1977 datsun 180b estate - In with the DET

[damien4884]

So left it at the window frame being welded, i heard there was some rain on the way so refitted the window to keep the rain out for now.

Got some money in so took a trip over to datman for some bits and a general nose about. Left there with a passengers sill, head gasket set and a few other odds n ends. Then went onto alramones, where i picked up a pair of front arches and a rear seat back from a wagon thats going to be bangered (TBH its all its good for )

Original plan was to chop up the half decent arches to repair my rear ones, however the pattern ones on the front of mine are really bad fitting, so now have a pair of quite well fitting, slightly rusty red ones on the front which i can repair with the pattern wings. Then use whats left over to fix the rear quarters . Sounds quite long winded but looks like less work.

Now that the window frame is watertight (ish) i can get on with repairing the LH boot area. looking to the other side



It looks quite good, its got an overlap it shouldn't have but its covered by the boot liner and presentable enough. Over to LH side:



Theres a few rusty bits of floor, rear crossmember and a few patches over bits n bobs which altogether looks a bit of a mess. (in that picture i've already removed one patch in corner and welded in a better fitting panel).

Theres should be a picture here of the panels i've already made to finish up the repairs to floor ready to weld in but i've lost it somewhere and randomly gained a picture of lana del ray so have that instead!



Moving to the outside on LH side theres another repair needed to the rear corner, thankfully its not as bad as other side



Now waiting on all the bits i ordered yesterday to turn up.

[damien4884]

Some of the bits have turned up



;D Time to bring out the big welder ;D

Ordered this yesterday morning from barnet welding supplies (teal pages, tonybmw approved!) Arrived here 11.45am



Wasted no time digging out the big 'un and had a play. I've swapped this over from the usual 0.8mm wire down to 0.6mm for the bodywork. Had a play



underside



The other welder is pretty good but its not consistently good, however this is a entirely different animal.

Just gotta wait for some slitting discs before I can use it in anger

Just realised how close it is to the gathering, current plan is to have this ready for a blow over and MOT in 3 WEEKS!!!

[damien4884]

Got some more welding done today, boot is nearly done!







Just need to shape and blend the welds a bit more then its ready for the rear valance once the LH rear corner repairs are done.

Started to get the rear arch sorted out on passengers side (drivers side is up against the standard atm) chopped the outer off above the rot, cleaned up the edge of inner arch (surprisingly solid) and started tacking in the repair.

[damien4884]

Inner boot area welding is finished!!

Cut out some rot outside


Cut out some rot inside


Plug weld outer repair onto lamp bowl and seam around the edge


Seam weld inner repair into place and few welds down edge to hold it all together


Carefully chopped rot out of bottom bit and weld in new bits to finish it off.


Now going to move onto rear 1/4 repair and outer edge of bootlid hole.

[retroturbo]

There's more exotic stuff being built on these pages, but this is actually the thread I enjoy most in Readers Rides and look out for!

I'm not 'into' Datsuns but really like seeing it come together and the speed and the quality of work I find really impressive.

[mantiac]

Apologies for a boring comment, but; great work, it's going to look great!

[damien4884]

Thanks for the comments, nothing to it really

The pace of work is due to talking myself out of 5 days a week work, now I'm on a casual contract until after the gathering when my new job starts. (well I handed my notice in and day before I should of left BA changed the project start date )

Ideal for the datsun not so ideal for cash flow. I think my last pay packet got spent in 2 days on everything I need to get car done up to primer, which i've given myself until around about the 20th to do.

[MK2VR6]

Great to see this old wagon getting the tlc it deserves. I remember when it was up for sale originally, after being stored for years, thinking just how tidy it looked. No wonder they are so rare - if this one has been dry stored and still grotty around the edges, the daily driver 180's had no chance!
Looking forward to seeing if you hit your deadline - best of luck!

[damien4884]

Been in with the kids n mrs most of the day due to the weather, managed to get a little bit of boot surround done though




Needs the outer edge of the lip replacing from bottom of that repair to top of last repair, that should be quite quick though.

[Deleted]

Coming along very nicely indeed, I'm impressed with the speed you're working on this given the 'summer' we're having.

[damien4884]

Theres a lot of diving in and out of cover going on at the moment but we are not having as much rain here as a lot of other places.

I thought i should sort out the rest of the holes around the boot in the hope it keeps the water out.



Thats along the top edge, theres a missing picture again as i did a repair on the edge where roof and rear quarter meet, which i also need to sort out on other side, but for now i've just run a bead of weld over the hole.

