New World Datsuns...

So I popped a trailer tire today. There was a head sized rock at the side of the road going up to the parents' house to return Dad's tractor and apparently I was just a little too close. Blew a nice hole in one. Went down to North 40, which was amazingly open on Labor Day and bought a spare tire and wheel combo, though only load range C, and the tires on there are Ds.

I'll order up a spare tire for the remaining wheel and then I'll be covered should this happen again. It also got me thinking about a spare for the box van, because I don't have one of those either. Nothing like a little catastrophe to remind yourself you're not as prepared as you think you are. And I don't have a jack or tools in the truck! Good thing I drove all the way to near Canada and back and didn't have any issues, lol. As it was, I drove it with the flat up to mom and dad's and we there I had tools. Fortunately the tractor wasn't that heavy and I only had 2 miles to go.

Also went to the dump yesterday to get rid of 260 pounds of Oregon Grape roots (making a gravel pad for the portable garage coming next month, holy crap what a ton of effort), the truck and trailer empty with myself and the dog weighed 10,020 pounds. If I recall correctly, the trailer weighs 1500 pounds, so that means the truck with only a minor amount of crap in the back weighs 8520 pounds. Not too bad actually.

I ended up getting the backup camera installed a couple of weekends ago. However the ball view for the trailer wasn't conducive to seeing if there were people behind me or if the car was about ready to fall off the trailer so I figured I'd wire in a second camera as the system was designed for it. the display is clear when the engine's off but there's quite a bit of interference while running (lines one the screen) not that I'm surprised for an 87 g van. Still it's perfectly clear enough to see what's going on behind me.











Rue was being a helper dog. I also did a whole bunch of stuff and wired a 12 volt spot light and I thought it would be good enough but it's not. Still too dark so I searched on Amazon and found a four LED 12 volt light set and got a couple of those and it should be lit up like a Christmas tree and not use very much energy anyway. I also figured out why the dome light in the box section doesn't work it's because it goes to a little sub harness behind the seat and apparently they must have sold you a little something to connect to the positive and ground in the dash that then went back to the female and male spade connectors on that harness because it's not wired to anywhere else it just terminates behind the driver's seat. I assume it was a safety feature of not leaving the light on in the cargo area and having the battery run down. As it is I'm going to wire in that light to the vehicle power and it's just a little 1156. For the 12 volt LED lights I'm going to run those to a connecting harness for the deep cycle battery so I can run the lights in the back without having to worry about the main starting battery.

I just realized the image is reversed on that camera. I need to fiddle with the settings for that but anyway, used the porta band made into a table band saw today. It works so much better for cutting aluminum!!

It has a little strap so you can depress the trigger fully and hold it there and then there's an inline foot pedal switch that goes in between the receptacle and the plug for the portaband.

Booyah! Took all day but finally got my lights wired. The LED cheapo 12 volt light seem to work quite well. the knockoff weather pack connector kit I got for 25 bucks is definitely chintzy but it mostly works fine. The connectors don't fit anywhere as nice in the body cavities as they should but oh well. Have it wired to the switch up there on the top left and then disconnectable so I can also run it off the regular vehicle battery. Need to make some hold downs for the battery and a couple other things but for right now I'm good for the night at least it's all working and I feel like I've accomplished something.

I'll finish putting wire loom over the wires and securing them to the top of the roof tomorrow as well.

Does the truck have an isolator to charge the second battery?

It does not currently. I was thinking about how I want to do that setup, probably will in the future. Eventually I want a generator in the back as well for an air compressor, so that'll be in the equation. Right now it's just the winch battery.

All right, all the wiring is tied up now against the ceiling. I think I need to put some insulation in here although there's not very much space for it. I think the best way I could think of is getting some lightweight cardboard or other something small plastic sheets and cutting them to fit the panel in between the ribs and then putting a very small 1 in insulated either foam or carpet style insulation up there. If I remember correctly foam was pretty expensive. Kind of thinking like the funky carpet material behind all the panels in the 910. That'll keep it cooler in summer too.

As far as power draw the lights don't draw much. I started at 12.22 volts and after about an hour and a half I measured it and now I'm at 12.29. I love lights that recharge themselves while they're getting used, lol. it threw me for a loop until I realized I had the propane heater going and I started checking when it was cold and now it's warmer so the battery is gaining voltage. I haven't calculated the power suck but I have a feeling I could probably run these 12 hours or more and they'd still be operational. Gotta love LEDs.

How tall is it inside?

Probably like 7 feet I think. I got a few more things done today. I got the tie downs done for the battery and put a block behind it, it won't move in transit now. the other thing I did was get the slam latch fixed for the slider door. It was not operating looks like somebody hit it with a hammer. I took a pry bar to it after disassembly and got the casing square again and then it worked just fine. the problem is if you make the sliding door latch work on the cab side then you can't open it from the box side. And I figured out why it wouldn't close in the first place. They had pretty thick foam sealant around the door to seal off the box area and didn't adjust the sliding apparatus on the bottom. So I pulled the six screws on that and moved it further out. after I got the latch working from the cab side I started thinking about how to get it to open from the box side. The main reason for this is because getting a side door is super expensive. Even a small RV man door the cheapest one I found was 200 bucks or something and then another $200 to ship it in. Tried my local guy at the trailer place and they didn't have any left. So I'm thinking as much as it's annoying I'll probably just use the passenger door as the entry point and then come in through the cab when I want the rear door all the way closed to keep in cold or hot.

