Diary of a Goon Noob [edin's build]

[edin]

I was always under the impression that build threads were for people who begin with a pile of rust and ended up with something you'd see in a magazine. I can tell you now that I have not begun with a pile of rust and will end (if a project could end) with something far from anything my mother will look at and say, "Oh, very cool!" But it was advised to keep all my progress to a build thread, so here goes nothing.

 

My name is Eric and I'm an mechanical & electrical engineering student in New Hampshire. Originally from Chicago, but am out in the Bay Area for the summer. Rather spread out across the country, I guess. Having just sold my '72 Land Cruiser FJ40 three months ago, I was pretty satisfied with not having to worry about a 40+ year old car anymore. But as soon as I got out west, it became clear the availability of vintage cars out here compared to back east was going to get the better of me; I couldn't resist. So a month and a day ago, I picked up a '71 510 Wagon (izzo's goon) up in Portland and drove it 700 miles south back to the South Bay.

 

The immediate story of the build thread is this: In a month, I'll be taking a cross-country trek with the goon from California to New Hampshire. That's 3,116 miles (I just mapped it). Before then, I'll be walking the fine line between driving as much as possible to work out any kinks and not driving to put off any kinks that may occur.

 

A month and 2200 miles later, she's still doing great. Had a few hiccups, like the exhaust falling off on the 101 just south of San Francisco at midnight. Ironically, had to pull off at an exit and remove the exhaust by putting a wheel on the curb next to a smog test shop to buy us some room to get the pipes up and over the diff.

 

I don't have clear plans at the moment, but they look something like this:

• new exhaust
• 280zx struts front, blocked rear. would be nice to get some bigger brakes on there.
• address oil leak. #savetheenvironment
• quick paint job. I reckon the current paint will last until Pennsylvania before it rusts.

Alright enough talk. Here are some pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

[edin]

One day this will all get cleaned up. That day is not today.

 

 

 

I guess this is why I drive a 42 year old car. It's so simple. Hit a huge bump on the highway and almost immediately starts misfiring. Pulled over, tugged on some wires, fished around in the back seat for a spare connector, replaced the connector on the ignition coil, good to go.

Then again, I guess not driving a 42 year old car wouldn't put me in that position in the first place.

 

 

[Dattokai]

Nice LOTR reference. Nice wagon, hoping it to see some day. 

[edin]

Okay here's the first somewhat significant addition to the car: new exhaust.

 

After the exhaust fell off on the highway, I ran a straight pipe for a few days. Then I managed to hose clamp half of the exhaust back on so it was at least somewhat streetable. Finally found some time to get the new exhaust in.

 

31" Thrush Glasspack to a Magnaflow Turbo Muffler. 2 1/4" pipe.

 

On an exhaust thread I got the general feedback that 2 1/4" is too large. I have noticed significantly better pull on the highway and no loss of low end torque. Maybe I missed a more optimal diameter between what it was and what it is, but I'm happy. Anyway, manifold is 4-to-2, then there's a down pipe collector that's in pretty poor shape that runs to the glasspack to muffler and just a turn down under the body. TIG welded throughout. Next weekend I'll be putting in a side pipe, I just didn't want to put in too much work if I wanted to change it at all.

 

Sure is a hell of a lot better than what I've been driving for the last three weeks. Enjoy the video.

[edin]

wow figuring out how to embed videos took me far longer than it should have.

 

[TheShagginWagon]

 

A month and 2200 miles later, she's still doing great. Had a few hiccups, like the exhaust falling off on the 101 just south of San Francisco at midnight. Ironically, had to pull off at an exit and remove the exhaust by putting a wheel on the curb next to a smog test shop to buy us some room to get the pipes up and over the diff.

 

Sounds very familiar  :rofl:  welcome to the ranks!

[Draker]

Do you have a write up for that cd player install?

[Draker]

Welcome, nice goon.

 

There are also a lot of builds that start looking like a car... then they end looking like a pile of parts... or a pile of metal... So you've basically already got a head start.

[Will]

It was a surprise seeing you at the museum last week - I checked and didn't see this in the parking lot!

 

Be sure to stock up on any body parts that you might need before you head east - those might be the toughest stuff to find in the northeast.

[edin]

It was a surprise seeing you at the museum last week - I checked and didn't see this in the parking lot!

 

Be sure to stock up on any body parts that you might need before you head east - those might be the toughest stuff to find in the northeast.

 

I was with my friends who are on the Big Green Bus at the museum and was parked behind out by the bus...

 

And yeah I need to find me a cowl vent although the machinist at work says to not even bother cuz he wants to CNC a custom one instead. But a new driver door would be nice...I have my eyes out.

[Just Joel]

Great looking start...

[FiveSeventyZee]

Hey! Just got your email and came to check it out. I like it, looks like a good start. Glad you were able to find a wagon

[edin]

Do you have a write up for that cd player install?

 

You're gonna have to ask izzo about that one, he was the one who did it. Sorry!

[bananahamuck]

Do you have a write up for that cd player install?

 

 

:rofl:

 

 

 

Didn`t know Tim was selling that but you got a really good start ,, since it already has 5speed and new tires. When we were young me and my wife used to road trip all over the USA it really should be a great trip even if there are hiccups along the way.....  Take pictures for us man and good luck..

 

 

Oh,,,  and welcome.

[Eagle_Adam]

that motor is fresh man, less than 20k after a FULL rebuild. I should know, it came from my 620. 

