"The Goon" Build (KA Datsun)

[WagDatto]

Another Daily Update!!

Wow, I've been busy with the little things this week (I know that's gonna come full circle with a gay joke)! Between classes, I decided to finish off my radio panel filler plate. Last I had posted, I sanded it down to get it to fit, prepped and painted it silver:



The goal was to keep the border and "Datsun" silver, and paint the rest black, then clear the whole thing to protect it from grubby little fingers.

I started off by sneaking over to NAPA, and getting some new cans of paint, and some decent masking tape, and then set to work taping it all off. The downside is that I got green tape ALL OVER my black shorts. Can you say 'fashion statement?' Pics:





I started off light, I ended up putting eight SUPER light coats of gloss black spray paint on it. The silver/chrome paint was thick, and even started to block out the textured parts of the plastic plate, so I took my time and did it nice and slow:



Finally, I was done letting it dry enough to peel off the masking tape, and what do you know! It turned out okay... I didn't do a perfect job of masking, so I didn't get perfect results, but I'm pretty happy with it. It turned out like I wanted it to, at least. Nothing on my car is OMGOVERTHETOP, so why should a filler plate be, you know? The other downside to peeling the masking tape back off is, I got even more tape (this time green with black paint all over it) on my shorts. Pics:







Anywho, I ran out of time to do anything too exciting before I had to go back to class... But while I waited for the plate to dry, I did finish sanding down my hood hinges. I took the Pea Green paint off, and finished them up with some 220 grit paper, and hit them with a few thick coats of semi-flat black. I'll probably hit them with some clear, just because, but I'm not too worried about them turning out perfect, they're hinges for gawdsake.

Also, since my old hood won't fit cuz of the stupid hole and ZX hood scoop, I got some red and white paint... When I get bored at Phil's this week, I'll paint something fantastic for you guys! Teaser:

[alindeman1989]

The hood looks sweet.

[WagDatto]

Originally Posted by alindeman1989

The hood looks sweet.

Well we'll see how mine comes out, but that's the jist of what I want to do... Like I said, it's pretty much a scrapper hood, so if I eff it, eh.. Eff it!

[kcndizzle]

Originally Posted by WagDatto

Well we'll see how mine comes out, but that's the jist of what I want to do... Like I said, it's pretty much a scrapper hood, so if I eff it, eh.. Eff it!

Really? I remember talking about the pricing on body parts for these and I distinctly remember a complaint about finding parts for reasonable prices.
Or is that just for good body panels?

[WagDatto]

Whoa now, Mr. Hostile Words! The hood that I currently have is equipped with a hood scoop that will not clear my valve cover, and without the scoop it has a big, gaping hole in the middle! Chris in Rio Linda is going to be hookin' a brother up for "somewhere between 100 and 150" for a hood in decent shape, but we'll just have to see what he has in his barn. Not cheap for a 30something year old piece of metal.

By "scapper" I mean that it won't be going on this particular 510, and perhaps at a later date, it can be used for something, but rather than the black/green squiggly-camo thing it has going right now, a rising sun pattern would cheer it all up a touch!

[kcndizzle]

Lolz, no hostile intentions, just didn't understand the usage of the word "scapper". Nor had I ever heard the term "scapper". Huh...Scapper... Could I get a definition and the country of origin please?

[WagDatto]

A Scrapper... you know, the El Camino's rolling around on 63" rims with 14 subwoofers and blacxican people driving them? A Scrapper!

[kcndizzle]

Wait... You've seen me driving my El-camino with the dubz? That's how I be mini-truckin...

[fbiphil]

You'd be less likely to have gay jokes coming your way if you'd stop showing people your sexy legs... fwiw.

[kcndizzle]

Just got back from actually seeing the "Goon" in person, and I must say, the car is teh hotness. Definitely going to be cool having it roll around Sac. soon. And with the confidence that Mr. Wagdatto has about having it up and running. Soon may just be an understatement .

[WagDatto]

Alright, people! Time for another one of those update things! Yes, Kcndizzle came by and checked out the progress. He came, he saw, he liked what he saw. In any case, I haven't done TOO much in the past few days... Just, you know, painting. I've been painting the old, holey hood red, in anticipation of the rising sun pattern that'll be going on, as well as getting a new, uncracked 280zx scoop. I also modified the new scoop so that it MIGHT clear the valve cover.

