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Hi Finished putting interior in bar some of dash. Then cleaned, polished and put all the external door handles and locks on and lubed it all up I wanted to finish off all re assembling the brakes I want to see if bleeding them helps with moving car around it feels like brakes are semi on/not sitting correctly it's all new and never been bled. Will get some brake fluid as I forgot it today and give it a go tomorrow. Brought abit of stuff for the motor to freshen it up Needed to make some new breather hoses for gas tank they had been cut. I cleaned up the tank I got from chch. It came up pretty good I also had a look at the inside with my camera All is good. Bella thinks the interior is pretty lush Gave the tank a coat of paint and re undersealed the bottom side. It was a good afternoon to do it too! Fitted the fuel tank with new breather hoses. Connected up fuel lines with existing ones. Fitted the rear lights and fuel filler cap - unfortunately its cracked at hinges so doesnt quite line up with tail light surrounds. Will look for another. That's all for now Cheers

Had another good ride on this over the weekend- super fun offroad on steep grassy/dirt tracks etc and approximately 150km covered between hamilton, raglan and kawhia. Only thing that's average is the four speed gearbox during steep climbs (EG, @64valiant driveway), Could probably try harder but it drops too far out of the power band when changing into second so you bog down and have to go back to first.. I hear the 5 and 6 speed boxes (mb50 and cr80) are a great thing and i need to try find one. The best thing about this bike is that its actually usable to cover relatively large distances and 90% of the time you aren't holding up traffic- EG between hamilton and raglan cars were the limiting factor both ways.

Cheers mate, na I think I will be doing some flicking through the Wiseco piston catalogue when it gets to that stage... Wow awesome, would of been great working at Mcintosh. I think I saw that engine run a few years ago when I was visiting Ken. Were the Hemmings heads original upgrade parts for sidevalve engines? I take it the guy with KTOR on the floor would never part with it? I’ll be making my own flywheels with press fits throughout, will get a 1.5” dia drive mainshaft with the bearings in have. A bit better that the original..... Have got the timing side case machined to the same stage now. Facing the timing cover mating surface as first reference. Flipped over and same stuff done as first half Internal features finished on both half’s. And with a couple of bolts holding it together. Next job get the timing cover bolted on

Alrighty, cert check has been done and I've got a list. Nothing too bad, maybe some will be a little annoying to sort out. - Front bump stops missing - need to find BC ones I guess. - Spring washers on the brake caliper brackets (only came with normal washers) - easy - Caster arms don't have a brand and have play in rose joint - will get some hardrace ones after confirming with cert man. - Spring washers on engine mount brackets (again, only supplied with normal washers) - easy enough bit hard to get to some of them though. - Engine mounts need spring washers (not supplied with them) - seems to be a theme here but I may need longer bolts to do this. - Gearbox mount nylocks don't have enough thread showing on the studs. - Was worried about this one, will have to see if I can fit longer studs or maybe bolts if it works. - More spring washers on drive shaft loop bolts (think he means a couple that arent the floor mount part). - easy. - Seat bolts need spring washers - easy...pretty sure the passenger one which is standard, never had any. - easy except maybe the two studs for seatbelt buckles which might not be long enough due to thickness of the seat mount base steel. - Drivers seat buckle not easy to access next to bucket seat. This one might be difficult, because it mounts to a stud. Unless it is acceptable to mount it to an extension bar (will have to ask cert man). Maybe it's an option to make a raised tab on the race seat base? It is made of 5mm steel.... this is an annoying one. Maybe even moving the seat over a bit. - Need to see proof of welds on rear quarters. Will see if the photos are ok from before it was painted. - maybe easy. - Calibrate speedo - should be easy. So over all, I need to throw a fist full of spring washers at everything that looks like a bolt.

Update - all items on the list are done apart from adjusting the hand brake and moving the rear hard brake line up a tad on the diff. I fired the coupe up today and idled it for 20min the drove it up and down the road to get some heat into it. I wanted to monitor the temp and ensure the fan is doing its job and that the rad isn’t spitting any fluid. Pretty sure some neighbours applauded when I turned it off. That just made me turn it right back on. Cert recheck 14th May and toad test. Here are are some pics from today

This worked perfectly. I was a bit worried that he would snap the top off the steering column as he said he was really trying hard to unscrew it. But a wiggle back and forth and a bit of pulling and it came off! Thanks for the quick replies guys. Love you long time.

