NickJ

Making some thank you gifts for friends that looked after us on our recent trip overseas, reliefs of the mountains they call home. Carved out with the cnc to replicate contour lines on a map then run over with the gas torch to highlight the ridges.

I've had a three piece do the same, right pain, eventually had to split them, throughly clean the join and put back together (sealant between the pieces was a disaster, i'd not do that again unless someone else has a technique?) 100% what Highlux said is what worked for me on the 3rd attempt. Pretty sure we just used window sealant cos thats what we had. Reliably sticking anything to aluminium is nearly impossible, the steps required to passivate are not easy for at home jobs but having it proper clean is most of the way there, clean off any scale and depending on the sealant, light scuffing with scotchbrite may also help.

Motor looks pretty darn good, sounds even better! Congrats, just another weekend away from finished right?

This thread needs a decent pic of the car right? Really want to go get some sunrise/sunset pics, but that will need to wait til daylight savings pulls the sun back to more gentlemanly times, for now, a not so potato pic

Keen to hear how you find the extension, we've found it as useful as it is annoying, ground ideally needs to be flat, quite bulky to pack in the truck nicely but all this balances out in sandfly country!

All running and driving, or so I thought Had a the plugs occasionally foul on start up and the engine now and then would start running super rough, running through the options didn't find much until after one drive I could definitely smell fuel, queue a case of the o shits etc. Leak was from the forward carb overflow, popping the lid off the float chamber was evident Seems we have a slight case of the oceangates.... Brass float had cracks all the way around. When I brought the car I also received a pretty good spares package so picked out the best looking float and threw it in. WOF man then failed the inspection on a number of minor issues, brake balance wasn't up to his expectation, small exhaust leak at a joint and rear brakes grabbing, managed to solve all in quick succession after work and sticker status returned! I haven't worked out the number of days but approx 3 years after taking the car off the road I can now legally drive again, while no where near finished in my mind, it is a giant relief to not have a pile of parts in the way! Still to go is interior re-trim, carpets, door seals, paint detailing, polishing, wheel refurb etc, mainly tidying up the cosmetics. But for now, lets go for a hoon around the neighbourhood

yep, looks really similar to the 70s Datsun ones And Land Rover........ Both only have two levers though.

I also have a small scope that would happily see that, won't be until next weekend that I would be free though.

I'm out of town that weekend but want to express admiration for this initiative, big thumbs up

Thats a sweet shelf and suits the room, no way I could have filled the design brief with the hand tools I own, fortunately cnc makes me the carpenter i’m not. Machine is now set up to take a full sheet of ply however the geometry doesn’t allow the spindle to traverse the full 1240mm. Have you had a play with the arrange tool? Quite handy for working out nesting from available stock and then makes machining simple (aka all delays are very much self inflicted)

Hey man, client's design, I just machine to drawing.

GF wanted some fancy shelves in the lounge, she timed asking just right on the same day as I was getting the cnc running again. A day of design, three sheets of ply and press the green button. Slot together and a few screws to be sure.

Yeah/nah the wof man aint gunna like that so the 20 year anniversary of these tyres will be their last Much nicer although they do feel softer...... Postie was feeling generous and delivered a roll of fun, had to dig out an old toy to approve the design Approval gained after a thorough wet sand to hide the painter I am not, quite an enjoyable task with the current temperature reaching for 30 odd. During a test run I found the hi beams not quite up to task, this lead to unwrapping the loom to trace the aftermarket relays, somehow a few of the connections had been messed up and along with the ever present dodgy fusebox had left me chasing the wrong issue. After a few pages in the 1B5 to figure out the circuit, its all back together and selecting the correct beam. For added bonus the high beam relay is no longer a parasitic load, hooray!

3d scan and bend for that price is a steal, its not so easy nor quick, so often its seen as the perfect repro method, but it has its limits and needs full understanding of all the variables to execute right, rough workflow Prepare part for scanning Scan the part Import file Rebuild in CAD using start & finish as guide Add bends to match available dies Adjust for best fit Export Bend Recheck If ol mate murphy didn't visit (he always does) Adjust file Rebend Job done, but at $100/hr for the skilled labour + scanner + software etc etc, you don't get much time to make a buck. After all that, errors are often present, but after a few iterations you figure it out and then can go onto CNC bending hundreds of copies. In saying that, if thats what they sold you on, you'd expect they had the workflow down to deliver, from the photos it looks like the forward pipe needed a lazy bend to sit inside but the machine could only do a tight bend putting the two into the same space, rather unfortunate.

the selection of tools we used, wide for the straight bits, narrow for corners

Ended up getting a commercial glass fitter mate over for a second set of hands, we wound up making some tools from 0.6mm stainless steel to pry the gap open as the other person fed the trim in. Got 99% in using straight dish soap, made a mess, corners are almost impossible. Still managed to tear a small section, thankfully under the trim.

