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Greetings! Intro/build thread


Ben_upde

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3 hours ago, Ben_upde said:

 

It’s my work though so if I stack a ton of stuff around here it takes up room for money making work. 

 

I fully understand where you are coming from. I spent close to 40 years in a cabinet shop, doing cabinet installation, and other woodwork. If you don't have space for your livelihood you are fighting a losing battle. The shop space I have is full of Dad's stuff and my stuff because I always have something else more important to do. My Dad was a packrat (grew up in the depression era) and I learned his packrat ways I guess. I just hate the thought of getting rid of his stuff since someday it will be "needed", and since it is not work related I tend to procrastinate.

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19 hours ago, Ben_upde said:

This section of the shop is 50x100, added onto an existing building that was approx 60x60. 

 

It’s my work though so if I stack a ton of stuff around here it takes up room for money making work. 

I get that. My shop is 40x60, with a two post lift, a four post lift, a mill, lathe, plasma table, a slew of brakes, rollers, benders, welders, a "clean" work area and metal fab area. Right now, it is winter, which means that my own personal vehicles are stored inside, taking up valuable space. The way my shop is laid out now means that I can only have one customer job completely blown apart at a time. If I ever get off my ass and build the mezzanine, I can move all the parts storage and my office upstairs, allowing me to have up to three customer vehicles in progress.

 

Some day, I'd like to add a shed roof on both sides outside the shop. You can't have too much space.

 

As far as packratting goes, it's not for me. I need to run a tight ship to be productive. Sure, I have four or five engines, many transmissions, t-cases, axles, radiators, steering boxes and columns, wiring harnesses stacked up in the rafters, but if it can't make me money, it's outta here.

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Back to work on this beast ?

got the tank straps fabbed and installed. I wanted to make them out of stainless but didn’t want to buy a massive roll of strapping, nobody local had any in stock so I went with ⅛”x1” mild steel strapping. I’ll paint for corrosion control. I used a fuel resistant rubber ‘tape’ as insulation/isolation of the tank where the mounts will touch it. It’s not going anywhere ?

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Couldn’t find a short enough hub adapter to allow me to use a quick release for extra theft protection. Made one from a cheapy quick release and a crappy datsun steering wheel. 

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i’ll add material to make it blend with the steering column better later on. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 2/21/2019 at 3:17 PM, Ben_upde said:

Not a ton of progress due to heavy workloads and illness but I finally found how I wanted to bring the wiring through the firewall and made a blanking plate. Now a bit of tedious soldering and most of the wiring should be set!

 

You have just identified one of my greatest hurdles doing EFI engine swaps. Wiring grommets, or "firewall boots" as the industry refers to them, are almost non existent in the aftermarket. The good quality ones that come on OEM wiring are not available anywhere (unless you buy a wiring harness), and I have exhausted my supply of junkyard harness parts. The problem lies in the ECU connector. The wiring bundle is usually only 1/2 to 1 inch round, but the connectors are huge, sometimes requiring a 3" hole to be cut.

 

So you're going to pass the wiring through without the connectors on and then solder them together? That's a lot of work, and then you'll never be able to remove the harness. Are you sure you want to do that?

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1 hour ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

 

So you're going to pass the wiring through without the connectors on and then solder them together? That's a lot of work, and then you'll never be able to remove the harness. Are you sure you want to do that?

No, these connectors have solder pins on both sides of the mating surfaces. They are standard cannon plugs found in the majority of aircraft equipment. The reason I went with solder style connectors instead of crimp pins is availability. These were readily available while the crimp style were backordered for weeks+. With the strain relief body I felt that the engine bay connections would be more than sufficiently strong and supported. The interior side will require some cable mounting attention to keep flex and vibration to a minimum to avoid stressing the solder joint. But again, if they are suitable for aircraft I am more than confident they will suit Datto perfectly ? 

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  • 2 months later...

No new news on Datto#1 as i’ve not been able to touch it in months but I have had a few moments to tinker with Datto#2 and got it running quite well. I’ll putz around in it for a while until the main squeeze is finished. 

 

Clip of cam lope. Turn up the volume and enjoy 😁

https://imgur.com/a/cAGyRoC

Edited by Ben_upde
Clip w/sound
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  • 1 month later...

Finally got around to moving Datto1 home so I can do small things here and there on weekends and evening as nothing was happening while it was at the shop 😂

I got the new genuine Nissan metal mirrors installed in place of the garbage ebay specials I had.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally some actual progress!

ordered up some Silvermine rear caliper mounts, faced the fact that I was never going to get around making my own. 

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Rear discs and calipers from a mid 90’s Trooper 

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All mounted up 😁

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Edited by Ben_upde
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So far the Datto clutch master cylinder seems to be playing nice with the Audi clutch slave cylinder!

Got brake pedal and clutch pedal. 

The necessary transmission mount and bracket are on their way to me so I can final fit that portion to the crossmember. Thinking i’ll have to make a little ‘porch’ off the front of the stock crossmember and that will be set 😁

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6 minutes ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

The brake line right under the bumpstop isn't a great idea.

 

Parking brakes rock!

Good eye! I gotta tack the tabs onto the axle just outside of the u-bolts to retain the hose ends. I just stuffed those there temporarily to make sure everything was going to fit. Final position will be retained outboard of the frame to prevent any clearance issues 😂

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Engine bay is almost finally complete!

gotta fab up a turbo inlet/MAF housing with room for a diverter valve, get the exhaust built and wrap/hide the wires for the lighting. A bit of coolant line for the heat exchanger for the IC and minor small things here and there. 

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One of 2 rear suspension boxes arrived today. I also ordered some air shocks to try in place of coilovers. They are pretty much what Harley has been using for rear suspension on all their bikes for quite some time and have a rated capacity of 1100lbs. We’ll see. They were a whopping $60 so if they don’t work not much loss. 

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Also got final placement and mockup up the Audi shifter onto the Datto shifter cover. A few nutcerts and that will be 100% solid and finalized as well. 

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Finally feels like things are coming together. Now I just gotta get the ambition to knock out the under dash wiring!

Edited by Ben_upde
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On 1/28/2019 at 10:59 AM, Ben_upde said:

Couldn’t find a short enough hub adapter to allow me to use a quick release for extra theft protection. Made one from a cheapy quick release and a crappy datsun steering wheel. 

rRDUxQa.jpg

5yHLDWZ.jpg

 

i’ll add material to make it blend with the steering column better later on. 

nice work. more info on this?

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7 hours ago, 5t341tH said:

nice work. more info on this?

 

I cut the center section out of a Datsun steering wheel that was super crusty and beyond functional anymore. Luckily it was aluminum so I was able to weld the aluminum quick disconnect to it with minor modifications to  allow it to fit. I don’t recall exactly what modifications but it was just some grinding and material removal to allow it to sit evenly on the steering wheel hub I believe. 

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