New World Datsuns...

Well I painted most of it today, at least the first coat is on it, the bottom of the hood has been done, but I need to turn it over to do the top of the hood, I will do that tomorrow.
I planned on just doing around the doors and everything on the inside of the doors, but I figured out I could almost close the doors without anything touching, so I did almost everything, the only runs I got were on the top while I was trying to do the rain gutters, I will sand them spots and recoat the top maybe tomorrow or more likely the next day, I will put the hood back on before I recoat the whole exterior one more time.
I made all them exhaust fan assemblies and only used them once on the first coat of primer, now I just leave the garage door open, I can see better and not much stuff got in the fresh paint, I seen one tiny thing so far on the top of the right fender, it looks like a tiny piece of curled up hair.
I suppose I should read if I can recoat it that far out or if it should be done sooner.

It appears that I am not supposed to be recoating it, well it going to have to be repaired/sanded in at least 4 places and be sprayed again in them areas, but that is what I did to the 520, so that is what is going to happen to this truck also.

It is hard to tell it is a light blue, you have to put something white right next to it to see it is not white.

I have always had luck recoating in the specified time frame, or waiting at least 24 hours for cure.

Getting excited to see this thing.

The top will likely get completely recoated after I sand both sides above the doors where I had run lines, I figured out a little later if it runs and I soak the area it will soak up the run lines, but it was too late by the time I figured that out.
The other spot was just below the driver side king cab window, I needed to get the flat area right there at the window better, well I pulled the trigger too close and it was awful, about 10 run lines side by side, I will sand that area which is only 3 feet tall and 1 1/2 feet wide, I will open the door so it will not be involved and spray that whole area again.
I was wondering if run lines could be polished out, I read about polishing the paint after a forced dry of 8 hours, polish and put back into service.

DRIVEN wrote: ↑Fri Sep 28, 2018 5:26 pm Getting excited to see this thing.

I cannot get the "add image" or "Postimage" to work, I tried loading photos onto my Postimage account but it does nothing just like the "add image to post" function on here, it starts and then appears to freeze.

I fixed the right front top half of the passenger side fender and in back of the driver side door, they both turned out better than the rest of the truck.
I think in the future if I ever paint another vehicle I will paint them a piece/section at a time, my paint on the repairs looks way better than the rest of the truck, I am thinking now that I should do the rest of the truck, but I have no interest in sanding it all to do that.
I also am wondering if I polish it will it all look the same, I can paint small pieces and have it look great, but the whole vehicle with all parts in position appears to be too much at once.
I have the door insides done so I can now rip that part of the masking out/off to move the truck once I put it on all 4 wheels again, then I will be able to put the roadster back into the garage.

I sanded the top last night as it had run lines on edges near the rain gutter/drip rail, this morning I taped the top off so nothing else could get over spray on it and painted the top again, I did see one run right near the rain gutter/drip rail but this time but soaked it in that area and the run disappeared, it looks way better than it did when I started sanding last night.
Unfortunately the more I sand stuff in this garage, no matter how much I remove everything and blow it out I am getting more small specs of dirt/dust in the paint, but I cannot put it outside as right after I sprayed the top it started raining outside, it is what it is.
Now I need to decide if I want to re-do the left fender and both doors and in back of the passenger door under the kingcab window, The reason I keep talking about this is that the stuff I have re-done and the hood are way shinier now, I got the hood right the first time, but I keep thinking that maybe polishing it may make it all shine the same, I have never polished anything so I expect I would likely screw something up doing that also like burning thru the paint from being impatient.

I sprayed all the stuff I talked about above today, the top, both doors, left front fender, and behind the right door, it is all shiny now, there are a couple very small runs but I can live with them, there is over 3/4s of a gallon of paint on just this cab.
I did have a large run on the left fender from the badge holes to the bottom, but I soaked it and the runs went away, I consider a small run one that barely became a drip less than an inch long, I do have a couple of them I did not see till it was too late.
I have removed all the exterior masking, tomorrow after a couple small jobs I will likely put the front wheels back on it and part it on one side, and put the Roadster back in the garage after I remove the tarps hanging around on 3 sides, this garage has not been this organized and clean in years.
Next I will work on the box, have not figured out how that is going to happen yet, I might park this 320 kingcab outside now since it is freshly painted and will not rust now, I do have a new cover for it I bought at a garage sale, what I really need is a 2 vehicle metal cover over my driveway.

I am amazed how easily this truck starts since replacing the stock E1 distributor with that MG Midget distributor that has a crane electronic ignition in it, and it is still positive ground, before I could turn the engine over for a minute or more and it would not even try, now it starts right up.
I had the stock carb rebuilt and there was no difference in starting, but when I put that MG distributor in it everything changed, I since then put a Weber on it but have not driven it anywhere to see if it had an issue when going around corners, the stock carb would sometimes flood out in a corner, I believe the needle and seat were the wrong type for this carb.
I put the front wheels back on and removed the truck from the stands it was resting on, I then parked it on one side of the garage and put the Roadster on the other side, so it is now safe from the elements and the cats.

There is a 320 box for sale on Ratsun for $300.00, I am tempted to go look at it as it is across the river in Portland OR, mine has already been modified with extended skirts in front and in back of the rear wheels, but it is rusty, this box is supposed to have very little rust and it doesn't have a hole in the bed for the tank, I was considering making a kingcab tank for this truck so I could use the stock gas filler tube, but there is no room for the stock tank since I extended the cab, I could start over on the bed and get the front of the bed closer to the back of the cab also as I might have shortened the bed too much by an inch, well maybe only half an inch, the gap has been bothering me, the only thing is that it is a lot of work extending them skirts to make it look like I want it to look, and the box I have is already done.

