My Rusty L320 Build

[delariva]

I got the Eastwood shrinker stretcher and bead roller. I looked into the mitler bros bead rollers, but decided for how often I will use it, it didn't make sense to spend the extra money.  All of the Eastwood stuff I have has been fairly good quality for the price. 

 

Finished tacking in the patch yesterday. It fits as well as I could have hoped, and I am happy with it. My goal is to have everything patched up and get a good start on the rest of the chassis and suspension over the winter. I would like to be ready to epoxy the rest of the cab as soon as it warms up. 

Edited November 5, 2019 by delariva

[delariva]

wayno, that definitely looks like a ton of work! I really like how yours turned out. I think it looks better with the extended cab windows than it does just stretched a few inches without them. 

[MattSheldon]

Following......great progress both in your abilities and the 320.

[delariva]

Thank you MattSheldon I appreciate that.

[delariva]

I have not posted any updates in a while so I will do my best to recap without making it too long winded. My daughter was born in March. Before she was born I was not able to make any progress on the project, there were a few complications and we were in the hospital for a few lengthy stays. Everything went well and she is a perfectly healthy and happy baby, so I am very thankful for that. Since she has been born I have been able to head out to the garage for an hour or two after she goes to bed and work on the Datsun.

 

I finished the driver side rocker panel, and after learning the hard way, put the door on this time so I could get the panel gap to line up.

 

 

 

 

Figuring out how to get the radiator to fit has been high on my to do list for a while. The mechanical fan will not fit with the L16, and I wanted to make sure to get that sorted out before I pull the engine. I ordered the radiator and made a fan shroud, so I could run at least one puller fan. I have space on the shroud for another small fan, and will add that soon. Hopefully they will be enough to keep the engine cool. I don't have a pic of it installed, but it fits. I added the recess in front of the water pump pulley to keep it from hitting the shroud. I'll add a picture of it in place in my next post.

 

 

I was looking into buying a body panel rack, but they are a little pricey for what I need. I bought $15 of remnant steel and made one. 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by delariva

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Everything looks great. Glad to hear she's a healthy baby and mamma's alright too (?) Complications suck.

 

On the fan shroud, you should make some holes in the areas where there is no fan. Why? I spoke with a tech at Be Cool a few years back, when I was building my own fan shrouds for a specific engine swap I do, and he told me that if the air comes in and has nowhere to go, it will bounce back and disrupt the cooling. If you look at their dual fan with built in shroud, it has holes covered with rubber flaps that open when air is blowing through them but get sucked shut when the electric fan is pulling.

 

Even if the holes aren't covered, they will help with this situation. I have cut holes in the corners of the shroud (1.5"-2") and left them open and that seems to work fine too.

 

[delariva]

Thanks, mom is healthy too.

I saw those flaps on summit racing. I will definitely get some of them, or at least have open holes in any area where the flap might hit the belt if it is opened up. Thanks for the tips, I always appreciate it.