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I thought my adventure of importing an FD would be much more comical than it was, but since the car is perfect, I have no content to post. So I now submit my journey to resto-mod the bejeezus out of a 1967 Datsun Roadster 3000 miles from where I live. I wish I had discovered SA and AI when I started this project, but the upside is that I have an enormous backlog of content to share. The Journey Begins I first started making horrible life choices in the summer of 2010. I was in college, daily driving a 280ZX Turbo with a massive T4/T3 hybrid turbo, making more power than I would ever need. I've always loved the S130, since it has that quintessential "eighties charm", and makes for a badass GT car. But, as I've since discovered, the only proper number of Datsuns is 'more'. Having a GT car was nice, but one of the problems with pushing huge boost was that I could never, ever use 100% of that car's power without breaking some pesky law or another. I started to think good thoughts about driving a slow car fast, and that's when I came to discover the Datsun Roadster.  Spergin' Out About Model Differences I could talk all day about these cars, but in simple terms, there are a few things to understand about what makes the "good" ones "good". The 311 cars came with two body styles, referred to as "high" and "low" windshield models. The low/early cars had a chrome surrounded removeable windshield, and a flat dashboard.   In 1968, when the DOT made a bunch of stupid rules and every car ever made went to poo poo (not up for debate), the windshield height was raised two inches. As I've heard it told, this is because the new "minimum swept area" of the windshield wipers was given in square inches   , and was a bigger number than the total number of square inches on the early windshield. Triumph's solution was to use three wiper blades, so who can truly say what was best?  Nearly every 2000 ever made was a high windshield car, so if you want more power in an early car, you have to swap or get creative. The high windshield/late cars also have things like a padded safety dash and a whole bunch of other pointless safety bullshit like dual circuit brakes.  Datsun Insanity Begins Let me preface this story by saying that this car is loving awesome and has outlasted (in my heart and my life) my 82 280ZX Turbo, my 89 MR2 Supercharged, my 88 CRX Si, an 84 VF500 Interceptor, a 00 ZX6R, and two or three girlfriends. There is no amount of money I won't spend on this car, and I have fully lost my ability to cope and make rational decisions. Here's how it started. I called up Mike Young of Datsun Sports, and asked him all of the completely asinine questions everyone asks when they're new to a type of car. But since I was a big time mechanic that had rebuilt  one entire engine , I told Mike I wasn't looking for no kind of sissy, turn-key bullshit. I wanted a project car, and it had to be an early, low windshield model.Mike delivered. He told me that he had a car that was low on his priority list, and it was pretty beat up. But then he made me the irresistible offer: Drive my truck and trailer up to his place, and buy all the body panels it would need, and I could have the car for FREE. Then I saw the car.      How could I not love this piece of poo poo? Dents on EVERY panel? Last registered in 1996? Completely original? Interior made of Cold War era vinyl, held together with spit and promises?   I was completely on board, and nothing could convince me otherwise. I was going to throw some bichin' mags on there, rustoleum paint job over that canary yellow crap, build an engine, and drive the poo poo out of it.   96bhp, gently caress yes. "Was" As many of you have discovered, when you do things with an awesome car cheaply and quickly, you can end up with scope creep, and before you know it, you're shoehorning an LS1 into a Bosozoku Mazda minitruck. Things started innocently enough. 65-68 R16 (1600cc) engines have a 3 main bearing crank, but when production of the U20 (2000cc) began, all the blocks went to 5 main. The U20 and R16 use the same block, but the U20 has the OHC stuff monkeypatched onto the front timing gear. The takeaway is that if you start with a 5 main R16 block, you can keep the pushrods, but use the 2000cc crank, rods, and pistons - making a stroker pushrod engine. U20 timing sets are something like $1200 new from Nissan, so I decided to make a stand. The cop out solution for talentless fuckoffs with no appreciation for vintage Japanese iron is to stick an SR20DE in there, and cover the windshield with fatlace stickers Lucky for me, Mike was really interested in seeing what I did with the car, and he agreed to trade me a 5 main block, U20 rotating assembly, and U20 carbs for my running R16 engine. This was going to be possible, and I was going to be driving this awesome loving car by Christmas 2010. I set about removing the engine, with the help of a factory service manual (which is USELESS but looks really cool).         Little did I know, this was the last time my Roadster would have an engine in it for a long, long time. Two Liters, Too Late The U20 crankshaft is still a thing of beauty. This was, to the best of my knowledge, one of the first production Japanese engines to use forged internals. Note also the fully counterbalanced design, and how generally awesome it is.  The cylinder head was from another late R16, and would have been overcut for an R16 with the factory domed pistons. With the U20 flat tops, and my ambitions, it needed to be cut even more. Daddy needs his compression ratio.  The U20 flat tops fetch a mint, so Mike really did me a solid in this trade.  U20 SU carbs. I really did think I was going to use these, since the alternative seemed like the much more expensive Mikuni PHH 44s.  Up next, body work and engine builds.
