1970 SRL311 Resto-mod - SR20DET (Lucy)

[beebo]

Well the caliper halves have soaked and been throughly scrubbed. Ive got the rest of the parts soaking while I decide which paint color to use. I managed to scrounge up three potential gold/bronze paint candidates. I plan on doing a base coat of black so I tested the colors on my pelican case.

The copper one is out. Its gross. Its between the VHT gold and the Duplicolor gold. The VHT is a bit darker and reminds me of the gold used on the brembo G35 and 350Z calipers. The Duplicolor reminds me of the typical gold anodizing used on pretty much every motorcycle fork. Little bit lighter. Hmmm. I guess it would help if I know what color I will paint the wheel centers. Decisions decisions.

20221122_205853.jpg

20221122_205836.jpg

20221122_205814.jpg

20221122_205745.jpg

I have tomorrow through Sunday off, but im not sure how how much of it I'll get to spend in the roadster. Might go up to see my folks this weekend. I hope to get at least a little bit more done on the exhaust.

Cheers,
Wade

[beebo]

Hot diggity dog I chose the right color! These are going to look fantastic on the car! Gotta wait for the paint to cure to grind off the Nissan letters and reassemble them. I went with the VHT engine block paint. The black base coat helped lay down a real even color on the gold. Still debating on whether it needs clearcoat or not.

20221123_153001.jpg

20221123_152936.jpg

20221123_152918.jpg

20221123_152850.jpg

Cheers,
Wade

[Mattk]

Very nice!

[RustyBucket]

Oh beefy brakes !! I guess you want to stop that beast?!?

[beebo]

Oh beefy brakes !! I guess you want to stop that beast?!?

Aww yeah!

Very nice!

Thanks Matt! I'm really happy with how they turned out.

I spent about 2 hours wire brushing all the rest of the caliper hardware, and then realized some of it was missing, and then what was there was pretty corroded. I just went ahead and ordered new hardware for all the calipers. Unfortunately, its all coming from the UK, so it will take a while to finish the caliper rebuild. Hopefully it all gets shipped quickly. I did snap a pretty picture of them after taking a flat file to the face if the Nissan letters. Figured I'd share it.

20221127_201831.jpg

I hope to have an exhaust update for y'all later this week!

Cheers,
Wade

[beebo]

So I'm still waiting for all of my caliper hardware and one more rebuild kit for the rear calipers. I got some progress made on the exhaust, but it is not quite done. So the first section is the downpipe with the wastegate dump plumbed back into it. There is a small flex coupler to prevent any stresses under thermal expansion. The second section is has a bend and braided flex connection. This one will likely need some modification as the tires may not clear the flex connection at full lock and it's really not even necessary. I also made it a bit too long and it doesn't allow the muffler section to sit evenly underneath the body. The muffler section is the two glass-pack mufflers, the dual tips (which still need to be cleaned up) and a bellowed flex section. I think I'm going to wrap the entire muffler section with that fiberglass thermal wrap, add some heat shield to the underside of the body, and then rigidly mount this section. There is plenty of flex in that bellowed section, I think. I also need to clean up the body around the exhaust exit and fabricate a heat shield plate to give it a finished look.

20221130_101831.jpg

20221130_102238.jpg

20221130_102251.jpg

20221130_125739.jpg

20221130_131227.jpg

20221130_131334.jpg

20221130_131342.jpg

20221130_131349.jpg

Cheers,
Wade

[RustyBucket]

What a plumber!! Looks great ! Need an audio track !!!

[beebo]

Thanks Rusty! I welded up some bracketry to the muffler section to rigidly mount it to the body/frame. I'm going to wrap it in some extra fiberglass exhaust wrap that I have laying around. My day off got cut short due to kids, but I think it will all fit up there when i get time to wrap it. I need to revise the section between the downpipe and the mufflers, but only slightly. The exhaust is really close to being done. I'll get some pictures uploaded when i get a bit more progress done and will feel like a hige win! Still waiting on caliper hardware... Would love to get that done. The the next fabrication it to knock out is the alternator mounts. I've got the last couple weeks of December off from work, so hopefully I can make some extra progress and get some more body work done. I'm going to be sad in 2023 when my PTO has to be used for vacations and not roadster progress haha.

[RustyBucket]

That whole PTO balancing act is a PIA. When I was a Govie, I had max load in each category and still had U/L to be able to donate leave to the Leave Bank each year. When I rolled out. I cashed a few years toward retirement.
Now a contractor, I got covid and a rebound case, which took all the PTO.
Time to stay home and work on tge car
The work you’ve been aboriginal do is great fantastic. Do your best but don’t forget the kids!
Cheers

[beebo]

Thanks Rusty! The kids get plenty of attention. The little one even helped out mounting the front calipers.

