Forgotten Dreams-- 1964 Datsun 1500 Fairlady Project

spriso · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 9:46 am

A Few More Photos

I just realized that I did not post these images:

Here is a shot of Guy painting the underside of the car with DP90 (the seams were later seam sealed, and then it will get a bed-liner undercoat):

A few other misc shots-- "The Saddle"

1968 and later roadsters frames were improved with additional reinforcement which we call "the saddles". I had saved some of these from a frame that we had cut up and we decided to add them to this car's frame-- mostly to mess with the experts... :lol:

(Not that anyone will actually notice!)

Ok, in this shot the frame is mounted upside down, the front is to your left. This is where the frame transitions from the front suspension to the flat section on the underside of the car:

Test fitting the saddles. This actually worked out well, as there was an ugly dent in the frame that was soon to be covered up by the saddle:

And a shot of this section on the freshly powder coated frame:

More details that no one will ever see...

Sway Bar Mount

The passenger side sway bar mount was wasted:

A donor was saved from frame that we cut up:

After careful measuring and aligning, it was tacked and welded into position:

And finished:

One very small step closer...

spriso · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 9:48 am

End of Summer Update

It has been a crazy summer. Work commitments have kept my shop time to a minimum, but I have still been sneaking out and getting more done on the wife's car. The front suspension is all back together with new parts and hardware:

I have updated the steering box to a "Type B" version and wanted to use the matching idler with the steering setup. Unfortunately, the threaded portion of the idler shaft was damaged when I removed the steering arm. Grrr. Bill Cole shared that he had successfully modified an early idler shaft to "Type B" specs and I have done the same-- here are photos of the process:

In this shot you can see the differences between the early "Type A" and later "Type B" idler shafts. The difference is in the large "Washer" that Nissan used to center the shaft in the cast housing. All other dimensions are the same between the shafts:

The "washer" is just welded to the top shoulder on the idler shaft as illustrated below:

To remove the "washer", I chocked the idler shaft in my trusty South Bend lathe and started making metal chips:

And the finished product:

Now I just need to replace the bushing in the idler housing and the threaded keeper, and we should be good to go!

In other progress, the body is slowly coming along as well...

That is the update from here!

spriso · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 9:51 am

Fall Update

I have not had as much time to work on the 1500 as I would like, we have been busy with Eric's 510 project and a few other projects, but I have made a little progress.

Water Temp Sender

Jon Frampton is restoring a set of 1500 gauges for the car and of course I want the 1500 gauge to work correctly with the SR engine. To make that happen, I need to use the correct water temp sender that matches the gauge. Dean at Datsunparts.com had a NOS temp sender, so I ordered one with the correct retaining nut and all that was left to do was figure out a way to incorporate it into the SR20DE engine!

Since the SR20DE engine is all-aluminum, I needed to make a bung that I could weld into the upper water neck. I had a nice piece of round stock that was close to the correct diameter, and after about 1/2 hour on the trusty South Bend lathe, I had a simple bung that I could weld into the water neck:

spriso · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 9:52 am

More Frame Preparation

Before the body can go back on the frame, things like the brake lines and fuel lines need to be installed. Since this Fairlady is going to be fuel injected, I needed to build a new fuel feed and return line (we scrapped all the original lines!)

Starting with a piece of 5/16" hard line, I made a bubble flare. How do we do that, well here is how I do them:

1. Cut off the 45-degree double flare with a cut off tool, and debur the tube.

2. Use a standard flairing tool but instead of using the side with the recesses (for brake line double flares), turn it over so it looks like this:

3. Then put your standard die into the end of the tube and clamp down just enough to put a bulge in the end of the tube:

4. You should now have a nice smooth bump at the end of the fuel line for the fuel line to slip over.

We cut little notches into the seam so when we cross-over the frame side we won't have to cut into our tire clearance-- you can see this in this overhead view here:

Since the 1500 shock support tube is not recessed like on the later frames, I had to put a bump in the return line so it would clear it:

Then through the hole in the body support and flush along the frame:

Once we are through the body support mount, it is a straight shot to the fuel filter:

The fuel filter mount is standard stainless steel Nissan mount that you can find in any wrecking yard:

We mount the fuel filter on the frame rail as it only needs to be serviced every 30,000 miles (on a daily driven car), and it is easily accessible. It also keeps it out of the engine compartment for a cleaner look.

