1962 Datsun U320

[wayno]

Thankyou Taterhead

I put the fuel tank and line in today, that was a pain in the butt, but I finally got it in there.



I also put the heater box housing and I drilled the holes needed for the heater hose lines, then I put the core in and somehow got the lower heater hose connected, the hose clamp is on the inside, it's a real hassle but without the transmission tunnel in position I can get to the clamp, basically I put the hose thru the firewall a couple feet, then I put the clamp over the hose, then I connected the hose to the core, then I put the core in the heater box feeding the extra hose out into the engine compartment, then I tightened the clamp, that hose is around 6" long and goes to a valve on the head, the upper core outlet comes out thru the firewall so I connected that hose with a 90 degree turn towards the left and that hose goes to the water pump.

The heater housing and core in position.



The engine side where the hoses come out the new holes, the top hose making a sharp turn left behind the engine.



Here is the freshly painted face of the heater box, I have stickers for it, I will need to find them to put them on.



Tomorrow after I do a job I will likely put the stickers on the face cover and install it and install the boot coming from the air inlet housing.

[wayno]

Made more progress, first I finished installing the heater box and have the levers working.





I put the radiator in, kinda looks like a black hole but it is in there.



This valve is how one empties the radiator.



Both the radiator hoses are connected now.





Not sure what I am going to do tomorrow, I still need to paint the front splash guard, then I can install the bumper brackets that I painted today, I expect next will be getting the top of the cab ready for paint, when I paint that I can paint the front splash guard and hood hinges.

[wayno]

I have messed around the last few days with little stuff, I painted the front splash guard and installed it.





I then today took the dash apart, sanded on it for a while and fixed the dented in side when it had the wreck and pushed the pillar in so far it hit the end of the dash, and then primed it.





I am getting closer to start working on the doors/fenders/hood, I believe I could do a better job on the paint on each one if I do each piece as a job all its own, if I lay the doors flat I will not make any runs from putting too much paint on them, but it would be so much easier to just do the inside of everything first and then put it together and do the outside all at once, I will likely go the route of less screwing up.

[wayno]

I painted the dash/glove box today.

[HRH]

Looking good Wayno! I wish I only had one project right now. My new intercooler for the Z car should be here tomorrow, then will be quickly delivered down to the Datsun guru so he can cut off the outlets and re-attach them 90 degrees off. Should work like a charm I think.

[wayno]

One project?

[wayno]

I put the dash in today, it was a fight the whole way, everything went together hard, I had to chase half the threads and replace the nut on the right side pillar, I had to loosen the steering column to get the gauges in, a fight the whole way but it is done.







Then I put the horns in.





And the instruments and glove box/glove box door were installed.





I don't know why but then I decided to install the wiper assembly, it would have been easier if I had done that first.



On the outside I figured out that the little rubber pieces under the cover and nut holding the pivots in position are nothing but a water hose washer, and I had a few of them in my garden hose bucket of parts, they fit perfect.

[DRIVEN]

Nice work, Wayno. Keep at it.

[wayno]

I sanded on the top today.



It has one dent right here for sure.



And I think it has a dent here.



They put these goofy drain holes in the drip gutter/rail, the problem is when one paints up it drips onto the side if the truck below and runs down, I thought about filling them but decided against it.

Here is the right side.





And here is the left, it looks better right now.





I know about it now and can stop any issues, but when I was doing them gutters/rails I did not realize they were there and it dripped on fresh paint below them.

[wayno]

Made some progress, primed the top.



I am going to have to sand it and maybe prime some places again as something got in the primer while I sprayed it in 2 spots, one was so big I tried to remove it and that did not work out all that well.

[wayno]

OK, I primed this top, but the gutters/drip rails/what ever you want to call them were ugly, I put body sealer/seam sealer or what ever you want to call that stuff and it looks great for a while.



But after I primed it I noticed that this stuff is what I would call shrinking and separating from the sides creating a gap that no amount of primer seems to want to fill as I tried pouring primer into the gaps, so I stripped it out on the driver side(right), I think it looks better this way myself but I suspect rain water would likely find its way in and cause rust.



I am waiting for the FEDX guy to show up so I likely will be here for a couple hours waiting as I missed him yesterday when they showed up yesterday at 2:18pm, then I need to go buy a product I guess, I would rather put a thick layer of POR15 on it and strip the rest out of all them as that product looks alright and does fill gaps or in this case it might fill the lower half of the rail but that shit is hard to get off also if it doesn't work out like I see when I think about it, it really did not take that long to do this rail in the photo and now I got a method unlike when I started.

I should explain, when I put that body/seam sealer into these gutters the first time I found I could not stop it from getting around my finger and sticking to the sides, I suppose that is alright on the outside of the gutter, but it was on the inside also where it is easy to see, it's hard to remove even when fresh, once it dried it was hard to even get it off what was left with sand paper without screwing up the lower part, but it separated easy enough from that inside part after some time, what do you folks use? What do you use DRIVEN?

I had it sort of clean before putting in that stuff I used, I used a wire wheel on it, but it was not clean like this in the photo above.

