nifty50trickydicky

Video explains it better than I could: Any idea what I did or how to fix it?

Was this shot recently? Looks like you're in north GA, around the Blue Ridge? Used to live there and it must be great this time of year. Beats 80F every day through "winter" at least. Truck sounds fucking great btw, makes me jealous... my engine still isn't in yet :crying:

Made new panels too because the old ones disintegrated when I took them out. Here's what one looked like right before I dropped it off to get upholstered:

Datsunocaster, yeah, this is the one from off of SR 60 around Lakeland IIRC. Bought it in May for $2000. I'm currently working on it at my grandfather's garage in Ft Lauderdale. I did order the Dash cap (can't remember the website, but it's the only one that sells them). I'm very happy with it, but when you install it... remove the whole dash from the car, follow the directions EXACTLY AS STATED and most importantly USE A SHIT LOAD OF CLAMPS. Let it dry overnight, at least 6-8 hours, before you even think about putting the dash back in. And mark all your electrical connections when you are removing the dash, you will be VERY glad when it's time to put the damn thing back in, get a friend to help you out too because it's a real bitch.

Full album for those interested: http://imgur.com/a/6qtzz#0 Been getting a lot done in these past few months and she's just about ready for the road!

I've seen a lot of folks on this forum use the term oics - is this a legitimate acryonym or a tongue-in-cheek injoke? I haven't been able to tell :P And yeah, the car needed some body work here and there so we figured the best route to take would be to paint the whole thing. She's a beaut from a distance, but up close you notice every little detail... or at least I do, haha. Also, you say in California things are different... Not sure whether you mean climate-wise or culture-wise or something else. Mine's a Florida car, but the reason we went with bondo is two-fold: first off, and most importantly, I don't know the first thing about welding. Secondly, most of the body work I've needed to do hasn't been major enough to warrant welding anyway, IMHO. Thanks for the input, I didn't plan on buying "all-in-one" anyway because I don't trust those products to begin with haha, but it's nice to see that others feel the same. I couldn't tell you how many hours I've put into prepwork... I feel pretty confident that if I end up with drips or waves the blame will be on my hand rather than my car. Your five and dime came out beautiful, by the way, definitely the motivation I needed to go forward. Thanks to everyone for all the input. Hopefully we'll be painting this week and I'll have some more pics up for y'all.

Has anyone here done this? Painted your Datsun yourself? I've been reading a lot of DIY auto paint guides & how-to's and figured why the hell not... But for those who have painted their own car, especially those with little to know experience, I've got a few questions... Would you do it again, or not worth it? Tips and tricks? And most importantly.... is it all that essential to sand down to the bare metal on a 35 year old car?? Will I need to use primer? A clearcoat? I'm looking to do a paint job that will look "good" but does not have to be show quality. We've been doing a ground-up resto on my B210 and most of the work has been done by yours truly; I really enjoy doing as much work myself as I can because it's honestly a great learning experience and I'll be all the more proud when she's "done". But I'm open to hearing y'all's $0.02. By the way, pics of the car: http://bit.ly/nixonb210pics

Well, gentlemen, I promised weekend updates, so here's what happened these past few days: Oh, and by the way, basically, classes have started back up for me so I'll only be able to get down to the warehouse on weekends (it's a good 4 hour drive from my university). Well, I think I overestimated how much I'd be able to get done in less than two days (if I drive down Friday after class and arrive around 9, I have until 12-2am to work on the car, assuming I'm awake enough, etc; all day Saturday, and most of Sunday, until the late afternoon/early evening when I need to drive back to campus). Anyway, so NOW here's what I got done this weekend: Stripped the factory foam insulation from the floors. I do not recommend doing this, unless you absolutely need to, and unless you can think of a better procedure than I did. We had a lot of surface rust we had to deal with and I noticed it hanging out around the insulation, so I assumed (correctly) that it would be best to take it off. Well the insulation appears to be held on by some strong adhesive, so we ended up using a hammer and chisel to take it all off... It took my brother and I about 6 hours to do that. Not fun, and not exactly pleasant on the wrists. After the insulation was stripped, we wire brushed away the surface rust, cut out a nice straight hole around my floorboard gap, ground away the edges of that, and riveted in a nice new patch for the floorpan. We then used Rustoleum rust-protectant primer on the entire floorpan and inside firewall. The next step is to lay new insulation, but that will have to wait for next weekend. After that, we got the car up on jackstands, removed the muffler/exhaust assembly, and used a few cans of Rustoleum undercoating to take car of the undercarriage... made a hell of an improvement in terms of looks (not that many people will be able to appreciate the view...) We slapped a coat on the wheel wells as well. It takes about 48-72 hours to cure so hopefully next weekend I'll be able to report whether the rattlecan undercoating is worth its salt. Well, that's about it. Unfortunately, I have no pictures this week because I spent far more time working and zero time taking any shots. Next weekend is Labor Day so I'll have four days to work on the car, since I don't have classes on Tuesday. Hopefully next weekend we'll lay the insulation and finish up bodywork; ie, bondo any dents and dings, sand the car, and maybe, time permitting, prime the exterior!

Thanks guys, just got the trunk and engine bay coated with Rustoleum "bed liner", more to come next weekend.

Hey all, I've lurked around a bit on this forum and made a handful of posts, but I figured it's time to take a break from the tinkerin' and share my Datsun story so far... I bought a 1978 B210 in June and got right to work - literally. It wouldn't shift into third (it's a 3spd automatic) the whole ride back home so the first thing we did was check out the transmission - just needed a new vaccuum hose, fixed that problem right up. One of the POs had installed a dual-port carb and electronic fuel pump, those were the first things to go and swapped out for originals. The air cleaner was missing as well, found one of those on ebay, cleaned it up, painted it, put it in the car. Good as new. Other small things here and there - tightened the steering and pedals, adjusted the idle, bled the brakes and replaced the old pads, etc. Once I got it running I turned to interior work, started stripping it in my packed two-car garage, pulled out the seats, belts, carpet - everything but the dash and steering wheel. By the way - Maguire's Ultimate Black, the kind used for exterior body panels, try that on the black plastic pieces inside your Datsun, it works wonders. Finish off with a coat of Armor All. And non-black parts, use Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Couldn't believe how well it worked. There were a few tiny pieces that broke - like the PRNDL label - I sent these off to a friend who has access to a 3D printer shop, and he printed a few of them for me. Very cool. Last week, my Dad came up with a U-haul, says "Let's load up the Datsun," he took me and the car down to South Florida where he lives and we put it in one of the storage bays of his warehouse. Plenty of room and lots of tools. I've been working on stripping the car nonstop since we got here. Just pulled the engine out last night, he's got a buddy who will do the rebuild for us. We dropped the seats off at a local upholsterer to have those taken care of too. Today we've been finishing up stripping everything else out of the car. Right now we're taking a break for dinner but we'll be heading back to the warehouse tonight to prep the engine bay and trunk, and if all goes well we'll start painting tomorrow. Album links below: Before Air Cleaner Engine Bay Work Exterior Pics Trunk Work Interior Work

http://imgur.com/tS4VAAq http://imgur.com/DG9Whvo Well I feel like a freakin idiot now... Thanks for the help guys xD

@B210GX What is the best way to remove the plastic covers? This car is so dry-rotted and brittle I've been afraid to use much force.

Sorry everyone I'll try to get some pictures up as soon as I get back to the garage later today.

I'm gutting the interior on my '78 coupe and the only thing I'm having trouble with removing are the front three-point seatbelts. Has anyone done this before? Any ideas?