New World Datsuns...

Hahaha. nah. It's your brother. You are supposed to give him shit.

Just got back from a trip to the paint shop with my brother to get some pro advice on products and procedure. It's really important to me that this gets done right the first time. The fun part about paint products is that if there's a problem -- it's dust in the trashcan. No fixing it. It's a really fast and easy way to waste money. Anyway, looks like I'll be somewhere just north of $2k in materials. Fuck me! At least I can spread it out over the next few months and don't have to buy it all at once. Time to sell a 510 wagon?

Aw, thats not funny. lol.

Sounds about right. Everytime I look at paint I quickly come to 1200 or so for bottom end stuff.

What do you normally drive in the winter?

Laecaon » Sat Oct 04, 2014 12:15 pm wrote:What do you normally drive in the winter?

A 510 wagon . I was only half kidding. Could always tidy up some loose ends, sell it, and put the smEll Camino back into regular rotation. It hasn't been on the road in well over a year. Could drive the Cutlass too, I guess. It's not too nice to drive in the winter -- Just nice enough that I don't like to. To be completely logical, I could just share a car with my wife and ride the mt bike since she works 2 blocks from home and I work less than 2 miles away. It's actually pretty ridiculous that I have so many cars.

DRIVEN » Sat Oct 04, 2014 4:16 pm wrote: It's actually pretty ridiculous that I have so many cars.

Time for some catchup. I guess this is the rough stage of the build where it looks kind of crude. Stay with me though. In a month or two things should have a much more sanitary appearance.

Stacked the rear brackets and ground on them for what seemed like an eternity.

Cleaned the faces and drilled holes.

Took them to work and bent a step in them with the Ironworker.


Raised the frame back up off the suspension and welded the box plate seams in preparation for the rear crossmember.

1/4" wall 2"x2" square tube was used for the rear crossmember. When I was laying everything in place it occurred to me that there would need to be a pass-through for the exhaust. In a Corvette it would route under the differential but that limits ground clearance even more than it already is.

Tacked in place it leave plenty of room for even 3" pipe on each side. That's a 2.5" piece sitting in there.

Now it's time to move on to the front mounts...

Blurry shot of the filler piece in the crossmember. There will be a gusset welded in each corner when I finish weld ther whole frame.

I also cut and sliced a bent pipe in the forward lower X-rail section. Meets the rail in a much better fashion now.

The beginning of the trailing arm brackets. The hole has actually been punched out with the Ironworker rather than drilled. Pops out little slugs. Since it's my boss' toy I let him do all that work. He even made some decent slots that will allow me to adjust rear toe.


Started making a pinion support. My first idea was a single drop from a second 2"x2" crossmember. After a quick mockup I decided against it.


My second version was a tandem drop. One of the challenges of a build like this is planning a few steps into the future and considering how all this real estate fits together. In order to drop the rear suspension more easily in the future, I decided to make the pinion support bolt-in.



I've decided that I like this basic design but decided to go with larger diameter downtubes. Not really for structural reasons -- more aesthetic. There will also be 2 diagonal braces added. I had to buy more 1.5" pipe and just haven't gotten it cut yet.

Also, shiny stuff came in the mail...

Unfortunately, I immediately realized that I had mismeasured the coilover length. Now I get to send them back. Q1As are also not available in the length that I actually need so I'll be going with a Bilstein/Carrera combo. In the meantime, I scabbed together some placeholders so I can continue fab work.

Looks like some pretty solid work. Its certainly nice watching it come together.

I know what you mean about planning ahead. I have so many projects on hold due to future plans, as it just doesn't make sense to do things twice. It really makes you organize and figure out what the next step should be.

I actually really enjoy this stuff. It's just a logic puzzle. Sometimes I figure something out immediately and sometimes I get part way into an idea and realize it's not gonna work out like I had envisioned. The real downside is more financial.

1. Make progress until broke.
2. Go make mo money.
3. Repeat.

Sooo love watching this. Found my new signature ^^^

Sweetness going on Jess..

Not sure I can actually call this progress but I came home Sunday after shooting with some buddies and found that the booth had been cleaned and parts staged for epoxy prime coat. It's nice to see that something has been done but nothing has actually been sprayed yet. Bare metal + 100% humidity = no bueno.

Nice!

Well, it's not much. But it's something...

awww yeah!

I noticed the wheels in back are pretty close to the frame. Especially the brake setup. Are you able to easily get the calipers off and out if need be? Or is it kind of a bear?

It's kind of an optical illusion. There is between 1.5 and 2 inches between the rails and calipers. If you aren't familiar, these are like a Toyota pickup style caliper that is fixed solid to the knuckle and the pads slip in from the outside center and are held in place with slide pins. Hard to explain but it'll be more obvious as I get further along and have some pics with the wheels off.

Been doing work. Photo update within 24hrs.

Almost 24hrs

Been chipping away -- little things, mostly. Just came in for a lunch break.