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Nov 3, 2013 23:22
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Beautiful. Can't wait to see it done!
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Nov 4, 2013 03:07
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 I might be a hack trying to shove an SR20DET into a Datsun, but I love the old roadsters, and admire keeping the original layout. Good luck!
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Nov 4, 2013 03:43
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Work is slow today because we're trying to get a new guy integrated on our git repo. I need a break from solving his merge conflicts, so here's part II. Work Dat Body Since I was still convinced that I was going to be driving the car by Christmas, I had no qualms about doing cheap, fast repairs. The car was obviously covered with body damage, so I started beating out some of the larger dents with a mallet. I'm not proud, but my goals were different then.   Feeling satisfied, I pulled off the doors and fenders to replace them with ones I had gotten from Mike. The car wasn't the same color anymore, but it looked a lot more like a car. gently caress yeah, gonna be driving this awesome Datsun in just a little bit.      This looked pretty good to me. The Rustoleum would cover up all the different colors, and since I had the engine out, I could do the bay, too! But as I started removing more and more of the poo poo, I realized that I would have to take the dash and interior out. I mean, who wants to ride around in a car with holes in the floor? Several of the vendors sell a dash, and an interior kit, so I figured it would be alright to just spend a little money. And  later I would have a nicer Datsun.Gutted So the interior came out, and it slowly dawned on me that there was very possibly a reason that this car was so... free.   Not in terrible shape for being 43 years old, honestly. Clearly, I was going to have to reupholster the seats though. And buy a new carpet. And fix the hole in the floor. All things that I was still confident could be done on a shoestring budget. In retrospect, this was the true beginning of "while I'm here" syndrome.   A quarter from 1967, found under the center console. #2spooky4me   The wiring harness was a mess! Better pull that out, and make sure I get it cleaned up and working.     Vroom Vroom, Son It was finally time to load my 5 main bearing R16 up on the stand. The engine had clearly been rebuilt by a MURRRICAN MUSCLE guy, since loving everything on the block was painted, and it was painted Mopar Orange.  I don't know what it is about Datsuns that attracts these people, but they're loving everywhere. I guarantee you that every L-engine in every Z car that has a painted valve cover is owned by someone whose previous ownership experience includes at least four El Caminos and most of a beard. Don't even get me started on the Holley 4bbl conversions. It's a loving Datsun, not your dad's truck!  Disclaimer: I know some really good Murican Muscle guys, but I'm talking specifically about the type whose "engine rebuilds" consist of eyeballing the rings, spraypainting the long motor, and ordering everything they can afford out of the Edelbrock catalog. Anyways, I have automotive ADD, and when I started this project, my engine stand contained a VG30DETT (sans turbos). I don't know why I owned this. I've never had a 300ZX. Long story short, I put that bitch on some tires to make way for 96bhp of Datsun fury.   Predictably, the block was nasty and grimy. It had been subject to a bastard rebuild using flat top pistons. My guess is that their head was overcut, and they were trying to get some more life out of it. Most of the accessories were in okay shape, except for the distributor, which I was planning on replacing. The R16/U20 block is remarkably stout, so my plan at the time was to use one of those cylinder hones and replace all the wear parts. Ah, hindsight...    I stripped the block down and painted it with GM Blue, because I'm a hypocrite. You can get the correct Datsun Turquoise from various people, but it's something like $22 a can and I was unwilling to spend "unnecessary money" for such a "trivial thing". (This is now darkly humorous to me.)   The paint barely stuck because I did a poo poo job getting the block clean, and the cylinder hone did only an okay job. I was nearly going to run it like this, but then fate intervened...   