Jason

41). Half shafts II

The last piece of rear suspension to wrap up is the half shafts. And while they’ve been cleaned up, I’ve never fully disassembled them and greased the inner bearings. So that’s the goal here.

I started by removing the metal clamps that held the boot on, taking the universal joint out of the bottom end, removing the circlip, plug and stopper before separating the two halves.

I’d go into more detail regarding each step, but WoodWorkerB does a good job explaining it more thoroughly.

With the two sides apart, I removed the bearings, spacers and boot, then cleaned up everything to prepare them for a new batch of grease.

When it came time to re-grease and reassemble, I tried the method suggested by WoodWorkerB, where you pack everything with grease and place the bearings & spacers on the shaft before reinserting it into the outer casing. But that wouldn’t work for me. Maybe because I was assembling it by myself, or maybe because I didn’t have the patience to properly see it through.

Either way, I resorted to loading the bearings & spacers from the other side, which, while it had its own set of problems, eventually worked and is how I reassembled both shafts.

Once rebuilt and re-greased, I put the whole thing back together and clamped the boots in place with a new set of ear clamps.

Not going to put them back in the car just yet as I still need to run brake lines and need the space to work above the suspension. But once they’re reinstalled, they’ll be ready for another 50 thousand miles, or 150 thousand, which is more likely.

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40). Rear suspension

With the undercoating out of the way, I could move on to installing the refurbished rear suspension. The mustache bar and differential braces went on first.

Next came the differential torque arrester strap, the differential itself, followed by the control arms.

Now I’m proud of the fact that no one but me has been involved with the rebuild of this car, but let me tell you, installing the differential and control arms on my own was an interesting task that I should have recorded on video for the entertainment value alone.

Up next was the strut assembly, which, like the differential, would have been entertaining to a bystander just to see me struggling with it. If it weren’t for mechanics wire, I probably wouldn’t have been able to pull it off at all.

Now all that was left to do, on this side at least, was to repair one of the two spindle pins that held the assembly to the control arm. The other spindle pin was destroyed during removal and will need to be replaced.

The salvageable spindle pin just had some minor damage to the threads which I repaired with an M12 x 1.25 die from a tap and die set.

This worked well and I went on to sand and polish the spindle pin and slot in the control arm and strut assembly. Once I was satisfied, I coated everything in anti seize and installed the spindle. I made sure it would still spin freely, up until the moment I wrenched it down and locked it in place with the lock bolt. I would hope that this will allow removal in the future to be completely hassle free.

With the drivers side done, I moved on to the passengers side using the same routine… Installed the strut assembly, repaired the thread on a spindle pin that was so graciously sold to me at a significant discount by @sexyls30 (Thanks Matt), then polished and applied a liberal amount of anti seize to the whole thing before assembling it up.

All that was left now, was the half shafts.

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39). Rear undercoating II

Google, how do you say “about damn time” in Japanese? … Yaku jikan

Seems like it’s been forever since I began working on the rear third of the car. And when I did, it took nearly two months to scrape all the old tar undercoating off and wire wheel it down to bare metal. I gave it a coat of epoxy primer around December 2017 just to keep it from rusting over the winter, but it was a rush job as I had to get it coated during one of the last above freezing days we had that month. Due to this, the finish wasn’t that great and I decided to sand the underside before I re-applied another coat of epoxy primer.

But before I could do that, I needed to take care of a couple spots that I’d just never gotten around too. Like the corners of the rear valence.

Which were simple enough…

Now I could coat the underside in epoxy primer and seam seal all the seams.

With that out of the way, I waited a couple days for it to cure before I took a Scotch Brite pad to it and mixed up some Herculiner.

Two days and two coats later, the entire underside of my Datsun was officially coated. Granted there was a massive amount of work left to do on the car, but this was a milestone.

And I was pretty damn exited to move on to installing the rear suspension and other parts too.

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38). Rear wheel arches

After much of the severe cold of winter had passed, I decided it was time to get back out in the garage and work on the Datsun. I needed to complete all the metal fabrication on the rear of the vehicle before I was able to give it a new coat of undercoating. And most of it had been taken care of by this point with the exception of some small spots and the kicker portion of the rear wheel arch behind the doors.

On the passengers side, I had already begun to remove some of the steel to see how bad it was early on in the project. Since it was worse than I was expecting, I kind of put it off because I knew it was going to be a pain.

Once I got back around to it, I cut away a larger section of the outside so I could get to what was underneath easier then cut away pretty much all the rust until I was able to start building it back up again.

I started with the back section and tried to reproduce a structure that would allow me to weld a new body panel to it.

Once complete, I did the normal rust prevention routine followed by primer and seam sealer.

Then I prepared the body panel I had cut from the larger rear quarter I previously used and began welding it to the car.

After it was all welded up, I ground down the welds and was happy with how it turned out.

