New World Datsuns...

Soon.

...ish




I'm home today with an absolutely fukt back. Went to the Chiropractor this afternoon and have another appt for tomorrow morning. I've been going to him when necessary for over 20 years and he said today that this is the worst he's seen it. Normally it's between my shoulder blades and hurts but isn't debilitating. This time it's my lower back and has me moving pretty slow and carefully. Had planned to work on the '35 this weekend but I'll let my back decide. I'm not complaining, just giving an update. Either way I'll do something related to this project -- even if it's just making lists and shopping.

shopping counts as progress

yes, yes it does. Also dreaming... sometimes parts of those dreams become reality, or at least inspire other parts.

DRIVEN » Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:31 pm wrote:Stay tuned, some shit's about to happen...finally...maybe.

Today...

Nice!
Cant wait to see the update

I'll split today's event into two posts. So, here's how it went down...

My dad rode into town from Idaho late last night.

this morning we moved the pile of body parts in to the booth and he went to town stripping paint.




Removed the driver's door and gutted both doors and the cab.

I always knew the passenger door had some filler in it. Had no idea that it was over 1/4" thick. Assholes.

While we was doing that, I was in the other shop setting up the frame. Everything was still in a pile in the corner.

Started by making 12 access holes in the bottom of the rails. There are 4 on each side for cab mount bolts, 2 on each side for bed mounts.

Next I set the rails right side up and bolted in the rear crossmember. I needed to build a temporary spreader bar that bolts on at the front bumper location to maintain the proper width at the very front.

Once the front and rear were tied together I found that the center needed to be spread about 2 inches to maintain proper width so all the cab and bed mounting holes. Porta-power to the rescue.

The aluminum thing is called a tram. It's used to diagonally check holes in the frame which let's you know it's square and not diamond shaped. Also note the braces I have tacked to the bottom to keep it in place once I got it where I wanted it.

Once everything was verified square and level it was time to lay the Xrails in position and trim the ends so it fit between the rails.

Final step was tacking in the front crossmember. Needed to be square, level, and tipped up exactly 1*. The old guy is my wife's grandpa, Rusty.

So, when I quit at about 9pm it'd been about 12 hours in the shop. Measure, adjust, measure, adjust, tack, measure, repeat. At this point everything is firmly tacked in place. It's absolutely square and within 1/8" of level front to rear. Not bad for an 80 year old farm truck. I have to work on Rusty's Sable in the morning but after I get done with it I'll jump back on the chassis. Updates to follow.

That is a long ride for a motorcycle.

Must be nice seeing something actually happen to the frame. Its actually more or less 1 piece now!

Wow.

That's some awesome work dude. can't wait to see more!

Laecaon » Sun Aug 31, 2014 9:50 pm wrote:That is a long ride for a motorcycle.

He's just passing through. He has a ride through California, Utah and Arizona planned with a few friends leaving Portland on Tuesday so he just came down a couple days early. No denying that he's an animal when it comes to this stuff though. I don't enjoy bodywork at all and something about acrylic enamel dust sets my sinuses on fire so I'm really grateful for the help.

Sweet stuff,and way cool Dad helping out!

Good old fashioned squaring device!
Simple yet reliable

Short day update. My dad kept killin it with the sander. Finished stripping both doors then moved on to the fenders.

The top of the passenger rear fender is one of the ugly spots. Again, I knew there was mud in there -- just didn't know what it was covering up.

This is the wadded up RF fender...

It used to have an inner panel like this...

Obviously, it was absolutely destroyed. My brother started working it over an anvil with a hammer and after about an hour this is what he had...

Meanwhile, over in the other shop, I was a bit less productive. After I got done with working on Rusty's Sable the day was half over and somehow I managed to tweak my back. Still, I dragged the front and rear suspensions out of the corner.


Stripped the front suspension and hung the used parts in the new home.

Pulled the rear spring off and slid it in to roughly where it will live.


I'll have to get creative with the rear since no one makes a kit (anymore) for this application. Lots of measuring in my future...

Done for now. I think I'm going to spend the rest of my vacation nursing my tired body in a big soft chair.

It's looking like some progress has been made.

Is that a Vette rear end?

It is. Very late C3 ('81) Dana 44 with aluminum case, rear cover and batwing. Gearing is 3.73 with limited slip. The '80-'82 is kinda transitional. '63-'79 is the same design but weighs a bunch more due to iron case and cover. '84-up (C4) has the aluminum weight savings but is a weaker Dana 36 and totally different trailing arm layout. Plus, they don't fit at all so you have to basically back-half the frame.
The front components are C4 Corvette with the Z51 option so it has bigger brakes. Z51 also got you a PS cooler, quicker ratio rack, stiffer springs, and Bilstein shocks. I won't be using those parts though. Hopefully I can recoup some money when I sell the spare parts.

These easily replace a certain bye bye thread for me...... (not that I care either way since I forgot those existed in the non-project area's *shrugs shoulders*)

*fap fap fap fap fap fap*

Great work you two .. geeeeese ... that's a lot of work accomplished well done !

GO MAN GO ...

Even though you uncovered a few more surprises, now you know what you're dealing with.
That's progress in my book! That's a huge plus getting your Dad's help too, very cool

Couldn't do it without him. For whatever reason, we (the three of us) seem to get much more done when working together -- even if it's in separate buildings.