I called up "Datsun Don" of Rising Sun Racing, and started asking him about headers. I had heard that he makes the best one, being ceramic coated and all sorts of other goodness involving the correct thickness of a flange. The header was going to be the first nice, new part my Roadster would see.  We got to talking about my stroker build, and I mentioned that I was having some trouble. See, the U20 crank is a drop in, but the nose is an inch longer to accommodate the second timing set. You have to get it cut off, re-tapped, and re-keyed. People on the forums talked about it like it ain't no thang, but when I called my machinist he said something along the lines of  "That's crazy and we never do things like that".So then Don did something that changed everything. He said "You know, I've had it on my shelf for years, but I've got the last NOS Nismo stroker crank." The stroker crank was developed in the 70s for people racing the 1600s. It has the same stroke as the U20 crank, but only half the counterweighting and no nose. There's a forklift version of it that people sometimes use, but with the disclaimer that they wish it was the "real one". So I did what any rational person would do, and I bought it.  Now I had a new problem on my hands. I had been doing lovely, monkey-like work on the car because I wanted it done cheap and quick. But now I had this awesome crank... and I knew I needed to do it justice. The engine had to be a monster. I had to get more power out of the R16 than anyone else ever had. But if I had the most powerful "R20" in the world... I couldn't put it in such a dirty, grimy body... Stay tuned for tales of Engine Build II: Build Harder, and also the part where I hulk strength the body off the frame.
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Nov 6, 2013 15:57
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Yeeess i want to know more SO much more and i want pictures of EVERYthing!!  Right now everything about this is really doing it for me. A Nismo crank for a '67 Datsun Rollerskate my goodness.
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Nov 6, 2013 18:13
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Leper Go-getter posted:Yeeess i want to know more SO much more and i want pictures of EVERYthing!! Your wish is my command. I'm deliberately not spoiling how this turns out for me, because I want everyone in AI to experience the same dawning horror/comprehension that I did... but in a compressed timescale. The pictures will improve in quality. I ended up using my lovely cameraphone to take all the early shots, but eventually started using a Canon Elph, which was marginally better.
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Nov 6, 2013 18:36
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Let me know if you need the BRE engine manual... I'm sure you are already beyond needing this by the sound of it. You write very well and I'm looking forward to the next update!
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Nov 6, 2013 18:51
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extreme_accordion posted:Let me know if you need the BRE engine manual... I'm sure you are already beyond needing this by the sound of it. I've read the competition manual cover to cover a few times, if that's the one you mean. I ended up taking some liberties with the engine build, since there have been some major changes to certain technologies in the past 40 years. No spoilers, though! For anyone lurking, Datsun.org has some great resources. Also, just to expound a bit more on the difference between the cranks:  The first image is the "R20" stroker crank. The second image is a Toyota 4AGZE crank on top, and the U20 crank on the bottom. This makes it really easy to see the difference in counterweighting, and also the relative size of the crank. This is a terrifically stout little engine, and it's spinning a shitload of mass which I later reduce even further. My feeling is that the half-weighted crank is going to spin up faster, but not do well at high RPM. That's okay with me, because every dyno graph I've seen for these engines has the torque come on early, and high RPM trail off. The OHV valves are smaller than the OHC ones, and pretty much everything about the design is consistent with a "big-torque" engine. I figure I'm just going to take everything to its logical extreme. The U20's OHC head was developed by Prince, which is why it looks like such an afterthought. Coincidentally, Prince also developed the S20 engine that goes in the Skyline GT-R and the Fairlady Z 432. Look at this head and tell me it's a design you'd want in YOUR car. 
