Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

Oh were doing okay now, thanks. Ive got some weird unexplained hearing loss after getting sick, but we're doing good. Focused on playing catch up. The Datsun comes last on the priority list haha.

Wow. Covid hearing loss ?

Sorry to learn that, a new one on me ..

Some scary stuff that!

Yeah it's pretty weird. Got sick, hearing went away. Been a couple weeks now. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

One of my sons got covid and felt o.k. Just lost his sense of smell for 2 weeks or so. But he’s since gotten 2 shots
I spent today attempting to create and weld in two sheet metal patches on the front horns of the rocker panels that are hidden by the. front fenders. MIG tack welded them in position and the attempted the TIG the rest of the seams wound up blowing holes in the edge of the new steel

oof, That's a bummer. I have the same thing happen when I try to TIG the thin stuff. I end up having to just use a MIG with a BUNCH of little tacks.

Yep, That's what I got alright but it's hidden under the fender>
Still have to fix the rust in the lower corner of the front fender though.. THYE may get sent to a body shop..$$
There is a YOUTUBEr by the name of Trevor Hat(t)on who's a British "craftsman" that can make anything look great . He is a REAL PANEL BEATER as they callit.. A True Artisan. He's got a following and tutorial videos also.
But we muddle alone !!
Later,
Cam

I was at a point at work where I was in between the start and finish of two major projects, so I was able to take a week off and dedicate a couple days to the roadster. Up until now, the rear shocks were just supported by some temporary pieces of rectangular tubing that were tack welded to the cross brace. It was the plan all along to incorporate that into either a roll bar or a lower harness bar. I decided that since i have low-back seats, I would just go with a harness bar. this would also keep everything visually below the body line of the car. I ordered up some 1.625"x.093" tubing and bends, and made up a little hoop for the harness mounting, some posts for the suspensions pivots, and some bars that tie it all together (that happen to form a W ). I was able to weld up 90% of it, but unfortunately ran out of MIG wire, so this is where it sits at the moment. I still need to add some more metal around the center point of the 'W' and drill out any holes needed to mount the belts, but I'm happy with how it looks in the car.
Cheers,
Wade

A while back I had stripped the front fenders for the most part, and ordered some steel fender flares off of ebay. These both sat in my garage for quite a bit of our insanely humid summer, so they were coated with a nice bit of rust. I hacked up the fenders to fit the flares and tacked them in place. I like how it fits the wheels and how it terminates at the rear, but I have some figuring out to do when it comes to blending it into the front. There is still quite a bit of metal that needs to be trimmed away to allow the tires to turn in, and a bit more metal needs to be added to fill the gaps. Right now I'm just playing around with different lines and shapes out of masking tape to see what looks right to me. I think I'm going to have to start making a mock up of any front air dam that I may want so that it all works together visually. I'll also clean up the crude cuts I made, and since I cut the OEM lips out that give the fenders that bit of rigidity, I'll have to figure out a way to stiffen them back up. Also, just a quick note about the tire clearance: The fenders are sagging a bit because I just have them kinda pinned instead of actually bolted in place, and I plan on adding some rubber pads to the springs to raise the front up a small amount. There should be enough clearance when it's all said and done for front suspension travel.
Cheers,
Wade

One last bit of progress, I started mounting all of the components underneath the dash. I had made cutouts under there to accommodate both the remote master cylinder reservoir and the ECU. I coated the area underneath the little cowl grill with black POR-15 (which I might spray it with 3M rubberized undercoating to dull it out and give it some texture), and then created a bracket to mount up the little Tilton reservoir. It fits nicely and with the grill over it, nearly all of the brake components will be hidden. I then painted all of the little brackets I had made surrounding the Wilwood reverse swing pedal box. They kinda brace it to both the fire wall and the steering column mount while also supporting the dashboard. As for the ECU, I was debating for a long time between the Haltech Elite 550 and the Elite 750. The 750 has more outputs and feature, but the 550 is a good $500 bucks less. I managed to find a guy selling an new open box Elite 750 priced well below the 550 so i snatched it up quick. It came with a wiring harness and relay box and everything! I made a little panel and mounted it up underneath the dash on a stainless steel piano hinge. I still need to make a latch for it and clean up the POR-15 that seeped through the masking tape, but this should give easy access the the USB port during tuning.
Cheers,
Wade

Nice work,as usual, Wade! The “W” is a particularly nice touch!

I like the way the flare is taped up. The flare seems to flow in to the shape of the bumper. Looks real good.

Cheers

Thanks Matt! I like how it's turning out. I finally got around to getting more welding wire, so I hope to get out and finish it up soon. I might have some extra time to dedicate to it before the end of the year to plan out the front splitter. Then we'll see how the fenders need to be blended in. I hope you and the family had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Cheers,
Wade

I know... I know... It has been so long since my last post. Much has happened since then. I've got quite a few pictures, so I'm going to have to break this up into multiple posts. I've kind of been all over the place with progress on this car. I finished up the welding on the front fenders, and have been doing the necessary bondo to get things looking alright. I have about one or two more rounds of bondo on the drivers side fender, but the passenger side is done and in primer.

I must not have good enough pictures on my phone of this, So ill get another few pictures in a couple days

Cheers,
Wade

My goal was to finish the back half of the car fabrication-wise. I removed the mocked up rear end and fuel tank, painted all of the linkages, the rear axle, the harness bar, and put another coat of POR-15 on the back half of the frame. Prior to that, all of the mounting points for the linkages on the chassis were cut off, and re-welded to a load plate, and then welded back to the chassis. I then had to redo the push rods for the rear suspension as I made them too short, and then made a cross bar that spans the two watt's linkage brackets. The pumpkin had to have some tabs ground off and the crossbar of the frame had to be notched in order to add about an inch of suspension travel(there was an interference).

Cheers,
Wade

Before installing the axle, I resprayed the trunk. Unfortunately I used a grey POR-15 product, and I found out the hard way that there is no UV protection. The engine bay I had painted with the same paint saw a bit of sun and turned a really gross yellow-tinged grey. I sanded any runs and sprayed it with TCP Globals "Dove Gray" It turned out much better, and was an even closer color to what I wanted. Up in the wheelwells and on the back side of the fiberglass wide fenders, I finished with 3M undercoating. Turned out really nice. The rear end and linkages were then installed for good this time!
Cheers,
Wade

Then all of the fuel tank and associated bracketry were installed, padding was added to the brackets beforehand, and some edge grip trim stuff was added to the floor cutout to finish it off.
Cheers,
Wade