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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

61 Datsun Bluebird PL310 De-Rustification Project. Build: https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/60264-marts-pl310-61-datsun-bluebird-sedan/ A brief history of the Bluebird. It has a tortured past, mostly before I owned it. Yet it still runs but with a rather rusty floor and sills. Based on the evidence provided by the body damages, towing bills, and other repair bills that were obtained when my sister bought the car in Seattle, in late summer 1974, here is what I surmise happened along the way to present time. Early time period. Prior owners are suspect 60's era hippies that drove the car off road through the rain forest along the Washington state coast as evidenced by various underbody impacts against the floor braces and sills. You know, low speed dents from small stumps, rocks, etc. From the late 60’s to early 70’s? The car was T-boned on the right front door and fender as evidenced by new replacement panels and still damaged “A” pillar. 1973. Records supplied with the car showed a complete overhaul of the transmission due to popping out of high gear complaints. A worn 2- 3 shift fork and other items were to blame. Later that same year, the car was rolled onto its top and yet was still driven after rescue from the tow yard and only replacement of the windshield. 1974. My sister wanted a cheap car to get from Seattle to Los Angeles and bought the Bluebird in spite of its now beat up state and damage history. Before embarking on the trip to LA, I volunteered to help smooth over at least a dozen or more small dents with hammer, dolly and filler. I couldn’t do much for the roof then but it was not too bad overall. The front inner and lower fender structure and skin had already begun to make a significant rust hole that was then covered over with fiberglass. I also replaced a slipping clutch disk. Off she and Bluebird went to LA. 1975. I bought the Bluebird and drove it from LA to Seattle. No problems. 1975 to 1979. I used the Bluebird for mainly cross Washington state trips over the mountain passes. I bought a parts car, an ivory white 62 PL311, 60 hp model, from the wrecking yard to supply spares as even then it was getting difficult to source parts. Almost all of the spares car is long gone now. In early 1979, I drove the Bluebird to LA and back with no problems. 1979, summer. I bought a 71 Datsun 510 2-door replacement car. I kept the Bluebird as a second car. 1979 to 1985. Storage and neglect. I was working out of state for 18 months. The Bluebird began to deteriorate in outdoor storage and only rare driving. 1986. Took the Bluebird out of storage and began some work to “tune up” the roof. The previous repairs from 10 years ago had begun to blister and peel under the cover of a plastic weave tarp due to rain and sun. So I took the front and back glass out and cleaned the roof panel completely back to bare metal and worked it a lot smoother. At this time the rubber glass seals were ruined from rot and could not be reinstalled. This led to little movement of the car thereafter. 1987 to 2004. Bluebird is stored in my garage and only rare maintenance work is done to keep the brake slave cylinders from rusting solid. The fuel pump diaphragm goes bad and floods the engine crankcase with gasoline. Had to convert to a cheap electric pump to keep it moveable. The floor and sill rust progressed even when in dry storage. It is insidious rust that begins on the inside of the sills and under the vinyl floor covers. Above the floor the car has remained very rust free. Even in dry storage, rust does not stop in those places that became damp in the beginning from trapped moisture. More on that topic later! 2016 to 2017. Finally finished the redo of the roof and painted it with ivory white by having the spare and installed 62 PL311 car door jamb scanned. Going for the two tone look eventually. 2018 to 2019. Having removed the doors, interior, hood and trunk lids for the long delayed roof painting in 2017, the long hidden floor rust was now visible and really bad. The sills were also deemed so rust perforated and weakened that I would not consider removing the rotted floor until the sills are reproduced and welded in. And the remaining original left side fender was rotted out along with the bottom of the ‘A’ pillar. That all had to be fixed first and is now done but I could still use a right side ‘A’ pillar or else make it from scratch. Then the rear dog leg or ‘C’ pillar and adjacent side of rear seat floor rot out had to be made structurally sound so the new sill could be welded to solid metal. More all new metal fabrication fun. Anyway it goes on and on bit by bit. Maybe I can still salvage the top of the trans tunnel part of the floor but that’s about it, everything else related to the floor has to be cut out and tossed. No parts are available and all has to be fabricated from sheet stock. It is going to take a while. A few hours during the work week and same on the weekends are all that I can do. It may still be a few years before completion. One odd discovery. A previous owner had stuffed copious newspapers between the floor and underneath the vinyl floor covering. The barely legible dates read February 1967. Why would anyone do that on a then six year old car? I guess the newspapers made for a good sponge to hold water and keep the floor nice and moist to really speed up the rust process!

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.

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.

