JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
6/20/20 12:36 a.m.

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Replica of a 1932 Datsun (@1932datsun) on

 

wheels777
wheels777 SuperDork
6/20/20 2:59 a.m.
JoeyM said:

 

 

 

 

THAT...my friend...made me happy!

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
6/21/20 9:55 p.m.
wheels777 said:

 

THAT...my friend...made me happy!

Thank you. I'm really happy. She's starting to feel a little more reliable. The quirks haven't gone away, but I'm learning to drive around them 

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
7/7/20 7:58 p.m.

 

I am ready for car shows, whenever those can safely start up again

 

03Panther
03Panther HalfDork
7/7/20 11:58 p.m.

In reply to JoeyM :

Now that's just awesome! 

Patrick (Forum Supporter)
Patrick (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
7/8/20 7:35 a.m.

That's sick

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
7/8/20 1:02 p.m.

 

Thanks, guys.  My sister made it....she's got the tools to make shirts, hats, cups, etc.   She can also do decals and lettering for cars.    If you need/want something made, PM me for her contact #

johndej
johndej Dork
8/19/20 2:44 p.m.

Very nice build.... saw this today and made me think of it.

https://www.duncanimports.com/used/Datsun/1937-Datsun-Type+17-5292d3690a0e08bb394b00e012635bac.htm

Hope to see some updates as it looks like a blast.

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
8/19/20 4:34 p.m.
johndej said:

Very nice build....

Thank you.  I'm nowhere near done, but with her finally close enough to be street legal, it has started to be fun again.

saw this today and made me think of it.

https://www.duncanimports.com/used/Datsun/1937-Datsun-Type+17-5292d3690a0e08bb394b00e012635bac.htm

Oh, I really like the center cap on the 1937's wheels.

Hope to see some updates as it looks like a blast.

I just ordered dzus-style fasteners.  I plan to redo the cowl so it is easily removable.  That will make it easier to rewire the gauges as I put them into the new oak dash that is in construction

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
9/4/20 12:05 a.m.

I was really proud of the look of those brackets to hold the headlight bar.....until I decided to remove the grill shell to work on it.  Then I discovered that removing the grill shell required removing the bar, which ( if done properly ) required removing the headlights, which might require rewiring.....

Time to try *moving* the bar (pursuasion via wooden mallet)  to get the grill off

.....and now I will try to modify the brackets that hold the bar. 

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
9/4/20 6:01 p.m.

You may recall that I was very proud of the brackets I made to hold the spreader bar between the headlights and fenders.  I shouldn't have been that pleased with them, the design should have had a slit to allow easy removal for future maintenance and modification of the car.

I now have such a little slit in the driver's side bracket.

... So I can slide the bracket off around the headlight wires

But this definitely was not the way to do it. Notice all the Knicks in the insulation on the wires, I'm going to have to redo a lot of the ends of the wires on this side for the running light, turn signal, and headlight.  I'll be doing the other side differently; i.e. unwiring the headlight. That's what I was trying to avoid and I now have even more wiring to do on the driver side.

 

in the future, that little slit in the light bar brackets will allow me to remove the bracket (and thus the headlights spreader bar, and thus the grill) without needing to remove headlights or rewire stuff.

 

 

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
9/4/20 10:33 p.m.

Naturally, I find a decent-looking sketch of the chassis of this car *after* my attempt to build a replica is already street legal.  Do you know how useful this would have been at the beginning of the build?

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

https://usa.nissannews.com/en-US/photos/1933-datsun-12-brochure-english-edition

 

https://usa.nissannews.com/en-US/photos/1933-datsun-12-brochure-english-edition-2

 

page 4

https://usa.nissannews.com/en-US/photos/1933-datsun-12-brochure-english-edition-4

Page 5

 

Page 6

03Panther
03Panther HalfDork
9/4/20 10:54 p.m.

Nice!

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
9/4/20 11:11 p.m.
03Panther said:

Nice!

Yeah, I am finding all kinds of cool stuff about the car now that I wish I had known about when I was starting out

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
9/5/20 5:14 p.m.

I turned the metal from a water heater access panel into a cover for the driver's side framehornon, and drilled holes to mount the LED running light there.  

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
9/5/20 7:13 p.m.

​​​​​​

Tomorrow I will put in the mounting screws and wire it up to test

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
9/6/20 12:10 p.m.

Well, the running lights work

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Joey Maier (@maierjbiology) on

 

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
9/6/20 2:06 p.m.

I'm bad at welding sheet metal.  I can do it if I need to, but normally avoid it.  A few years back I covered a few holes in the sheet metal (from an A/C air handler, FWIW) that I used for the rear quarter panels with fiberglass.  To do this, I put blue tape on the outside, glassed the inside, then puttied, sanded and painted the outside.  I've been running around for years this way without a problem, so I think the method works.

 

Well, the grill shell's inserts have a similar problem....three little holes that need filling.  I have been driving the car for months with blue tape over the holes, planning to use the same method, but didn't want to get fiberglass around the radiator.  That's why I had to find a way to get the grill shell off, which required removing the light bar, which required removing the light bar brackets, etc. 

 

 

Well, the grill shell is off, even if that's going to require redoing wiring that went through the light bar brackets.   

Because it is off the radiator, I was finally able to apply the fiberglass.

 

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
9/16/20 2:26 a.m.

 

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
9/19/20 9:28 a.m.

 

Sanded down and now covered with some white paint to protect the metal.  The gloss sand paint that I need to do it properly is on order

 

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
9/19/20 9:29 a.m.

Tiny easy changes are sometimes necessary when you're having trouble getting into the garage. This morning I put a wiper blade onto the Datsun this is the first time I've had a functional windshield wiper

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Replica of a 1932 Datsun (@1932datsun) on

 

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
9/25/20 11:53 a.m.

By the mid-30s, Datsun had adopted a leaping hare hood ornament.  

 

 

Here's the car that hood ornament is from

 

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
9/25/20 12:11 p.m.

My car is modeled after the older 1932/1933 period cars.  They didn't have that ornament yet, but I'd like to at least pay homage to the leaping hare in some way since it was one of the early Datsun logos. I don't know if I'll be able to pull it off or not, but I'm thinking of incorporating a backlit lens into that frame horn cover, with the leaping hare image on the lens.

Here is my doodle of the bouncy little rabbit dude

That is sketched onto a half of a 3x5 card. I'll need the image to be about that size, meaning around 2 in across. This is the computerized version of that doodle which I have sent to my sister who has a vinyl cutter.

The plan is to make the lens out of a piece of white acrylic, fronted with a piece of clear acrylic which can be replaced when it gets scratched. The hare would be made of black vinyl, and sandwiched between the layers, stuck to the White acrylic and protected behind the replaceable clear acrylic.

On the other frame horn, we could make a similar lens using translucent red and blue vinyl to make the more familiar  1970s Datsun logo which people associate with an l24 engine.

 

 

 

jfryjfry (Forum Supporter)
jfryjfry (Forum Supporter) Dork
9/25/20 12:26 p.m.

 Very cool.  Can't wait to see that come out!

JoeyM
JoeyM Mod Squad
9/25/20 12:35 p.m.
jfryjfry (Forum Supporter) said:

 Very cool.  Can't wait to see that come out!

Thank you.  I'm hoping it turns out OK.  We'll see.  The long term down the road change for appearance will be the fenders, and possibly even a convertible top.  I've been looking at this one that was made by a guy over on the locost forum.  Of course, a folding phaeton top is a bit more complicated.....

https://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=18512&sid=5cd09d05dbffccc8bd145365676f5222&start=15

Knowing me, though, that will be a half decade out.

 

 

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