HumberSS

Well behind on updates here. Slow progress, school hols and general business has not seen the results one ambitiously thinks will happen in the desired time frame. #projectlife. 

Where to start? 

Have now finished engine cradle including a few notches for critical engine bolts.

Made a complicated pipe to move water around. Started with ally bends off aliex but ended up going with tighter ss bends I had. Have since swaged ends to help with pipe retention

Next stop has been to get engine to a point where I can start it. Got a belt, made a dummy wiring rig for startup. Cunt won't start, have spark, suspect I m not pouring enough fuel down the hole, and also haven't checked if I have 8 sparks, so need to do that. Pretty sure I've got the timing bang on. It's using and early chev hei ignitor. Was hard to find definitive info on wiring but eventually got there, and spark at plug tells me I have done something right.. before doing that I used some clay to measure my seal thicknesses and ordered these, buttoned up rocker covers with fresh coat of wrinkle black, Im happy with the look. Really want to hear this bitch now.

I managed to get in touch with the original engine builder, it was built about 20 years ago. It's had head work, skimmed, block decked and cam reprofiled. On cranking I was seeing about 40-50psi oil pressure which is reassuring. 

Other things. My mate has been doing some of the bolt on panels as he owed me a favour. I've also been partaking in my other favourite pastime of staring at other parts, using motivational herbs, and figuring out next moves. Toilet will go under drivers seat, under the D40 Navara rear bench seats I acquired some time back. 

Sporadic sunday morning update. Intention with this project was to do the bare minimum and get it to functional. So that doesn't appear to be happening, shock horror. If it's worth doing, I guess it's worth doing right. Or burying myself deeply it in and selling on OS in boxes for $500...

Finished tidying up and rewrapping all the loom in the front. No pics. 

Decided to get it up off the ground so I can make the floor all pretty, I figure with revinning I'm not going to fuck around and have them pick holes it it, the jobs just have to be done. Easiest way to do that was drop the running gear out and lift the body off on to some stands I hacked up. It was a surprisingly simple task. Might turn it into a brodozer on 37s...

I haven't taken many pics, but I've scraped all the under seal off the underneath from the doors back, it's really sound and haven't revealed too many other gremlins. I've dropped the brake and fuel hoses out as these are toast. Thinking I'm gonna get a little pot sandblaster to deal to all the surface rust, then brunox/paint/under seal. 

Also discovered another 20hp under the bonnet. Not sure if they get picky on this shit for revin?? Meant to be L24.. 

I wanted to start at front and work my way back, but I need to bits to ensure I can align everything, so until such time I decided instead to attack the rear. Drilled and cut rear panel off, have started cleaning shit up and deciding how I'm going to attack the patch work. It needs new floors either side of spare wheel well, but weirdly the well itself is fine. Needs ne bottom quarters and a little bit of inner quarter and inner wheel tub work,so I'm just gonna start picking away at all that. I'm enjoying the process.

Also, @ajg193 found my missing plate under one of his presses.

And @ThePog found me some sweet widened Jeep rims which I'm gagging to get my mitts on

Been a few weeks now since I've had this thing. Started by deskunging engine bay with degreaser and waterblaster. Lucky my shed at home is so shit, as I had to waterblast it inside as the brakes are still seized.

Before and after

Removed a whole lot of junk out of the engine bay. Was originally a CNG car so all that shit went in the bin. Also had a/C so I pulled all that out too as I have no pump and the rest of it looked pretty unserviceable. Keeping it simple for now but would love the opportunity a/C eventually.

Then set to deciphering the basket case wiring. It's like 15 year old me had been there and thought I could improve on it. Bit of work with the test light and had it all figured out. A lot of fuckery was going on but I got to the bottom of it. Had an electric pump owing to the CNG, I didn't hold much hope but shorting it sprung it into life. 

Next up removing many broken studs and retapping holes. All gravy. 

The big news today however is that after finding all the various parts that were strewn all through it (thankfully only a few bits are missing), and assembling back onto the engine with a new manifold gasket, thanks to @fletch new front pulley (had big chunk missing) and new thermostat housing. Old bitch fired up, after my comedy of errors forgetting to install rotor...woops!  Thing runs mint, oil pressure around 60psi so I'm happy. I'm surprised it actually ran on the decayed plugs I cleaned up and shitty leads, but firing on 6 and sounding like she's ready for the demo derby! 

I'm stoked

Have also cleaned and vacuumed out the rat shit from inside  and pulled the old house carpet out and, whilst not mint inside is really not too bad. Door trims are a bit fucked and the seats have a few tears, as well as missing rear seat base, but otherwise good. 

Have assessed the rust situation and for an old Datsun it's really pretty good. The floor is mint. I mean mint. One pinhole. Engine bay also only a few pinholes, front cross member is toast though, so will remake once I get a rad support panel. A little bit on inner sills above floor, and both outer sills need replacement. One lower door needs a little bit of work, other is mint, as are the front guards, barring some dents and shit. Lower rear quarters and rear valance are toast, and boot floor either side of wheel well needs replacing. Not looking forward to finding a passenger's side rear window however...

Next mish is to tidy up the bay wiring proper and perhaps get the brakes working so I can do some skids. That's why you own a Datsun. Will then work from front towards the back on the body work.

This is not taking precedent over the camper, I have simply had more time to tutu with it in the school hols. Have spent a grand total of about $45 on parts so far to get it running, sold off some shit too which has offset the price of a set of widened steelies @ThePog kindly located for me in the mainland.

Chur.