I got a little out of sequence. I should back up a little and show the making of the three outer sill segments that began about six months ago. Three segments because the metal folder tool only can do a 20 inch length maximum whereas I need about 54 inches total length. I also need to make offset bends. So there are a lot of challenges to make the sill. Makes it all the more interesting to have a go at it. Anyway, I have run into difficulties in duplicating the exact profile but it's good enough for usable parts on the left side. Maybe the technique can be improved upon for the right side. On the righthand side of the car I carefully measured and made a card template of the least rust damaged profile. Then began experimenting with and adjusting the seven bend line locations to figure out a way to make a sill. This is unlike a usual and simple sill that just wraps under the door more or less. The Bluebird has several visible body lines and a concave shape in-between. Plus there is the side of sill penetration for the jack lifting structure shown previously. This Bluebird outer sill is made of 20g sheet. Layout of bend lines The prototype profile Fits like a glove on sanitized right hand side Cut out six 18 inch long panels of 20g for left and right (D for driver's side or left, P for passenger side or right). Bend lines are marked more sharply by scribe marks so I can get good alignment when it comes to joining the segments together. B1 and B3 bends are offset bends and very close. This proves to be a problem Made the offset 3/4 inch bends for all panels (B1 and B2). Not perfectly uniform but close enough So far so good! As mentioned above, now I start having a problem at bend 3. This needed to be a tight offset bend from B1 at just over 1/2 width. The folder will only do 5/8 minimum (yet it was advertised as capable of 1/2 inch offset). Not good. I have to start compensating by moving the other bend lines to keep the visible body lines on target. The plan is to adjust the pillar bottoms to fit the adjusted sill profile, at least on the left side. I'd like a better plan for right side to get the true profile so I can leave the pillars unaltered. I'm considering having the folder plate milled down to get a true 1/2 inch offset bend, but that still leaves me with three separate segments to weld together. Either that or start over and make the whole thing as one hand formed piece by hammer forming each bend over a solid 90 degree edge of some sort. That might be wishful thinking. My crude setup for making the concave curvature between bends 3 and 4 Sandwich the sheet between plastic pipe, angle iron and squash it Checked out the fit of a couple of segments relative to the doors and the lower edge. Checked out as good. Three completed sill left side segments lined up on the rollaway workbench. Decent alignment of three segments. Looks like I can make it work when it comes time to join them End profile view of three outer sill segments all in line, just for kicks Discussion: https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/60267-marts-pl310-61-datsun-bluebird-sedan/

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. $

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/

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

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.....

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.

Slow work on the headers but are coming along.

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

So got a bit distracted with local rotary travel and a rotary storage workshop. First things first, I priced up materials for re-upholstery and bought some tools and foam before realising nobody would just do a stitch job basically wanted all or nothing. So we went to Stephen's old mate who offered a completely mind-boggling irresistible cash price job, so took him up on that offer. He even had the exact fabric. Got the rears back already and they needed completely re-doing due to the heat damage cracking the top piece and subsequently shrinking the fabric elsewhere. So meanwhile we've been busy fiddling around stripping it out completely of wiring, brake lines, and most of the underseal except that one spot over the tunnel that you leave until last and when last comes you go 'why on earth did I leave the worst bit til last' so you just never ever touch it again... someone want a job?? Mostly it's in great condition, although once we finally ground off the welds holding the guards to the body (first WTF moment) we found the RHS front had significant damage as bad as to completely crumple the crush tube and crease the engine bay. The damage is a bit of a financial set-back and obviously means a bigger job for compliance, so it did then require blasting and prep to be repaired. Bonus find this time round, a charming ring down in the door panel over the lock. As things go, I had it set up and masked off to blast myself, and then the compressor died. So after looking around I found C.A. Levien in Henderson to give the underneath, inner guards, engine bay, windscreen channels, and rear quarter rust patches a blast. Yes, everything except the great patina and heinous tagging. (my least favourite side, with BB gun dents and what appears to be acid damage). Even the sandblasters they thought it was hilarious to save the patina, but they made such a huge improvement on the car it actually looks purposeful now. Highly recommended, they even stored it away in it's own shed. The rear quarters were only 5% worse than expected, the underneath is absolutely fantastic, and the weird panel under rear windscreen that was mysteriously primer is happily not bog and is solid steel. Kyle was kind enough to take and send me some pictures of the process too: So after a year of ownership it was transported off again on Monday to it's new temporary home. Thankfully we found an old school repairer who will be able to save it without us finding a new front cut. From what I understand, he will cut from firewall and slowly pull the front back into original shape, beating out the creases. While it's there I may gain the fucks needed to finish off the underseal and chuck some durepox over it but probably won't. He'll also be teaching me a mix of painting and airbrushing to get the touched quarters back to their patina best. And I'll pull apart the twin dizzy to see what the options are. That's all for now folks.

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!!!

