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ace028's 72 510 build


ace028

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Just to throw it out, here is the 710 I use to have. I don't have it anymore, I was 16 at the time, I think this was at 2001 mt shasta show, I remember spinning out on the auto cross track, it was the first time ever auto crossing, then a really nice guy gave me some tips, my second run was much better. I have not autocrossed since. Maybe some of you that went remember me or my car.

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Not much to update, I received door hinges for the passanger side. I am attempting to install the door for now, it will make it easier to see what I have to work with, and less to trip over. My door seams are rusted out at the bottom, I am guessing this is common.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Small update, I removed the dash, and wiring, then I scraped out the old nasty body deadener off the floor and rear seat area, and vacuumed the dirt out, looks cleaner now. I carefully put the dash harness in a box and the screws in a bag and labeled it. Next I will remove the trunk wiring and headliner and dome light and wires to it, not in that order tho lol.

 

Man this floor pan looks like I could take it out in one piece easily, I wonder if I took it out if I could take it to a sheet metal shop and have it made up so I don't have to try to section the replacement pieces together, I think one piece would be better if possible. Maybe its too much hassle or too expensive, any thoughts, anyways pics.

 

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  • 4 months later...

I am currently deployed, but wanted to make a small update, I sourced a front clip, and am having it shipped to my house. Once I return home, I will do some heavy measuring and talk to some places with a frame machine and see how much work I have before I get too much further along with the car.

 

I was rereading my thread on the510realm, and some of those guys are not much encouragement, whats up with that? I felt like I commited a crime for wanting to attempt to fix this poor car. I understand what they are getting at but geez. I wanted a better car to, but this is the one I have. Sorry rant over, on 24 hour shift and got about 7 more hours to go, so a little delerious lol jk.:lol:

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  • 1 year later...

Been a while, but I'm back from my deployment, been home about a month, and have been busy spending time with my wife, and newborn son. I have spent some time in the garage but not much, I managed to get the car on stands. Struts and crosmember have been removed. I have stripped my new clip of metal I will not use. I will be leveling the car with shims under the stands to make it perfectly level, then start taking many different measurements. It would be great if I knew the factory measurements, but either way, I will measure to obtain points of reference and squareness before I start trimming.

 

Here is a pic of it on stands and of the front clip.

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Meanwhile I have sanded on one of the fenders to see what lies behind the paint and over the horrible sidemarker shave job I saw underneath. Looks like I got some work cut out for me. I plan on using sidemarkers.

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The dude that had the car before me thought it was a great idea to cut the springs and level the car with no engine. :lol:

 

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I know that plans will change on this build from what I originally wanted, but still plan on sr20det power.

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Well, spent a few hours this weekend in the garage, I first cut off the nasty weld patches, I figured it would be easiest to get those out of the way and give me more room to drill spot welds, so I got the pass inner fender out as well as the radiator support, next up will be removing the frame rail, and the small section left of the inner fender rail where it connects under the cowel. It feels much better to have the horrible patch job removed, the replacement peice I have is soo much better.

 

Sorry for the cell pics, its handy when i'm in the garage.

 

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Sorry, reposts from the realm, but wanted to share with all here too.

 

Well did some more work yesterday and today.

 

 

I had to remove the bottom radiator support inorder to fit the replacement panel, so I slid it in the replacement panel.

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Here is where you may be able to see that the front radiator support is a different year then the bottom radiator crossmember, I will have to notch the flange so the captive nut isn't hitting the crossmember. I think this will be ok as it will probably get cut to accomidate an intercooler piping , and massage the radiator opening for hopefully a A/C condenser to fit, we will see when we get to that point, but most importantly is to see if we can save this shell before anything else really happens.

 

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Fitted up, looking ok. Still needs some tweaking and measurements, and some hammer work. I might take it to a body shop to do the welding as it seems I might be moving in a while, and would like to bolt the suspension back before the move. I am trying to get as much done by myself as possible, so we will see, I think I have made decent progress so far though.

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Here you can see it still needs some fitting, this is where the firewall is tweaked a bit.

