Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

Nice work Wade....Very nice!!

RustyBucket wrote: Fri Dec 18, 2020 7:25 am You've done a fantastic job of making the fiber glass rear fenders !! How many hours do you figure that you've sunk in that aspect of the resto??

Have you seen the Youtube video "DougsBug" where the owner is building a "VW" dune bugging from scratch and making his own Fiber Glass VW body panels . You two guys are inspirational.
Please keep posting your progress >...
Thanks

No I haven't seen that, but it definitely seems worth a watch. I would say the amount of calendar years I've been working on this project does not reflect the amount of man-hours I have into it. I am constantly getting distracted by new hobbies and projects, and now that I am married and have a 6 month old, I really only get a couple hours here and there to really dedicate to it.

charlee0620 wrote: Fri Dec 18, 2020 9:09 am Nice work Wade....Very nice!!

Thanks Matthew! Much appreciated!

Cheers,
Wade

What’s with ‘21.5/3.5’?

Congratulations on the baby !!

RustyBucket wrote: Fri Dec 18, 2020 12:53 pm What’s with ‘21.5/3.5’?

So when I first started this project, I initially had the build log posted on HybridZ.org. I made a comment of having a 12k budget for the project, and one of the members said double both the amount of money and time you are expecting to put into this thing. With that in mind, the target build cost is around 25K. So the 21.5/3.5 is just an up/down counter toward that goal, rounded to the nearest 100 bucks. I have been pretty diligent about updating it every time that I update my build log. It really isn't an accurate cost of the car itself as it includes consumables, all the tools acquired (including a couple welding machines), mistakes made, and even parts sold off that won't be used. I guess an overall project cost when you factor in literally everything.

RustyBucket wrote: Fri Dec 18, 2020 12:54 pm Congratulations on the baby !!

Thank you so much! My wife is doing this monthly thing where she makes me push the roadster out in the driveway and takes the same picture of me in it while holding him. It will be a sort of time-lapse of him aging and progress getting made on the roadster. It gives me a bit of motivation to make progress on it every month. Now I just have to finish this thing before he moves out for college haha.

Cheers,
Wade

I hear you on budget and time creep. Sometimes it's the little things that add up. For example on my EFI project, I just had to buy two banjo bolts and 4 copper crush washers. Only the bolts needed to be kinda short to fit, metric and 12mm. Spent a lot of time searching for the right bolts, both locally and online, driving from parts/hardware stores to the next. I know people have strong feelings here, but thank God for Amazon, otherwise there's no way this would be done. Finding few options, I ended up ordering the wrong length online and had to return them. Finally found the correct banjos ($30.00 with shipping for two bolts), but they didn't come with washers. I figured washers would be easy to find... nope. Found that so called auto parts stores are not what they used to be. Once again, drove all over the place (hours spent), and finally at an industrial hose shop the guy found 4 (and only 4) that would work. They cost a buck, but it was hours of searching and fuel spent. I have probably spent at least 8hrs just getting two bolts and 4 washers, plus the time delay (weeks) before they were in my hands.

Of course, all of that is forgotten when they work perfectly. Cars teach perseverance and patience!

Will I have a photo of my first son sitting in driver's seat of the car in the garage making "Vrroom vroom" noises since the engine ( which according to the P.O. claimed it "ran"-) was totally knackered :-@.
.. so fast forward many many years later and the SOn is about to get married and I need to get this car together and get it ready for Him to drive from a weeding chapel to a reception this autumn....
Not Pressure...
Your wife has the right idea.... "Pressure to Get'er DONE!!"
Cheers

...opss ---> "wedding chapel"

Gregs672000 wrote: Sat Dec 19, 2020 11:53 am I hear you on budget and time creep. Sometimes it's the little things that add up. For example on my EFI project, I just had to buy two banjo bolts and 4 copper crush washers. Only the bolts needed to be kinda short to fit, metric and 12mm. Spent a lot of time searching for the right bolts, both locally and online, driving from parts/hardware stores to the next. I know people have strong feelings here, but thank God for Amazon, otherwise there's no way this would be done. Finding few options, I ended up ordering the wrong length online and had to return them. Finally found the correct banjos ($30.00 with shipping for two bolts), but they didn't come with washers. I figured washers would be easy to find... nope. Found that so called auto parts stores are not what they used to be. Once again, drove all over the place (hours spent), and finally at an industrial hose shop the guy found 4 (and only 4) that would work. They cost a buck, but it was hours of searching and fuel spent. I have probably spent at least 8hrs just getting two bolts and 4 washers, plus the time delay (weeks) before they were in my hands.

Of course, all of that is forgotten when they work perfectly. Cars teach perseverance and patience!

