(Sigh). I accidentally cut some tubes shorter than they should be when I was trying to get metal pieces made for the top half of the seate adapters. I guess I'll be welding extensions on.
I've decided that the hard part of fabricating is continuing after you're mentally done. You need to continue working on the project after you've already done all the fun designing in your head. Otherwise, you won't get through the boring assembly stuff
Hey, good news!
I may have cut those two pieces too short for what I was going use on the top of the seat adapter where i had intended
but I think they can be used as part of the bottom of the seat adapter
lemons to lemonade
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top side (that bolts to the car) of the seat adapter is welded but in need of grinding
the bottom is tacked. the risers haven't been cut yet. They will be cut to whatever length puts the slit in the seat in line with the harness bar.
OK, that seat is on the adapter and mounted to the chassis, but it is crooked. It can be fixed, obvs, but I also need to fabricate the seat adapter for the driver's seat.....running out of time to try and get stuff ready for the car show at Sebring.
The top of the driver's seat adapter is tacked together, but the base and the uprights to connect them still need to be made.
Passenger seat still crooked....not going to mess with it until the other seat is mounted. All parts of driver's seat adapter are now cut.....still a ton of modification to do. The uprights of it still need to be shortened about an inch, but this test fitting looked pretty good.
Today was rough....my angle grinder died. The Mrs. Wfnr to get another one, so I could keep welding...then I ran out of wire....I drove to lowes, kicking myself for not keeping an extra roll on hand....then I ran out of gas.
The belts and new seats will not be in the car for Saturday's car show at the track in Sebring. The last thing I did on Friday was putting the old seats back into the car. 
....and today was wonderful!
Sebring is the longest drive yet with the car, and she ran reasonably well; still not as smoothly as I'd like, and there were strange sounds, but she got me there and back home without incident. The Mrs. followed me with tools, a full set of fluids, and a gas can to ensure that I got there safely.
The weather was glorious, something I had worried about since I haven't built a top for the car yet.
Best of all, they let me drive during parade laps, despite the lack of seat belts. Of course, there's a catch; the "lap" was only around 10 mph.
oh my odometer turned over 1000 miles.
JoeyM said:....and today was wonderful!
Sebring is the longest drive yet with the car, and she ran.....
oh my odometer turned over 1000 miles.
Thank you for sharing Joey!!! Proud of you brother!!!
this is always a cool thread to catch up on.
how loud is your short exhaust?
wheels777 said:JoeyM said:....and today was wonderful!
Sebring is the longest drive yet with the car, and she ran.....
oh my odometer turned over 1000 miles.
Thank you for sharing Joey!!! Proud of you brother!!!
Thank you. That means a lot to me. Your support and advice have been very helpful on this LONG build
Datsun310Guy said:this is always a cool thread to catch up on.
how loud is your short exhaust?
I won't lie....the L24 is a touch on the noisy side with that exhaust. (Think obnoxiously loud motorcycle.) One of the down-the-road projects is to quiet her down a little bit. Here's the plan. I'd like to shorten it a few inches and add an exhaust tip that turns outward so I don't need to wash exhaust soot off the driver's door as often. I'm thinking of building something like these ones from speedway
If I did that, the right angle bend could also hold a muffler insert up in the tube.
I rounded a brass nut, and AirGas sold me a replacement part that isn't compatible with the regulator that came on my Lincoln power MIG welder....but that doesn't mean that Dad and I can't apply sandpaper to the interior surface of the new nut to widen the hole a little.
Now we have a new nut that has been opened up enough to hold the old gas inlet for the regulator. Everything is reassembled, and at first glance it looks like The regulator is holding pressure properly. I haven't tried using welding with it yet. Maybe later this weekend....
Fingers crossed. If this works, the regulator on my welder will have been repaired for $15 instead of needing to be replaced for over $90.
If/when the welder is fixed, will be able to finish making seat adapters and putting the new seats & 5-point belts into the car.
The welder works, which means the use of some sand paper saved me $75
Our spring break just started, and one of my projects for this week will be restarting my attempt to construct a pair of seat adapters.
Oh, tonight we drove the datsun to dominos to pick up our pizza
JoeyM said:The welder works, which means the use of some sand paper saved me $75
Our spring break just started, and one of my projects for this week will be restarting my attempt to construct a pair of seat adapters.
Oh, tonight we drove the datsun to dominos to pick up our pizza
Pizza and ice cream always taste better when you drive your Hot Rod!
I'm on spring break, and I've spent much of the last few days cutting apart and welding back together adapters to put in the new seats. I'm finally happy with the way the seats look when they are mounted.
The seat adapters are not finished. The passenger side is probably 80% welded, but the tubes need caps, everything needs to be ground down until pretty, I will probably hit it with a bead blaster, and then a protective layer of paint to prevent rust.
The driver side seat adapter needs the same treatment, but first, I need to get beyond the tacked together stage. I might toodle around town with it, but it needs a lot more welding.
The lap belt mounting tabs need to be welded in place before I can put the harnesses in
Took her out for a drive with the new seats. You can definitely feel the width of the bolsters... The car feels smaller, and it seems like the cockpit is tighter. This is not a bad thing, since in recent weeks I have been whining that I should have built the car smaller so it was more like the original.
(We will just ignore the fact that the original car was so kei-car tiny that my rotund self probably wouldn't be comfortable in it)
I'm sad to announce that the terrifying carburetors-spit-gasoline problem is back.
JoeyM said:I'm sad to announce that the terrifying carburetors-spit-gasoline problem is back.
SU Carbs are shooting fountains of gas from overflow nipples. I will track down the problem, but in the mean time I need to keep the gas spilling from the carbs from getting near the exhaust....hence the T of fuel line.
I suspect the root of the problem maybe floats in the bowls sticking so the input from the fuel line stays open
OK, I finally had time to get the car out of the garage and film it until it reproduced the spitting-gas-out-of-the-carbs problem. Here's the video
Needle valve or float?
wheels777 said:Needle valve or float?
Ok, i guess I am about to learn how to work on carbs. Any advice on how to tell if this is more of a "clean it" problem or a "rebuild it" problem? Am I correct that either one would require removing the carbs from the engine and completely disassembling them? Is it true that this should be done one at a time because some parts be are not interchangeable?
Sorry, haven't read the whole thread, just poked in. What psi is your fuel pump putting out? SUs only like 3 or less and most aftermarket pumps put out more than that.
Something to check.
Rebuilding SUs is really easy. I'd throw new fill valves in there anyways.
Apexcarver said:What psi is your fuel pump putting out? SUs only like 3 or less and most aftermarket pumps put out more than that.
Something to check
I don't have a gauge, but the pump is a holley red, so probably around 7 psi.
Is there some type of regulator that I could put inline to reduce the pressure?
In reply to JoeyM :
It might be cheaper to switch to a different pump. Mr. Gasket 42S puts out the right pressure for SU carbs, I think.
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