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After being between NC and MI for quite a while this year, I finally sold my house in NC and closed on the house here in MI. Pretty much everything is moved in and organized. Thanks to a rather early dumping of snow, it took longer than I hoped to take advantage of my new pole barn.  Dakota for scale The garage has been cleared of bins, is mostly organized, and is now capable of parking cars.  Honda Element not pictured. The pole barn now has the '81 Datsun 510 and '08 BMW 335i in it.  Yes, they are parked too close. It was at the end of the day yesterday and they will be getting repositioned. It may be a bit before the tiki bar can be used.  Puppers for scale. The Datsun will be the long term project. First steps are to get the rust off of it and get Chassis Saver on it, then some fenders. The rust really isn't bad at all, considering its age. The interior is in good shape, just in need of a good cleaning and new seats. I had thought about just getting it running again, but considering it's already mostly apart, I may go straight to phase 2: make it faster. Wrar has convinced me the way to go is a black top BEAMS swap. The dimensions and weight are almost identical to an AE86 so I believe I can leverage that aftermarket for improved suspension.
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Nov 16, 2018 22:18
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 11:49 |
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Looks like you've got a nice place to work on it! Looking forward to seeing what you do with the 510.
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Nov 17, 2018 01:31
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3SGE BEAMS+6MTs are so dang cheap compared to nearly everything else in the category and make 200HP NA out of the box. Making a Honda K go North-South is too drat expensive, even NA SRs are expensive for... reasons? NA/NBs 1.8s don't make much power out of the box and are made of iron, which is kinda dumb, Ecotech from a Kappa is kind of rare, NC Miata drivetrains aren't super easy to find, and anything much older sucks a butt or is expensive.
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Nov 17, 2018 02:07
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For the cost, I don't think I could do much better as easily. The old timer at the junk yard tells me I should butcher a crank from a Nissan z24 engine, drop $600 on pistons, upgrade the carb, etc. Which would certainly keep it all Nissan, but for the cost and effort sounds like a pain.
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Nov 17, 2018 04:38
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The garage is getting a little more organized. A slight break to get snow tires swapped onto the Element.  Found the rear tires were with smooth on the outside. These tires are only a couple months old. Crap 
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Nov 18, 2018 20:31
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Eh, just whip out the cutting wheel and regroove em
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Nov 19, 2018 12:41
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It goes well with the ....modifications someone previously did to the roof joists in the barn. I'm guessing that's at least structural cardboard.
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Nov 19, 2018 14:52
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Not strictly car work, but getting the barn to a point where it is a fully functioning work space. Sadly, I don't have a picture directly of the massive hole in the side, but previously, someone had replaced a metal siding panel with a fiber glass one that had degraded pretty far. You can see where the light is pouring in in the back corner in this picture:  Old panels:   Plenty of other gaps left to fill, but much better: 
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Nov 27, 2018 20:08
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I fully admit I might not have done more on the Datsun because that would mean I have started down the point of no return and it will take the project from "get it fixed and up and running" to the r-word: restoration. Or restomod as the plan currently is.
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Dec 18, 2018 14:05
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Way out of town on business. Finally diagnosed (I think) what I thought was an oil leak that didn't actually result in any oil loss on the Saab. A backside shot of of the power steering pump. A wipe with a napkin confirmed that there is freshly leaked fluid there. Now to find some CHF11S....
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Jan 17, 2019 14:43
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Nice, I have a soft spot for those 510s. I'm jealous of your barn. Say hi to pups for me.
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Jan 18, 2019 11:34
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Charles posted:Nice, I have a soft spot for those 510s. I'm jealous of your barn. Say hi to pups for me. Thanks! Still some holes in the walls and roof leaks to patch up, maybe throw some foam insulation up. I'm hoping to get 220/240 run to it so I can put in a decent space heater and do some basic welding. Being able to work year round without freezing would be nice! In the process of the snow melting, everything came down in front of the door. I still need to get the BMW to the dealership 1.5 hours away, that will happen....eventually.   I decided to actually start making some progress on the Datsun, mostly in the form of yanking stuff out of the engine compartment.   I still need to get the lines to the heater core disconnected but other than that, nothing but the engine mounts and drive shaft left to undo. I guess I'll have to get an engine hoist... Also get a MIG setup so I can repair the rust holes and fabricobble the various mounts and reinforcements I'll most likely need. Easy next step will be throwing the ozone generator in it when it get slightly warmer to kill all of the lovely mold, then strip the interior. Taking everything out it occurred to me maybe how long this will take and how much money...just fixing it up as is started to sound like a good idea. nadmonk fucked around with this message at 21:55 on Mar 22, 2019 |
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Mar 22, 2019 21:52
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The snow has been fully melted for a good 3 weeks now. Repairs on the Element and Saab and BMW and buying a 1988 4Runner (and house stuff in general) have sapped a bit of the time that likely could have gone to work on the Datsun. On the plus side, I think I killed any mold inside of it by running an ozone generator for a couple of hours in it.
