yenpit's 1970 510 4 door beater!

[yenpit]

The other part of this next step is dealing with the major rust in the front floors! Both sides are pretty bad, including the forward section of the inner rocker panel...................

 

 

 

 

[Z chopper]

there are a few people that have fabricatted floorpan replacements

[yenpit]

Yes, I've seen them! I have buddies at a local sheetmetal shop, so I just had them cut from my pattern. Since this is a total budget build on a rusty car, I don't want to spend any mulla, AND I am gonna learn how to weld on it! I'm almost ready to weld on the left side, so more pics soon.

 

Have the Aussie's stepped up to make floor pans?? Their lower front & rear fender patch panels look like they are FAR superior to the "Canadian" panels off the east coast. I bought the Canadian lower rear 1/4 panels, behind the rear wheels, in the past, and they were absolutely awful quality! We bought the same manufacturer "Canadian" floor pans for the Alfa GTV that my buddy & I are restoring, and they too were awful quality.

 

I have been involved on & off in the British restoration parts business for 27 years, and I remember back in the early 80's when I started, that the quality of the patch panels for the popular MGB's & Sprite/Midget's was horrible. Luckily for that market place, the British kept much of the OEM tooling in storage, and when British Motor Heritage was set up, they resurrected all of the tooling, to produce what are now excellent panels. They even produce complete body shells in some cases! Unfortunately, I have heard that the Japanese did not keep anything, so the chances of having "correct" 510 floor pans made is slim, unless somebody steps up and makes the big dollar investment having the proper stamping tooling made. I have looked into it, and I'm not sure that the 510 market would support that kind of investment, as the overall production numbers of the cars is alot lower than most of the British stuff. Hell, what did they make...........5 million Mini's by the end of production!!?? But that market got a l'il boring...................

[yenpit]

I'm officially a welder.........not a very good one, but I finally did it after all these years! A good buddy came to my shop to "school" me, and was a great teacher! Again, I simply wanted to patch this car up, as I am NOT restoring it, and this simply gives it another chance at life for a few years...................

 

 

The RIGHT side only needed two patches..............

 

 

The LEFT side needed the full pan....................

 

 

 

[yenpit]

In an attempt to get the exhaust downpipe ready for the new system to be bent up, I tried to cut it back, and it just came apart on me (rusty!), so it had to come off. The first bolt to the exh manifold broke, so the manifold had to come off. Since I've got the manifold off now, I'm gonna throw on a used "shorty" header that I've got laying around. Funny how projects sometimes seem to snowball into more & more stuff!!

 

I also picked up another REBUILT 280ZX 5 speed, so that's what's going in it! I've pulled all of the AUTOMATIC steering column components, leaving the shifter rod hanging in the engine compartment so I can still put it in drive (yikes!!), cuz I need to drive it to my buddys shop, as he has a lift, making the trans swap much easier. While up on the lift, I will also finish welding the floor pans from the bottom, then seam seal the crap out of it, and slather on the "Chassis Saver" (POR 15) paint!!

[Rustina 510]

Looking great dude

[yenpit]

Bought the 620 heater valve from Lynchburg Nissan, and rebuilt the 510 valve using the "internals". Pretty simply job!

 

 

 

 

[yenpit]

Also, FINALLY yanked the AUTOMATIC, and got the 5 speed swap done yesterday! I recently picked up another ZX trans that had been rebuilt, so that's what went in the car. What a totally different car, with the manual trans!! Still need to finish the details, but got the hard part done at my buddys shop, up on the lift. It runs & drives great!! Hell of a job to do by yourself. Having a proper "transmission jack" would have made it alot easier, but can't complain too much, cuz I did have use of the lift..................

 

[yenpit]

While under the car, I replaced ALL of the fuel lines, from the fittings on the tank, to the fuel pump! Lucky I did it, cuz when removing the old rusty lines, one of them BROKE, cuz it was so thin from rust.

