Rust revival

[Rustbin]

On 11/13/2023 at 7:26 PM, DARIN 510 said:

Amazing fab work. Keep going on the path. Not many can do what you do. Pretty soon you’ll be ready for body filler and paint 👍

 

Thanks for the compliment but there's still a lot to do before body filler. I did get some paint on the peddles. The accelerator linkage covered well first time but the peddle arms went blotchy so I re-sanded then resprayed them nervously with an almost empty spray can. Thankfully I got them covered before the can ran out.

 

    

 

I found this paint in the discount bin and thought "9.99. Ya this is a good deal, I don't care if some paint from an exploded can got on the outside" but when I tried spraying it barely worked. So when all else fails read the directions, "any angle spay", it only works sideways or up side down, "high output tip", it pukes out paint like crazy, I ended up flooding the parts I painted with it.

 

 

 

My better way went pretty well, I marked out and drilled the holes, hammered in the little recess bent the flange and since we have had some breaks in the rain, got the brackets welded on and backside painted. I balanced it and held it flat with the vise to stop the lake of paint from running, 15 min drying time Ha, I ended up leaving it over night and it still was soft. Maybe the just above freezing temps didn't help. The paint did hold up pretty well with bending the curve on the bottom but when fitting I realized that the bent points on the outside top where there for a reason so I tweaked and it fit almost perfect, a tiny bit more adjustment and it was ready for welding in.

 

   

 

   

 

 

 

   

 

I placed the gas pedal bracket in and attached the linkage to check then screwed them in place, mounting the bell crank next so I could be sure of where to drill the hole for the captured mounting nuts, then back onto the center cowl drain. I heated up the irritating ripple, flattened it and though about doing the rest of them but figured they weren't worth the time.

 

   

 

   

 

I ran out of the sheet metal screws I was using so went searching for more, on a high shelf I found an almost full box, a little longer but "Oh well". The price was $2.69 at Mcleods, mmm, that's been around a few years, they went into receivership I don't know how many years ago. With my newfound screws I made sure every thing fit in place for the next sunny day. When the sun came out I was ready, I applied primer and paint to the inside of the cowl drain (don't tell anyone about the runs and sags in the paint and they will never know) and welded every thing in starting with the pedal brackets, captured nuts and the cowl drain (the paint didn't need to be dry did it?). I was able to go out the next day and fix pinholes ans such then covered it in discount bin primer, does every new spray can have the puker nozzles these days? It was hard to not get runs, at least this one didn't need to be upside down.

 

   

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

The sharpie marker bled through the primer so I still know where I need to cut and patch the rust holes. I'm going to have to pause on this project soon to do some work on my wife's Nitro so I want the bare steel covered. Don't want to invite more rust.

 

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

I have been yelled at by painters for using sharpie.

 

Looks good so far!

[Rustbin]

9 hours ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

I have been yelled at by painters for using sharpie.

 

Looks good so far!

 

I remember when doing the body work on my first 510, getting pink splotches bleeding through the hi-build lacquer primer on the door and fender, how frustrating it was. I got a professional to paint that car, not sure what he did but it came out beauty. My plan is to scuff it down and coat everything with epoxy primer before doing the body filling and sanding. I may need to get a professional to paint this one too, I don't have a place to set up an impromptu paint booth and today's paints are different than the single stage enamels I used for the backyard splashes I did decades ago.

[Rustbin]

Merry Christmas, it's kept me busy doing things other than working on my car, well that and doing the repairs on my wife's Dodge Nitro. The new driveway connects us with a subdivision and all the "suppose to's" that go with it.  I thought I'd share the lighted Christmas tree we put up to keep up with the neighbors with their lights, blow up Santa's, and such.

 

  

 

 

 

It's our ladder with Walmart light string topped with a jack stand and plywood star we made a few years ago to hang in the trees by the highway when COVID hit.

I hope we are all fortunate in the new year so than we can "Do It In A DATSUN".

 

[Rustbin]

My son and family dropped by this afternoon, and they gave me my Christmas present. I'm not sure if I should hang it on my trophy wall or on the outside between the two roll up doors. I think it's totally cool.

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Hell, even your Datsun sign is rusty.

[Rustbin]

Happy 510 Day! This marks two years since I started this thread. It's been a while and though I haven't progressed on the 510 I've been busy doing other things. I took the 510 out of the shop to replace the evaporator on my wife's Nitro and while I had it in there I replaced the heater core the distribution box and the clock spring. There had been some leaking from the sunroof so I dropped the headliner and removed the whole interior to clean the drains, the rust and repainted the floors. There were a lot of little things to fix along the way.

   

 

After that I started to clean up and because of a some negative feedback about collecting to much stuff I made my wife the 1x42" belt sander she wanted for her wood crafts. When picking up the sander parts at the thrift store I came upon a file cabinet, so that came home with me for the welding cart. After some yard cleanup that included disassembling the A10 wagon it seemed like it was time to use the bent trailer hitch I brought home when I worked at the collision repair shop in Jan of '23 for mounting the vise on my BBQ cart.

 

       

 

The file cabinet was 22 gauge and the hitch was 1/4' plate so I was able to test the extremes of my welders abilities, I am happy with the Lincoln welder. There were some school lockers in the carport when I bought this house and when we tore it down for the shop addition they sat in a ShelterLogic tent with a bunch of piles of lumber and such which had to be moved for the driveway relocation. They sat for almost a year outside then I had to move them to put in a garden, now I have a new batch of 20 gauge steel panels for making Datsun parts. This morning I went out and removed the tarp off the 510 and cleaned up the area to be ready to work in it but worked on the bbq cart instead because I want it for making Datsun parts.

 

   

 

I still need to do one more scrap metal dump run then I can focus fully on the 510, except of course when work calls or there is some more yard work.

 

[Rustbin]

I'm finally starting to carry on from last summer by making a jig for locating all my front suspension points starting at the cross member mounting holes. I have a pair of 710 TC rods and 2" washers that I can use to link to their mounting point and then I was looking for something for the strut mount. The tops of the A10 strut towers amazingly have the same bolt pattern so I'll use them on the strut brace but I can only find one of the rusted old 510 struts that I had lying around out back. I dropped the front suspension out of the 69 to use to build the jig since it's still unmodified.

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

My searching did score me a bunch of other suspension parts but not the other strut.  I cleaned, trimmed the backing plates and painted the red rear suspension parts to put finned 240 drums on the 69 way back in the late 80's. I'll get back to that car once I'm finished the 72.

 

     

 

It all takes time.

[Rustbin]

We had a big wind blow tons of stuff off the fir trees and cover every thing, well not tons weight wise but maybe thousands of these little orange things that were like walking on rice puffs cereal, covered the driveway, so I had to sweep and clean it up to uncover the car again. After the clean up I dragged the stump around, with the thought that I won't need to use the woodstove till fall, and reworked the bowl I had put into it. To try it out I started on making the wheel well piece between the firewall and strut tower. It requires lots of shrinking so I started with a piece of shelving, tried stripping the paint off (without much luck) then went about trying out the stump. It went very well but the shape meant some very long tucks and after four hours my shoulders were really feeling it. I only took a few pictures, beginning and end but I'm pretty happy with the results. It needs a lot more planishing and I got to try out one of the new hammers my wife got me for 510 day.

 

      

 

     

 

  

 

The paint remnants make it look lumpier than it feels, I'll finish sanding off the paint after I'm finish planishing it. I wish I had an English wheel.

[Rustbin]

When cleaning out the garden tool shed we call the out house, I found a small piece of rail from one of the old narrow gauge coal mining roads probably left by the previous owners of my house. I thought this would make a good post dolly so I ground off a lot of rust pitted steel and made it fairly smooth and slightly rounded to planish the wheel housing I had shaped last week. Also while working I often use my other piece of regular track upside down as a flat anvil but being round, it fell and chipped my shop floor so I made a base for it to sit in, which works much better. 

 

   

 

   

 

The planishing went well and I found I was able to adjust the shape of the curve while doing so, lastly I rolled the top edge leaving it 1/4" long for fitting when the time comes. I spent half the day working on it and adjusting the hammers and dollys to get a smooth finish. I sanded the metal to show the high spots for smoothing it out and also removed some paint in the process. By dinner time it was good enough, it has a nice shape and feel when you move your hand across it so after the undercoating goes on the wheel side and the high build primer gets sanded on the engine side no one but me and the readers of this thread will know it's not factory. 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

[Diabolic kustoms]

still replacing sheet metal on this thing?