Its been a while since the last update but i have been chipping away at this project. I finished the weldathon on that bus and it was picked up the next day. The owner is really happy with my work and it turns out he has quite a collection of classics. He now wants to bring me some of the cars, including a mk1 mini cooper, for some rust work. Cool! While the bus was taking up space I had been sneaking in some work on the wee Imp. I fitted the engine up to the transaxle, weighing the engine first. 87kg with the flywheel in place. Not too bad at all. Not super light like the standard Imp all alloy unit however I have moved so much stuff to the front that it should still be well balanced. I do love the idea of an all alloy Nissan cg13 twink from a K11 Micra- however that would require a full re-certification. I prefer the idea of a Goldwing engine engine more! I digress. So anyway- I had slung the engine in place using a lump of timber and a ratchet strap. Worked fine. Then started making new engine mounts and cross member. I was not happy with the state or look of the old one and knew it could be far better. Not really a lot to say about making fabricating it all- the usual story of lining the engine up exactly central and building things to connect. I wanted to make sure that the exhaust manifold and starter could be easily removed without touching the cradle. I probably over built it with extra bracing (I even ended up adding extra gussets just before painting it, because ocd paranoia) but all up it still only weighed in at around 7-8kg. In photos. I didn't take many as work progressed on this bit really quickly.. Clearance under the car was still really good, considering how low the sump looks from the back. I think an optical illusion due to the rear panel not being in place. Then painted in black epoxy.. Next up was the exhaust. The manifold that came fitted was running really close to the drive shaft! Enough that it would contact when the car was lifted off the ground. There was quite a bit of damage, dents, poor welds and other bits that needed attention so I chopped it all back and carefully shortened the bottom pipes then systematically pieced it back together. I required quite a bit of forward thinking because the access to weld to pipes all the way round was really tight. No photos of work though as I was so immersed in the process I forgot to take some. Really happy with the result though. Fits perfectly, cleaner runs and still equal length (as if a Datsun A12 with a carb the size of a small cup would care. But hey, every little helps ) Later on I painted it and then wrapped the upper pipes to ward off heat from the inlet and coolant pipe. I know some dont like heat wrap but I think its great! Its worked well on my last several car builds. Luckily I live in a dry enough area to get away with it and not worry about potential corrosion. With that sorted I moved onto the rest of the system. I have always had a picture in my mind of what I wanted it to look like and I wanted it to be rear slung with a side exit to avoid the car filling with exhaust fumes. Apparantly these early Imps with the roof vents can suffer from fumes being pulled into the car by the vacuum. I also had a rough idea on how I would build my own silencer and there wasnt anything available that fitted my ideas with a price I liked. I had built one for the Mazda Rx3 and it worked well. Money is tight (I'm too tight..), time is plenty and I love making things so I started building. Using the pipe from the original straight through muffler.. Then fabricating my silencer using some ideas I nicked from Google along with extensive coffee fueled airflow thinking in my mind. I have no idea on what it will sound like but it was a fun process and looks neat. The stainless pads worked well in my last muffler along with some glass matting I got from the neighbour. I'll report back In photos... I had a pipe bent to 90 degrees and added mount points to the muffler so it slings up under the rear valance. I made a stainless heat shield to deflect heat away from paint and bottom pulley. You'll see that later. I have yet to decide on the length of the exhaust tip, cut it and then weld it on to finish. Then the inlet. Because the Datsun engine sits flat in this Imp, unlike the rear sloping angle in its usual Datsun 1200 home, the carb is not level. I chopped off the mounting face and milled the manifold at angle to suit. Then I welded it back in place. Carb is now level. I filled in an unused vac hole, cut off the extra unused lugs and gave the whole thing a clean up till it was nice and smooth. While I was playing with alloy I made a new alternator bracket... and had to rebuild a very corroded thermostat outlet. it was knackered... I was given a better spare by a nice fella with a Datsun 1200 ute but it pointed upwards. My outlet, most likely from a van, points down and suits the pipework routing I wanted to do. So I had to fix it. I found a suitable piece of alloy pipe on an old scooter handle I had rescued from the local scrap metal pile at the dump... Much better! Then onto the pipe work in the back... Just a case of sussing out a neat route to suit my tastes, remain easy to work on and remove and allowing for a potential Davies Craig electric water pump just in case the Datsun pump is not up to the task (and also because I do rather fancy the geekiness of the little display unit not to mention how much better it could work) With the pipes sorted I replaced the transaxle output seals because well, for $20 it made sense to do them now. I machined up a stepped tool to make sure they went in straight and to the correct depth. New seals.. Then mounted the brand new BMW couplings I bought from Rockauto. I had to make some spacers to suit as they are narrower then the stock Rotoflex couplings. With the car on the ground the driveshafts sit almost bang on parallel to the ground which is good for their longevity. I didn't fancy reusing the red Nolathane couplings that came with the race car because whilst strong in shear and rotation they didn't have much flex in and out which would impose quite large stress on the transaxle casing as the rear suspension went through its motion I felt. I then did some fun little jobs (but its all fun really..) like cleaning and painting the starter and alternator... I dug out my old art oil paints and mixed up a suitable orange to paint the inside of a very faded rear indicator lens. It'll do for now but I do look forward to locating and buying some better ones when I go to Blighty in July! Then began the wiring! Like all my other previous car projects, I enjoy this part immensely. I love the challenge of hiding as much of the wires away, re-configuring the circuits to suit add ons or just to make them better. In the case of the Imp, which has no fuses fitted at all (until the later mk3 Imps came along) this was an essential item to address. It also has a terrible dash wiring layout whereby you have to unplug everything to remove the instruments. Almost everything seems to run off just one piddly feed wire coming from the key. I'll sort that lot out with some plugs. Add in some relays for the lights, fan. Wires for a potential electric pump, sound system, high stop lamp (I have a neat idea floating about in my head for that) and making sure its future proof because later on I would like to inject this engine. I have also added in a tail to attach a trailer plug to. Because that will be a thing So I had two extra looms going spare which I pulled apart. I now had a large amount of extra wires for my project. Wiring isn't the most exciting thing to take photos of. I have now finished the engine bay wiring and I'm pretty happy with it. Now I've refitted the rear valance panel and exhaust and can lower the car down and start on the interior wiring. I'll be making a removable fuse box/relay unit and fit it under the dash if all goes well. Some photos of where I'm at now...log burner in use as the nights get colder. Sofa wheeled over to middle of workshop for max stereo imaging whilst I drink beer and play with wires... Wires hanging from engine bay.. Engine bay completed (missing hose clip noted..) but for an over flow tank from header tank to fit. I will build a better two part tank in the future I think. Exhaust tip length yet to be decided and cut. Note stainless heat shield. Bumper also to go back on, with bottom mounted rego plate.

