Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

What are you planning with those door actuators? Automated lambo doors?

Also, Glad to see a boost gauge and a 'T' at the end of KA24DE

Well hello boys and girls! I have made some progress! I finally finished the fabrication of the rear suspension...and the crowd goes...it’s about freaking time!

Past few weeks I have been making the big push to get it done. Now I can finally move on to other things that will take me forever to do


Mind you I still have to disassemble and do the finish welding as everything is just tacked in place right now. But no more fabrication on the rear end, but I’m sure there’s going to be more fabbing, but some wheres else. I can now try to put the body back on, which will be a chore as the top link frame mounts have interface issues with the body. So cutting will be in order and making plates to cover the holes will be next.

Once the body is done being patched up I will either do the flat dash conversion or jump into the engine bay, most likely the engine bay. I will get to putting, or should I say, shoe horning in the alt, ac, turbo junk and the list goes on. But at least I will not be working on the rear suspension! Oh and there’s the electrical; but that’s a whole other saga.

Until next time

Cheers
Matthew

This is incredible. I hope to have the balls to do this some day! Is this your first time doing something like this??

Yep very first time! I started this project as a means of stress relief from being a stay at home dad, to keep my engineering juices flowing and as a means of learning.

To quote Mr. Spock “ there is a first time for everything; take her out Mr. Savic.”

Cheers
Matthew

Sounds like a dream setup and you're knocking it out of the park!

So nothing notable to report. I’ve pulled the rear end out and disassembled it. I’ve started the task of finish welding everything thing I can find and get to without rolling the frame on its side or over. I’ve found a drive line shop that will make sure the rear end is straight and true once I’m done welding. Only a $100 for peace of mind, totally worth it. I’d post pics but my welds look like s*#t. Yep I will be getting some good practice grinding

Cheers
Matthew

Absolutely the right thing to do with the driveline shop. Don't be offended when they laugh when you bring it in. They just think it is so cute and tiny..lol

It's amazing to see how far out of line stuff moves with tiny welds on those tubes..

Awesome work Matthew! I'm glad to see your progress looks so good. I'm really liking this setup!

Thanks for the kind words guys.

The rear end is all welded up and will be going to the drive line shop this week. The frame is still needing some work but not much. I’m going to add a couple of gussets to the top frame mount of the suspension to make me feel better about their strength; I like a good factor of safety.

Other than that haven’t done much but clean the shop and get organized for the next steps. I did get my 3D printer working again and got some double tape and........
It’s not pretty but it’s beautiful to me!

Kids are back in school so progress to come

Cheers
Matthew

YES!!! Love the 2400 emblem haha. That is Awesome.

Thanks guys for the atta boys!

Well not to be out done by Wade (who is making way more progress than me) I got some time on Lisa (that’s her name for now). I wasn’t really liking the way the structure of the top frame mounts for the rear suspension were looking. I thought about ripping out and redoing them....,oh hell no!! I’m am not doing that. So I decided on adding some gussets and I think there good now.

I’m also done welding the rear housing and it is gone. Took to the drive line shop where the guy looked at it and said “what the hell is that going in!?”. So that should be done soon then it’ll go out for powder and it will be done done!

I figured it was time to see how bad the interference issues are with the new suspension set up. This I’ve known and have been waiting to see. For me it’s a milestone for progress. So i went about getting the body kinda back on the frame or at least perched above it.
I have a small shop right now so this is a pain in the ass, not to mention it’s 100 degrees. But got it down and set some blocks between the frame and the body so I don’t hurt anything. I also raised the frame up off the ground so that I can get under the car to start cutting.
This is where I ran out of time. But I did take a peak to see what the interference looked like. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be. I’m still going to be cutting, but not as much as I thought.

More soon.....kids are back in school!!. So progress will be coming!

Cheers
Matthew

I hear what you mean about that 100 degree heat. Man, when I go out in the garage to just get a beer, I come back all sweaty. I bet that feels nice having the kiddos back in school too! Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Wade

beebo wrote: Tue Aug 20, 2019 8:10 pm I hear what you mean about that 100 degree heat. Man, when I go out in the garage to just get a beer, I come back all sweaty. I bet that feels nice having the kiddos back in school too! Keep up the good work!

Wade
I think I might break down and do ac in the garage, possibly a mini split system. I found a diy one for $1100 that would be perfect. But that’s a hit to the budget. As for the kids, I love them but I am so glad they are back in school!!

Okay where to to start?
Let’s start with the rear end. Got it back from the shop after finding out that the rear end was 1/4” out. Which is a lot...a hell of a lot! So they popped of the ends and heated up the housing to straighten it and tigged the ends back on properly.

I’m very relieved that I now know the rear end is all good and true. Totally worth it!

Next I cut the body to accommodate the new suspension mounts. I ended up cutting quite a bit extra, with more to go, when I found rust that need to be removed.

I don’t know if you can see the rust but is there. So I figure I will carve out a bunch more and just extend the ramp piece from the side to the center of the car on both sides. I think this will be easier than trying to cut a bunch of little pieces and trying to fit them together. We will see. But I will do that when I get to the rest of the body work.


My brother brought me a small gift from work...

This was stuff they were throwing out so he threw it to me! Score! This is exactly what I have been looking for!

I’ve started looking at the engine bay and how things are going to fit now that the rear is done. I want to do a Quest alternator. It has 110A or 125A out put depending on the year. It’s just a bit bigger than the factory alt but I think if I do what the sr20 guys are doing by notching the frame, I can get it to fit.

It’s going to take some trimming but if worse comes to worse I can run the factory alt.


So what else....oh yeah!

I spent some coin...


Yep decided that the factory intake manifold was going to be big, ugly and a pain is the a$$ to deal with. So I got a new Xcessive intake with, velocity stacks, the Q45 throttle body flange and fuel rail to match. It will increase air flow, simplify things and its kinda pretty and all. I mean just look at how much better the rusty old engine bay looks already! Ooooooo.......aaaahhhhhhh!
So just looking at how the intake fits I think I might be able to fit the ac compressor on the right side over the alt. Just maybe!?
More to come

Cheers

Matthew

Well it been some time. I got to work on the car in early Oct while we had our floors redone but I didn’t nearly as much as I thought I was going to get or wanted. Not to mention that we had a water heater fail that is located in the attic ( why the hell do builds put water heaters in attics, it just f’ing stupid ) and as my youngest said with excitement “look daddy it’s raining in your [bed] room!”! Right on our new floors! Only took 10 minutes to cause $4k of damage.

I digress

The first thing I did with my time was pull the engine so I could get to notching the frame for the main pulley and for the alternator (We'll get to the alt in a minute). Not hard or even time consuming and I’m happy with the result and I dropped the motor back in.
I the set about to pulling the front suspension off. Again not hard and not time consuming. I will get to blasting and powder later.

Well kid duty calls add more in just a bit....including a dash conversion. Stay tuned for when I say.......



(See what I did there...that’s just f’ed up)