DanielC Posted October 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2014 I know this thread is intended to be about floor repair, I will get back to the floor soon. With the cowl, and firewall primed, I decided it would be a good time to get some paint on it. The paint will resist dirt much easier than primer. But first, I removed the hood hinges. This is how. This is the hood hinge. It is just a bolt, with a shoulder, held from turning with a lock tab. Pry the tab up. Take the bolt out, 7/16 head. And here are the hood hinges,, and shoulder bolts. And the paint. Because of the heat lamps, and funny lighting, It looks gray, and yellow. The paint is really white. Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted November 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2014 Finally, back to work on the floor! Here are some pictures of the bottom of the floor, Top side. I used a cutoff disk to cut out part of the rust damaged floor, from the bottom. I cut from the bottom, so I could not cut into the braces, or door sill. After the first cut of the floor, this is what I had, from the top side. Brace This is the rust damage on the bottom of the firewall. This is the right wheel well, with some remnants of the of floor on it. And this is the center cab mount, still with some old floor remnants on it. The part of the old floor on the door sill still needs to be removed. This is a "staged" picture, not taken when I was actually removing remnants of the floor spot welded to the door sill. After drilling the spot welds, I used a chisel to separate the olf floor metal fron the door sill. Then I cleaned off the floor brace, More brace cleaning I also used a spot weld saw to cut (drill) the spot welds along the door sill. and removed that piece of the floor. sorry, no pictures. then I ground off the brace, cab mount, and wheel well enough to do a test fit of the floor. I also marked where the front edge of the new floor piece met the firewall. Then I cut as little more off the bottom edge of the firewall. And then I put the new floor piece back in the cab, and screwed it down. As it was being screwed down, I also hammered a few places down to improve the fit. I need to remove the new floor piece again, grind off what rust I can, treat the remaining rust with metal conditioner, prime, and then I can start to weld the new floor piece in the cab. 1 Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted November 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2014 I used this wire wheel in a drill to clean some rust off the floor brace. Then I used a small wire detail brush, with a phosphoric acid solution to scrub the rusty areas of the floor brace. Before some wire wheel and phosphoric acid. After some wheeling, and scrubbing. Quote Link to comment
zed1 Posted November 3, 2014 Report Share Posted November 3, 2014 Thank you for posting the details of your efforts, it certainly looks good. Quote Link to comment
wayno Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 I have come to the conclusion that to do it Daniels way takes to many tools, Daniel has so many tools for taking paint off metal and metal work that he likely needs a small building just to hold them tools alone, he has 101 ways to remove the same paint, he likely has over 20 ways to stop rust in it's tracks, and it's hard to say how many jigs he has the hold the metal whatever it is in place so he can eradicate whatever it is he wants gone, what I need to do is take my U320 over there and tell him to have at it, I likely would get it back ready for paint without a spec of bondo in it, but it might be over there for years. You do great work Daniel :thumbup: Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted November 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 Wayno is right. I am a bit of a tool s**t. But I do not think I rush right out and buy everything. I do have a garage, but is is a small two car garage. Two 521 trucks fit in it, and you can walk around them, but there is not a lot of extra space. I can put a full size Ford pickup into the front door of the garage, but then I have to crawl under the truck to get into the garage, and remove the mirrors from the doors to fit it in. I have figured out a way to do most of the bends in new metal floor pans, without a sheet metal brake. I have fugured out how to cut sheet metal without a shear. I do build fixtures, to hold parts, but I can justify it this way. I have more than one 521 to work on. Currently, I am working the cab in this thread for Ratsun. I have to do front sheet metal work on Dragon, and I have to do another floor replacement on Dragon Two, and I have another 521 that needs front end work. Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted November 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 Wayno is right. I am a bit of a tool s**t. But I do not think I rush right out and buy everything. I do have a garage, but is is a small two car garage. Two 521 trucks fit in it, and you can walk around them, but there is not a lot of extra space. I can put a full size Ford pickup into the front door of the garage, but then I have to crawl under the truck to get into the garage, and remove the mirrors from the doors to fit it in. I have figured out a way to do most of the bends in new metal floor pans, without a sheet metal brake. I have fugured out how to cut sheet metal without a shear. I do build fixtures, to hold parts, but I can justify it this way. I have more than one 521 to work on. Currently, I am working the cab in this thread for Ratsun. I have to do front sheet metal work on Dragon, and I have to do another floor replacement on Dragon Two, and I have another 521 that needs front end work. Quote Link to comment
datson4life Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 Awesome work! My respects Quote Link to comment
wayno Posted November 7, 2014 Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 :lol: Wayno is right. I am a bit of a tool s**t. Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted November 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 10, 2014 This is work from last week, I got too busy to post updates. While I was removing rust from the floor brace, I let the phosphoric acid solution sit for a while on the brace, and then would wire wheel it, and reapply the phosphoric acid. While the phosphoric acid was working, I was cleaning paint, primer and some rust spots off the left side inner fender. After cleaning the floor brace, I decided the rusted old floor, by the area under the front of the seat needed a little more "surgery". I put the new floor pan in the cab, and drew a line where it went, so I knew how much metal to leave in place. Then I cut more rust damaged metal out. This is a picture of after I cut that section of metal out, and here is where I am Nov. 10, 2014, early afternoon. Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted November 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2014 Happy Thanksgiving, you all. Earlier this week, Monday turned out unseasonably warm. I got primer, and paint on the left side inner fender I am hoping I can get some primer, and maybe paint on the roof of this cab. Like most Datsun 521 roofs, there are probably some dents in it. this is where some dents are today. One of the problems working out dents on a 521 is the roof is fairly thin metal, and difficult to sand. It also helps if you can support the roof when working on it. This is my solution. I have a sandbag, that I put on top of this post, and pedestal. This is how I support the post and pedestal. I use these to work out some of the dents. I do not have pictures handy, of me showing how I do work the dents. Later today, I will take some, and edit this post. Nevermind, a new post, below. I was working on some dents. Quote Link to comment
