mklotz70 project MEND

[mklotz70]

Yep. It was there. It may still be laying on the floor from when I removed the pedal. :)

 

I hope you fond time to post the story!

[watsonius]

The gas pedal:

My recollection (and Do’s) is pretty foggy since this happened more than twenty-five years ago. (1982 or 1983??)

The pedal popped off the floor unexpectedly as Do was driving home from a doctor’s appointment, forcing her to abandon Mend in a parking lot. I think she walked the remaining distance, she thinks she got a ride.

In any case I called my brother and he and I went to retrieve Mend. We thought it might be possible to reattach the pedal, but after a few minutes it became obvious that this was not going to happen with a handful of tools, limited expertise, working in the dark. Fortunately we anticipated this and brought a length of cord which we tied to the accelerator cable. My brother sat in the passenger’s seat and yanked appropriately (or sometimes inappropriately) on the cord/cable as I steered, clutched, shifted and braked. Actually, considering that he had minimal experience with shifting (his car was a ’69 510 automatic), he/we did remarkably well. We did terrorize a few fellow motorists revving the engine excessively while shifting, but by the time we got home I don’t think anybody could tell that there were two bozos doing the job of one driver.

[1lo620]

Mr Klotz, looks as thow the resto job is going well. One of these days I might actually get one of my projects going and on the road. I look forward to seeing you in Canby this year...and keep up the great job

[mklotz70]

Great story Brian....I can just picture that!! :)

 

 

Thanks Dave. What are you bringing this year?

 

 

As for the resto.......If I remember right....I have to pull the motor to get the trans out....so I may just be doing the eng compartment too :( If so, I'll be glad to have to done, so Mend will be finished, but for time's sake, I hadn't planned on doing it just yet. So....I guess I'd better get back at it!!

[datrod]

Dang. I just sat here for the last hour playing catch up on this. Great pic's and progress Mike.

[mklotz70]

Thanks John. It will never look like your wgn, but it ought to be presentable :)

 

 

I didn't get much done today....spent time making a part I didn't need :( First up....the rust.

 

I have not used POR15 like a lot of the guys on here. I was sold on Rust Doctor before buying POR15. POR15 is great stuff, but it's extremely toxic, only seals the rust, has to be scuffed up to be top coated with another paint....... Rust Doctor on the other hand, converts the rust, is water soluble until dry, can be painted direct over, no harmful odors. Some of the spots/places look white in the pics....it was still wet. It dries pretty quickly. I think it was only about 30 min for 99% of it to be dry. There were still some small puddles here and there. I will be painting over the floor and undercoating the wheel well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

....and here's the part I made for no reason. Actually, I had a reason. I was going to cover the clutch hole.....except that once I mounted it, I realized that the new booster is going to go over the left side of it. Oh well...I can probably use it if/when I do the 510 wgn :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mklotz70]

As usual, I didn't get anywhere near as much done as I thought I was going to. :( I did get the lathe cleaned up nice and purdy....so I can put the sheet over it :) It's will be ready to go when I need it and it's been needing a cleaning for a long time! Anyway.....

 

 

I took another look at the tranny from the underside......I think I can pull it without yanking the engine. I spent hours walking around the eng compartment thinking about what I needed/wanted to do if I was pulling the engine. After wasting hours, I went underneath and decided I didn't need to pull the mtr. Geez!! What a huge waste of time!!

 

I did manage to get the holes drilled for the booster and do a test fit. It would be a lot easier to fill in the holes if I pulled the motor! :blink: I think I'll put some type of protect sleeve around the speedo cable where it rubs on the booster. Maybe I'll actually do something tomorrow after work.

 

 

[1lo620]

Thanks Dave. What are you bringing this year?

 

Well if I get off my ass I am planning on bringing the chop top...But the Blue truck is always there in a pinch...

[mklotz70]

final welded and reinforced the pedal pad. Still have a bit of clean up grinding to do.

 

 

 

.....3 exhaust bolts away from pulling the motor trans out. Thanks Dave!! :)

 

[Farmer Joe]

man mike, this thing was all together not to long ago. you really know how to tear shit down in a hurry lol.

 

hey if that auto that youve got dont work, ive got a 3n71b from my kingcab thats only got 85k on it. dont know if the shipping would be a killer, but just another option for ya.

 

i like the power brake upgrade on the 521 too! i saw that and was like, thats pretty trick!

 

keep it up man!!

[mklotz70]

Gettin' it apart is the easy part....going together is the hard part :( I'm quite curious to see how the brakes work when finished.

 

 

So I started the brake mod this evening. I'll be using some of these pics to create a page on olddatsuns.com that will be for the installation instructions....but for now, I'll stick them here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pacific coast Datsun]

Nice green parts... :rolleyes: Whats the verdict on the rust DR. ? Did it work allright ?

[mklotz70]

Thanks.