I then just needed to fill the gap between the existing rocker panel and the new body panel I had welded in. From the factory this is actually a seam, where the rocker panel goes under the rear wheel arch panel and is spot welded. I believe this to be a spot prone to rust, because when I got the car, this seam had been welded together, body filler applied over the weld and then completely rusted away from the inside out (see the first picture above – paint had been applied over the rust to make it blend in).

I decided to weld these seams together as well, but hoping to do a better job at both the welding and rust prevention.

I’ve learned my lesson from grinding my welds down too far in some places, making the metal too thin, so I left a little weld and will apply a thin layer of body filler over it during the bodywork phase of this project.

With the passengers side done, I moved on to the drivers side. And just like the passenger side, lots of rust removal and steel fabrication.

Doesn’t look too bad though, and now I finally get to move on to the undercoating.

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37). Storage bin rust

When I was removing the undercoating from the rear of the car I noticed some rust holes under the interior storage bins and decided to tackle that next.

It quickly became apparent that I wasn’t going to be able to remove all of the rust without cutting from the inside of the car as well.

So I started by removing the vertical storage bin wall by drilling out all the spot welds then taking it out entirely. Now I could really see what I was up against and made access much easier.

I cut out the rest of the rusted steel and cleaned up the area a bit to make way for new steel to be welded in place.

I tried to replace the entire area with one piece but all the bends made it difficult enough that I decided to do it in three.

The other side was almost as bad so I did the same and replaced it too.

With both sides repaired, I took off the top part of the storage compartment so I could get to the surface rust hiding in the hard to reach spots.

Once cleaned up, I really liked the way the car looked without the storage bins in the cabin of the car, so I’m thinking about leaving them out. I’m wondering if this is going to have any effect on the rigidity or structural integrity of the car and I should put them back in, or if I’ll be fine without them.

While I’m pondering that, I turned my attention to completing a couple motorcycle builds I was working on at the time. The idea was that I’d work on the Datsun in the winter of 2017. But I was in for a bit of a shock when I buttoned up the bikes and not long after, we had a two week stretch of below zero temperatures in December.

As I type this, it’s mid January 2018 and still well below freezing. One of the coldest winters we’ve had in a while and I’m finding it hard to motivate myself and get back out in my unheated garage and go to work.

So here’s how she sits as of right now…

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36). Passengers quarter

As with the drivers side quarter, I began by cutting out a small portion to see how bad the inner wheel well was. Which would determine how large of a portion I needed to cut from the replacement panel.

The replacement panel itself had a spot, where it looked like something got smashed between the panel and the mold. Making an indentation that you may be able to see below. I was able to hammer it out for the most part, but don’t feel like you should have to fix a new replacement panel.

Either way, I clamped it to the quarter and traced where I needed to cut.

Once I had it cut, the rust on the inner wheel well was about what I’d expected and no worse than the drivers side.

Every time I remove this much steel from the car at once I get this sinking feeling of, am I really going to be able to recreate this?

But just like the other side, I replaced one piece at a time until the wheel well resembled what it once did.

This included creating the bump on the bottom portion which keeps the quarter from resting flush against the inner wheel well. I want to say this was originally done to keep them from rusting? But that clearly didn’t work, so I don’t know. I do know that even though I recreated it on both sides, I’m going to seam seal the heck out of where the panels meet to make sure it keeps them from rusting again.

After I had that rebuilt, I welded in the replacement panel, which can be seen mid process below. I had a rough time getting it and the original quarter to line up at the wheel arch line, so I made some relief cuts to stretch and shrink the panels. I don’t think it made much of a difference.

Like the other side, I cut out the bumper indentation and replaced it with a flat piece of steel.

This side was a bit more trouble than the drivers side and although it looks like it turned out pretty good in the end, I did get a small warp or shrinking of the panel below the gas filler door that I’ll need to do some panel beating to fix.

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35). Rear valance

Moving on to the rear valance… it became apparent that there was some rear end damage when I removed the undercoating. But I didn’t know to what extent yet, just that there had been body filler applied on either side of the valance. Which also caused moisture to accumulate in the seams and rust was starting to peak through on the outside.

Once I removed the paint and a half inch or more body filler on the passengers side, I found out just how bad the damage was. And it wasn’t pretty. I’m assuming it was more cost effective for the body shop to beat the panel sort of back into shape and layer coats of filler on top.

Replacement valances were too pricey in my opinion and I figured that I could make my own replacement pieces.

So I began by cutting out the damaged area including the lower surround of the tail light panel, then straightened the box frame underneath and removed the rust with a wire wheel and rust proofed.

After I primed the area, I would need to replace a little at a time to cover the entire valence and surround in new steel.

Starting with the lower tail light surround, I began fitting steel I had cut to size and bent to the correct shape until it was complete.

I knew I wasn’t going to replace the rear bumper and I smoothed out the indentation for it on the drivers side quarter, so I figured I’d do the same for the rear valance. Which also made it much easier to repair.

Moving on to the drivers side, I did the cut, clean, prime, replace process then finished the center doing the same.