Thanks @tortron and @Sambo for getting this diff for me, legends. I picked it up from @Adoom ‘s place on Sunday and parked it behind the Honda. Will get back into this once I’ve hopefully got the 200sx certified. Either I’ll need to shorten it and/or use some wide Mini miglia flares with fwd offset wheels. But the 2.9 diff was the major and it’s a good size diff that’ll actually fit under there.

I think the Hemmings heads and barrels were an update for SV engines, the original Hemmings barrels on this engine had been bored too much and the front one blew off just above the flange and did a bit of damage to the frame. The guy with the KTOR motor has just had a frame made for it, Steve Raffels on the north shore made the frame, that guy who use to own Henderson hire built Morgans and aJAP engine from scratch, I gess you know him?

Sorry I’ve been a bit quiet, been busy with mrs car, change of work, wee motorbikes and then lazy. i did do the H165 diff swap! My boss went away for 3 weeks and left me his car so I took the opportunity to sort it then. No great pics but after I cleaned it up I hit it with some black zinc and then spare 2k black my flat mate was using. black zinced the springs and bolts and brackets and shit, swapped the shoes and cylinders etc over, cut the old shock mounts off and welded to new diff, swapped the hose mount to opposite side, tidied and swapped hard lines and handbrake cables and made a small bracket to move the cable mount about 50mm across. Cbf cutting it off and rewelding and painting again. had to shorten and balance driveshaft using the larger rear flange off Ute to suit the new diff. Also scored a factory style output seal for the box with the the steel shell through a supplier at work. i don’t like the new ratio ill keep an eye out for a different head I guess. Have spent ages adjusting the brakes and starting to get somewhere. Then a yarn cam up of a NOS roof skin in a blokes shed roof. calls were made and it showed up a few weeks later. Was damaged in transit yonks ago and the guy tucked it away for a rainy day. well everyone knows my roof is fucked from a fire way before bart and I had this so it’s forever changing shape and now the bog has cracked. Time to re-roof it. Now because it’s a datsun, of course the cunt was rusty despite never touching a car and being dry its entire life.. It had a few dings and scrapes but most hammered out well, the rest will be done when it’s stuck to the car so I have some rigidity. i buzzed it All back and wire wheeled the Deep bits and hit it with 2K epoxy etch to seal away the baddies. The inside was much better so just got rust converted after wheeling. sorry to the neighbourhood for 90 minutes of this bitch singing on the panel stand, very harmonious for a Good Friday. so yeah, dunno when I’ll attach it now. Means I should do new rubbers and change to a better screen, a real headlining at the same time too. $

did a bit more. i gave the patches i put in a bit of a tidy up and made the whole car red. i got some rattle cans matched and just used them. i fucked up a bit on the passengers side around the wheel arch and didn't cover the primer enough so now its showing after i gave it a polish. ill blaze some more paint on that bit and call it good. i started trying to polish the paint to see if it would come up ok. it didn't. its better i suppose but the paint is pretty fucked. anywho, ive only done one side. ill paint the whole car at some point but i was kind of hoping it would come up a bit better. 2019-04-21_12-54-05 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-04-21_12-54-20 by sheepers, on Flickr

Puller should do it or put the nut back on a couple turns and pull on the wheel

Awesome! Since you have a CNC there you could totally put an o-ring groove on one of those mating faces and use rubber cord rather than a regular gasket.. Would be hardly noticeable once assembled and would be an easy foolproof way of ensuring no leaks and easy assembly/disassembly.

Installed the carbs today. She's really coming together. Not to much to do now Purchase and install M-Unit + finish wiring. Fabricate a number plate bracket and rear indicator mounts. Install tachometer blanking plug. Maybe purchase new tires (I'm wanting something dual sport). Fill with oil, set points and timing and start her up!

Got the drivers seat in and sitting nice and snug. The steering wheel is about 40mm higher than factory with my steering setup etc, but I am a maxi frame size so the more legroom the better, and where the seat is placed is super comfy for me, with all the controls nicely to hand and heaps of legroom. Unfortunately this meant a wee bit of a hole. Firstly I welded in a brace to replace the bit of probably important body mount stuff that I had to clearance. There is a whole lot of weld through primer on the back of that. Then I fashioned another bit of sheet metal to fill the gap. There is a bit more welding to do on the inside by the engine but I will do this when the cab is off next. The same deal also has to happen with the removable cover, that will be tomorrows job. Unfortunately the steering pump could do with being still a bit lower to clear everything, plus the seat belt mount frame thing that holds the socket and sits behind the cover will need a bit of loving too. I looked at the passenger side seat as well, this will need a bit of clearancing but all on the engine cover, not the body. That's next on the list probly.

Build of the lifting jack structure Original outer sill panel where the lifting jack pipe was Inside the sill are the remnants of the jack bits Made a forming die to recreate the indented outer shape, test looked good on scrap piece so went ahead Simple as sandwich the panel and tighten the bolt Looks not too bad! Closer examination. The extra metal around the bolt hole gets trimmed out to match original. The lower pop out section (to left) is welded on and then cut off. Wrong position darn it ;( Straight on view after trimming Moving on to recreate the inner vertical stiffening brackets. Takes a bit of imagination since only about half of the originals remained Bits getting ready for weld Checking bits out for fit Sand blasted the original pipe free of rust Now really ready for weld Welded and checking results for fit against inner sill Coated with POR 15 for future rust protection. Turns out this coating can catch fire real easy and sustain flames. Next are the three outer sill segments to be welded together. I've kept a lot of extra flange widths, top and bottom, to resist warping. These flanges gets trimmed back to about 1/2 inch. Discussion: https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/60267-marts-pl310-61-datsun-bluebird-sedan/

