datsunfreak Posted April 20, 2015 Report Share Posted April 20, 2015 Jeez louise what are you polishing these with? ^_^ 2 Quote Link to comment
KiloTango1200 Posted April 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2015 2000 grit sandpaper and Blue Magic polish. 1 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted April 20, 2015 Report Share Posted April 20, 2015 That looks like a mirror... :huh: 2 Quote Link to comment
DaBlist Posted April 20, 2015 Report Share Posted April 20, 2015 The black paint on the wheels looked like crap, so I soda blasted the paint and polished the wheel, Again. This time the wheel will get a black metallic powder coat treatment on the un-polished area. Looks great in natural! Seal them and run them 4 Quote Link to comment
KiloTango1200 Posted April 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2015 All the chrome trim, "bumpers, door trim, drip rails. etc..." will be blacked out to contrast the bright yellow paint. The polished part of the wheels will be the only "bright" parts on the whole car. The unpolished part of the wheel needs to be powder coated metallic black to provide the needed contrast for "The Look". 3 Quote Link to comment
KiloTango1200 Posted April 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 The left rear floor pan is completely stripped. Nothing hiding under the seam sealer. Only needs the damage under the left rear seat mount and the off road oopsie tear to be cut out out and a repair patch welded into place. Some rust, but can be taken care of easily. 180 degree view. New phone = new camera. Still trying to figure it out. Close up of damaged area to be replaced. Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted April 24, 2015 Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 All that with a wire wheel? Quote Link to comment
KiloTango1200 Posted April 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 A wire wheel driven by a $19.95 Harbor Freight battery powered drill, With 4 batteries. No electricity at the shop. Charge the batteries at the house every day. My buddy Mat says I do a pretty good job overcoming adversity. 1 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted April 24, 2015 Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 I do a pretty good job overcoming adversity. No kidding... :rofl: 1 Quote Link to comment
KiloTango1200 Posted April 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2015 A small amount of rust found lurking under the last bit of seam sealer that the wire wheel couldn't get to. Used a pick and a small wire wheel in my battery powered Dremel. Left rear floor pan connection where the pan, rocker panel, and rear clip all join up. Thought I could get away with leaving some seam sealer, but after finding this everything comes off. It was completely hidden. 1 Quote Link to comment
KiloTango1200 Posted April 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2015 Finished prepping the 1st wheel to go to powder coating. Lots of high temperature tape and lots of labor. Fortunately I can prep the wheel and watch the NBA playoffs at the same time. Outside of the wheel where the metallic black will be applied between the spokes. Inside the rim. Don't want any powder coating here to possibly screw up the balance. Same thing with the back of the rim. Lots of my labor = lots of $$$ saved at the powder coating shop. 4 Quote Link to comment
KiloTango1200 Posted April 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2015 Working in a storage unit without electricity presents an added set of problems to restoring a rusty 40 year old Japanese car that's difficult to find parts for. Even though the unit has roll up doors on each end, trying to work in the passenger compartment on a cloudy day, it is very hard to see. Harbor Freight to the rescue! For 30 bucks you can get a rechargeable under hood work light with detachable, magnetic end caps connected with a bungee cord. It is the perfect size to hang from the roof of a Datsun. Got all the light I need. No flash needed for the pictures. 4 Quote Link to comment
KiloTango1200 Posted April 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2015 Q: Is everything on this car rusted? A: Yes, yes it is. The E-brake needs to come off, but this little bastard is giving me fits. The clip is frozen and wont budge. I can't get a good angle on it and used enough force to start flexing the floor pan. I jacked up the rear of the car and got another notch on the jack-stands. I was able to get a good angle with the big pry bar and it very reluctantly let go. 1 Quote Link to comment
KiloTango1200 Posted May 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2015 Removed the right rear interior panel. As perfect as 40 year old interior panel can be. 1 Quote Link to comment
