DATSANITI - '80 210 Wagon VQ35 Swap

[Maschinenbau]

So it looks teal in some light like in my garage, blue in other light like in this is tree shade. I'll get more photos in direct sun after I have a chance to buff it. And it needs a gooood buffin. Lots of dusty patches and weird textures. But overall I'm very pleased. It even fired right up after sitting for almost a month.

 

 

 

 

 

[datzenmike]

What about continuing the BRE fender stripes down in the blue color?

[Maschinenbau]

Funny you mention that, I was thinking of continuing them in red

[]2eDeYe]

Man, this thing is turning out killer. B)

[BrothersGarage]

4 hours ago, Maschinenbau said:

Funny you mention that, I was thinking of continuing them in red

looks great BTW!

 

 

[Draker]

Looks good!!

[Maschinenbau]

Ooooo I really like that red stripe...but I would probably end it right at the bend line near the bottom of the door. 

[Maschinenbau]

I have not touched this car since I put it away after last weekend's fresh paint photoshoot because I'm going through some real E36 M3 in my personal life this week. I played around with wetsanding and polishing the paint. Here's the raw texture in a different light.

Not so nice eh?

Here's the same area wet sanded 1000 then 1500, then buffed with rubbing compound finally some Meguiars 205

MUCH better. This feels like buttery glass. Here's an area with no wetsanding, just buffing with rubbing compound. It was also a relatively trouble-free area:

It's decent, but not great. I think I'll be wetsanding the entire car. Oh joy. Here's a patch of freshly wetsanded area next to some buffed non-wetsanded paint. You can literally feel the difference.

Here is the wetsanded/buffed/polished area in different light. The sanded does something weird to the metallic since it's single stage. I think it will still work.

 

Also the color is doing something weird on camera. I look at the car - looks totally green. Look at picture I just took - yeah that's blue. I don't know what's going on, but both colors look good to me.

 

edit: fixed the photos I hope

Edited May 28, 2019 by Maschinenbau

[BrothersGarage]

pictures took a dump 😞 

[]2eDeYe]

I see them, looks great for a racecar 😄

[BrothersGarage]

Photos fixed and it looks great! Time to beat the shit out of it!

[Maschinenbau]

This Friday I'm going drag racing. Atlanta Motor Speedway uses the pit lane as a simple 1/8th mile strip, heads-up no timer style. I won't get a time, which would be useful for testing, but at least I'll get practice. I'm also going to drive Datsaniti the whole 50 mile round trip, which should be terrible in this southern heat wave without A/C and in Friday afternoon Atlanta traffic.

But first an oil change. The last time I changed the oil, this engine was in a different car. So about a year ago. It's so easy thanks to Nissan's front sump that you don't even need a jack.

I opted for a slightly longer oil filter this time, which is for a Nissan Frontier something like that. The internet said it would work.

You may recall a few months ago I picked up a set of Nitto 555R drag radials on some Mustang SN95 wheels. According to my gearing calculations, they should be too big for my Challenge goals, but just right for maxing out 3rd gear in the 8th mile. Plus, you know, practice.

Lots of practice

[metalmonkey47]

That's a VQ40/GTR oil filter. All I use on a VQ. 

It'll be interesting to see how she does.

[Maschinenbau]

"Yeah, it's built with GTR parts" 🤣

[Maschinenbau]

Went drag racing last night! 1/8th mile heads-up and no time. Got smoked by my buddy's electric Exocet and caught it all on video in the "gap cam"

https://youtu.be/qlx42KSLFSI

 

Overall a really fun night! The buddy who owns the Exocet drove Datsaniti to the track and back, in the southern summer heat, in stop-and-go traffic without any issues. He said it didn't seem that sketchy to him, but he also owns a Tesla-powered Exocet so I take his opinion with a grain of salt! I towed his contraption in return for him driving my car there. The tires I ran on the Datsun were 26" Nitto drag radials. I had zero problems turning them over for big smokey burnouts. They also seemed to hook right up with minimal spin on the launch. I did not play with air pressures but they were really high, so that gives me hope a smaller tire will still hook well at a lower pressure. They seemed to put me halfway through 3rd gear by the end of the 1/8 mile. I will probably go down a size when I buy serious tires for the Challenge. I want to max out 4th gear in the 1/4 at the Challenge, and I want those Jeep 15's all around. It was good to test out a "real" drag tire though. 

 

 

The only problem I had all night was the throttle pedal position sensor. On almost all of my drag runs, the engine would drop to idle shortly after flooring the pedal. This one plagued me at the $2018 Challenge, robbing about half of my autocross runs. What I think is happening is the potentiometer inside the pedal position sensor is either worn or dirty or both, so when the ECM sensing any sort of skipping or malfunction in the sensor, it goes into a safe mode by idling the engine and ignoring all throttle input until you restart it again. It also throws a code related to the pedal sensor. I cured this back in January by taking it apart and cleaning with contact cleaner. I then did 3 autcrosses with zero issues. Since that time, I have done all of the fender flares welding and grinding, bodywork, and paint. Every surface of the car, inside and out, is very dirty. I will clean it again, but trying to keep room in the budget for a new one, which is only about $20 thankfully. 

Edited June 2, 2019 by Maschinenbau

[]2eDeYe]

That thing looks great on the track. B)

[INDY510]

I wonder if the pedal doesn't go as far down on the infiniti? …  and the dirt is making it get stuck too far down for a second.

[Maschinenbau]

Very possible. I don't have a mechanical stop and I might be over-stressing and flexing the pedal sensor. I will probably add a pedal stop but definitely going to clean it. Amazon reviews say the replacement sensors are junk, so I'll pick up a junkyard one in case.

[Maschinenbau]

Before:

After!

 

Still some streaks and stipes in the paint, but it's shiny and I'm pretty happy with it! 

[]2eDeYe]

That looks great! 

[Maschinenbau]

Just little stuff recently. I bought a cafe racer/brat bike project, so that might distract me short term.

• Repositioned the hood rod to the center because the hood is so floppy now. 
• Removed the rear brake bias valve, since now I have the Miata prop valve. $20 back in the budget.
• Took apart the gas pedal sensor and doused that sucker in electrical cleaner. I also bought a junkyard sensor as backup, but hopefully won't need to take that budget hit.
• Started painting the interior floor. It was nasty primer before. The whole interior needs this treatment. 
• New passenger is thinking about its place in this build.

[]2eDeYe]

No pics of the bike? 

 

[Maschinenbau]

Best picture I have of it so far. '79 CB650. Engine is in great shape, starts right up and goes, just needs some little stuff like cables and brake work. 

[]2eDeYe]

Looks like a good base to build a nice bike. 

[Lockleaf]

I've owned many a 70s and 80s Honda bike.  I love them but man i hate the comstars.  Yours is a good looking one.