Did you ever see the engine run SOHC? A bit of info on this engine. It’s a 1930 JAP JTOR long stroke racing model of 1000cc. They were used in racing 3 wheel Morgan’s and Brough Superior motorcycles. These v twins are very rare these days and are worth a large amount of money. Lucky a place in the UK has reproduced some accurate castings for anyone mad enough to try make their own. I will be changing a few things with this one to try and get a bit more capacity and power out of it. Made a start on machining the drive side crankcase half. Bearing boss faced off to become the first reference surface Flipped over, mating surface faced and holes drilled. Now clamped down with spacer blocks to machine inner surface and bearing bore Inner features finished Next up timing side

I've done and did it again. Sight unseen, I didn't expect no one else to bid. You know the story..... Its a 62, fully retrimmed interior, and a half decent paint job. Big pile of receipts, it's had a lot of money spent on it. Unfortunately it's got dead Rego, fell off the system 10 or so years ago and has been passed around a few owners since then, mainly sitting in their sheds till they give up. Not with me though! Main issue is that the chassis rails are shot. Usual Morris minor rust. Someone has attempted to make new ones in short sections and made an effort to weld. I wouldn't pass it, so neither will the inspector. So I have just spent roughly the purchase price in new quality UK panels. Rhs needs the full length done as they have tried to do the whole thing (£££ in postage )LHS there's enough of the original left in good order that I can get away with a half panel. Some wobblyness and rust in the RHS engine bay tie plate, so got another of those as they are cheap enough. Possibly it's had a prang on that side at some point too. Have a stack of paperwork stating various rust repairs done about 20 years ago in Nelson, so il have to check those out too. Plus a couple of half pie attempts at small patches from the last owner as well. Nothing major, she's not a mitsi. Other main issue is there's no engine, box, or driveshaft. I have a 1100 with the head off and a smooth case box (possibly the one in the paperwork that's had about 2k spent on an extensive rebuild only a couple thousand km ago) and a 1275 marina engine and ribbed box, which I'm told runs. Car however should have a 950. I'm leaning towards another 950 and see how bad the gearbox I have is. If I needed to cert it id want to modify a bunch of stuff to make it worth it. Have a supercharger here, or maybe just out the body on a Suzuki 4x4. Maybe next one. Otherwise just the usual Morris problems. Brakes are all in bits, tyres although very low km are now dry rotted. For some reason there's indicators on the front but has never been any on the rear. Looks like the suspension bushes are missing (it's also on lowering blocks and sitting on its bump stops). Hoping for an over winter refresh.....

I got this off Zac a few years ago, it's been sitting in storage but I'm getting the bits together so I can assemble it then it'll get sold. I bought some 0.5mm oversize NA (9:1) pistons and bearings from Rockauto. The block was bored by North Canterbury Engine Reconditioners to suit the pistons, he also decked the block and polished the crank for me. I'm converting an Evo 3 head to use the cam and crank trigger setups that some of the other 4G63s ran, I bought new sensors also from Rockauto. I've welded up the injector holes on an Evo 4 inlet manifold so I can use it with the Evo 3 head and have the throttle body facing the correct way. Still need to get lots of other bits, oil pump, sump, turbo and manifold, flywheel and clutch etc etc.

can do it for sure. @Ashkellybarr Just not Plastic... at least anodized there are plenty of non speed flow style out there

I doubt this gland would be rated for fuel

Yup just screw wheel back on and wiggle it from side to side as he pulls.

this stops is clocking you in the face when it lets go & yeah try that "and or" wail on it like getting an axle out (if you hate the old wheel) or hit it softly if you do like it a little

pulled the mirrors apart because they were fucked. the bolt/pin that holds the top part to the base was rusted through and they fell off when i started trying to move them. i got the broken rusty bolt out and ill replace it with a new one. i need to make some conical washers but that shouldn't be to hard. i do need to replace the springs. they are pretty impressive springs when you consider they are just to hold tension on the top swivel bit. square wire (might have been round once but look like they were square to me) reducing helix wound springs. if you know of something like this i can buy new hit me up, otherwise ill find something that will work in its place. 2019-04-23_07-52-46 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-04-23_07-52-38 by sheepers, on Flickr

Fuck this is looking so good. So close! Please-never ever paint it.

After ordering some more frost plugs last night I found the ones I thought I had today. Have been working on sorting out the rest of the engine parts I'm missing and also the balance shaft removal bits. I'll probably take the head to work tomorrow and drill and tap the holes for the cam angle sensor. Z is now in storage so will bring the Starion home maybe next weekend. I haven't really said much about the car but most of it is in Zac's thread. It's got S13 front suspension and coilovers, I'm not sure if it's got calipers and rotors on the front but I've got some R33 GTS25t stuff if it doesn't, it's got coilovers in the back. It has a hybrid Nissan and Mitsi front crossmember than needs to be finished (for converting to a rack), I will probably end up changing to a Nissan steering column I think. The wheels and tyres are new and haven't been driven on. Being an '86 it's 5 stud and I believe it has a bigger diff than the earlier cars. The paint was done a few years ago but the car hasn't been driven since it was done. I'm going to try and track down a smaller TD06 (like a 17C) for it, either buy or make an exhaust manifold. I've got a later Evo ECU which can be tuned (sort of like a Nistune) which I may or may not run. ~300rwhp should be pretty achievable and hopefully not break the gearbox.

Not sure why you're telling us to calm down when called out on a dick move, but ok you do you.

Just buy this and be done

Cheery Jonny - glad someone thinks it’s cool apart from me haha. Ive tried to keep it honest as I can but a bit of a NA sleeper too. Hotwire regret...perhaps Im just loving the steelies at the moment. I ventured past another speed bump in my street today and no scrapage. I’m looking forward to the slightly higher profile tyres soon to allow me another cm of clearance. Might be taking it to hamptons next weekend if the weather is fine as it’s the caffeine and classics track day. Get some seat time in it and maybe, just maybe get it in 5th for the first time

Tentative list of work Replace RH chassis leg Replace LH chassis leg front half Replace RH tie plate Rust RH Sill Rust battery tray Poor patching boot floor rust Crack in engine mount tower New hard brake lines front Replace suspension bushes Fit brake light Install rear indicators Buy driveshaft Assemble front brakes Engine and gearbox Install heater and under bonnet stuff accessories

The top of your head is correct. I gorilla'd them, relatively speaking That was my next plan if I've fucked the gasket. That or buy a cork tile and cut one out. /old skool.

Looks like someone tried to re register my new Morrie in 2016 It failed. I imagine due to rust and possibly wrong engine. Will it now be flagged for rust and il need a repair cert? I'm going to get replacement chassis horns and seemlessly replace the whole lot

Slow work on the headers but are coming along.

They arent too bad. I think 400 including underlay and boot carpet. Usual autodec story they fit pretty good but not perfect. Take ya old ones in so they can make sure same

Hi I managed to find a full engine gasket set from the us so I've ordered one of them which will turn up next month.. Have been cracking on with putting the interior back together I'm needing a few trim clips/door card clips I guess they look like P shaped? Also the plastic circles that slot into the inner door skins so will see if can purchase some new ones. Cheers

well thats the fan,oil cooler and front suppprt panel done. Had to cut more oit of the front.(fuck all between the lights now) Added some strengthening to the panel Even just tacked in the front feels stronger and still more to go. Its a bit tight behind it but i can still get the gan and oil cooler in and out fine. Can still get ghe grill on and a 70mm rad in and still have all the engine bay left.

This thing is still going, done 250km on it since doing wiring and stuff- everything still works! Nearly sold it- wife didn't want me to because i love riding it so much but I wanted the money for beetle etc etc. Glad i didnt!!!

Compliance and WOF today. Dealer plated FTW spat some fluid on the way down - shite rad cap. Swapped it out as I had 2 with me in case haha. Gagging for a tune.

Old rego system is full of errors, just go to the post office or NZTA and have the rego changed from sedan to wagon. Then only the most barry of wof inspectors would ever pick up on it. The car is older than most wof inspectors. There are heaps of Starlet hatchbacks registered as sedans and even vans.

