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MARTS-PL310

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Posts posted by MARTS-PL310

  1. @j.e.d. Here's a few recent exterior pics of my 63 from over the last four months or so in the Seattle, Washington area. My dad bought it in 1967 and passed it on to me in 1999. Stock except for dual exhaust and aftermarket radio. Rain or shine it gets driven. Cruises smoothly at 70mph on the interstate. Guzzles at 14 mpg. Paint is original Ming Green metallic except for spot repairs years ago to lower rear quarters, sills and hood. Interior, not shown, is a bit shoddy and needs new front bucket seat covers (currently t-shirts wrapped around the seat backs, that sort of thing). Most recent work was the replacement of the cam bore plug on the back of the 352 FE engine after it had come out, got tangled up between the block, adapter plate and flywheel and punched out a chunk of the bell housing...

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    • Like 4
  2. Love those 63 Galaxies! Keep em rolling. I have similar, a 352, 2dr boxtop, 500 XL,  family heirloom, 335k miles and still running smooth and strong. Engine pic from last overhaul 18 years ago.

    Watch out for that darn secondary hood latch. I painted mine striped but it doesn't help much to prevent the occasional ding on the scalp! 

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    • Like 6
  3. Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Refitting the interior- Headliner.

    Switching gears a bit as the floor is now more or less complete.

    This is the plan prior to installing the front and back glass. An installation sequence is required. Hope I'm not missing something.

    Required events preceding the glass install are:

    Restore the rolled rear wheel well opening flanges on the doglegs back to stock. DONE. Luckily these were not rusted away so I just had to carefully bend them back and do some hammer on dolly work. I have no idea why a PO rolled the flanges, ultra wide drag slicks maybe? ;- )

    Install the sill box aft end close out plates. DONE.

    Sand and prepare the outer surfaces of the sills, A and B posts, doglegs and door jambs. IN WORK. May also have to use a little plastic filler at visible butt weld joints.

    Epoxy prime and paint all the surfaces noted above.

    Install new door opening seals onto the pinch welds.

    Glue in the under roof insulation pad.

    Test fit the headliner. DONE. Couldn't wait as I wanted to know well in advance that the reproduction headliner would fit. I bought the vinyl headliner in 2017 and was concerned it might have shrunk or otherwise distorted to an unusable shape.

    Install the headliner.

    Install the back and front glass into the custom one off seals I had manufactured years ago (around year 2004). These new custom seals should take the original chrome, maybe.

    Install the chrome trim into the seals.

    Finally, install the front and back glass.

    A quick test fit of the reproduction vinyl headliner shown. No problems noted. It appears to be well made using correct patterns. I'm not able to tuck it in at the sides until all the other work leading up to the door seal install is done since it is to be pinched between the gripper teeth panels and the door seals for a semi-permanent installation. It would probably be damaged if I pinch it in on the sides and take it out again.

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    Satisfied with the headliner test fit. It matches the original very well, I just need to apply light tension at the sides.

    The old sponge rubber, metal and cloth door seals. These are badly rotted and will not be reused. Modern door seals that are functionally equivalent will be used but these will not match the appearance of the old cloth covered portion (rubber surfaces only on the new seals).

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    The sill box aft end close out panels. Slightly crudely made early on several years ago but will do the job.

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    Installation of the panels is next.

     

    • Like 5
  4. Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Fixing the Trans to Tunnel Interference.

    Not sure how I messed this up but the upper aft bolt head on the side of trans cover was touching and rattling quite a bit on the first test drive.

    I did a lot of preparation work when forming the patch piece for the previously modified tunnel to fit the larger "full-synchro" P311 trans. I padded up spots for a bit of clearance where there appeared to be contact when doing prototyping of the patch panel yet must have missed this bolt head. Maybe too much attention was paid to bumping out the nearby spot where the tailshaft housing to trans body ear sticks way out. Don't know. Original very rough mod was done way back in the early 80s when the P310 trans broke a shift input shaft and was swapped out for the big trans. Modification of the tunnel then was by cutting torch, and very expedient, just left huge openings.