KiloTango1200 Posted May 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2015 WTF?? Found rust under Bondo at the right rear clip / floor pan / rocker panel connection. Not sure when this happened. It's around the rubber floor covering mount. Stripped clean. A fairly large area of rust hidden under Bondo. All the rust will be cut out and replaced by new sheet metal. The red in the picture is the carpet under the car. The carpet helps save my old knees. 1 Quote Link to comment
KELMO Posted May 3, 2015 Report Share Posted May 3, 2015 Well this statement will get some comments but, Get some knee pads at Harbor or Lowes. The carpet ain't gonna cut it. They are highly recommended for those of us that have passed the 50 mark. I use them every time I have to be crawling around the garage/car. 3 Quote Link to comment
Mattndew76 Posted May 3, 2015 Report Share Posted May 3, 2015 I wish that was all I needed to cut out and repair :( 2 Quote Link to comment
KiloTango1200 Posted May 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2015 I picked up the rear suspension off the blue race car rear clip. Lowered rear springs and rear sway bar. The car was a prepared SCCA class C Sedan race car. The guy who built it worked for Nissan at the time, so he must have gotten really good parts. 1 Quote Link to comment
KiloTango1200 Posted May 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2015 My buddy Scott, from St. Louis MO, stopped by en route to South Padre Island on his vacation. I found a 1200 Sedan windshield at a wrecking yard in Columbia MO and Scott drove there and picked it up almost a year ago. He has kept it safe until he was able to drive back to Texas and deliver it. I found it through the wrecking yard search engine listed on Ratsun. There were 2 other Sedan windshields available in the US at the time. 2 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted May 4, 2015 Report Share Posted May 4, 2015 Well this statement will get some comments but, Get some knee pads at Harbor or Lowes. The carpet ain't gonna cut it. That's a good call. I have a couple of these and they are indispensable. I find them a lot more convenient than knee pads you have to wear... 2 Quote Link to comment
KELMO Posted May 6, 2015 Report Share Posted May 6, 2015 The only thing I don't like about those is that you have to pick it up and move it, the knee pads stay with you. Aw geez, I did it again 1 Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted May 14, 2015 Report Share Posted May 14, 2015 There ya go, Kelly. You bust into my thread talking about big tools, and now knee pads on here. :angel: KT, nice work on the 1200. I'm well aware of what it takes to tackle a full resto like that. Nice job :thumbup: The only thing I don't like about those is that you have to pick it up and move it, the knee pads stay with you. 1 Quote Link to comment
KiloTango1200 Posted May 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2015 To quote Jerry Garcia, "What a long, strange trip it's been". I stumbled across this 510 at a wrecking yard in Wellington TX. I took this picture when I first saw the car. It had been sitting in the same place for 20 years. The owner of the wrecking yard had a soft spot for 510's and didn't have the heart to send it to the crusher. He hoped someday it would be rescued. I bought it for the engine to put in my 1200 2 Dr. Sedan as a race car. My plans changed on the engine swap and I traded it to Datsunfreak and picked up Dimlight65's white 1200 Coupe to race. DF decided it was too far gone to restore and sold it. I discovered the Chumps racing series, tracked it down and bought it for a race car. DF couldn't find another decent 510 to restore. I had a almost complete rusty 510 I didn't really need, and DF had 1200 parts that I REALLY need. I owned the 510 twice and now DF has owned it twice. In the end, everybody won. Reference 1st sentence. 1 Quote Link to comment
KiloTango1200 Posted May 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2015 Finally loaded the 510 at the storage unit on Sat. 5/8/15. Really bad weather and flooding only let us move the car 20 miles from the Sanger storage unit to the Denton Airport. The delivery to Datsunfreak in Ft. Worth will have to wait a couple of days. Good weather on Tuesday. Left the Denton Airport about 6:30 pm. The 510 has been delivered. DF got a complete car that has a rusted out body , but has all the other parts. He found a solid, almost rust free, rolling chassis that needed everything else. The 2 cars combined will make one killer resto job. 3 Quote Link to comment
KiloTango1200 Posted May 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2015 Here are some of the parts I got in the trade. An almost impossible to find Grant steering wheel that is correct for the 1200 steering wheel shaft. Like everything else on the 1200, the steering shaft is tiny. 1 Quote Link to comment
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