Something like that would set me back a month, haha. What a pain! For the super hard to find fittings and oddball bolts, my go-to is McMaster-Carr. They have almost everything, and their website has technical drawings and CAD for a lot of the stuff. Their shipping is of Amazon speed, but you really pay for it, and they have a pretty good mark-up on their prices so it can be pricey for only a couple items. I usually will add stuff to my orders that are for other projects, or that I could just get at Home Depot, just to make the shipping costs worth it for those two or three specialty fittings. For regular nuts and bolts though, McMaster can be a little frustrating because a lot of the common stuff is sold in boxes of 50 or 100.

RustyBucket wrote: Sat Dec 19, 2020 12:58 pm Will I have a photo of my first son sitting in driver's seat of the car in the garage making "Vrroom vroom" noises since the engine ( which according to the P.O. claimed it "ran"-) was totally knackered :-@.
.. so fast forward many many years later and the SOn is about to get married and I need to get this car together and get it ready for Him to drive from a weeding chapel to a reception this autumn....
Not Pressure...
Your wife has the right idea.... "Pressure to Get'er DONE!!"
Cheers

That's Awesome that you've kept the car all this time. I'm sure you can get it shape by then. What kind of condition is it in? How much is left to do?

Cheers,
Wade

Wade,
There's a lot to do. The body is off and in a cradle at the moment without most of the interior, ( Dash and windshield have yet to be pulled) the chassis is stripped down to about nothing and should be going to a media blasting shop this coming week for a squirt.
The front fenders require a patch panels to be welded in along with patches to be made to the front of the rocker panels ( the typical rust spots for this cars :-@)
I need to locate some one who can weld beer cans to mend the sheet metal on this thing. I made a half arse attempt on some spare mild steel and blew a hole through the scrap> Glad I didn't attempt butchering the car
Need to track down stock lower ball joints to reassemble the suspension one the frame is prettied up !
Other than that,.. Nothing much ..

RustyBucket wrote: Sun Dec 20, 2020 9:07 pm Other than that,.. Nothing much ..

Haha I use almost the same line. "All I have left the brakes, bodywork, wiring, interior, fuel lines, have everything rechromed, Then finsish a few bits on the motor and its Done!" haha

Since my last update, I spent the majority of my roadster efforts on progressing the bodywork, I removed the doors, hood, and trunk, and then spent some time stripping everything down to the metal. I was really having trouble seeing the dents, waves, and where I needed to add body filler since the whole car was in so many different shades of blue, primer, white, fiberglass, and green fairing compound. After stripping down to metal, I put several thick coats of TCPs white 2-part epoxy primer. This gets everything in one color so I can see the surfaces better, and it also acts as a sealer/ rust preventer. I will be doing my body filler on top of the primer, and then a couple more coats of primer on top of that before painting.

There is always mixed reactions and opinions when it comes to roll-on paint jobs, but that is the route I am going. This isn't the "$50 rustoleum job" that you see all over the place that uses an oil based alkyd enamel. I am using decent quality acrylic enamel with a hardener. I've done two previous roll-on jobs, and have been more than happy with the result. It is a bit more work with the amount of sanding, and painting, and repeating, but it's not like im in any hurry with this thing.

I have also welded up some permanent mounting for the fuel tank, and began working on the front caliper brackets. For the fuel tank, I welded up some posts to the frame, and used some angle iron to span those posts to create a mounting point for the tank to hang from. For the caliper brackets, I am using 1/4" steel plate, and everything should line up right if I remove a small amount of material from the calipers themselves. I welded two plates together, and then welded the oem caliper bracket to those plates to use as a template. I'm currently waiting on a couple tools that will help in evenly moving the material from the calipers, after that, It shouldn't take mush more to get them mounted.

Also, I cut down the windshield fram a little bit to thin it out a little bit, and then filled the entire thing with epoxy and some carbon fiber rods left over from another project. This stiffened the frame up substantially, and really makes it feel like a solid piece.

I'm currently going over the entire car filling any imperfection with Evercoat Rage Gold body filler. Once I'm happy with it, more primer, wet-sanding, and then finally some color coats. I'll be applying about 3 coats at a time, wet-sanding the roller/brush marks down, then repeating the process several times. Once I have a thick enough finish. I can do a final wetsand and buff.
Cheers,
Wade

And finally I started finishing the shape of the dash top. Its just smoothing out the plywood with some of that epoxy fairing compound. I've got some Faux leather on order that matches the seats, and will be wrapping it, as well as doing the rest of the interior in it when the time comes.
That's all for now.
Cheers,
Wade

Wade,
Nice bit of work there bubba! Are you mounting the Volvo 740 rotors and calipers on you car?

Will you have to mount a mega mother master cylinders with vacuum booster ?