Chris_Hamilton

Thanks for taking the time to reply Mark. I may check your guy out.

@zredbaron, Who did you get to do your machine work after this latest rebuild? I think in this thread you made a mention of taking it to someone in VA? Just curious cause I'm looking for someone with some Nissan experience on the East Coast. I've heard of Elji @Datsun Spirit but I haven't talked with him yet and don't even know if he actually does any of the machine work himself. If you could clue me in that would be great.

Heat has been the only thing I found that will work on the stuff John. Like you said sometimes it's easier to cut it out and replace. BTW I googled Benton Performance and it seems like a real nice place to work. Looks like you guys do some very high quality work there.

Any of you guys bought stuff using RHDJapan?

Soda blasting is the least (safest) aggressive. If that doesn't work (kinda doubt it will) try plastic. http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200321271_200321271?cm_mmc=Google-pla-_-Abrasive%20%2B%20Sand%20Blasters-_-Abrasive%20Blasting%20Accessories-_-155686&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=155686&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=155686&gclid=CM2Os4vE_8ECFezm7Aod6DsASw Warping is not a issue with soda blasting, plastic is relatively safe as well. With plastic and anything more aggresive like sand, silicon carbide, etc use the lowest amount of air pressure in your blaster that will get the job done. Ideally you don't want to use sand EVER, it'll warp a panel very easily and it causes something called "hydrogen embrittlement"....basiclly sand and Silicon carbide will work harden sheet steel. If you have access to a oxy-acetylene torch and the area to be stripped has had anything that could be damaged removed you could try torching it and see how that does. Use a slightly acetylene rich flame and fan the heat around. Be careful to not get an area too hot as you can warp the metal. If you do it right you can heat it and it will release and be easily scraped and wire wheeled away If you are not comfortable using a torch then I would suggest you stick with plastic media.

I'm a long time body and paint tech so I'll give you my opinion, this type of damage is not serious if you take it to a good shop with a skilled and competent frame tech. One way to find a good shop for this type of work is to look for "I-CAR" certification. It is the Industry Standard much like ASE is for Mechanics. The car needs to be put on a frame machine and tied down with unibody clamps at the corners (center section), then checked for squareness with either a tram or a dedicated measuring system. Then you can safely and properly make the neccesary pulls to get the quarter back into realignment. It can be done without a full frame machine but the guy operating it needs to be skilled and know what he is doing. This is really a simple (judging by your pics, would need to see the whole car to be absolutely sure) repair. More than likely it was hit in the rear and the quarter went forward and high. Expect to pay anywhere from $200-400 if the extent of the damage is just the quarter. Your biggest concern should be finding a Shop with a good frame tech who will pull it correctly. Let me know if I can be of any further assistance. Good Luck:)

It's Chinese made ...enough said.

Thanks John,That's the same info I heard on another forum. Kinda seals the deal for me as to getting them to do my machine work. Guess I better start working on my crate to send my stuff across the country to Rebello. Just out of curiosity do any of you have recommendations of some Shops on the East Coast? I know of plenty of good shops in my area (Sonny Leonard to name one), but I would prefer one that has some familiarity and experience with Datsun/Nissans. Plus they gotta have a torque plate IMO.

I've read a lot of good things about Sunbelt and it's owner Jim Thompson in this forum and others. From Googling it looks as if it is now part of some group called Kinetic Motorsports. Did he retire and sell out? Curious to know.

Heard back from Scat today, here is the E-Mail Hi Christian, Thanks for contacting us for this project. We can definitely help you guys out. Our regular price for crank like this is $3200.00 and for the quantities you are looking for we could do it for $2800.00 each with a minimum of 10 pieces. Another option would be for us to have our offshore billet manufacture quote them. We may be able to get the price down to $2000.00 or less with a minimum order of 5 pieces. Please let me know if you need any more info. Thanks, Travis Travis Kennedy Scat Enterprises Inc 1400 Kingsdale Ave. Redondo Beach, CA 90278 Phone # 310.370.5501 Ext. 150 Cell # 805.431.5711 Fax # 310.793.0739 www.scatenterprises.com tkennedy@scatenterprises.com So around $2800 for a Crank made here in the States and somewhere around $2000 for a Chinese Crank. Personally I'd pay extra just to keep the work here in the USA but that's just me. Anyone have any interest?

Not to bump an old thread but I have sent an inquiry to Scat asking what kind of price point they could give me if we could get 20 people to commit to buying a crank if they produced it. I would think that 20 people would be a large enough group to bring the cost down significantly. More details to follow when I hear back from them.

Thanks a bunch!

Hello all, just wondering if anyone has any tips to help me determine whether or not a car I found on Craigslist has a LD28 crank in it? Is it even possible? Found a car on Craigslist and would like to be somewhat sure I'm getting what seller is claiming to have. Engine is in the car and has some rod knock, seller claims to have bought it from someone else who did all the work on it. There is some evidence that it has had something done to it but my main interest in it is to get that crankshaft. Wonder if there is any way to be a little more certain that I'm getting what he claims to have. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Are you sure your Master Cylinder is good? I had a rollback truck once where the master cylinder went bad, it had brakes (pressure) but the pedal would go soft in a couple of seconds. Basically you could stop but it would not hold. Sounds like yours is doing something similar. If you've bleed them and cannot find any evidence of leaks, I'm 99% certain it's your Master Cylinder.

Increasing caster (more = + / less = -) will help straight line stability. I assume you have camber plates so you should be able to do this rather easily. Only downside to adding positive caster is it increases steering effort especially at low speeds. Edit: Ooops I see that adding caster was already mentioned...sorry

@OldAndy If you want to get pedantic about it YES I was in error I should have called it a "adhesive bond", but that doesn't take away or make in error what I was saying. And no I wasn't trying to get into a dick measuring contest just stating my experience in reference to what I was talking about. . I believe you did that as well, being an "ASE Certified Body Mechanic"...... never heard a body guy refer to himself as a Body Mechanic before. Anyways people can do what they want to do, just thought I'd share some of my insight on a subject I have experience with at a Professional Level. Peace.

@OldAndy That article has been reposted all over the internet, technically perhaps filler to epoxy is not a chemical bond but for the sake of this discussion it's easier to call it that. Ok I'll go over my experience with it and try to sum up why epoxy before filler is best especially in a restoration environment. I'm 44 years old. been doing this full time since I was 20 (had to drop out of college after my Dad died). That's not counting the time I spent growing up in my Dad's Collision Repair Shop. I have been I-Car certified since the mid '90's,I have passed the I-Car welding test, PPG Master Level Refinish Certification, and I have had been through the Mercedes Benz Collision Repair training as well. Certified by MB-USA to do Collision Repair on Mercedes. (I-Car is the Collision Industry Standard much like ASE is to mechanics) Currently I do mainly Restoration type work and often do repairs of botched "Restorations" by so called "Pro's". The First time I ever heard of putting epoxy primer on prior to body filler was when I first started my Mercedes Benz training in 1996. They had begun requiring all body filler be applied over epoxy. That's also where I heard the bond referred to as a chemical bond rather than a mechanical bond. The main reason they required it (and now so do many many other manufacturers, Porsche, Audi, VW, among others) is for the corrosion resistance and the adhesion. By adhesion I mean the "grip" but also the fact that when you apply body filler it cures by catalyzation. A by-product of this is heat which can cause the bare metal underneath the filler to "sweat" which in turn can and will cause the metal to rust (esp if the filler is open and not primed for any extended length of time). OldAndy posted a article about heating the metal up or only applying it in environment above a certain temp. That's all well and good but if you warm your room up to 75 and the filler warms up to 140(it can and does reach this temp) that is still a big enough difference to cause condensation. By laying down a barrier(epoxy) you no longer have to worry about moisture on metal) One more thing if you're not convinced, say you are restoring a car in your spare time, mainly on the weekends. Perhaps you started doin filler work a month or 2 ago. Maybe it's rained a couple of times since you started. No big deal you have a nice dry garage. But you have been working filler and have a lot of exposed unprimed filler, because you are not ready to prime the car yet. Grind a small amount away and look carefully at it while you are removing the filler. More than likely you will see rust speckles on the metal. Hmmmmmmm. Here is a good discussion over at the Southern Polyurethane forum. http://www.spiuserforum.com/showthread.php?1289-Filler-to-bare-metal-causing-metal-to-sweat-!-What Read through and then decide whether or not you want to continue to use body filler over metal. Sometimes just because someone has done it a certain way all their life doesn't mean there isn't a better way.

If you break through you simply recoat those areas with epoxy prior to reapplying body filler. If you apply epoxy prior to any filler work, then reapply after you sand your filler (before reapplying any more filler if you have bare steel areas) you'll have 100% coverage. The main source of problems people encounter when using filler over epoxy is applying filler outside of the re-coat windo of the epoxy. That's when you have adhesion issues. Epoxy provides a chemical bond to body filler not a mechanical bond like applying filler over scratched metal. That is the main reason for applying filler over epoxy rather than bare metal, not corrosion protection. Corrosion protection is a secondary benefit as filler is pourous and can absorb moisture. the e-prime provides a barrier between the metal and the body filler. It is also a good idea when block sanding primer (urethane, poly etc) to spot coat any bare steel areas you may create during the sanding process prior to reapplying more urethane primer (or poly primer etc.)

I've been in the AutoBody trade in one form or another since I was 10. (My Dad owned a Body Shop and unfortunately I caught what he had. ) Collision repair to start out and for the last 12 years Restoration and Custom work. My feeling is that I want the absolute least amount of rust that I can afford to buy. Reason being is that a patched Unibody car is almost never going to be as nice as a rust free one. Can it be done? yes but you will spend more than what it would cost to buy something rust free or almost rust free. And then you are dependant on the skill of the guy doing the job. Mig welding a panel and then putting a 1/2" of body filler over the repair is not something that I call "restored". Very few guys have the skills to repair something and make it invisible or nearly so. When you spend more upfront on a rust free or nearly rust free example you will actually save money in the long run. Just my 2 cents.

I've used it in the past mainly at a former restoration shop I worked at. We mainly used it to control the flash type of rust when a body was in bare metal and we were doing rust repairs and metal finishing the body. It's a quality product with several different uses. If you are going to get the car media blasted I wouldn't worry about using any until after the car returns from the blasters. One excellent use for it is to work it into the pichwelds and other areas such as inside rockers that media blasting can't reach. If you are getting the car media blasted you should'nt have to worry about anything other than controlling the flash rust before you apply primer. It would be a good idea to plan to use a good quality Epoxy primer,(PPG DPLF is a great product, if you are on a budget Transtar Autobody Technologies makes a good epoxy primer as well as an excellent filler primer that is isocyante free.) (much safer for you) and apply it asap after you get the car back. Then you can continue with any patch work as well as apply body filler over the E-prime.

My 2 cents, Any quality body filler will bond with epoxy primer as long as the primer is within the re-coat window. With most epoxy primers this is 48-72 hours from when you sprayed it. I personally never go past 48 hours, if I do I scuff the primer with a red 3m scotch brite pad and reapply 1 coat, Then apply body filler. Whenever you are in doubt how to use a product, go to their website and find the "Technical Data Sheet" for the product. It should answer your questions 99% of the time. There is so much misinformation in this thread it's funny.