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Floor repair


DanielC

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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.

HoodHingeBolt1_zpsff7235dc.jpg

 

Pry the tab up.

HoodHingeBoltLock_zps622e8621.jpg

 

Take the bolt out, 7/16 head.

HoodHingeBoltRemoval_zpse7a667e0.jpg

 

And here are the hood hinges,, and shoulder bolts.

HoodHinges_zps79927dfb.jpg

 

 

And the paint.

FirewallPainted2_zps497c3670.jpg

 

CowlPainted_zps42c30e4a.jpg

 

Because of the heat lamps, and funny lighting,  It looks gray, and yellow.  The paint is really white.

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Finally, back to work on the floor!

Here are some pictures of the bottom of the floor,

FloorBottom1_zps29c01225.jpg

 

FloorBottom2_zpsc165eda4.jpg

 

Top side.

FloorTop1_zps6f4cd49f.jpg

 

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.

BottomCuts_zps56a04eac.jpg

 

After the first cut of the floor, this is what I had, from the top side.

Brace

HatChannel1_zpse9d87100.jpg

 

This is the rust damage on the bottom of the firewall.

FireWallBottomRust_zpsa562a826.jpg

 

This is the right wheel well, with some remnants of the of floor on it.

WheelWellBottomRust_zpsc72e8565.jpg

 

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.

CabMountRust_zps3e86c673.jpg

 

This is a "staged" picture, not taken when I was actually removing remnants of the floor spot welded to the door sill.

SpotSawing_zps2b7beb47.jpg

 

After drilling the spot welds, I used a chisel to separate the olf floor metal fron the door sill.

ChiselPry_zps541f79ba.jpg

 

Then I cleaned off the floor brace,

HatChannel2_zps7b7dea88.jpg

 

More brace cleaning

HatChannel3_zps74b284aa.jpg

 

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.

NewFloorTestFit_zpsed934f0e.jpg

 

Then I cut as little more off the bottom edge of the firewall.

FireWallBottomMark_zps41dfaf7c.jpg

 

 

 

FireWallBottmCut_zps7881b979.jpg

 

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.

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I used this wire wheel in a drill to clean some rust off the floor brace.

WireWheelampBrace_zpsd18735d7.jpg

 

Then I used a small wire detail brush, with a phosphoric acid solution to scrub the rusty areas of the floor brace.

Brace4_zpsb63abeee.jpg

 

Before some wire wheel and phosphoric acid.

Brace2_zpsdf2b8f9b.jpg

 

After some wheeling, and scrubbing.

Brace6_zps7448efec.jpg

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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.  rofl-smiley-gif-800.gif

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You do great work Daniel  :thumbup:

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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.

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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.

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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.

InnerFenderShiny_zpsa3db3724.jpg

 

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.

InCornerCut_zps89d2cf02.jpg

 

This is a picture of after I cut that section of metal out, and here is where I am Nov. 10, 2014, early afternoon.

ShelfCut_zpsc74d883a.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Happy Thanksgiving, you all. 

Earlier this week, Monday turned out unseasonably warm.  I got primer, and paint on the left side inner fender

LeftInnerFenderPainted_zps767d0bc7.jpg

 

 

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.

RoofDents_zpsf383dfc6.jpg

 

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.

SandbagRoof_zps5febabf6.jpg

This is how I support the post and pedestal.

SandbagRoofJack_zps6004e38c.jpg

 

I use these to work out some of the dents.

Spoons.jpg

 

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.

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This is how I worked one of the roof dents, the dent in about the middle of this picture.

DentEyebrow_zps85cbf649.jpg

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.

DentSpoon_zps73bcd618.jpg

Then I lightly hit the spoon with this hammer. 

DentSpoonHammer_zps143cb0c1.jpg

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. 

DentLeafSpring_zpse2962ba1.jpg

After using the dinging spoon, leaf spring, and hammer, that dent was worked down to this.

DentSanded_zps3c2b130d.jpg

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.

DentCreaseMark_zps77d8dbf8.jpg

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. 

Dent3_zpsfc0a8569.jpg

I set this piece of curved metal over the dent,

Dent3Plate_zpse5649eef.jpg

and then I set a dolly on top of the plate.

Dent3PlateampDolly_zpsbf90b3a3.jpg

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.

Dent3Underside_zps4ea484bb.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is a hole I found in the top right side of the windshield opening.

WindshieldFrameHole_zpsf266db8f.jpg

 

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.

WindshieldFrameHoleWeld_zps9f147038.jpg

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.

WindshieldFrameHoleFilled_zpsbcb8b11b.jp

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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.

WhiteCab_zpsb75e066b.jpg

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.

WhiteFloorTop_zps19f8e759.jpg

Another picture

WhiteCabFloor_zps5f8dacbd.jpg

The bottom is not as good, but pretty decent.

WhiteFloorBottom_zpsae0a1b69.jpg

 

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.

AddictPedals2_zps64b50770.jpg

 

AddictPedals1_zps9bf816c4.jpg

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.

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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.

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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.

 

DSC00703.jpg

 

DSC01215.jpg

 

DSC01216.jpg

 

DSC01217.jpg

 

DSC01218.jpg

 

DSC01192.jpg

 

I am running an automatic so I was able to move my brake pedal to the to the clutch side for more clearance.

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