My Ratsun Datsun 521, now with L-20-B and a five speed

[uberkevin]

Awesome! Going to be doing the same thing.

 

 

I went to 5 or 6 places around me and no one carried that Sem seam sealer. Had to order some.

[DanielC]

I got the SEM seam sealer at a auto paint store.  

[DanielC]

Yesterday, I finished putting the "guts" back in the door, and then put it on Ratsun.  This morning, I played around with the fit of the door on the cab.

 

After that, I picked through my collection of grills, found one I like, cleaned it up, used s little polish on it, and put it on Ratsun.  Then I dug through the hood trim pieces, and several headlight trim "eyebrow" pieces, and put those parts on Ratsun.

 

Finally, I picked through headlight doors, and found four pair of them.  I have ones that are bent, or have collision damage, and some that are fairly straight, but rusted.  Last thing I did tonight was wash the headlight doors, and started straightening them.

 

 

Edited July 13, 2014, more info added.

These two pair of headlight doors are pretty straight, but have rust issues.

 

 

These two pair do not have as much rust, but are bent quite a bit.  The one on the board, I am working on straightening it.  The front surface of the part is flat, and the back surface is also flat, except for the one countersunk screw hole in the bottom. 

 

 

These are the last two, most severely bent headlight doors.    

 

[uberkevin]

Do you need some straight ones?

 

I've got a pair I believe are straight, just parts are panted.

[DanielC]

Thanks for the offer, I do not know yet. I am pretty sure I can get a good pair for Ratsun, from what I have.

The other 521 trucks I have are Dragon, Dragon 2, a 1969 "reflector" 521, and possibly a fifth truck, that is missing a lot of pieces, and has a slightly racked frame.

 

Do you need (want) anything for your 521?

[uberkevin]

Sounds like you've gotta lot of work to do.

 

Getting them all on the road :)

 

 

Off the top of my head I can't think of anything other than a front apron or valise whatever it's called. The thing under the bumper..

[uberkevin]

Need to learn how to straighten in between the blinkers. Mine is bent inward

[DanielC]

For the apron, it is much easier if you can clamp or bolt it down to something to straighten it.  Make sure you are holding it down, with the outer holes in the position they need to be in, as if the apron was bolted to the lower grill opening rail.  It is hard to straighten the apron on the truck, because the frame, and other stuff is in the way.  Remember most of the apron is hidden under the bumper.

This is a plate I made to hold the apron.

corner detail

 

 

For the lower grill opening rail, remove the bumper, turn signal mud covers (under the front fender), the turn signals, and the radiator to get access to the rail.  Then you can get dollies behind it, to metal work it.  I also made a "J" shaped hook, that will attach to a slide hammer, with a rounded pad about 1 inch square, that I can get into the opening, and turn signal cutouts of the lower grill opening rail.

 

 

[DanielC]

Drove Ratsun tonlght for the first time after putting the rebuilf right door on it.

 

NO ANNOYING GLASS RATTLES!

[4perrev]

Nice work on the truck. It sure is nice to finally drive em, huh?

[earlyvws]

I like seeing this kind of work. It is very inspirational. I'm a firm believer in anything can be saved and should. This truck is coming along real nice. I can't wait to see the end result.

[DanielC]

Thanks!

I am really not sure where, or when this truck will have an "end result".   What this truck has been for me is it has turned out to be pretty reliable daily driver.   The truck has taken me to mount hood meadows, for a day of snow skiing.  five or six times since last August, I have hauled home a ton of wood pellets for heating my house.   This last week, it has hauled tools out to the pasture, where I worked on horse fence.   

Remember, this truck was originally bought as a parts truck, no title, only a bill of sale.  Instead, I have been using it, and getting about twice the distance per gallon of gas as my other vehicle,  Ford Aerostar.

 

in the short term, I still need to fix the floor boards.   I have come to the conclusion, that to repair the floor, I am going to need to pull the cab off the frame of the truck.   My plan for that is to get a second cab I bought a while ago fixed, and swap cabs.   but during the time I am swapping cabs, I do not want to be with out a 521 to drive.  I have just found then too handy, and fun.

 

One way to avoid that is to get one of my other Datsun 521 trucks running and registered again.