 

I also dug up a good USED emergency brake cable, so I got whole system working properly.

 

I was hoping to drive it the 10 hour trek to the Spec510 Meet at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia next weekend, but just not that confident in the car yet, as I haven't had enough seat time! Hope to have the exhaust done Monday, since there is now LOTS more room along side the 5 speed, compared to the big wide auto trans.

[Enthusiast]

I'll keep an eye out for her!

[yenpit]

Hey Jeremy! Hope your project is coming along! Have you started a "Project Datto" thread yet??

[yenpit]

Jeremy (Enthusiast) rocks! Maiden voyage, to my buddy's house about 20 min away to get a new stereo/CD & speakers installed (buddy owed me some mulla), one of the rebuilt calipers locked up on me! No tools with me (cuz I'm a tool!!), no jack (cuz I'm a tool!!), out in the middle of farm country Zeeland MI, and who just happens to drive by..............Enthusiast!! FYI he recently bought my early 68 510 2 door, and has already started on the project. Anyway, as he drove passed me on the side of the road, he had a look of "What the hell........a 510!!" and I heard "TJ??", so he turns around, and comes back to the rescue!! He blew off work, took me to his house a mile down the road (?????), dug up the necessary tools, brought me back, and in the end, saved my ass!! I had to pull the pads OUT on the right side, and vice grip the rubber brake hose to disable that caliper, to get the additional 1 mile to my buddy's place, then back to my shop. Now I gotta figure out what happened, but that will wait until AFTER the Spec510 Meet at Summit Point WV!! Gotta pack up for the loooooong weekend at the track, camping with a bunch of other yahoo 510 people!! Can't wait..................

[Z chopper]

your front drivers floor looked like how mine looks http://community.ratsun.net/topic/43323-choppers-510/page__p__683862?do=findComment&comment=683862

[yenpit]

Yup, one of the most common areas to rust out on the 510's! If ithis was a restoration, I would have done something different, and spent more time on the welding & details, but I think it still turned out pretty darned good!

[yenpit]

I've been working on cleaning up the interior. The original blue panels were not very good, so I dug up a set of decent black panels, and vinyl painted them a matte (flat) black. I know some of you are shaking your heads, but it really does turn out nice! I tried using a gloss black, but that just didn't look right. These are the EARLY (thru 1971 model year) door panel patterns, with the "square" design (1972-1973 had a "rounded" design).................

 

 

 

Rear door panels, and spray bombed the inner rear wheel housing covers. I'll replace the blue door jamb trim with black, just gotta dig those up in my stash of parts.............

 

 

 

 

I also made NEW front lower kick panels, mounted new speakers and new vinyl from the edge of the kick panel along the inner rocker/sill panel.................

 

 

 

The C-pillars had already been re-covered with a darker blue vinyl, so I spray bombed those too, and sprayed the lower trim panels.....................

 

 

 

.............. sprayed the rear parcel shelf, NEW vinyl across the back below the rear window, and installed new speakers back there too!

 

[yenpit]

I spray bombed the headliner in white, as it had the typical old glue "stains" all around the edges! The headliner wasn't perfect, but still very usable. I don't think I'll ever spray bomb in white again, as it doesn't "cover" well..........black would have been MUCH easier, and MUCH cheaper ($15 per can for the flexible vinyl paint, and I used 3 cans of the white!!)

 

 

 

 

.

[yenpit]

Although I have always liked the plain look of steel wheels, I went ahead and sandblasted a set of the 280ZX 6-spoke wheels, and will paint them a bright silver metallic.....................

 

[yenpit]

Somewhere along the line, somebody re-covered all of the seats in a darker blue vinyl & velour. The drivers seat had since torn & popped the threads along the inner seam facing the shifter, and I noticed that the original blue vinyl was still under the other upholstry! Well, both of the original front seat upholstry was torn up (they just slipped the other upholstry over it!), so I checked the back seat too. Turns out, the rear seat back was "burned" on the top from the sun & age (originally a New Mexico car many years back), but was not torn up, and the rear seat bottom was perfect! OK........since everything else was going to be matte black, I decided that I needed to clean the upholstry BEFORE I spray bombed it (again, the "vinyl paint" really turns out nice, if done properly), so I wet it down, soaped it up, and scrubbed it!

 

 

 

WARNING!!!!!!!!! This is what happens when you "wet down" 40+ year old seat to wash it, and the thread holding seat upholstry together sounds like a zipper, and goes "pop!!"........................

 

 

After cleaning, I left both the seat back & seat bottom out in the sun to dry, and when I brought them back inside, I leaned on the seat bottom, and heard the thread "popping" as it finally gave way after 40+ years of holding together. My heart sank. When you "wet" old thread to clean it, it softens & pulls apart. So I have since pulled the upholstry off of the seat frames, and taken it to a local upholstry shop to RE-stitch the whole thing back together! It did NOT tear the upholstry, the thread simply let loose, so they should be able to put it all back together. An expense I really did NOT need!

[blueridgespeed]

T.J! nice work on the restoration. You are lucky to have craftsmen able and willing to help with things like that upolstery salvation! Dan over at the Paint Shop is a skilled fellow that you probably know but should if you don't yet! I'm catching up on your thread, and I must say that your floorpan "welding cameo" is quite impressive. Welding to thin, existing, slightly rusted Datsun sheetmetal is not easy! The fit and skip-welds look good. I'm no professional, but I've welded a lot on old Datsuns, and I can appreciate the challenge and reward. I predict you'll be welding a lot more, and enjoying the options it opens up for you.

[yenpit]

How the heck do you know Dan.........yer in NC!!?? Yes, he does EXCELLENT body & paint, but VERY expensive!! The one car that I see most of his, is the 1962 (??) Impala BubbleTop that he painted for his Dad. Killer resto-mod! You do get what you pay for...........

 

Thanks for the positive comments! I've got more welding to do on this car, some of it exterior sheetmetal, so lots more learning to do. I'd like the next project to be much more "detailed" in the welding.

[yenpit]

I was able to save the back seat, got it all stitched up, and spray bombed it with the same flat black vinyl paint as the door panels etc etc. It looks really good! Don't worry all you blue upholstry lovers, as the top of the seat back was "burned" & starting to crack & split, so it was not any good in it's original color.........it needed the black!

 

 

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[yenpit]

I picked up a nice set of 90-93 Integra seats in the dark charcoal grey. The seat inserts had some blue (and light purple) specks in the pattern, so looks good with the light blue color of the car! The best part was that the FRONT mounting ears on the Integra seat rails simply needed to be bent almost flat, and the bolt holes lined up with the factory Datsun bolt holes! For the rear mounting, I'll need to also flatten out the mounting ears, then fab up some spacers to level it out like I want it, and drill new holes thru the floor.

 

 

[yenpit]

As usual, the door rubber seals on the stainless trim, at the bottom of the door glass was all brittle & broken up. I got the new aftermarket seals from Datsunlandsocal, paid the BIG premium price, but they really worked out well!

 

The NEW seals do not attach to the stainless trim the same way as the factory, but instead use clips to hold in place. I used my Dremel to cut the staples, where they are bent over INSIDE the "C-channel" of the trim.

 

 

The trim, the old seal & steel strip and the new seal & clips.................

 

 

The new seal attached with the new clips............................

 

 

The new seal done (I painted my stainless trim black, as I blacked out the window frames)..........

 

 

...........and the finished product. Simple to do, and looks great!

 

[datzenmike]

I enjoyed reading this. The back seat in my 710 sedan 'ripped out' just like that. Always wondered why it did that shortly after I got it. No one sits back there..... But I did clean the white vinyl and probably got it wet.

[yenpit]

Yeah datzenmike, I did the same thing a few years ago to another rear seat, but forgot about it, so I did it again! :blush: