wheee!

Bottom line: do you want a car that is a "driver" for a few years until you decide to purchase something else? Or have you been infected with the Datsun strain of dementia like the rest of us and decided this is the car for you forever? If it's the latter, be prepared for a long road of restoration, repair and refinancing....

Thank you! I am really enjoying this part, which surprises me. Learning a lot and feeling more confident as I go. Yesterday I was reminiscing about when I first found the car and thought to myself, "I can probably get this car fixed up nice for about 10 grand....!" thinking it only needed some minor work and cleanup. Boy was I mistaken... In the end, deciding to rotisserie the whole car was the best decision. I don't flip cars (pun intended), so I will be keeping this vehicle in my collection. No point in not doing it right.

Enough for today. I will flip the car and finish the welding tomorrow. Looks way better than I thought it would!....

Half welded! Spot welds went thru perfect. Now I have to go buy more wire

Fitted... with space for drain over 3/16" jack plate welded in place.

So I have left this opening between the rails to hopefully drain any moisture that gets into the frame rails. This will be the lowest point on the frame and the connecting panel has 1/16" of space facing the rear of the vehicle between the floor rail and connecting rail. This should allow an egress point without giving it an ingress point...

Mine were done at Fergies In Kelowna BC. http://www.hotrodlouvers.com/

I also have an anvil for pounding the sheet metal into shape. It isn't perfect, but it will be functional and with a little bodywork and paint, they should look good!

The welds are supposed to be seam welds but are the closest I could get inside the piece with my mig gun. They are there to "gusset" the corners or "folds" to reinforce them. Remember, I had to score the folds with a cutoff disc in order to bend them first. This way, they will be stronger and will withstand more pressure or small impacts and hold their shapes better and longer.

Interesting! Is the rear mount bar significantly different than the stock bar shape? Can the stock bar be mounted in the rear position? I am adding the Arizona Z Car mustache bar and dog bone so it should bolt inside the dog bone as per there website... just wondering if I need to order a new sway bar too....

Tomorrow will be the final fitting and welding after I get the frame coat paint on. I will be adding a jack plate to the bottom of the front floor pan section. 1/4" steel plate should do nicely!

Well, I worked on the structural joining piece between the front frame rails and the floor pan rails today. I used the mock up cardboard method plus a lot of measuring and test fitting. The parts turned out pretty good and I am close to getting it all welded up together.

Get'em louvred!....

Looking good!

Nice! Keep up a build thread as you go... it's good to see another 280 in progress.

I expect that a hi temp engine paint should work....

Love those old wheels

That actually doesn't look too bad. Nice interior reno too by the looks of it. I'm not much for roadsters, but I actually kinda like that. The fact it's a Datsun makes it even more cool....

Thanks Chas! Hope your family is well and you get some rest yourself! Thank you for all you have done for this community and all you continue to do. You are one of the forum greats...!

T rod support back in place. Welded up all the spot weld holes. I think that will hold

Just realized the yellow in the reflection is me and my welding gloves holding the iPhone...

Engine side of shock tower repair. Note: double thickness metal was used to make the repair as strong or stronger than stock.

I am confident my repair is the same height as before, which fit the door before disassembly. Once I have the basic body filling done, I will hang all the panels and doors to test all the fits. I expect there will be some adjustments as I go. But thanks for the reminder!