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My Rusty L320 Build


delariva

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How did you end up making the thick rolled door-gap edge on the fender? Did you add a piece of steel or did you use a bunch of tack welds?

 

I left it a little long when I cut the patch, so I could roll it.

In this pic, none of the bolts on the inner part of the fender were installed yet, so it looks like it is fitting pretty well, but it still needed to be snugged up to the door.

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In this pic you can still see one of the cuts I made to bend the patch for the rolled part of the gap (onthe bottom of the panel). I got it close, then mounted the door and quarter panel before fine tuning that rolled edge with a slapping spoon and hammer. The other 3 cuts I made are already welded and ground down. I left this one in case I needed to roll it in some more on my last test fit. 

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I received a PM asking where I got the wire for the new harness. I wanted to post that here too in case anyone else is looking. The company has an ebay store. That was the easiest place to make my first order. The shipping times and communication are great, so I should have done this for them earlier. Here is a link to their store.

 

http://stores.ebay.com/4rcustoms/

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Seems like the a large part of the wiring on these old Datsuns is a base color with a stripe. I found another source for the striped wire needed in re-doing a wire loom. Minimum order for each item is 10'. The 16ga wire is about $.32 a foot.

 

http://www.riwire.com

 

Steve

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I use other harnesses to harvest the wires in the colors I need.  I buy used harnesses all the time to parts purposes.

Yes, me too. I keep about 300lbs of old junk harnesses laying around just for that purpose.

 

Sometimes you find just the right wire in an old harness. And it can be hard to buy that wire new.

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It has been more of the same on the project, cutting and welding. I am sure it is not that interesting after a while so I'll try to keep the pics to a minimum.  

 

I added some hard lines for my air tools to get ready to spray some epoxy primer once I get the entire thing rust free and down to metal. In the mean time it helps to keep moisture out of the tools I am using now. 

 

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Work looks really nice, especially the floor patch.

 

Nothing like getting side tracked in the shop.

 

Thanks man.

Haha it is too easy to get side tracked. I had been meaning to run some hard air lines for a while. After going through 3 harbor freight die grinders I decided to get an Ingersol Rand and try to run a better setup to keep the air a little dryer. It gets frustrating to be in the middle of something and have your tools quit on you. 

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After going through 3 harbor freight die grinders I decided to get an Ingersol Rand ...

 

I made the permanent switch about 5 years ago. The epiphany came when I bought an IR air reciprocating saw and was able to actually use it. The HF one sucked ass. I used to think that buying a lot of the cheap ones was more cost effective, but that was a false economy.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

It has been slow going in July. I was in Vegas for the first week, then spent a long weekend out of town with my wife for our first anniversary. I had some time to get back to work on the project after last weekend, but needed some shielding gas before I could get back to welding. When I got the new cylinder home and started to weld I realized they swapped my 75/25 gas with 100 argon. I can't get a good weld down on a mig with 100 argon, so I need to return it. Without the gas I've just been taking more of the cab down to metal. Hopefully the next update will be filled with more productive work.

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Got the 100 argon exchanged for a cylinder of 25C, and I am back in business. Finished up the front sections of the door jambs, and am onto the spray foam/rust  on the rear end of the door. Archery season is fast approaching, so I am losing work hours to tuning the bow and practicing, but if I keep taking baby steps on this rust I'll run out of rusty metal sooner or later. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

I haven't posted in this thread in a while, so I thought I would post a few pictures of what I've worked on since archery season wrapped up in late September.

 

I picked up where I left off on the driver side door. It was so rusted underneath, that I am thinking of replacing that with new sheet metal as well. 

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I disconnected the steering linkage, so that I can take the steering box out to lift the cab. I am putting that off until I can't work on any more rust without removing the cab. I am still unsure on the logistics of getting the cab off and still having room to work in a 1 car garage. 

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With the drivers side in much better shape I moved over to the passenger side. The quarter panel has more dents, and rust than the drivers side did. Almost the entire front of the panel was coated in body filler. I put the respirator to good use.

 

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Build your own seahorses under the cab above the frame, roll out chassis while working, roll back in when done. If you do it right, when the chassis is underneath it'll look like a complete vehicle and you won't have to worry about violating tennant rules of only running vehicles if you have any of those

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  • 1 month later...

I was able to do some more work over the holidays with a few of my days off work. I forgot to take a before picture, so I set the piece I cut out back on the front of the body. The sheet metal that was already welded on wasn't coated in anything on the back and is pretty rusted out. It was also mostly formed with body filler, so I decided to replace it. 

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I got this piece welded back in, but the shape is not right. It is a little too flat, and doesn't have a good body line. I think I am going to give the lead free body solder a try. If it works out, there are a few other places on the body I would like to clean up using the solder. It isn't too expensive, so hopefully I can order the basic tools to get started next pay day. Until then I'll keep working on welding in new sheet metal. 

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