New World Datsuns...

I ordered some parts this morning, a right side front floor pan and a left and right extended outer sill(rockers) which is not stock, but it gets the sill all the way to the bottom of the floor pan, so the rockers from front to rear that are visible will be new even though I am only replacing the right front floor pan, the back floor pan appears to be alright but I want good metal to weld to, it also hides where I make the connection to the rear floor pan on the side.
You really need to know how the Mini body is put together, the photos below show the rocker vents and the line between them, that lone is where the sill(rocker) is welded to the side of the floor pan, the new sills(rockers) will extend all the way to the bottom of the floor pan where the metal is horizontal instead of at a 45 degree angle half way up.







I bought both sides even though only the right side needs replaced as I want to be able to make both sides the same.
When I received the conformation that the order was placed and read the invoice it appears the sills(rockers) are not in stock but they should be shipped in 2 to 3 weeks, I am not really in a hurry but it should have said it was out of stock before I ordered them on the site, it was only $202.74 shipped for the parts, if the floor pan is shipped separately it will likely take me a while to install it anyway as I want it to look like a professional did the work, I want this to look clean.

Fingers crossed that this is the end of it.

I messed around with the driver side seat today, it actually has 2 different sliders, the normal type slider that one moves a lever and slides the seat forward and backward, and the other slider that moves the lower cushion of the seat forward when the seat back is tilted forward for access to the rear bench seat.
It has a bracket connected to the side of the lower slide assembly on both sides that is a kind of open slot for upward and downward movement, the lower seat cushion has a pivoting connection that the bracket has a hole for about 4 inches up in the side of the seat cushion, the top of the bracket holds the seat back in position, that lower seat cushion only moves about 2 inches forward when the seat back is tilted all the way forward.



Tilted back, you can see the silver headed bolt is a couple inches farther back along with the lower seat cushion being farther back.



The point is that it was very hard to tilt the seat back forward, so hard that it bent the open ended slot farther open and it actually broke the rivet that slid in the open slot, I put a new part in it to mimic the rivet before I took the car in to be detailed, but it was still way to hard to tilt the seat back forward, today I removed the slider assembly from the seat to see what was going on and basically the bolts that slide in a slot that hold the seat to the lower slider assembly were too tight, it's really just a piece of plastic with slots between the seat bottom and the top of the normal slider assembly, it has custom made bolts that are supposed to give the plastic strips with the slots in them room for movement, but they were tight, so I added 2 washers to the base of the bolt and one larger thin washer at the head of the bolt to hold the seat on the slider assembly because when I seen how much meat the bolts had holding the seat on it freaked me out, as far as I can tell the only thing keeping them seats from coming off the slider assembly was the seat belt your wearing when driving the car.

Imagine that washer not being there in the photo below, that bolt head is barely larger than the slot it is in.



It now tilts forward easily, I hope the passenger side works as it is.

Haha, Wayno. Seems like you do the exact same thing I do. Own a car for years and put up with all the "little things", then fix it all right before selling it.
My cars are always in their best ever condition the last day I own them. I've had my 510 for about 10 years and it should be pretty nice when I sell it.

If I want to get top dollar for it I will have to deal with the worst of the issues, the bottom of the drivers door has some bubbles also along the bottom.
I don't remember seeing all this shit when I bought it, and it has never been out in the rain or even got wet except when I have washed it, it's like dry rot if that can happen to metal, I will be selling more vehicles in the next year.

I fixed one small area on the passenger side.





The piece I made.







In position.



Welded in





I removed the passenger seat and the rear seats, I put a barrier between the work area and the door card, and I hoped no sparks made it to the headliner, it appears all is well in that area so far, this was just a small piece, putting a complete front pan in will require more preparation.

Oh, I didn't start so large a fire that I could not blow it out, I didn't clean the bottom, I will likely have to clean the edges of the bottom on the other side as I don't want to burn my house down.

I am not going to do anymore to this side until I get the POR15 I bought on ebay, it's supposed to arrive by next Monday.
Also the bulkhead soundproofing finally shipped today.
The weld job in the last 2 photos of the last post look terrible, but it does not really look that bad in person, I didn't run a bead because the metal on the bottom that I welded to has a bunch of undercoating or something like it that appears to want to catch fire, so I tack welded that piece in place, the tack welds almost touch each other, I plan to hit all of it with POR15 and let it dry, then I plan to brush on seam sealer like they did at the factory on all the seams.
I also will likely drill small holes around the edges of the new floor pan I have ordered and weld the holes like spot welds rather then weld on the edges, I likely should have done the patch that way, oh well, live and learn, most of my welds look like crap but they never break apart except for the power steering gear mount on my old work truck 521 frame/chassis, that setup just had too much side pressure left and right when turning, the frame could not take it.

