OK now, work is grinding ahead on the 320. Seems like a slow-grind usually. Thought I was about through in the engineroom and ready to get on the front disc install, then realized I still needed to address the rubber inner fender skirts or dust shields that help keep road grime under the fender and out of the engine and underhood goodies. I was able to salvage about 80% of the original left shield and started developing a pattern from it several says ago. What I had was about to explode with seveal big tears so I stapled it back into near original flat configuration using plastic film (tech name for freezer baggies). Then I digitized the outline and holes and developed a CAD drawing.
I wanted to work this into a full-size PDF so that other owners could print out a template and make a set for their truk. The skirt takes a 12" X 24" piece of material, so I determined that it'd take four 8 1/2 X 11 printer pages pasted together to get the final template. Here's what the beat up original skirt, the template, and the Re-Pop skirt look like:
Here's the Re-Pop skirt fit-up on the right side:
And on the left side:
I used 1/16" neoprene to make up the trial skirt and I'm quite pleased with it. Neoprene is good to 200-220F. Thsi might be pushing it on underhood temperatures. Santoprene goes to 300F and is a good bit more expensive. Have we any rubber/plastic people who might be able to suggest a good affordable material to make these from?
If you are lucky enough to have all the original punched tabs for mounting the skirt (I'm lucky) the holes should line up. If the tabs are gone, use a # 6 or #8 screw and washer to attach the skirt.
OK, member Conner has helped me with hosting the PDF file which is printable so anyone here could make their own template and then skirts. Thanks Conner. You should be able to get the PDF pattern here:
http://www.mydatsun320.com/hosted/320Fe ... mplate.pdf
OK, if anyone else tries this at home, show us your work here.
steve