Feng Shui (The 510 Experiment) (Pics fixed through page 7..)

[mklotz70]

LOL!!!  Why do they call it billet just because it's aluminum.  They're cast aluminum parts that have been around for well over 30 years.  I used to assemble those plugs in the Air Force.  If it was truly made from billet.....it would probably be about $300?  What do you think Josh?  How long would it take to machine that pair from a solid chunk of billet?  Or am I way off base here?  You've had them in hand......are they machined or cast? 

[Josh K.]

Cast aluminum. You would never cnc machine a part like this. That's what casting is for :)

[Mattndew76]

Haven't you ever had the guy who figures it cant cost more than $100 to make that?

[Josh K.]

Yeah. Every job takes 90min to program.....

[Mattndew76]

I know that guy too!!! 

[datsunfreak]

Both jobs look like shit as they were early on in the build. I need to fix the mistakes of the past ;)

 

 

Best thing about a long term build. You get to do everything twice. 

 

Or five times.  :rofl:

[KoHeartsGPA]

Best thing about a long term build. You get to do everything twice. 

 

Or five times.  :rofl:

No kidding, I know I've gone back on some things on my 9 year build!

[Josh K.]

I just heard from one of the guys that raced my 510 back in the day. Here's what he said:

 

Hi Josh,

 

That is my old race car.

I purchased the car from Scotty Bell in Thunder Bay, Ontario in the middle of winter of 94/95. I Drove up from St Paul, MN to Thunder Bay during a snow storm. Coming home I nearly lost the whole rig on an icy patch in the tunnel in Duluth. I purchased the car with the intention of going vintage racing with a group that ran along with Land-o-Lakes Region of SCCA as a sub group or vintage class. They knew the car well, but didnt like the idea of a 'modern' race car running with them and essentially disallowed the car in the group. There wasn't much else vintage racing going on in the upper midwest then, so I decided to just keep running the car in GT3 as Scotty had. The car was hopelessly outclassed against modern tube frame cars, but I continued to run for fun from 1995-2001 when I relocated to Philadelphia. The car stayed with my friend John Mikes in MN while it was for sale and eventually sold to Marcello when I was living in Chicago.

Here's a brief off-the-cuff history of the car that Scotty had told me;

The car was built for the owner of a trucking business in either Kelowna or Regina (Scotty couldn't remember) sometime in the very early 1970's to run the 2.5 Challenge. It was supposedly built by his mechanics and fabricator in-house as fill-in work. The car was essentially modeled after the BRE cars, sans all the trick stuff that Peter did that isn't readily visible. Not sure if the Bob Waar book was published that early, but it is alot like that build. The car had a seam welded tub with strengthened cage pads and a nicely gusseted cage. It was built with alot of nice BRE parts (intake, oil cooler adapter, flares, original header, etc.) and early Datsun comp stuff.

The car had one more owner prior to Scotty, but he didnt remember who he bought it from!? (You are probably getting the picture that Scotty didn't dwell in the past.)

When I bought the car and spares it came with the SCCA logbook #18626 (actually two logbooks stapled together, I added another during my time) and a few CASC timing & scoring cards. He didnt think he had a CASC logbook, but couldnt remember (!? In a very Scotty way said "what would you want that old junk for?") It did have a CASC number stamped into the main hoop '4-162'. I know the car had unbroken documented race history that I saw from CASC 1979-1981 and SCCA, 1982-2001. (All these documents went with the car to Marcello.) I'm sure there was more before that. I heard it was raced from 1974-on.

It was great to bring that old car to the track, everyone knew it so well. I'd go to tech and the scrutineers would sign off on "Scottys car' without so much as looking at it-they'd seen it so many times! Often workers and spectators would approach and comment about how they had seen the car race years ago. It was nice to keep an old war horse on the track.

I am a bit disappointed to find out that the car had essentially been stripped for parts. While not an original pro-built Trans-Am car, this was a very nice, original, accurate example of a B-Sedan that could have been saved and would have made a great vintage race car.

I have much more that I could share and I would be happy to pass along any anecdotes or history that I can.

I may be mistaken, and I hope that I am, but I fear that Scotty Bell has passed-on some time ago. He was a true gentleman racer and I enjoyed my time as the steward of his 510.

 

Eric

[Josh K.]

Got the rest of the story of my car from new.

 

"I can fill in a few more details about this car. The original owner/builder was a fellow named Pat Brehm from Regina, Saskatchewan and was as Eric described a nice clean well built race car, "sanitary" as we used to say.

The second owner was Bob Rymarchuk who ran the car out of the Performance Unlimited shop in Winnipeg, that would be the 1979 - 1981 time period. I raced my 510 against this car during the 79 and 80 season. Bob runs a print shop in Winfield BC (UBR Services).

I too was disappointed too see what happened to the car but am glad to see it was at least saved from the crusher and will live on in another guise.

Scotty raced until he was in his mid 70's and as he sold the car in 94/95 would have to be around 95 if still around. Hopefully he is as he was a very nice guy. I am sure I have a couple of pictures of this car when Bob was running it but as I am in the midst of a long term house reno I may not find

them for quite some time, but if/when I come across them I will post them here.

 

DAVE"

[Josh K.]

I decided that I'm going to shoot the engine bay with the body color. The Chrysler Anvil I posted before. My goal is to have the engine bay done and motor fired off by end of October. I would settle for engine installed and almost ready to fire by that time. I WILL drive it this winter-spring.

[Byron510]

Been some time since I read through your thread.

 

Started from the beginning - geez, it's quite the build thread Josh.

 

Good on ya for sticking with it - many lesser men would have....

 

I'm pretty much off the 510's this year. Bought a house in the spring and am building a shed in the back yard that I've nicknamed Datsun Central. But I look forward to getting back to projects next year.

 

If it wasn’t for time well wasted at work, I'd have never got through your thread today :-)

 

Super stoked to see the history fall out of the woodwork on your car from three different sources, now that's cool. Like your car, my Bronze car also has a worthy heritage that's been worth documenting.

 

Keep 'er going and updates coming.

 

Byron

[Josh K.]

Thanks Byron. I'm super stoked myself! 

[Josh K.]

Last piece of the puzzle:

 

"I can add some history to this - parts of the story so far are correct - not bad for 35 yrs. later! The car I had (which was the #22 car shown in the photo when Scotty Bell raced it) was built by Patty Brem in Regina Sask. in the early 70's. The history according to Patty was that he bought the car from a little old lady when it had hardly been driven. He then prepped the car, seam welded the shell, spent about $10,000 US on it at that time (God knows what that would be in today's dollars) bought lots of Nissan competition and BRE pieces for it. Patty was a builder and importer (brought in several Brabhams and other sports racers later). We raced against him at Gimli Motorsport Park and Edmonton International for quite a few years. I had a street 510 that I raced in a street stock class and really wanted Patty's car. Dave Whiting in Edmonton beat me to it and he purchased the car from Patty and ran it for about 3 seasons. Was very competitive at that time. Dave decided he wanted to go FF racing and that's when I purchased it. Car was originally orange (factory colour) and I ran it like that for a few seasons. Had an L16 at that time, Ultra Close Roadster 5 speed, 4.6 LSD diff and essentially BRE suspension. Stock brakes with just the rear drums changed to 240Z aluminum. While I had the car it was painted in the white livery seen in Scotty's photo - we had several cars we ran out of the Performance Unlimited shop - various 240Z's, Corvette (an ex ice racer out of St. Paul - another story!), a Gremlin with a very potent small block set up (also another story) and we painted them all the same theme. While I had the car I switched it over to the Datsun Competition suspension set up which I brought in from Japan - not adjustable but didn't need to be - really worked. This was one of the best handling cars I've ever owned. Due to business events - I decided to sell the car and Scotty Bell purchased it from me with the provision that when he decided to sell it - I would have first chance at it. I was surprised when in 1990 or so I rec'd a call from a fellow in St. Paul who had just purchased the car from Scotty. I still have his name and number somewhere - he was planning to go vintage racing with it. That was the last I heard of this car. I'm shocked to see the photo of it all ripped apart and the comment that it was in rough shape. Unless it had been stored improperly - that car should never have suffered from any corrosion - it was immaculate - one of the cleanest builds I've ever seen."

[Josh K.]

No real updates. Been busy with some big projects at work. No time for car stuff.

 

I did score a nice tool box and air compressor ;)

 

[Dime Dave]

Is that a Lista tool case?

[Josh K.]

Yes sir :)

[Josh K.]

Made it out to the shop today....

 

I've been going back and forth on whether to use the stock hood latch or not. My main concerns were I couldn't use the factory brace and the safety hook will hit my intercooler. Both are solvable problems but I couldn't move forward without a decision.

 

Well after many lost nights of sleep.... I decided to stay stock and make a new brace.

 

It turned out pretty good. I didn't have much room so its minimal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a pic of my son this morning. He's pretty amazing ;) he'll be 1 this month!!

 

[Josh K.]

Got a little shop time tonight.

 

Buttoned up one of the radiator opening corners. Still gotta do the lower two then it's done. I also marked the holes I have left to weld in the core support. Next is finish the front valance. I have time and no money for paint supplies so I'm doing some grunt work.

 

 

[Josh K.]

Core support is done!! Expect two broken bolts I have to get out :)

 

I had to finish the new lip I made around the radiator opening. Wanted a full flanged face for strength like the factory did.

 

 

 

Next is finish the valance. Should be pretty easy. Then finish all the little holes in the engine bay, strip, some more and then get ready for filler....

[datsunfreak]

Expect two broken bolts I have to get out 

 

Let me guess. Headlight bucket mounting screws?   ^_^

[Josh K.]

One headlight bucket, one that face mounts the fender to the core support and one fender bolt....

 

Any tips on removing busted bolts? I know ez-out but maybe ez-out and heat?

[Lockleaf]

If you have access to the backside, where they welded the nut in place, I would just grind or break that nut off and weld new in place. Faster and easier than any other option.

[thisismatt]

If it's a blind hole, try to run the broken bolt in instead of out, since it's often the rusted part of the bolt sticking inside past the nut that won't let the bolt come out.  You can drill a small pilot hole in the broken bolt and then step up to a larger drill bit that will grab and spin the bolt in.  Acetone and ATF mixed 50/50 for some cheap & effective penetrating lube (shake together, apply immediately).

[Laecaon]

And if you are really good with a drill, you can drill out screw/bolt out with a bit that is about the minor of the threads. Done this a few times. I stay away from easy outs, broken more than bolts I haven't been able to get out.

[datsunfreak]

One headlight bucket, one that face mounts the fender to the core support and one fender bolt....

 

All of these should be accessible from the other side? I normally grab them with vice grips and spin them out the opposite way. 

 

Too late for you now, but if I have access to them, I cut off the ends of the headlight bucket screws before taking them out. The factory made them way too long and the exposed threads always rust just enough to seize the bolt and snap it off. Didn't help they gave them a phillips head too...   :rofl: