My sr20det Datsun 510 build saga...

[SSSEXXX]

Negative, but maybe I can shed some light after I work on her a bit. Will let you know.

[SSSEXXX]

Ladies and genlemen, boys and girls, allow me to reintroduce myself. Hi!! My name is Chris and despite popular belief, I actually do more than just collect really cool parts. Rarely, ever so rarely, I actually work on the car myself. So, in the spirit of getting dirty as all hell it was time to break down Project Miracle Whip's rear subframe. Obviously if you have been following the thread, you know I like to do a ton of research before I get to work. I also like to make sure that I have most of the parts on hand. We all know starting and stopping a mini-project like this sucks. But, more importantly I have found that as time goes by I forget more and more about the details that I wanted to remember. So, let's take a look at where we are starting from....

 

Here she is in all of her stock glory. Untouched and abused for nearly 50 years. It almost pains me to get the garage dirty after our most recent journey, but considering I have already added some "character" to the epoxy I was over it and quickly got back in to the groove...

 

 

Lighting was bad from this angle, but you still get the booty shot...

 

 

Most of these parts are being replace with new goodies like Wilwood two pot rear disk brakes, Techno Toy Tuning rear coilovers, R200 differential and so on. So, this was more of a simple breakdown and assesment of what parts need to have some love and clean up.

 

Left control arm...

 

 

Right contorl arm...

 

 

Time to stop being paparazzi and starte doing. So, figured I would start easy and get that mustache bar off...

 

 

Still need to get an R200 mustache bar. That has been aggravating....

 

 

Drum brakes don't exactly make me think of performance. These are rusted and I am glad I wont have to wast any time trying to make them look pretty...

 

 

This is where all the "easy" work stopped and I headed over to those damn U-Joints...

 

[SSSEXXX]

Detailed shot of the back of the OEM drum brakes with a sprinkle of rust...

 

 

Rusty, rusty, rusty... I'll be so damn happy when I am out of the nasty 50 year grime phase of this build. Argh...

 

 

This little piece was at the top of the drum. Unless someone convinces me to keep it or even understand what the hell it is for, it is going in the trash and I will keep the extra space in my memory banks...

 

 

I can't tell you how much of a colossal pain in the ass this was to get out. I only had one 14mm allen wrench and a damn socket wouldn't fit. I didn't want to wait to do it and there was no place to get the tool I needed. So i used a cobmination of a breaker bar, vice grips and my 14mm allen to get this off. I'm 6'5" and my back was hating me afterward too. I almost wanted to do a bolt by bolt breakdown of photos...

 

 

This bad boy is going to go in the trash tonight most likely. Can't see a point in selling them or saving them. I'll keep the hardward and clean it up for the CV axel conversion though...

 

 

Then it was the two bolts holding the rear control arms to the rear cross member and the rear control arms were free at last. Well, except for the e-brake cables that I hadn't completely detatched. But, that was as simple as a clip being popped off. Do people restore these or just buy a bag of new ones from somewhere?

 

 

Now this little bastard and I had a bit of a fight and I lost. When I stopped to re-examine my life and figure out whey I was so weak that I couldn't get the damn nut off I remembered that I needed new ones because these would not be salvageable. The light bulb went off and I took an extra look to notice that this lip was pressed down on to the spline of the bolt. So, I am not weak, just mentally challenged. I tried prying it open with a screwdrive. That was an epic fail and now I need a new screwdriver. So, I figured it was too late to dremel and cut this sucker off, so I'll do that tonight. Weeeeee fun...

 

 

Off with her head!!!

 

 

Then it was on to Round Duece. I knew it would go by much faster this time...

 

 

This bad boy was out and broken down in no time. I wrapped here somewhere around 1am. Had to be up for my AM starved cardio at 5am...

 

 

[510T]

I want those axles... I'll pay 2x what it cost to ship them to 94952... please:)

 

Good job on the teardown but you've got to drop some coin on more tools to save yourself from frustration.  Buying tools is almost as fun as buying parts.

[DREWSDIME]

Yeah dont throw any parts away someone can probably use them. Offer them up for free or cheap I bet they will be gone

[dennis]

Looks good chris. 

 

I would keep those parts and just give them away, they will go quick.

 

Check your PM.

[Wesglock]

Any updates?

