Tricky Dick's '78 B210

[nifty50trickydicky]

Hey all, I've lurked around a bit on this forum and made a handful of posts, but I figured it's time to take a break from the tinkerin' and share my Datsun story so far...

 

I bought a 1978 B210 in June and got right to work - literally. It wouldn't shift into third (it's a 3spd automatic) the whole ride back home so the first thing we did was check out the transmission - just needed a new vaccuum hose, fixed that problem right up. One of the POs had installed a dual-port carb and electronic fuel pump, those were the first things to go and swapped out for originals. The air cleaner was missing as well, found one of those on ebay, cleaned it up, painted it, put it in the car. Good as new. Other small things here and there - tightened the steering and pedals, adjusted the idle, bled the brakes and replaced the old pads, etc.

 

Once I got it running I turned to interior work, started stripping it in my packed two-car garage, pulled out the seats, belts, carpet - everything but the dash and steering wheel. By the way - Maguire's Ultimate Black, the kind used for exterior body panels, try that on the black plastic pieces inside your Datsun, it works wonders. Finish off with a coat of Armor All. And non-black parts, use Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Couldn't believe how well it worked.

 

There were a few tiny pieces that broke - like the PRNDL label - I sent these off to a friend who has access to a 3D printer shop, and he printed a few of them for me. Very cool.

 

Last week, my Dad came up with a U-haul, says "Let's load up the Datsun," he took me and the car down to South Florida where he lives and we put it in one of the storage bays of his warehouse. Plenty of room and lots of tools. I've been working on stripping the car nonstop since we got here. Just pulled the engine out last night, he's got a buddy who will do the rebuild for us. We dropped the seats off at a local upholsterer to have those taken care of too. Today we've been finishing up stripping everything else out of the car. Right now we're taking a break for dinner but we'll be heading back to the warehouse tonight to prep the engine bay and trunk, and if all goes well we'll start painting tomorrow.

 

Album links below:

 

• Before
• Air Cleaner
• Engine Bay Work
• Exterior Pics
• Trunk Work
• Interior Work

[j_boy_619]

Lol digging the beach chair. 

[king bee66]

great project

[nifty50trickydicky]

Thanks guys, just got the trunk and engine bay coated with Rustoleum "bed liner", more to come next weekend.

[mrbigtanker]

_{Love the sig name tricky dick,good one.}

[nifty50trickydicky]

Well, gentlemen, I promised weekend updates, so here's what happened these past few days:

 

Oh, and by the way, basically, classes have started back up for me so I'll only be able to get down to the warehouse on weekends (it's a good 4 hour drive from my university). Well, I think I overestimated how much I'd be able to get done in less than two days (if I drive down Friday after class and arrive around 9, I have until 12-2am to work on the car, assuming I'm awake enough, etc; all day Saturday, and most of Sunday, until the late afternoon/early evening when I need to drive back to campus).

 

Anyway, so NOW here's what I got done this weekend:

 

• Stripped the factory foam insulation from the floors. I do not recommend doing this, unless you absolutely need to, and unless you can think of a better procedure than I did. We had a lot of surface rust we had to deal with and I noticed it hanging out around the insulation, so I assumed (correctly) that it would be best to take it off. Well the insulation appears to be held on by some strong adhesive, so we ended up using a hammer and chisel to take it all off... It took my brother and I about 6 hours to do that. Not fun, and not exactly pleasant on the wrists.
• After the insulation was stripped, we wire brushed away the surface rust, cut out a nice straight hole around my floorboard gap, ground away the edges of that, and riveted in a nice new patch for the floorpan. We then used Rustoleum rust-protectant primer on the entire floorpan and inside firewall. The next step is to lay new insulation, but that will have to wait for next weekend.
• After that, we got the car up on jackstands, removed the muffler/exhaust assembly, and used a few cans of Rustoleum undercoating to take car of the undercarriage... made a hell of an improvement in terms of looks (not that many people will be able to appreciate the view...) We slapped a coat on the wheel wells as well. It takes about 48-72 hours to cure so hopefully next weekend I'll be able to report whether the rattlecan undercoating is worth its salt.

Well, that's about it. Unfortunately, I have no pictures this week because I spent far more time working and zero time taking any shots. Next weekend is Labor Day so I'll have four days to work on the car, since I don't have classes on Tuesday. Hopefully next weekend we'll lay the insulation and finish up bodywork; ie, bondo any dents and dings, sand the car, and maybe, time permitting, prime the exterior!