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May 24, 2019 16:12
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What was the culprit on making your rears wear in like that? I'm unfamiliar with the Element's suspension setup.
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May 26, 2019 07:05
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MC Hawking posted:What was the culprit on making your rears wear in like that? I'm unfamiliar with the Element's suspension setup. I ended up replacing the rear control arm bushings, sway bar links and bushings, upper control arm, and wheel bearings. I believe a combination of control arm bushings and upper control arms were the prime culprits.
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Jun 28, 2019 19:52
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Kind of sort of car related. The garage only had two florescent lights which do an OK job of throwing light, but only at one end of the garage and no light at all on the work bench. Amazon has some pretty cheap LED shop lights (I think I go a 4 pack for $56). Nothing fancy, they are plugged in and have switches on the cords, but they seem to put out pretty good light. I put two up, one above the work bench and another in the center of the garage.  I'm thinking I'll probably put the other two up somewhere in the barn as the lighting in there can best be described as "existing". I also picked up a propane space heater at a garage sale for $10 so I can actually do work over the winter. I still have to make sure it actually works.
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Jul 3, 2019 16:27
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You can never have too much light in a workspace. My one car garage has a mishmash of lights, but it's bright as hell at the business end - "150w equivalent" screw-in LED in the single socket, ~3200 lumen LED shop light, and an older 2xT8 32W shop light (the last one is hanging off to the side by the shelving/tools). Gonna grab a Harbor Freight "5000 lumen" fixture soon and put it where the current LED shop light is, move that to where the fluorescent shop light is, and probably put the fluorescent shop light on the side somewhere (and give maintenance a heart attack next time they see my garage open  )
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Jul 4, 2019 01:40
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STR posted:You can never have too much light in a workspace. That was a lesson I learned after the winter. If I wanted to do anything on that work bench, or the door end of the garage, I needed a flashlight. The ones I got aren't quite 5000 lumen, but with how cheap they are, throwing up several works fine. The power cords are just 4'6" two prong. They have a switch in line that is kind of nice. They don't seem super rugged, but should last fine as long as I don't throw them around. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076JB85M2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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Jul 5, 2019 13:13
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I may have an problem. My girlfriend and I bought a 1988 4Runner (star of such memorable 'What did you do to your ride today?' posts as 'replaced my CV joint boots' and 'installed new bell house crank arms' and 'where is that exhaust sound coming from?'). From the day we bought it:  Some rust as been mitigated and the rear flares were put on. I haven't done too much on the Datsun, mostly cleared out stuff from the engine bay and got a better idea on where all of the rust might be (hint: check under the spare tire):  I now have a media tank so I can blast the rust off. My girlfriend's dad has a welder I should be able to borrow. At my current pace, I'll be able to drive this thing in the 2035 4th of July parade. I finally got the new shocks on both the 2005 Saab 9-5 (Bilstein B4s)  and on the 2008 BMW 335i (Koni Special Actives)  Then, because I turned 41 this year, I finally took a motorcycle safety course and got my endorsement. Followed by the purchase of my first (not counting the dirt bike I had a decade ago that got stolen) motorcycle, a 1994 Kawasaki Ninja 250R  That was about a month ago. Before buying the Ninja, I had been talking to someone else about buying their 1978 Suzuki GS750, went to look at it, couldn't get it started, they determined the engine was dead, but since they own a boat, everything took forever including determining the battery was bad and never got around to picking up a new battery. So naturally last night I bought it from him for a good "as is" price: I probably won't be riding this one for a while, I'd like to get more time under my belt on the Ninja.  It came with an aftermarket seat back, a rear cargo rack with Suzuki luggage, and that big rear end fairing.  All of that came off:  It is missing the original front turn signals and headlight retainers, I've got some new turn signals on order. For shits and giggles I yanked the headlight out of the fairing and swapped out the original holder for that, seems to fit just fine.  I might go for Suzuki OEM at some point, but for now, it looks fine and fits with the character of the bike.