[uberkevin]

"One way to avoid that is to get one of my other Datsun 521 trucks running and registered again"

 

Doooo it! :)

[DanielC]

More pictures of the left side floor in Ratsun Datsun, and I did some cleaning.  I am cleaning rust away, to see how much of the floor needs replacing, and what I can keep.

Wheel well area.  

After some cleaning.

More cleaning

and this is where I stopped cleaning.

This is the transmission side of the floor.

and the seat shelf area.

and this is the door sill side of the floor.

and finally, the center of the floor.

[4perrev]

You definitely have your work cut out for you. (no pun intended here)! When I did my floors, the cab was off and it made it real easy to finish the whole job. Nothing in the way and all the room one could wish for!!

[DanielC]

A little catching up.

Last week, Ratsun was used to do some more fence work, in a pasture.  A Datsun 521 is really handy, because they can go in tight places around a barn, through a 8 foot gate easily, and does pretty good on dirt, or off road, because they are light.

Anyway, beginning last week, I took some boards, posts, and fence tools out to pasture.

The boards in the 521 were put up on the empty posts, and I then put two more posts in the ground, going to the bush, or tree in the background.

I am using my Aerostar, to get the boards, and then at home, move the boards to Ratsun to go out into the pasture.

This is the second load of fence boards.  The fence was finished to the bush.

 

[DanielC]

4per, I have come to the conclusion I need to pull the cab to replace the floor, and weld it in.   I have an extra cab, that also needs floor replacement, that I am going to put a floor in, and do other work on, and then I should be able swap cabs, and not have Ratsun apart as long.   That is the current plan, anyway.

[4perrev]

Plans are great things that keep the kid inside of us in check. Sometimes (or many times) I let my inner kid out and my wife lets me know!! 2 cabs gives you the chance to take your time and do it perfectly.

[DanielC]

I have been working on a second left side floor piece, for my 521 trucks.  I have one left side floor piece that is close to ready to weld into a second cab I have, a cab I call Addict.   But before I weld the floor piece in that cab, I wanted to use that floor piece as a template to make a second piece.

I had planned on making two right, and two left 521 floor pieces, because I can buy a piece of 18 gauge steel, 24x48 inches.  I am not yet sure if you can cut a right and left floor piece out of a single 22x48 piece of steel.  I will explain a little later.

I buy the 22 x 48 piece of steel, and get a 3/4 90 degree flange brake bend in to the two short sides.  This flange ends up against the door sills.   Then I start to trim the steel a little, and put bends into it.  I have found this order of bends and cuts works for me.

Door sill bend, cut a slot for the seat shelf bend.  Bend seat shelf, 90 degrees to door sill, about 45 degrees of bend.  At the seat shelf to transmission tunnel, cut a 45 degree cut, and put another cut about 8 inches forward of the seat shelf, because the transmission tunnel has a slight bend in it.   Then I cut out the front of the floor piece, by the wheel well, and then cut out a section at the front of the transmission tunnel, and work on fitting the small piece of metal for the details at the front of the drivers side transmission tunnel, under the gas pedal.

This is the first left side floor piece on top of the second floor piece.  The black mark is where I will cut the flange, to allow the seat shelf bend, in the right side of this picture.

 

I trimmed a little extra metal off the transmission tunnel side off the floor pan piece.

 

After the cut, I used the coarse disk in the grinder to deburr the edges, and then followed that up with the orange Clean and Strip disk, in the die grinder.

 

Now, the seat shelf bend.  I laid it out, using a carpenters square.  This bend is 90 degrees to the door sill, all the way to the transmission tunnel.

 

This is how I did the bend.  the floor pan is clamped to a metal sawhorse, and the wide duckbill pliers are used to bend the metal up.

 

Remember the black mark, in the first picture, I used these pliers to offset the door sill flange, to allow the seat shelf bend.

 

The back, or bottom side of the seat shelf bend needed a little work to smooth out the bend.  Here I am working that out.

 

 

I also made a 45 degree cut at the corner for the seaf shelf, and transmission tunnel.  In this picture, I am bending the rear section of the transmission tunnel

 

 

My finger is pointing to a slot, cut in the transmission tunnel bend.  This allows for the slight bend in the transmission tunnel of the cab.

