vanmansam

Maybe a dumb question, but since you already have a 71c is gutted down to the case, could you not mill the mating surface down? .2000" or .2500" or whatever? Idk how much meat you can realistically take off. Even a small cut might help out even if it doesnt solve the problem entirely. Also, still really anxious to see how well this combo fits in a 510 tunnel. Seems like a lot of the other transmission options for K engines require a lot of tunnel hacking, sometimes with less than optimal interior results (I know this will be a racer but some I really like having a heater 😅 )

Friend got em for his 620 but didnt use them and gave them to me. From Lonely Driver https://www.lonelydrivercompany.ca/products/l-gata-spark-plug-wire-holders?variant=34697835675720 My friend had one of their keys too really sweet but almost $100, and they also sell those seat-mount cup holders. Stuffs a little pricey for my blood but rly nice quality

Little update, mostly for myself to document progress/motivate She's ruff, but she's certainly a runner. Electrical: -The repin/rewire was well worth the pain. No more dead battery or blow fuses, and all my shit actually just works. It's heaven. Highly recommend a full connector swap if you got ratty wiring and you can stomach doing it. Use open barrel connectors and go one wire at a time and its really straightforward. And shout out to vintageconnections.com -Horn: Horn Video New relay, new horns, and a button. The rubber spacers in the steering wheel are gone and I couldn't get anything in there well enough to reliably isolate the horn ring. Any tips what to use as horn ring spacers/isolators/insulators? Passenger side horn screws still seized, need to weld some nuts on them to get them out. -LED's all the way around, also well worth it. Went through two different electronic flashers till I found one that worked. Not sure what LEDs I got in the front, but they dont blink if the running lights are on. Blink great with the running lights off though. Swapping the wires for the filaments made no change. Any advice appreciated. Electronic Flasher Relay i used: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FM9DZZ6?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details Remaining electrical that "doesnt work" -missing inspection light -washer squirter motor corroded worse than the wreckage of the titanic -rear cargo dome light Otherwise its all functional now wooo. Would love to get a map light working for the lens just above the radio faceplate tho Engine Bay: Made a bracket to relocate the twisty rod part of the throttle linkage. Didnt really realize just how bad the old setup was till I did this, bordered un-drivable before. No more sticking shut (or open at WOT) and the pressure throughout the throttle stroke is totally uniform now. Are there replacements for those plastic ball and socket joints? Dont trust mine will last forever. Koyorad radiator is great. New 180F thermostat, new hoses. Radiator needs a small spacer at the top, but I just bolted it down for now so I could make it to the show today. Bottom bolted up fine without spacers. A while back a friend gave me some LonelyDriverCo crane neck wire holders. Need some 8.5mm wires, just electrical taped the current set for now so they fit in the brackets. If I can get that ratty valve cover powder coated, then wipe down the dirt and grease, Id say I have a decent lil engine bay here Between the throttle and the wiring this baby feels like a brand new car. If only it looked like one 😅 Stuff Im working on or plan to get done before the 500 mile drive to JCCS: -New tires -68-69 bumper mounted license plate light install -PCV system (just need hoses and a couple elbows so it looks nice) -U-joints -New battery (current one is fine, just fits like ass) -Clean/tidy up lol Made the short trip to Williams from Flagstaff for the Route 66 Datsun Classic this morning. Shout out to my good friend AZHitman for putting on a great show. Love how they did it this year with the cars parked right on 66 instead of the Safeway/DairyQueen lots like previous years. Also had some sweet non-Datsun J-Tin there as well. Good turn out, good cars. Glad I did not enter the show though cause: 1) cause my car is a rusted pile and 2) Not being in the show means I could show up late and leave early lol. My car did great on the trip there and back. Plenty of highway power, stick to about 70mph. The engine will cruise way faster comfortably, but front end is just a touch squirrely above 75 Pics from the show: He didnt like laying in back cause I had a window down and he was getting blasted. Had to stop to move him back to the back.

Wife and I love dogs with unexpected names, or just conventional names you wouldn't expect a dog to have. He's a Scottish Deerhound and Neil is a Scottish name. Lots of great Neil's we could stay he was named after: Peart, Armstrong, Diamond, Young, Patrick-Harris. Might sound weird to read online, but it does actually fit him pretty well if youd met him.