At the very least, I'll have a spare hood that'll be red and white, so I can play dress up if I'm going out on a friday night, or something...

But the hood will no longer be needed (as a perma-hood, at least)!! I drove to Rio Linda earlier today, to meet up with Chris. We spoke last time about getting a look at a few hoods he had laying around, and today was the day. We only pulled out two, but that's all I needed to see. The first one was good, better than what James (in Grass Valley, see earlier post) had, but had some dents and a bend... The second hood, though... Wow. Besides being a dusty, faded orange color, it was practically flawless! No bends, no dents, no rust, no MAJOR scratches or scars, it was pretty. At $125, I couldn't say no! I also got a new glove box (mine is broken) and a few switches for the dash to make it look more complete, and then shot the shit with Chris for a few and headed back home. Today was the second time he told me that he wouldn't sell his '79 Skyline...

I grabbed some more paint at Napa, and decided to get a can of paint stripper for the orange/yellow paint (was originally yellow, repainted red and then orange at some point in it's life). I didn't have very high hopes, but $5 is cheap enough I'd give it a shot! I used almost the whole can spraying the hood, but in 5-10 minutes, it was bubbling, and I scraped the whole thing pretty close to bare! I was surprised and happy that it worked as well as it did!

A few pics after I rinsed the crap off and sanded the SHIT out of it:




That's right, this is the first part in a while that I've taken the time to do right the first time, kind of. 220 grit to finish smoothing it all out, and 320 grit to really get it fine. Our younger brother's and my hands and arms are sore, but it turned out really really fancy!

I layed down a can and a half of flat black primer, before bolting it on. The fiberglass fenders are a bit thicker than the stock metal ones, so there are some clearance issues to worry about before it's "done," and I'll probably sand the whole hood down pretty good before I'm happy with it (for the time being, that is), but so far it's looking really good!






Anyways, other than the hoods, nothing's really new. I've been staying at my brother's house the past few days, and I'm starting to either lose brain cells from the tagging, or the dogs are driving me insane, but this lil' guy makes me laugh so hard sometimes that my stomach hurts and I'm crying! I'll leave you with a picture of the Henry monster:

[ericcastro]

lookin good. What are you doing for the grill?? what kind/year/emblem/color ??

And are you going stock bumper of the front??

[WagDatto]

Originally Posted by ericcastro

lookin good. What are you doing for the grill?? what kind/year/emblem/color ??

And are you going stock bumper of the front??

The grille and headlight finishers are going to be soda blasted, or have the paint stripped from them in some fashion. Grille, headlight finishers, eyebrow trim, upper-valance trim and hood trim will all just be plain old stainless steel, rather than the chipped black paint that's on them now. It's not a fancy grille, not a 68 or 73 or anything, and no emblems. Somebody already started shaving all the emblems off, so I won't even bother drilling holes for new ones (I'll save my $200 for something else!)

[WagDatto]

Holy damn, another update!

Just "finished" my old hood today. All in all, it took me four days to finish painting to where I'm at now. I sanded the whole thing down, primered it and sanded that down, then started in on the red. A can and a half later, I let it sit for a full day before starting to mask.

I layed out a block of green tape where I wanted the sun to be, and traced a revolving fan cover to get the shape and size I liked. From there, I started measuring and laying down guide-lines for the rays, as well as making sure that the reds and whites didn't overlap at all:



From there, I took the lines out to the edges:



And masked in where I wanted the reds to stay:




From there, I hit it with some sandpaper to smooth it out, and wiped it clean. I cracked open my can o' white, and set to work:
1 coat

3 coats


A total of 9 coats of white, and I peeled away the tape and called it done for the day. It's not perfect, as the paint peeled back where I originally cut out the sun, so in a day or two, it'll need to be masked and touched up before I take some clear to it, but I'm super happy with how it turned out! I also used some gloss black on the new scoop, and layed it in there really quick for you guys to see how it'll look, and MAYBE give a teaser of the hood that MIGHT be on Phil's POSSIBLE 2 door!