I went back to page 2 and looked at the pics you posted early on. It doesn't look like the gap is really too wide so much as just the way a 320 box has square corners and straight edges compared to the curvy cab. Kind of their utilitarian charm IMHO. Maybe it looks different in person though.

I have thought about re-doing the top sides of the box to make it curve like the cab lines, but it is too much work, and if the sides are done then the tailgate also needs to be done, I did the 520 that way but I connected the box to the cab on it.
I am lucky I don't have a parts NL320 truck, I would likely have cut the back off and connected it to this truck, so lucky I do not have one, also lucky I do not have a NL320 right rear quarter panel to match the left one I have, I would be so screwed if I had a set as I would have to make the rest to use them on this truck, so lucky.
I inquired about the 320 box but have received no response, probably luck about that also, I have this rusty box I have already modified, I just need to use it as I really don't need more sheet metal around here that I need a title for just to get rid of it.

So I had a busy week cleaning out other peoples gutters and treating their roof to kill the moss growing on it, no work till Monday.
I put the side trim pieces on the fenders and doors and I made two pieces for in back of the doors below the kingcab window but have not installed them yet as I need to drill 2 mount holes, but to install them I have to remove the cover plate for the rear kingcab window so I can access the back, I think I will remove the passenger seat to make it way easier.

Well I put the rear trim pieces on under the rear kingcab windows, then I put all the badges on, then I looked down the side and eyed the side trim the full length, it is straight, then I looked at the trim overall and it looks right, like it would have came from the factory that way, well almost, if they had ever made such a truck.
I would have made the trim a bit longer but there is no way I can bend this old stainless steel trim around the corner of the cab, so I did the end of the trim the only way I could think of, I made a steel piece to fit inside the trim, I then pounded it into the trim a half inch and then cut the trim to length, when installed I do not have a hole at the end of the piece of trim, so it looks alright, not like a half job was done, these extra trim pieces I have did not come in the length I needed, and they didn't come with ends on them, they appear to be welded on the ends to close them.
I also installed the headlights and front turn signal assemblies, I installed the grill and front bumper, it looks like a truck now without a box, I keep looking at it and seeing it as a dually with a flatbed, but it is going to be licensed as a classic so the modified stock box is going on it for now.
I can email a photo of it in my garage if anyone wants to see it, I just need an email address to send it to.

We all want to see it.

I am not going to mess with this computer, I might not get it to come back the next time.
I have not turned on that other POS computer since I tried breaking it by hitting it with my fist, it had to run a diagnostic to restart/continue to run, it has photos I do not want to lose on it, I am completely over Windows10 and all the shit that comes with it.

I tried something today that I didn't think I would do, I removed the bucket seats and put the bench seat back in to see how it felt, I mounted it in the back holes this time, the reason is that you can mount the seat in either set of holes, but whatever set it is mounted in the back of the seat will not lean back any farther than the back of the stock cab which it touches mounted in either set of holes, so the back does not change except it is more straight up and down in the back holes.
But I have lengthened the cab so it leans farther back mounted in the back holes, it seemed to have more room, so I took it out of the mount tabs and slid it back out of the way, and I drilled another set of holes as far back as I could which is around an inch farther back, I put the seat into position, but before mounting it I put around a quarter inch spacer under the front mounts and then bolted it down tight, I then sat in the seat and it now has way more room, I can almost straighten my legs.
The top of the back of the seat is likely 4+ inches farther back than it was in the stock cab when touching the back of the cab, to have the seat farther back would make me have to stretch for shifting and I would not want the steering wheel any farther away from me.
I will leave it this way till I get it licensed and on the road, it is much easier to remove this bench seat than the buckets when it comes time to paint the interior, and since this seat tilts forward unlike the bucket seats, it is way easier to access behind the seats.
This bench seat needs a better cover, but I will wait on that till the box is done and it is on the road.
I also looked at the fuel tank situation, I have a hole in the bed that it mounts in, but I dislike it there and wish it was under the bed, I kept the piece I cut out just in case I ever changed my mind, but to mount it under the bed I will have to make a tank, I can do this but have decided to wait till the bed is done and mounted.

I welded in the front wall of the box leaving a hole in the middle for water to escape from that area
The front sides and bottom were welded in traditionally, and then I ground them down smooth, I will cover all that with bondohair and glazing putty, the top I drilled holes in the top inch of the wall and then welded that area to the rail it rested against, it's like it is spot welded now.

I like the bench seat idea. Seems more appropriate than buckets, although I'm sure its not quite as comfortable.

Have you made a final decision on the fuel tank? What are the dimensions you have to work with underneath?

There is not a lot of room under there, since it is a kingcab now the upper front half of the tank would have to be cut off and welded level with the seam, it is not a very big tank now.
At the moment I am going to work on the box, get it as smooth as I can considering how many dents and indentations it has on the sides from spot welds, paint the outside of it, then mount it, then I will look at the tank as I will have to remove the 1 gallon pressure washer tank I have mounted now so I can move the truck around under its own power.
That 15 inch extension I did to the cab only left around 20 inches between the axle and the cab of which maybe 18 inches can be used, the tank is 29/30 inches long to the mount holes on each end, the back mount on the box can be used, but the front mount will have to be fabricated on the frame as I do not want the box to be connected to the cab in any way to transfer sound, I believe that I will have to cut around 14/15/16 inches off the top of the tank to get it into place, I really would like to fill the tank using the fill hole on the side, but the tank is too high where I have it mounted.
The place I have it mounted in the box will work, I plan to have a cover for the box so the tank will not be seen if I leave it where it is.