71DIMER

Jason: I'm glad I didn't waste any time then! :P Bonvo: I hope sourcing a back seat will be easy. For now I'm contemplating trying to see if my stock seats from my 510 will bolt in since my 510 is getting 350Z seats in soon and the stock seats are black and in pretty good shape overall. Or I could install some of the newer Celica seats in too. The guy who sold it to me said he had a carpet kit that he'll give me 'if' he finds it...I'm not holding my breath though.

Zuum510: haha, not as much as I would have paid for it! :) ppeters914: I'm sure there were lots of eyes on it. lex: Yeah some TLC like my buddy Mark did to his goon is what I have planned for it. Icehouse: Yeah I had to swoop in quick...guy said if it met his reserve on ebay he would have let the auction go. I helped him delete his ebay auction at his place after we signed all the paperwork. :)

Even though I'm super excited about my 'Ratsun to Datsun Makeover' http://forum.ratsun.net/showthread.php?t=8057 and my now freshly painted dime I have to share this with you guys. Ok well after helping my buddy Mark (Pac Coast) find his own wagon and seeing how he transformed it from what it was when we picked it up to what it looks like now, I got goon bug, I recently heard of a white 1972 wagon that was for sale at the local pick-n-pull but it was sold before I got to check it out. So yesterday I was browsing my local CL around 2pm and low and behold I found one just posted hours earlier in the morning about 85 miles away. So it's a 1968 Datsun 510 wagon. The exterior is pretty damn straight, not original paint but original color (or close to it compared to the engine bay). Yeah the interior needs some TLC but it'll be a great daily driver running project. OK, enough words...on to the pics. What do you guys think?????

Voodoo blue from Toyota FJ Cruiser. Thanks for the thumbs up...all the hard work paid off...guys Mark does great work, regardless of what was brought up earlier in my thread. :)

I can't wait to see it in person and to start putting it back together with the grill, trim, etx. Thanks for the comments guys. I awe it all to Mark. I only did the labor (sand, removed trim, etx) but Mark did all the bodywork since I may work on military satellites but I don't know a thing about bodywork/repair. I've leared a lot about how simple techniques make a huge difference. It does take A LOT of freaking time and elbow grease. Nothing too difficult just labor intensive so I know that's where all the big bucks for a decent paint job come in. Clayton: I'll definately give you and Lisa a call. :) BTW, what do you guys think of the color choice? If anyone is wondering or cares to know about the color...I chose "Voodoo Blue" from the new Toyota FJ Cruisers. It's very close to the Audi Nogaro Blue like Clay recommended but it's a far cry from the Pepto Bismol Pink Mark suggested (hahaha).

OH MAN...I've been thinking about it ALL day today. It looks awesome Mark...bravo! I booked my flight today and I'll be there on Thurs at 3:35pm...:) I can't wait...it's been an exciting few last days (you know why) and soon will everyone else once I get a chance to post. Haha!

Hahaha...do the pics look like it's at a bodyshop? We did the bodywork at his place (home) but we're renting a paint booth for the spraying of the paint.

Holy clean...that thing is cleaner (inside and trunk) than the 510 I sold to that guy in Australia (and how I met Clay when he came to pick it up to take to the shipping dock). I guess this means the 521's days are really numbered huh? Can't wait to see it in person. We should catch up and check out each other's dimes once I get mine back from San Diego. :)

Thanks Farmer Joe. When I first got this 510 (this is my 3rd) I wasn't a big fan of that intake...now it's one of my favorite things on it. Yeah I love the 16" Panasports. I got them to replace my 15" Watanbes so they'd fill the bubble flares a little better. BTW guys I posted my thread to get some ideas on color not to get negative comments (and yes Jaimesix, they came off that way...using a word like 'terrible' is not what I consider constructive). I'd rather have those via PM to me or to Pac Coast so they don't clutter up the thread with a bunch of back and forth like its already starting to do. I now know 72240Z didn't mean anything bad, based on his later posts (and our PM). He's welcome to post but I hope we all can keep it positive, after all this thread is just us sharing what we all love...working on our Ratsuns right? I'd like to continue to thank Mark for all his hard work. I was only being the labor for the 3 days we worked together since I'm not the one with any bodywork skills. I left San Diego on Wed and flew home and left my 510 at his place. He's doing the rest of the work (final prep, masking, painting, etx) on his own time and by himself. He's going totally above and beyond, even by friend standards...I'd be there helping but I had to come back home to work. It sucks being over 440 miles away. I sure he'll post more pics as he gets a chance too. I know I'm dying to see any progress.

???? <---WTH? Not exactly the best way for a relative Ratsun newbie to come rolling into a forum dontcha think? We're builing up my car the best we can and are having a blast in the meantime. I'm not looking to do a full on restoration or a show car, that would cost huge bucks and tons of time. Your post did come off as a put down, looks from your post above like you didn't mean to but just saying. I've never done any bodywork at all so learning alongside someone who knows is alot of fun. Anyway here's some more pics that I couldn't post earlier.. Before getting ready to make the long 440 mile trek to San Diego I found my gas filler hose leaking large amounts of gas thanks to the hose being cracked where it connected to the gas tank itself, the beginning of the filler hose just inside the truck, and the evaporative/catch-all was sheared right off. I had this metal hose replacement for a while that I got on Ebay and I bought the gas door rubber portion at Nissan. A few clamps later and voila...fixed! Finally making it to Mark's pad, man his wagon looks SO much better than when we picked it up. PCD and I just getting started (ok since I'm taking the pics it might look like Mark was doing all the work but I promise I did what I could :P hahaha!): Hood, trunk, and roof done being sanded and getting started on the side (note the 'custom' t-shirt): Air damn has cracked and broken in many spots, so we decided to fix it up: Mocking it up on the car: Air scoop had lots of cracks around the perimeter of where it met the hood: After Mark did his handy work on it: Misc little dings and dents we found: This is after we sanded it 3 times, still need to decide pretty soon on what color to go with so I can order the paint :): Gutted interior:

Yep that's me inline4...did you come out and look at it?

Who knows...I'm doing this at Pac Coast's place here in San Diego. You wouldn't see me driving any car into TJ, let alone my 510!

Hahaha, I know, I know! I should have called you to pick up the lowering springs for Mark...oh well. Next time. I've taken a lot more pictures but I didn't bring my memory card ready and Mark has a different memory card so we only posted a few pics he took. I'll post more off of my camera when I get home. BTW, check your PMs. :)

I would have to say yes, that would be pretty Ratsun if you resort to those measures.

So I had some vacation time and decided to head down south to San Diego. I figured on calling my buddy Pac Coast (Mark) to see what he was up to. As it turned out it was his days off so I cruised over. I took some pictures of his green goon and man is it CLEAN. Mine looks like junk compared to his shiny ride. Here's my non shiny dime: SO I commented how I've tried all kinds of different rubbing compounds and what not, nothing's worked. It's still dull and flat. No it's not primer, it's just really weathered dull Maaco paint (the previous owner did that, not me). He talked me into taking the plunge and getting it painted. We spend all day today starting from the early morning sanding and fixing the rust issues as well as the dings and dents it's had. We started by taking off the grille and trim: Removed all the seats and door panels: Here I am figuring out which socket to use to remove the rest of the headlight trim: And here I am getting to work sanding, sanding, sanding! We found some nasty rust cancer on the bottom of the car: Still sanding... Mark worked his magic on the messed up bodywork on the hood scoop Here's what the hood scoop looked like before: The front of the car almost done sanding: The rear of the car almost done: I'll have a lot more pictures but no memory car reader but I'll be sure to post more as I get a chance and as we go along. I still haven't decided what color I'm going to go with. Pac Coast is recommending a Pepto Bismal pink or salmon color. He said it will look 'real nice'...ha ha ha...SURE! What do you guys think?

