We're bringin' back the Flat Tops!

[motorman7]

So that is 115 or 903?

That is 115

Sent from my C6902 using Classic Zcar Club mobile

[Gav240z]

9 hours ago, motorman7 said:

Started clean-up work on the differential and half-shafts.  And...Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Is that driveshaft painted (top 1) or stripped of all paint and in it's raw metal form?

[Captain Obvious]

On ‎12‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 10:01 PM, motorman7 said:

Just checked. The needle is shiny like that the entire length down, all the way around, so it's probably not contact....I think. My guess is that the upper part is oxidized while the lower part is shiny since it is sitting in gas.

Cool. Must just be a trick of the light.

I'm also pleased at how close my camera can focus. And in the cases where it can't focus because it's too close, I've found that I can hold an eye loupe up to the lens and decrease the focal length more. For example, here's a shot of some needles I have here:

[motorman7]

14 hours ago, Gav240z said:

Is that driveshaft painted (top 1) or stripped of all paint and in it's raw metal form?

This one is actually painted with duplicolor 'stainless steel' paint.  Typically I strip off all of the paint on the half shafts and then just do a clear coat.  However, these shafts were pretty discolored (I think due to the rust and corrosion) and 'blotchy', and no amount of wire wheel stripping would clean them up.  I initially did the clear coat on this shaft just to see if the discoloration would go away, but it did not and actually looked worse.   So, I stripped the clear coat from the shafts and painted it with the closest color I could find to it's bare state.  Technically, these are supposed to be painted black, but since everything else under there will be black, it would look kind of plain.  I am also planning on stripping the back plate of the differential and leaving that bare.  That makes for a pretty nice looking rear end.....that few people will really see.  The finished product should look something like the pic below.

[motorman7]

Continued work on the other half shaft and differential (after a short Holiday getaway).  I tried to buff out the scratches off of the differential rear cover and ended up making that a bit to shiny.   Sprayed it with some matte clear to tone it down a bit.  Drained all the fluid out of the diff.  The diff gear assembly is pretty smooth with virtually no backlash so I won't touch anything here other than put in new fluid once everything is together.   I sent the diff nuts and bolts out for plating along with some of the carb parts and some of the other remaining items, so I will complete the assembly in a week or so.  Loosely pieced the parts together to get an idea of what the final assembly will look like.

[motorman7]

More photos from the paint shop.  Progress seems to be painfully slow as I have pretty much all of the suspension and undercarriage items complete along with the motor, but no structure to attach it to.  I am chomping at the bit to start assembling things here.  I still have stuff to keep me busy but would rather be putting parts on the car.  Latest batch of plated parts will be back in a week.  Will get working on the exhaust manifold, handbrake cable and finish up the dash here shortly.

[Patcon]

They do beautiful paint work!! It's a shame they are so far away from me. It is always nice to have someone paint a Datsun that knows Datsun's!

[motorman7]

6 hours ago, Patcon said:

They do beautiful paint work!! It's a shame they are so far away from me. It is always nice to have someone paint a Datsun that knows Datsun's!

Yes, it is nice to have someone with his quality of work.  The delay is due to the number of Z cars he is working on concurrently.

 

Here's a pic of the staging area:  Can you tell that I am ready for the body to show up?

I actually had an old '73 exhaust manifold laying around, so I worked on removing the old vestiges of the air galley and re-tapped the holes.  Also, the large plug for the tube that goes from this manifold to the balance tube came out pretty easily.  I will take this over to Olympic and get it ceramic coated.

New air galley's are getting hard to find (meaning expensive) and old ones never come off well.  Zstore and Zeddsaver are out of stock on these.  Had to pick up one from Jay at jdm-parts.com  It should arrive in a couple days.

[motorman7]

Bought a couple air galley's since these were pretty hard to find.  One for this car and one for my white Z.  

Now that these are getting way too pricey, I am going to try and salvage these two.  I have been soaking the two set-ups shown below in alternate soakings of Kroil and PB blaster.  After about a week, I will hit them with fire and ice (torch on the exhaust manifold, then ice cube on the fitting) and see if I can get them to budge.  I am not optimistic,  but will give it a try.  If that doesn't work, then I will just cut them off and drill and tap.

[Patcon]

Can you get a flare nut wrench over those? You may have to experiment with metric and standard to see which fits the best. That or a really good pair of the vise grips I bought but they will leave more marks than the flare nut wrench.

This

or this

[motorman7]

9 minutes ago, Patcon said:

Can you get a flare nut wrench over those? You may have to experiment with metric and standard to see which fits the best. That or a really good pair of the vise grips I bought but they will leave more marks than the flare nut wrench.

I have a 14mm flare nut wrench that fits well on these.  The problem is that the metal is incredibly soft, so it's hard not to damage the nut when trying to unloosen them.  Occasionally I have resorted to the vise-grips but that rarely turns out well.   I should get a little time tonight, so may give it a try using the torch and ice along with the flare nut.  I need to add some of those funky looking vise-grips to my arsenal, thanks for the pics.

[Patcon]

37 minutes ago, motorman7 said:

I have a 14mm flare nut wrench that fits well on these.  The problem is that the metal is incredibly soft, so it's hard not to damage the nut when trying to unloosen them.  Occasionally I have resorted to the vise-grips but that rarely turns out well.   I should get a little time tonight, so may give it a try using the torch and ice along with the flare nut.  I need to add some of those funky looking vise-grips to my arsenal, thanks for the pics.

I agree, they are easily disfigured. I would hate to see two good candidates destroyed. You could get some Freeze Off spray. I think CRC makes it. I have had good luck with it and a torch.