lowdatsun620

Here

BCDD valve, number 70,78 on this diagram, bottom left quadrant: http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsun620/Datsun620Index/Engine(L20B)/Carburetor/tabid/2356/Default.aspx in the picture I took, it's right where the little green arrow is, pointing more or less towards the camera which is right between the master cyl reservoirs.

Ok, so this past week I took a couple days to totally clean the garage out, rearrange stuff to have more room to work, then had friends coming over for the weekend so had to do chores n crap, then it's been crazy hot so enjoying the comfort of beaches and A/C. I did manage to squeeze a few hours of work on the truck here n there. I picked up a needle scaler, which is probably as loud or louder than the grinder, especially on underside of the bed, and overall might take a little longer since it'll still need to be wheeled after, but it makes very little dust and doesn't fling debris clear across the garage, so it's nicer to work with (no gloves, no mask, glasses aren't even really required (dont listen to me, wear your PPE kids!)). Hopefully overall it's quieter outside, with me inside. I'd rather put $500 into one of these trucks than the city's bylaw coffers. Here's the frame so far. Only done drivers rail, back to rear cab mounts, half the rad support and some of the engine crossmember, took about 2.5hrs maybe. All the paint and loose stuff is off, a quick brush, wipe and you could POR this no problem, with great results, but I'm still going to wheel it and get rid of as much rust then epoxy primer. Contemplating what to do with crossmembers, they interfere with laying, I no longer need the torsion mounts and a 2x6 laid flat should be about perfect to lay rail and support the carrier bearing, so Ill probably just cut em out. But I'm a ways from affording a welder and I obviously don't want to cut the only two crossmembers left on the truck between the front and rear ones before something is in place. I'll probably just leave them in their condition till they come out. Here's what I've accomplished on underside of the bed, and the tools used, in about 2.5-3hrs, but most of the top row was brute force with only the needler, I could probably do it all in 1.5 now. First I take the yellow scraper, one of those pull scrapers with the replaceable blade that's like a thick razor but with the blades bent 90, and I just scrape as much undercoating/dirt/grease off the ridges, making sure to get the edges too. Maybe 7 seconds of scraping per length of ridge, doesn't have to be perfect, you just want to get as much of the soft crud off quickly. Then I use a 1/2" chisel to do the same in the valleys, again just quickly, don't worry about the edges, it's kind of awkward getting them and won't matter much. This will probably do a number on your chisel by then end, if you care, I don't. You can use anything you have that will scrape the soft stuff off, I just had these around, but the pull scraper is super efficient and the chisel was all I had that fit, a gasket scraper was just too wide to hit the valley flats. You could modify and sharpen the edge on a putty knife to fit the troughs and make it super quick, but whatever. If you do this quick scrape, the needler works WAY more efficiently and will literally blast what's left of the crud and paint away. Just start with the scraped areas, working around and into any unscraped areas. Once the scraped flakes away around it, the needler makes short work of any cruddy spots, just work back and forth on them and quickly they will just peel from the surface. The key with this tool is to hold it almost perpendicular to the surface like this The tool "seems" like it should be used at shallow angles like a power scraper, especially on the soft stuff, it's quieter, vibrates less, but it's nowhere as efficient. Prep, and hold it as above, and the needles will jar and jab the surface, it'll be loud as a top fuel dragster, and vibrate like a coin operated bed, but the paint chips will rain like confetti on New Years. And the LESS effort you use with this method the better. The more lightly you hold it against the surface, I guess the more the needles deflect on impact and the better it chips. You really just have to press a little on the unscraped stuff to get the vibrations into that boundary layer between paint and metal to get it to detach and peel away. A last note on it, works great on solid parts like frames and the corrugated bed floor, presumedly axles, steel wheels and suspension parts too, but sheet metal has too much give, doesn't really let the needles get that solid impact. It's also fairly violent, doesn't leave a totally smoothed surface. Nothing that will affect thick paints and unseen parts, but I'd find other options for stripping those goodies. Also gave the good old aircraft stripper a go on my firewall and the inside cab back wall. Only wire wheeled the firewall below the drip rail, just scraped the rest with a putty knife. Anybody have tips for using this stuff? It'll burn on your skin and burn through latex gloves too so scraping it, especially if you use too much is a real hassle. I started with thin coats on the front, applied I think 3, one after 10, then one more after maybe another 5 minutes, just where it wasn't working as effectively, some spots it helped some just seemed more resistant to it. Then I let it sit maybe another 20. Most of it scraped off beautifully, and was mostly clean and dry metal beneath. Once I scraped everything, there were a few patches that only partially stripped, so I reapplied thinly. Some worked a bit more, most had little effect and now I had this extra caustic gunk all over the place that wasn't reacting with anything, just getting gunkier. I had to wipe it down with shop rags and keep changing gloves every time I got some on them. Real PITA. Then of course what was left of the dried residue I had to wire wheel off into dust, which must be just super healthy. Anyways, the back wall went a bit smoother, I just did a few fine coats again, decided I'd try to get as much to lift before scraping and not doing it twice. It was kinda a mix of both scrapes, more lifted clean, but some still left and was a little excess product, but not as bad as the firewall. Is there some prep I could do to help it work better? Scuffing/scratching to let it under the paint? Degreasing maybe? Just let the light coats do what they will and leave more for the wheel? Let it dry longer before scraping? What's worked for you guys?

