New World Datsuns...

I was kinda hoping to have this done before the end of the year, but things are going slowly with all the mistakes I have been making, having to do them over and over again is not helping my attitude, I still have to start on the interior.
I need to start on the U320 and get it done also.

I forgot to mention that the primer has stuck to all the rims this time, they are ready for paint, so is the tailgate, I might try painting them tomorrow or the next day.
My cat is weird, where ever I put that white wall ring is where the cat curls up and sleeps, it can be in the middle of the floor.

I thought I had everything ready to paint and I looked at the tailgate and the primer was not sticking in a few places on that now, I believe the temperature outside is playing a part in this, the parts are warm when I take them outside to paint them, the primer is also warm, and when I finish priming them I bring them inside where it is warm to let them dry, this is becoming an issue, I sis not have this lifting issue once while priming/painting the cab and box, but it sure is an issue now.
The bumperettes are in gloss black again, I would like to clean them up a little but I am going to wait a few days before even touching them as I do not want to start over again.
I am a little worried about sanding them as the black gloss will show every scratch, but the little bubbles make me crazy also.

I painted the rims and tailgate today, the rims turned out good, tailgate turned out alright, I am not patient enough for bodywork and paint.

As usual, looks good from here.

As I mentioned before, I am my own worst enemy, I tried to mount my tires on the rims with the white wall inserts I bought just for this several years ago and these damned tires would not go on the rims straight, the bead would not mount evenly on the lips of the rims, the tires have this line that is just in sight all the way around the rim edge, well the freaking tires would not mount centered, and one of the times I was removing the white wall insert ripped apart.

I mounted all the tires, some of them I had to center on the rims 3 or more times before they centered on the rim once they had air in them and then they didn't wobble on the spin balancer.

I also mounted the tailgate.



I will likely mount the tires tomorrow and put it back on the ground, but I also need to drain the transmission and rearend and put new fluids in them before driving this truck, I also need to change out the rear gears from 4.88 to something else, I have one set of 4.37 gears left in a steel case/housing, I will probably use them.

Mounted the wheels today, also cleaned the top half of the tank and undercoated it.








I tapped on the hubcaps for a while until they looked mostly straight and then mounted them, one less box in the back room.

This is starting to remind me of one of those antique plastic dealer promo model that the guys at the swap meet keep on display in cases. Very cool, Wayno.

DRIVEN wrote: ↑Sun Nov 11, 2018 3:22 am This is starting to remind me of one of those antique plastic dealer promo model that the guys at the swap meet keep on display in cases. Very cool, Wayno.

So you think it looks like a toy, well it's my toy.

First issue was the wheels/rims were hitting the calipers on the front, so I took the wheels off and pounded flat the spots on the rims that were hitting, all is good now with that although if I were to put the back rims on the front I would have to pound them spots flat on them rims also.

I aligned the front end a little today, it was toed out some(half a turn, maybe slightly more), and it had lots of positive camber, I slipped in 1/8th inch shims and that took more than half the issue out, you must understand I have Mike Klotz drop arms on this truck, the lower control arms were likely shortened a 1/4 of an inch making them, so this creates positive camber, I am going to likely try to lower the truck a little more and that may take more of the positive camber out, I will see when I get to that part, it was a major pain getting the shims in on the driver side, lots of stuff in the way.

I put the tank back into the bed, that went back in without issues.


Next I took some photos.






Then I parked in the garage again and took a little break, then I went back out and put the seal in the doors that keeps the rain water out of the door, I make these seals out of 1930 thru 1940 Chevy station wagon lower door seals, them seals have the shape in them I need, unfortunately they only have an "L" shape when I really need a offset "T" shape, but all the "T" shaped seals I have seen are not offset far enough for the seal to actually touch the window so they will not keep the water out, so I use these.



So that is what I have done to the truck today so far, the wind is blowing pretty hard now and I am not sure how much more I am going to do, I certainly cannot paint unless I want to have all the neighbors cars/windows cleaned professionally.

The hubcaps do not look great, but they do not look terrible either even though one of them has copper showing, right now I am letting the bumperettes dry, according to everything I read one needs to wait at least 2/3 days after painting them with the black gloss before spraying them with the "Mirror Chrome" paint, one said the longer you wait the better, I re-did one of them a couple days ago and now I don't even remember which one, I am considering painting them again with black Gloss paint, as every coat appears to make them look better, but I also don't want to sand them anymore so maybe they are good enough for this experiment.

Are you still planning to do a complete rear end swap to a newer, wider model?