 

As for the RD....it's just fine. It dries quickly. I figure it's a lot more protection than this thing had 38 years ago. :)

[Dat620guy]

I think i'll order some of this Rust Doctor...Looks like good stuff.

[watsonius]

Putting it back together might be harder but it should be pretty satisfying.

 

I did the brakes myself long ago (shoes, springs, fluid, got the drums turned etc) but the last time I took it to a shop. After I got it back I went to the lumberyard for some plywood and ended up driving it home using the emergency brake. Checked the reservoir and it was empty, with lots of fluid all over the suspension. Called the shop and insisted that they arrange a tow to the shop. Then the people at the shop wanted to argue about who was responsible for additional costs. I don't yell and threaten people often, but that was one of those times. It worked, oddly enough.

Had things worked out a bit differently they would have had a death liability suit on their hands.

 

Most of the time we had Mend the shoes were slow to release, especially after hard braking. Finally a guy on Market Street (Dmitri) who runs a little repair shop looked at them and just back-flushed the lines. Worked like a charm. He understands really old cars.

[mklotz70]

I think i'll order some of this Rust Doctor...Looks like good stuff.

 

It's definitely spendy. I bought mine years ago and it's still good. It goes a long way. All that you see covered only took about a cup.....so I'd have a hard time telling guys to get more than a quart. You pour some into a disposable cup, use a disposable brush so there's no clean up. DO NOT pour anything back into the jug!!! You are brushing over rusted areas, which puts rust on your brush and in the cup....if you pour it back in the jug, you'll cause a reaction in the jug. Just put small amounts in the cup.....less of a mess too if you spill it :)

 

 

 

Putting it back together might be harder but it should be pretty satisfying.

 

I did the brakes myself long ago (shoes, springs, fluid, got the drums turned etc) but the last time I took it to a shop. After I got it back I went to the lumberyard for some plywood and ended up driving it home using the emergency brake. Checked the reservoir and it was empty, with lots of fluid all over the suspension. Called the shop and insisted that they arrange a tow to the shop. Then the people at the shop wanted to argue about who was responsible for additional costs. I don't yell and threaten people often, but that was one of those times. It worked, oddly enough.

Had things worked out a bit differently they would have had a death liability suit on their hands.

 

Most of the time we had Mend the shoes were slow to release, especially after hard braking. Finally a guy on Market Street (Dmitri) who runs a little repair shop looked at them and just back-flushed the lines. Worked like a charm. He understands really old cars.

 

They certainly don't have many miles on them!! If I didn't already have the "hook up" on the disc brake stuff, I'd definitely continue running these brakes!

[mklotz70]

 

 

[mklotz70]

Did the clean up grinding and beaded it. It's ready/waiting for paint or PC...most likely paint since I don't really have the time to PC this stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I only had a couple of hours in the shop, so I figured I'd tackle some of the smaller stuff.....next up...bucket seat mounts :) I used the air hammer again...overkill. I'll have to weld some metal back in there....oops! As the pics show, the pass side worked a lot better with a simple ball peen hammer. Live and learn! :(

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[alleycat]

lovin this

[mklotz70]

Thanks :)

 

 

Dang this page need to end and a new one start....getting way too long!!

 

 

Haven't done any vids since I got the new computer...thought I'd give it a try.

 

 

[mklotz70]

I drilled some extra holes to plug weld through. The mig should reach them just fine. The were along the edge because the factory spot welder couldn't get under the top lip. I need to fix the metal on the floor board first, then I can weld these in place.

 

[mklotz70]

I blame Crabbyone for this mod!!!! It took me a bit of head scratchin', but I think I've got it figured out. I wanted it to look fairly clean, so this is what I came up with. I didn't need the entire core support out of the way, but opening it up like I did should buy me a nice amount of room when I pull the eng in a day or two.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

....and a bit of vid for the fun on it

 

[PurePontiacKid]

dude, I love you.

 

It's awesome how you take the time to take pics of almost every step of what you do. Your thread on the strut tubes is the one that made me decide to just section my tubes instead of going with 240SX coils! lol

[mklotz70]

Thanks....it's nice to get feedback to know that the effort is helping someone else :)

 

There's actually even more pics on my photobucket....I don't always post every pic I upload. There's even more on my computer...I don't upload everyone I take :)

 

Half the time....they become a reference that I can refer back to! I end up having so many projects going at one time, that I can't remember what I've done on some of them.....so I go back to my own threads and refresh my memory :)

[DRIVEN]

I sectioned an Astro van core support like that a few years ago. It felt wrong at first but shaved about 6 hours off the engine swap time.

What were the seats from? If you mentioned it I must have missed it.

I really like the idea of power disc brakes and an auto. Power steering on the list too? Maybe a stupid question - were any of those ever options on a 521(JDM or otherwise?). Will the auto fit the stock tunnel or are you expecting to open that up a bit?