Mid-Atlantic rust collection

[hoodradKyle]

Seriously, shitfully fucking impressive!

 

Great work without the bender, well done!

 

You stole my pan break idea which I've used many times before :)

Thanks man, It very well could have been you who I got the idea from.lol. works great, although 18ga isn't the easiest thing to bend by hand.

 

Sun today, pretty happy I decided to stay home this weekend. Hot as balls though, canopy is really coming in handy for shade. here's a mid-day update since I need a break in the AC, welding in 90 degree heat is not the best idea. anyways rolled the car forward to allow the welder to reach.

did some more confidence building practice welds on scrap pieces and then set to tacking the passenger side floor in.

Not the worst welds ever.Still haven't gotten gas since its so expensive to buy a tank and get it filled, but I'm pretty happy with how they look for flux core.Got the passenger side tacked, in I'm planning on "connecting the dots" later. and seam sealing the heck out of it. so far so good though.

at that point it was getting pretty hot to weld inside the car with leather stuff on and masks so I moved over to the engine and pulled the crank pulley off to replace the gasket/seal. It appeared to be bad since the whole front and left side of the block were covered in oil.

after a decent rub down^

seal was a bit beat up,but that was probably from me removing it.ha

hoping to get the drivers side tacked in, get a new crank seal and put it back together, and maybe put the engine in later. hopefully I can update tonight with more progress.

[slingshot532]

Looking good!

[Ratwagon1600]

Gasless welding sucks, but this looking good.

 

Important thing is to make sure your weld is getting enough penetration without blowing holes through either surface (easier said than done at times).

 

Don't know if you have one, but, when I first started to learn to MIG weld I bought an auto darkening helmet. They were pretty expensive back then but have come down in price markedly. Great way to ensure you get the nozzle on the right angle and the right distance from the job before you start your weld run. And, yeh seam sealer hides all manner of sins :)

 

What impresses the hell out of me with this build is not only the fact your prepared to get in and have a go at it, your working without a shed! (I love my shed).

 

Great work, keep it up!

[finianmc]

Yeah, we have 2 auto darkening helmets

[hoodradKyle]

*Sorry for the lack of pics

my camera died saturday afternoon and I didn't get around to charging it, so I don't have and pictures from the interior of the 510, but we did manage to finish tacking the drivers side in so now both the front floor pans are ready to be finished once I get a tank, gas, and some seam sealer. After getting the floors done we moved over to the 810 to drop the auto trans. Plans were made to try and get by with the automatic but it wasn't shifting right and Fin wanted 5 speed anyways. So in an insane deal that Fin found he got a near perfect 260z shell, two VQ35's (one with a 6 speed trans that's headed for the 260 once Fin's brother finds time to work on it), a fully built L26, a 280z trans, and some other misc. parts,  for only $1,500. so the thought is that the 280zx trans should theoretically fit in to the 810 (albeit with a custom trans bracket I assume) but that's for tomorrow. The replacement trans in currently at fin's brother house 40 mins away.

.

I'll try to get some more photos of the floors tomorrow after work, I think fin has off work so its possible some 5 speed test fitting may also happen tomorrow

[TENDRIL]

you don't want to try to weld a bead, with the datsun metal you want to tack weld about 6-8 in. apart at first, then after you go all the way around you tack in between the previous welds half way and so on till you get a bunch of really close tacks that look like a bead and don't do more than that.

 

then seal it with a rust/water proof sealant  

 

 

nice car

[finianmc]

Thanks Tendril, that sounds like a good idea. We were actually doing something similar by accident, just making sure they fit and penetrated

[jrock4224]

gasless welding is like masterbating with a glove on .... :sneaky:  :rofl:

 

your basement is reminding me of the blair witch project....lol.....looks good though those patch panels look to fit the bill .....

[hoodradKyle]

gasless welding is like masterbating with a glove on .... :sneaky:  :rofl:

 

your basement is reminding me of the blair witch project....lol.....looks good though those patch panels look to fit the bill .....

some extra grinding and hammer beating and they fit very nicely. I have no other welding to compare to so I guess once we finally get gas I'm gonna be in heaven.lol

 

you don't want to try to weld a bead, with the datsun metal you want to tack weld about 6-8 in. apart at first, then after you go all the way around you tack in between the previous welds half way and so on till you get a bunch of really close tacks that look like a bead and don't do more than that.

 

then seal it with a rust/water proof sealant  

 

 

nice car

That's kinda what I was thinking, decent welded and finish it with plenty of seam sealer. thanks man.

 

Fin got some Iphone pics from a visit to his brother's house this afternoon. Keegan has all kinds of cool things laying around his small garage. two VG35's, two VQ30's , an L26, and misc. other L engine blocks and heads.