[Acheron]

Hello, this is my first post on Ratsun. I have been reading this thread from the very beginning for the past couple of days now. Y'know, catching up little by little when I could find the time? But at the end of the day I always looked forward to reading this some more. I first found this thread by searching for sr20 transplants into dimes, and this thread popped up. You are not only the reason that I have fallen in love with the 510, but you are someone I have great respect for. You jumped into this build wholeheartedly, ready to do whatever it took to get it done. Reading this was almost like reading a love story. I pretty much wanted to cry for you when I read what happened with that rip-off shop. I'm so glad you decided to continue the build though. You're living my dream. I'm sorry if I sound kinda fangirl-ish, but I just can't help admiring your work and determination. You have a very supportive network here and I hope that one day I can become a part of it. I don't have my datsun yet, but I'll get there one day. And when I do, I hope I can devote as much as you have to this. I made an account here just for this thread. And so I say good luck, and keep on building. I'm looking forward to your updates and refreshing humor. :)

 

-Matt

[SSSEXXX]

@Wesglock - Coming soon!!! Been so busy lately, but I am back at it.

 

@Acheron - Welcome to Ratsun Matt!  There is so much to learn and see here.  I appreciate you reading through this thread, it has literally been years in the making at this point.  It is funny to think where my mechanical skills started and where they are today.  Read, research and learn as much as possible before making decisions and even then, sometimes you will make a wrong one.  The best laid plans of mice and men.  I have begun to recover from the damage of the bodyshop I was at, but a $10k hit is hard to take all on its own.  Combine that with not having my car for so long and the year that I wasted in the process and it can be discouraging.  It is no secret that the body of Project Miracle whip is with James "the510keeper."  He told me that I will have to be patient and wait some time, but trust is priceless and I trust him to do a great job.  Good thing I don't have a wife, I would have probably had my ass handed to me by now for chasing the seemingly impossible.  Taking the car apart was such an massively educational experience, but when you get down to it, these cars are so simple.  Good luck and make sure to ask any questions you have along the way.  PS - I will have new updates coming soon.

[paradime]

Hey! Good to see you back at it Chris. Seeing's how you don't have a wive to tell you you can't,  :rolleyes: you should put together a few build fest weekends. Post an announcement in the events forum that you will supply the grub and suds over a particular weekend for anyone who'll lend a hand. You may get lucky and have a few heavy hitters show up who can tackle a whole project themselves. You'd be amazed how much can be done with a few extra hands. Hell, even a newb who can hold the flashlight, or hand you a wrench is worth a slice of pizza and a couple of beers. 

 

The only thing better than opening new parts delivered by the brown santa is seeing them installed on your car.  

 

[nullbound]

Just read this entire thread... Excellent selection of parts and I love where this build is going.  And I'm also glad to see you got your car in capable hands for the body work/paint.

[GORILLARILLA21`]

Updates?! I've read this entire build 3 times now and can't believe that shop... That pisses me off. I dunno how you kept so calm

[Tidy_1200]

I have read this entire thread and am very impressed at the amount of work you have managed to complete by yourself with not being qualified, awesome work!!!

Also, so sorry to hear about your troubles with that body shop, karma is a bitch and he will get his. But good to see your getting back on the bike so to speak and continuing with the project :)

I have just got my first 1600 after having 4-5 1200's and this thread has been very informative :)

Keep up the good work mate, and can't wait to see more updates :)

 

[SSSEXXX]

Admittedly, I have wandered off the proverbial Datsun path and have not been doing what I need to do. We all have lives and sometimes we need to walk away from our hobbies, recharge, and get back to them. I went to Eagle Rock this weekend to link up with James about the timeline of my project. In trolling around and looking at some of the Dattos, I remembered how much effort and time I had already invested in my own project. I immediately came home, pulled out the rear subframe and decided it was time I finally got those rear stub axels out. When I last left off, the "peened" nut on one of the two sides apeared to have been damaged and was locked around the threaded spine. So, assuming I would be rusty, I went to work on the side that did not appear to have a problem...

 

 

I started by grinding off the two flat portions of the nut. You have to be careful not to damage the thread. I know that my other side is already damaged, so I looked at this as a good exercise in practice, but fully anticipated having to buy another one or possibly two of these...

 

 

I used a dremel and went super SLOW.... By the way, does anyone else feel like a dentist when the use a dremel???

 

 

Then I used a breaker bar, a socket wrench and some good old fashion muscle to unscrew the nut. It went surprisingly easy, but shocker I damaged the threaded spine....

