MARTS-PL310 61 Datsun Bluebird Sedan

[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - RHS ‘A’ - Post Scratch Build.

Original A post was not salvageable due to multiple accidents (t-bone, roll-over, etc.) and ham fisted "repairs" with large hammers and cutting torches. Drilled out the spot welds and cut it off but left the upper hinge mount temporarily as a datum.

Marked for cutting.

I began to be concerned. I did a bit of a hack job cutting it loose at the top. This is a serious piece of structure removal and the metal underneath doesn't look so great either. Will the Bluebird ever be made whole again?

I'd never attempted anything like this so took it slowly and methodically reverse engineered it based on the LHS A post.

it turned out quite well.The fitment with respect to location on the body was the only minor issue. i had to install it several times with Teks until getting an okay fit with the the hinges, latches, door gaps and all the other adjoining metal work mocked up. Finally resorting to a floor jack under the door to "fine tune" it.

Original after removal showing the attached internal bits.

Patterns taken off the LHS A-post.

Then cut out the outboard face with an extra margin for bending over just past the fore and aft edges.

Fore and aft patterns set up for metal cutting.

I intended to make it out of just three pieces but that didn't work out. So later on I made the little triangle section at the top separately.

I ran each piece through a bead roller tipping die at the bend lines and followed with hammer and dolly to beat the flanges over.

Early checks of the individual pieces on the car looked promising. Aft facing piece shown.

The early outboard face piece shows the attempt to include the upper triangle. As mentioned, that was the intent but didn't work out.

Forming the tipped edges with various panel beating tools.

Further on-car refinement which permitted making scribe trim lines into the fore and aft faces.

Leading to tack welding it together.

Back on the car, it's beginning to resemble an A-post! Fits quite well so far.

With a bit of hinge bolt hole drilling, and cleaned up inside bits salvaged from the original A-post, I carefully worked on fitting the tacked assembly to mate up with the rebuilt door hinges. Oh yeah, regards the hinge pin replacements, I used an 8mm hinge and bushing kit that I believe was for a Toyota Hilux. Normally this is a routine repair job but not in this case. The old hinge pins were a terrible job to remove because of each pin being previously broken internally into three pieces. If pushed on, the inner bits just kicked over and jammed or mushroomed up. No amount of force was going to make them move at all. I had to extract the splined pin end by TIG welding a plate to it and using a large slide hammer meant for axle pulling. And even then I had to drill some of the remaining stuck bits out. That was not fun.

The door catch/stop bit was tacked in later (not shown in above pic).

Then did multiple fit check iterations on car until frustration set in and finally doing this in below pic. More new metal on the inner body and a slight "adjustment" for optimum gap with the outer sill. And yes, the upper sheet metal is still a bit sketchy. I fear catching the car on fire! For fire safety, I'll eventually have to remove the instrument panel, wire harness and nearby insulation and only then fix the upper sheet metal since it's got rust craters and other significant surface damage. The new A-post assembly weld to the remaining post/front glass pillar will be via lap joints.

The door fits good all around and latches perfectly. Leaving the RHS A-post as is for now until all the RHS metal fab and fitments are done, only then will the assembly be fully welded.

More later, currently focused on the RHS B-post.

Discussion:

 

 

Build:
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[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - RHS ‘B’ - Post Repairs/Build. Part One.

As it was in the beginning. Rusted, rotted from the inside out and battered with abuse.The abuse happened many years ago whilst trying the bend the pillar next to the front glass. I had placed lumber in the door frame opening diagonally then applied a hydraulic jack. before I knew it, the B-post base was collapsing and getting crushed. So i've a combination of rust and aft direction post damage on three sides to repair.
So, a flood of pics to follow, starting with the damage detail, rust repair of the lower flanges, opening up the inboard face panel by removal of the lower 10 inches, beating the damages back into shape, welding it all back up and grinding and sanding it all smooth.

The underside and after detachment from the original structure.

As it mates on the new sill.

The buckled inside panel with a heavy crease and rusted bottom flange.

Made a patch assembled out of three pieces and fitted it for the aft lower face.

Similar for the front except made it out of one piece which took way too long to make.
Had to make a relief cut and weld in up anyway.
Decided it's better to stick with multiple pieces for a complex and tilted curved surface intersecting a vertical plane.