How do you feel about their quality? I only ask because it has been awhile but I ordered a set of retractable 3 point universal seat belts from ebay (not the kind you bough) and once I got it, boy oh boy I'm glad I didn't keep them let alone install them and count on them. One of the retracting units didn't capture/stop the belt when jerked hard like the other one did just fine. Upon further inspection the one that didn't catch had some loose parts in it, heard them rattling around. So I look at the 'good' one and OMG, I saw a bunch of plastic geared teeth in it. I don't want to trust my life to some aftermarket belts especially ones using so much plastic components in the vital parts. Do the ones you bought offer any guarantee or anything? Oh and don't just us all on Ratsun based on some "fu's" posted by others. :)

Some people on here have some pretty cool jobs. I received my degree in aerospace engineering with a concentration in astrodynamics (orbital mechanics stuff) from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. Yeah I know boring nerdy stuff but it's what I've wanted to do since I was 12 after my astronaut dreams were dashed when I found out it takes a military path to get there, so I figured I wanted to work on what took us up to space instead. Currently I work at on a military satellite program as a systems engineer and have worked on 3 launches (all of them sucessful). One of my designs that I was involved in from concept to custom one off builds are orbiting us right now, which a second more complicated one going up soon, so that's kind of cool. I'd like to work on the Orion project, the space shuttle replacement program, but we'll see. It pays well enough, I won't be getting rich but it does pay the bills and it has allowed me to buy my own home, my little 'fleet' of cars, and afford a decent lifesytle for me, my wife, and our puppy. A Datsun 510 was my first car when I was 15 years old and I've been hooked ever since! I like the diversity of Datsun/Ratsun owners, it's always great talking to car guys, especially when they're into older rides. While I don't have a cool pic of me at work (even though it's a mostly a cubicle job camera's aren't allowed or cell phones with cameras especially in our high bay where the spacecrafts are in) here's what I work on. First pic is an artist rendition of the satellite I work on. The second pic is a composite image taken by our bird of the earth lights on at night.

Ok without trying to piss anyone off here let me just say is that it took me no more than 5 seconds doing a google search and sure enough this is an OLD claim that's been going on and on via emails. This is simply not true. If any of you guys that are so quick to jump at pumping your fists about how there's people out trying to destroy America and our way of life it would help your cause if you actually were stating facts rather than recycling lies and fear mongering information. The new coin desing is just that...a new design so it incorporates new features so rather than having the 'IN GOD WE TRUST" (which by the way was only implemented on our coins in the 1950's) on the front or the back of the coin it is simply relocated to the side of the coin. Judging from your post you claimed you got one of these coins and refused it and was told a 'way to go'...I guess you didn't bother to inspect it huh? :P Here's what the coins look like to those that want to see the truth in the matter.

I'm not sure about Pull-It but over here in the SF Bay Area, Pick-Your-Part has 50% off sale starting today thru Saturday. Me and a friend showed up left our place around 6am to get there at openning time at 7am. On our way out the parking lot was full. Not much for Datsun goodies this time around though. :(

Just remember "she's not my first...or my last" (my favorite line of all time!) :P

Hey I'd be happy to try to get that but I have no idea what kind of t-shirt you're looking for. The only one I can think of is the baseball t-shirt since it has different colored sleeves but the only ones I see that are 3/4 sleeve are for women. Let me know if that's what your looking for. Thanks.

So if you're on youtube you're famous now? Hahahaha.

I don't know if I would pay $35K for any dime but I do know I love that interior from the carpet, panels, seats, guages. I dig it big time. Simple. Classic. Clean.

I'd love to see your lights upclose, can you post some upclose pics? Is the film perfectly smooth and see thru or is it hazy and crimped around the lights?

OH CRAP...I just remembered that the ones I did first (in above post) I did using a $20 Japanese headlight paint...you'll find some on ebay or some import shops. I say don't waste your money. I did these below for my 521 with regular old Krylon stained glass paint, it's a lot cheaper and you get a LOT more than that tiny $20 can. Sorry for any confusion. No problem, here's some regular old style Sylvania sealed beams I did for my old 521...using a stained glass paint. I saw no difference between the two. Here they are OFF: Here they are ON: On both of my Ratsuns