And then the repaired dogleg and base was welded back on. Still not happy with the quality results. Some tweaking of the lower outside body line is needed, finish welding and small holes to fill. First early trial fit checks, outside and inside views: Then flange adjustments, to fit more flush with the not so perfect outer sill panels I had made, and weld. I also decided to add a splice plate behind the butt weld. Then I find my end cap plate is now just a bit too wide. It can be adjusted and cap welding will wait for last anyway to close out the sill box. Got some more work to do on this

A few more pics of the inner sill. Construction the inner sill was simple. Carve it out and run it through a bead roller to make the step that the floor pan flange nests into. Except, in this case I had to do it twice because I made the mistake of using 20 gage instead of 18 gage. Second one turned out better anyway when making the bead rolled step. Welding action on the inner sill. Screen captures from my videos. Starting at the aft end and working forward. First attach to new side-of-seat floor pan.

Kind of cool, I took the passenger seat out and found there is a genuine original tool kit strapped under the seat, you can't see it unless your passenger has feet eyes. It looks like it has never been taken off or opened in 47 years, based on the condition of the metal under it and the contents. Each one is embossed with (HM) which I guess must be Honda Motors?

Engine bay: Less engine and less bay: Glass out, the frame is remarkably rust free. Except for the one spot which was where the water drain would have been: Previous owners idea of "rust repairs": Almost ready to pull the engine out, just the rear engine mount and a couple more bolts on one of the driveshafts. The manual says to remove the engine out the bottom attached to the subframe and hubs etc as one unit, but I needed to cut the front panel anyway plus I want to keep it rolling. Will be welding it back in or making some brackets depending on how the bike engine sits in there. The lower panel will definitely need to move for clearance I think.

Time to get this out of the little garage at the bottom of the property, the house is built into a hill so the back section is multiple levels. There is a 'grass driveway' to get up, I thought it would be fine since it hasn't rained for a while. Nope. 27hp grass skids and the best I could get to was 3/4" of the way up, it doesn't look steep but it is: Oh and it started fine after sitting for ages. Look at it, majestic: It got dark so I gave up and got the Safari lined up to winch it up. Top of the hill with winch rope leading down to it: My view watching it drive itself up the hill: Let it idle outside, not sure why...the engine is coming out anyway. My boy wanted to know how to write my name with his chalk, but only the last 3 letters. Cool. In the garage with the other car I should really be working on.