More welds added to plug the holes made from disassembly.
Backed it up with copper during weld to keep from making the holes bigger in the thin metal.

Underside now begins to look a bit cleaner.

Cut the inside panel to gain access and make repairs to my prior mistakes of old.

Innards.

After panel beating the crease smooth, fitted up a patch to repair the rust.

Then started tack welding it together.

Other side with my ugly series of tacks.

Smoothed out the welds.

Removed the inner bits. Just needed a bit of cleaning and then weld back in.

Surfaces inside the post were better than expected with lots of clean metal in places.
An easy cleanup in preparation for reassembly.

The abuse damages are fixed (beat flat) and ready for closure.

A thin coat of copper primer for the insides.

(To be continued next post.)

Discussion:

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Build:
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[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - RHS ‘B’ - Post Repairs/Build. Part Two.

Continuation from part one. Finishing up the RHS B-Post repair story.

Installed and welded the inner bits and repaired the pinch weld flanges. Sprayed some more copper primer.

Clamped the inner panel up and welded.

Smoothed out pretty good. Prime and paint preparation will take of any small imperfections.

FINISHED the B-Post repair.

Moving on to the "dogleg" or C-Post next. Later on.

 

Discussion:

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Build:
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[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - RHS ‘C’ - Post (Dogleg) Repairs/Build.

Completed the 310 Bluebird RHS dogleg.

What the repair started out as. Then becomes something that mutates into complete metal art to work the multiple 3D shapes. It looks not too bad in the first pic, just a few little holes - right? it get very bad quickly..

What I had to cut off.

Basically everything! One piece at a time. Make a new piece, scribe the outline on the existing dogleg, cut and tack in each one by one.

Turned out okay.
Not perfectly matching original because I had to alter it just a wee bit to match my homemade outer sill profile.
The sill was temporarily installed multiple times whilst forming and fitting the bits.

No one other than a 310 expert would casually spot the differences from original though. Good enough at this point to metal clean, etch for protection against flash rust and wait for eventual paint.

How it got done.

First thing I did was layout several separate paper templates directly on the old dogleg.
The intention being to build each numbered bit from sheet stock and tweak as required to fit.
There's also an underside bit not shown here. I had already made an extra one of those when the LHS dogleg was built.

Did it in sequence as numbered.

Number one.

Number 2.

Number 3. Just a tiny strip.
Kinda messed it up with the fillet welds but persevered and stuck it together with added backside welds.

Number 4 and 5 combined as one. Figured if it didn't work out I could split it.
Bead rolled the body lines and beat the concave profile in with a plastic mallet against a sand bag.

Did it as a combination of segments 4 & 5 and welded it in!

Cleaned up the welds, did backside welding where needed, fixed pinholes and whatnot and abraded the surfaces.

Made the step flanges (or joggles) for the same as factory lap joint with a homemade tool.
Took a regular extra wide flanger pliers and cut a chunk off and customized/filed the narrow bits with some curvature (convex bread loaf profile) on one side to permit use on the concave profile and into the tight corners. Then the bits were welded onto the jaws of a new pair of vise grips. It worked great! I could not find anything on the market similar. Probably has been done before though for sure.

Lastly, the bottom piece I had made a couple years earlier, was welded on with an electric prong type spot welder.

The RHS sill aft end cover/closeout plate will be added to the dogleg later on once it is ready to close up after epoxy priming the insides.

RHS dogleg job done.

Next part of the rust repair job to tackle? Don't know yet. Either fab up the body jack structure into the side of the RHS sill or finish up the welds on the A-post. I absolutely feel like I'm starting to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, which is good. I do still have to permanently weld a lot of RHS parts to the body and that will be rather satisfying. The much harder part of fabricating these individual bits will be complete.

More later.
 

[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - RHS ‘A’ - Post Repairs/Build.

I'm resuming the build story after a ten month break for doing other stuff, back at it now. Everyday, for the last month, I've been out in the garage working on the Bluebird project. All major subassemblies related to the rusted out floor repair have been finished and are now permanently welded to the car body. The now finished and installed RHS items include; floor assembly, outer sill (including side of body lift jack pipe and supporting bits) and A-post.