 

 

A look down at the conquered control arm.....

 

 

 

And finally, the removed rear stub / hub axels. Will have to buy two more of these bad boys since they are both now damaged. Can't play around with a piece that isn't perfect and put down a lot of horsepower....

 

 

 

So, what did we learn kids? You don't need a press to do this, but your life would be a whole hell of a lot easier with one. You will need a bearing puller if you do not want to damage anything. I have heard of people using a pipe and a hammer, but experience has taught me that hammers almost always cause more damage than they are worth. Finally, I learned that the rear stub / hub axels are not cheap and will cost me about $100 a side. It felt good to get back in to the swing of things though and I have committed to at least working one night a week or more, every week. Which means everyone will be getting updates again. I did try and attempt the other side, but that was an epic fail. I am going to have to cut the whole nut off or something. Talk about a nightmare......

[DottiBlue]

I was just wondering about your build yesterday. Any timeline for getting the beast painted?

[SSSEXXX]

@DottiBlue - James said he is shooting for December. He warned me early on that I had to be patient with his schedule and he did me a favor by taking this project on. But, I hope it have the entire suspension ready to bolt in by then. Have the engine back together and then finish the transmission rebuild. Then I can use whatever time will be left to work my magic on interior pieces before it is time to put her back together. I just can't wait to get out of the dirty, rusty phase. I am nervous putting things back together. I am always learning. For example, it is hard for me to know what pieces I need and what I don't for my disk brake conversion. Obviously the drums are out, but the backing plates? OEM brakes line clips?

[DottiBlue]

Don't need the backing plates. You will want some ss brake lines, the passenger side will connect to the tee splitter. The other side will connect to a hard line that comes off of the tee near the swing arm pivot. I used an adel clip to hold the ss line to the swing arm.

[SSSEXXX]

This might be a dumb question, but I have the nuts for the replacement rear stub / hub axels and they don't exactly spin on to the threads very easily.  There feels like a slight amount of resistence.  I don't want to force them on, but when I actually bolt them down I don't want to have an issue.  Are they supposed to be unusually tight??  Also I want to clean them up. I know that powdercoating is to thick of a coating to work, but is plating an option?  If not, I will just spray paint the parts a matte black.  Anyone have any good recomendations on tutorials for getting the old studs out and getting my new, longer ARP studs in?

[Noahf]

I spent the entire day reading this thread. It started out as an epic build with the most courageous hero beginning an unlikely journey. The engine build itself was the precursor to an intense and exciting build thread. Every page built excitement. Until I reached the most heart wrenching twist in the story. The evil monster that the hero must battle: the body shop. But the hero was not discouraged. Though he defeated the monster, he wasnt left unharmed. With his spirits running on vapors, the hero found a way to get the help of the King of Datsuns. And though the epic is taking a bit longer than expected, it is going to be a legendary tale of why we are in this hobby.

 

I am inspired by you, SSSEXXX, and reg'd just to let you know that.

[SSSEXXX]

@Noahf - I appreciate the very colorful and warm interpretaion on my saga.  This has definitely not been an easy journey and there have been a vast ocean of emotional ups and downs.  I have to constantly remind myself that mistakes are okay and that I started this to learn and not because I wanted to save money.  I have been tempted at times to head in different directions.  Pay someone to put the engine together.  Have James send my car to a local bodyshop to get the body done sooner.  But, at the end of the day, like you alluded to, this is a saga and one that needs to be defeated.  The cost does not weigh on me anywhere as heavily as the unresolved conflict of finishing a goal I know is achievable.  There were  so many separate pieces of the puzzle that I had to source, study, and complete.  It was nice to have a dairy here of sorts to share with people like yourself.  I hope it is beneficial.  Ironically, I walk around meets all the time and people have no clue who I am.  So very few of you have met me and I have no friends in the car / tuner world.  I am on an island of sorts, so I sincerely do appreciate the feedback here and comments like these.  Thank you!

[Trophy24]

I had to repair the threads on my stub axles when I did my bearings.  Rather than buy a tool for every different size and thread pitch, I use a thread file.  It takes some patience to get it right, but can work just fine in the end.

