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Rice Wagon - VG33 510 wagon project


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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...

The Rice Wagon build is still on hold, and had to give up it's spot in the garage so Corey and I could start building Greengo this summer.  It's been a while since the car has been outside!

 

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Since Corey is going to steel these wheels and tires, I did a test fit with the set I was going to run on Granny.

 

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Hmm....  Looks like some fender rolling will be in order at a minimum.

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  • 2 years later...

After a couple years of non movement due to Corey's 4dr project moving at a glacial pace, I decided to move some cars around and get Rice Wagon out from behind the paint booth so I could work on it again.  First step was getting Corey's shell out of the way, a cool humid fall day did not make me enjoy this part (too much exposed metal on the car) so we tried to be as quick as possible to reduce exposure.

 

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Partial dismantling of the booth was required.

 

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It was actually a good opportunity to clean up a little.

 

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Remember when these looked new?  I haven't even stepped on the brake pedal yet and now look at them.  : (

 

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Corey passed on the Snowflakes after all but I thought I'd give them a run on Slowpoke just for fun, so the Techno Racing wheels and tires were mounted.  Actually fit better than expected.  Will still need to roll fenders but happy for now.

 

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Basically the wagon needs to be lowered a bit.  : )

 

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So tired of dragging cars around my yard with straps and my 620...  I really need to get all these things running don't I?!

 

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It is at least accessible now - I just eliminated my best excuse for not working on it.

 

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  • 3 months later...

Stopped at Harbor Freight on my way home from work today to get a couple pair of tall, high capacity, jack stands to make working under the car easier.  No deal.  They had one pair of jack stands in the whole store and they were short little guys.  The guy at the register said all the big ones have been recalled.  Yikes!

 

https://images.harborfreight.com/hftweb/recalls/Jack-Stand-Recall-56371_61196_61197.pdf

Edited by carterb
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  • 2 weeks later...

I found some "junk in the trunk"

 

What is all this anyway?  It was a little trip down memory lane for sure!

 

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Had to take a phone call as soon as I got started so I took on a project I could do while talking...

 

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LED headlight install

 

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Love these things!  Have been putting them in all my Datsuns.

 

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I ended up going 3 steps forward and 2 steps back last night.  The headlight install was the only success.

 

First up was to install the shorter shocks I ordered eons ago.  The shocks in there now have about 2" of compression travel.  At the angle they are mounted, that's not much more than 1" of travel at the wheel.

 

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Here is the brand new shock

 

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I thought this is what is on the car right now (empty box) - I bought them from Kelvin Dietz years ago - nearly new.

 

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Unfortunately, something didn't look right.

 

The new shocks measure about 10 1/2" long

 

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And so do the ones currently on the car.

 

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What did you do silly boy?

 

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Well that's fail #1 for the night.  Ready for fail #2?

 

I had a Quickor rear sway bar kit.  Now I knew it was highly likely that it would not fit, but I needed to confirm before going to the next step.  You see - I've had this kit for years and I first attempted to install it on O'Tannenbrown and found that it was too wide to fit between the shocks on a wagon lowered on blocks.  Kelvin had worked with Glen at Quickor to change the bar design to make it narrower between the shocks so I bought one of those and mounted it on that car to great effect!

 

I was hoping that since I don't have lowering blocks, I might get away with it in this car, and I think I honestly could - just.  However, I am pretty sure I need to lower the car from where it currently sits so I would run into issues immediately.  Unless I lowered the sway bar down from under the axle.  But I really don't want it scraping the ground like that...

 

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Nice looking kit!

 

While test fitting, I noticed that the RX7 axle housing is significantly smaller OD than the 510 axle housing - so the 2 3/4" hardware is not going to work.

 

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I need closer to 2 1/4"

 

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At least I could test fit

 

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And the issue becomes clear pretty quick-like.

 

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So I pulled it back off to take a reference measurement before calling Glen at Quickor this morning.

 

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The bar I put on the other car had a width less than 25" here...  (sorry about the blurry pic)

 

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Overlaid

 

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Hopefully Quickor is still around!

