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And we have colour...,

Made some subframe connectors out of some 75x40x3 rhs and glued them in

Repairs to the left front fender. Starting with this gaping hole in the lower panel. New outer skin. My first real use of MIG except very minor tack repairs to other stuff or the years. It didn't weld too well next to very thin metal. I had to weld at the coldest setting and do backside as well. Inner Welded up the antenna hole. No use for that anymore. Kept burning holes in the metal again until using some flattened copper pipe to back up the weld. Inner aft structure. Here it is compared to the other good fender. A somewhat complicated shape. The lower 5 inches or so have to be cut off. Repair iteration one. No good, try again... Second try, again no good Third try. It might do but will wait for weld to the fender after it can be fit checked in combination against a repaired 'A' post, sill, and with the door installed. Notice I've removed the remainder of the upper structure to get all the rust removed and work the numerous dents in the fender skin flush. What's not shown here is the random bouncing back and forth between various other small repair work when one area gets a bit challenging. On to the front of the fender... This got a lot worse as you can see once I wire wheeled it. A little patch panel beating work with a wooden form block and lots of hammering. Checking the fit and marking the cut line. Okay for first iteration. Welded in Then proceeded to fabricate a complete new forward inner fender structure These new floating nut plates aren't going anywhere. No tearing out of the single attach tab on the original design. Not that great of a view. It shows where the back of the inner fender structure attaches to the body shell. Then I stripped the paint, asphalt undercoating, body filler, residual rust, etc down to shiny steel inside and out. Plugged a few pin holes with weld. It will still need some panel beating and straightening later on. And of course reattachment of the aft inner structure. Finished with this fender for now. Next posting will be the left hand side 'A' pillar repair.

Repairs to the 61 Datsun Bluebird left hand side 'A' pillar (or post) The starting situation. More than a little rusty. Several portions are completely gone. I started by making reference measurements Cutting the remainder of the forward sill stub off Reinforcement was added before cutting the inner sill plate out. Making a paper template for an inner sill patch Cut it out Sizing up some 16g steel sheet Finally the patch, gusset plate and body mount bracket (on inboard side) is welded. Had to do it twice as it was placed crooked the first time. Still learning how to weld with the MIG. I should have turned up the heat for these welds against the 16g, still a bit cold with too much build up. The rest of the inner sill going aft will get cut and replaced later. Inboard side Did some sketching and cut out some flat bits to make the rest of the pillar They may not match perfect, since some of these cover undefined areas, but they are better than empty air space! Beginning of the outer sill forward stub Forward sill stub inside Initial fit checks, and adjust and fit and repeat Added the floating nutplates A view of an original style retainer for the square nut. Bent over 180 to get a wrench on the nut after torching a hole in the inner panel. Notice only one tab is welded to the metal. From the right hand side pillar that is toast. The area is phosphoric acid etched and prepped for weld and protective paint where it can't be reached later Another viewpoint Beginning to weld it. Finally I'm getting the plug welds hot enough to penetrate well and lay flat. The reproduced upper bits. Didn't like the pie cuts but it worked Same as above, flipped over This metal work was getting tedious. For a diversion, I located a Nissan rubber grommet to replace the rotted rubber on left. This is the typical state of the rubber parts all over after nearly 60 years. Okay, back to the business of welding the parts onto the Bluebird... Prepping more of the soon to be hidden innards Get it welded! It's taking shape Getting there Now to just grind and sand the welds flush It looks not too bad. Solid metal again! The rest of the outer sill will be reconnected at the stub joint much later. Next posting will be removal of multiple parts, including; outer sill, 'B' pillar bottom, 'C' pillar (or dog leg) and remainder of inner sill.

Took my mate for a spin just then and the exhaust flange ripped off a catseye on the road hahaha. Thats low Looks like the exhaust needs lifting up a tad innit FML

Thank you, had tried that, but the aluminum was wicking away the heat to fast and I was trying to be cautious, so this time I got it smoking at 90c and that was just enough to get it out. Many thanks!

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.

So some of you are really into programmable ignition and electronic sensors. I tried to make my own electronic ignition. After 3 seconds one of the MOSFETS running a coil shorted out. After 7 seconds all of them had. Each mosfet was rated at 20 amps. But considering they were dealing with the primary and ... lets face it. some of the secondary output (These old timers are like that) i don't think they were up to the million volt task. At least 2 hall effect sensors survived. Barely.

I just couldn't help myself but take this photo... Having fun stripping remaining bits from the other two Imps, cleaning and painting bits and generally playing about with what is a big model car. Proper update soon.

Haven’t done much over summer, but I have just about finished the mounts. I’ve had to give the engine a small tilt away from the steering box, I’m hoping any torque twist will be under 10mm, that’s about all the gap I’ve got. I’m getting the driveshaft lengthened by 110mm next week, it looks like the A series auto has the same yoke as the W55.

Doors taken apart with skins removed and hinge plates. Frames off to the dippers.

Gave the magneto and cdi pickup a good clean and threw it back on. Checked for spark and it was strong. Win! Today I collected a POS RX125 parts bike that had a DT100 engine. I took the gamble that the engine would be the same as it had a fresh oversized piston and machined barrel. Turns out there’s quite a few subtle differences, but it’s mostly the same. The barrel has the same casting numbers and looks identical. Got it home and started ripping bits off it. fitted the barrel to the MX100 Chucked on the FS1 tank as it still has some premix from the East Cape mission. It looks quite good with this tank! Got it together enough for a test run. Success! It runs. That’s one win for the weekend .