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Jul 9, 2019 20:21
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The slot in the 4Runner's dash for a radio is long passed whenever a previous owner had evicted whatever brackets where there to mount a radio. As a result the crappy off brand radio that was "in" there wasn't actually attached to anything and just bounced around. After a decade of bouncing, it has decided it found Jesus and will automatically switch to a Christian station no matter what station or input you are on. So we bought a new crappy off brand radio. To keep in somewhat in place, I cut to size and bent some slotted steel I had and created a solution that is probably simultaneously overkill and inadequate for the job.   
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Jul 26, 2019 18:01
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Finally got around to draining and refilling the transmission and differentials in the '88 4Runner. 75W-90 for the transmission 80W-90 for the diffs. The gear oil that came out of the differentials seemed to be in decent shape. From the records the previous, previous owner kept, it looks like the rear diff got a rebuild 90,000 miles ago and the front had the fluid replaced 80,000 miles ago. I suspect the fluid in both may have been swapped since then but not sure. The oil in the transmission looked a little more rough, a bit of emulsification going on. This was also my first time using a decent oil hand pump, holy crap does it make things so much easier:  I also saw that there is a missing bolt at the front of the oil pan. Source of the perpetual slow oil leak? Probably doesn't help. I'll get that replaced as soon as I can find a matching bolt.
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Aug 26, 2019 15:40
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Since the old side door of the barn was really only held to the metal siding and the bottom had completed rotted away and we scored a free (500 loving pound) sliding door, we replaced the door in the barn:
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Sep 22, 2019 21:04
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Automotive concerns have been back burnered due to our steadily evolving master bath renovation needs. However! On the opposite side of the barn we now have a chicken coop (formerly an ice fishing shanty):  They're bigger now, but still not quite ready to move out there full time.  I did get the barn cleaned up a bit after a winter of cutting wood and not having enough room to move.  I'm not really feeling the Datsun at the moment. Honestly, with the amount of work and money it will take, I'm considering ditching it. Other projects that are potentially on my list: -exhaust and clutch upgrades for the BMW -turbo and ECU upgrades for the Saab
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Apr 21, 2020 22:16
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I always like unlikely animal friendships.
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Apr 24, 2020 00:34
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Charles posted:I always like unlikely animal friendships. I'm not sure I'd quite call it a friendship yet. The boxer did attempt to give a little chomp shortly after that picture. We're getting them used to each other.
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Apr 25, 2020 03:11
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I might have to do a new non-Datsun named thread. I've decided to get rid of the Datsun and replace it with something else.  First things first: Replacing the almost useless door mirrors with something more like stock.  Also figuring out what the proper gearing is I need on the speedometer. I promise you I was not going 85, I was matching the speed of traffic in a 55 mph zone. 
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Sep 24, 2020 13:24
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Righteous.
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Sep 24, 2020 13:34
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Oh yeah, its noises: https://i.imgur.com/i6IY1Mc.mp4
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Sep 24, 2020 13:51
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This is relevant to my interests
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Sep 25, 2020 13:45
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The C10 had a stereo that was a pile of crap. It was so bad they literally named the brand Pyle. That antitheft faceplate? There are no electronics in it. It literally just presses buttons underneath:  Also ridiculously thin speaker wire:  And apparently cutting it to size was out of the question?  The hallmark of a good stereo install is coarse thread drywall screws:  Toys! The finest, cheapest not crap stereo and speakers Walmart has to offer:    I did replace the trim screws, because several were missing, but these were the originals. Holy beefy:  Also, turns out there was a reason the windshield wipers didn't do much the other day:  So those have been replaced too. I have also figured out what all is installed in the truck: Engine: 1976 350 T4OO police package. On it is installed at least an Edelbrock carb I'm still trying to figure the exact model on, an Edelbrock Performance RPM intake manifold, and Edelbrock rocker arm covers, so possibly more? Transmission: TH350 I'm not certain the tach is accurate. I KNOW the speedometer isn't accurate. It reads 80 mph when going 55 mph. I haven't looked at what the rear end is geared at, so I'm not sure what gear I need for that. As a bonus, the truck came with a remote security system: 
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Sep 25, 2020 22:45
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Oh right, wasps live in cars you don't buy in -40 weather.