By the time you finish this thing you’ll want to keep it.

I need to get rid of some vehicles, I never drive the Mini and that one has to be in the garage so I am starting there, since I got interested in selling it I have drove it a little, it really isn't that great to drive, the suspension is really firm, it does corner well.
The steering wheel is pointed up at my face instead of my chest which someone before me addressed this issue, otherwise it would be pointed at the top of my head, but since it doesn't take much movement to make a 90 degree turn one doesn't have to completely turn the wheel, but it is the grabbing onto the sides of the wheel(3am-9pm) that is strange, holding the steering wheel at 10am-2pm would put my elbows really high with my arms straight out in front of me, and grabbing the bottom of the wheel at around 6pm so my elbows are relaxed is great till I have to turn.
Seemed fun to drive when I first bought it, not so much anymore.
The 521 kingcab is the one I like the best, I ordered 2 different intake air heater elements, they are the same but different.

Yanmar heating # 129100 77500 Genuine OEM Yanmar Air Heater Element
https://www.ebay.com/itm/129100-77500-G ... SwcOZcCUqQ

Yanmar Heating #129400-77501 Diesel Air Heater Element
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Yanmar-Heating ... 1588370430

They both sorta look like this. It is mounted under the carb looking thing in the photo below with the red wire connected to it.


My plan is to mount this like that guy did so when it is cold outside the engine will start even if I was somewhere else where I could not plug in the block heater which I have to plan ahead to do as it takes at least an hour to warm up the block, this should work anywhere, the guy in Canada that did this daily drives his diesel in temps way below freezing, mine doesn't even like to start below 40 degrees, I once tried starting it below freezing, it tried but would not start/run.

This below is a quote from that guy in Canada.

"I was advised a long time ago by a long time Nissan Service guy "At minus 10c it will not go". He was absolutely correct. Without the air intake heater it WILL NOT START if not plugged in. I have had good success in starting at -20c after a 10 hr cold soak using the air heater. It takes 3 or4 tries but it goes. Without the air heater not a chance".

I bought the 2 different types because one is round on one end while the other has a square hole, I am into both of them for less than a $100.00 shipped and I have 2 diesel powered trucks.

Good idea. I believe this is how Cummins does it.

It took me forever to embed that photo of the element above the photo of the engine.

My sound proofing/bulkhead part came in today, not much to it, doesn't look anything like what I removed but it's hard to say as there was not a lot left of it to compare them to each other.
I am still waiting for the floor pan, sills/rockers to ship, the sills/rockers are on back order, it would have been nice for them to ship the floor pan, but I will not make one cut till I have all the parts anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter.

I started the Christmas lights on my house today, I think I am not going to get so carried away this year, but only time will tell.

I also received some parts.

I'm curious to see how the heater grids work out.

I have another one coming, I will not do anything until I have both the them to look at, the other one is round on one side with a radiator type hose connection, I am curious to see how large the hole is, I will do nothing that changes it power wise, it will be put back to the way it is now if there is any noticeable loss of power.

I wouldn't expect any downside, only quicker cold-starts. That's the goal, right?

I screwed up, I did a U turn when I got to a customers house and when I got it next to the curb I hit a sharp spot and mist have put a hole in my tire, by the time I got out the air was likely already gone out of the tire so I didn't know it, on the way to the next job(10 miles) the truck started making this noise, I thought it was because of my ladder on the truck instead if the trailer, then the truck started to vibrate, at first I thought the rear drive line bolts were loose, then I started thinking it sounded like a flat rear tire as it leaned more making a left turn on the freeway exit, I got to the next job and found this.





What a goofy mistake, I found another tire that was about the same height as the inside tire but it is lighter duty, it will get me by for a few days till I decide what to do, the front tires are the same as the rear but they have more tread on them and do not match the height of the inside tire, I want both tires to take the same weight, I also do not want one side to be taller than the other side because that will cause the spider gears to rotate which I do not want happening full time.
I checked and off the ground both tires came down and hit the ground at the same time when I dropped it on the ground after putting the other tire/rim on the truck, but it is not the same type of tire, one is an LT195/75R14 and the other is a P195/75R14, I just don't have a lot of heavy duty tires around here, these tires came with that 1986 dually truck I brought home, I put the 521 work truck cab on that chassis and just left the tires on it.

I also received the other air heater element today, the hole is smaller in that one, not sure I will use it, it is also thicker(7/8ths) instead of the 3/4" one I received first.