Nah, not quite unfortunately, thats a different profile, had plenty of people say the same tool, this trim holds by one side only and the trim isn’t flexible.

So how does this trim on the Datsun go in? if I fit the trim to the rubber first it comes out fitting to the window. fit the rubber to the window then I can’t get any useful tool in to lift the rubber to fit the trim. Kinda stuck, but somehow they got it in the factory? Or recommendations for an oldschool glass fitter in chch?

The wof to do list has now become pretty trivial, starts, runs and stops just as good as I remember, for added benefit all mechanicals and electrics operate as intended too. Paranoia was weighing hard during the quick run up our street but the only issue of note is some guard rub that will be an easy trim to fix Still quite a few jobs to get it how I want it, but i've gained most of my shed space back With f-all mechanical jobs left and the wof stuck waiting on the postie for window seals, I hooked into the cosmetics...... Cos i'm no painter there was a bit of orange peel to deal to, started wet sanding the car today and made an absolute mess, thankfully youtube came to the rescue and after adjusting my technique moved through to 2000grit before polishing up the last bit. While i could go further, i'm really happy with the finish, not gleaming show car perfection but a finish as you'd expect from a car of the 70s. Just the roof took a few hours today so looks like it will be a few days before the whole car is done.

Non branded and likely came from toolshed or similar, I find it doesn't get the velocity at the tip to atomise nicely and when I ramped the pressure up to compensate it really didn't like it.

Well, ahhh Yup Last few weekends have been motivation central, brake lines bled, engine, transmission, driveshaft in, fuel tank and lines etc etc. With pretty much everything together I poured in some fresh gas and after leak checking the system turned the key all the way..... Would love to say it fired right up but the points had corroded just enough, a quick tickle later and the engine fired straight back to a steady idle as I remember. Only thing stopping it going for a drive now is fluids in the gearbox and diff. Plus some minor things such as seats not bolted in and I need to source a rear windscreen rubber, simple right?

I have a cheap one, its crap. good for primer thats gunna get a sand or motivation to purchase a nicer gun

Still at it, progress is steady with visual changes becoming more obvious. Finished off paint around the window frames and fitted the doors, still need to fine tune the door gaps Finished off all the brake lines including the left rear that I wasn't too happy with. Managed to find new seals for the front calipers, they are ready to bolt back on Had a go at the interior too, while i'd really like to drop it off and have someone do the whole lot super nice, there is not much cash left in the tank, sourcing some nice fabric I repaired all the pillar trims that were ripped so that the windscreens could be fitted, the roof lining looks even worse up against fresh cloth! Few more weekends at this rate should get the engine in the hole before Christmas

Still plugging away, winters been a bitch, weekends haven't gone to plan and the cold weather makes opening up the workshop a pain. And then when the weather did play nice, of course I had to keep up with house renos, at least I could outsource some of the work to the cnc and click through lighter work such as tending to the chrome. This week I started fitting out the engine bay, original brake booster, master cylinder, steering gear and pedalbox, new tie rods thanks to Rockauto, coat of black paint for pretty much everything else. Front struts and hubs complete with new bearings are in, same as the rear, at this stage keeping the same shocks all around, have a few things to work out before confirming what way to go. Wheels go on, dolly comes out Good to see those eyes on their feet again! Valance is pretty messed up, made the call during paining that i'd repair but not get too worried about shape as its ultimately hidden behind the bumper, hopefully a longer term plan will eventually sort it out. Have been renewing all the brake hard lines as I go, after putting the suspension in I found an issue, brain fart while bending the left rear I had the arm upside down on the bench, thinking I had more space the turn to get to the union hangs pretty low, best replace this one before going to far.

One vote for toss it all in the fire and start again. Those fuses give me nightmares.