Duncan's 71 "Oz" Goon

[Keithj]

Nice goon and attention to detail.

[Duncan]

I haven't posted in a while, but I have been working on the goon. I didn't take a lot of photos, but work is underway on replacing both quarter panels.

 

I have a friend who is a master metal worker and is retired from his job as a welder at a nuclear power plant. (Strange, but true) His shop is in San Diego, so we moved the car down there and I have spending a lot of time down South working on it. I'm doing most of the work, but Smitty is supervising to keep me out of trouble :)

 

I had to drill a zillion spot welds out on the replacement panels to get down to the skin only, and that took a few weekends. Next, we repeated the process on the car itself. The passenger side seemed the worse, so I'm tackling that first.

 

Here's a photos of the left side with the quarter removed.

 

 

I also discovered some rust in the drip rail area, and made a tool to bend a replacement piece for it. It's actually two pieces in that area, so both were duplicated. Here are the two pieces tacked in with the mig, but the tig welder will be used for the finish weld.

 

 

I'll try to get some better pics as we continue..

[Duncan]

I haven't updated this thread much, but I keep slugging away steadily on the goon. The left-side quarter is completely installed, the welds all ground, and will be in completely cleaned and etch primed by next week.

 

At the beginning of May, my buddy was moving some cars around his shop, and this quarter panel was on the ground next to my goon. Someone wasn't paying attention, and this was run over along one of the top edges. I truly thought it was hopeless, but my buddy Smitty was able to straighten it out. It is now on the car and you would never know where the damage was. I still can't believe he got it completely repaired.

 

Save some very small amount of damage repair done by vice grips, this side is done. Instead of bondo, I am going old school and will be lead filling. When I get to that point, I will document the process.

 

We are looking hard at the driver's side right now, and we both think we can get away with either repairing or replacing the dog leg only. I certainly hope so..

 

 

 

[Duncan]

I posted the above today, but I edited an old post, so it didn't bring the thread back up. Found another photo from yesterday, so one more oic w/ a thread bump!

 

[greengoon]

Wow, Mark that's a lot of work. I'm impressed. It will definitely be up to the standards you are known for.

[Duncan]

The passenger side is finally on and in a coat of self-etch primer.

 

 

 

So we are moving on to the driver's side...

 

After some extensive assessment, I decided to replace only the dogleg section on this side. The rust issues were mostly on the passenger side, so (for once) I actually caught a break.

 

Here's the dogleg section removed.

 

 

 

This isn't nearly as bad as the other side. We will also attach a big clamp and pull out the dent on the bottom of the rocker. I had an identical dent in the same spot on the other side. I'm pretty sure it was done with a floor jack by someone who had no clue what they were doing..

 

My donor section had some unseen issues. It looked very clean with the paint on it, but 40 years took it's toll on it.

 

Here's some in-process repair photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday was the first time I have tig welded in over 5 years. My friend is very old school, and his welder has no foot pedal! I did some practice runs on some old scrap and (sort of) got the hang of it again. The welds aren't pretty, but they are good and solid.

 

All that's left now is to cut and weld the last piece into the dogleg, and the repairs on it will be done.

 

Next up will be fixing the inner section so I can install the replacement dogleg.

 

I am headed up to NorCal next weekend to the Bayline Gathering. I will be bringing my Sunny, and I hope to meet a few of you and to see some old friends. -Mark

[Duncan]

And thanks Duane. Mine will be a bit different, but hopefully as cool as your goon when I get it done.

 

BTW, I did see your filmed interview and it was awesome. Your cars are great, and the area you live in looks gorgeous. Very nice, indeed.

 

Wow, Mark that's a lot of work. I'm impressed. It will definitely be up to the standards you are known for.

[greengoon]

^ Thanks, Mark. There are definitely finer cars out there so I was honored to be able to have Josh make the video. I've suggested that he come out to JCCS. That canyon is about 20 minutes from my house so if you ever make it out this way, I'll give you the tour. :)

[Duncan]

More exciting (translation: non-glamorous) work.

 

I went up to the Bay Area last week, and my friend in San Diego was out this weekend, so I started on one of numerous side projects.

 

I HATE undercoating, so I generally remove it where I can. Here's a before and after on one of the fenders.

 

The insides of both fenders looked like this, so I decided to clean them up and paint them. I only did one today, but tomorrow I will do the blue one and get both insides done with some self-etch primer. I'm doing the insides (eventually) in the body color.

 

 

 

yawn....

[KELMO]

Yes that is very non glamorous.......but its that kind of stuff that make people look at your cars and say Damn, it probably also helps to contribute to the awards you have.

 

Can't wait to this one finished.

[Ratwagon1600]

Yeehah!! Someone else who doesn't like Undercoat (body tar). I'm sure the nice Man who did my wagon all those years ago was drunk as on my wagon the stuff is everywhere and really thick too! It takes forever to get off.

 

Great work on the quarter panels!

[Duncan]

Thanks guys,

HOT TIP for removing undercoating. Apply JASCO paint and enamel stripper liberally with a disposable brush, let it sit for about 10 minutes, and the stuff will come (mostly) right off with a putty knife. It's still a messy job, but it beats using a power tool and having the shit fly all over :)

 

I just primered both fenders and they look very clean inside. Even though I am going to buy paint from out of State, I have some Cal-compliant acrylic enamel paint in my color for stuff like this which will do just fine.