Sick truck dude, can't wait to see where this goes.

Yep. The left one with the hose (purge).

Here's mine. 1 is pink and goes to that brass nut T which is on the egr block. 2 is green and plugs into the port at the little arrow, which comes out of that brass block with the screws which is mounted on the carb. 3 is blue and that goes to the carbon canister. Hope that helps.

I was just trying to find the 620 thread the other day when I realized we don't get our own, we have to share "WDYDTY Truck today?" with the 3's, 5's and 7's. Not fair, those guys are all odd (budum-ch). A mod might tell you this belongs there, since it's already reached legendary levels of replies, but I say we deserve our own! If you've got access to air, pick up a needle scaler at harbour freight. One of the best purchases I've made in my resto efforts, works wonders on getting paint and loose rust off the frame. Still have to wire wheel after, but you'll cut the time and dust by a long shot. And I haven't done shit yet because it's morning, but probably just stare at it while I take smoke breaks from doing much shittier chores in prep for guests this weekend. Ugh.

I think Daniel is just showing what he used for the window channel (around tops of door windows, seal the window rolls up into) as I don't think that's a part that is found easily without going universal. I wouldn't glue door seals, just use the tabs.

Saw someone posted it on first page, but pic link broken so... Needle scaler attachment for air hammer, bottom right. Blasted undercoating and loose rust off of frame no problem. Did drivers front quarter of frame in about 90 mins I think, seemed less, progress was steady. Didn't work great under cab, but frame was super easy, I think the cab floors have too much give, the frame is solid, let's the needler work. I found for most parts of the frame, holding it at a steep (say 85 degrees) angle so it kinda jack hammers the undercoating gave the fastest results. The undercoating just kinda lost it's grip on the paint and flaked off with that technique. Unreal! Outside edges are tough, but flat surfaces are easy and gets right into tight corners and rougher welds. Sometimes the jack hammer technique doesn't work so well and a shallower angle will give a scraping effect to get the tough stuff. Just be careful with tight crevices, you'll want to stick a few needles in that little gap and get everything, but the needles will wedge and the hammer won't vibrate them loose, it'll only hit them in tighter. The scaler has a spring it it that gives when you try to pull out, making it launch out suddenly, if at all. I've been lucky so far. The frame still has surface rust everywhere as you can see, but a wire wheel will make short work of it. Just using a wheel would probably be faster, but would be a lot hotter, louder, and you'd use a few wheels, and make a hell of a lot more mess. The scaler was awesome, because as you can see, it just leaves a pile of coarse flakes right below the workpiece, which meant I could feel happy doing it in my freshly cleaned-and-vacuumed-everywhere garage, without flinging a layer of paint and rust dust over everything. It also keeps the neighbours from making more noise complaints when I'm using the angle grinder outside for hours. Once I've done it all I can do a quick once over with the wheel outside, faster than bylaw can respond to the call lol. It also doesn't make my hands buzz for an hour like the grinder. Well worth the $30, plus $20 for air hammer. If you don't need a hammer, just get the all-in-one unit for $40. Got mine at Princess Auto in Canada, harbour freight probably carries a similar unit in US. Edited to add link to better pic of tool: http://www.machinemart.co.uk/images/library/product/huge/00/000310084.jpg