 

 

 

 

 

This might be a dumb question, but I have the nuts for the replacement rear stub / hub axels and they don't exactly spin on to the threads very easily. There feels like a slight amount of resistence. I don't want to force them on, but when I actually bolt them down I don't want to have an issue. Are they supposed to be unusually tight?? Also I want to clean them up. I know that powdercoating is to thick of a coating to work, but is plating an option? If not, I will just spray paint the parts a matte black. Anyone have any good recomendations on tutorials for getting the old studs out and getting my new, longer ARP studs in?

[SSSEXXX]

@Trophy24 - Thank you for the insight.  I may very well have to do that too.  I never, ever want to have to do this again.  Talk about a nightmare....

 

I spent the evening last night researching and reading about the proper way to remove the rear wheel bearings and trying to figure out how to best tackle it.  I read about using a puller that I would have to rent and then came accross a few DIYers who had posted a few alternatives.  Then I wandered off to reading about wheel stud replacement and a few different related topics regarding disassembly and reassembly of the rear suspension.  It was when I got to the an article related to bushings that I realized that almost all of these articles spoke about "if you don't have a press, you can do it this way..."  So naturally, I thought, well if I am rebuilding a car from the ground up and I have more than a few things I will be doing, I might as well consider buying one.  I don't like Harbor Freight that much, but they had a great coupon on a 20-ton press that is their newest and more improved model.  For about $150 + shipping, I hope that my project will be a little less stressful.  I figure I can use it on wheel bearings on all four corners, removing bushings on my own, and replacing all the wheel studs with my longer ARP ones.  That has to be worth it alone right? 

 

Also, I am now looking at air compressors and using a 1/2" air impact wrench when applicable.  All this by hand nonsense has been a waste.  By now, I think it is fair enough to say that I have evolved my skills beyond using my socket wrenches and a breaker bar.  LOL, I still remember how mechanically inclined I felt when i learned about breaker bars.  Looking back on it, I had absolutely no business jumping in to this project.  Thank God I have always been a safety first kind of guy.  Boots, gloves, safe clothing, glasses, masks at all times.

 

Once I get the rest of the rear end all broken down, I will take the rear cross member and control arms to the machine shop to have the adjustable brackets welded on.  Then I will send the whole thing off to powder coat.  At the same time, I will finally get to use my vibratory tumbler on the small pieces before I send them off for plating.  Anyone have any tips and suggestions?

[DISLEXICDIME]

My cordless snap on impact makes jobs go so much faster . Get one if you can

[SSSEXXX]

@DISLEXICDIME - Hey buddy! Been a long time.  I'm not opposed to the idea of a cordless impact wrench, but I just thought that at some point I would buy a media blasting cabinet too and clean my own parts before sending them to powder coat or replating.  So using an air compressor just seemed to make sense.  I'm a firm believer, especially after what happened with that body shop, that no one takes care of your things better than you would.

[SSSEXXX]

Now that I have my replacement parts in my hands, it was time to tackle the control arm that I could not remove the stub axel from.  I had already damaged one stub axel and knew that this one was not going to come off.  So, with the confidence of having these bad boys in, I went back at what has been my most frustrating and epic fail to date. But, lets just call it a learning "experience..."

 

 

So, after setting up my most leveraged position using my trusty breaker bar, a chain, and a vise I had zero luck.  I had already used a dremel and removed the entire upper rim of the nut holding the stub axel on.  Yet, this thing showed absolutely no sign of moving.  I think whoever may have put it on last may have damaged the threading because it seemed seized.  Accepting my fortune for what it was, I knew this would be a long stressful and aggravating exercise.  But, since I consider this my first epic fail in the mechanic world, I turned on some good music and went to town on the thing with my dremel...

 

 

Sparks were flying and it wasn't the romance kind.  My back was hurting and I was already starting to get pretty irritated.  So, I did myself a favor and set a two hour time limit on my work.  If I could get the thing off in two hours, great!  If I couldn't, I would try again the next evening.  I suppose it is a good thing I had stocked up on cutting bits for my dremel because I did not have any luck.  I removed a hefty chunk of the stub axel and the peened nut, but still have a lot to go.  Valuable lesson here to be learned kids.  Take your time and read.  If something seems unusually difficult, read some more.  I made the mistake of not stopping and reading when I should have and am now a bit embarrassed by my own stupidity.  This is where I left off.  This one is going to take a while....

 

 

 

 

At the end of the day, I will use this stub axel to practice removing the wheel studs from when my aforementioned 20-ton shop press arrives.  At least I cant learn and avoiding doing any more damage to my replacement stub axels.  I'm still learning....