Drays Low Buck 810

[nismosilvia]

Hey Ratsun,

My names Derrick, Im 24 and live in a rural Northern California, a little area called Lake County Ca. There are quite a few remaining Datsun road warriors around here but I rarely ever see nice J tin performance oriented vehicles. A lot of fart caned hondas and weed slinging jacked up bro truck types. Besides the obvious influences around here I've always wanted an old school Jtin car, so Im very happy my child hood dream has finally become a reality, and I get to build a car.

 

Heres a little Lake County scenic love for those into the outdoors. Courtesy of my little neck of the woods.

 

 

I picked up my 78 810 last September and have loved the damn thing since day one. I purchased the car in my old college town of Arcata Ca after contacting a craigslister who had interestingly said very little about the car besides its a 4 door with a z motor. The lady who was selling the car had a long history with the car and was sad to let it go. It had been in her family since day one when it was first purchased by her father. He passed on and she said she wasn’t ready to part with it so took the car to her house where it sat on the street and didn’t get much love or attention over the course of a few years. Being that it was parked so near the ocean it was getting hit hard by rust and she realized the car was slowly fading away. Knowing someone would love to have the car just like her father she posted it for sale, and three days later I made the trip to buy it.

 

She said there was rust but mechanically solid so sight unseen I was hoping it was all fixable. I recruited my friend to make the trip with me to pick up the car. He also went to Humboldt so we both had a great alumni weekend and an excuses to go see the car. The rust has pretty heavy in some area but all in all I knew it was all fixable and looked worse than what it was. So I bought the car, the lady said her final good byes and I was ecstatic to have my first Datsun. I was nervous as all hell the car wasn’t going to make the 400 mile trip back to my place but the thing didn’t break a sweat. From then on I knew I had a diamond in the rough and have been working on it sense.

 

What have I got myself into?

 

This project has been an eye opening process for me, I never realized it would be so expensive and challenging to build a car like this. But I am having a great time and can’t wait to be done with body work! Anyways Im stocked to have a Datsun project and able to share the passion with all you Ratsuners out there!

 

Body work stage..on going project

 

 

4x4 stance bro

 

Fast and Furious flamage

 

 

Where I am now with the build

 

[ArchetypeDatsun]

Looking good so far, that maxima trunk looks a little smaller than the 810 i would have kept working on the original truck even with all the rust it had could have put bondo on it and repaint it until you found a replacement that goes for the hood as well.

[nismosilvia]

Thanks 280zx. The maxima trunk is smaller near the corners by the window but I'm not really worried no one will know the difference lol. The stock trunk was garbage, you could put a finger through the metal in most places, and I didn't do it any favors when I attempted to fiberglass over it lol. So out of options I pretty much have to use the maxima trunck now because I don't have the og lid anymore. The hood will be a nightmare but I have a welder and some thin wire so ill be working on that eventually.

[ArchetypeDatsun]

With some modification I'm sure it will fit just fine.

[dotdat]

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Sweet ........ Not many of these 810's around. Keep the pics coming. Bought mine new in 1980. Discount for one year old.

[nismosilvia]

@dotdat that's awesome you've had your car sense new that's a true sign you cherish your ride. Pic progress will resume shortly the trunk has been hadrening. I ended up using 3m and it worked on some spots but I had to go back over it on the corners with fiberglass jelly. I used the fiberglass jelly to repair my dash pad and going to glue pleather over it. I can post pics of either process if the end results good. I'm also going to do ellipsoids so updates will resume ha.

[bloodontheapex]

I feel like I saw that being parted out through Ebay some time ago. haha.

[nismosilvia]

Haha maybe when I first got it I was like wtf did I get myself into and put it on eBay and cl. Then I started working on it and it grew on me so I'm going to keep it now. Too fun and unique and its not worth anything else to anyone else anyways. @blood oem surplus has your front lights if you want to get it patched while you search for the rounds. The price is right too

[nismosilvia]

Small update. Was able to get the ellipsoides mounted in the car. I follwed what the 510 guys do but I had to cut the inner fender area to get them to fit. I will meld metal over the area to seal it up again.

 

 

 

I also installed the new style bosch connectors. I grabed the cleanest looking set I could find of a vw passat. These make life alot easier.

 

 

 

older picture but i liked how it looked

 

[ArchetypeDatsun]

They look great!

[bonvo]

im loving this thing keep your eyes peeled and you will eventually find a hood and correct trunk lid i drove my original 610 around for a long while before i found some nice fenders just got to keep your ear to the dround and keep lookin

[ArchetypeDatsun]

Hey nismo I forgot to ask those projector headlights you just installed you going to put HID bulbs and ballast?

[nismosilvia]

I dont think I need them its kinda funny how the lights are working now. I gronded out the high beam lead on the stock low beam harness and now my highbeam bulbs are low and the projectors are high.

[ArchetypeDatsun]

For driving I think projectors are better since the light is better admitted and the beam is adjusted without blinding people. High beams for projectors probably won't help much but if it makes a difference to you why not.

[nismosilvia]

What I'm mean is that the middle 2 bulbs are low beam and projectors are high beam. Meaning all 4 lights work this way. I haven't driven it this way yet so it might not stay. With the projectors as low beams they dont stay on with highs and I didn't like that.

[ArchetypeDatsun]

Ah, yeah you wouldn't want all lights on at once that's a lot of juice.

[nismosilvia]

The projectors are probably 4x or more brighter than stock. Makes the og high beams look like candle lights. I switched it back so proctors are lows now. 12 gauge wire, with 20amp fuses and 40amp relays directly from battery is my power harness. :

[ArchetypeDatsun]

The HID's I have in my car are bright and there my lows I always wanted to retro fit some projectors but the ones I seen were too expensive.  I need to run my headlights to my battery or get a relay so they don't look like strobe lights when my car is running the radiator fans and lights.

[nismosilvia]

I had 6k hid in my Tacoma lol. Amazing light output but I was definitely the d-bag blinding cars/tree tops. They might fit the ellipsoides ill look into it

[ArchetypeDatsun]

Lol yeah I honestly dislike anyone that has the real super bright ones that make mine look like regular lights lol and blind anyone. The big trucks around here have the deep blue or purple ones and those mess with my eyes I just don't see the point of having colored lights they don't help. Some trucks have just the 6k ones which are fine but when there lifted it sucks to have one behind me. Then you have those people that have HID reverse lights now that's just plain stupid.

[nismosilvia]

The biggest problem with cheap hid is there more than likely put into headlights without the correct housings. Is Oregon as bad as Cali with the black rim bro truckers?

[ArchetypeDatsun]

Wouldn't know but we do have a lot of big trucks I'd say half the people actually use there trucks for off road since we have a lot of country folks here.