My Deerhound puppy, Neil, getting dropped at daycare. (yes puppy, hes 6months old and already 80lbs) Oil rupture casualty https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q4G5jZXNknPGQ1s5A The sands of time did a number on this engine bay since my build in 2013, but it may clean up some. This will hopefully give a general look into the state of the wiring pre-overhaul. Standard Datsun. Here you can see the blue and black wire, expertly connected to a ground connection. Thanks previous owner!! Also my sweeeet IR alternator mod ahah, suffered from some battery acid at some point. Before and after. Most of the external connections were about like this one. Amazed anything worked at all. Interior harness mid-way though the job Clock all lubed up Most interior plugs were okay, but yellowed, some minor corrosion on a few All done up https://photos.app.goo.gl/4UubqMzxy8bb2tym6 https://photos.app.goo.gl/T1E544M5rDkrcDor8 Not beautiful, but tidy. all the old shit: Speedo cable

No longer in the Navy. Living in Flagstaff AZ now. Getting Chunk ready to drive to JCCS in October. let the games begin! Just wrapped up "major electrical overhaul". Repined the entire car using stock style connectors from vintageconnections.com. Got every single connection I could replaced, I dont think there are any I missed besides the ones that I didnt have pins for like cluster connector and fuse box. I replaced probably over 300 something connections. Stuff works now! Its nuts. Both brake lights work again! That shit was a nightmare. Culprit was a stock crimp splice in the harness on the engine side by the fuse box. I figured out why the blue and black wire going to the ignition was fried, a previous owner had for some reason hooked it directly to ground at some point. Replaced that wire and some others. My dome light even works now after some new Niles door switches, but I need a replacement rear dome light, its crumbling apart. Oiled my clock escapement, works great now. Not sure if it keeps great time but it runs again. Stock temp and fuel gauges work like a charm now. Greased my wiper linkage and after a bunch of troubleshooting and a wiper motor "rebuild" I have functional wipers that are faster than they have ever been, which is still kinda slow haha. Took apart and cleaning all 3 of my dash switches as well as the turn signal and hazard switches. Have some final small electrical stuff to wrap up, waiting on parts (electronic flasher, some bulbs, horn relay, new horns, license plate light ect). Non electrical stuff: did handbrake cable a while back. Got a hatch push button, no more gaping hole. New speedo cable just now (old one touched exhaust, melted, seized the inner cable). Brakes all around and front bearings along with several bushings about a year ago. Got a stock-ish style air cleaner which I think was off a roadster that I modified and fitted up. For the coming weeks I got a Koyorad aluminum radiator waiting to go in, and plans to fix the throttle linkage which I never got aligned properly to work after my L20B/SU carb swap. Then it will be cleaning, painting, sprucing type work till JCCS. Engine bay looks kinda haggard compared to what it once did lol. My coco-mats are fucked now too, all the dye washed out from rain leaking into the car haha. I have a garage now though so car shouldnt get any worse at least. Storytime from 2 weeks ago: Driving to work oil light started to flicker. stopped and checked oil. good. wiggle connection on sending unit. kinda loose, probably the problem. About 4 miles down the road realize im leaking oil, and theres a film of oil mist on the back glass. Stop at auto parts store, the sending unit was blasting oil out between the electrical post and the plastic body. Lost almost 4 quarts in 3-4 miles, barely had oil on the dipstick. Yikes. Fixed it in the parking lot, had to buy a bigger crescent than I had in my tool box, but thankfully Harbor Freight is in the same plaza as an O'reilys here. taped the sending wire on with some FLEXTAPE from my emergency kit since the old one was spade and the new one was bullet. Drove the rest of the way to work. Ive since corrected the connector to bullet. Felt like an episode of RoadKill. Questions for the group: -Horn: the rubber insulators that act as a kinda spring under the horn ring in the steering wheel are gone. I packed a bunch of foam in there but worried about getting false horn signals. Anyone got a good solution for stock steering wheel horn ring isolators? rubber hose? -Brakes: Currently running a 1" master I believe, 280zx calibers, stock drums. All in good shape, soft lines are probably 8 years old but good. Always struggled with spongy pedal on this car, but lately been thinking maybe I should I go back to a smaller master? or just try bleeding moar? Could probably use a bleed on the master. Pics in another post bellow vvv

wow thats strange that your column is skinnier, my 1970 wagon this part "fit perfect". Nissan even sent your car out it out with a plastic shim. Mike might know, but maybe 1970 got a thicker column and your column is a skinnier one from 1969? Your cover looks exactly like a normal 1970 cover though. Seems like nissan might have been using mismatched hold-over parts in the middle of production year changes or something. In your original picture the lock cylinder looks a lot like a 1969 style, even though the rest of your interior is 1970. check this thread to see the various model year changes to lock styles: https://ratsun.net/topic/66921-68-dime-ignition-key-location/ At any rate, you should be good to go now, no? Does it not lock the wheel? Also why wont the cover fit? was trying to remember what I had to do to get the label ring the right way around. Pretty sure I just pried the ring off and rotated it 180*, maybe trimmed some of the tabs? that part was easy though. I think you can also rotate the ignition switch 180* to match and should be good to go with the lock/off/acc/on/start all matching the switch positions. If you want you can also take the whole thing apart and flip the inner key cylinder as well so the lobe on the key so it points down, but if I remember right I had to remove some of the cast metal to get that to work. Cant remember, just know I took it all apart and fucked with it a bunch till it all worked like I wanted it to. If you start looking for 1969 parts it may be difficult to find them and may or may not even solve the issue. Might be worth it to try and just get the part you have working.