 

Here I am using a hammer, and dolly to start to form the round corner between the transmission tunnel rear, and the seat shelf.

 

I also use this 2 5/16 trailer hitch ball to form the rounded corner. 

 

After cutting the first slot, to start the corner, two pictures above, with hammer and dolly, the rounding of the corner closes the gap.  I just take the cutoff disk, in the die grinder, and cut the slot again, as it is hammed closed.  Then more hammering on the trailer ball, and recut the slot as needed, and you end up witha nive round corner.

 

 

So now, I have the door sill flange, the seat shelf is started, and the transmission tunnel bend in the floor pan.   I cut the front part of the pan, by the wheel well, and then cut the transmission tunnel bend, near the front to raise the front part of the floor board, where it meets the firewall.  then I did a trial fit into my second cab.  

 

Then I cut out the corner under the gas pedal, to fit the floor pan into Ratsun cab.

 

This is a close up of the cut.

 

 

I did some more hammering and fitting of the floor pan into Ratsun cab, and here is it against the door sill.

 

This is the seat shelf area.

 

This is the transmission tunnel side.

 

And the firewall, or front edge.

 

 

I also worked on the piece that is giving me some problems, the hump under the gas pedal.  I sketched out an idea of the profile for a smaller piece of metal on the floor pan I already had done.

 

I fitted this piece of cardboard to the done floor pan.

 

Used the cardboard to mark and cut a piece of metal,

 

Bent the metal about where I thought it should be bent,

 

then I clamped the small metal piece to the done floorboard, and hammed it some more.

 

These are some of the hammers, and punches I used to form the small floor piece.

 

 

But after working the small gas pedal piece, it really did not fit Ratsun cab all that well.   I need to work it some more, or possibly make and fit another piece.

 

 

 

[4perrev]

Man, that is awesome! I may have to use some of your ideas about bending metal when I do the floors in my dime. Love the posts with detailed pictures.

[Charlie69]

Nice metal work.  You are really cleaning this truck up.

[DanielC]

I have been working on the front end of the cab, that is going to get the first floor welded in to.

A while back I removed the lower grill opening rail. so I could do some metal work on it, and also clean up the rust on inside of it, and rust on the radiator support.  Last night, I did a trial fit of the rail back on the cab.

 

Today, I went to the Blue Lake Datsun meet.  great show, and they had a lot of stuff to raffle off.

But before I left, I put a new oil pressure switch on the engine, the old one was sometimes not working when I started the engine, swapped a four way flasher knob, I got at Pick-n-Pull last week, for a light switch knob, that was on the flasher switch, put on an "elephant" oil cap, I got at junkyard a while ago, put headlight covers on the truck, put a set of new NGK plug wires on the engine, and topped off the radiator, with 50/50 antifreeze and distilled water.

 

A lot of cool cars at Blue lake.  that also had a huge raffle.  I bought six tickets, and got a seventh with my entry.

First prize, I won can of glass cleaner, and a microfiber towel.  That was good.

Then another number I had got called.  A power window motor foir a 1991 to 1997 Altima.  Part number, 82730-0E701.

There was a left front fender for a 521.  Somebody else won it.  They said they had no use for it, I mentioned I could use it.  We traded the fender for one of my still unused raffle tickets.  That ticked won that guy a Hot Wheels Datsun car, and he was happy, and I was happy with the fender.

 

Brought the fender home, not much rust on it.  It had some non Datsun marker light on it, the eyebrow trim, and a "Datsun 1300" emblem.  I took the trim, light, and emblem off the fender.

Any one need a "Datsun 1300" emblem?  All three pins are on the emblem.

 

Fender picts.

 

[Steve521]

Nice score on the fender Dan!  Wish I could have made it to that meet. ;-)

[DanielC]

It has been a while, since my last post about Ratsun.   Ratsun had been running good, just putting gas in it, getting 22.5 to 24.5 MPG.

 

I did have a problem about a month ago, driving home for the grocery store, climbing a steep hill, the headlights, and parking lights go out.  I turned on the four way flashers, and pulled to the side of the road.  Put another fuse in, and instant pop, OK, I have a dead short to ground problem somewhere.    Now a slight tangent, and then back to this story

Post 33. on this page shows a relay I added to the headlight wiring.