Presented today are the finishing details of the RHS A post build, previously discussed last January 2021 when the shell was constructed and test fitted.

Above. Homemade floating nut plates (3) to be welded on the inside of the A-post and connect with the front fender bolts.

Salvaged A-post inner bits. Door hinge bolt floating mounting plates and stopper bracket. Cleaned and repaired. Acid dipped and wire wheeled.
Replaced a couple of flanges and a hold down cover where the rust pitting was too severe. Filled a few holes and isolated craters with weld.

Assembled the floating plates and electric resistance spot welded them together.

Preparing the shell for assembly of the inner parts (except the nut plates were welded in earlier). Degreased, sanded, chemically cleaned and etched.

Upol weld through copper rich primer applied to the insides where subsequent epoxy primer is not desired or would be shadowed.

Jumping ahead a bit as these later images were taken just before welding onto the car body. The A-post is fully assembled and epoxy primed.
Attachment at the top end will be three hidden splice plates plus plug welds. Attachment at the bottom is prepped for plug welds.

Attachment prep at top. Looks rough but works out well. This gets manipulated as the welding progresses to tap the metal into tight contact.

 

Plug weld attachment to the sill preparations at the bottom. I then ran a ground flat drill bit into each plug weld hole to expose the bare metal and minimize the weld contamination. Pinch welds and other flange welds are to be made by electric resistance spot welding.

Okay, that's all for tonight, more soon on the RHS floor and sill completions.

 

Discussion and build:

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[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - RHS Outer Sill - Additional Details and Assembly.

Finishing up the RHS outer sill shell assembly by adding the body jack lift structure and shell penetration, plus a couple of the floating nut plates on the forward end that connect to the fender bolts.

First a review. The rusted and dilapidated structure as found on the inside of the existing sill:

I elected to salvage the pipe and upper bracket.
The pipe was sandwiched inside the old floor bracket with a humongous electric spot weld and I won't be securing it that way on the new build.
Instead, I'll pin the pipe to the floor bracket with a solid 3/8 steel rod.

I started by savaging the upper bracket underneath the old sill. It was attached in place by a mere 20 spot welds!

Before.

After cleaning and plugging up holes and craters with weld.

Formed up a separate piece to create the bottom of sill same as old using a plywood buck with 16G metal reinforcement.
Started with slightly oversize flanges intentionally and then trimmed back to match.

Then, using my die set from the LHS build, I made the indentation to match original where the pipe penetrates.
The hole gets trimmed out later.

Close ups of the progress on these shell features.

It took a lot of finesse to reach this point. Weld, grind to sculpture, add more weld, fix pin holes and repeat.

Now it was time to make the vertical supports that fit inside and against the side of the pipe.
Sketched up what I needed to reverse engineer the originals and made a forming buck out of steel plate.

Steel buck.

Then I started mocking up the completed detail parts as an assembly.

Comparison with photo of original.

Innards mocked up.
I made the flanged speed holes in the brackets with a homemade die set from steel pipe plumbing bits.

Other side of innards.

Preparation for weld with some upol sprayed on.

Welded!
Electric spot welds to sheet and plug welds to the pipe.

Another welded perspective.

These are the two floating nut plates welded on at the forward end.
Bottom one should have had two tabs but I compensated by tacking the opposite hidden side down.

All cleaned, etched and ready for painting.

Painted with three coats of red oxide PPG epoxy primer.
That's the last of my supply. The PPG red oxide epoxy primer is now NLA.
Switching over to gray-green now.

Finally, somewhat repetitive fit checks and photos but just for looks,
I take it off again for permanent installation prep later on.

RHS floor final weld assembly of understructure, and underside paint in the next post.

 

[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - RHS Floor Pan - Weldment Assembly.

After doing nothing on the RHS floor assembly for a year, I finished by removing all the temporary screws, welding the bits together and painting the underside.

As it was in October 2020 and 2021. Sheetmetal screws holding the RHS floor pan parts together.

First thing to do was remove all the screws and clean and sand the metal.

Chemically etched all the metal parts with PPG SX520 Chemfil Metal Conditioner.

Masking prep for first coat of epoxy primer. Masking off the weld surfaces.

