunna use POR15

Yeah, and that's the thing. I dunno if I can get Metal Ready over all the surfaces I need, and whether I can rinse it off like you're supposed to.

 

The areas of the car where I used POR15 on, and had the space to prep the surface properly have held up fine over the years. The one spot where I just painted it onto bare rust saw the POR15 flake off in one big piece :)

[Gary]

shouldnt be too bad if its just the areas in your pictures

 

i used a small spray bottle (like one of those garden ones with mist or jet spray when you tighten the nozzle) with a longer hose inside the bottle (hits the bottom then curls up toward the top) so it still works when i've got it upside down. could use a rag wet with the metal prep to coat underneath the top of the cowl bit too

 

then i guess just hose the area with water afterward, then give it a good helping of compressed air to dry it out nice before you have at it with the POR15. i reckon you could get everything underneath using a paintbrush and some tricky manouvring

 

but ive never seen a C10 skyline in the flesh, let alone its hidden bits :lol: so im just suggesting here. there's a good hotrod forum that'd be able to advise you better if you're not so sure; http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/

[Babalouie]

Well this is what it looks like :) It's broken into front and back sections....

 

...and there's this tunnel under the cowl for the ventilation plenum which can only be reached via the two little holes at either end of the cowl :D

 

I took that picture just after giving it a coating with rust convertor using this ingenious device (if any of you do the same, you have to pay me a royalty :lol:) So you can see that the rust convertor goes on milky.

 

And it takes 2-3 days, to totally dry and it becomes clear, with black spots to signify where rust was found and converted via the chemicals in the rust convertor.

 

I'll do my best to scuff the surfaces and then wipe clean with some prepsol, then I'll let it dry out for a day or so before hitting it with the 1K primer :)

[Babalouie]

Tonight I had a go at applying the waterproof primer, which is thi stuff: a one-pak waterproof primer. http://www.norglass.com.au/products/norust-all-surface-primer

 

Unlike the rust convertor which is very watery and runny, this is quite thick like housepaint, so is a lot harder to apply. With the rust convertor you could pretty much just slop it around and you would see it flow into all the nooks and crannies. With this you have to really brush the stuff into the corners, which is a bit challenging given the lack of space :)

 

But in the end I think I at least got a good coating on the lower half of the cowl area.

 

But I think it's given credence to our theory that there really isn't enough space and access to properly prep for a permanent sealer like POR15. POR15 is also pretty thick, so it would be hard enough getting an even coat of it on the flat lower surfaces, let alone everywhere. So really we will be relying a lot on the wax coating to provide corrosion protection.

 

I'll give it a day to dry out and then if it's bone dry I'll start bombing with the Wurth wax.

[bez1200]

this is just soooo epic! stealing so many of your ideas and getting lots of inspiration from this thread! keep up the great work and awesome updates.

[WAGON JON]

Looks great! Fortunately, the rust is only on the surface :)