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Nov 6, 2013 18:57
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There is no emoticon for the jealousy I am feeling. God speed good sir!
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Nov 6, 2013 19:07
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Alright, you bugaboos. Time for part three. I'll try and make these shorter so that I can break them up better. The Great Divide Something magical happened next. Look close, and tell me what you see...  Have you figured it out? After looking at other people's projects on the Datsun forums, I realized there might be rust in places I couldn't see - namely, on the frame. I also had plans to do... well, something about the suspension, so I decided it was time. I gathered some family members who were milling about, and we muscled the body onto a furniture dolly.  I didn't have a good idea, visually, of how the underside of the car was. There are some nooks and crannies in the frame that I couldn't lay eyes on. But, none of the dirt I ate tasted good, so I wasn't surprised by what I found. Namely, the metric poo poo-ton of rust, dirt, oil, road grime, rocks, dehydrated biomass, and things that didn't fit clearly in any category of disgust but were disgusting nonetheless. Pulling the front suspension apart unleashed an unbelievably concentrated version of the poo poo-stink miasma I'd been dealing with already. I don't know when the wheel bearings last got greased, but it weren't grease no mo'. I began to actually realize what I had gotten myself into around the same time as I pulled off the driver side coil spring.   Where... where's the rest of you?    Who knows how long that fucker was like that? How many other things were still like that? At this point, I was slowly beginning to realize that it was completely impossible to use any part of this car the way it was. The frame, at the very least, would need to be stripped bare, checked for holes or deformation, and then... something. So out everything came. After I finished stripping down the front A-arms, I moved to the back, and discovered that the axle wasn't as stout as it looked, it was just...  covered in about an inch of death-grease.     I was, at the time, seriously not prepared for the perils of '60s car ownership. Somehow, while being one of the earliest manufacturers to offer things like a cheap sports car with 5 forward gears and an OHC engine, Datsun was still stuck in the past. The frame pads had mostly rotted away, because they were made from horsehair and tar, I poo poo you not. The time when this was going to be a 'quick project' was over. Now, it was just a grudge match between me and the neglect. And I was gonna punch neglect square in its sissy, pinko Commie face.  Finally, the body was completely bare (except for the steering box), and I could begin the next phase of my plans. But while all this frame tomfoolery was happening, something very interesting had happened to the engine... EDIT: Forgot an image ironblock fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Nov 8, 2013 |
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Nov 8, 2013 01:55
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I should be doing web development for my stupid job but I'd rather tell you guys about my engine.  Oh, are we going somewhere? I think this was the only time my Supercharged MR2 was actually good for anything, and I think it overheated in the machinist's parking lot. Anyways, I dumped the short block and all of my goodies into the MR2, and we went on a magical journey.  At the time, I lived in the California Bay Area, and let me just tell you, gently caress trying to get any decent work done around there. I had to drive out to Hayward to get any decent machining done, but even with the bridge toll and the agony of driving an MR2 full of engine parts, I want to give the biggest shoutout ever to Rob's Auto Machine. This guy is so good, so meticulous, and so thorough that I wouldn't trust anyone else to do my engine parts now. First, we attacked the head. Since the R16 was a 1600cc motor, and I was going to be cramming a ton of air through it... We had to up the ante a little. It got clean.  It got cut the hell down and CC'd, so that I ended up with a 10.25:1 compression ratio (stock is 9:1). This is important, because it is both loving AWESOME and the thing that informed later bad decisions about cam profile.  It got ported to the size of the gasket. This isn't a particularly good shot of the porting, but I was too excited to get it right.  It got a 5 angle valve job, hardened steel seats (can't use brass with unleaded!), and oversized H20 (forklift motor) valves. Things are starting to shape up by now.  