First coat of primer.
It went on a bit unusual and glossy because I had not stirred the pigment and solids off the bottom of the can enough.
Then I pulled the masking tape off and sprayed upol weld through on all the to be welded surfaces.
I left the masking tape on around the perimeter were it will get welded to the car body.

My Harbor Freight spot welder, supplemented by the extra long tongs on the right to reach the middle.

The lateral stiffening plates are added.

Then the longitudinal structures were attached.
Electric spot welded plus I had to fill a lot of screw holes with plugs welds.
On the other or top side was the seat support bracket with four plug welds and six lap or edge welds.

The seat bracket was positioned and welded by dragging the seat out of my small backyard shed.
I then set the pan back into the car with screws and bolted the seat into place at the LHS floor bracket and let the RHS float relative to the pan.

After welding the RHS seat bracket on, I set the weldment assembly back in the car attached to the tunnel with screws.
I had applied machinist blue on the last inch or so on the tunnel bottom edge.
A line was scribed, guided by the edge of the pan flange, and onto the tunnel to define the trim for a flush fit butt weld.

Pulled the pan out and the tunnel was ready for final trimming.
All very similar to the work done on the LHS previously.
The only difference was I boldly did the trim in one shot with the angle grinder and cutoff disk rather than creep up on it and then use tin snips.

Fit check after the tunnel had the final trim done.
Gap, with some variance, is about right for MIG, not so if attempting TIG.

Considered done, I pulled it out and epoxy primed it, this time stirring the mixture more thoroughly.

Painted the underside PPG black base coat plus clear the next morning and pulled off the masking tape around the perimeter weld zones. Ready for installation, which will be the next post.

 

 

 

 

[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - RHS Floor Pan - Installation.

Welding the completed RHS floor pan into the body.

Below. Refinishing the soon to be inaccessible upper frame rail surfaces. I'm only doing the upper surfaces for now since this is not a restoration. I can get at the frame sides and bottoms later if I choose to do so. Probably won't though.

This car has some rather stout mostly full box section framework underneath it. Very rugged.

Began cleaning and stripping to bare metal.

Epoxy primed. Wire harness and brake line were getting in the way.

Frame painted. Sprayed some upol weld thru on the toe board, inner sill and aft lap joints.

Then stripped off spots of paint for the plug welds from floor to support brackets.

Did same for the mating surfaces on the floor underside.

 

Plug weld 1/4 inch holes and surface cleanup.

Then carefully positioned the floor and supported it underneath as required to adjust the gap against the tunnel edge.
Fastened the sheetmetal screws against the inner sill and bolted it down on the body mounts.
Double checked for level surfaces and started the well spaced tack welds against the tunnel, adjusting for a flush join as needed by pushing against any high edges.

Ground down excess off the first series of tack weld heads and continued laying down several more series.

 

Eventually filled in the entire tunnel weld seam. Then did a few plug welds to the underside support brackets and found my .030 MIG wire just a bit small. So I switched over to a spool of .035 wire for more heat and flatter weld heads. I regret the pneumatic tool punched holes I made along the edge for the toe board lap joint - convenient yet too small at 3/16 and too close to the edge. Less than the ideal size.  I should have drilled them all to 1/4 or 5/16 which would have made for better penetration and flatter weld heads and thus less grinding.

Followed this by crawling underneath the car and doing backside welding of the tunnel weld seam using the thicker .035 wire and more aggressive stitch welding technique with no jumping around. Worked out well but made for a lot of grinding work.

That little chunk of metal missing next to the vise clamps on the far right was my trimming mistake. I patched it up later.

Close up of backside welds. Welded it up hot since it was backed with the frontside welds. No holes blown through.
The random holes below the weld seam were used for sheet metal screw attachments to the tunnel for temporary floor positioning and scribing a trim line.

Moving on.

Plug and spot welds at the aft flanges.

Did a bit of overkill on the number of spot welds to the inner sill because it was so much fun!
Probably three times as many as factory.

Sheet metal screws were then removed and holes were plug welded. 

Above Inner sill spot welds to floor edge flange shown somewhat later as it was prepared for epoxy primer.

A much later look toward the inner sill attachment.

Jumping ahead a bit, after the outer sill was in place, a 3/8 lock pin was installed to structurally secure the side of body lift jack pipe to the under floor bracket.

The pin is inserted just a bit beyond where the snout of the jacking tool can reach.
Washers (not shown) are welded to the insides of the bracket to shim for negligible fore and aft play against the pipe.

Hot and nasty welds.

Welds filled in nicely between the chamfered pin OD and bracket hole. Sanded flush rather clean and smooth

Fun shot underneath. Looking aft down the tunnel.

I'll have to get that surface cleaned and painted and then stuff the transmission back in. Probably will do that in a few months in springtime.

I'll post next on welding the outer sill to the car body.

 

[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - RHS Floor Pan - Installation.

Extra pics to previous post.

I made some in sequence hot video screen captures doing a plug weld on the floor install. 

A lot of fun it was moving liquid steel around and around!

[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - RHS Outer Sill - Installation.

Here's another flood of subassembly installation photos, describing the preparation and welding of the right hand side outer sill to the body. Included are several screen captures from video. Let me know if this is too many pics as it might be overkill for what was really a simple final task of welding. By this time, the sill had already been fitted and removed dozens of times in mock up stage to develop an acceptable assembly and nice fit. I just shoved it on and welded it up with no problems. I had a lot of fun doing this job but that electric spot welder sure is a heavy one!

I masked off the inner sill to apply upol copper based primer on the to be welded contact surfaces. In between will be PPG gray - green epoxy primer.

Then I reversed the masking to apply the epoxy primer.

End result to maximize rust resistance.

 

Placing the sill. I had to pull the B-post out a bit to permit positioning.

Securing sill with clamps.

Hammering in the lock pin to the underfloor bracket.

Clamping up the B-post nice and tight and preparing a tight first plug weld at the base.

First weld complete.

Two down and only ten more plug welds to go at the B-post and sill flange.
DR sharpie marking is to remind myself not to block the drainage indent between those first two plug welds.

Starting the spot welds. Some of my muscles were sore for a day after using this tool.
It was especially difficult to use on the underside flange while laying on my back and resting this very heavy tool on my chest and bench pressing it up to make each weld.

Done! I roughly doubled up the number of factory spot welds just in case some of my amateur welds are bad.

Next post is welding my homemade A-post to the car.

 

[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - RHS A-Post - Installation.

Right hand side A-post to body welding actions to complete the de-rustification of the 1961 Datsun Bluebird floor and related structures.

Made yet another crude tool to add to the large Bluebird metal fab tool collection.
This one pierces the inner sheet where body to door weather strip seals clip on.

Compress and create a tab sticking inboard to catch the pinch weld weatherstrip seal.

Used only four places along the edge of new sheet metal behind the A-post at the door seal pinch weld.

Positioned and clamped the A-post on with no problems and began spot welding from the center then up and down the flanges.
Finishing with the upper and lower attachments via plug welds.
No caption photos follow until fitting the doors.

Moving on to bolting the doors and front fender on in mock up mode for fit check.

The outer panels match up okay, with decent gaps and faired surfaces, just not perfect since they each have a history of multiple damages.
Should all be repairable sometime in the future. Maybe I'll do some homemade door skins!

I've found it safer to keep the panels on the car even if I know I'll taking them off later as they tend to get more damage when laying around the garage than when mounted.
In this case, the panels will stay on until painting the floor when the warmer weather arrives.

I've already started surveying some other damaged areas of the car that may get some metal working attention but may pause actual work for the holidays. Future repairs include; convert the right front fender from 312 to 310 Bluebird style (add the indent for grill), scratch build a rear bumper filler panel, replace both rusted lower rear quarters and repair minor rust in trunk pan and same for the front engine bay body skin to frame mounts.

Probably post the photo survey of the slight trunk damages later on this week.
It's not too bad for a 60 year old car and requires almost no metal patching.

[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Trunk Damage - Survey.

Looking ahead to 2022 and future metal repairs on the trunk floor.

Initial survey photos show minimal damage, especially compared to the passenger compartment floor just completed:

[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Upholstery - Repair.

It's been cold and damp outside this winter in the Northwest U.S. so I'm staying indoors and doing some upholstery repairs to the Bluebird. This is my first ever upholstery project with no training or prior experience. I have acquired a capable industrial sewing machine and am going for it with the support of an upholstery book and numerous online videos.

My goal is to mimic the original styles as displayed in these 1960 Bluebird sales brochures except I'm changing the original padded inserts from eight pleated vinyl to 18 pleated cloth.

This last sales brochure image is the look I'm shooting for.

What I started with:

The original front seat cover.

The original rear seat lower cushion

So the rear seat lower cushion is finished. I tore it down to the spring frame, cleaned and painted it, then laboriously built it back up with all new materials by reverse engineering all the bits. Not perfect, I had lots of trouble with the welting, but the front seat should get better as I correct my many mistakes made on the rear. I'm learning as I go.

Underside

Pleated cloth inset panel detail

[MARTS-PL310]

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.

 

[maddat]

Awesome work mate.keep the updates coming 

[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Front Seat Cushion Build.

I completed the front seat cushion assembly and did a fit check today. The backrests for both seats still remains to be worked. Some photos of the front seat build follow.

About all I had to go on when making vinyl patterns out of the existing front seat cover. Not good. Went ahead anyway and it turned out nice! The pleated cloth insert section was made identical in overall width (about 850 mm) to the rear seat but shorter in fore-aft direction. Seems the rear seat offers a bit more room than the front.

So I salvaged what I could and trimmed out some patterns for direct use on the new vinyl.

The discoloration from UV exposure is extreme! I had to iron the old bits to get them to lay flat.

I prepared the seat frame with a clean up and touch of rattle can black. I bolstered the very soft coil springs by stuffing cotton batting into each one. Looks like a bunch of biscuit dough ready to bake!

Added the burlap and one inch thick foam. This time, I added a thin layer of muslin over the seat foam and hog ringed it in few places to help bend the edges over. The muslin cloth reduced the friction when dragging the seat cover on. That helped a lot. Previously, it was a real struggle and fight to slide the rear seat cover on as the underlying half inch sewfoam of the cover dragged horribly against the seat foam. I still fought getting the front seat cover on, as the corners were quite tight by design, but not nearly as much as for the rear cover without the muslin layer.

The finished front seat cushion. Not perfect, but serviceable and obviously much better than the tattered original.

Just the outer corner welting turned out a bit wavy, otherwise ok.

Hog ringed underside. There are two thick steel listing rods embedded in the vinyl loop that the hog ring rings grab onto and attach to the seat frame. One wraps around the front and sides while the other goes across the rear edge dipping in a bit at the seat center.

Some installed views for fit check purposes. Fit check was near perfect, no real problems. Shows quite a contrast with the old scorched backrest upper!

I sat on the seat and bounced around a bit. Firmness was just right with the cotton stuffed coil springs. Nice to sit behind the wheel again after several years!

Front face view. Clearance with the seat adjuster lever is about 2 mm.

Intersection view at the backrest bottom. Nests together nicely!

 

[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Upholstery Trimming Continued - Front Seat Backrest - Part 1.

Though it has been several months since my last post, I actually have been hard at work on the project. A fair amount of progress has been made on the interior soft trim. The following is some of what has happened since then.

 

Front Seat frame and backrest:

• Backrest separated from from frame
• Frame repaired and painted
• Insides of coconut fibre filled backrest reconstructed and padded
• Vinyl and pleated insert cloth seat cover patterns made
• Prototype and final seat cover assembled
• Seat cover installed

 

All four door cards are built as new using the original materials as patterns.

 

Armrests are rebuilt with new red vinyl.

 

Miscellaneous trim over the inner rear wheel well arches made with new vinyl.

 

Rear seat backrest coil spring frame assembly blasted and coated in black by Seattle Powder Coat.

 

I’ll start with this post on the front seat backrest teardown and frame reconditioning/repairs. More posts to follow shortly once I downsize and edit a huge bunch of photos.

 

A historical photo from several years ago (2017) showing the cheap orange-red and black top cover thrown over the original factory upholstery. Basically, an oversized sock roped down to the bottom of the frame with thick thread. It was probably installed when the car was about 10 years old (1971?) is my best guess. I tore it off several months ago and will trash it.