 

260 shell as well. also found a set of swastika rims that Keegan said I could take  :thumbup:  I gave them a test fit as soon as got home. substantially better than the 200sx rims that were on it

Not much else to report today other than swastika look cool on a 510 as expected. Here's two photos of Fin's 90's rad, part haulin', 4wd, nissan hardbody.

^bonus content my buddy Dan's slammed hawkeye impreza on xxr's.

 

I'm gonna stop trying to predict what I'm gong to take pictures of and what work is going to get done so, look for an update tomorrow. who knows of what though

[hoodradKyle]

Finally got a pic of the floors tacked in.

as you can see I'm a little over half-way done with the floor repair, but I still have some fabrication to do in order to fix the seat rail area on the drivers side..could be interesting.

also got the KA bolted in for the first time.

Driver's side doesn't sit perfect but It looks fine for now, right? I'm using the 510 mounts that came with the car ( could be stock,they seem to be in fairly good condition though).

After I get the  bell housing all bolted up ( couldn't find all the correct bolts) I'm gonna take some measurements and drop the drive-shaft off at a shop to have it shorten and balanced. I need to measure from the center of the yokes on the diff. and the tail shaft correct? I'm not 100% positive on the measurement needed to have the new shaft fit correctly the first time.lol  I'll have to check some more threads.

[Trophy24]

I would have the shop that modifies the driveshaft spec the measurement method.

[SlottedMagz]

i love this car and have been following it since it popped up on ratsun. Glad to see its still here and in good hands keep up the good work 

[hoodradKyle]

I have very little to update, but I don't feel like posting unless I can throw some pics in.(makes me feel like I've accomplished less then I have). The last week has been pretty annoying, I've been working a decent amount of overtime and it continues to rain so I have had less time to work on the car than I would like. very little has gotten done.

 

That's besides the point though. Yesterday when I took the hood off to finally start working on possibly adjusting the drivers side motor mount and installing the exhaust manifold and such I found this..

Not what I expected to find after it sitting for a few days, pretty annoying but I'm glad it happened now rather than later when the motor was running or something.I guess the rubber was binding more than I thought..

So I ordered a new stock style rubber mount from rockauto(only $13) and decided to switch the mount and use the one from the spare single cam KA I have in my basement. Believe it or not the brackets are slightly different and it looks like the single cam bracket is missing the angle supports that would make it harder to "persuade" to the correct position. here's comparison

The dual cam KA^ has "wings" along the side to provide more support which is the opposite of what I'm looking for.lol.

 

In other news I measured my drive-shaft and was all ready to drop it off at a shop to get it cut and balanced. So I found a shop that said they do drive-shaft modifications and custom shaft building so I gave them a call. They guy I talked to wasn't sure if they could do it and told me to just bring it in to them to see. So today after work I drove over there and talked with the guy and he really wasn't sure if he wanted to do it. I asked him what he thought it would cost if I just left it there for them to figure out and he sad around $250. I thought that seemed a little high if all I need is it shortened..idk. He told me the name of some other local shops that might do it. But since I'm going away this weekend that will have to wait until Monday.

 

The only good news this week is that my buddy agreed to build me a stand alone engine harness so I don't have to figure out car wiring all by myself(seems somewhat complicated to me) or worry about getting the body harness to mate up to it.

[djlotus]

Holy moly $250? Local place in Baltimore did mine for a cool $100 iirc.

[jser12]

This thread oozes promise and hope. Keep up the good work

[hoodradKyle]

Holy moly $250? Local place in Baltimore did mine for a cool $100 iirc.

I know right? I did find another shop that did it for $130 so I'm not too upset with that.

 

This thread oozes promise and hope. Keep up the good work

Thanks for the kind words, I just try to keep self-motivated.

 

My buddy had a random spurt of motivation to come down and help me with everything electrical on the car since I have very little knowledge of the stuff. He brought with him a standalone KA harness as well so that's another piece of the puzzle taken care of. He also started pulling apart the body harness since he found a color coded diagram online. So now I have wires everywhere but progress is great s so I can't really complain. While back tracing previous owners stereo wiring we ended up removing the heater core as well so that will probably get a refresh while its out. aesthetically I like the look of not having the heater core and blower motor under the dash, but functionally I know I am going to want them back in come fall 

Car wiring makes me uneasy in general so when we started pulling thing apart I usually just sit back and nod.

I also picked up my drive-shaft yesterday.. But when I first went to put it back in it was close to an inch too long :confused: I thought I had measured correctly but after looking at it I assumed the easy solution to the problem was to cut the spline shaft.