I’m having REunion withdrawals therefore I wound up the front suspension to a good spot and took the 618 out for a street fang. The Racing Beat 51ida loves the engine set up and I’m gagging to take it on a longer drive.

@Raizer dropped me off a couple of gy6 motors from his hoard. I was wondering if the wheel would clear the case and it does which i'mm happy with Chucked the pile of parts roughly together

OK so I was thinking I was not far from painting the shell when I realised my repairs to the rear guard behind the drivers door had a slight bulge, maybe 5mm outwards in relation to the edge of the door shuts. A classic case of working up close and not standing back to look at the complete picture. It showed up worse when I sat the door in place. I thought I had taken a photo but alas no- trust me when I say it would have done my head in noting it each time I looked down the flank. This panel had been badly bashed in at some point we had popped it out. But obviously too far sadly I never realised until now. I tried beating it back in but no luck. It had been previously repaired by someone else and was full of lots of sharp dents. So this happened... Following that I did a super careful replacement of the steel, butt welded in, with very slow careful welding so not to warp anything. In pictures... It turned out great. I still needed a skim of filler to get it spot on but considering what it was like prior I'm happy with it now. It lines up really well with the door... I then gave this and most of the rest of the shell another coat in primer, smoothed it all back with 400. Oh yawn. Helps having beer and loud Reggae playing. Hannah just loved sanding... With the sanding done I then preceded to turn the workshop into something resembling a Smurf murder house. If there was a song to be played afterwards it would have been this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68ugkg9RePc We masked it all up and I painted the door jams, door backs, engine bay, interior, frunk, door bins etc. Next day, re- masked the shell and painted the rest. On the first days painting it was so hot at 34 degrees... The following day time I started as early as I could but it was still about 28. Luckily a very dry heat. Not fun in all the gear... I never really considered how far the blue mist would travel. It covered everything. Great fun. Now we have a blue floor which luckily is slowly going to wear off I think. I hope. After it was finished I shut the doors and let it bake in the oven that was the shed, drank a cold beer and went to the beach for a long swim. Here is a blue Imp. Its very similar to an original Imp colour I like so I went with this. Not sure of the name of the colour. Its very bright and changes from a mint blue to a aqua blue in different light. I'm so relieved to have finished the painting. It'll need a flat back to get rid of the orange peel and shine so it looks more like a original paint job. But I'm going to ignore that job until after the car is road legal. Enough body work and painting!!!! Its time to bring the other Imps inside and play musical chairs with all the various parts. Pick the nicest bits and reassemble one car from them all... It certainly is a fair bit better then when we first looked at this shell a year ago and I'm pretty stoked to be at this point in the restoration

Hid these wires too

Finished all the mods to the engine bay for the brake booster and the bolt in battery tray. Seam sealed and reprimed. Have done a few more small jobs such as sand blasting and painting the pedal box and battery tray. Just need to get some paint samples now.

Tell him to block off the BOV, then he can Phil Collins Su-Su-Sututututu around

Had a few minutes so visited the lockup and wifey helped me pull the seats out. The seat mounting brackets that are welded to the seat bases are weird. They look kinda factory but also super unprofessional-10mm thick flat bar, with extremely tight bolt/frame clearance. Does anyone know if this seat fabric is factory? And check out the before and after cleaning pics. They got a soapy scrub (brown water, yuck) and then an actual waterblast.. the vinyl has a very deep texture which was FULL of human filth.

It's got some form of loctite/sealer on it, warm it up to soften/melt the loctite then use your extractor again

Just tell him to stop wasting his time.

Pretty excited. Had the beetle running and let it do its own thing for a solid 30mins just sitting in the shop. No water trying to escape and make a mess in my shop, no oil leaks, nothing out of the ordinary and the oil cooler is good and the radiator is working well. Old mate matt said "all we need to do is get it starting when hot" and then it started up easy as normal start up. Fucken so happy! Such a good feeling.

My replacement subframe bushes arrived last week. I thought I should at least replace the wobbly front ones before I weld in any mounts for it. What a bitch of a job. The bush is bonded into a metal sleeve and that is pressed into the subframe. I drilled a bunch of holes through the rubber until I could get the center of the bush out, then I used the reciprocating saw to cut into the metal sleeve. After putting a couple of slits in it, removing the remains of the bush was easy. Despite being careful, the imprecise nature of the reciprocating saw meant I cut a bit deep in one place and made a groove in the subframe. But I was able to fix it up with the tig. Then I had to press the new bushes in. Hammer? Nope. G-clamp? Nope. Bit of exhaust pipe kinda the right diameter and using the vice? Sort of. I ended up having to make two alloy rings. One to fit around the top of the bush and press on a metal lip. The other as a spacer because the bottom of the bush protrudes about 10mm. And the vice, with a cheater bar. My poor vice. Oh, and to make the rings... I used a holesaw in the lathe, which took a million years because I had to back out to clear the teeth every 0.0000000001mm depth of cut. Then I asked the internet and found out about trepanning tools. So for the second ring, I made one of them out of the only HSS I had... 6mm square. It worked, but it was so thin it vibrated like motherfucker and cut millions of tiny needles.