Great work as always man. SUcks it's been 3 months and you still havent received the chromed pieces.


Does your master cylinder use large banjo fittings for the brake lines or are they flared?

_________________
31 3000gt vr4
88 starion x2, 83 starion
88 cordia turbo
87 Montero swb turbo, 1987 Minicab van Supercharged
86 mighty max 4x4
84, 85, and 86 lancer ex1800 turbo
78 lancer
73 galant coupe
65 Debonair Deluxe
80's Hero

Thanks!
The master cylinder uses flared brake lines, but they're huge, haha. Normal flare nuts are like 10 mm but these clock in at 14mm! Does your Debonair use giant banjo fittings?

I got back out there this weekend and got some more work done. Good news is, I got my chrome back, bad news is, they didn't do a damn thing. It looks like they just washed them in a parts cleaner then handed them back with some BS story about how the pitting in the pieces means that they are impossible to re-chrome. I find that hard to believe since that would mean that anything older than say 20 years is impossible to re-chrome...

Anyways, first step was to get that top trim piece attached to the hood to complete out the front end. Starting to look pretty good!



I got the bumpers back as well, but they weren't chromed either, they were just painted in some chrome colored paint. Don't get me wrong, they look really good, but it's not chrome. They also gave me back the bumpers with them not exactly dry, so I managed to botch up the paint on the rear bumper. Not sure what I'm going to do about that, cause I sure aint giving it back to those guys...

Anyways, enough of my whining, I can't complain too much, the front bumper looks pretty good bolted up to the car!



My friend then got loose with my camera and snapped some pictures, among them were these two pictures of the emblems on the 360 and on my much newer Minica! Really cool to see the difference!





Bought some generic weather sealing stuff from the local hardware store and put it on for the weather stripping. Looks pretty good and fits pretty well! I think it might work out pretty good, haha!





Then I decided to put the doors on. I still need to drop in the glass and glass run, but I figured it would be easier to do that with the car holding the door up than trying to do it on my floor, haha.





She just wants a hug is all, haha!



Polished up the aluminum trim and bolted it on.





And finally I polished up the aluminum wipers and bolted them on!



The front end is so close to complete it's driving me crazy, haha. Just need to clean up and put the blinkers on, then the hood latch and that's it!

Thanks again everyone for all the comments and inspiration!
Cheers
David

_________________
1967 LT23 Mitsubishi 360 // 1967 L10A Cosmo Sports // 1971 S30 Fairlady Z // 1973 PR95 Bellett 1800 GT // 1973 Honda Life // 1988 Z31 300 ZX SS
My Homepage!

yeah teh deb seems to use mosnter banjos.. so weird.



if you need to, send em to me and I will find a good place to get em chromed. plenty of places around here that wont give you any bs excuse..

_________________
31 3000gt vr4
88 starion x2, 83 starion
88 cordia turbo
87 Montero swb turbo, 1987 Minicab van Supercharged
86 mighty max 4x4
84, 85, and 86 lancer ex1800 turbo
78 lancer
73 galant coupe
65 Debonair Deluxe
80's Hero

Kooky that it would have the wipers in a LHD orientation...

My Prince Skyline uses banjo fittings as well, actually made things pretty easy. Don't have to worry about rounding off the tiny soft steel flared nut fittings.

Love how this car is coming along so fast. Disappointing about the chrome work but these things happen, likely you'll find someone else more willing or perhaps even some replacement bumpers in good nick at some stage.

_________________

It looks great so far! I've been away a while but I'm glad to see progress has continued at the same breakneck pace.

_________________
-Cam
1980 Toyota Celica
1984 Porsche 911
1988 Mazda RX7

Thanks for the comments all!

My buddy came over this weekend to work on his Caldina, so while he was outside I decided to hunker down and get some work done on the Mitsubishi!

I finally found me a C-Clip that was the right size so I got the master cylinder back together. Haven t installed it to the vehicle yet as I want to clean out the brake lines before I put everything back together.



So I instead switched over to getting the front turn signals on. The bodies were in pretty good shape, so I just gave them a light sanding to get off the surface rust and then a nice coat of silver paint to keep the rust from coming back. Here they are with the lenses waiting to be installed.



All new rubber used between the fender/steel body/plastic lens and then installed on the car!







Then on my way to the back of the car to get the rear turn signals working I got side tracked by the straps that keep the doors form opening too far. You can see the old white ones looking just that, old, haha. I bought a safety belt from the local hardware store and this fabric is easily twice as strong as the original despite being the same size.



A little cutting and punching holes in the strap and then a few bolts and they look pretty good on the car!





And then to the brake/turn signal lights. The metal body on one side was perfect, very little rust and in great shape. The metal body on the other side was half destroyed due to rust. Unfortunately the edge of the body works as a mount for the weather stripping, so I needed a solution. I hit up a few shops, even a few specializing in classic cars but no dice, no one had one even close. So my options were limited to making one and.... making one. Unfortunately I don't have a welder, so the welding would have to be a favor from a friend who runs an AE86 tuning shop. Here you can see the destruction and a new template ready to be cut and welded on.



After some fighting with the grinder I got the center cut out enough to weld together. So off to my buddies place to get it welded up. Unfortunately he only has a non gas shielded mig (he usually only does chassis spot welding on cars where looks are not a priority) and the welds looked quite terrible, warping my steel, punching a few holes in it and generally looking poor, nothing to do with his skill, just non gas shielded welders never make nice welds in my experience. At any rate, it was free 99 so I can't complain too much, haha. After some quality time with the grinder, some silicone sealant, paint and a drill to get the holes to line up here's the finished product.
Yes, it's ugly as hell and I'm still not happy with it at all. I'll continue to keep my eye out for a real rust free one to replace it with but for now it gets the job done nicely.



Fortunately, once the lenses are on, you can't see the metal body at all! The lenses look pretty good on the rear!



No flash.



Then we decided to get the rear gate on as well. Fit like it was brand new!





Also got the top half in as well. I need to grab another picture of the struts that hold it up. It's just a huge spring stuffed into a tube, nothing crazy and hugely simple, haha.

She's looking more and more like a car!



Thanks again for all the comments and inspiration all!
Cheers
David

_________________
1967 LT23 Mitsubishi 360 // 1967 L10A Cosmo Sports // 1971 S30 Fairlady Z // 1973 PR95 Bellett 1800 GT // 1973 Honda Life // 1988 Z31 300 ZX SS
My Homepage!

No thank YOU for the detailed posts, nice pics and interesting/witty write-up! I've just started to do work on my own little project and I find myself yearning for more "quality" time with my car. Your posts are what gave me this mindset.
Just so you know your pictures and words are appreciated

Are you going to take the car back to the shop you bought it from once you finish it? Maybe they would like to see it.

David -

Excellent work. The car looks fabulous! I'm totally digging your thread and all of the work that you've done to date. I think that everybody over here in the States wishes that they lived right down the street from you so they could see it in person and just be close to it! It's soooo cute! LOL

Seriously, your car is really cool. I do totally dig it.

But here's a question (and possible solution) regarding the brake/taillamp housing assembly:

Are the left and right sides identical or are they L/R specific?

If they are identical, perfect reproduction part could be made from urethane resin from the one "good one." Realistic cost about $200.00 -- start to finish, and able to make 4-6 perfect parts easy from mold for that amount of money. Mold still capable of producing 100+ parts beyond that.

Even if they're different, you could still fab a new one and cast it out of resin for that amount of money, you'd just have to sculpt the R/L master of the "tub" - and you could make that (the master) out of sheet plastic, aluminum foil and super glue filler smoothed over in bondo, sanded smooth, primed and painted before claying it up...

Look at my how-to sticky thread under "Resin Casting" in the Forum Section of Rum Runner Racing. com -- (it's a cool electric/gas R/C Boat forum/community -- and I'm the 21 boat. LOL) -- way too much information to list here, David -- and all of you guys --- but, please help yourselves to the information.

Happy to answer any/all questions about doing the process here or if any of you need to, P/M me.

Sorry for rambling, guys. Not at all meant as a "plug" for goods or services. Happy to share it, and I think everybody might like the information too.

-- SUPER car, David!!!!! She looks GREAT!!!! :tu::D -- !!!

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1979 Plymouth Fire Arrow
2005 Scion xB Super Toaster

You just got nominated here:

http://jalopnik.com/5655068/whats-your- ... ild-thread

(Sorry, don't know how to link to the post directly)

Dude, this thing is looking fab. I've been gone for awhile; does it run yet?

_________________
92 Honda Civic - 65 Ford F100 V8

Thank you guys for the kind words!

Tyson, I definitely plan on taking it back to the shop I got it from. That will probably be the first place I take it to after an initial shakedown to work out any bugs.