^Picture shows dust shield removed which was not the case when first test fitting. Even after taking about an inch off the spline end the drive-shaft was still too long. Apparently when I measured I assumed the dust shield on the tail shaft of the trans would fit over the dust cover on the spline. which was not the case so I simply removed the two shields and the shaft fit nearly perfect.

these two dust shield almost ruined my day but luckily I got them off and everything worked out. Now I'm just wondering if I should get a new spline yoke to replace the one I cut? 

Today I ran over to an amish welding supply shop and finally got some welding gas. Funny thing though the smallest tank the had was 125cu. ft. So now I have what I think is probably way too much gas, but it only cost me $26 to "lease" it for a year, so I'm not going to complain.

looking forward to some more metal work done tomorrow/this weekend. Hopefully I get my act together and get some more floor work done finally 

[scooter stuff]

I know right? I did find another shop that did it for $130 so I'm not too upset with that.

 

Thanks for the kind words, I just try to keep self-motivated.

 

My buddy had a random spurt of motivation to come down and help me with everything electrical on the car since I have very little knowledge of the stuff. He brought with him a standalone KA harness as well so that's another piece of the puzzle taken care of. He also started pulling apart the body harness since he found a color coded diagram online. So now I have wires everywhere but progress is great s so I can't really complain. While back tracing previous owners stereo wiring we ended up removing the heater core as well so that will probably get a refresh while its out. aesthetically I like the look of not having the heater core and blower motor under the dash, but functionally I know I am going to want them back in come fall 

Car wiring makes me uneasy in general so when we started pulling thing apart I usually just sit back and nod.

I also picked up my drive-shaft yesterday.. But when I first went to put it back in it was close to an inch too long :confused: I thought I had measured correctly but after looking at it I assumed the easy solution to the problem was to cut the spline shaft.

^Picture shows dust shield removed which was not the case when first test fitting. Even after taking about an inch off the spline end the drive-shaft was still too long. Apparently when I measured I assumed the dust shield on the tail shaft of the trans would fit over the dust cover on the spline. which was not the case so I simply removed the two shields and the shaft fit nearly perfect.

these two dust shield almost ruined my day but luckily I got them off and everything worked out. Now I'm just wondering if I should get a new spline yoke to replace the one I cut? 

Today I ran over to an amish welding supply shop and finally got some welding gas. Funny thing though the smallest tank the had was 125cu. ft. So now I have what I think is probably way too much gas, but it only cost me $26 to "lease" it for a year, so I'm not going to complain.

looking forward to some more metal work done tomorrow/this weekend. Hopefully I get my act together and get some more floor work done finally 

I think you'll be surprised at how quickly you burn through the gas. I can go through my 150 bottle in a month or two.

[the510keeper]

Great progress, I too have seen Little Miss Sunshine. And it is nice to see the project continuing.

Floors look great.

Welding with gas will make all the difference in the world.

[hoodradKyle]

Great progress, I too have seen Little Miss Sunshine. And it is nice to see the project continuing.

Floors look great.

Welding with gas will make all the difference in the world.

Yeah I'm trying to get stuff done while it is nice enough weather to work outside. Thanks

I think you'll be surprised at how quickly you burn through the gas. I can go through my 150 bottle in a month or two.

Yeah, we'll see I've never used it, so I have no idea what it takes.

 

Although I have welding gas now I didn't get any welding done this weekend..solely due to the fact that after I put on my leather apron, gloves, and helmet I quickly realized that it was probably close to 115 degrees inside the car. So I decided to wait until later this week when it's supposed to cool down slightly to do any welding. I did get two more floor pieces cut and bent.

this panel for the driver's side rear, which is an interesting area because both the area surrounding the cross-member and the seat rail mounts are full of rust holes. So I'm thinking I may just cut everything out from my first replacement panel back to the bench seat shelf. 

I may mount the replacement from the underside leaving the bulge for rigidity (area in the square) and follow along the pan edge on the inside of the panel (red line). I'm also open for any suggestions. I haven't seen too many photos of what other people have done with rust in similar areas but as far as I can tell the vertical bar the seat rails sit on is a very structural component so I have no plans to remove that.

 

But the double plate that had holes in it to mount the seat rail to was completely rusted and broken off, so I am thinking I will cut through the rest of the double plate and recreate it by welding a piece of flat bar steel on top of my panel and drilling holes through it.

 

The other panel I got bent was a small addition to the passenger side front to finish out the toe kick area

I also made some spacers out of quarter inch steel to try and get the driver's side motor mount to sit better.