 

Kelly,

I made my reservations for Williams, AZ again. Looking forward to seeing you again if you can make it...

[KELMO]

Registration is supposed to start on the 15th of July (according to Nostalgic Datsun). I am planning on being there...with a Datsun or with 2 Datsuns or without....depends on what is running that week, most likely be the grey one again. Lookin forward to seein ya, are ya bringing anything?

[Duncan]

Kelly,

I just got the e-mail on registration and I'll be there in the Sunny again. The goon would be nice, but it's got a bit more work to go before I can show it :)

[Duncan]

I got quite a bit done yesterday.

 

Here is the finished dogleg section ready for install.

 

 

Like the opposite side of the car, the bottom of the rocker panel was dented in the exact same spot. I assume someone with a floor jack thought this was a good spot to jack up the car. Not good. I did this many times when I restored the '55 Caddie. Here's the clamp and floor jack method.

 

 

Straightened out nice and easy..

 

 

We also got well into the inner dogleg support repair. (You can see how rotten it is above)

 

 

Needs to have the welds ground down and cleaned nicely, but the fab work is mostly done. The big sloppy looking welds at the very top were done to fix some holes that blew open while welding. It happens a lot when welding new metal to older stuff. We are also going to repair the small tear in the bottom of the rocker. That will also get cleaned very nicely and painted before the dogleg install.

[KELMO]

Lookin good Mark. Registered and made reservations for Williams today, see ya in October

[Duncan]

It's been a while since I have updated this thread. Not a whole lot of progress, but I have been working on the goon.

 

Here is the right side dogleg all fitted and clamped to bee-Jeezus ready to be tacked into place. This piece has a LOT of curves and I like a super-tight flush as possible fit, so that's why so many clamps..

 

 

Here she is all tacked in with the mig welder. The welds have been rough ground, and I will fill the spliced seams in with the tig welder. I am also going to lead fill the seam on the sill. When I get to that point, I will do a little "how-to" on old school lead filling. (That is coming up in the very near future.)

 

[Duncan]

My friend was on vacation in Washington for the last three weeks, so nothing got done on the goon. I did do some old school lead work on one of my fenders which came out fine. I couldn't get to the back side of this particular area of the fender, and it wasn't low enough to spot weld studs on it, so I did some lead work.

 

This shot is the lead after being applied and some early filing. The lead fill is along the right side and starts about two inches down from the primer. This was the spot that I welded in a patch panel as shown above in this thread. I had originally used bondo to smooth it, but I decided to grind it out and go old school.

 

 

Here's the finished work. This is a lot more work and definitely slower than bondo, but the lead work will last longer than you or I.

 

It's hard to photograph, but you get the idea what's going on here.

 

 

 

It's my first time using lead fill in many, many, years!

[Ratwagon1600]

My friend was on vacation in Washington for the last three weeks, so nothing got done on the goon. I did do some old school lead work on one of my fenders which came out fine. I couldn't get to the back side of this particular area of the fender, and it wasn't low enough to spot weld studs on it, so I did some lead work.

 

This shot is the lead after being applied and some early filing. The lead fill is along the right side and starts about two inches down from the primer. This was the spot that I welded in a patch panel as shown above in this thread. I had originally used bondo to smooth it, but I decided to grind it out and go old school.

 

 

Here's the finished work. This is a lot more work and definitely slower than bondo, but the lead work will last longer than you or I.

 

It's hard to photograph, but you get the idea what's going on here.

 

 

 

It's my first time using lead fill in many, many, years!

 

Looks good ! Lead wiping is another thing on my "bucket list" of skills I want to teach myself.

 

I've certainly got plenty of spare panlels to practice on.

 

 

[the510keeper]

WOW lead, your crazy

 

But very cool, some blasting companies use liquid zinc, to fill rot and rust. Acts like a lead filler.

[Duncan]

WOW lead, your crazy

 

But very cool, some blasting companies use liquid zinc, to fill rot and rust. Acts like a lead filler.

 

hmmmm. I've never seen that, but it sounds like a good idea . Like yourself, I usually cut out and replace rusted metal. (I'm low rent, though) :)

 

This was the epoxy-primered fender I got from you that had about a 1 inch square bad spot. Super-easy to fix, and I decided a while ago to go use lead wherever possible on this. A little overboard, yes. Completely overboard? No! :)

 

It does take longer and is more work, but I find it satisfying when the piece comes out nice and needs NO filler.

[Duncan]

Did some more lead work today. The dogleg we replaced is now really done and leaded in. I need to clean it up real well and get it in primer, but I have a few minor spots to work on.

 

 

 

[Laecaon]

Nice work! This goon will be very clean!

[Duncan]

Nice work! This goon will be very clean!

 

Thanks man. I appreciate the kind words. It motivates my old ass while working under a tarp in 90 degree heat :)

[the510keeper]

We should open a Datsun auto body shop together, not the fly by night stuff some shops do. Most Datsun guys don't want to pay 10k for paint and auto body.

 

At the first body shop I worked, we painted a 510 wagon, the owner reminded me everyday it's a 510, hurry up.

 

That's how I meet the shop owner I sold him the parts for the wagon