Peeled paint:

With scoop:


We'll see what happens in the 2 door department here, in the next week or two. You guys might have to live with another one of our project threads!

[fbiphil]

I might be getting a 2 door, IF Sean can keep from destroying the car I'm selling to get it within the next 5 days! Looks good, bro- thanks for holding down the fort while I was gone!

BTW- I made it from Anaheim to Sacramento in just over 6 hours today! FLYIN' in the MINIVAN!!

[WagDatto]

Originally Posted by fbiphil

I might be getting a 2 door, IF Sean can keep from destroying the car I'm selling to get it within the next 5 days! Looks good, bro- thanks for holding down the fort while I was gone!

BTW- I made it from Anaheim to Sacramento in just over 6 hours today! FLYIN' in the MINIVAN!!

The Fast and the Furious: Minivan Drag

In theaters this Fall!

[kcndizzle]

Hood is Awesome-sauce!

[Leetheslacker]

hood turned out much better then my previous attempt.




i dig it.

[WagDatto]

Originally Posted by Leetheslacker

hood turned out much better then my previous attempt.




i dig it.

The key was to measure even "slices of the pie" from the center of the sun outward. Yours seemed like they started out super thin and got super big and uneven as they went. A good try, at least yours started out red, where mine was a black/green squiggle-fest! The painting only took a little while to spend a can of white on the hood, but measuring and taking my time to mask took me at least an hour and a half or two hours to do it right.

[Leetheslacker]

yeah. it was more of a hanging out in the garage with a few buddies, a few leftover cans of spray paint, a spare hood and some time to kill, more than a planned out thing.

[WagDatto]

Can anybody say "Progress?"

Okay, not REAL progress, but good news, nonetheless! I ran over to FBI today to get a part made for my dad, and decided to check out the piece of metal that came in on Friday. But not just ANY piece of metal... it's the piece of metal that's been laser cut for my fuel cell!



Nifty, eh? The next order of business (tonight or tomorrow) is Marty bending the sides inward and starting to weld! It has the exact bolt pattern laser cut out for the sending unit to line up with, so we've got to get some nuts and bolts and weld them inside to screw it all down to. Then it's a matter of capping the bottom off, and finding the correct tube for the filler neck, welding in some baffles, and SHA-POW!! Fuel cell done!

Marty at the metal break, in his primal state of Rednecked Fury:

[WagDatto]

Right, picture time. Today, Phil and I drilled some holes into my radiator support and mounted the radiator all up in there! We also grabbed some 240sx radiator hoses, both of which had to be trimmed quite a bit to fit on there. The next step is to get the pressurized overflow tank from a VW, get a 10" electric fan and mount it to the radiator, and toss some hose clamps on the hoses and radiator is all done.

Also, we threw hose clamps on the heater hoses, so that's ready to go. Tomorrow, I'll go back to SMA and get my headers (hopefully the right ones this time!), and Marty is going to get the rest of the metal for my fuel cell. He told me that by the end of the week, it'll be ready, so keep your fingers crossed! Next on the list is wiring, and re-running a few fuel lines and we should be ready to try and start the motor... I hope...

Radiator fillin' up the space:

Mounted:

Hoses:

Pokin' through:

Grille:


I'll keep you guys posted this week, but there won't be much progress until next weekend.

[firelizard]

I love this thread sooo much.

[WagDatto]

Shoop da whoop! I'll like it when I get to show some action shots. I get giddy thinking about driving it, I can't wait to start planning how I'll do exhaust and rear flares, but until then, I just wanna hear it start!

[kcndizzle]

Super hawt! You've even got me antsy for the start-up

[fbiphil]

Here are a couple shots I got today with a real camera:

Stock fenders back on for now- wheels still clear with camber


Braided stainless clutch hose- clutch hydraulics are all bled and ready to go


Good shot of wiring harness coming through firewall


Wiring harness split for pass. side intake, radiator mounted and looking clean


Sean putting the turn signals back on. If we can get some good weather next weekend, maybe it'll make it out into the sun for the first time in a while!