The front half of the fuel lines will be built once the body is back on the car. They will fit flush with the rear of the engine compartment and I like to custom bend them for each application for a tight fit.

The rear brake line is installed at this time-- since we like to move the brake lines so they go down the driver's frame rail (instead of the passenger side) a new line is bent (ignore the messy floor!):

It crosses over the top of the frame rail right behind where the body pad would go:

Over the edge of the frame and through the center of the hole for the body mount:

And down the frame rail towards the front of the car:

You get the idea... :wink:

I also visited the painter-- the interior is getting close, the dash has had its first coat of paint (which is totally washed out in this image):

Painter James did a great job getting paint under the entire dashboard which will make things nice when I am working under there!

The color is Volkswagen Aquarius blue:

spriso · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 9:55 am

Quote:

On the notches in the frame, do you just cut those, or are they re-welded? How much of a cut are you making, 1/4 or 1/2 inch or so?

There is about a 1/2" overlapping seam on the edge of the frame rail. We cut that as close to the edge of the frame as possible, and if we expose the two halves, then they get welded and ground back together.

Here is an example from an earlier build:

Then with the brake line installed:

Hope that helps,

Michael

spriso · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 9:56 am

End of January Update

Visited with the painter tonight and the body is very close... we have a zillion little details to get sorted out, but we assembled everything checked the body gaps, test fit a windshield, etc. and it looks very good.

I am hoping to have it back in the next few weeks... then the real work begins!

Michael

spriso · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 10:18 am

The Crown Jewels

One of my favorite parts about the 1500 Fairlady is the awesome dashboard, and the four prominent gauges in the instrument cluster, as seen in this vintage calendar shot:

Of course, I want everything to look clean, sharp, and restored for this project, so I had to make a decision; Keep the stock gauges, or find an aftermarket alternative. Unlike the later 65-67 instruments, the 1500 gauges have a unique feel and look that I just was not going to find via the aftermarket.

664's original gauges were in fair shape, but the needles needed repainting, the colors were faded, and the tachometer needle was plain missing... she was showing her age!

The second problem with instruments for the 1500 was I needed an electronic tachometer to work with the SR20DE engine, and after dealing with no speedo cable with all our other conversions, I really wanted an electronic speedometer as well. How could I blend these needs with the classic look of the original 1500 gauges?

Enter Jon Frampton from Global Tech Instruments. I had seen examples of Jon's work in many restorations over the years, and let met tell you, his work is first class. He and I started a discussion on how we could do this conversion, and I sent him a pile of 1500 gauge cores to work with...

Jon set to work, and started to show me progress shots:

Wow... the detail on the re-screened instrument faces was amazing! We discussed it more, and while the stock 1500 G15 had a redline starting at 5500rpm, the SR20 spins happily to 7500rpm! Jon said no problem to that and changed the artwork to match the mighty SR20 redline! Check out the amazing finished product below!

Original restored tachometer face:

Rescaled face for our SR20 powered roadster! (the needle resets to zero rpm when it has power!)

The clock, and fuel/temp gauge were restored to stock specifications:

Another view!

And finally, the speedometer! This stock appearing gauge has all electronic guts, and a one-button calibration switch that we will use with a GPS to calibrate the speedometer once the final drive ratio and tire OD have been determined. Other than the LCD screen for the odometer, you would not be able to tell it is not original!

I am ecstatic! This is exactly the kind of stuff we strive for at Spriso Motorsports and I cannot wait to put these in the car!

If you are considering having your gauges restored, contact Jon Frampton (user name caraddict on 311s!) You will not be disappointed!

Michael

spriso · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 10:21 am

664's New Paint

Nine months later 0664 finally came home this afternoon. I have been traveling this month and Painter James was able to deliver the car back to me today (before I caught another plane tonight!)

I had about an hour to play with the car, and got a couple pieces put on just to get an idea... (yes, the license plate is just sitting there!)

The inner fenders and underside were covered in truck bedliner, and this was the view as I left the shop tonight:

spriso · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 10:22 am

Skyman wrote:

Quote:

WOW! Is the undercarriage black as well as the fender wells? Is there a reason you went black instead of the stock paint color?

