mklotz70 NL320

[spiffinspudater]

That is so cool!! So one day when I get my NL I can come back to this and upgrade to electronics :D yeah!

 

hahaha, you are not destine to have an NL!!! I will own the rest of the 990 of them!

[mklotz70]

Actually, since this should work for the E1's and the J's....there's a ton of trucks out there that couls do this upgrades.....all the way up to the '69 521's. Oh....don't forget all the forklifts with J series motors!!! :)

[mklotz70]

okay...thought I'd ad a bit of an update. Not sure what happened to the links for the dizzy mod on the first page....they're completely missing.

 

Anyway...some before/during pics. It has paint on it now, but I haven't uploaded the pics yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eng block came out nice :) Yes, the paint was dry :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Found a new abrasive for the sandblaster that works awesome!!! So much faster it isn't funny!

[slodat]

Nice work Mike! Lookin good!

[]2eDeYe]

Don't leave everybody hanging....

Whats the new abrasive? :D

 

Can't wait to see paint on that nl :cool:

[mklotz70]

Thanks! It's not perfect and it's only rattle canned(sorry Slodat :) , but I figure it's only temporary for maybe a year or two. When I do this project for real, I'm sure I'll take the body off the frame. It's just a nice effect for now.

 

That's funny Redeye....you already have all the info! :) Anyway.....time to hit the shop.

 

okay...took a couple of min to upload the rest of the pics.

 

The paint is dry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The finish that glass beads leave on aluminum is almost freakish!!

 

 

 

 

Still have a LONG way to go!!!!

[Pacific coast Datsun]

Wow doesnt look like rattle can to me :D Nice work as always Mike.

[71-521]

very nice work Mike...

[mklotz70]

Thanks,

 

In the last two pics(above).......the glass beads took the rust and gunk right off the metal without destroying the plastic. I blasted it just as it sits. Cleaned it up nicely. I've been really impressed with how fast the glass will strip paint and rust and just how nice of a finish it leaves. Perfect "tooth" for powdercoating!

 

Here's a couple more. The inside of the water outlet was originally, just as bad as you would expect....heavy rust like inside any cast iron water pipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could almost shoot them with some clear and call it good! :)

[Icehouse]

WOW Mike you never stop impressing me. I don't know how you guys do so good with rattle cans. I'm about to post some new pics of my 68 with more primer, I used a paint gun and its not that good :( That glass bead blaster is rad! How did you strip the engine bay? Keep the photo's coming buddy :D

[mklotz70]

You're easily impressed buddy!!! :) It still has some heavy rust pitting that comes through and while I was spraying, I found a pocket of sand that I didn't blow out.....so it tossed up some sand and of course it's now stuck in the paint. Oh well....gotta pick your battles and that's not one of them! :) I've got to know when to call it "good enough" or I'll never have it on the road for Canby.

 

I modified my 110lb pressure blaster into a pressure assisted blaster and shot about 400lbs of sand doing the eng bay and eng. I paid $8/100lbs on the first two bags, but they sucked wind....$12/100lbs on the second two and they were awesome(see pic). It's not worth trying to reclaim any of it. So there's $40 worth of sand on the ground. Yes, I could have laid a tarp down and collected it, sifted it and then reused it, but that's a real pain in the A**! It will get shoveled and put in a wheel barrow and dumped in the sink hole I call a backyard. The first stuff gave me such grief, I probably wasted at least 100lbs trying to get the gun to work!

 

Anyway.....here's a pic of the good abrasive along with one of the driveway and side of the house where I shot it out in the open.

 

 

hard to tell, but that is about 1.5" deep under the eng bay.

 

Sun sure washed out the other half. Toward the edge of the driveway it was over 1/8" deep! I think I carried about 10lbs of it into the shop....in my ears, my hair, my shirt pockets!!

 

 

As for making the rattle cans look nice...I think a lot of it has to do with the paint itself. The eng was done with Plastikote high temp and the eng bay with VanSickle tractor paint. The first dries really fast....love it. The second doesn't dry fast at all, but that gives it time to flow out better. There's a couple of runs, but just like with shooting paint from a gun....you've got to lay down a tack coat first that will help hold the following layers. If you try to cover it the first time, sagcity!!