Anyway I ended up drilling a hole at an angle and attaching a little piece of 10 gauge wire to it with a 5/16 ring terminal which then goes on to the bolt and opens it from the inside. Works like a charm!

So this week we got the air pump that was dead off the van and the air tubes with bad one-way valves capped off. Found a chewed spark plug wire and Autolite spark plugs in it, so we replaced spark plugs and wires with proper AC Delco stuff. It's a sbc, not a Ford! The van runs better now, but still has a knock sensor code. I've replaced two knock sensors and there's no knock I can discern. Apparently it's pretty common for that code to persist due to wiring or other sensors that share the circuit. It runs well, so I'm pretty much just ignoring it.

Also put in a battery isolator and ran a new charge wire for the deep cycle in the back for the lights/winch/whatever else. I still need to figure out a generator/AC unit. I may want to mount the generator outside the box though, maybe underneath. That way I don't have to route the exhaust or get the heat from the engine inside the box. Haven't decided how I'm going to do that yet. Much less, I'm sinking too much money into the van right now. All my various 4 project areas are sucking money right now. Going to have to let stuff go for a bit.

I did get a cheap little 12 volt timer coming. I'll wire that into the lights so I won't suck the battery all the way down if I forget to turn off the interior lights.

Got the front bumper off it's only held on with six bolts and the left side where it's been tweaked before is a little bit off on the mounting horn so I'm going to straighten that and then probably put the original bumper back on and weld the 4x4 to it. need to get some more carriage bolts though cuz of course these are old and crappy and I had to cut three of them off.

I got the bumper started today. I decided due to aerodynamics and a few other things that I needed to use the existing bumper. It covers up all the core support and makes the air flow better plus after I reinforce it with the 4x4 and weld it to that bumper it will be just as strong anyway. The driver's side had been hit before but not terrible. After tweaking the mount a bit and pulling it out, I found it was still a quarter inch off which is interesting because it really didn't seem to be that bad but then I realized the mounting tab was pushed back even after we had pulled it back in.

So instead of trying to alter the mount because we'd already heated it up and pulled it out, I opted to weld a quarter inch tab onto it which effectively made the distance the same. The bottom mount was in the correct position. The amounts are c channel and not fully enclosed so they'll actually collapse when you hit something. They're also slightly outside the frame rails and for good reason. after I reinforce the crap out of this thing it will still have some give at the mounts which is good. because if there's no give then it's going to go to the frame rails and tweak those and I'd rather have it tweak the bumper mounts instead. You can always get new ones or pull them out etc. even on the big new bull bars they make for trucks there's usually a slide bracket for the bolts or some other function that essentially allows it to take a solid hit but still crumple to some degree in a large impact.

So for today I got to my stopping point after welding two pieces of 1/4 inch on the front of the bumper and I'll weld the middle section tomorrow. I got the bumper holes made for the bolts and a larger hole on the corresponding side so I can fit a socket in and tighten the assembly. the 4x4 is only going to be bolted in two spots but it's going to be welded to the original bumper which then will be anchored in for other spots for six total.

and I just realized I have a crap load of l series cam gears laying around that I'm going to try and incorporate in the upright grille protection portion for a little bit of a Datsun theme! More tomorrow. I may need to take it to work so I can paint the thing.

Also it's so nice when you can weld decently, lol. I look at my old welds from 3 or 4 years ago and cringe. No more bubble gum popcorn shit for this guy!

Holy picture dump Batman! So it took all day. I ended drilling through the 1/4" plate to space up the tubing since the bumper face is recessed between strength ridges. Plug welded that so the main box section in 4 spots so no rattles and it's stronger. Ended up welding the box to the bumper on top and bottom. Also had to space the drivers side another 1/4" to get it straight with the core support. It's dead nuts now.

I ran out of time to make the uprights, that'll be next week. I ran the torch inside since I haven't boxed up the sides yet, then threw a quick visit if paint on so it doesnt rust too much before next weekend.

I also wasn't going to reinforce the bottom mounts but I decided it needed it so I made those little angle iron kickers and welded them to the main section too. not my finest welding on those. I hate welding upside down. Not terrible, but not as clean as the top and bottom. So far it weighs about 100 pounds.

I watched the fourth quarter of the Superbowl. Prior to that I was finishing the uprights and the face. I may put two more uprights on each side, not sure yet. Also need to box in the top and bottom tubes. Looking lots better though! The face is all l timing stuff except the eyebrows. Those are valve springs. I couldn't fit the camshaft crossbones on unfortunately.

Awesome !

It also kinda reminds me of this , but Spokane style yo

I was debating writing something in the main 4" tube. That would be a lot of weld writing, but it's a long bumper, might be doable, lol! I did want to put "The Humungus rules the wasteland!"

The paint is now drying with the last 45ish or 50° day we have here. It's supposed to start getting cold tomorrow. Finally got all the welding done and added two big ribs on the sides and a couple of little kickers on the front so if I do hit somebody it won't just fold the top section back into the grill. I finally use the grill guard I got from pull and save off of 720 about 15 years ago LOL. That's what the side gussets are and little pieces of the associated brackets for the reinforcements on the front. I only had glass black so that's the color I got. I might eventually repaint it yellow, I'm not sure yet.

On the main tube where I boxed it in I left about a 3/8 hole that I didn't weld so water can go in those front access holes for the bumper bolts and still get out.

Hey that’s looking good. Welds are definitely getting better.

Cool. Now chop it and do round headlights.