I prefer black as it does not look as grungy after a few years like it would in body color--

Preservation of the body is the goal here-- after acid dipping the body, fixing all the rust, etc. I don't want to be doing this again. The underside of the car was sealed in DP-40 and seam sealed, but then we like to use a proper spray in bed-liner (like what they use on trucks) to 100% seal it. This stuff is nearly bullet-proof and gets into all the nooks and cranny's.

This was applied with the body on the rotisserie so we could hit everywhere:

The inner fender and transmission tunnel are also coated-- it also acts like a bit of a sound deadener too:

The underside of the front fenders also get the same treatment, and then several additional coatings are put on the underside to protect from rocks flying up and denting the fenders from the inside out-- we learned the hard way on that one!

spriso · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 10:25 am

Mid-April Update

Time, as always, has been the most difficult part of this project, but I have been sneaking out to the shop in the evenings (after work and playing with the kids!) and have been having "Car Christmas" with all kinds of new presents!

First off were the tail lights-- I had NOS chrome parts that I bought years ago, but was missing some of the seals (that I had apparently robbed for other projects). Dean at Datsun parts got me hooked up with the missing parts and after a quick clean and detail of the tail light housings, they were ready to re-assemble:

I also finally got to break out some of the NOS 1500 parts that I have been holding on to for this project.

Eric and I bought out a long-closed Datsun dealership's parts inventory several years ago and were able to score lots of parts for our various 510 and roadster projects:

The rest of the parts have long since been sold...

Anyway, here is the cap installed on the car along with the new tail lights (and the obligatory http://www.datsun.org/fairlady/JackScoville.htm license plate frame!)

I love the little details that the 1500s have compared to their later sisters-- like the windshield washer squirter:

Spare tire hold-down handle rubber cover:

I needed to have a bunch of parts re-zinc plated, and Brian Holloway (aka Crazy Backyard Builder), got me hooked up with his local specialist in LA that does a nice silver finish. I put together a small batch of parts together and have been busy re-assembling things now that I have parts! Thanks Brian!

There are plenty of details to sort out before the engine can go back in-- first the brake and clutch lines need to be built and all the details on the firewall need to be taken care of before the engine goes in...

(Note you can see the starter access panel that has been re-worked in the lower part of the image-- I make a brace out of a heavier gauge metal and weld it back in, but still it still allows enough room to pull the starter-- in the SR20's case, it is mounted on the right side of the engine!)

Also, before the engine can go back in, I need to install the heater and heater valve-- I opted to go with an aftermarket Vintage Air heater with the defrost function and here is what it looks like with the initial test fit:

This has an electronically controlled heater control valve (so I won't have to deal with a cable), and I will outline the installation of this unit in some later posts...

Last but not least, a tachometer update. As I mentioned in earlier posts, Jon Frampton rebuilt the gauges and did an amazing job. There was one minor detail that we missed however-- if you look at an original 1500 tach you will see that it has a red section when you hit redline (5700 rpm):

We missed that little red section on the tach rebuild (7500 rpm):

A minor detail-- yes. Would it drive me crazy every time I drove the car? Absolutely. I hated to even bring it up with Jon as I was so ecstatic with his work, but finally did and he did not even hesitate-- "send it back and we will re-screen the faces!" A few weeks later, here are the results of his work:

Jon has gone above and beyond on these gauges! I cannot say enough positive things about my experience! Thank you, thank you Jon! (And yes, my wife thinks I am crazy-- but thanks you very much so she won't have to hear about it!)

Again, projects like these come together with people with amazing talent, and critical eyes for detail-- Jon Frampton, Eric Straw, Brian Holloway, painter James Catterson-- thank you for your efforts!

spriso · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 10:27 am

Fuel Sender Refresh

I now have the restored gauges, a new water temp sender for the engine, but I needed to make sure that the stock 1500 fuel sender was operational. So, I dug through my collection of parts and found one of the originals (wow, it did not look promising!):

The sticky, gooey substance could only be removed with a screw driver and it was still a nasty mess. I kept at it and finally decided to pull off the access cover (very, very carefully to see what the insides of the sender looked like. I was pleasantly surprised to see it was quite clean with everything intact! I guess that is what happens when you take the car off the road in 1975!

I cleaned, and restored the sender with new hardware, resealed the gasket and had to dig through my piles to find a new float. The old one was rusted through and was leaking... check out how thick the dried varnish is!

Top side view of the sender before the new(er) float was found:

And of course, an electrical test-- with the tank empty:

And with the tank full:

Should be good to go-- I am going to adjust the stops so they bottom out correctly, but when I convert the tank to the EFI fuel pump, I can put this in the tank and feel comfortable that the gauge is going to work correctly! I just need to cut a new cork gasket and we should be good to go...

Michael

spriso · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 10:29 am

June Progress

I have been working in the evenings on getting the firewall sorted out, and built new brake lines for the passenger side as well as the clutch line so we could get the engine/transmission stuffed in the car.

I also needed to get the heater valve sorted out as I wanted to mount it in the firewall recess (again, this needed to be finished before the engine could go in). Sadly, it was all business and I did not get any photos of that progress... (sorry).

Anyway, Eric came over today and helped get all the last minute details sorted out with the engine/trans and a few hours later the engine was finally in the car:

Keri is not sure if she likes the red wrinkle coat valve cover, but it is easily changed... :roll:

I tried to get a shot of the heater valve:

spriso · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 10:31 am

Quick August Update

I have been getting little windows of time to work on the car-- the darn real job has had me traveling all around the country this summer so I have not had much time to work on the project.

Headlights

My wife has two black cats, and when I chanced on a set of NOS Marchal headlights a few years ago, I picked them up-- she loved the fact that she would have cats on the headlights-- more personal touches to make the car hers. Of course, what should have been a couple minute job of mounting the lights into the buckets turned into 6+ hours of making modifications to make them fit, but it is finally done, and I think they look great:

The new front turn signals will be here later this week.

A close up shot:

Brake and Clutch Lines

I finally finished the brake lines on the car and am pleased with the way that they turned out:

I have been busy with the chassis wiring, and that has been keeping me busy in the evenings as well. I will have a new battery here later this week and then I can start testing chassis systems (such as the lights, etc.)

The radiator has been giving me fits, and I still need to figure out what I am going to do there. The off-the-shelf solutions that we have used previously won't work as the 1500 radiator opening is quite a bit smaller than the later cars. I have mocked up a stock 1500 radiator and may have a custom aluminum radiator built to suit the SR engine, or I may modify a Honda Civic/Del Sol radiator... we will see.

Anyway, that is the update from here,

Michael

Eric · **Posted:** Mon Sep 05, 2011 11:39 am

seriously, this is insane

I read the whole thread with my mouth wide open..

Nismopunch · **Posted:** Tue Sep 06, 2011 8:10 am

Definite big thumbs up for your work Michael :tu:

Attention to detail is awesome and cannot wait to see the car finished!

silvia_s15 · **Posted:** Tue Sep 06, 2011 8:18 am

Impressive build

and are you going to turbo charger it, since the SR20?

Doc · **Posted:** Tue Sep 06, 2011 2:41 pm

Hey Michael,

nice to see you and this roadster here at JNC!
Really nice lady - all this details - perfect!!

It´s possible to get the new-screened tachometer faces themselves?

best regards from Germany
René

spriso · **Posted:** Tue Sep 06, 2011 8:35 pm

Thank you all for the comments, I will keep this thread updated as we get more work done on the car. Time has been a real problem, but it will be back on the road soon enough.

The engine is going to stay a SR20DE for now, so no turbo-- it will have plenty of power for it's purpose, which will be mainly running around town on errands.

René: I will get Jon's contact info for you and send it to you via e-mail-- yes, he can make a roadster gauge in any style you want it!

Michael

jimbob_racing · **Posted:** Fri Sep 09, 2011 2:51 pm

I checked out their website for the gauges and it looks like an avionics company. Do you have a direct email for your contact? I'd like to see what they can do with some 280Z gauges.

FjFairlady · **Posted:** Fri Sep 09, 2011 4:34 pm

Insane resto job.

Forgotten Dreams-- 1964 Datsun 1500 Fairlady Project

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