 

Anyway...glad you like it! Your ratsun is what inspired me to make the eng bay bling and leave the rest rusted!! :)

 

I need to figure out what color to PC(powder coat) or paint the valve cover and some of the other eng pieces. I have hi temp silver, black, red paint and I can PC in white, gloss black, high gloss clear, chrome(or as close as PC can get chrome), and red. The eng bay is red, the frame will be black and I may leave the aluminum pieces that frosted color

[Pacific coast Datsun]

Mike how bout going with the original Datsun light blue [eng. color]for the pieces left to paint? Might look good,but i do like the way it looks after they get blasted too.

[Jason]

Wow Mike, that's looking very nice! I like it. So how big of a compressor are you using to run the blaster?

[Icehouse]

Anyway...glad you like it! Your ratsun is what inspired me to make the eng bay bling and leave the rest rusted!! :)

 

For some reason I have the most fun in the engine bay, I get board of body work, all it takes is money to have a nice paint job, so it doesn't impress me as much as the engine bay. I feel you can tell the most about the driver/owner by there engine bay. I love neat and tighty wiring clean components and a good grasp on what they do. To me there is nothing worse than seeing a Datto with an engine swap and they still have the choke relay or the auto trans lockout relay when its a 5 speed, I do like when people leave the column shift on there 510's thought :D I also the less zip ties the better. I think thats why a Ratsun is the way to go, even if you have all of the stated items you can always say... "its just a daily driver" yeah Buddy! :D

[mklotz70]

I think the last time I cleared bare metal, it made it way darker than it started out. I'm not sure if the clear PC will do the same.

 

The compressor is a 7hp/60gal from Home Depot. I put Amsoil synthetic compressor oil in it to give it a fighting chance :) Yes, it does run continuously while I'm blasting. If I remember right, it was about $400(Paula bought it for me :) ), then then I learned later that if I'd spent another $200(which I didn't have back then), I could have gotten one with almost twice the cfm. So, if this one ever dies, it will get replaced with something else. I like the tank size, but the 11?cfm at 90psi doesn't quite keep up with the blasting. It's great for everything else!

[datzenmike]

Nice job Mike! As for zip ties, less is better, get black ones and trim them for cryin' out loud, and where possible get that split wrap around tubing stuff (can't remember the name)to hold them and neaten it up.!

[mklotz70]

At this point, it will pretty much be stock wiring...I don't forsee ANY zip ties. I do need to figure out how to get rid of the volt reg since I'm going with an internally reg'd alt. hhmm...I suppose I should get on that soon!! :)

[Jason]

Whoa, 7hp and 11cfm isn't enough then Mike.... Guess I'm going to have to go shopping some time this year. Compressor is on the list of wants for the garage!

 

Thanks

[mklotz70]

I just went and looked at it. It's 11.8cfm at 40 and 10.3 at 90psi. It's awesome for all the mechanical stuff and pretty much any bodyworking air tools....but that dang blaster eats air bad! I could run smaller jets and tips on the blaster, but I want it done NOW!! :)

[mklotz70]

this one is more like it!! More $'s though....but you'd never want another one!

 

Air compressor

[Icehouse]

They even have an add to cart button :D

 

Sometimes zip ties are required :D

[mklotz70]

My bro taught me a trick with the zip ties. If you don't have nice flush cutter, normal wire cutters leave a sharp edge. If you grab the part you want to remove, straight on and next to the clamp part with a pair of pliers, then twist the excess until it separates, it will leave a soft tip, or it will be below the surface of the clamp. That probably doesn't make much sense.

[Jason]

That's one heck of a compressor. I think I'm going to have to get something on your size at though Mike. I can probably get away with that as my needs are modest as yet, sigh, more tools, more money.....

[mklotz70]

If/when I ever have to replace it, I'll go a bit bigger. Don't get me wrong though......this one I have has been awesome!!! After an hour of blasting, I try to give it a break......actually, it's more to give me a break!!! The blasting is the only thing that taxes it at all. It pretty much runs everything else without even breathing hard.

[mklotz70]

oooo....aahhh..... :)

Even nicer with a bit of black on the frame!