OldAndyAndTheSea

Truly kind words, thank you very much. And the short list until it is driving is this. -Replumb the fuel line, and pre pump filter system with a more refined solution. -Order z31 CV boots (any recommendations would be appreciated) and rebuild those. -Install CVs -Reroute (hopefully) the dash harness, so the dash can be removed independently of the harness - Extend gauge pigtails, and make any modifications due to gauge changes. -Investigate LED options for AutoMeter gauge bulbs (again suggestions are greatly appreciated) looking for a soft white. -Install dash -Modify a universal 3 pod A pillar to fit the car - flock that. -Set suspension -Bleed hydraulic systems - confirm no leaks -Double,and triple check connections, and bolt torques -Start and run the engine again Aside: I haven't run it since..uhh....September? And I've always run it briefly whenever I've had it going. I was dealing with a lean idle, which after admittedly only a couple tests, was unaffected by changes in my required fuel in Tuner Studio. After confirming fuel pressure, and after I replumb the rear fuel lines, this leads me to believe that my unknown condition injectors, or possibly one of them is bad, clogged, or damaged. But until I finish up the dash stuff I wont do engine investigating. The timeline works out, as I don't really want to test startups in single digit (F) ambient temps. That's the last of the hurdles before I can take it for a test drive. I hope I beat the weather, but I learned long ago - it'll be ready, when it's ready..... At least that's what I keep telling myself so I can sleep at night. "It'll be ready, when it's ready........" *begins sobbing* Thanks again.

Bunch of random updates... Making the mold for the door sills...Plug - in surface coat. ...And making some combination molds to allow for batches of our smaller parts. Now we can be four times as disappointed at once! :D It's been exactly two weeks since I flocked the dash. I was finally confident enough to bring it into the shop, to snap some better pictures. Because, I Leica you. Once again, gauges mocked hardcore; not even near where they will finally mount. I also shot an impromptu GoPro video trying to truly capture the appearance, as my pictures still fall very short of the mark.... This helps quite a bit. Apologies for the audio hiccups. Like I said, this was really off the cuff.... No mic, or planning, was used.

Thanks! And I dunno. After reading your comment I freaked out a little and quickly ran outside, through two feet of snow, to confirm it fits. It does. Phew! I really want to button the interior back up. But I must give the dash, and subsequent prep work, time. And here's the amazon link. Sounds like it was designed for a similar purpose as you intended. I'm opting against a quick release, at the moment, and cared more about reach distance, as I have fairly long arms. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UNGX0YY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

Bwhahahaha! I may cut some carbon circles out and use those as eyes. Thank you good Sir! Magnetic strip tape: Fail Velcro strip tape: WINNAR! Velcro to the rescue. The concept works. Awesome! The future clamshells will be cored, during production, to fine tune the Velcro mating surface. Proof of concept. Thrown together. I'll add a couple more areas of Velcro to close up any remaining, offensive, gaps. Shaky shaky! An added benefit of Velcro over magnets is vibration resistance. Sweet! http://vid524.photobucket.com/albums/cc327/twofortyz/Mobile%20Uploads/VID_20160119_130139257_zpsevijlaim.mp4 And I received my steering wheel hub today. Lots more stuff coming throughout the week. Low profile - I personally hate the look of the cheaper hubs, with that corrugated, accordion-esque, slip cover. No bolts though....Booo.....c'mon NRG! It's cold....I don't wanna work out in the garage..

Instead of working this weekend, like a good boy, I neglected my car duties and made a 10' tall snowman. The snow was perfect. We are expecting feet of snow this week, so that should make it look like he's been there for ages. I still need to fashion him some arms, but here he is keeping watch over the road. Meet SnowmAndy And that's that... Clamshell progress. First real step forward with these to date. After some fine trimming, I finally got the two halves to orient, and locate, fairly well together. I used some foam core to pull the sides together. I then cut the core at the part's seam. Whoa, they still want to line up. Straight up miracle status. Good enough for the girls I go with. The last step is to experiment with magnets, or possibly Velcro, to actually attach the pieces together. There is a fastener that holds the bottom section to the ignition switch, so I just need a way to join them together. I'm hopeful with the result so far. Definitely the farthest I've gotten. And yeah.... Sand sand sand. Smooth smooth smooth.

Didn't work yesterday, due to weather. I picked up where I left off today. After a little more work this weekend, this plug will definitely be ready to mold on Monday. This weekend I plan to get some dash wiring organization/prep done. More parts are on order. Don't stop me now ('cause I'm having a good time). Happy Friday

Started working the plug(s) today. Definitely much straighter. Made a base out of some cored carbon scrap. Roughed out....Bonded to the flange. Should only take about another day, or so, to get it ready to mold. What an easy shape. This shouldn't take long. *famous last words*

The pictures I've taken are horrible. It's low lit, and I have to over expose each picture to try to capture the contrast in materials. The first set of pictures looks like spray on bed liner. That is because of having lots of excess fibers still on the surface. You wait some time before knocking off the extra. It is very velvety, and tight. Imagine a child's fresh buzz cut. I am not worried about durability, as the nylon fibers are intended for outdoor/rough use. Resting arms on it shouldn't do anything, if I applied correctly. After three days, I can still disrupt the flocking on my test panel. It's getting tougher each day, but more time is needed. And thanks Kurk, I chuckled.

Thanks everyone. Your support is amazing. Oh yeah. Correct speedometer! Hooray eBay! So......I discovered a problem. When I had the interior mocked together last, I fell in love with the look. I had almost zero complaints about the interior, in it's entirety, until I looked down...... Door sills.....Damn you. So looks like I'm making these too. Haha. They will not have all the little ridges (dirt collectors). The "Datsun" middle portion will remain. The rest will be smooth. My plugs are fairly warped, so I decided to straighten them back up with the help of a perfectly shaped U channel as a mold. Some glass laid up on the underside of what will become the plug, and vacuum will hold the sill's surface true to the mold shape. Once those cure, that should straighten them out a little bit. ......I can't stop....Help me.

Already started flocking the intercooler piping. Thinking about the valve cover and block next. :lol: :lol: I kid...I kid.....or do I?

Hit the 36 hour mark. Felt comfortable enough with very carefully mocking up the gauges. They are as far installed as I am comfortable with, given the state of cure of the adhesive. Love it. Pictures do it zero justice. Today I flocked the tops of the door panels, to keep continuity with the dash. Thanks for the love everyone.

Thanks guys! I'm happy with how it came out. My plan is to leave the defroster piece the factory finish, I think I will like the transition of textures, with the fender welting piping as a divider. If it looks bad, yup, its getting flocked. I'm going to be flocking my a pillar pod, after I improve the fit, and the tops of my door panels to replace the microsuede that I was practicing with. I'll be developing an alcantara transmission tunnel and small carpet kit down the line.

I flocking did it. In my usual fashion, here are some real haggard photos initially, followed up with some slightly less haggard pictures later. It won't be moving from its low lit home for a week or so, allowing it to cure fully. Still lots of excess fibers on the surface, once it cures I'll feel confident removing all extra. I really like it. I am excited to see it in some actual decent light with the gauges. Mmm I think it'll look real nice. Time will tell. Cure baby cure!

Thanks to your guy's advice I was confident enough to do the deed this evening. You're awesome. Big day. Made the final bonds. Used divinycell PVC foam core, and bonded the remaining flimsy areas of the frame to the appropriate places on the skin. And made the remaining cuts now that the skin was geometrically stable. Nothing left to do but flock it. Let's practice! And I broke the cardinal rule, and shook shook off the excess, just to see exactly how much you can get away with. I'm pleased with this result, I'm going to follow the rules with the dash and leave the excess fibers on for at least 12 hours. I untaped once the control batch of adhesive developed a surface tack. Thanks for the tip. Worked well, despite even a neglected process. The brush and mini flocker technique was so easy, given my surface area to cover, I continued to use it on the dash this evening. I'm at that point with the dash now. I just got done flocking it. I haven't untaped yet, but so far, I'm happy with the results. Grand reveal, good or bad, in about 15 hours or so. Fingers crossed! And instead of dash glory, here is the finished console I promised, for those that care. And a steering wheel comparison Til tomorrow.

Love every bit.

Again, awesome info! Thank you so much. When you say you waited for the glue to tack, did you remove the tape before applying the flocking? Or while you were flocking, as it reached a state of tack, you pulled the tape and finished applying the fibers? Or did you have ample time to spread the adhesive, spray the flocking, wait for it to tack - then pulled the tape? From my understanding the working time on the adhesive is roughly 15 minutes. As mentioned, luckily I'm only doing the top, so surface area isn't a big deal. I look forward to trying it out. Hopefully I don't ruin my dash Also, I plan to let it sit for as long as it takes, as I iron out wiring routing and revisions with the dash removed. How durable does it become when fully cured? Fairly resilient?

Cool, you confirmed a few thoughts I had already. Thank you. Have you had any experience taping the suede-tex adhesive? If so, when was the opportune time to remove the tape? From my experience, some materials like it removed immediately after applying the material...Others like to have tape removed after it cures completely. That was the main theory to test. I'd hate to make the wrong choice - like pulling the tape line after it cures, for example, to reveal a scalloped, garbage, line transitioning the carbon to flocking material. I intend to spray both the adhesive (thinned with mineral spirits) through a HVLP gun, and intend to spray the fibers as well, with that kit. I'll have the flocking gun loaded ahead of time, while I spray the adhesive. Thanks again for the insight, I'd love to get this right the first time. Going snowboarding tonight, so the flocking practice won't happen..... But tomorrow, I intend on going into the shop to finish up the dash bonds. If I get lucky, I'll flock it tomorrow evening as well. Follow up on that newest console I was making. It turned out to be the best one we've ever made. So.... it looks like production has officially started with these. Great news. So glad all my changes have finally paid off. Finished pictures of that coming tomorrow. And after seeing the interior mocked together, with all the carbon, I pulled the trigger on this. I just HAD to. It's going to look so good. Prototipo Quick peek, before I head out the door. Love the feel, and the weight in hand. Much lighter than the stock wheel. Originally, I was not going to swap the wheel, and use my customized OEM, which I still can swap to if I feel like it, but the Momo will be much more practical for my more spirited of drives/track events. I'm definitely keeping both and anticipate swapping between wheels often, depending on my mood. Gonna be sweet!

Made one of the final bonds tonight. If all goes according to plan, that will allow me to pull the dash back, and make the last two bonds ever. Then it's ready to flock. And I installed the distributor "cap". Lovely. Fits like a glove. I've missed looking at the engine.... soon...soon. Hopefully I will practice a little flocking tomorrow. We'll see. Progress nonetheless. Good.

Lookadat! Distributor "cap" proof of concept. I'll mount it this evening, as I plan to do the final bonds tonight. Then I practice some flocking tomorrow. I'll hopefully attempt to flock the top this weekend.

I make me sick, sometimes, too. So the shell is officially mounted for the first time. No wiring. No heater stuff hooked up, but that all actually seems doable now that it is in place. It will just take some time, and planning, to get the details right. Hopefully I'll make gains in that area this weekend. Very promising. Here's a barrage of photos, trying to show various angles. Fender welting divider. Mocked in place. Driver's side should tuck up in there after I bond the appropriate spot to the frame. The shell has little support, currently, in this area. I'll need to bond a couple spots, while it is mounted, to get the fitment correct. Then....a couple more cuts and some goop away from flocking. I can't wait. Although, I should probably practice, as I've never done it before.

Super fun. Gauges, mocked. CAN'T wait to see it flocked. More progress today....Started preparing to actually bond the dash skin to the frame. First I need to make sure the heater controls are mounted, and properly oriented. Chopped! Everything mocked. Fairly tidy; Can't complain. And a little clamshell trim action. I'll be working on a few ideas to make these close this week. I'm going to start bonding the controls, and possibly the dash skin, this evening. As always, I'll update accordingly.

Thanks! I can't wait to get everything permanently in place. Super excited to flock the top, once the details are sorted. It'll look nice then. Time to address the frame. I chopped off any unnecessary brackets or unused portions of the support structure. I removed approximately 2 pounds of material Before I proceeded to etch prime the prepped bare shell, and spayed the part flat black. After All bits removed. This will also aid in installing various dash components, as I now have a sever shortage of removble access panels for things like heater cables, and wiring. That may prove to be tricky. We'll see.

Thanks! Me too! This was a big step - I was able to temporarily mock the components in place with a couple spots of hot glue. Those slots were a force to be reckoned with. And I still need to file the vent opening slightly, as it is unable to spin currently. If the cables can still be hooked up properly, and if the vent still lines up with the blower, we are in business. Onto the next step of the plan. Frame refurbish/trim. Alrighty then.

Oh man. So far so good. Scary. Factory heat, Baby! Taking a break for a minute, then I'll hopefully mount everything in the appropriate place. Looks like it's going to work!

Thanks. The tabs are going to be made of carbon strips and thickened epoxy fillets. They will make more sense once you see them. And this is my thought process on the dash mounting... -I am going to bond the OEM frame to the dash, uncut (aside from a few bits I have removed already). This will also show any people, who may want one in the future, how I mounted an uncut frame to the dash skin. -I will only bond it in the area shown in those pictures. -Once the dash is attached to the frame, it will allow me to install it much easier - for testing purposes.That will guarantee it stays in the same place while I determine which parts of the frame are truly no longer needed. -Once I've marked off those areas, and have made a few other locator marks, I will cut the two original attachment points (tabs). -Remove the frame. -Chop off the heavy bits -Reattach new modified "chopped" frame to the dash, with finished tabbing throughout. That's one avenue of thought. I have a few others as backup, should this plan fail. I need to install the hazard switch and the heater controls first, before I attach the frame, however. And the console weighs 420 grams. I sacrificed my console making the original plug, and neglected to record any weight, unfortunately. So I don't know. I can't imagine a lot of savings were made, but this one won't crack if you lift your body out of the car by putting your hand on it. I'm planning to work on it today. I'll update accordingly.