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Overall starting to take shape of a car again, well at least a shell of a car. I have adjusted it some and it is looking closer, but not done yet obviously. I have some cleios clips, but I don't want to try those out till It fits a bit more snug.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Josh, I have been checking out your build/restoration, you gave me inspiration to work on mine, I still need to buy body tools and a welder. I got as far as I could with what I got, but at a standstill now till I get supplys. I am thinking of taking it to a restoration shop to just tack the front end on properly so I can put the suspension on it. My plans have changed and we will be moving in like 9 months, so it will be easier to move obviously, but I want it perfect so theres lots of work ahead for me.

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  • 9 months later...

Well it has been quite a while since I updated this post, this was around Christmas '12

I purchased a Hobart 140 welder, bought some sheet metal and made a die for a practice project. I was much harder then I thought. I still have a lot to learn, but I give credit to welders for what they do. Trying to learn how to control the puddle, which I thought was hard on this thin metal, but i'm still learning. The hobart is a pretty nice machine for its price range from my reasearch, and best of all its made in USA, it uses miller contact tips and other replacement parts. It has been pretty fun learning and practicing.

My dad came to visit for the holidays and he helped me to mount the replacement RF subframe inner feder assembly. We used a comealong and pulled the pannel/frame untill it was within the specified measurement . (I found the frame measurements in the FSM, just had to look harder or I missed it the first time) Once we got all the measurements within spec, we ran self tapping screws to hold the pannels firmly in place so I can go back and plug weld all the spot welds that were drilled out. I have tacked most of the spotweld holes, and just need to finish up the rad support along the bottom. It was a lot of work massaging the firewall to be straight, and lots of measureing. I wire wheeled the inside of the frame rail and all pannels that would overlap and painted with self etch weld thru primer. I wanted that metal that was sandwiched to be protected. Once I get the car primed it will all get seam sealed of course. I also have eastwoods internal frame coating with the long application nozzle that I will spray in the rail through one of the factory holes to seal it from the inside and protect. I have better pics somewhere, but these are what I got for now.

Once I finish all the plug welds, I am going to put the front suspension back on and hopefully take to frame shop to verify my work. All measurements are now within spec according to FSM, but I want to have it checked for peace of mind. Once again I have to give credit to welders and body men, its hard work and definatly takes skill. I am having fun learning as I go. I now have a nice welder and some nice Martin body tools. I only have a couple months so I need to get motivated and get the wheels on it so it can move.

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Sorry copy and past from the realm.

 

I worked on filing spot weld holes and strighting the radiator support ear, it took a while for me to get it pretty nice. Note sheet metal screw to secure pannel until plug welded.
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Martin Body tools

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A lot has happened since Christmas time which was the time the last two posts progress had happened. I have received orders to Korea, and I have relocated my wife and son to live with her parents while I do this tour, and we have rented our house out. We put all our stuff in storage, and packed up our Nissan Pathfinder and drove from  North Carolina all the way to the bay area California where she is staying. So I had to get the Datsun back on all fours so it would facilitate me being able to move it easily. It now sits in storage until I return. Plan is to purchase some stuff for it here and there, needless to say it is not forgotten. I would have like to have taken it to a frame shop before it was put in storage, but I ran out of time. I'm sure its pretty straight though, the measurements I took were within spec according to the FSM underbody measurements.

Here I made my first plug welds, and then finished welding the core support to the lower rad support. I really like my Hobart welder, I wish I had more welding skills like goichi1 from the realm, but i'm sure I will get therer after much more practice time. (Hope to maybe sneak in a tig welder sometime this year and have sent to the inlaws to await my return lol)

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Sorry to have skipped the rest of the welding forgot to take pics, there is a bit more welding to do, but it is mostly welded back together, I was running close on time to move our stuff out in prep for our renters. I fitted up the doors and fenders, dash was next to go in.
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Fitting hood
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Looks like the supersonic line lines up pretty good.

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Another shot of the drivers side. I sprayed the fenders with some primer to help protect the bare metal while its in storage.
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Hood fitment, still needs a little bit of tweaking.
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Another shot of pass side after primer. Being a solid color instead of partially stripped fenders makes it easier to imagine the car coming together.
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Look ma, I can do a 3 point turn in the garage. First time it has moved since being on all 4.
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Well, I wanted to see what was under the old primer on the trunk

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Looks like someone worked their magic on the trunk lock. I am gonna have to fix later, I want all the locks and side markers on the car, nothing shaved except the antenna.

Trunk is pretty straight otherwise
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Well its move day, pushed her outside and dusted her off

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Looks pretty good I think, I will need to sort out the dented up fenders, and the doors are rusted in the bottoms, the drivers door has seen better days.
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If your wondering why it sits a lil funny, whoever cut the springs in the front didn't account for how smashed up the pass side was.

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I also shaved the battery holder. I followed goichi1's guide, it went fine, but I kept burning through so it was challenging, I think because I was trying to make both sides of the weld smooth and it got too thin, lesson learned. I was using .023 wire and the pressure of argon/co2 at 20.

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I found some more pics of when I was prepping the new front end, I sprayed eastwoods metal etch weld thru primer on all the exposed metal that would overlap to prevent any rust from forming inbetween panels. I also bought eastwoods internal frame coating to put in the frame rails after I get the frame checked and all welding on the front end frame section is complete to include the new floor panels when I get them.

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  • 2 years later...

Slight update on the car, Troy is very busy and he works on my car when he has time, but here it is back from the media blasters awaiting seam welding and to check over my repairs. He is also going to repair any rusty sections of the floor, and then the entire car will be sent out for powder coat primer. 

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I have sent a couple pieces I had to be blasted and powder coated. I was checking out the finish, and am satisfied with the results. 
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Progress is slow, but eventually it will all come together. I'm not loosing hope in this lil car.
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  • 11 months later...

So its been almost a year since an update, but here are some pics. Progress has been much slower then anticipated due to some life stuff, but i'm sure thats with everyones build lol, nevertheless I'm not giving up and its looking pretty good now.

 
Here the media blasting revealed less then ideal floors.
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New floor pans installed and the front clip welded up pending a powder prime.
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  • 4 weeks later...

Stoney, thanks. I can't wait to put stuff back on it. I plan to have the ermish stage 2 coilovers and big brake kit installed next. I want to get it complete and make sure no more holes or mods need to be made before I strip it down again and have it painted. 

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  • 1 month later...

Today I went to check out the car, and go over what the next steps will be to get it to a nice roller. Not really much of updates from the last post, once I start getting some eye candy parts on it, it will be much more exciting. Anyways I thought I should update with a few pictures.

 
The futofab fenders and hood look pretty nice, Troy said they will need a little tweaking to fit just right as he said on all the repo fenders he's ran into the same issue. Needless to say, they are a huge improvement on the scrap metal ones that came with the car when I bought it.
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The transmission tunnel, it will get cut and a datsport one will go in, but I will wait until I find a sr20 and trans so I can make sure the shifter hole is centered just right. 
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Troy seam welded the front end all back up, and the repaired section looks like it was never hit.
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Some of the holes will be closed up, but I want to mount everything first just in case some will be used to save on work.
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Car is really looking like a car now, I was losing all motivation, but I'm glad Troy was able to come through and help me get it back to a solid chassis. He said the car looks really good, and he's surprised that there is hardly any rust and how straight it really is. 
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Next his stage 2 coilovers will be fitted so we can make it roll again. If you are wondering why not paint, that is because it will remain in storage or garage until I get the engine and all components sourced and fitted. Once everything is located and accounted for, all remaining holes will be filled, and body work, then paint. So it will basically get assembled, then taken apart, paint, then reassemble. But that is way down the road. Lets get it complete first. 
 
Troy had lots of 510s in his shop, but this beauty caught my eye, kinda hard to miss the bright yellow paint, but it really is beautiful. One day I might get one of these after the 510 is done. 
 
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  • 3 months later...

Not much to update, however I did purchase these nice pillar vents. Once I go through all my parts, I will transfer the plastic inner on my 70's plastic vents to these as it has mounting provisions as you can see. I am thinking of polishing them, considering clear hard anodizing and painting the inside black to match the factory theme. Thoughts?

 
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