I forgot to take a picture, but with the one of the spacers on and the new taller motor mount it seems to sit better that it was. Hopefully it doesn't decided to opt out again and tear through in a couple of days. I'm thinking that was more defect on the mount than stress from the motor but I can't be sure.

 

I made a small plate to cover the opening in the intake manifold from where we deleted the egr valve

after looking at the ones you can buy I guess I didn't need to make it so big but it will still do what it's supposed to. 

here's a pic of it on the manifold although you really can't see it. I ran a bead of some rtv along the edge and some around the valve opening so I figured it should be sealed pretty good.

the bolt with the blue rtv coming out from underneath it^ hard to get a decent angle to see it.

 

Fin and I also got the flywheel and clutch on his 810

torque converters have go to be one of the strangest thing on a car. I don't really understand how fluid and rotation equates to shifting.. idk. Anyways the new trans should be in next week. then the only real thing left is sourcing a clutch pedal assembly and some miscellaneous suspension stuff and the 810 will be drive-able.

the trans tunnel is so roomy compared to the 510 (I had my whole head up in it to take this pic^), I guess because it used z car stuff it required a lot more space

 

The regulator I bought only came with a 1/4" barbed outlet and the hose from the welder appears to be only 1/8" so I also need to buy another outlet to weld next week, but hopefully I can finally experience what everyone is talking about.lol

[hoodradKyle]

I was busy this week trying to tear apart and part out my buddies 280zx. http://lancaster.craigslist.org/pts/3959585887.html  He is keeping all the cool stuff (engine and suspension) for the 810, but I did get some more z wheels for the 510 off it.  ^ shameless advertising :blush:

idk how I feel about the 205/75 rubber, but I might get some smaller tires and run a 15 14 z wheel stagger with the swastikas

75 series really fills the wheel-well (I don't even think the tire can roll). I found some 185/60's that I think will look better for only like $40 each brand new.

 

sorry for the lame update, but buy some 280zx parts to help fund our dime projects :thumbup:

[hoodradKyle]

It's been a month since my last update..partly because I went on a two week vacation to Alaska and partly because I haven't gotten much done. Here's what I little have gotten done.

Some cutting

 

Some welding.(keep in mind I had never welded before starting this project)

I also scrapped the idea of doing the rear driver's side floor pan all in one piece. It wasn't fitting right and was become an unnecessary hassle so I decided to do it in three panels to try and eliminate some of the fitment issues

First panel test fit

new panel layout, I am going to get a piece of heavier steel to run across where the seat bolts through the floor. Possibly some 16 or 14 gauge to give the floor more strength and have more solid mount. Also planning on a small 1x3ish "L" bracket to weld the furthest rear panel to the bench seat edge

Unfortunately I only got one of the three panels welded in when I hit a major snag and haven't moved forward since..I burnt a hole in my welder hose while welding over my head on the underside of the car.

Doesn't look too bad but I must have melted a small hole in the gas line because It leaks there now. I assume this isn't all that uncommon, can anyone give me a solution? I am somewhat worried about taking the gun itself apart to re-run just the air line, but as far as I'm concerned that seems to be the easiest/only route.

 

Also picked up another set of z wheels.lol

[hoodradKyle]

So labor day weekend is over and here's what I got done.

I'm starting to get the hang of welding. Definitely not perfect yet, but some vast improvements since I started.

Cleaned everything up with a couple of these polycarbide pad things, They work much better than the wire wheels I had used before to remove the first layers of paint and rubberized coating. With the poly ones it not only removes the rust and paint, but polishes it to an extent.

I sprayed the whole floor down with WD-40 to hopefully prevent surface rust from forming again. I am hoping to get to the autobody shop this week to buy some seam sealer and start the process of painting/coating the floors. Here's what I'm thinking (any input is welcome).Self etching primer, rust inhibitor, seam sealer, a build-able primer, followed by yellow paint on the inside and undercoating on the outside.

[captaingamez]

$26 is so cheap, that thing will cost you a big deposit and then like 40 here.

 

God, I miss the amish, and PA......

 

But the PA salt hates my cars.

[mattyhacks71]

Looks good man!

 

Soon enough you'll need to change the thread title

Summer Driveway Build

 

:devil:  :rofl:

[hoodradKyle]

$26 is so cheap, that thing will cost you a big deposit and then like 40 here.

 

God, I miss the amish, and PA......

 

But the PA salt hates my cars.

Amish shops are the best, rusty cars are not. Catch 22 of Lancaster

 

Looks good man!

 

Soon enough you'll need to change the thread title

Summer Driveway Build

 

:devil:  :rofl:

Technically I have til the 22nd right?LOL :thumbup: