Will

...or if you like to name car parts after girly hats and cowboy shoes... Anyway, welcome to Ratsun - it looks like you have a great start to a project! I hope that your new gauge cluster is as easy to hook up as mine was.

...actually I did nab that right after I snapped the picture. Maybe we can trade if you have any 710 stuff laying around.

The bumper doesn't look too far gone - any competent bumper shop should be able to straighten it out. (heck, you might be able to pull it back into shape by hand - the metal isn't very thick.) It actually looks like it is the same color as the car in the catalog pictures!

I just put 160J sss gauges in my 710 - I added a new oil pressure sender (PS153 was the part number for ebay searches) and the gauge works fine, but I needed to disassemble the plug for the gauge cluster and rearrange the wires with lots of checking wiring diagrams - you might find my thread useful to get started. http://community.ratsun.net/topic/34485-710-project-thread/page-8

I had someone push a meeting back by an hour as I was nearing Oakland - time enough for a quick run to the Oakland P-N-P! There was a 77 or 78 B210 No engine or transmission (automatic) but the interior was pretty nice. It has the cool steering wheel. Also, 2 ZXs. One automatic and the same colors as the old transformer, the other a turbo with T-tops. There was another 280ZX on the yard, but it had been there for a while. There was a early 720 with an L20B and a 5-speed too.

It was a surprise seeing you at the museum last week - I checked and didn't see this in the parking lot! Be sure to stock up on any body parts that you might need before you head east - those might be the toughest stuff to find in the northeast.

Also, I added some Moog sway bar links - they are much more snug than the poly bushings that were on the car when I picked it up, and the car is more quiet now. I needed to put my jack under the bolt and use it to compress the rubber bushings in the link enough so that I could put a nut on the end!

I put in some new outer tie rod ends in the car today (After I removed the old tie rod ends I discovered that Rock Auto sent me the wrong inner tie rod ends, so I just used the boots to spruce up the current ends,) got the car aligned, and put on the Momo Vega rims (finally!) I like the new rims - maybe some small spacers would be nice down the road. ...and here's the new springs. Some shorter cartridges would help keep the springs in place when the springs are at full droop. I'll put that on the long to-do list. I noticed that the tension rod bushings were old and cracked, so I picked up one of those ball and socket T/C rod kits to install at the same time as I replaced the bushings. ...it turned out that the previous owner already installed one of the kits and I hadn't noticed. Oof!. Busted bushings: ...and I finally found replacements for the nylon inserts to keep the trim on my car: These things:

That's a lot of Vegemite. You're going to need a larger toaster.

the notoriously unloved 260Z carbs at that.

It looks great to me - the only weird thing is the diagonal driver's seat!

Roll down the windows and go to the car wash. ...Though I would be tempted if I had parking for multiple cars. I didn't know you were in northern California - I'd always guessed you were farther south.

Had a good morning at the San Jose junkyards - at the north yard we found a '73 240Z hazard light switch and a "rear defogger" light to help with my plan of changing my stock hazard and defogger switches for fiber-optic pull switches. Then at the south yard there was another '79 620 KC that had been listed as a '75 or '76. Someone had already taken the chrome window trim and smashed the windshield wiper switch out of the dashboard, but I nabbed the delay box and the matchbox dizzy. Also, I found this dimmer knob in an old Toyota pickup: ...in this vehicle you do not turn down the brightness. You turn up the darkness!

Yeah - I can understand that a defroster comes in pretty handy in Canada - kinda like when I see a car for sale in Mexico that never had a heater installed, only the opposite! I really like this style of switch. The lighting is really unique and interesting (and not terribly legible. ...but sort of spooky,) and the clicks feel nice. I just tracked down a hazard switch, so now I can start finding a way to fit these into the 710.

The switch says Niles Type D, 863Y - it has the green fiber-optic knob and everything - I'm kinda surprised that it isn't a Datsun, but it makes sense that Niles supplied switches to some other manufacturers in Japan. ...so Niles is the Lucas of Japan? Only with less darkness?

I think maybe all of the Datsuns received lighted switches for '73, so maybe this came from a 1200 or 510?

That's what we'd call "rust free" in Utica!

I somehow wound up with this switch in my parts bin, and I'd like to find another one for a project - can anyone tell me what Datsun this originally came from so I can use the info to track down another? (or if you have one of these - let me know)

I went outside to show my girlfriend that I'd finally addressed the squeaky clutch pedal (she was scared of the squeaking sound, but I thought "the clutch pedal squeaking is the one problem this car has that is LEAST likely to kill us.") anyway, I turned on the headlights to see if the gauge cluster lights were working correctly, and the intermittent wipers started working! ...they only work when the headlights or parking lights are switched on. Weird. I hadn't touched the wiring since yesterday. Time to consult the wiring diagram again. Edit: Mystery solved - the power wire I wired into the intermittent wiper system was the same wire that powers the light for the cigarette lighter. Duh.

16 feet? ...so, you could vacuum form an entire Datsun body? (...It would just need to have the correct draft angle...)

A price is hard to think of for this part. On one hand, it is super-rare, and it makes the B210 hatchback look super-awesome, on the other hand, it would take some fabrication work to get it to work on a B210 hatchback. (though I think that finding some round taillights that are close enough to work out wouldn't be impossible.) Ebay is probably the best way to go - My guess is that it would sell for at least 75, and maybe a couple hundred if some B210 guys with deep pockets get into a bidding war. As you can see from this thread, this is a part that gets B210 fans all hot and bothered. Someone on Ratsun might even want it to make a fiberglass mold ...though I might be overestimating the demand for this part, since I personally think that this is the coolest photo of a B210 ever:

Bike repair-automobile repair teamwork! Awesome!

Hmmm, so you have vacuum former access, eh? Is your vacuum former large enough to try duplicating a dash cap? I was thinking about making a mold from my current dash cap.