 

Frontal view of original backrest cover that was hiding underneath

Rear view

Badly damaged corners

All the material was sunlight faded except underneath the ash tray bezel. I pondered the wisdom and fire safety possibilities of the flammable coconut fibers directly in front of an ash tray.

Some of the attachment details to the frame recorded so I can assemble it the same

So then I undid these and other attachments and pulled the cover off. The outer layer of coconut fibers were somewhat unstable and messy as it would disintegrate simply by light touch

I removed the cotton batting off the back Masonite hardboard and levered it away from the glue to the frame.  This then revealed the burlap backing and supplier decal underneath. The hardboard was salvaged and reused. I salvaged the burlap and supplier decal as well. Then two small screws on either side of the ash tray pocket were removed to release the coil spring and coconut fibre assembly from the main frame.

Cleaned the frame of dirt, rust and glue residue and repainted the bare steel areas. I failed to photograph the damage and repair where the sheet metal under curled bottom edge was broken due to seat travel extension modifications that pushed it hard against the driveshaft tunnel. Sorry, but it was a simple crack weld and grind back smooth fix.
 

Cleaned

Painted

Hopefully, more posts soon, to show reverse engineered patterns and other such completed work as noted above

Discussion & Build:
https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/60267-marts-pl310-61-datsun-bluebird-sedan/
https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/60264-marts-pl310-61-datsun-bluebird-sedan/

[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Upholstery Trimming Continued - Front Seat Backrest - Part 2.

Picking up from Part 1, the backrest cushion of springs and layered coconut fibers was removed from the front bench seat frame.

"Peeling back the onion." I began the research by deconstructing the 61 year old inner backrest assembly and peeled back the layers to see what's there. A very thin outer steel framework supports ten vertical rows of four coil springs each. For wrapping each row of coils, a layer of thin (now) coconut fibre cloth. Then on top of that delicate assembly is burlap cloth plus a flat layer of coconut fibre across the whole works. There were also strips of thin cotton batting and some foam rubber around the perimeter but that was removed before I took photos. On this the front side, it all has to go as disintegration has set in.

The disintegrating mass is peeled back a bit further, with much of the material removed from the coils and thrown in the trash.

I searched around and found some yard and garden shops that supply similar material called "coco liner." I purchased a tightly rolled bit and cut it up to layer each row of springs and attached it with hog rings at each end.

Then new burlap cloth and coconut fibre liner of a flatter nature purchased from a local fabric store. Glued that down with Wildwood contact cement.

Set that in the frame and progressed further by adding layers of cotton batting, and polyfoam to emulate what existed on the original.

Initial layers of cotton batting.

Attached the back hardboard.

As far as it goes with respect to layering. I don't want it too thick, but just enough to fill out the seat cover with some tension and no voids.

Glued the cotton batting to the hardboard same as original.

Making the amateur Bluebird seat cover. Just a few detail construction photos as it was a little tough going to make it. Upholstery books and numerous internet videos demonstrate the process of reverse engineering the seat cover from the original as patterns. I just had a lot of difficulty with the upper corners that were rough on the original. In that case, I had to make some prototypes (masking tape version 01 then scrap vinyl version 02) and make adjustments to roll into the final patterns.

Vinyl prototype version 2.

Final production version going under the sewing machine. Some sewing challenges on those upper corners. A bit of a tight inside radius.

The completed and ready to install seat cover.

Beginning the install process from the seat cover inside out method and over the backrest top first. This is done rather than slide it over because of access required for a necessary listing rod to be clipped in places a few inches from the top and across the back to accommodate the concave shape.

View from above as seat cover is slow massaged downward onto the backrest.

Clipping the listing rod on the backside that is within a cotton sleeve of the cover. A bit awkward to perform but doable.

Rolled about halfway down at this point. Then the adrenaline rose in me and I pushed a little too hard and fast resulting in a couple of small 10 mm long rips down near the bottom. Should be repairable though.

It's on all the way now.

Hog ring attachment of the front bottom edge to a rod on the frame. Contact cement applied to the backside and frame lower edges.

All attached.

Detail of corner attachment same as in photo of original with wrap around forward direction and then pinch into a metal frame clip.

Another view of the rolled over fabric glued to lower frame sheetmetal edge.