 

 

 

 

 

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Quickor is still around!!!

 

http://quickorgarage.com/

 

I called Glen today.  He is retired.  78 years old.  But still selling sway bars!  : )

 

He does have a 510 wagon sway bar in stock!  Yes!

 

He measured the bar and it is 26" across - same as mine.  No!!!

 

Apparently the changes Kelvin had him make didn't end up permanent.  So...

 

I'm now checking with Dave at Futofab to see what his 510 wagon rear sway bar is all about.  If that doesn't pan out - Glen will make me whatever I want for $300.  So that's worst case I guess.

 

That and I need to find a u-bolt kit for the smaller axle housing because 2 3/4" is as small as Quickor goes.

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13 hours ago, carterb said:

Quickor is still around!!!

 

http://quickorgarage.com/

 

I called Glen today.  He is retired.  78 years old.  But still selling sway bars!  : )

 

He does have a 510 wagon sway bar in stock!  Yes!

 

He measured the bar and it is 26" across - same as mine.  No!!!

 

Apparently the changes Kelvin had him make didn't end up permanent.  So...

 

I'm now checking with Dave at Futofab to see what his 510 wagon rear sway bar is all about.  If that doesn't pan out - Glen will make me whatever I want for $300.  So that's worst case I guess.

 

That and I need to find a u-bolt kit for the smaller axle housing because 2 3/4" is as small as Quickor goes.

I bought a wagon rear swaybar from him years ago. It didn't fit right(end link location was off) and he had me over to his house to correct it. Turns out there were two bends missing and with a quick tweak in his machine he added the correct angles to bring the ends in line with the end links. Great guy, super friendly and helpful. It's nice to know we still have resources for this stuff.

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On 1/29/2021 at 10:57 AM, nickelpistol said:

I bought a wagon rear swaybar from him years ago. It didn't fit right(end link location was off) and he had me over to his house to correct it. Turns out there were two bends missing and with a quick tweak in his machine he added the correct angles to bring the ends in line with the end links. Great guy, super friendly and helpful. It's nice to know we still have resources for this stuff.

 

Funny you mention that.  When I first said rear sway bar for a 510 wagon he was describing a bar exactly as he sold you.  With arms that went straight forward from the axle.  I was thinking - um - there's no way you can do that.  They would be well inboard of the frame rails or would have to go through the shocks.  He must have forgotten the correction he had to make on your bar.  : )  I hope I'm still playing with cars in 30 years when I'm 78.  Heck - I hope we still HAVE cars in 30 years.  We may all be on a spaceship floating around on deck chairs as depicted on WALL*E.

 

I talked to Dave about his Futofab bar.  It actually mounts to the rear so misses the shocks altogether, but between him and Jeff and Kelvin, I think I'm going to skip the bar altogether until I drive the car and decide I actually need one.  With my combination of stiffer springs, shocks, and LSD - a rear bar could make this an over steering monster.

Edited by carterb
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The parts fairy dropped off some Rock Auto boxes last week.

 

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Some brake parts and windshield wiper blades.  That ought to keep me busy for a couple hours.

 

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First step was to yard out the old master cylinders.  It looks like this was a good move.  They were coated in petrified brake fluid residue.

 

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Anyone care for a taste?

 

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The new clutch master has the port in a slightly different place but I should be able to bend the stock line over an inch...

 

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First I did a test fit to confirm that the length of the rod is too long - and it was, so I trimmed it back a bit.

 

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I'm using a 7/8" 280z master for the brakes.

 

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Again, the ports are in a slightly different location to stock but I can bend those lines too.  I'm using the larger cylinder to match the larger 280zx brake calipers and I'm assuming the rear RX7 calipers are larger than the stock 510 rear brake cylinders.  People sometimes mention that master cylinders set up for rear drums do not work for rear disks.  Am I going to have an issue with locking rear calipers since the 280Z had rear drums too - like the 510?

 

The other thing I will need to figure out is what to activate it with - since no rod was included.

 

Fortunately, the old master had a different kind of rod that I'm used to seeing, and it looked like it would swap over to the new master cylinder.

 

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Sure enough, fit like a glove!

 

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New hardware in place.

 

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I spent almost as much time upside down under the pedal box as I did bent over the fender.  It sure is fun working the pedal side of this project isn't it folks?!

 

Next step was to install the new wiper blades which of course takes only a minute, but when I went to fit the arms to the car, I found that the posts were not secure!

 

http://datsun510.com/index.php?/gallery/image/51091-394842322_01302021ricewagon1mov/

 

So I removed the cowl and look what I found.

 

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Sheet metal screws ran up to clip nuts from under the cowl.  Extra points for creativity but failing grade for performance.

 

Not only that, but the linkage was not even connected to the wiper motor!

 

large.1332830783_01302021ricewagon(12).J

 

And for the third strike - one of the ears is broken off the driver's side post mount.

 

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Dang it!  I just buried my wiper motor/linkage bins...

 

Well - add that to the list then.

 

Next step - see if I have a hose to connect the new rear axle to the wagon's rear brake lines.  Will one of these do it?

 

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While looking for other parts I found the grill that goes to this car!  Yay!

 

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No idea why the PO painted much of the shiny stuff graphite color but for now - that's what I'll be going with.

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Rooted through my boxes and found a decent - unbroken hood latch assembly

 

large.530823175_02022021ricewagon.JPG.71

 

Just need to POR-15 the mounting bracket and it will be good to go.  Have any of you fixed a broken cable assembly?  I have a bunch of them with the cable broken right where it connects to the handle.

 

I also found a decent wiper linkage assembly.

 

large.1394847605_02032021ricewagon(1).JP

 

The pivot housings were in nice shape - no broken studs - but they were frozen.  : (

PB Blaster to the rescue?!

 

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After a good soak, I was able to remove them and then instead of using the complete linkage - I just swapped over the pivots to my other linkage.

 

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Good as new!

 

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Next step was fender rolling.

 

Even with liberal application use of the heat gun I had no luck keeping the paint from cracking on this one...

 

large.190683252_02062021ricewagon(6).JPG

 

The rears were a bear!  So much harder to flare than the fronts.  I don't know if the steel is just thicker back there or if the seam in the middle just makes it tougher.  Plus the suspension would push down away from the car as I moved the arm back and forth.  I think on my sedans I usually put a jack under the trailing arm to keep that from happening.  I don't know why I didn't think of that at the time.  Anyway - job done now...

 

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I'll have to get a can of red-oxide primer to outline the arches to add some protection from all the cracked paint.  Thankfully (?) most of the car is already sprayed with red oxide so it won't look out of place.

Edited by carterb
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I buy cheap hammered projects.  Then i find refuse to buy parts for them.  Its impossible for me to pay more for a pair of taillight lenses than i did for my whole wagon.  I just refuse.  So I just play with beaters that stay decently beater.  But $800 for taillights seems like a new high.

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The sad part about that is the left side had a suggested list price of $31.82 and the right side $$26.00.

 

I have tried time and time again with Nissan reps asking them to push the idea of remaking some of the parts for the older cars. Either it fell on deaf ears or the people I have talked to did not have enough horse power.

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Went digging in my boxes for a few of the missing standard parts for the wagon.

 

Found a right side sun visor (needs cleaning) but the arm was pretty rusty.   Fortunately I had a really nice arm with no sun visor attached.  A swap should be easy!

 

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But alas, when I turned the screw to loosen its grip on the arm, the head just snapped off. 

 

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Dang you Datsun butter screws!!!!

 

Found another sun visor, also with rusty arm.

 

large.1243581804_02152021ricewagon(3).JP

 

I bravely loosened this screw and it gave me no issues, but the arm gave no indication it wanted to leave its home so fine!  I guess I'll run this one as is...

 

Also found a drivers side arm rest (my last one!  though I have a half dozen for the passenger side), a door lock pull, and a pair of NOS door mirrors.

 

large.1637748722_02152021ricewagon(4).JP

 

I'll probably mount the door mirrors last - after I get the car running - so I don't knock them off walking past in my cramped garage.

 

 

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