-Phil

[fbiphil]

Well, Sean didn't call me all day, so school and work must have gotten the best of him!
I figured I'd go out there and see what I could do, so I made the "Goon" even goonier by making it a "4-eyed freak"!











These aren't the high-dollar Cibies or Hellas, but I've had good luck with them in the past. The HIDs are 6000K, and should look pretty clean when they're all wired, since we're not plugging them into existing wiring. I'll get them hooked up (and the ballasts mounted) sometime this week and show them off lit...
Sean will hopefully be by tomorrow with the new header, so we can finish all of the underhood plumbing and start final wiring.
Marty the metal machine got the fuel cell all bent up today, so now it just needs an SAE assload of welding to finish off... I'll let Sean take it from here!
-Phil

[WagDatto]

Holy hell, Phil! You text me and say "New update" for my post, I figured you bolted the fenders on or something!! HID's all around for the Big Bad 'Goon! I approve of this endeavor... This makes me feel a'pretty-pretty-goood!

Yeah, SMA didn't get the headers in until about 3 today, and I worked at 4, so a trip downtown didn't fit into my schedule at all. Tomorrow, I'm running there right after class to get them, and then I'll swing by and bolt the headers on, trim up the last bit of radiator hose, and maybe toss a few bolts in the fenders and valance to make the front end look a bit better. I'll probably toss a larger spacer on the hood to kick it up a bit in the rear and maybe make it pop a little smoother (I can only hope!). I might even start in on some paint stripper and get the grille and headlight housings shining again, if I can! So if all goes as I plan, you guys will have some pictures of a complete front end, and shiny new headers tomorrow afternoon!

Thanks, big brother! I wuv you bundles!

[s13 drifta]

Very nice 510 build, that engine bay looks really fresh. Keep up the good work.

[WagDatto]

Big, Humongous, Giant, Shiny Update!!

I have plenty of pictures this time, taken by an actual camera, not my phone, to keep you guys entertained, cuz nobody likes reading anyway!

Today, I finally picked up my headers, and ran to FBI to show them off to my brother. It's amazing what $113 will get you, so long as it's made in China!

Stainless steel headers:




While I was at FBI, I checked in on my fuel cell, and it actually was finished today after I left, so tomorrow I get to take it home and set it on the dinner table as a centerpiece! I have baffles welded inside, as well as a laser cut hole for the sending unit and nuts welded inside to thread through for the sending unit (pictured a few posts back when it was flat):

Filler:


I ran to NAPA, and grabbed more paint stripper, like I used on the new hood, as well as some new rags (I flew through the last 25 pack of shop rags) and steel wool to clean up my stainless trim bits and grille.

Sprayed a few layers of stripper on the headlight covers, which were covered in black (see first post for before shots):

Stripped:




Then I hit the grille:

And bottom trim and hood trim and "eyebrows" (fender trim):




Cool, then it was time to drop in my nice, new headers and see how they fit! Oh, wait... They were made for a 240sx? Well, damn! As with my brother's 2-door, the flange curves up too much, and hits the floor pan BARELY too soon to bolt it on, so I'll have to take it off and cut the flange off to mount it permanently, and let the exhaust shop deal with it! I was also having a bitch of a time trying to fit the exhaust between the tranny and steering box, it's a tight fit and I couldn't remember how we did the 2-door. I ended up having to crank the wheels ALL the way to the right to get it here:

And then ALL the way to the left to get it to drop down where I needed it so I could get the flange onto the block:


But like I said, it hits the floor pan underneath, so I can't thread it on there completely, but it'll be done this weekend before we fire her up.

A few misc. shots I took:

Clearance on steering box (will probably get a lil tighter when I mount it completely):

Shiny pipes:

Raising the suspension to ride height/car on jacks:

New O2 sensor, and plenty of wire to use it:


So as far as a plan goes, I need VERY little to get this thing driving! Wiring shouldn't take long, Phil just needs to find the old diagram we used, and tie in a master cutoff switch. Mounting and plumbing the fuel tank should only take a bit, and then it's just a matter of tossing some nuts on the fenders, bleeding the brakes and turning the key! Unless something severe comes up, this car WILL be running this weekend.

Enjoy the pictures, more to come.