Iron Block, indeed The block got the same treatment. It was 0.75mm overbore when I got it, but that's not gonna fly. I had it punched out to a full millimeter over, and honed professionally. The difference was night and day. Don't hone in your garage. The surface was decked (or "kissed", as Rob liked to say) very gently, since I didn't want to get my pistons popping out into the cut down head.   The entire block was heat tanked, destroying my lovely paint job. Now back in my lair, I re-masked the block and painted it again - this time, with results. Also I changed the freeze plugs, because... why not? It's not a cheap project anymore.   With the paint drying, I prepared the rotating assembly for battle. My 1mm overbore U20 pistons, my U20 rods, and my R20 crank were about to make for a motor that most people will never see. As an aside, getting piston pins in SUCKS HARDCORE, and I wish I'd had the machine shop do it for me. The trick was to heat up the pistons a bit in some hot water, and press really carefully   I had to stop working on it for a bit, because I had been using the H20 (forklift) parts set, which is cheap and readily available. Unfortunately for me, the R16 and H20 pistons use a 2.5mm second ring, and the U20 pistons use a 2.0mm. Thanks, Nissan.   Assembly Finally, I got some rings, and started to do the deed. I started by laying in some nice, fresh, standard size main bearings (because my crank is NOS and I wanted to remind you guys ) Then I got the 1mm overbore pistons ringed up, and spent the most autistic hour of my life arranging each ring to be perfectly positioned for first start.  Finally, I took a moment to admire how lovely this all almost was, and how Don convincing me to by a Nismo crank set off an avalanche of wallet-pounding madness. Those pistons do look nice in that fresh, clean deck, though.  I ran a mixture of ATF and SAE30 through the bores overnight, and microfibered them out. There was just the tiniest bit of gray on the cloth, so I saved the Earth and everyone on it. Disclaimer: putting ATF down your cylinder bores is a crazy snakeoil idea and I don't personally endorse it.  Sooner than I thought possible, it was headgasket time. There were some more H20 vs R16 fitment issues, but I figure one coolant channel won't kill me. I also Copper-coated that bitch, which in retrospect, I wish I hadn't done. Oh well. (I do like the way Copper-coat smells, though)   The Cam Unfortunately, I lost my pictures of the cam and its glory. The skinny is: .460" lift, 290 duration. It's reground from the stock cam, so the base circle is reduced a bit to make the magic happen. The goal was to get a bit grumpy on the idle, and play nice with my crazy static compression. The Joining is Complete Even though six months had flown by from the day I first got the car, I still felt good about getting the engine together so soon. There were still some things to sort out, though - like the distributor, alternator, and other accessories. Cooling was also set to be a bear, and I didn't have a potential remedy outlined just yet.   This is a better example of the widened ports. They're reshaped from stock, and should have some very interesting flow characteristics. Nobody does head work on the R16s anymore, though, so I have no basis of comparison. It's going to throw down harder than a U20, though, and that's what counts.  I put the manifold and header on, just to dream of the future for a moment. The future looked badass. Looking backward from the future, I can say for sure that it is badass.   It was early December, 2011. I still figured I was being pretty reasonable by this point, since everything was pretty standard. It was going to work with the U20 carbs I had, and the modified manifold. I had missed my goal, but maybe I could take it for a road trip next summer, after the paint and suspension work was finished. But thoughts of the engine would have to wait, because it was time to turn my attention back to the frame... ironblock fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Nov 8, 2013 |
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Nov 8, 2013 03:17
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I am on the edge of my seat. Holy poo poo.
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Nov 8, 2013 04:03
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This is a good thread. Can't wait to see how it turns out!
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Nov 8, 2013 04:06
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Bring me more. Looks great so far! 
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Nov 8, 2013 04:08
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I'm gonna guess that those old carbs were trashed and you ended up with Mikuni 44s or something else equally badass. I too am on the edge of my seat, waiting for the next installment.
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Nov 8, 2013 04:27
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Great thread, keep it up 
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Nov 8, 2013 04:34
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Thanks for the encouragement, guys. It helps, but it makes me miss the car. I thought I was going back to CA for Thanksgiving, but it looks like I might not be able to until Christmas. The FD soothes the burn a little, but I really want to get that car down to Grand Cayman. No AC, 100% humidity bandman posted:I'm gonna guess that those old carbs were trashed and you ended up with Mikuni 44s or something else equally badass. I too am on the edge of my seat, waiting for the next installment. The story of the carbs is completely absurd, and is going to take an entire post to play out. That won't be for a little bit, but if you have't guessed already, every time I think I might be doing something rational or expected, I take a hard right and do something else. I will say only that there are carbs, and that it's not what you think 
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Nov 8, 2013 04:39
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ironblock posted:I will say only that there are carbs, and that it's not what you think Blow-through or draw-through?
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Nov 8, 2013 05:31
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ironblock posted:The story of the carbs is completely absurd, and is going to take an entire post to play out. That won't be for a little bit, but if you have't guessed already, every time I think I might be doing something rational or expected, I take a hard right and do something else. I will say only that there are carbs, and that it's not what you think My guess (hope) is ITBs with some ridiculously complicated mechanical throttle linkage, because that would be loving awesome. Bet getting the fuel system to function properly would be a bitch, though. Anyway, great thread, please keep the updates coming!
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Nov 8, 2013 06:56
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ironblock posted:I put the manifold and header on, just to dream of the future for a moment. The future looked badass. Looking backward from the future, I can say for sure that it is badass. I see Number Five, lying on a beach towel, arms behind his head. He seems angry.
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Nov 8, 2013 15:59
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I want to write something encouraging that appropriately conveys my appreciation for this story, but goddammit please write faster I can't wait.
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Nov 8, 2013 18:08
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Alright, AI, calm down. There's more on the way. Datsun derailing I was still finishing college at this phase of the Datsun crusade, and I constantly found myself without any money. Datsun parts are loving expensive, by and large, so this was going to be a problem. While starting some long lead tasks involving the body and frame, I did some freelancing and rebuilt a KA24DE for a friend of a friend. That entire car was a horrible mechanical failure, but I digress. I dethroned the R20, and put the KA24 on my engine stand.     The client's weird color choices nonwithstanding, the KA rebuild gave me some ideas about my own engine, but more importantly... it gave me a shortstack of dolla billz I could use to put my plans regarding the frame and suspension into motion... Ironblock and the grimy frame I went ahead and removed the steering box, which is a horrible nightmare of bad engineering. It BARELY fits in there, and was clearly converted from a design intended for the right hand side of the car.  It's in the past now. At last, I finally had the frame laid bare, and I could get a true sense of the size and weight of it. I also got a sense of how thoroughly disgusting it was and how little I wanted to clean it or paint it.  More critically, my track record for painting dirty things wasn't good. But then I realized something else: It would fit in the bed of a truck. And I could take it somewhere. A magical facility where the shattered dreams of a madman become beautiful reality.   And that somewhere could help me with what came next: Powdercoating loving everything under the body. I didn't understand much about powdercoating at the time, other than how durable it was compared to paint, and how little effort was involved on my part. Once I arrived at Maas Bros. Powdercoating, in Livermore, CA (a long loving drive from the Peninsula), I was inundated by a bewildering kaleidoscope of Coors Light beer cans  , all powdercoated in a different color or finish or texture.I knew I wanted black, but I had a wide, wide array of black to choose from.   I ended choosing a semi-gloss finish - something that would look nice and be relatively smooth, but wouldn't be shiny to anyone looking under the car for the drugs I'm obviously on. Back at the Datsun Ranch, several mysterious packages had arrived, and been dumped on my garage floor. What could they contain?  The Christmas BBQ Donald Rumsfeld posted:There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know. One of the terms I now use to describe something that has been completely hosed up beyond all control, in a way I could never possibly have forseen, is a "Christmas BBQ". I had been waiting a few weeks for the truckload of parts to be ready. Maas Bros. finally called me on Thursday, December 15th, and told me "Yeah, your stuff will be done tomorrow for sure". The drive to Livermore took over an hour, so I wouldn't be able to make it before they closed. I wanted to get started that weekend, since it was precious Datsun time, and so I decided to wait, and go the following afternoon. I called ahead to verify that they would be ready for me, and the phone rang and rang and rang. This wasn't too strange, since they're a small shop and most of the guys were usually media blastin', powdercoatin', or drinking Coors Light. I decided to leave, and call again from the road, thinking that I could at least give them a heads up. What I found, when I finally arrived, defied all logic and expectation:  Who the gently caress has a BBQ for Christmas? On the 16th? In the middle of the day? I went home and nursed my unholy rage. I have to cut this short, because I'm being shanghaied into going on a boat. hashtag caymanproblems
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Nov 8, 2013 22:22
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I'm loving this - thanks for posting  I have a picture of the finished car in my head and I'm positive that it's wrong.#thegoodlife #jumpinwavesinaboat #poundsofcoke
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Nov 8, 2013 22:30
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I'm nursing a monster set of blueballs thanks to this thread. You're the best/worst sort of cocktease.
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Nov 8, 2013 22:46
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Huge_Midget posted:I'm nursing a monster set of blueballs thanks to this thread. You're the best/worst sort of cocktease. Nothing compared to the ones I have about the car. Astonishing Wang posted:I have a picture of the finished car in my head and I'm positive that it's wrong. I have a picture of spoiler left blank for maximum cocktease effect in real life and it's amazing. Some poo poo goes down and it's pretty awesome. Anyways, I just spent a few hours drinking on a boat and now the girlfriend wants to go have a romantic dinner. Stay tuned for some seriouspostin' about spring rates and damping rates and stuff.
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Nov 9, 2013 00:57
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This is my new favorite thread on this entire site, I am eagerly awaiting the next update.
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Nov 9, 2013 02:21
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Excepting the, ahem, inopportune Christmas BBQ, did Maas do a good job on the powdercoating? I need to get some motorcycle rims powdercoated eventually... Love the thread as well 
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Nov 9, 2013 02:49
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I'm getting the vibe things are about to take a hard turn in an unexpected direction. Good story so far, looking forward to more
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Nov 9, 2013 02:54
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Yeah, this is one of those "this is why AI kicks rear end" threads.
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Nov 9, 2013 03:01
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This is awesome! Jumping on the can't wait for the conclusion bandwagon. My guess is that you build it up to 600hp before you completely destroy it racing in the vintage class at the targa tasmania.
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Nov 10, 2013 14:48
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This thread is pure awesomeness! I sometimes dream of dumping obscene amounts of time and money into a car but reading threads like these let me live vicariously through someone else doing the same and it damps the fire down temporarily. It's like a wallet destroying RPG. vvv Don't talk about lazy. My track bike has needed the rear shock installed (which has been sitting rebuilt, ready to go) and then have the plastics put on. That's pretty much it. I'm dying to go to the track. I haven't touched it in three months. Bugdrvr fucked around with this message at 23:32 on Nov 10, 2013 |
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Nov 10, 2013 19:49
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This thread makes me feel ridiculously lazy. It's deteriorated to the point where almost everything i have could be labeled a project.
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Nov 10, 2013 22:00
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Love the thread OP. Carry on.
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Nov 11, 2013 00:20
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Pretty sure you're going EFI but you better put a turbo on this thing
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Nov 11, 2013 05:19
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Huge_Midget posted:I'm nursing a monster set of blueballs thanks to this thread. You're the best/worst sort of cocktease. What HM said. There's not enough  in the world to get rid of these blues right now.