I have a similar if not the exact same repop in my wagon and it works perfect, but took some tedious modifying to get it to work from what I remember. Also the keyway on the lock is unique from the stock key, almost looks like VW key blanks. My car didnt come to me with a column lock or key, probably because a previous owner had lost the key. Was just the ignition switch and a screwdriver to turn it. My goal was to have a matching door, hatch, and ignition key but I never was able to get it all to work. Oh well at least it starts with a key now and the column locks instead of the janky shit I originally had But if anyone else is missing the column lock, that part will work with a stock ignition switch and after some fiddling. I was able to get it flipped to work on the left side of the column just like stock.

I dont check in regularly these days, so its dope to see the green truck is with you and still kicking. One of my favorite truck builds

Saw on IG, at first the surface rust on those fasteners makes had me like "oh shit here we go" but you got ZERO rot. and with zero trunk rust and no rust under the vinyl top you rly won big with this coupe

Another plug for my favorite body work youtube channel. This video is great and well worth the time, should help you get the welder set up. and as others have said do a small tack, move somewhere else, wait, come back. Stitching panels together takes time.

Sorry just typed all this out without full reading. Sorry for the double reply. If you ordered the inner replacement panel then thats the way to go. But as posters above have said, whatever technique you use, just pick one and pick a day and go for it. For the inside panel no one will ever see it, and for the outside, its low and the bumper hides most of it and theres a reason bondo (oh ya ur australian. BOG) exists.

Pete, Im the guy that messaged you on instagram about the main power wire to your fuse box. Liking the build, keep it up! As for the rust on the rear quarter inner, rather than cut out the holes and try to patch them I would most likely start by cutting some small steel plates, bend as necessary, then back them up behind the holes. Then weld the holes shut. Its one way of doing it, and no one will ever see the patch so beauty is not critical. Then depending on the available access on the inside of the quarter where the exhaust is and how thin the metal and the first round of welding went I might go around the edges of the plate with the welder from the other side. can use various sized plates for this technique, I recently did similar on my dads Fiat Spyder on the front trunk floor. If that wasnt enough strength, then I would start thinking about bending and cutting and fabbing. You can also just stitch those holes shut with weld and no backer but its tedious and you need monk like patience and its not any prettier. If youve ever welded rust thinned metal you now how prone to blowing out it is. But with a plate sistered on one side, theres a bit more metal for the heat to dissipate too and its add some structure. Another option when stitiching holes shut like that is a copper plate or copper pipe pounded flat as a backer behind the holes. Same heat sink effect as the sistered steel plate, but the weld doesnt stick to it. Not knowing your experience level, my last piece of advice is be sure your welder setting are set well before you get going on the car. the guy I link bellow has a great video on his channel about setting up any mig welder for sheet metal, its basically just trial and error on a scrap piece the same thickness as the project though. Also check out this technique, I think its one of the best Ive seen yet for body panels and I wish I had known about is sooner. One of those "why didnt I think of that" things. I plan to try this out the next time i need to do panel welding. Seems like this will be perfect for that nice straight line you have.

Navy sent me to Groton Connecticut on the USS Virginia. Not a whole lot of time for cars these days. Anyone in New England with a 510 or any Datsun that wants to hang out, PM any time. Chunk is still with me, towed her up here. She isnt in the best shape at the moment. Need a LOT of little shit fixed. Havent driven regularly in about a year an a half, down to driving about once a month. So sad considering this used to be my daily. Dont want to drive at all here, I am super afraid of the salted roads here, and that 4 salty winters are pretty dangerous. The biggest things on the list to get done are a major electrical overhaul and unfucking a lot of halfway fixes I did since I have been in the Navy. A lot has gotten neglected namely charging system and electrical as there are multiple draws/shorts. theres countless little shit that either broke or I tried to get fixed that ended up just becoming even more broken and un fixed. I need to reinstall the button for the hatch, need to put on window cranks, ignition switch needs fixed, wiper switch is broken, headlight switch is broken. I broke me e-brake cable so that needs replaced (have spare but not sure how to get old one out, its crimped in?). Thankfully I have a set of choke cables I got last winter from yellowdatsun, since its already freezing here in CT. Not sure really what to do at this point, especially since they moved me back into barracks so I dont have a garage anymore. Anyways just an update/bump for anyone who might be interested. pic of NYC with chunk and my sea bag in the rear view, so that I dont leave you all hanging:

Moved off base. Bought a couple hammers and collected some better tools. Zero progress on Chunk besides floor mats and general tune up type stuff. Still collecting parts for paint, I have all new rubber for the windows a few new trim pieces ect. Will probably remove all windows and headliner to rebond roof to support bows before I take to body shop. Still a little hesitant just cause I will be moving this summer. Oh well, I will keep this thread updated with progress. Heres a cheesey little video of me cruising around. Got a gopro so more driving videos to come, future videos will be more exciting than this one hopefully. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eipS9dUq3SU