Cool thanks. I'll check again today.

Oh, I also want to mount a piece of chrome trim, maybe just 3/8" rod or square bar, in the rib notches in between the headlights, think that will add some pop. Toyed with running chromed wire down the valley on the front edge of each rib, but seems like a lot of work. Maybe if I can get a wire fab shop to make me like 80 from a template, I'm not bending that many wires to fit.

I played a bit with idea of making a phantom grille from datto grilles yesterday. Two grilles don't quite have enough ribs to do a full phantom. With the outside lights exposed, one mounting hole lines up and the other sits right next to the end top bracket, which would be a really easy way to do it, but it'd be nicer with the early style bucket grilles, but the ribs are different on that one, thinner, and they'd be a shame to cut up. I think I'm going to source a third grille and trim out everything inside the border and then trim the border from these pieces, leaving just the flat top and bottom plates and glue them in behind the solid border, then all the mounting holes line up, no seams around the perimeter to blend and I'd have enough ribs to fully cover end to end. End pieces will the biggest challenge to fit right. I think there is very close to enough space behind the ribs as is to clear the headlights, only very minor trimming may be needed at the top and bottom of ribs where they hit the headlight edges. But I think with some standoffs and a bit of trimming of the oval openings, the headlight plates can be mounted behind the rad support, by flipping the square plastic nut inserts and screwing them towards the front, gaining an inch or so on the bulb depth. I may try that and recess the ribs more so the grille opening is deeper.

I figured I could no problem, but the old timer behind the corner just looked at me vacantly and shook his head. Maybe I'll try asking a younger guy who might actually have a clue what I'm asking for.

Thanks man. Went to check the two shops I think I might find them and both are closed all weekend, lame.

Picked up a needle scaler after seeing one decimate undercoating on YouTube. Results were not quite as advertised, but sorta worked. Darker, oil stained spots seemed much softer. It made less mess than the wire wheel, bigger clumps, and no burning/smearing, but it can leave divots in the metal, especially on outside corners, would not use on top side sheet metal. This corner took me about half an hour to get to this point, after which I hit it with the wire wheel, and that went much smoother with most of the undercoat gone. This was about 1.5 hours. I just wire wheeled the right side as I'd already knocked most of the undercoat off previously, and some was completed already. I decided to try this razor blade scraper handle when I tired of noise, it dug in and broke 2/3 of the blade right away, then I realized the box of 100 blades it came with were plastic blades, for removing window tint...how deceiving. Used the broken blade with 1/3 left on it's own, and realized it was probably the fastest, cleanest method yet. Did the top around the trans tunnel in 5 mins. Takes most of the underlay off, sometimes right down to the red primer with no effort. Seldom gets ALL the underlay, but enough it should make a huge difference in wire wheel speed. Good thing I found a quiet method to do most of it, because I got a bylaw noise complaint from some lady down the street. No fine, just told me to find a way to do the noisey shit in the garage. Apparently she went to my neighbours and asked them to complain for her, but they wouldn't, they don't care. I like them and if I hear them in the back yard I find something quieter to do, but obviously I can't check everybodies schedules. Dunno why she couldn't just come talk to me herself, gotta try and get me fined $500. Guess tomorrow I'm either cleaning and reorganizing the garage, or turning my shitty leaky, steel, sunbaked, wasp hive of a shed into a grinding shack.