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.

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.

Thank you MattSheldon I appreciate that.

I just got my PayPal invoice, and will send the payment now. Thanks again for getting this together.

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.

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.

I definitely misunderstood. I went back and read it again. Who knows, maybe by the time i finish cleaning up the stepside bed that came with the truck, I'll feel more confident. Right now I don't think I have the skill to do it right.

They look like they have a different profile. I have seen rocker panels offered by reduxgarage for the 521, they look really nice. I reached out to them on their website to see if they could make some for the 320. They replied and said they didn't have a 320 to reference. I asked if sending a complete rocker would be enough to reference, but didn't hear back.

I didn't even know the doors were different sizes. Thanks for the info Wayno, that would be a lot of work to not get any leg room out of it. I can't imagine trying to get the cab extended and not screwing it up somehow. I ended up getting a new compressor over the weekend. My brother needed one too, but didn't have the space for it. He was nice enough to split the cost with me and let me keep it at my place. I have the patch cut out and the fitment of the new piece is about ready to tack in. I am just making sure it REALLY fits well this time before welding. I learned my lesson last time I got a little too eager. It has been really cold and snowing here the last few days so I have been working in short shifts in the cold garage. I think a propane heater is working it's way to the top of my shopping list.

Thank you. I bought a shrinker/stretcher and a bead roller. I went to a local sheet metal fab company and brought a piece of the rocker to see if I could get a quote on a replacement rather that patching it. They said they didn't know if they could even do it, but if they could it would be a minimum of $400 - $500 per rocker and most likely could cost more. After that I just decided to buy some more tools and figure it out myself. I am sure I could find someone that could do it. I almost had it right with a hammer and dolly, so I don't really see how a company that fabricates parts for a living thought it would be so difficult to reproduce. I practiced making the 90 degree angle on that piece with the bead roller before shrinking that curve into it. I think, with the right dies, I can get the rockers done.

I am working on patching some damage to the cab corner. I decided to practice shaping some sheet metal on a smaller piece before attempting the rocker again. I have a patch piece that is a very close fit right now. It will probably need a little fine tuning once the piece is cut out, but it should work. I ordered and installed a new reed valve/gasket kit on the compressor, but it still isn't building air as well as it used to. I can't order any other replacement parts for it because it is too old, so hopefully it will build air well enough to run the cutting tools. I am going to give that a try this weekend.

I haven't checked your build in a long time. WOW! you have done awesome work since I last checked in. Really impressive stuff man. I am excited to keep going back further once I get off work. For now, I need to log off before your build gets me fired haha.

Finished the disc brake kit installation a little over a month ago (other than the brake lines, I have to re-run all of the hard lines) I also made a trip to the pull yard. I got a notification that they had a 521. I grabbed the grille / headlight trim, and the washer fluid bag (can't find a pic of the bag) the bag leaks so I may not be able to use it. I snagged the trim because I didn't want it to get scrapped. I'll sell it to someone that needs it and use that money toward a 320 grille with the round signals, if I ever find one. I wish I brought more tools, the front bumper was in pretty good shape, but I needed another box wrench to take it without bending the bracket. I left it rather than trashing the bracket to remove the bumper. Hopefully someone else grabbed it before it got crushed. The last work I did before hunting season was stripping paint on the passenger side door jambs and rocker, and removing the passenger door. The rust damage is about the same on that side, maybe slightly better. With the compressor out of commission for a while I think I will try to fab a better rocker for the driver side than the first attempt. I want to get that finished before I cut anything out of the passenger side.

The tie rod dust boots are a universal part from Energy Suspension. They aren't perfect, but they work. The part is #9.13101 https://www.energysuspensionparts.com/9.13101

I am almost positive the transmission is an L series 4 speed. I need to get in the garage and figure out what to work on next. I just wrapped up archery season last weekend, so the month of Sept was spent in the mountains. One of the higher priorities on my project list is to take my compressor in to see why it won't build air. I was in the middle of spraying some more epoxy before the cold weather hits and it went out on me. I tried checking the pistons and didn't see any scoring, and the gaskets look good. Hopefully it isn't going to be too pricey, we have our first baby on the way this spring, so all work on the Datsun needs to be done on the cheap end this winter. I'll go through my pics and figure out what I finished up since my last post and do a quick update.