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Yellowdatsun, Very impressive! Was this the HF HVLP kit that costs $119? I think I will try that out! Could always use it for other paint projects too! Any tricks to laying it down? Needle size? Thinning? Very nice color! What color is that? Cheers! Paul P.S. I see you took the glass out. How difficult/dangerous is that for someone who has never done it? Best to hire someone to do it?

Thanks YellowDatsun! Great tips! Love to see your car! Paul

Hi Ernie, Could I pick your brain for a second? I have several cars that have need of some body work and paint. Chips, dings, etc. I cannot afford the time or money to do a good job now but I want to do something to both make the cars look a bit better but also just to stop rust, etc. I want to do small, direct repairs without painting whole panels. That would turn out to painting the whole car. I have wet sanded one area today on the fender well down to bare metal. It's about 1/2" wide by 6" long. I tried to feather from the bare metal to the paint but the thickness of the paint leaves a "ridge line". I'm not too concerned about having the "repair" invisible but want to do what's best. I did buy factory color paint in a spray can and in liquid. Do I mask off the area leaving say 1" around it and using a rattle can primer hit the bare spot feathering out the primer? And then do the same with the base coat and clear? Again, I'm not looking for a permanent fix but would like it to look decent and better protect the body. Thanks in advance for any advice. If you prefer to do this off-forum, I would be totally up for that. And if you don't want me asking, please tell me! Paul

Ernie, thanks so much for your input! I was kind of kidding about leaving the colors and clear coating as someone suggested too. I think in jest. I plan to paint the car a solid color, whatever my son wants. So I think I will block sand the car down to at least what the fender looks like, use an epoxy primer to cover all exposed metal, do body work to the best of my/our ability, prime again with a primer filler, then paint. We do not expect the paint job or bodywork to be anywhere near perfect. We just hope it comes out decent. And thanks for the tip about Finishmasters. I'll take a ride over there to meet them. Where are you located Ernie? Cheers! Paul

Tendril, it does look cool! Do all those different colors mean there are thousands of dents on that fender? How to duplicate this on the whole car ? :) It feels relatively smooth with only a few small bumps here and there...

Thanks Ernie, Indy510 (it does look cool like that!), and DanielC! I've seen Eastwood has a 2 part epoxy primer in a can. You somehow pop something that allows them to mix. I think pretty expensive though. I do have a spray gun and small compressor. In my mind I think it's too much trouble to set up just to paint one panel or two but in reality it doesn't take that long. So I will take the body down as far as I need to to get to a solid base and spray with an epoxy primer. I do have a shop near here where I have purchased paint before. They do provide good help knowledge-wise. Once the epoxy primer is on I can then do body work on top of it, correct? I do not have a garage when the car can sit out of weather. I do have a car port but other cars are taking that space up. If weather decent I could pull one of those out... Thanks!

Here is a photo. I assume two colors of bondo, and black is remaining paint/primer...

Hello, Our new 510 is painted flat black over the original red. I do not know if it's only primer or base coat. It's a crappy job and peeling in places I'm sure due to not good prep work. Just hiding things... My question is I want to paint it this summer but want to start prep work now. I will only be able to do a panel at a time. I've tested one fender with wet sanding with 220 and the black comes off pretty easy. I think I could probably use 80 grit to make it faster. I expect to do lots of bondo work but we are not expecting a showroom job as we are relatively new to bodywork and painting. Just want to try and do best we can. There is exposed bare metal now where I wet sanded. Is it reasonable to use a rattle can of primer (maybe Eastwood product - epoxy primer??) and do one panel at a time. If I use epoxy primer I can then afterwards do bodywork if I understand correctly. Thanks! Paul Finally figured out photo insert. Next comment... P.S. If the whole car looked like this I might keep it like that! :)

Yes, I want to go that route as there is wobble on my shaft anyway. Any leads? Thanks again for all your help! Dwell was 85 and timing was off after getting dwell to about 52. Had to use the fine tune distributor plate to allow for more movement. The car definitely had more pep and ran smoother! Fun little car!