So have managed to progress with this some more! Got it all back from painter Doors all on lined up not perfect but will wait till front guards are on Fitted all new door rubbers and window guides Got the motor In Swapped over the end T piece of the steering collumn to the shorter power steering one from a ms110 And fitted it back in car Found out the auto and manual pedal boxes are the same manual just has a mount for pedal so I just removed the clutch pedal and refitted as this will be auto. Painted the brake booster and fitted the new Nissan pajero brake master. That's all for now! Exciting times

Update for those interested Repair Cert PASS Compliance and WOF all PASSED apart from the below 2 points - tighten hand brake cable - fix slight leak in return line to gas tank brass fitting Cert Clint did the cert on Friday and I’ve attached the list. I just need to work through that list and take it back for the brake road test. I also need the old old owner from USA to email that he sold me the car - I keep in touch so that won’t be an issue. Now to work through the list and get this sled legal. Am I happy? Yes, the answer is YES!

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.

Since 'finishing' it in Janurary, Ive put close to 1000 trouble free km on it. Theres a few things I need to sort (raise foot pegs and replace the brake pedal as its rubbed through from dragging while cornering) but overall Im pretty happy with it. Its turned out pretty much the way I envisioned it. However, I have a couple of plans for changes to be made. Id like to sort the carb issues with its original motor and get that back in, A few asthetic refinements and as I get more confident with welding maybe some wilder bars... But theres a couple of other projects under way in the shed so stay tuned

So after getting rolled by the 5.0 on the Chaly, that got its innards stripped to finish another bike. @Raizer found this in a garden in Gisborne, and pulled it from its slumber. It had been sitting under a tarp in the long grass for a while developing a killer patina while actually staying fairly complete with all OG parts, I collected it off him and dragged it home in a 12+ hour round trip from Auckland. The 'GardenCub' Its pretty sweet, fairly ratty and suprisingly solid. The externally rusty wheels were found to be immaculate internally after removing the super cracked tyres. It even had the original, matching patina legsheild. The engine was seized, the carb had an ant nest inside it and the seat base disappeared aftter the strands of foam holding the corroded base together cried enough in the trailer and scattered rust flakes all through the gorge. Id been wanting a Cub since, well, probably seeing QCR on the news / in NZPC and pined over the Peaks Mopeds type style of OG paint, maximum slam and chopped up standard bars. This had been in the corner of the shed, and over time I progressively stripped it down, washed all the gunk out of its crevices, renewed wheel bearings, freed up seized pivots on the brakes, ordered replacement cables, brake shoes, pestered @MopedNZ to find me the style tyres I wanted (He had to get his work to open an account with a supplier just for me <3), put feelers out for a few parts my bike was missing -taillight etc ( hoarded all the old stock parts people were removing to customize there cubs} all while trying to preserve as much of the patina on any externally visible surfaces as possible. I stripped and rebuilt the original engine with a new top end, all gaskets/seals, reconditioned cylinder head and got it running but had a terrible time with the carb so it sat in the corner of the shed while I was caught up with a few other things, Then the chaly got decommissioned so the motor got pulled and Chaly motor swapped into this along with a trailtech, and rewired from scratch. In my pile of other peoples discarded parts I had a spare stock ehaust, so the front of that got chopped off, muffler hollowed and a new header made from misc larger diameter stainless bends to suit the new engine. Handle bars were a spare I acquired to use as a trial for my first attempt at fab work / welding before I committed to butchering the original bars. They've been narrowed about 100mm over stock to get rid of the indicators, aswell as being pulled back and down to match the angles of the legsheild. I also remade the bar cover to follow the lines of the bars while still trying to keep them fairly factory looking in the way they tuck into the switches. I reused the original grips, slide throttle asm, speedo and switch assemblies. They're not as narrow as Id like them to be, but they're the same width as the rear rack, and have super comfortable angles. Fairly happy with them as a first attempt considering at the time I wasnt quite confident enough to go butchering and re making the handlebar mounting points. Bag and spine rack were an ebay special -rate these for chucking drinks/junk in, Legsheilds a repro thats been aged to match the bike as I couldnt bring myself to cut the OG one to fit the carb off the chaly motor, Deluxe fork cover and legsheild clamp are OG stuff pulled from my pile of parts Ive added to add to the OEM+ spec asthetic I was going for. @MopedNZ was kind enough to bring me back a set of Draft Kustom Shop Lowdown links from his previous trip to Thailand in 2018. These are sweet and give a 30mm drop over stock, but that wasn't enough for the look I was wanting so when installing them, along with fresh bushes, They also got the QCR mod done to prevent lift under braking and a couple of other custom touches to chop closer to 60mm out of the ride height to get the guard destroying ride height I was after. resulting in the front guard and fork cover being clearanced nicely by the radial tread pattern of the tyre. PERFECT. The rear got bought down to match via shortening of the factory springs/shocks. Still retains a very little bit of suspension travel which is nice.

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.

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.

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.