    In this case, the fix was to take a piece of bar stock and carve the end into a convex shape. Then the convex end of the bar was hammered upwards into the bolt head interference spot to form a bit of a pimple sufficient for clearance. Paint was touched up and that was it.

    Pics:

    In the beginning. Started with this old rough torch cut left over from rapid repair back in the early 80s. A good illustration as to how much wider the later trans is. The cut metal was covered up by the vinyl floor mat. Out of sight out of mind for years.
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    A couple of other views after the original damaged metal was removed. The future interference is the side cover bolt on upper right, above and to the left of the tailshaft housing ear.
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    The formed patch a few years back. Bumped it out as necessary with plastic mallet on sand bag then smoothed out on english wheel. It was beginning to resemble medieval breastplate armor. Just didn't bump it out enough on that one spot apparently.
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    Fixed. You can't really see much here because it is so tight. Look deep into the photo middle, upper, then above and behind the bolt that is visible, where you might see the paint scratched off by the bumping tool used to beat the sheet metal out a bit from the bolt head. I also tried to pry it out overall in the area by leveraging against the ear, but it didn't help much, the initial forming process work hardened the metal and it just bounced back. Brushed in some touch up paint later on and now I'm done with it.
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    Posting about the floor painting later

     

    • Like 8
  5. Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Fixing the Noisy Water Pump.

    So once the engine exhaust was quieted down, it was obvious that the water pump bearings were worn out. Fortunately I had picked up a genuine new Nissan shaft/bearing assembly several years ago from eBay. The water pump as a new assembly is NLA.

    The water pump was rebuilt with the new bearings and it was successful in quieting the water pump. My first time rebuild of a water pump which, in this case, was fairly simple if you have the parts and are good at making new gaskets. I also had the assistance of the PL310 Nissan FSM, several DIY videos on youtube and a hydraulic press. 

    Unfortunately I took no photos during the rebuild process, only the completed installation and my build of the tool as described by the FSM. One note on the FSM pages, included here for anyone's reference doing similar work, there is no cautionary note on the assembly process saying to avoid applying a press force between the inner and outer bearing race. But I guess that's just common sense practice so as not to damage the bearing. The FSM merely says to reverse the disassembly steps where it doesn't really matter if you damage the old bearing since it is to be trashed.

    While I was at it, I refurbished a pair of E1 engine fan blades that were previously obtained some time ago from "wayno" on the local Ratsun forum. These stacked together fan blades replaced the single old style E engine fan blade that was on the engine where there should have been two. No idea why someone had deleted the other blade. Noisy design at 4500 rpm freeway cruising speed perhaps.

    Some self explanatory photos below of the installation, tool, old shaft/bearing assembly, fan blades and FSM. Engine is a little dirty but it runs very well. I probably out to replace that giant '59 Chevy pickup truck generator for a modern lightweight alternator one of these days.

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    Old well used "E" engine fan blade
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    Wooden tool as constructed per FSM graphic
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    Worn out old bearing/shaft assembly
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    Ancient Datsun PL310 Bluebird FSM (plus the PL311 service bulletin supplement). I obtained this Zerox copy of helpful info decades ago from Nissan Corporation in USA when they were located in Gardena, Calif. Free of charge. And can you image getting such service today to support repairs on a 63 year old car?
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    ... More soon

    • Like 7
  6. Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Front Seat Springs.

    Soliciting some thoughts on seat springs. I'm working on the front seat and am now at the point of assembling my newly fashioned homemade front seat cover onto the lower seat frame and springs. The original 60 year old springs are very worn out and super soft, providing only enough support for maybe a small cat. Identical replacement springs are not available, all generic upholstery springs I've found are way too large in diameter and length. If any human sits on this after the burlap, foam topping and seat cover is installed, they will find their bottom bottomed out, so to speak. I expect the new seat cover and other materials to be quickly damaged as a result. 

    So I'm stuffing the 36 front seat coils with cotton batting to bolster them a bit. The photos provide a glimpse of the stuffed coil plan. An idea snatched from a youtube video. Seems reasonable. Anybody else done this sort of odd seat spring repair? Does it work? Any better ideas? If so, please comment on the project discussion page.

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    • Like 7
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