Removal of more rusted metal from the 61 Datsun Bluebird left hand side outer and inner sill, 'B' pillar, 'C' pillar and side of seat pan. A huge hole in the car structure is the end result. This gets very ugly and you may want to look away if at all squeamish. No need to panic! Almost of this is going to be replaced with new steel, but it is a very slow step-by-step process to make these parts from scratch. There is nothing here you can just go to your computer and order or even find in good condition in an auto wrecking yard. It is a heck of a learning process that will be applied to the so far untouched right side of the car. I get started by using electric metal shears, slicing and splaying open the outer sill for internal rust inspection and to understand what details are inside with respect to the side of body lifting point. I had hoped at least the upper sill and inner would be salvageable so I cut a relatively clean line against a tape edge at the body line. The outer sill immediately swung open at the lower pinch weld and then just falls off. Notice the slightly bumped out area below the body lift penetration point. This will be duplicated in the new steel panels later even though I may never use the factory lift jack tool. I do still have the jack but it is worn, unstable and deemed unworthy for safe use. It would either lose grip internally and slide downward suddenly, or the small base plate could kick out at the ground and punch the upper shaft end against the door and make a big dent. Maybe the old lift jack can be repaired and improved or maybe not. Sheet metal form detail of outer sill lift jacking point Eventually, the rusty inner sill is to be separated at the left next to the new 16g steel from the previous 'A' pillar repair and new metal lapped in at the back side of the gusset shown. If you look closely, you see the fuel line and wire to the electric pump. That line is soon removed to avoid a fire hazard. Moving further aft, we see the reinforcing structure around the lift pipe, or what remains of it anyhow. And behind that what I call the joggled gusset. This upper gusset, the near one with the three ribs, is heavy gage steel and salvageable. I thought incorrectly, that to remove the upper part of the sill, that the upper gusset would have to be separated first from the pipe. Actually the top of the pipe is not welded to the upper gusset at the notched contact point. Only the side brackets are welded to the pipe and they are weak enough to just pull apart from the pipe. I could have just lifted the upper sill right off once the regular pinch welds were drilled out. The salvaged lift pipe gusset plate. I ended up with a lot of holes from spot weld drill outs that will be used for plug welding later on. This is the joggled gusset plate that is on the opposite side of the inner sill with respect to the body mount bracket on the other side. This gusset is deemed too badly cratered and rotted and will be reproduced. I cut it out before removing the inner sill by cutting around the perimeter after a futile attempt to search out and drill out all the spot welds. Things aren't looking to good above at the base of the 'B' pillar. Lots of otherwise hidden rust damage. I'm going to cut 'B' pillar base off and repair. The damage and repairs needed to the now cut off 'B' pillar is shown in the light. I subject the 'B' pillar to an electrolysis bath to remove bulk rust and identify the salvageable sections. A lot of it is still good and will be cleaned up and reused. Portions near the pinch weld are bad and the flat horizontal section deep inside is shot. Outward facing sections are perfectly good. Jumping ahead here a little bit since I did not have a good pic of the freshly removed gusset plate. As you can see, it was total destruction to remove it. A real light show with all the flying sparks! Shown above is the newly made replacement. The joggle or step was made under force from a hydraulic press and an opposing stack of offset steel bars. The aft end inside the sill is heavily cratered and holed. Thus I go to the extreme of cutting off the 'C' pillar, aka dog leg, for complete repair as the hidden damage inside is total rust out which will otherwise just continue. Where there would be an end of sill block off plate in the far back is really just rust powder stuck to the asphalt undercoat. At the lower pinch weld, the flange of the outer sill moves upward leaving just the inner sill plate poking down about a half inch. Why? Just looks a bit odd. Probably to match and fit the slight difference in contours at the 'C' pillar. The now cut-off dog leg ('C' pillar base). About 60 percent or more is perforated or too thin to reuse. This part proves difficult to reproduce. It is still not quite right after patching it up section-by-section off the car. I tried, and will tweak it a bit more now that it is welded back on the car. I might do it differently when I go to work on the right side of the car now that I know which areas should be cut out. The now fully exposed inner sill plate. This was a bit of fun. Before drilling the spot welds and removal, I cover all the step contours with blue machinist paint and scribe on the metal the intersection points to permit accurate measurement of the sill. The inner sill steps out about a tenth of an inch where the flange of the floor is butted against it for nested fit. In addition to recording measurements prior to removal of the inner sill, I make a paper overlay as a secondary backup to sometimes flawed note taking. I've also made a full size drawing on mylar as yet a third method to help reproduce the part. Key measurements at the 'B' pillar overlap (O.L) and inner sill. It's starting to look pretty messy and getting worse soon. Inner sill is drilled of the spot weld connections to the floor flanges and removed. The underfloor brackets are cut off at their flanges because these brackets are severely beat up from impact damages. The bracket for the body mount is planned for reuse, if it is good, so the flanges are left intact. Not reusable! As final act, the side of rear seat floor pan is cut out. Is there a name for this thing? This proves to be a relatively easy and fun part to reproduce because of the straight bends and box shape. Just a little challenging to butt weld into the side of the seat pan later on. A rust hole big enough for a mouse to climb through. And they did, sometime stockpiling grass seed and such here and there. And now the huge ugly hole in the car! A preview of making new parts and closing this chasm up. Making left and right hand parts where possible. I'll probably focus on the inner sill next post. More later.

The left side Bluebird rust damage survey. Right side is about the same except much less damage to the front fender and more damage to the 'A' pillar or post. Starting with the left front fender and working back to the rear dog leg and side of rear seat floor. And a then preview of the right side.

More Bluebird history. I love driving up into the mountains. Then, now and always. One of my favorite Bluebird mountain pass crossings back in June 1976, westbound on beautiful highway 20 through the Washington North Cascades. For the 48 hp Bluebird on the steeper grades, this was nearly always a maximum power event, pedal to the floor and changing down to second gear very early.

Funny you should post that up Joe...I was just reading about it this morning. What a little weapon.. http://www.imps4ever.info/specials/v8/feck.html

Right got a 5 speed. .. out of a nissan z31 3ltwin turbo. Auto bell housing fitted with a custom plate and now test fitting time. Well it's close nothing a little grinding won't fix... yes I'm trying to keep the rover floor as stock as possible