My Dragon (2) Datsun 521

[Rocket Dog]

Dan, is seam sealer a standard practice for these old 521's or is it unique to this particular truck?  I'm not aware that the body and paint guy used seam sealer before he primed and painted my truck.

[DanielC]

The seam sealer is needed.  Here is a picture of the roof, without seam sealer.

 

If you look in the lower left corner of the picture, you can see a gap where the roof sheet metal has a gap at the bottom of the drip rail.  There is nothing in that gap between the cab sheet metal, and the roof sheet metal.   When the cab is assembled (spot welded) together the metal between the two parts has to be clean, and bare steel, or they could not be spot welded together.  After spot welding, there is still a gap between the two pieces of metal, and water can easily run between the two, and into the cab.  The metal in this area is bare and will rust when water is present.

 

The seam sealer prevents the water from getting into the cab.  Unless you live some where it never rains, or has dew, and the truck is always parked inside when it is wet outside.

 

Edited January 1, 2020 by DanielC

[DanielC]

Last April, it became apparent Dragon 2 was not going to be a quick easy fix, and I concentrated on Ratsun in my "work on Datsun time"

This truck.

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/30606-my-ratsun-datsun-521/

 

Like Ratsun, Dragon 2 need new floorboards, but they are not as bad as Ratsun's floor was.

 

What I have been doing is working on the oil pan I am going to put on Dragon 2's engine, occasionally.   I have welded two patches I made for the oil pan, into the oil pan, and then I put some paint thinner in the oil pan, set it in another slightly larger pan, to look for leaks, or porous welds.  I think I am on my third time checking for leaks, but I am making progress, and learning to weld.

Here is what the oil pan looks like now.

 

 

There were also some spots where the front pillar meets the roof, that needed more seam sealer, and sometime in the Summer, I got another tube of seam sealer, and put that on Dragon 2 's cab.

 

Dragon 2 has been moved to the hard to get out side of my garage, and is being used for parts storage, and is a long term project.  Datsun work time is being used on Dragon, this truck.

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/49698-my-dragon-datsun-521/

and Ratsun.

Edited January 1, 2020 by DanielC

[DanielC]

With Ratsun running, I can work on some of my other 521 trucks.  Yesterday, I cleaned up an oil pan I got at Portland south Pick-n-Puil.

You have already seen me do some work on another 521 oil pan, with a rusted out bottom.  Having got a pan yesterday from the junkyard, I have a lot less need to keep working on the pan with all the holes earlier in this thread.  

This is the pan that came on Dragon 2's engine.  Dented by the oil drain plug, and a brazed patch.  Maybe somebody was doing some rock crawling with a 521?

 

Close view of dents.

 

Just another unnecessary picture, but why not.

 

Different angle picture.

 

Close up view of damage around drain plug.

It is dented, brazed, and still leaks.

 

The pan I got from the junkyard, I propped up in to a oil drain pan, and let it sit.  Then I moved all the stuff on top of my parts washer, and cleaned the pan with mineral spirits, or paint thinner.

The next step was to fix the damage on the pan.  It was glued really well, on the bottom of the engine in the junkyard, and I bent it, prying it off the engine.  One that was done, I reworked the bolt holes on the pan.  They get distorted, and bent up from tightening the bolts too much, so the pan does not seal very good.  This is how you bend distorted bolt holes back down.  Place the ball end of a ball pien hammer on the bolt hole, and gently hit the face of the ball pien hammer with another hammer.

 

The next step is to check if the pan is bent, or twisted.  I really had to use a lot of force to pry this pan off the engine, and I bend the pan a little.  This is how you check if the pan is flat.  I used the bottom of an engine, on a engine stand.

 

Another picture, checking the side of the oil pan.

I used a .018 feeler gauge.  It should not go between the block, or front cover anywhere.  Not even close to the bolt holes.  The pan is bolted to the block with two bolts, one in front and one in the back of the block, no gasket

 

In the two pictures above, you can see some surface rust on the pan.  I sanded most of it off, then scrubbed the pan with phosphoric acid metal conditioner, and then wirebrushed that, twice.  Next, I cleaned the outside of the pan with Dawn dishwashing detergent and water, and sanded the pan again.  The pan was dried, and sprayed with two thin layers of Dupont (now Alasta) Centari 99A pitch black.