datson4life Posted November 28, 2014 Report Share Posted November 28, 2014 Clean! Good work man Quote Link to comment
dat521gatherer Posted November 28, 2014 Report Share Posted November 28, 2014 Awesome Daniel. Keep up the great work. Quote Link to comment
Charlie69 Posted November 29, 2014 Report Share Posted November 29, 2014 Dam you do nice work. Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted November 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2014 This is how I worked one of the roof dents, the dent in about the middle of this picture. Look at the dent, and to the left, and bottom of the dent, and just above some file marks, there is a high ridge, in about a "L" shape. In this picture, I held the dinging spoon dolly on the high spot of the ridge. Then I lightly hit the spoon with this hammer. I move the spoon around the length of the high ridge, tapping it down with the hammer. I do not hit it very hard, just light taps. And keep moving the spoon around. It is far better to move the metal one thousands of a inch 20 times, than to move the metal 20 thousands of an inch with one hit. The spoon is used to spread out the impact of the hammer, and to avoid putting more smaller dents into the roof metal. I also used the cut off section of the leaf spring. By using the concave side of the spring, I can spread out the hammer impact even more. After using the dinging spoon, leaf spring, and hammer, that dent was worked down to this. Remember, this area of the roof is being supported underneath with the pedestal, sandbag, and jack, in the post I made about three posts up. This is the same dent. It is still slightly low, and there is a slight crease in the bottom, where I drew a line. This dent is at the point where I need to move some metal, and especially the crease up. This is a way of moving the metal up, shown on another dent. This dent is mainly a low area, ant not a high area by it. I set this piece of curved metal over the dent, and then I set a dolly on top of the plate. It may look like I am holding this dolly on the under side of the roof, but actually I am carefully using this dolly to hammer up on the underside of the roof. With my other hand, I hold the plate, and dolly on the top of the roof. Quote Link to comment
Charlie69 Posted November 29, 2014 Report Share Posted November 29, 2014 Ok You're hired! I wish you were closer to far to travel for body work. Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted November 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2014 And if I lived in Arizona, I probably could still paint bare metal, without heaters, heat lamps, and other issues, at least until it was too hot. Quote Link to comment
Charlie69 Posted November 29, 2014 Report Share Posted November 29, 2014 You are correct. January- February are usually the coldest. You are doing a great job. Thanks for showing some of the techniques. 1 Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted December 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 This is a hole I found in the top right side of the windshield opening. After cleaning, I was able to get some weld metal into the hole. Miller Autoset 180, .023 wire, Argon/CO2 mix, wire speed 28, voltage a little less than "2". I would just let the arc barely start, then stop. I used a tooth brush size wire brush, on the weld, and clipped the bead off the end of the wire. Then another weld spot. Repeat as necessary. The weld was ground down, and I nneded to touch up a low spot. I did that, same way as above, then ground it again. This is what the weld looks like now. 1 Quote Link to comment
Charlie69 Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 Looks good. The welded seam on the "A" pillar will it crack in time? Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted December 14, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2014 I did not weld the seam, just filled the hole. I have another 521 cab, with a good floor, but was in an accident, in the 1970's. I have kept the cab, and parts of the truck since then. This cab had front end damage, and I have already removed the radiator core support, and the right side inner fender was removed. Thursday, (today is Saturday), I moved the cab into the garage. I cleaned it up some. This is the drivers side floor. Another picture The bottom is not as good, but pretty decent. The cab I have been working on putting a new floor in, did not have the gas pedal, emergency brake, or clutch and brake pedal box. The old white cab, with a good floor did have the gas pedal, emergency brake and clutch and brake pedal box. Today, I moved the parts from one cab to the other. Before I weld the drivers side floor in, I wanted to check the fit of the pedals, and especially the gas pedal stop. You can see the gas pedal stop is just being held in place with some masking tape. I think I am ready to actually start welding the new floor into the cab. 1 Quote Link to comment
wayno Posted December 14, 2014 Report Share Posted December 14, 2014 Keep it up, your getting a lot more work done than I am. :lol: Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted December 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 I am thinking of upgrading the brakes, and master cylinder on this cab. Right now, I have the cab stripped, and even the brake, and clutch pedal box is out of the cab. Now is the time to put in a 620 or a 720 pedal box, to allow more spacing between the master cylinders. Quote Link to comment
Charlie69 Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 DanielC I needed more room in my 520 fort he break pedal. The solution for me was to use the dash half of my 520 pedal box and the firewall half of a 620 pedal box. I am running an automatic so I was able to move my brake pedal to the to the clutch side for more clearance. Quote Link to comment
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