Duncan's Race Car - The Most Overdue Build Thread On Sau

[Duncan]

so, got the R34 cable from Just Jap today (yes, 4 days to a rural location, still waiting for the Amayama order I paid for early April...)

I haven't had a chance to check length or fittings yet, and may not this weekend, but I note the r34 cable moved to a metal instead of plastic, fuel door thread.

[BK]

On 30/06/2022 at 7:46 PM, Duncan said:

so, got the R34 cable from Just Jap today (yes, 4 days to a rural location, still waiting for the Amayama order I paid for early April...)

I haven't had a chance to check length or fittings yet, and may not this weekend, but I note the r34 cable moved to a metal instead of plastic, fuel door thread.

Boom - bloody awesome ! Nissan actually grew a brain !

Might need to get a couple as they should never have been plastic. Interesting that the S15 of the same 1999 - 2002 vintage was still plastic. It looked a better material and was black, but still plastic.

[No Crust Racing]

Some good progress being made Duncan, nice work

[Duncan]

Thanks Dan for jinxing me 😛. Anyway, I did a little more today...

There are a million little jobs to do so just chipping away at them.

The bonnet pins had zinc hardware and the car spent some time outside at the smash repair resulting in this

New mounts in black, plus some 316 stainless hardware (man M3 is fussy to work with, and who has a 5.5mm spanner?), hopefully this lasts longer

[Duncan]

Next onto that boot/fuel pull problem.  This was dead easy in the race car, on the off chance that you might have an interior in your car there is a lot more to remove.

The r34 cable has the same boot fitting end (yes, the brand new from the bag part is the rusty one...). The R32 one was about 50mm longer between the fuel door and booth pull than the R34 one

Same setup for the fuel pull in the middle, with the important difference that the thread is cast, not plastic

And the cabin end is also identical. The R32 one was about 100mm longer

Despite the length difference, the R34 one is direct fit, all in and working with no problem (I note Just Jap are suddenly out of stock, so maybe I should have bought a spare before BK read that post last week....)

For reference the part I used was 84650-AA100, and Nengun still have them listed for $104 + shipping

[Duncan]

Final progress for today. While waiting in stage at the last rally (before the "incident"...) we noticed a small oil leak from below the right rear quarter panel. Of course, there is nothing around there that can leak, apart from the ATTESSA reservoir.

Sure enough, one of the 30 year old hoses had cracked under those nasty 80s hose clamps.  In good news, the main hose was still available and the return is under Nismo heritage for only a billion dollars. For reference part numbers are 41738-05U10 for the main hose and 41728-RHR21 for the gold plated nismo heritage one.

Given so much was already out of the car and the boot needed a good clean, I undid the lines under the car and fed hard hard lines out through the boot floor and removed the lines with the reservoir. It was strangely dirty in there which leads to the next thing...

Anyway, new lines with modern hose clamps, ready to go back in after giving the boot a good clean (and sourcing a bunch of different sized rubber grommets to seal it after the shop threw them away)

[Duncan]

Unfortunately while I was under there, I noticed quite a few spots of surface rust that I really should deal with while everything is apart.

And (sorry no pic today), I also had a good look at the vent in the lower rear quarter panel. I'm not sure what is meant to be there but all I have now is a plastic frame with holes about 50mm square, giving easy access to dirt and crap, as well (apparently) as the critters that live in the shed. Whatever is meant to go there is NLA, so I've got my eye on some small flyscreen mesh to stop big chunks and cold critters looking for a home inside the car.

[No Crust Racing]

How did I jinx you? All I see is more progress????

The vent I thought had a slotted rubber section that slots into the plastic and only allows air flow one way bit BUT I might be thinking of a Landcruiser... 

[Duncan]

Nah all good, everything just seems really slow atm and I'm pretty sure that is because i am not excited about dealing with bodywork stuff. eg there is a bunch of surface rust from sitting in the weather with no rear end on the car for months that I ran some rust converter over yesterday and have decided to rattle can spray the boot to cover any small exposed points

this is the mouse access device, you can see they opened up 2 of the barriers to make access convenient for them and the whole family

Any suggestions on sealing it up (but still allowing airflow) appreciated. It is a difficult shape with sides 30-50mm deep then the plastic mesh, and the whole thing seems to be sikaflexed to the car from factory and in a tight corner of the guard, so removing/cleaning/replacing/resealing would be a mission

[No Crust Racing]

Hmm, 1-2mm thick rubber sheet from somewhere like Clark rubber? Sika flex in, cut vent slots in it. It's internal pressure that supposed to allow air out and not in, or if you're only worried about pests, stainless mesh, sikeflex it in. 

 

[No Crust Racing]

Just thinking, does the S13 have a similar vent? I can check mine if that helps?

[Neil]

The boot vent is so air in the cabin can escape through the vents in the parcel shelf and out that vent. and the one way rubbers are to stop water from entering the inner 1/4 area.

 

[Duncan]

Yeah a bit like the discussion we had the other day about the boot release, there are probably other nissans from same age with similar or same system, I just don't know what is normally there (it can't be that open from factory), and even boring 90s nissans are getting hard to find now

I think I'll go some ally flyscreen mesh for now, sika-ed into the frame and see how it lasts. I guess there is a massive volume of air to move when both windows are down moving at speed.

[No Crust Racing]

I went and had a look at mine, it was difficult to photograph it but this ebay listing shows it much better. 

1989 Nissan 240sx Rear RH Cabin Air Vent | eBay

This listing doesn't show what I could feel which is a thin rubber flap that feels like it's under spring tension, push it in, it springs back, might just be the wait of the flap, but it felt suspiciously "springy". 

You can see it in the bottom of my poor photo, this is the passenger side boot well down low in the guard. 

 

 

[No Crust Racing]

*weight

[Duncan]

Thanks for the pic, I assume that was from inside, not underneath as the flaps seem to move outwards?

I think I'm just going to sika some flyscreen in

BTW f**k you volkwagen for naming one of your shitboxes R32. It makes googling skyline parts much harder. As if anyone ever cared enough about a Golf to try and repair it, you just throw it away and buy a new one.

[No Crust Racing]

Yes that's from inside, from outside there's a hump in the sheet metal the the outlet is hidden away from debris.

When I put my shed in I spent an extra i dunno few hundred bucks, and put verma-seal in all around the sheet metal at the rebate, no mice/rats so far. 

They have a retro fit product also, if you have issues with vermin. 

Keeps snakes out too. 

 

[Duncan]

Yeah I've got vermaguard at the bottom of the walls and the vermaseal at the top where it meets the roof in the new garage, but critters just walk up the roller doors and in through that gap (I'm going to try those brush seals when I get a

chance). Unfortunately the shed where the race car is was built long ago and is neither critter nor snake proof and it is a problem, you get lots of unpleasant surprises about what they have decided to eat. Plus, I get snakes in there a bit in summer, one time in particular a brown popped out from under the workbench I was working at to hear what all the banging was about, went "oh f**k a human!" and zoomed off

[No Crust Racing]

They climb the roller door?! what kinda indiana jones animals you got out there?!

Tell me more about these brush seals, I have a 5mw x 3.2m high door so when it's closed there's a generous gap between the remaining door on the roller and the lintel. 

[Duncan]

Yes, they laugh at vertical surfaces and the "gravity" that hold we puny humans down.

Seals like this, I've never used them but meant to be BAL29 compliant, the go on sides and between lintel and roll