Just Another Wagon Thread

[thisismatt]

Very nice rim combo project. I'm in the middle of flipping the barrel on a set of 13x5 I have. Are those 13 inch faces stuffed in a 15 inch barrel?

I think he shoved the whole wheel in there :P

[Lockleaf]

I think you're right. I see it now. Awesome!

[mklotz70]

The cuts look really clean.  Were they done on a large lathe?  If not, how?

[DRIVEN]

The Roadster wheels were 14" X 4.5"(?) and the center was left welded to the rim and the rim was trimmed back on both beads to fit the Jeep hoops.  I did part of it and my boss, who lives for projects like this, did part of it.  There was a lot of experimentation.  Luckily there were 5 Roadster rims as we screwed one up.  We used a combination of a brake lathe, plasma cutter, and a custom fixture on a wheel balancer.  It was pretty labor intensive but like I said, my boss loves this kind of shit so I had lots of experienced help behind me.  Honestly, I'm not sure I'd do it again.  I love the look of the end result but it wasn't necessarily cheap and they are pretty heavy so there's certainly no performance advantage.  Mostly, I just wanted to see if I could pull it off.  They're stacked in the shop right now and I'm running stock 13s with whitewalls for the winter.  I was thinking about redlining the Falkens on the 15X7s for next summer just for something different.

[Lockleaf]

Awesome! That basically sounds like what I've got going on. I cut the faces from the rims with a brake lathe and I have a custom balancing/truing jig to weld them up. Now you've given me an excellent idea for another rim project. I already have a couple ideas I want to try, but you've given me an extra one.

[DRIVEN]

My truing jig wasn't very elaborate but did the job.  Since I was essentially making wheels with identical dimensions as the Gold Autobahns that I had borrowed from my brother, I at least had something to base the new ones off of.  I got an old brake rotor/hub and bolted it on the sample wheel and welded 3 locating fingers in place.  Then I had a fixture to set the new pieces into before welding.

I was actually surprised by a couple things.  First, they came out really true.  More so than many of the OE wheels that come through the shop on newer cars that are getting tires.  Second, the wheels themselves weren't that far out of balance.  I had intended to weld weights inside to zero-balance them before I ever mounted tires.  Come to find out none were more than a 1/2 oz out so I just left them as-is.  Once everything was done I found that if I set up the balancer for static, rather than dynamic, I got a better end result since I didn't want to use weights on the outside lip. 

[WAGON JON]

Those wheels came out sweet! Glad your still driving her around. Idaho is a fantastic place to live. My uncle lives up toward the top close to Sand Point. Keep the wagon though. Gives you something to evolve with!

[tr8er]

So glad to see some news on this car. I love a girl with a nice rack. And that rack is the best.

 

Congrats on everything! Daughter graduating is huge. Take care to be very attentive to your wife's transition. If she's not excited about the move, she will need support. Speaking from experiance.

 

Those rims are super clean by the way. Glad you kept the car.

 

Oh and you should build your shop first. You can pretend it will be a good place to store tools and equipment for the house construction. Cuz Datsun

[DRIVEN]

Thanks, guys.  I'll most likely keep it. 

 

As far as my wife goes, that's just her personality and always has been.  She could be perfectly happy doing the same job in the same place with the same people forever.  She didn't have a lot of stability growing up so stuff like this makes her nervous even though she makes friends easily and excels in every job she's ever had.  Whatever, she'll be fine.

 

On the house/shop build.  It's all just a math equation with the sale price of our current place being the biggest unknown.  The house plans that we have for the new place includes a large unfinished walk-out basement that can easily stand in for shop storage for a little while.  House also has a large 3 car garage.  Problem is, I've currently got my 510, wife's car, daughter's car, Cutlass, El Camino, 2 motorcycles, 4 wheeler, '35 Sedan, '35 pickup, a tractor with 6-8 impliments, a tow dolly, (I'll soon be adding) a car hauler flatbed trailer, and 2 large shops' worth of tools and equipment (lift, compressors, welders, torch set, steel stock, vises, anvil, jacks, stands, sand blaster, tool boxes, large rolling work bench, drill press, grinders, solvent tank, engine hoist, transmission jack, waste oil furnace and storage tank, paint booth ventilation and filter boxes, lighting, multiple large storage cabinets, spare parts).  Dammit, I'm already exhausted.   Luckily, my parents live in that town already and my dad has a pretty nice shop so at least I'll have a place to do any needed repairs.  The Cutlass and tractor/implements are already moved over there. The motorcycles and possibly the 4 wheeler will go up for sale around April when tax refunds start flowing and the sun begins to shine.  Possibly the '35 sedan and 510 too.  I'd absolutely love to keep them all but it's kind of selfish and just not very practical.

I presently have a 24X48 pole barn that serves as a body/paint facility and extra car storage and a 30X36 that is primarily where I do repair and fabrication work.  Ideally I'd like something in the 36x48 range to do everything under one roof.  That won't be cheap so I may need to put it off for a year or 5.

 

I guess it goes without saying that Datsuns and Datsun tech is a pretty small slice of what I have going on.

[That4doorKiD]

I had picked up some ZX struts a while back and was planning on installing them. Upon further investigation, I decided that there was more cost involved that didn't justify the minimal increase in braking. So, after spending a ton of time reading Mike's strut thread, I decided to just shorten the stock 510 struts. I settled on some KYB MR2 inserts and took about 2" out of the housings. I used a piece of angle iron as a welding jig.

I had to drill out the top hat to 9/16" for the shaft and used a 3/4" section of old exhaust tubing as a centering spacer at the top of the insert body under the nut. Other than that it was pretty straight forward. No more bottoming and the ride is muuuch better!

I'm thinking about parking the 1200 for the summer and just driving this. It still needs a carb kit before I would call it road-worthy. Then I'll find out how soon I need to do the engine swap.

 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!! Thanks mate

 

I will do the same at home. What did you use to cut the housing? I'm thinking my chop saw I have, but it might come out crooked. Maybe a pipe cutter?

[DRIVEN]

I used a band saw but a chop saw should work just fine.

[mklotz70]

I've used a pipe cutter. HF has one that's big enough.  The cuts don't have to be perfect. You can cut with a hacksaw if you want.  Just leave a little extra and grind it down.  When you put it in the angle iron, any other gaps will show up and can be dealt with.

 

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/6776-strut-modspic-heavy/page-4