This is right after painting the pan.

 

Then I set the pan out to dry, under "God's heat lamp" bright sunlight.

 

This is the pan, that afternoon, after it was painted in the morning.  I put a new copper gasket on the oil drain bolt.

I plan to put the engine that came in Dragon Two together, put it in Ratsun and test run it.  The L-16 engine in Ratsun has a timing chain rattle, is idling poorly, has some oil leaks, and looks like a 33 year old engine.

 

 

Edited January 1, 2020 by DanielC
eliminate photobucket links

[mrbigtanker]

Dan looking good,you have skills thats for sure,i got one question is there any reason you dont just pull the body off the frame or is it easier to roll around,you sure are going all out,this truck is going to be one of the nicest trucks if you keep going in this direction.Good job. :thumbup:

[DanielC]

Dragon 2, and Ratsun both need new floor sections, the part ahead of the seats.  I pretty much have accepted that to weld, and seam seal the new floor in correctly, the cab is going to have to come off the frame.  Dragon Two is currently the third Datsun I want to get running,

 

I just wanted to take a break from working on the floor of Dragon, sanding, removing rust, but I need to get paint on Dragon, because the steady Oregon rain is coming soon enough.

[datson4life]

very nice job/skills :thumbup:

[Steve521]

Nice work as usual Dan!  :thumbup:

[DanielC]

I got tired of removing rust from the floor of Dragon, so I did some work on the L-18 that came with Dragon Two.  Yesterday, I put the painted oil pan on the engine, and today, I put a bunch of other stuff on the engine.

Right side of engine.

 

Left side

 

Before putting the fuel pump on, I did a quick pressure test on it, by putting a vacuum/pressure gauge on it and pumping the lever.

 

Vacuum side.

 

The engine came with this plug on the block PCV pipe.

 

That was removed, and I put a new hose, and PCV valve on the engine.

 

I also spent part of the day, going through parts, until I found a stock carburetor I want to try on this engine, and a stock air cleaner base.

I also put on the PCV hose from the air cleaner to the valve cover.

 

After dinner, I put the flywheel, clutch, and transmission back on the engine.  My plan is to get this engine as close to running as I can, without putting it in a 521, with all the parts functioning, so I can use it in Ratsun, while I pull the engine out of Ratsun, to fix some oil leaks, and find out why I still have a slight timing chain rattle.

Edited January 1, 2020 by DanielC

[DanielC]

Dragon 2 is by back burner project, but sometimes it only takes a little longer to do several parts at the same time as a single part. When painting small parts, you can also avoid having to mix very small quantities of paint.   I had several small parts in primer,

 

But one air cleaner lid ended up on Dragon 2's engine.

 

When I mixed the paint for the air cleaner lids, I ended up mixing a little too much.  I quickly pulled the air cleaner bracket off this engine, sandblasted it, and painted the bracket the same air cleaner blue.  I am using Dupont Centari, 68-69 VW Chrome Blue, that my paint supplier shaded slightly.

 

I know, I need to paint the bottom part of the air cleaner.  The air cleaner lids were put into electrolysis to remove rust, and then sandblasted, before painting.

Edited January 2, 2020 by DanielC

[jesusno2]

Your license plate is hilarious! Ha ha ha

[DanielC]

A quick Jan 1, 2015 update.  Dragon two is mainly being used as a storage place for it's and other 521 Datsun parts.  It's engine still needs to be test ran, and the floor is rusted out pretty bad.

Just an engine and transmission sitting in a bag, waiting.

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2020 by DanielC

[DanielC]

This is the right side floor of Dragon Two.  I need to do some work on it.

 

This is a 3M clean and strip disk, on a drill.  I love these things for removing rust and paint, primer, and old plastic filler.  They do a really good job, and when you get down to bare metal they are not too aggressive.

 

I started work on the seat shelf, just to see how bad the rust was.

 

This is the snap that hold the original vinyl floor mat in place.  It is just held with Phillips tapping screw.  ON this truck, the head of the screw was filled with dirt.  I tapped the short metal Phillips into the hole to help the screwdriver get a better grip on the screw, then removed the snap.

If you need to replace this snap, it is a very common item at upholstery shops.

 

This is the area I cleaned up, just so I could get an idea of how much metal I need to cut out, and replace, with new floor sheet metal.

 

This is the wheel well, I need to replace some metal on the bottom of it, too.

 

Edited January 2, 2020 by DanielC

[DanielC]

Little snippets of work are being done for this truck.  This is a drivers side floor pan I am working on.  I am making two right pans, and two left pans.  As I figure out techniques to make one pan, it really does not take much longer to do it again.

 

See this thread on 521 floor pans.

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/51593-floor-repair/

Edited January 2, 2020 by DanielC

[DanielC]

Both floor pans for this truck.

 

Edited January 2, 2020 by DanielC

[wayno]

These are one offs, correct?

[crewy]

nice job with the metal work

[DanielC]

Thanks, Crewy, and Wayno, by "one offs" do you mean I am only making one set?

The way I make 521 floor pans, and I am not saying this is the only way is to buy a shear cut piece of 18 gauge metal, 22 x 48 inches.  Because of the taper in the floor pans, especially the right side, I can make two pans out of a single piece of 22 x 48 metal but it is either two rights, or two lefts.

Dragon Two is getting the fourth "legitimate" set of pans I am making.  I actually have two left pans, and one right pan in progress right now.  Once I figure out cuts, and bends, I make the cuts on all three pieces, make the bends on all three pieces, and so on.  but hopefully, each set gets a little better, or at least I figure out an easier way to make them.

[Charlie69]

I bet you could sell them if you could make them reasonably cheap.

[wayno]

What I meant was that floor pan you have made fits your truck only?

Or will it fit any truck?

Thanks, Crewy, and Wayno, by "one offs" do you mean I am only making one set?

The way I make 521 floor pans, and I am not saying this is the only way is to buy a shear cut piece of 18 gauge metal, 22 x 48 inches.  Because of the taper in the floor pans, especially the right side, I can make two pans out of a single piece of 22 x 48 metal but it is either two rights, or two lefts.

Dragon Two is getting the fourth "legitimate" set of pans I am making.  I actually have two left pans, and one right pan in progress right now.  Once I figure out cuts, and bends, I make the cuts on all three pieces, make the bends on all three pieces, and so on.  but hopefully, each set gets a little better, or at least I figure out an easier way to make them.

[DanielC]

I am trying to make pans that fit all 521 trucks.  It is hard to tell if they they actually do, until I actually start fitting them.  One person on this board, who lives in California has asked me to make him a pair of pans, and that is kind of a challenge, because I cannot see exactly where his good metal goes to bad.

 

Ratsun needs the floor repaired, and so does Dragon Two.  When I bought Ratsun, it was going to be a parts truck, so the rusted floor was not a problem.  Then it became a daily driver, and I made a set of floor pans for it, and quickly figured out that to properly weld and seam seal the new floor, I need to pull the cab off the frame.   I bought an extra cab, so I could replace the floor in it, and when done, just swap the cabs on Ratsun's frame.

 

The extra cab currently has the rusted floor cut out of it.  I am using that cab, for final fitting of the floor pieces I make.

[DanielC]

I removed the cab to frame bolts on this truck, this is how.

 

Lets start with this.  You will need penetrating oil.  You may have your favorite brand, I use this.  it is a 50/50 mix of Acetone, and used ATF.   It probably works better than anything you buy, but is is not in a spray can.

 

Now that you have some type of penetrating oil, clean the threads below the nut.  You can use a hand brush,  

 

Or you can use a rotary wire wheel in a drill, or air grinder.

 

I use a popsicle stick, or tongue depressor to apply the penetrating oil.

 

Take the nut off.  It may still break, even with cleaning, and penetrating oil.  If you are lucky, the lower rubber isolator will slide off.  

 

The isolators on this cab did not just slide right off.   You may think you can just pound on them with a hammer, but that will damage the threads, make the bolt unusable, and cause you frustration.

 

You can grab the bottom metal part of the isolator with a pair of vice grips, and with a wrench on the top of the bolt, try to break the rusted connection between the isolator, and the bolt.

 

That may not work.   Use a jack under the end of the bolt, to lift up on the bolt.  Jack the cab up a few inches.  if the bolt does not move, after jacking the cab up a few inches, no need to keep jacking up the bolt.

 

I used this mild steel spacer on top of the jack.  The steel in the spacer is softer than the bolt. 

With the jack lifting up, and compressing the isolator, try turning the isolator, while holding the bolt again.

Lifting the bolt, while turning the bolt and isolator caused all my isolators to come loose.

In this picture, there is a pile of rust dust on the top of the metal spacer.

 

When the isolator breaks loose of the bolt, the cab will fall, and push the bolt up some, inside the cab.

 

Then you can use a twisting motion to pull the bolt up through the cab. It is still going through a second isolator between the cab and frame, but should come up fairly easily.

One picture of removed bolts.  The rubber isolator is still between the cab and frame.

 

This is one set of four cab to frame bolts, and rubber isolators, the larger diameter thinner isolators are used on the radiator core support at the front of the cab.  The four on the cab itself use the same bolts, isolators, and nuts.

 

This is my one casualty.  The threaded part of the bolt broke off.  Later, I was able to put the broken threaded part in a vice, and remove the nut from the broken part, and that nut is still usable.

 

 

February 4, 2015 update.

Missing in the pictures of the cab mounts was the one piece between the cab, and frame.  I removed those four pieces yesterday, and a few more pictures.

 

This is an exploded view, and an assembled view of the rear two mounts.  The three washers go on the bolt.  The third washer is a thin rubber one.  On the middle cab mount, the one in the dimple in the floor pan, ahead of the seat, there was only one metal washer, on this truck.  This might have not been stock.

 

So, on the bolt. one or two metal washers, then the rubber washer.  Bolt goes into the floor of the cab, and then the large round rubber, flat side up.  Then the bolt goes through the frame, then the smaller diameter, but taller rubber mount, another big washer.  All the above parts fit on the larger diameter of the bolt.  Then the small washer, it fits the threaded part of the bolt, up to the thicker part of the bolt.  Then the nut.  Originally the nut had a crimped area on it, that serves to lock the nut in place.

 

In this picture, two washers are on the bolt, my finger is pointing to the rubber washer.

 

The rubber washers do two things.  They isolate the vibrations of the frame from the cab, and they electrically isolate the bolts from the frame, and the cab.  The bolts cannot make electrical contact with either cab, or frame, or electrolysis will quickly eat the bolts to nothing but rust.  You must provide a cab to frame electrical connection not using the body mount bolts.   On a stock 521, there is a wire from the alternator frame that goes to one of the voltage regulator bolts, that ground the cab.   I run another wire from the alternator frame to the frame of the truck.

Edited January 2, 2020 by DanielC

[DanielC]

Before I pulled the cab mounts off Dragon Two, I removed the steering column, mainly so I could get to one of these.

 

I have been using this stuff to try to repair them.

 

That stuff is pretty messy, wear these.

 

More pictures.

 

 

 

A few more details.  Remove the boot off the steering column.  But first, remove the steering wheel, the turn signal switch, unbolt the column mount off the bottom of the dashboard, remove the Pittman arm off the steering gear, and then remove the column from the truck.

 

This is 45 year old rubber.  It is fragile, but still there, if you are lucky. 

I gently wash the boot in warm soapy water, using Dawn dishwashing detergent.   Try to keep all the rubber pieces together.

Gently clean it again with lacquer thinner, on a paper towel.  let it dry.

 

The Liquid Electrical tape does not stick to polyethylene.  I think this plastic is marked with LDPE, or HDPE.  I heat my home with wood pellets, the pellets come in 40 pound bags, made of LDPE.  An empty toilet paper cardboard tube, or paper towel tube will fit inside the column part of the boot.  Wrap a layer of LDPE on the cardboard first.   You can use a hose clamp on the outside of the boot, to hold it together, while you put the Liquid Electrical tape on the inside.  

 

I would give more details, but I am still figuring this out.

 

Edited January 2, 2020 by DanielC

[datson4life]

Too much detail is pure awesome, thanks!

Also love how ur putting the stock jack to use

[DanielC]

I have found a stock Nissan jack is one of the easiest to use.  I use then all the time, working on my 521 trucks, and other things.

 

They sure work a lot better than the scissor jacks in more other vehicles.