Picking points up at the store this morning and they are going in first thing!

Hi all, First off, thank you all for your comments, suggestions, and knowledge! Went out this morning and 510 started right up. I thought the fuel filter was the culprit. Was very happy! Then 10 minutes later it wouldn't start. My son came home and we fiddled with it. No spark at plug. No spark at coil output wire. There was plenty of spark yesterday! Anyway, since I just got the new condensers, I decided to change the "good looking" one. Changed it (tough to get to that screw!) and bam, it started right up and we actually drove it around the island! So datzenmike, you nailed it! BUT, you all have read my comments. It's been on and off for 3 days. I think there was more than 1 issue. Fuel filter maybe. 2nd second set of points with wire splice maybe bad or shorting, older looking condenser bad maybe, etc. The symptoms I described were all over the place, but lastly, with the working/not working/working/not working, does this sound like a condenser going bad? I thought a condenser was either good or not good... Anyway, it runs! It is not that responsive. My family had a 70 510 wagon in 71/72 and I remember it being pretty quick! I know I need to gap the points properly, time it, make sure plugs are clean (look good). I guess check compression. Maybe valve adjustment. And weber adjustment. I need to dig up a weber book I have but should this engine have decent throttle response and pickup? Vrooom when giving gas. It just seems sluggish now. Runs good though just not any pep. My boys are thrilled and this will make a fun little toy. I think many, if not all bushings need to be replaced so that will be next. Oh, one last comment/question. The rear springs have been cut. The car sits very low and the tire is up inside the wheel well, and the camber is about 1.5" bottom to top leaning in. What would be the best (less expensive) way to get it back to normal ride? Coil overs or get some used springs and new shocks? Thanks all! It was very fun diagnosing the problems and every time I came back to the computer one or more of you had commented with very useful information. This is a great forum! Paul I still cannot see how to post photos... but I will as soon as I figure it out!

P.S. It acted as if it ran out of gas. Fuel filter still full. Gas gauge shows 1/2 full but don't know if it's accurate. I assume fuel filter would be sucked dry if tank empty... Will get a couple gallons tomorrow. Old fuel filter seemed pretty clean. Go rust or anything noticeable.

Man this is crazy. After looking and looking I figured I'd better change the fuel filter. The existing shows fuel but only about 1/2" at the bottom. Went and got one, a cheapy for a 240z (didn't have any for 510 at O'Reilly), installed it, started it up and it took 30 seconds or so and the fuel filter filled all the way to the top and the car idled good. It revved fine and I even timed it while it was warmed up idling at 1000. More about that later... So I was embarrassed as hell but at least I found one issue. It ran for about 4 or 5 minutes. Idling, revving, etc. Then it conked out and acted just like before! It really has a mind of its own and is really testing me. As far as timing goes, when I have the distributor pegged in the groove as far as I can turn it counter clockwise, I can just barely get the pointer to TDC (second mark from the left looking down from front of car) with timing light set to 15*. It seemed to run good at this setting (for the 4 minutes) but I was wondering if this is normal. ie: I cannot turn it further to say hit 13*... It's at its limit. My Haynes manual is coming soon so hopefully that will explain more. I also have the "How to Keep Your Datsun Alive" book coming. This was highly recommended... Thanks!

The weber certainly looks brand new! Again when it does start it runs GOOD! A clogged idle jet sounds promising... I will install a new gas filter just in case...

Thanks! What I meant was I read that a mechanical pump is not good for Webers. They require a more uniform 4 psi flow. Or they work better with it. Just what I read... Anyway, I just went out after letting it sit for a couple hours and it fired up. I had to pump the gas quite a few times once it fired to keep it from stalling. Then when I kept it at 2500 rpm's it seemed ok. As soon as I let off to let it idle it died. Now seems more of a fuel flow issue. I've checked all wires, connections. I will check fuses in a bit. And I agree ggzilla. I want to find the issue and get the car running as is. It is not a daily driver so points are fine with me for now. The distributor does have some wiggle side to side. That may be a concern down the road but I don't think it's related to my current problem. Thanks!