Not bad. I’m probably biased because I like these cars with the rear valance completely smoothed out, but I feel this turned out alright. Minimal filler should be needed and I have piece of mind knowing that the steel box section behind the valance has been rust proofed.

With this fabrication portion done (yes, there are still little pieces on the bottom corners that I’ll need to make and weld in, but I will do that at a later time), it was time to knock out the passengers side quarter.

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34). Drivers quarter panel

This car has a limited amount of serious rust on the body (that I have found). So far, the doors, outer door sills and quarter panels are all that seem to be effected by rust on the exterior.

With the rest of the undercoating having been removed, I would need to address the remaining rust before I could finish the rear of the car. Starting with the drivers side quarter panel.

I began by removing the bumper then cutting out a small section of the quarter panel to see how bad the inner wheel well was. Which appeared not to be too bad off, so I only ordered a new quarter panel and figured I could manage the inner wheel well on my own.

Once the replacement panel arrived, I cut out a portion and clamped it to the existing quarter panel. I then marked where I needed to cut and cut out that section on the car.

Now I had better access to the inner wheel well. So I cut out the rusted metal and began to replace the steel one piece at a time due to the compound curves. After I completed the inner wheel well fabrication, I cleaned up the welds and gave it a coat of primer.

I’m not going to lie, I was nervous for this next bit. The majority of my sheet metal welding up to this point could be covered up or wouldn’t really be seen. And now I was about to weld a decent sized piece of steel in highly visible spot on the car.

Taking my time was going to be key. I approached it like the other sheet metal welding I had done, just a little more cautiously. I tacked the panel in place then would place a single weld, move about 4 or 5 inches from that one and place another until I reached the end of the panel. Then I’d cool those welds with compressed air and clean them off with a wire wheel. Doing it this way kept the panel from warping and gave me some of my best welds to date.

Then I would carefully grind down my welds using the edge of a cut of wheel so I wouldn’t remove any metal from the surrounding panels and once I got it almost flush, I’d break out a flap disc to finish it off.

I also cut out the recessed area that the bumper attached to and made a template from cardboard to scribe onto a piece of steel to weld in the opening.

I welded this piece in the same way I welded the larger quarter panel into place although I might have gotten a little impatient smoothing out the welds.

If you’re wondering why I didn’t replaced the bumper indentation with the another indentation, this was done for a couple of reasons. One of which being that I just liked the way the car looks without a rear bumper and didn’t plan on putting it back on. And the other will become apparent later.

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33). Rear undercoating I

The rear suspension was pretty well sorted at this point and I needed to move on to the car itself. I had begun scraping the existing undercoating off of the drivers side wheel well back in March of 2017, but that’s where I stopped.

In May of 2017 I dropped the fuel tank and got back under the car to continue removing the undercoating and it was just as brutal as I remembered it to be. This took on and off the better part of an entire month and solidified the need for a rotisserie on my next build for sure.

After I’d removed the majority of the undercoating, there was some surface rust, but this was nothing compared to the front end of the car.

It also was nice to see that there were only a handful of trouble spots that needed attention and most of these were known beforehand. Like the rear quarter panel directly under the antenna.

Although one spot that showed itself only after I removed the undercoating was right behind the seats, under the storage bins. But it didn’t look ridiculously bad, so I was in good spirits.

Now that I had the undercoating scraped off, and I unfortunately couldn’t fit the car in the sandblast cabinet, I had to break out the wire wheel yet again. This too took a considerable amount of time.

When I finally had the rear mostly cleaned up, some areas hinted at repaired rear end damage that I was going to have to take a closer look at in the future.

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32). Rear struts

Using the wire wheel to clean rusted parts, especially intricate parts, sucks. So I did a ton of research and came across a small company out of Washington state that carried kits to upgrade cheap sandblast cabinets like mine and turn them into legitimate workhorses. These kits weren’t exactly inexpensive, but I decided it was worth it and could finally afford it.

I also had to completely rebuild the cabinet from scratch and run all new steel lines to really get the most out of it. But in conjunction with the upgrade kit I just bought, it turned a barely functioning sandblast cabinet into something that rivaled much more expensive professional units.

The undersized air compressor was the only weak link now. But it’s already too much of a draw on my electrical in this garage, so I’ll have to address that at a later date.

Now that the blaster was up to par, I started with the drum brake assemblies from the strut tower.

Game on. Not only did it make much quicker work of the part, it more thoroughly removed the rust too. Very excited to have a working sandblast cabinet in my tool arsenal.

And yes, I’ll probably replace these drum brakes with discs in the future, but for now it only cost me a little time and a rebuild kit that the previous owner so graciously included in the sale of the car.

With the drum brakes rebuilt it was time for the strut tower itself.

After it was blasted and refinished, I replaced the strut with a new one, installed the stub axle and blasted the finned drum brake cover and coated it in a matte clear to finish off the strut assembly.

Honestly I couldn’t be happier with the results.

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