[Rustbin]

On 7/9/2024 at 9:38 AM, Diabolic kustoms said:

still replacing sheet metal on this thing?

 

Still a lot more to go. KF now has chassis rails left and right but not the engine bay frame rails so I've been looking for some 14 gauge to make them since what I have is to rusted to repair. I checked out the A10 ones to see if I could work with them but they to were rusted so I decided to check out the metal supermarket in the nearby bigger city when taking my wife to a medical appointment at the hospital there. In the meantime I started cleaning up and playing around with the thought of making a small sheet metal break (cause I watch to much Youtube) with the bed angle and other stuff I have cluttering up my space so with no real plan I started cutting and welding. I found wheelchair break spacers to make barrel hinges, a bath handle, some old GM head bolts that were a little too long so I made them work with a cam lock. It can bend up to 16 inches and the handle can be removed for storage by pushing the little brass buttons. Note to self; remember to clamp it to the table before using.

 

 

 

Halfway along in this project I got a 33 x 48 inch sheet of 14 gauge for less than I expected  so I'm just starting on adjusting my patterns and laying them out. My wife mentioned she wished I had a plasma cutter to speed things up (but mostly so she doesn't have to listen the noise of the grinder) and I do too it's just a little too expensive

right now.

 

 

 

I also did a little work for the front suspension jig. Without two old struts to pillage for the tops I resorted to using two old saw blades trimmed to size then drilled for bolts.

 

   

 

   

 

My plan it to build a strut tower brace with a tie in to the center cowl vent hole the a brace down to the cross member bracket then some extensions from this to locate the TC and steering box mounting points. I might even use it to mount the car when I put it back on the rotisserie.

 

 

[Ooph!]

You can buy a Plasma cutter for less than $150 , I'm sure most are Chinesium.

I bought a Cut 50 off Amazon not the best cutter but it works, it just takes some practice learning its limits and my technique to get a clean cut but can't argue with the price.

[Rustbin]

I have been called into work a lot more lately covering vacations and such so I haven't done much on the 510 or even looked for a plasma cutter. I did get the saw blade strut tower brace bolted and tack welded in place then started making a buck for the frame pieces. I took the inner braces out of one and cut the wood based on measurements since the metal is no longer straight and true.  I screwed them to an old shelf so I can reverse them when I go to build the other side.

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

My buddy Gord needed some electrical help on his car so I spent Saturday morning cleaning up some electrical connections between the old and new wiring to get the Halo's working and I replaced one of the interior sail panel lights because after over fifty years the contacts couldn't hold it together anymore. Anyone have courtesy lamp lenses for a '71 Buick Riviera? just asking for a friend.

 

 

[Rustbin]

So I got some time to start cutting out the pieces of the frame rails using the grinder with the cut off disc and the jigsaw with the metal blade both of which made a horrendous noise on the sheet metal even with ear protection. My wife came out of the house to talk to me about it then took it upon herself to search the internet for plasma cutters.  I persevered and got all six cut out, tried one on the buck then venture back into house to hear my wife had found a Lincoln  plasma cutter on EBAY. It should be here by next weekend but I think I forgot to mention that I still will need to grind the parts after I cut them out oops. On the few days I haven't had to go to work I bent and fitted (which included grinding) the parts of the left frame rail on my buck. So today between my want for perfection and want to get it done, I got it to good enough, then tack welded it together. I was all ready to fully weld it but rain started coming down real hard so it'll be left to next weekend.

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

     

 

 

 

I think I used every hand clamp I have on this project except the one I couldn't find and the air hammer was essential for bending the flanges.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Incredible.

[iceman510]

Agreed.  Wow.

[Rustbin]

This long weekend it seemed that everyone was going out doing something, except me, my wife's friend was visiting from Edmonton,(she brought my Christmas present that she forgot to put in the parcel she sent) daughter in-law's birthday, Nautical days. The plasma cutter arrived while I was at work last week so I was itching to get out to the shop. The first thing I needed to get done was the welding on the frame rail, the next was playing with the plasma cutter. I cut up some frame members from the A10 that haven't made it to the metal recycle bin, then went on to putting together the right hand frame rail. I got ahead of myself by bending the flange on the top piece, then clued in and reversed the buck I had made, followed by tweaking trimming and fitting the pieces till I was satisfied it was as good as the first rail.

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

   

 

I didn't get around to making a T dolly so I used this jackhammer blade that I had picked up at a garage sale some years ago, to bend a radius on the edges. I also resorted to using a couple #6 screws as locator pins on this one which made the work easier.

 

   

 

   

 

    

 

I thought I had a picture of the welding process where I welded the inside first but I guess I didn't. It's not pretty because the grinder can't fit in but it has good penetration and as every welder knows if you don't get good penetration it's not worth a f*ck.

 

      

 

I decided to keep the buck intact just in case I want to use it for the '69 since the front of the frame rails on it have been hacked. I also have to figure out a good way to store the cables on the welding cart, anybody got a idea I can borrow?

[Rustbin]

Back onto the suspension locating jig, I found two large diameter bolts with 1 1/8 in heads that almost filled the holes for the TC rod mount but since I wanted them to be as precise as possible, I cut a piece of tubing and made a sleeve that fit between the two 2 inch washers and mounted them on the 69. I needed practice with my plasma cutter so I cut up an old caravan seat base for bits to tie the bolts to the cross member. I had fun. I noticed I was running low on mig gas and wanted to weld some thicker metal so I switched over to flux core wire, it looks messy and splatters a lot but hey it works. I made a couple of trips to the fastener store to get the right bolts for the steering box/ pitman arm mounting holes and strut mount holes, SAE hardware fit tighter so I used them instead of metric. I welded bits of scraps from work to make the bolt on center bracket that splits in the center to allow me to mount the frame rails one side at a time.

 

   

 

 

   

 

    

 

     

 

I then moved onto making the strut tower connector out of rods from my wife's old bug net tent that tore last year. The tubing is thin walled so welding it to the angle iron was going to be a challenge so I made the legs off the bed frames into bases that I welded to the jig then drilled holes in the sides of the tubes to make a plug weld and not risk melting away the tube with the flux core. I had a little trouble getting the angles right on the saw blade but once that was solved the rest went smoothly. I welded a centering bracket to the strut brace to be sure I would get things, well, centered (the corrugated sheet metal was to protect from weld splatter, maybe I should have had some on my arms as well.)

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

  

 

 

 

It was tight getting the jig removed from the 69 as the TC mounts are like pockets and removal required moving down and aft the right amount first on one side then the other then it dropped. I started to install the strut brace first, but the flange was bent so after that was fixed I lined up the center hole, installed the screw then checked the tower holes which had previously been elongated for more camber, and the left side lined up but the right side was inboard about 1/8 inch, hmm. Next the steering jig went in, perfect fit and I remembered to put the bottom bolt in opposite direction of the other two.

 

   

 

    

 

Before I could install the last part of my jig I had to change some braces I had for the firewall repair. It also meant moving the blocks I had under the front frame rails and supporting the body at the front jacking points. After installing the main part of my jig I found a threaded rod and extension from a floor to ceiling pole to press the strut tower outward while tapping with a 2lb sledge hammer, to finally be able to put the bolts in. I figure the stresses will release as I replace and repair the metal on that side. 

 

         

 

     

 

  

 

Next it will be removing the old and fitting in the new frame rails but the weather forecast isn't looking very promising so I might end up cleaning the shop a bit.

 

 

[DARIN 510]

You got mad skills. Keep up the good work 👍🏼

[Rustbin]

I've been working on the the internal supports within the frame rails and was wondering what the two holes with the captured nuts were for? I am just going to delete the extra holes but was there something mounted here on some vehicles? Also which drain holes are actually required?

 

   

 

Christmas in August happened, actually my KF order arrived but pretty much the same. I could have built them but with the amount of work it would take it's worth it to just buy them.  I test fitted them on my original rails the tried the same on the ones I made and I guess they need a little tweaking.

 

   

 

 

   

 

   

 

I started on removing the old piece from the car without removing the TC mount but with just one spot weld left it just broke off, that made test fitting easier but I'm going to have to do some careful measuring when putting it back in.

 

   

 

 

   

 

Just after I got the car I replaced the bumper support bracket and welded in a nut for properly mounting the 1 inch sway bar.

 

   

 

   

 

Before fitting it I hammered the sheet metal I had bent, back into place and carefully wrangled it into place. I marked the mounting holes and bits to be trimmed with a sharpie before removing it again and then with template and measurements l laid out for drilling.

 

   

 

 

Next using the bits of the cut up 14 gauge seat base I made up the internal bracket for the sway bar mount, the factory used 16 gauge originally but oh well close enough.

I made mine wider to fit and don't mind the ugly welding, no one will see it when it's done.

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

And a little hint to save wire is to put the ground clamp on your gloves between pieces so you will remember to ground your piece before trying to weld.

 

[Rustbin]

I got the inner braces welded into the frame rail, sprayed some primer on the edges from my nearly empty spray can, the masked and sprayed the inside with the discount black not worrying about the runs. I cleaned up the TC mount as best as I could then used rust converter as there are parts I just couldn't reach. I drilled a 1/8 inch hole centered it the spot weld on the mount as well as the lower rad support for proper alignment which worked very well. There was a lot of little adjustments and playing with the fitment but using clamps and my KF rear chassis rail as I measured and tweaked i got it to sit near perfect on it's own then drilled and screwed it together. Since the TC mount is 1/8" thick I needed to use fluxcore wire but left the rest till the next step which was the wheel tub side of the rail.

 

       

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

     

 

   

 

   

 

I had prepared by cutting a slice before installing the frame rail then removed the rusted piece and used the shelving to make the replacement. I also got to use my 16" break to bend the flange and the vertical bend into it, relying on the hammer and chisel to tip the edge and hammer and anvil to stretch the curved lower flange. I only took one picture of the initial test fit and of it ready to weld in, the only difficult part was finding the right welder settings to plug weld 20 to the 14 gauge steel. I was happy with my weld job so took a picture of it, ground smooth, then primered.

 

    

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

 

 

 

[WAGON JON]

The amount of work!!! Blows my hair back !  Did you ever have this car at Mt. Shasta meet back in the day? 

[Rustbin]

21 hours ago, WAGON JON said:

The amount of work!!! Blows my hair back !  Did you ever have this car at Mt. Shasta meet back in the day? 

 

It may have been to Mt. Shasta at some time, it definitely was in the lower mainland at before it became mine. I got the car around 2000 from a guy named Dave. It may have been raced a bit because it had the roll bar, front and rear sway bars, shortened springs, dual Webbers, MSD, Z rims and some Honda buckets sitting on chunks of 4x4 because he kept the seats that were in it before. He swapped out (I think) a 411 gear pod for the 390 because he'd be in third gear before getting across the intersection and it was revved out to much on the highway. I'm going to have to learn how to rebuild the Webbers, the MSD packed it in when a cop pulled me over for being to loud, (I didn't  get a ticket because it wouldn't start, but had to walk home) and the seats are now sitting on 4x4s in my basement. The rest of it is, well, in this thread.

[WAGON JON]

2 hours ago, Rustbin said:

 

It may have been to Mt. Shasta at some time, it definitely was in the lower mainland at before it became mine. I got the car around 2000 from a guy named Dave. It may have been raced a bit because it had the roll bar, front and rear sway bars, shortened springs, dual Webbers, MSD, Z rims and some Honda buckets sitting on chunks of 4x4 because he kept the seats that were in it before. He swapped out (I think) a 411 gear pod for the 390 because he'd be in third gear before getting across the intersection and it was revved out to much on the highway. I'm going to have to learn how to rebuild the Webbers, the MSD packed it in when a cop pulled me over for being to loud, (I didn't  get a ticket because it wouldn't start, but had to walk home) and the seats are now sitting on 4x4s in my basement. The rest of it is, well, in this thread.

The flames...It seems to me that this car was there at least once... perhaps it was a similar car. Anyhow, it does seem to have such excessive rust. Your living in Canada has caused the extensive amount of rust? Does seem strange. Wet climate I suppose?