Screenshot_20221220-193216_Gallery.jpg

I've just been knocking out some of the little things the past couple weeks. Some brackets were welded to the muffler section to rigidly mount it to the body and frame, then it was wrapped and bolted in place. I'm going to have to redo the middle section a bit, but that can wait. I then finally got around to making the finish out plate for the body. Its just two bent pieces of sheet metal welded together. Despite not having welded aluminum in over two years, it came out great (after grinding it all down). It was finished with a DA sander and looks pretty good riveted to the body. I'll drill the rivets out and clean up the body behind it before the respray.

Screenshot_20221220-193553_Gallery.jpg

Screenshot_20221220-193610_Gallery.jpg

20221213_212802.jpg

20221213_212820.jpg

Screenshot_20221220-182845_Gallery.jpg

Screenshot_20221220-182857_Gallery.jpg

Screenshot_20221220-182924_Gallery.jpg

The front calipers got mounted and look great. I had some SS braded flex line from a previous project, but I think they are too short. As soon as I get some spare dough, I think brake lines are next on the agenda after finishing the alternator mount.

Screenshot_20221220-181214_Gallery.jpg

Screenshot_20221220-181159_Gallery.jpg

I also welded the BOV mount to the turbo side charge pipe. It works but is kinda crooked. This will definitely get redone at some point but is not a priority. Aside from either polishing or powder coating, the intercooler piping is done. I plan on making an air filter box and recirculating the BOV. There is still some planning needed there.

Screenshot_20221220-181228_Gallery.jpg

I have the rest of the year off, and I'm just going to try and finish up as much of the large items as I can. I'll update as I make progress. Hope y'all have a great holiday!

Cheers,
Wade

[beebo]

So the daycare was closed the last week of 2022, so the PTO was spent towards childcare and not Datsun progress. Nevertheless, I was able to make progress during naps and after bedtime. I welded up a crazy little alternator bracket. It's all 1/4" plate and includes part of the old SR20 alt bracket. It turned out solid and lines up correctly.

However, it blocks the OEM T-stat housing. I modofied it by making some pie cuts in it and just jogging it up and over the path of the alternator belt. It's all ugly, but it works, and it's all hidden when the intake manifold and intercooler piping is in place.

20230113_211338.jpg

20230113_211356.jpg

20230113_211528.jpg

20230113_211541.jpg

20230113_211606.jpg

20230113_211626.jpg

This is kinda silly, but I think it will be cool. So I have these things we incorporate into our mechanical equipment at work. They are automated interlocks for lock out tag out purposes and are made by a company called Fortress Interlocks. I mounted it on the back wall, and I'm going to use this as a main power lock. It has a really solid industrial feel, a cool key, and is all stainless steel. I'm thinking about using this to engage some relays that supply battery power to the car and then using toggle switches for all the lights, wipers, fuel pump, ecu power, etc.

20230113_211414.jpg

20230113_211431.jpg

20230113_211453.jpg

20230113_211505.jpg

Cheers,
Wade

[beebo]

After I finished up the alternator bracket and water neck, I really felt a sense of accomplishment. Aside from mounting small stuff like oil filer relocation brackets and heat shields, I feel like all the main fabrication is done! All the hard stuff anyways.

I decided to start in some wiring. I pulled the gauges out of the dash and sprayed some rubberized undercoating in it. The gauges we reinstalled and then I then wired up the power to the gauge lights. Everything is powered off a little 12V power supply in lieu of a battery.

20230113_220647.jpg

20230113_220700.jpg

20230113_220713.jpg

20230113_220727.jpg

20230113_220754.jpg

20230113_220805.jpg

20230113_220820.jpg

20230113_220845.jpg

20230113_220905.jpg

Cheers,
Wade

[beebo]

I also was able to finish mounting the rear brakes. I got a bunch of copper nickel brake line and a bunch of fittings. Should start in the brake lines soon.

20230113_225833.jpg

The wiring harness that came with the Haltech seems pretty straight forward. I started laying out all the wires and starting to plan out how I want to route them. The goal is to hide it as much as possible.

20230113_225849.jpg

20230113_225916.jpg

20230113_225933.jpg

Some 1/8" masonite was purchased from home depot. After making some templates out of cardboard I began cutting the interior panels. Probably going to just keep it simple and adhere some black vinyl to it. Nothing fancy.

20230113_225948.jpg

20230113_230013.jpg

The door latch mechanisms were cut down to only the exterior handle mechanisms. No locks or interior handles needed.

20230113_230000.jpg

Cheers,
Wade

[notoptoy]

Great work, a lot of creative solutions!

[Gregs672000]

Step by step, amazing progress! Never seen twin brake calipers before, and I can hardly wait to hear how that rear suspension works!