my 1932 datsun replica build

NOHOME said:

So cool to see this driving around. It has been quite the journey.

Thank you.  I'm relieved to have it able to move again...and yes, a long journey. 

Today we took Gertrude around the block.  She was uncertain at first, but as soon as we starting moving she smiled the rest of the time.

This was the first time she's been in the car while it was moving, and it was important to me.  This project has been going on her entire life, and she's gotten to be an old lady.  She's not doing so well.....in fact, she spent several days this week with the veterinarian because she was so sick.  I am glad she was able to make it long enough to see the car move.  She loves car rides, and always seemed to be anticipating this day.

Before the dog could go for a ride, we had to swap out some cracked hoses on the carburetors that were leaking fuel.  Dad came over to help with that, and to establish a better ground for the gauges.

I also cleaned up a mess I had created.  Back in the day, I built the back deck out of an oven.  I remembered to chamfer the holes that I drilled, but I should have re-painted the panel before I riveted it into place on the chassis.  I didn't, and rust had formed on the deck panels around the rivets

I hit those spots with rustoleum rust dissolver.  Naturally, that messed up the paint a bit, too, but I was going to repaint afterwards anyway to protect the metal from rusting again.

I also started making the bases for some some new turn signals housings/mirrors that will be more like the "trafficator" (semaphore) signals used on the real Type 12 Datsun

• Two days ago, Dad moved the ground on the instruments.
• This a.m. I finished putting the terminal ends on some new battery cables.

Both of those are preparations for relocating the battery on the datsun.  It is currently sitting in the passenger's foot well, but I'm planning to put it behind the seat and run the cables through the transmission tunnel.

I'm also going to lower the bases of the turn signal housings I'm building.   The holes I had drilled to mount them are too high 

I now have the brake light switch that I need to build a mount for

JoeyM said:

I now have the break light switch that I need to build a mount for

Brake light.  No, I'm not illiterate.

I moved the battery to a spot behind the passenger seat on the floor.  Repositioning it will let me keep it out of the way, and provide a method of building battery restraints to keep it in place during corners.  I was worried; I've never made battery cables before.

The car still works.

Looking good.

The mad scientist-esque knife switch is a nice touch.

I'm going to mount the turn signals a little lower on the windshield frame than I had intended.  The old holes are filled, and the new lower holes are drilled.  I'm also modifying the base of the turn signal mounts so they fit more tightly against the side of the frame.

Okay, that was a bit of a pain in the butt, but we are back to where we were on 6/21; i.e. ready to fabricate a pair of Datsun-like housings for VW semaphore turn signals.

I'm trying a smaller (12 fuse) wiring harness...partially because it has fewer unneeded wires, and partially because the fuse box has a nice waterproof cover (unlike the larger fuse panel for the larger harness) which will give me more options where to mount it

Sorting through the wires....

I used to hate sheet metal welding. Then I discovered wiring....

I'm going to put the horn on the engine-facing side of the lower frame rail.  This means that it will not be in the way if I decide to put sides on the engine bay. 

Yesterday I made a mounting tab for the horn.  Today I welded the tab to the lower frame rail on the passenger side of the car.

..... With the horn mounted. It is tilted downward so that any water splashed up inside will fall out.  Yes, I will have to remove the horn again to paint there.

I also tried using a Scotch-Brite pad and a little elbow grease to brighten up the head a bit...

It honestly doesn't look too bad for a 36 year-old engine that has never been detailed. 

Okay, so we know that the car can start and be driven around the block, and that I could not do that on my own;  I didn't run the wiring to do that, and I don't fully understand it.

What I need to do now is get the headlights, tail light, brake light, horn, and turn signals working.  As mentioned above, I have a painless-style fuse box and harness from speedway to use for that.  I just made a tray under the dash to mount the fuse box in.

So now the fuse box in the speedway harness is sitting in the little tray that I made for it.

I also found out that the reason I couldn't power the horn with the inline fuse wire is that the fuse was burned up.  I opened the fuse holder, replaced it, and it acts like a normal wire. Now that that is worked out, I may end up mounting the horn button in the dash tomorrow.

Okay, it is kind of sloppy, but I can mount the horn button in the dash....

... and, if I'm not using a harness, I can operate the horn with that button.

Now I need to figure out how to run the horn via the harness

In reply to JoeyM :

Are you going to make it to Gainesville this year?

Indy-Guy said:

In reply to JoeyM :

Are you going to make it to Gainesville this year?

Dad and I are going to make a one-day drive up on Friday just to see the competition; the same as we've done a few times in the past.  My Mrs. may come with us to see what she's been hearing me talk about so much.

The Datsun will not be ready for the trip.  I hope to make an appearance in the exhibition class for the 2020 challenge.

In reply to JoeyM :

Make sure you come find me 

Patrick said:

In reply to JoeyM :

Make sure you come find me 

Thank you.  It was good to see you, and good to be back at the challenge for the first time in years.  Here are my challenge photos

I needed to figure out how to use this brake light switch with this pedal assembly.  My method was to make a mount out of angle iron.  I may build something better and more elaborate in the future, but this looks like a functional interim solution.

In reply to JoeyM :

It was good to meet you, sorry it was when i felt like i was going a million miles an hour in every direction.  

Patrick said:

In reply to JoeyM :

It was good to meet you, sorry it was when i felt like i was going a million miles an hour in every direction.  

No worries, you were.  You were getting food, racing a car, selling a car, and purchasing a car, all at the same time.