Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

The weather was so nice today that I decided to strip one of the donor doors. I even stripped the interior side and jambs. I will use a soda blaster to get the last bit in the cracks. The donor pieces have about 4 coats of paint on them. Good thing it is only the 2 doors and the hood. The rest of the car has only 2 old sun baked coats. They should come off very easily.

Nice work, those doors are pristine too. Should prime up great with little work. How did you strip these?

notoptoy wrote:Nice work, those doors are pristine too. Should prime up great with little work. How did you strip these?

I used one of the new 3M style stripping discs. They fit an angle grinder and are made out of a scotchbrite material. They leave scratches similar to 100 grit sandpaper. I stripped my blue 67 with 100 grit and a DA sander and it took me weeks! I figure I should have less than 20 hours invested in stripping the whole car this time. As for the condition of the doors and hood. Besides the 4 layers of paint they have just a few dings and dents. There is no rust or major damage!

The result is impressive - 4 coats in that little time is amazing. I thinks I gotta get me some of those discs!

^ yeah that is a really good tip. mmm, shiny steel.

Garm wrote: mmm, shiny steel.

+1

I finally pulled the frame out of the garage and gave it a good cleaning. I used a power washer on it since it had been sitting in the Nevada desert since 1982. It had about a 1/4 inch of caked on dust. The rear end has some old grease all over it so I will have to tackle it with some grease remover before it is wire wheeled. Overall it turned out very well. I hope to have the engine/trans pulled this week and then I will start to remove the suspension. Once it is down to bare frame I will wire wheel it, prime it and then coat it.

That cleaned up nicely. There is actually a fair amount of factory paint left on the frame and suspension. You Desert Dwellers have it made for old steel.
Looing good!

notoptoy wrote:That cleaned up nicely. There is actually a fair amount of factory paint left on the frame and suspension. You Desert Dwellers have it made for old steel.
Looing good!

The lack of rusted cars is a major reason I moved out west from PA.

So I had some time this morning and decided to pull the engine and get it on the stand. It was very straight forward except that I had 2 less bolts to remove from the transmission. Once I got the engine out I noticed that the transmission only had one mount bolt installed. I hope that the PO didn't drive much like this. It doesn't really matter to me since I am having the engine completely rebuilt and the 4 speed replaced with a 5 speed. The motor mounts were toast as to be expected. Overall it took me less than an hour to get it on the stand. Next is the trans and suspension. I can't wait to start stripping the frame!

The first video is the frame before the power washing and the second is after it was cleaned. What a difference a little water can make! up." onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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So I finally got some free time to get out on the car. I took the front wheels off and put the front end up on jack stands. I decided that I would take off one side of the front suspension before dark. I took it off in pieces not as one whole suspension. It took me about 2 hours to get it off. I bought a pitman arm puller from JEGS and it broke! I have been soaking the thing for a couple days and even hit it with the freeze lubricant from Locktite and it still wouldn't budge. I finally just removed the tie rod from it and wiggled the steering box out with the pitman arm still attached. It is a good thing I am swapping a late box into the car! The lower ball joints feel good but this is a race car so I plan on buying new for it. The center link and tie rods all feel really good so I will look to clean them up, powder coat them and put new urethane bushings on them. Here are some pictures as I know that's what we all like!

I got some more time last night to work on the frame dis-assembly. I went out planning on just taking the entire passengers side suspension off in one piece and then take it apart right before I powder coat the pieces. I just needed to take the tie rod off the idler pitman arm to take the whole thing off. Well last night was the second time in a week a suspension tool has broken. The pickle fork went from a "U" shape to a "V" shape and needless to say the tie rod is still attached. I didn't have a spare so I decided that since I went to the trouble of pulling the tools out and getting in my work clothes that I would take the rear suspension out. Four bolts a side and an upper shock nut a side and it was out. This was the fastest rear suspension removal I have ever done. I went out and bought a new pitman arm puller and another pickle fork today at lunch so I can finish the job tomorrow night. I hope to be wire wheeling the frame by this weekend!! Still nothing but a little surface rust on it!!

Making great progress Brian. Good luck pulling those ball joints and tie-rod ends.

Cheers
James

It's cool that you can read the part/lot number off of the rear leaf springs.
Coming apart nicely!