Fire arrow, thanks so much for comments and the good information. At the moment, my ghetto fabulous mount seems to be getting the job done decently well, but I will definitely keep this in mind if I can't find a suitable replacement.

Thanks for the comment Timiata, the inspiration from this community has been amazing, which is probably one of the reasons the car has progressed as quickly as it has, haha!

Sven7, the engine definitely runs. She runs beautifully in fact. Two or three turns and she fires right up. More than happy to rev and make so much noise it's hard to talk to anyone standing near, haha.

Thanks again everyone for the inspiration!
Check below for a mammoth of an update!

Cheers
David

_________________
1967 LT23 Mitsubishi 360 // 1967 L10A Cosmo Sports // 1971 S30 Fairlady Z // 1973 PR95 Bellett 1800 GT // 1973 Honda Life // 1988 Z31 300 ZX SS
My Homepage!

Alrighty, we had a three day weekend this weekend so I got out there and tried to get as much done as I could!

Here's a quick shot of the hardware used to hold the rear gate up.



Here's the linkages inside of the rear door that operate the two latches on the side and the one latch on top that locks the top hatch glass in place.



The striker for the top hatch glass.



Got the license plate light cleaned up and installed. This thing is properly bright, haha!



Installed the metal cover for the rear hatch. Looks pretty good, I like the fact that the humps in the floor of the trunk continue onto the rear hatch.



Then I decided it was time to install the master cylinder. So, first things first, I got the master cylinder reservoir installed to the fuel tank.



And then I got the master cylinder installed.



And since the master cylinder was installed, it meant I could finally get my third pedal in. She's that much closer to becoming a complete car!



It was time to put her up on stands and pull off the wheels so I could start on getting the brakes and bearings squared away. Here's a shot of the four wheels pulled off and stacked up. Also in the shot is my little praying mantis buddy, he's been hanging around the garage for about a month now.



Here's the tires stacked up next to 5 tires for the Hakosuka. The size difference is insane!



And a better shot of my buddy, haha.



A shot of the front brakes and suspension. This car continues to amaze me with it's simplicity!



A shot of the rear.



Here's a shot of the rear with the drum pulled off.



And the bearings knocked out of the drum. The bearings are just generic rubber sealed bearings. Should be less than 20 bucks for new bearings all around!



While I was mucking with the brakes I took a little break (heh), and painted up the Mitsubishi 360 fender emblems.
Here they are drying.



I also needed to sit down for a bit, so I decided to polish up the aluminum door sill pieces. After some sandpaper and metal polish they came out looking pretty good!





Then I got side tracked by the glass. I finally received a new driver door glass and it was time to get new runners (or whatever they're called, haha) at the bottom squared away. We ordered these runners from the Toyota parts house for about 9 bucks a piece. The original is pictured up top and there is one very clear problem here. The original runner is much bigger, so the part where the regulator slides around in on the Toyota version needed to be widened.



So to widen these, out came the angle grinder. This 14$ angle grinder has become the most indispensable tool in my entire arsenal, haha!



Then it was off to my buddies place to borrow the welder (if it weren't free I would never use a non gas shielded welder). The pieces came out looking like they were welded by a first timer, but after some grinding and paint they didn't look so bad.



Then the glass company came by to put my side window in. Before they left though, I had them urethane on my runners. These things aint going anywhere!



I then installed the glass, regulators and glass runs. The homemade runners work like a charm!



From the outside.



Here's the passenger side. The door glass is half open and you can see both pieces successfully installed into the rear quarter. They had quite a hard time installing the rear piece, but they didn't break anything and did an amazing job!



I was having a serious problem with my rear bumper. The paint shop painted it with some weak stuff or something, because after sitting up to dry for about a month now it was still exceedingly weak. I could smudge the paint just by touching it and a light touch with a fingernail put a scratch in it. So, I decided to check if it was just the rear that was having this problem and ran my fingernail lightly along the front bumper. It left a deep scratch like I had hit it with a screwdriver. This type of weakness is clearly unacceptable for a bumper. Needless to say, I wasn't pleased. So I sanded both bumpers down to the point that I was getting to something nice and strong (wouldn't scratch just by looking at it). Then I bought some silver paint called "Zinc Rich Paint." I used an entire can for each bumper and I think they turned out really well! I'm going to let them fully dry for about a week and then install them. They already seem much more durable than whatever the paint shop did.



Then I decided to install a modern piece to my 43 year old beast. I picked up these Cibie lights from Classic Car Nagoya the other day They're shaped like normal sealed beams only the back cracks open and takes standard H4 headlights. I think they look pretty sharp!





The light these things put out is phenomenal! I checked the voltage and on hi-beams it draws no more power than standard sealed beams. No telling if there will be any long term problems though.



I happen to really like this picture, haha.



And that's all for now!
Thanks again everyone for all the inspiration!
Cheers
David

_________________
1967 LT23 Mitsubishi 360 // 1967 L10A Cosmo Sports // 1971 S30 Fairlady Z // 1973 PR95 Bellett 1800 GT // 1973 Honda Life // 1988 Z31 300 ZX SS
My Homepage!

Love it man. Awesome stuff. Keep it up!

_________________

Great update! It's really coming together. Which magazine are you going to let it be featured in first?

_________________
-Cam
1980 Toyota Celica
1984 Porsche 911
1988 Mazda RX7

H3 or H4 bulbs rock! Sometimes in my GVR4 I would forget to turn my headlights on at night, just because the foglights were brighter than the low beams.

_________________
91 Galant VR4 1350/2000
76 Colt Galant Coupe
75 Colt Galant Wagon
77 Colt Galant Wagon

How about the fender mirror?
i hope you didnt forget them,.

Thanks for the comments!
If any magazines will have me, I'd love for it to be JNC of course! To be honest, I'd be thrilled to bits to be in any magazine though, haha.

RayZZ, I haven't forgotten about the fender mirrors, just trying to figure out what to do. The passenger side one is broken and the driver side one has turned mostly to rust. The stalks are OK and in decent shape but I need new glass and backings for each one. Pretty sure I can adapt some motorcycle mirrors to fit the original stalks but I haven't worked up the courage to buy a motorcycle mirror and take it apart yet, haha.

Alrighty, I got back out there this weekend and got some more work done!

The bumpers felt pretty solid when I went out there and so I decided to bolt them up. The color is quite a bit different, but I think they look pretty good!





And a close up of the front.



Also got the triangle vent windows installed. The car now has glass all the way around!





Then I got to work on the doors and got the driver door handle installed.



Here's a shot of the striker installed (sorry for the blurry picture).



The inside of the door with the mechanism installed.



And a door that shuts and stays shut! I think it looks pretty awesome with the door handles at the front of the door, haha!





Also got the fender emblems on. Looking pretty sharp!



A shot of the passenger door.



And the inside business on the passenger side. If you look closely, underneath the two screws on the side of the door you can see a little tab. That tab thing slides back and forth and engages or disengages the child lock! I guess for cars with suicide doors they wanted the passenger to have a child lock for safety reasons, haha. I don't know when child locks were first introduced but this is certainly the oldest car I've seen with one!



Also got the cover for the brake pedal linkage painted and installed.



Then I got to work on the brakes. The shoes all look pretty good and I'll definitely be reusing them. Here's the four wheel cylinders pulled off.



One of the rear wheel cylinder bleeder screws was not happy with me though and decided that it wanted to stay where it was.



Here's all 4 wheel cylinders pulled apart. They look reusable for the most part but it would be nice to get my hands on something new as there is a bit of rust inside each wheel cylinder. The one with the broken bleeder screw is properly toast though. I tried to drill the remainder of the bleeder screw out but between the rust and my over-zealousness the taper was damaged enough that even after re-tapping the threads a good bleeder wont seal up. Not sure what I'm going to do about that. My buddy was saying that there are some kits you can buy, like helicoils only instead of having new threads on the inside they have new threads and a taper. I may just drop all four wheel cylinders off at a brake specialty shop and have them bring them back to life.



Some of the gunk that was found on the inside.



And the inside of one of the fronts.



The hunt is on for good wheel cylinders! We'll see what I can find!

Thanks again everyone for all the support!
Cheers
David

_________________
1967 LT23 Mitsubishi 360 // 1967 L10A Cosmo Sports // 1971 S30 Fairlady Z // 1973 PR95 Bellett 1800 GT // 1973 Honda Life // 1988 Z31 300 ZX SS
My Homepage!

these wheel cilinders dont look special to me, just stop at any car parts store and i am pretty sure they can help you with something new that fits and does the same job.

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Japanseklassiekers!

1970 C30 Laurel
1972 240Z
1973 610 Wagon
1977 260Z
1995 Micra
1999 200SX