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Sep 25, 2020 23:25
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Progress, just not in changing anything. I have IDed (I think) all of the important parts of the C10. Engine: 1976 350 T4OO police package Transmission: TH350 Intake manifold: Edelbrock Performer RPM Carb: Edelbrock 1805 650 cfm 4 barrel  Still trying to figure out the rear end gear ratio so I can get the appropriate speedometer gear. There is supposed to be a stamping on the axle that shows what rear end it is, but I'm not finding it yet, pretty sure I'll just need to get it jacked up and get at it with a wire brush more. I did find that there are no suspension springs in the back, so that's cool. That is there those should go:  As expected, ride height has suffered:  Thankfully, the friend who sold this to me got springs with it that he had no idea what they were for. Turns out, they were the rear springs. I've got a set of spring clamps on the way.
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Sep 28, 2020 18:29
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Axle code should be on the front of the passenger-side axle tube. Get in there with a brass wire brush if you can, sometimes they're pretty faint and you could probably obliterate it if you went full send with a steel wire brush.
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Sep 28, 2020 19:04
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:Axle code should be on the front of the passenger-side axle tube. Get in there with a brass wire brush if you can, sometimes they're pretty faint and you could probably obliterate it if you went full send with a steel wire brush. Ahh, thank you. For some reason I was thinking back or top. Here's to hoping 52 years of oxidation haven't rendered it unreadable. I guess I can just count the teeth when I get around to taking off the cover if they are gone.
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Sep 28, 2020 19:37
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Disclaimer: I don't know poo poo about truck axles and that's the regular spot on pretty much all GM rear ends I've seen/read about. I'm assuming stock rear end but not stock trans?
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Sep 28, 2020 21:06
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:Disclaimer: I don't know poo poo about truck axles and that's the regular spot on pretty much all GM rear ends I've seen/read about. I'm assuming stock rear end but not stock trans? I'm assuming stock rear end. The trans isn't stock. It's a TH350 that I assume came with the engine. I looked on the front of the passenger side axle tube and there _might_ be something there. I'll really just need to jack it up and get at it with a wire brush. I have mounts on the way for the rear coil springs. Which have now been sprayed down with some rust reformer. 
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Sep 28, 2020 21:56
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Major improvements today. The seat covers came:  As well as the new door mirrors. A previous owner had replaced them with these generic "Bowtie sports mirrors" which were useless. I couldn't even see the passenger side one from the driver's seat. Also, they weren't mounted the same distance back. So replaced with more stock style:   Look at that! You can actually see it from the driver's seat!  I also replaced the trim screws holding the door cards in place. There were two of the originals left: (Beefy lads)  But most of the captive nuts had busted out of the door some time ago. I didn't have any trim screw plastic bits, but I found that some appropriate size drywall anchors worked great. Here are the replacement screws I used for the door cards: 
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Sep 29, 2020 01:57
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Planning out my next steps here, looking for feedback potentially. Soon the rear coil spring clamps will be here, which should return the rear to stock ride height. I suspect, but have not confirmed yet, that the front springs are still stock height at the extent of the lowering in the front was achieved with narrowing profile tires. Stock tire size on the truck would have been either 205/75R15 or 215/70R15. Currently, the fronts are 215/60R15 and the rears are 235/75R15. So the question is: Do I install the same size tires front and rear or do I do wider in the rear, knowing that it already puts out more power than stock and will put out more in the future? I was thinking 215/70R15 up front and 245/60R15 (I think that does make the fronts about 3mm taller profile than the rears). Thoughts?
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Sep 29, 2020 14:01
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If they will fit do it. The tires on old stuff were so skinny from the factory.
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Sep 29, 2020 15:30
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 11:49 |
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Jack up the rear end, make a mark on the inside of the tires with chalk/shoe polish/whatever and rotate the pinion/driveshaft until the tire completes a full turn. Count the turns and you'll know the gear ratio.
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Sep 29, 2020 15:40
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