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/30606-my-ratsun-datsun-521/page-2

I put the extra relay right next to the original headlight relay, and supplied it power bypassing the OEM fusebox.   

Back to blown fuse story.  Power comes in to the stock 521 headlight relay, on a red wire, with a yellow stripe.  My extra relay switches power to the terminal on the stock relay to turn on the headlights.  I just moved the "power in" wire off the extra relay, to the stock 521 relay, and with the four way flashers on, drove home.  Later, I found the short.  The light wiring for the tachometer shorted to the radio case.

 

A week ago, my alternator quit working.  I had an extra good alternator, I thought.  A minor issue, is I put an internal regulator alternator on Ratsun, because I had one of those, that worked when I first got Ratsun running.   I did get an alternator out of a Nissan Pathfinder about six months ago, but that alternator was too big (physically) to fit on the L-16 engine in Ratsun. 

The next alternator I tried was the alternator that was on Dragon Two, another 521 I have.   I put that alternator on Ratsun, and started to smell something getting hot.  I disconnected the negative battery cable, and took that alternator off Ratsun.

I used a test light to do a quick test on it.  Get a 12 volt battery, connect negative on the battery to the case of the alternator.  Connect a test light to the positive of the battery.  touch the other end of the test light to the main positive output post on the alternator.  The light should not light.  If it does, the diodes in the alternator are bad.  Dragon Two alternator was definately bad.  One of the mounting holes on the bottom if it were worn out to an oval shape, too.   Long story short, I ended up getting a USA rebuilt external regulator alternator from Clackamas Auto parts, in Oregon City.  I put that alternator on, removed the jumper wires for the internally regulated alternator and it was working, but the voltage was a little high (I thought).

 

So I switched voltage regulators.  Still too high voltage, and switched to a third voltage regulator, and still high voltage, but not as high.  I left that voltage regulator on.

 

The next day, when I started Ratsun, it cranked slow, but started.  Later that evening, it would not start, and I used a jump box to start it.  when it started, the alternator was working fine.   I moved Ratsun to the garage, and put a battery charger on it, and after charging the battery, parked Ratsun back outside.

 

The next morning, no crank.  I disconnected the negative battery cable, and put the battery charger on it again.  I used a test light to check for a parasitic electric drain, and it had one.   I had other stuff to do that day, and with the negative battery cable disconnected, left the battery charger on Ratsun.  That was Sunday.  I left the battery connected,, but unplugged the voltage regulator.

 

On Monday, Ratsun started fine.  I think I isolated the current drain to the voltage regulator.

I took the IR alternator from Ratsuns to get repaired.  I also had the electric shop test a fourth alternator I had, and it also has a bad diode.  Then I changed the voltage regulator again, seeing if that would eliminate the current drain.  It did not. 

 

I then printed 15 pages of engine electrical information from a PDF copy of a Nissan L-16, L-18 service manual, and studied that, looking  for a possible reason for the current drain.   After a lot of reading, and looking at the wiring of the truck, and comparing it to the information, I think I have got the current drain figured out. 

 

On the fuse box, there is a white wire, with a blue stripe.  This wire takes switched IGN power to the voltage regulator, for the field coil.  This wire was connected to the always hot side of the fuse box, but when you use an internally regulated alternator, there is no connection to this wire, so it does not matter if it is always hot.  Switch back to an externally regulated alternator, and it is a problem.

 

I also found out by reading service manual information that a Datsun alternator and voltage regulator will have a slightly too high voltage for a few minutes, when first started.

[DanielC]

It has been a while since my last post here, Ratsun has just been running and not giving me any problems.  The gas mileage did drop a little, but part of that drop was because of the cold weather, and part because of the low tire air pressure. 

I filled Ratsun today, during some running around, and put 10.101 gallons of gas in it.  a 521 has a 10.8 gallon tank.  Mileage was 22.7.

 

Last week, I got some chrome polish, and dug out six 521 hubcaps I had.  I chose the two best ones, and polished them, and then put them on the front wheels of Ratsun.

Other side.

 

Later today, I put Ratsun to work, and got some hay.

 

 

I think the hubcaps, kind of ties the look of the wheels together, with the chrome spoke wheels on the back.