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Nov 11, 2013 13:05
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You guys are awesome. The other designer my company has quit, and we're launching a new business in a month, so I've been totally swamped with work. Lucky for y'all, I'm sick to my rear end of loving around with Twitter Bootstrap, and it's time for more Datsun tales. Harder than paint As with so many other parts of this project, this one felt like the turning point. Like once I got this straightened out, there were going to be no more headaches or mysteries or previous owner kludges I'd have to fix. Full disclosure: Never think that about any car project. Z3n posted:Excepting the, ahem, inopportune Christmas BBQ, did Maas do a good job on the powdercoating? Oh yes, they did. To the point that something I barely recognized ended up in my truck bed.  What manner of object be this? Every time I have a part reconditioned by professionals, I always think they must have thrown mine away and bought another one from somewhere. The frame was astonishing. Maas covered all the threads, plugged all the holes, and generally made sure there were no areas where the powdercoat could get that it shouldn't. They were cheap, too. I'd use them again in a heartbeat.    The only problem was what I expected. The horsehair/tar frame pads had, surprisingly, turned into horrible poo poo magnets and put some dimples in the plate. None of them were too deep, and the plate on this frame is real thick, so I wasn't too worried about it. Now that they're covered in powdercoat, we're out of the woods. And now, I think it's high time we find out what was in those boxes. These cars saw a lot of racing back in the day, and were very successful and competitive, even against larger marques and established cars, like the Porsche 911.   This was part of the Datsun brand strategy, meant to get them a better foothold in America. It's the same reason you could buy a 2000 with a "B" cam, dual 44mm Mikuni Solex carbs, and a 7 quart oil pan (which people hate because it gets punctured by rocks). The end result of that is that there's a huge number of race parts that are still available, or being remanufactured. There are ways to make the little Datsun a lot more car - especially in the handling and suspension department. I got them all.  The swaybar is 7/8", up from the pinky-thin one that came stock. Also pictured is the rear axle, grime free. Overall, the car is lowered about an inch. The coil springs are reproduction competition style, 860 lb/in. They are STIFF motherfuckers. The leaf springs are also a competition design, and they weigh in at 180lb/in - but will be more progressive than the fronts. They're enormously stiff also. The leaf design is interesting, because they sit with a negative arc at normal load, and get more negative as you load them further. Even at full droop, they're very flat in comparison to the factory springs. The net result, at this point, is that the car is hugely stiff and set up like a vintage race car - more a byproduct with my 'turn it up to 11' mentality than a planned event. But it was instructive in things to come...  All of the shocks looked original, and completely blown. Options for this car are limited, so I grudgingly accepted a set of KYB Gas-a-justs, which, despite their name, are not at all adjustable. The body is larger, and the design is newer, so these would be "okay". For now.  Continuing my crusade against anything that could rot, rust, or deteriorate in any way, I replaced every single piece of under-car rubber with hard-as-gently caress polyurethane. They didn't have access to this poo poo back in the '60s, so this is all new. This is quickly becoming a 'no holds barred' undertaking.  I have to get back to work, but up next, I install the suspension, and we solve some other problems. For example, what if my brakes were the largest possible thing? What if they weren't even from a Nissan? Also... where's my transmission?
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Nov 11, 2013 19:30
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Not even on the edge of my seat anymore. I am standing and demanding more ICBD!
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Nov 12, 2013 03:25
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bandman posted:Not even on the edge of my seat anymore. I am standing and demanding more ICBD! Actually, now I'm intrigued as to the "Ballistic" part. Does this car ramp off a hillside at any point?
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Nov 12, 2013 03:41
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Freakin' loving this thread. How do you feel about minorities?
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Nov 12, 2013 04:24
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Fucknag posted:Actually, now I'm intrigued as to the "Ballistic" part. Does this car ramp off a hillside at any point? It becomes... sleeker. You'll see. I'm a big fan of driving things that might explode at any moment, also. Ownership history includes: Supercharged MR2, VF500 Interceptor, RX-7 FD. Why drive something with margin of error? Krakkles posted:How do you feel about minorities? I... uh... what?
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Nov 12, 2013 05:52
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