Now there should be no water running down the rear post and down the lower rear corner of rear quarter i've started to repair it. Its pretty much the same sort of work as other side just smaller panels.



the ziebart burns quite well

[datman]

It was only indoors from 1999 on, so it was already 22 years old and came from Hastings, which, is by the sea. I have an old pic of it from before I even bought it.


FIY Damian, just had an email from you which is just spam, so i think your account has been hacked or you have a virus or something. Pointless me emailing you to tell you hence putting it here.

[damien4884]

Jul 9, 2012 0:22:06 GMT datman said:

It was only indoors from 1999 on, so it was already 22 years old and came from Hastings, which, is by the sea. I have an old pic of it from before I even bought it.


FIY Damian, just had an email from you which is just spam, so I think your account has been hacked or you have a virus or something. Pointless me emailing you to tell you hence putting it here.

Yeah i've had a few people tell me that and i've sent 12 to myself!?! should be sorted now.

So list of work to do by 20th (ish)


rear corner - nearly there
rear valance - few plugs welds
boot opening - think theres 2 small repairs to do
rear arches and repairs to inners - ones on
passengers sill - repair to front edge
passengers floor - small repair to leading edge
front wings - repairs and gapping
front panel - repairs to both edges
doors and bonnet - few localised repairs (leaving these until last, at least i'll have the main body done and i can whip these off and sort them in the garage)
windscreen and roof - not looking forward to these
Filler - splodge here and there[/blockquote]

Theres a few more bits to do after that lot but this is where i'm focusing.

[damien4884]

By the 20th (ish)

rear corner - nearly there DONE
rear valance - few plugs welds
boot opening - think theres 2 small repairs to do
rear arches and repairs to inners - ones on
passengers sill - repair to front edge
passengers floor - small repair to leading edge
front wings - repairs and gapping
front panel - repairs to both edges
doors and bonnet - few localised repairs (leaving these until last, at least i'll have the main body done and I can whip these off and sort them in the garage)
windscreen and roof - not looking forward to these
Filler - splodge here and there

Started to get on with passengers rear arch.



Finished welding the arch panel (the bit thats not welded, I'm not happy with the shape so needs chopping out and a shaped bit letting in). Then turned my attention to the lower part, somehow i've managed to cut it so bottom edge is 8mm too far to rear so the curve isn't right, as you can see. I haven't got another bit so i'll need to chop it out and add a fillet somewhere!

Hope the other side goes better

[75nut]

I take it you recommend the Welder then, I'm loking to upgrade from gassless, loks like your getting good strong flat welds from it.

[damien4884]

Its pretty good, its no portamig but it was less than £100 when i bought it 4 years ago. There was a typo in the title on ebay and most people must of missed it. It was bought to replace a SIP which tends to vary the quality of the weld depending on how the machine feels.

[datman]

I have an old Hobart which i bought from the local welding shop, its ancient but built to last for ever. I recommend getting an old heavy clunker like that.

[damien4884]

The mrs has gone away for 5 days with the kids to disneyland and i'm off work!!! Time to crack on

With the weather my work on the wagon is limited but still moving along. In a brief dry spell (after it taking 4 hours to drive to st pancras and back) i managed to massage the wing into a better shape, took a file to the mounting holes and managed to get the door gap almost sorted.



Its a bit off at the top but i think i'll run a weld along there and grind it back. With it in a good position i thought i should start getting rid of the rusty bits. Chopped a section out of the poor fitting pattern panel and welded it in



Still got another bit to weld in above it but i'm much happier with the fit. I started trying to work out where i need to chop it for the repair to the rear edge but the rain came, so whipped the 2 bolts i left holding front panel on and retired to the garage.



Made up first bit using up some of my offcuts here as getting low on un needed shelving

[Deleted]

Awesome stuff, as usual.

[damien4884]

By the 20th (ish)

rear corner - nearly there DONE
rear valance - few plugs welds DONE
boot opening - think theres 2 small repairs to do DONE
rear arches and repairs to inners - ones on
passengers sill - repair to front edge
passengers floor - small repair to leading edge
front wings - repairs and gapping CLOSER
front panel - repairs to both edges CLOSER
doors and bonnet - few localised repairs (leaving these until last, at least i'll have the main body done and i can whip these off and sort them in the garage)
windscreen and roof - not looking forward to these
Filler - splodge here and there

One i forgot :
Repairs to rear side window frames NEARLY DONE

Treated inside of rear crossmember yesterday to a coat of chassis black, did the same to rear of reear valance and welded it in.



Weather wasn't looking too bad but forecast showed it would be changing later (now) so thought i would leave the windscreen and sort out one of the rear windows instead. Out with the window and cleaned up:



Few bits made up and welded in





Did another bit further forward and then it started to get cloudy so window went back in just in case.

4 hours in 2 more to go