[wayno]

Well I cleaned out/stripped all the drip rails/gutters, they all had some kind of issue, the ones on the passenger side(left side) were still soft, I mean really soft, like they never dried an I did that side a long time ago(Feb 7, 2021), if I were going to keep this truck I would fill them with POR15, that shit dries hard, but I would supposedly have to use a special primer.

Driverside


L rear drain area


Rear


Left side from the back


Left side from the front


Hoping someone sees my last post and offers some suggestions, personally I would like to use something that is self leveling, I don't really want it to be thick or on the sides, I just want to seal the seam, I am going to get a wire wheel and try to clean up the outside of the inside of the rails, it is kinda protected from my scraping by the top, it's hard to get the right angle.

[HRH]

Why wouldn't body seam sealer work? The rails weren't originally leaded in, were they?

[wayno]

I put as little as I possibly could in the drip rails, there are lots of places where I can barely see the metal underneath/thru the "automotive body sealer", I already did this once and was not happy with the results, I hope it works out this time.

[jtinluvr]

Probably a little late, but SEM makes some nice seam seal products, including a self leveling product. Downside is you need their specific applicator gun which is kinda pricey. I used the self leveling stuff on my 521 drip rails and it worked great. Just taped some foam on the area so it wouldn't run down the windshield section. Used regular seam sealer there and worked it with an acid brush.

[wayno]

What I did is hopefully going to work, I will know when I put a coat of primer on it, last time it was ugly and that is why I stripped it all out and started over, I guess what I hate is the body sealer that got by my finger on the sides doesn't sand off very well, and trying to get it off messes up what was good before, I am not very good at this drip rail stuff.

I looked at that self leveling stuff that needed their applicator, there was not enough product in that very expensive container they were selling and they offered to let me use the applicator for 4 hours as I recall, I looked at it and decided I did not want to spend over $130.00 plus tax for something they did not even use on this truck when they built it.

I put a thin layer of this body sealer and I just looked at it and it does not look like it shrunk and separated like it did last time, also it did appear to dry this time while one side never dried and it came out like "play-doh" before, but it was a lot colder and humid in the garage that time, I will try to clean the edges without ruining what is in the bottom, the top is ready for another coat of primer except around the edges where this body sealer got by my finger.

[wayno]

OK, I was out there today working on this truck, I did not plan to today but that is how it worked out, I believe the top is almost ready for paint but again I am unhappy about the rain gutters, this is the crap I hate but it is not near as bad as last time.






I am thinking about using glazing putty on this, is that a bad thing?

[wayno]

I actually forgot why I came in here to post to this thread, I started going down the right rear quarter panel and found bondo which does not surprise me, I took some photos of a high line in the panel compared to the other side.

You can see the little X's in a line below the body trim line, they are the high spot/line, I actually got this close to level where a thin coat of bondo will level it as I cannot get to the back side without cutting out panels.



Well when I did that below the trim line the bondo above the trim line separated from the body, so I scraped or sanded it all out, here are two photos, one of that area, and one with little X's in the center of the low spots, like I said I cannot get to the back side and the box is double paneled.





Now I can actually see thru the taillight hole to the area/spot where the high larger dent is, it is a fairly large shallow dent, I can get my hand in there but only my fingers can touch the spot, I can push with my fingers and see it move a little, but I am not strong enough to move it as much as needed nor will it stay where I push it.

Here is the taillight hole.



Where the light is is where the larger shallow dent is.



I have a porta power setup from Harbor Freight, but the spreader thing is too thick to fit in there where the dent is, I don't really want to go buy a welder thing that welds a rod to the metal and then a slide hammer connects to it and pulls the dent out, anyone have any other suggestions?

[jtinluvr]

Could it be the seam sealer you have is just old? I would go to the local paint wholesaler and buy a new tube of SEM or 3M or other name brand. Have you looked at the hot glue setup the paintless dent guys use?

[wayno]

I did not have internet yesterday at some point and it did not recover till this morning at some point, I tried everything including using the modem reset, I gave up and just unplugged everything and went to bed.

The seam/body sealer came from a paint store, it was the second time I tried doing them drip rails/gutters, I will likely try glazing putty to fill what looks like a crack to me, it might not be a crack but that is what it looks like to me, the first tube had major issues, one side never even hardened and the other side dried and then cracked and shrunk making a giant gap.
I put that stuff in a couple weeks ago at least, it only cracked??? a little and has seemed to stabilize, I will try glazing putty, maybe that will smooth it out a little, I am not going to put a bunch of glazing putty in there, I expect when I am done putting it in there will very very little even visible.

I got most of the large shallow dent out, I figured out if I stuck certain thickness boards in thru the taillight hole and wedge it against the inside wall and the outside wall and then used a big crescent wrench I could twist the board and push the dent out a little at a time, I got it mostly using a straight edge about a 1/16" gap or less, the other smaller dent that was lower I cannot reach, but it is only 2" round, I will likely just fill it.

It appears I forgot to take a start photo of the right taillight area, here is the only one I have.


I then used a drill and removed all the spot welds that hold the lower brace in the taillight hole solid, the plate was beat to hell and I removed it and I am in the process of making a new one from scratch.








I am working on it now but cam in and noticed the modem had 3 lights and decided to see if I had internet.