Some final views. Dropped in the previously completed lower seat cushion.

Front seat assembly now resides in a bedroom serving as a potential lounger until the Bluebird floor is primed, sealed and painted.

I'll post about the door cards next.

 

[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Upholstery Trimming - Door Cards and Armrests.

Rebuilt the door cards, except maybe I should say made new ones minus a few salvaged clips and screws.

Started with these black door cards which are not OEM covers, probably vintage 1971 or so.

These didn't look too bad from far away but are. The old ivory armrests were salvaged from a parts car many years ago and painted black. Car was not equipped with rear armrests but there are mounting provisions in the door frame for them as optional parts.
After removal photos.

Then, lurking underneath are the factory original covers from 1961.

Backsides showing water damage destruction and potato chip style warping.

So I need new armrests to go with the new door cards I was about to make. Built some new ones out the old by disassembly and pattern making. Kept the original support base of solid wood and sponge rubber by filling some of the cavities with bits of glued in foam then glued a thin layer of poly foam on top of the repaired rubber. Covered them up with new vinyl and it's done. An easy sub job.

Onward with the door cards then. Datsun Bluebird door card production central.

I bought four new large door card sheets from Automotive Interiors and Accessories, INC, located in Belchertown, MA. These cards measured 32 by 48 inch each. I only needed two but four was the minimum order. Then I traced the best of the old cards onto the new and cut them out. All the holes were punched out with a gasket maker hole punch tool.

Added some cotton batting as was found on the original construction. Weldwood contact cement was the glue of choice but have to use it outside because the fumes are really bad.

Sewed up some cover designs similar to the original style except replaced the OEM vinyl lower half with pleated cloth on 1/8 inch foam to mimic the new seat style.

Then glued all the new covers onto the new cards. Made a mistake here in that I should have trimmed out the spaces for the door clips and also should have trimmed back the 1/8 inch foam on the bottom edges. Messing with the aftermath of the mistake took several additional hours to trim once the material was glued.

Finished products in trial fit installation. No problems and looks acceptable for fit.

The light gray bezels should be dark gray for this model year as shown on the rear door above. All the light gray bezels shown (and plastic dash controls for choke, wiper and lights) are salvaged from a later model Bluebird PL311. Not too noticeable though.

So I guess it looks kind of plush for a homemade trimming job but not too much.

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by MARTS-PL310
fix spelling errors

[MARTS-PL310]

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - VW Distractions and painting the underside of the floors, tunnel and sills.

I've been distracted by my other project for several months - getting the VW Beetle project that I inherited from my sister up and running.

Now, over the last week or. so I've jumped back on the Bluebird project in order to complete painting the underside of the metalwork before the wet and cold weather sets in. Our Pacific Northwest "Endless Summer" that we have enjoyed since June flips over to the normal cool and wet fall in just a few more days.

Yes, the frame rails are still filthy. Just thankful they aren't rusted out. Some day they will be cleaned up.

Finished on the last warm day this week. I didn't want to be painting the underside of anything in the cold and have the paint drip down on me while laying on my back on the low boy creeper.

Showing some photos below of the VW project distraction before moving on to more detailed posts of the painting job preparation and completion. Mainly it's a seized engine teardown and reassembly with new pistons, cylinders and heads. Engine bottom end was good except I elected to have the mains align bored. Plus, I'm still fixing numerous other problems due to corroded electrical connections throughout the VW chassis, especially the grounds. Hope nobody minds the momentary VW diversion.

As the '79 VW was found, it included a huge AC compressor which will be discarded due to broken casting and excessive weight! Car had been sitting outside for years, fully exposed to the rain falling through the air inlet vents directly onto cylinder no. 4 spark plug hole, unfortunately it had been stripped out and the plug was left out resulting in a cylinder filled with water.

 

A bit rusty it was.

Destructive teardown to separate rust welded no. 4 piston/cylinder. Cylinders and pistons were to be tossed out anyways.

Reassembly of bottom end begins. Polished crank, main bearing align bore, new bearing shells and reused all the rest.

Had the air cooling tins satin black powder coated.

It lives! Yes, looking through the rear glass, that's a 2 by 4 board holding the rotted top structure up.