40 years in the making...

[Solex68]

The RobelloRebello head is in the "install phase". I just have the manifolds and batter to install. It would have been finished already but I had to go to two dinners this weekend. Why does life have to get in the way of the roadster? LOL.

I wasn't going to do anything to my carbs but since they were out I figured I'd go over them. Premo sent me some shafts and butterflies and a couple of small parts. The small stuff will be here any day.

I am bummed as I expected to be driving it today. The next couple of weekends I will be out of town so I doubt I will make any progress until the 3rd weekend. I owe the fossil some weekend computer work too.

I am excited though as I will have a new head (my old one was fine but this should be really fine)! New cam, I loved my old one but wanted more power in the lower rpm range which this should give me and refreshed Solexes with Premo's expert help over the phone (even though my Solexes were fine but they should idle better).

[Alvin]

Rebello

not

Robello

[Solex68]

"Rebello"...Fixed. No wonder I can never find him in my contacts...where I probably entered it correctly but I probably search for Robello. LOL.

[Gregs672000]

Sounds exciting Greg! Look forward to hearing how it works once you get it all dialed in. Did you go with an adjustable cam gear or is it anticipated that all should be good? As you know, the gear has made a big change in my engine. Fun fun fun!

[GoldHawg]

Well, I'm now a big step closer. The Datsun is in the shop. Unfortunately I have a 71 Cutlass frame that I have to clean up and get powdercoated in front of this, but I hope to get the datsun body off the frame and the frame mods done for the SR20 this summer.

[GeoffM]

Looking forward to more updates!

[GoldHawg]

Well I've not done much on my Datsun except spend money. I've been very busy on the day job and other life issues, but I finally had a few hours tonite and a friend that could lend a hand. Got the windshield out (to put flat dash in later) and separated the body from the frame. You may be able to tell from the picture I also have some sins of the P.O. to fix; someone cut out a piece of the crossmember and a small bit of the tranny tunnel. That's what welders are for.

[notoptoy]

Ouch, but at least you have a great attitude about it! Thanks for sharing the progress.

[GoldHawg]

Well, I haven't been able to spend much time, although last week I got a rolling wood frame built for the body. But I can spend $$! Got the 205/55/15 Yokohamas on 15X7 Rotas. I love how much wider they are going to be than what was on there.

[GoldHawg]

Making some progress. At least stumbling thru lots of ??s for Michael on how to do this. The frame mods are all in work; Jiggy's getting a workout. I'm too embarrassed to show my welding; I'm going to give a second pass with the tig to help shape the molten mess. With the mig my welds were generally too cold, but going hotter--even when going for the thicker metal I was adding--led to burn thru. Welding upside down stinks. Eventually I'm going to flip the frame over and finish it. The Datsun frame has a few layers of thinner metal in the frame--makes it very hard to weld in thick gussets and new plate. Brought the Tig over from my house to the shop today--I can focus the arc a lot more with it to control the heat. 150A at 33 pulses/sec seemed to do well with "massaging" the mig weld into something nicer. Should do better in the future. Hadn't used my plasma cutter in a few years; took me a couple of tries to get the right cutting style for my gussets, but its tons faster with the thick plate from Michael's mounts and the associated gussets. I have to go out of town tomorrow, but I expect to have the frame mods completely done in a few weeks.

Oh, and I can finally send my RX7 housing to powder coating when I get back later in the week. A friend helped me install and set up the torsen rear end, and I found a guy that raced GSL-SE's and had some broken axles. His were broken at the spline, so there is still plenty of room for me to shorten and re-spline at the Dutchman's. Hopefully I'll have the rear end completely put back together soon.

[GoldHawg]

Had a full day today; will be able to mail Jiggy back to Spriso. I still have some finish welding to do on the mounts and (especially) the front crossmember cutout, and have to flip the frame to get the welds in from below. And now I need to cut a notch for the tranny mount. I'm ok with the tig welds on between the gussets and the plates Michael sells, but the welds to the Datsun frame are ugly. I'll probably be grinding down a bit. Good thing it will be under powdercoating!

[spriso]

Jeff,

All of that is looking really great! My only advice for you (especially since you are trying to TIG weld a lot of the components) is to clean, clean, clean the Datsun frame as much as possible so you don't run into any porosity issues. The steel that the frame is constructed from is old now so lots of crap everywhere-- a Scotch Brite wheel on a die grinder will get you down to clean metal in no time!

Keep up the good work!

Michael

[GoldHawg]

Michael--
Thanks much for your continued after sales support. The engine went down on the mounts w/no problems, and the jig worked perfectly. Looking forward to getting the rest of your stuff installed! Kudos for pathbreaking this swap.

[GoldHawg]

Have you ever said, "do I really want to do that?" And then, "did I really just do that?" The 6-speed is longer and it widens as you go forward, so I needed a pretty good hole to work with. Since someone cut a big piece out the of front crossmember where the exhaust goes already, I'm thinking of just getting a new piece of boxed steel to replace the driver's front part of the X.

EDIT: 1st step in boxing the cut out area done. I'm also doing some additional bracing on the side that can't be seen.
2nd Edit. Crossmember in process of rework.

[GoldHawg]

I've had the major sinus infection for 3 weeks now, and I also had a big project at day job keeping me from the Datsun. However I finished making a new piece for the rear of the crossmember and got it welded in today. I still have some add'l welding on bottom, but I'm not sure I'm going to try to completely weld every point where it touches the frame; the factory crossmember was not welded at every point.