DRIVEN wrote: ↑Sun Nov 11, 2018 3:19 pm Are you still planning to do a complete rear end swap to a newer, wider model?

I keep thinking about that, I should do it that way but have an issue, you see to get the cab/box to look straight while looking down both sides I had to shift the rear of the box to the side, now it is not really centered on the rear axle, if I go with a wider rear axle then I am going to have to stop and loosen all the cab mounts and move the back of the cab towards the passenger side, then I am going to have to remount the box straight again, that way when I put the axle underneath the truck the rear wheels will be the same on both sides, the way it is the wheels are so far in the fender wells that you cannot see the axle is not centered except from behind maybe.
Now I already loosened the interior cab mounts once as I had to raise the rear of the cab a little for the box lines to align with the cab lines, especially since I was going to put trim on the box and i wanted it to appear like it should, everything in line.
I need to get this truck licenced for the road(get tags) as it has never been tagged for the road since I have owned it as I knew it was going to sit for years possibly, so I had it put in my name and paid the taxes for buying it.
I need to finish the outside and inside of it before tackling new things, in reality I will not likely drive it on the freeway for very long except to go to Canby, so it does not need different rear gears anytime soon, but I thought it does need new gear oil in both the transmission and rearend if I am going to drive it farther than the end of the block/out of my neighborhood.
Before I sell it I need to get all three of my 320s out and take a photo of them all together, if I had a V320 I would have a full set.

Never too late. V320 would be awesome.

That's not likely to happen even if someone wanted to give me one.
If I could find a WPL in a wrecking yard I would likely try to get the top from the front doors back to make a canopy for the NL320 to kinda make it look like a V320, I was the second guy on a list for one locally, but Hogie called the guy before me and the way it looks it will never be seen again, the floorboards had rusted out, this was just after my heart attack back in May 2016 when I was taking that statin that was ripping me a new one, I was not up for much of anything while on that pill.

I sprayed one of them, we shall see what it looks like when it dries.

So I see a couple places that came out dull, I re-sprayed them without ant significant improvement, I will let it dry now.
I also sprayed another coat of black gloss on the other one as the end did not come out shiny, I will let it dry for a few days now like suggested online before applying the mirror chrome paint on Friday maybe.

No clear on it yet, right?

No clear yet, I will wait till they are both done with the chrome paint and clear coat them at the same time.
That chrome paint dries in 15 minutes, it is made with Isopropyl Alcohol, Acetone, Ethyl Acetate, Propane, and N-Butane, I suppose there is some paint in there also, but most these ingredients will explode near a flame and they evaporate fast.
I do not believe clear will make it look any more chrome looking than it already is, but if it does that will be great, right now I can live with it the way it looks now, it is really shines and it is way better than silver, but the grill is going to be a bitch, not sure if it would be worth the effort, but the hood strip will get done, and likely the hubcaps also although only one of them looks bad.

Keep in mind that this chrome paint is made for clear RC model bodies, you spray the inside of the clear shell with the Mirror Chrome paint, then with gloss black, then a clear coat to seal it, but it is also used for other stuff like motorcycle tanks where the Gloss Black goes on first, then the Mirror Chrome, then a Automotive 2K clear coat so it can take abuse and the elements as it is a indoor type paint.

I cannot see a clear reflection of myself in the bumperette, but I do have a reflection, just not like real chrome.

I'm betting that the clear improves the reflective qualities.

Lets keep in mind here that I am not the greatest body man, I suppose if I took the time and started sanding on these bumperettes I could make them a lot smoother, you know like sanding with 800 or 1000 grit sand paper, I used 320 grit on the orbital sander and 400 grit with my hands but I didn't spend a lot of time on either of them, sanding that POR15 is not easy, and the little tiny bubbles did not help either.
I will try and do a great job on the hood trim piece as it is right there in the open, I will see if I can get it to reflect better, but the grill is not going to be as good as these bumperettes, the grill is mostly straight but it has a lot of small rust pits and the like for something that is made out of stainless steel, I might try to clean it up better and leave it be/alone, in my opinion it does not look that bad, but I do not have that high of standards either, I like drivers not trailer Queens.
From an angle it shines/reflects a lot more/better, when I pick it up and try to see my self in the impact face area all I see is very shiny silver, but the curved ends are a lot more reflective, I can see my face and that I am wearing a hat, but it is still distorted as it is like looking into a small chrome ball with condensation on it , but I can tell I have not shaved in a while either, I cannot see my eyes(just black spots) nor can I tell it is me.

I painted the other one today, it's not as nice as the first one.