[Eagle_Adam]

welcome to Ratsun 

[izzo]

Ha, nikka please. That cd player was ziptied to the bottom of the radio bezel. I didn't want to cut the bezel, its unmolested...  It was a lot cleaner looking, looks like it was taken down and now the wires are strewn about, what happened to the clam shell around the steering column?

[edin]

Ha, nikka please. That cd player was ziptied to the bottom of the radio bezel. I didn't want to cut the bezel, its unmolested...  It was a lot cleaner looking, looks like it was taken down and now the wires are strewn about, what happened to the clam shell around the steering column?

 

I couldn't deal with the rattling of the player against the dash bottom and then one of the zipties fell off. Haha certainly was cleaner looking before, but wouldn't call it clean looking. I still need to figure out what I want to do with the dash... I agree cutting it is a poor choice but that radio needs to go somewhere. I'm focusing on things that will make a cross country trip more safe and reliable. Next up are shoulder belts and the 280zx stuff.

 

As for the clamshell around the steering column, I put a tach on the column so until I find a better place for that as well, the clamshell is off.

[russaroll]

Good lookin' wagon

[izzo]

I couldn't deal with the rattling of the player against the dash bottom and then one of the zipties fell off. Haha certainly was cleaner looking before, but wouldn't call it clean looking. I still need to figure out what I want to do with the dash... I agree cutting it is a poor choice but that radio needs to go somewhere. I'm focusing on things that will make a cross country trip more safe and reliable. Next up are shoulder belts and the 280zx stuff.

 

As for the clamshell around the steering column, I put a tach on the column so until I find a better place for that as well, the clamshell is off.

 

That radio bezel only takes four screws to remove it. Maybe find another one that's already cut nice for a modern stereo and save this one!

 

Yeah it was cleaner "looking" :lol:  It was on the list of things to finish up at some point. At the time of the stereo install I just needed some tunes to listen to. 

[edin]

This new exhaust is fantastic. It's almost silent at idle, there's a resonance coming off idle and a bigger resonance at 2-2.5k rpm, but isn't really that loud above 3k. I was expecting it to be more raspy but I think the 31" glass pack softens the sound a lot. Two weeks driving on it and my thoughts are this: Sound when you want to be seen, quiet when you don't, and a 75mph wind/road noise is greater than exhaust noise.

 

For some reason, I thought my exhaust research had come up with a lot of people running 2 1/4" pipe, but then after I ordered everything and looked again, it seemed like everyone was saying to not run anything over 2". So I went from 1.5" (I think that's what it was) to 2 1/4" which is a massive increase (2.25x the amount of cross sectional area). I haven't noticed a loss of low-end torque compared to stock setup, and it's certainly a huge improvement compared to me running either a straightpipe or half of my stock exhaust (see above minor calamity). The thing I've noticed most is that it pulls much better on the highway. Prior to the new exhaust, my foot would be near the floor to steady state at 75mph. The day I put the exhaust in, I was getting frustrated with how slow traffic was. I don't look at my speedo much mainly because all the cars I've owned have had broken speedos, but I looked down and realized I was doing 80+ with my foot not in the floor! Really pleased with the results. No loss in gas mileage compared to stock, either (25mpg city).

[edin]

Next up.... 280zx Front Strut Swap

 

I've been looking forward to doing this swap since I bought the car. I wasnted to get rid of the jacked up look of the wagon and also run some more effective brakes. I managed to find some extremely nice 280zx fan who works in Santa Rosa (where I happened to be for the weekend) and he hooked me up with the struts, shocks, rotors, calipers, ball joints, hardware, etc. for the swap for $100. Awesome.

 

So they sat in the back of the goon for a couple weeks, but I finally got to them last weekend. Thanks to all the documentation here on Ratsun, it was a pretty straightforward swap. It took forever (well, 8 hours), mainly because we started at 6pm with no lights and finished at 2am. Whoops.

 

Anyway, I was aiming for a ~2" drop and I measured to set the spring perches from the bottom of the strut where it mounts to the ball joint. I've never lowered a car before so I decided to go with the shaft collar approach to set my height for a week or so, then weld it up. More to come on this approach. Anyway, I called McMaster to ask what the load rating of the shaft collars was and they didn't know so they offered to send me a sample. I asked for two, they said alright. Great, got my shaft collars for free overnighted. Stock 510 perches were 13 3/4" from the bottom of the strut tube to the weld, so I set the top of the shaft collars to 11 3/4" and tightened them down with an Allen key. I was super careful not to crush the strut tube, but I didn't torque them down enough. I drove 25 miles from work (where I installed the struts) home without issues. I was so pumped the next morning that my swap was successful, I jumped out of bed to go find blocks for the rear. Got to the car, started it, rolled back and SHIT something's rubbing. Thought maybe it was stuck brakes so I drove down the street and started to get a burning rubber smell. Found out that the perch had dropped about 1 1/4" and settled on the tire overnight. So I took everything out, reset the perches/shaft collars, and torqued the shit out of the collar. Ran that for the next week or so and they didn't slip. Anyway, I don't know if I would recommend the shaft collar approach. Yes, I didn't torque them down enough the first time, but it's too stressful driving paranoid that you're going to drop a perch on a tire...

 

Finally got the perches welded to the strut tube, but I didn't want to take everything apart to do it so I (well, our machinist) welded them with everything assembled. Wasn't worried about putting heat to the shocks beacuse they're blown anyway and I have KYB shocks coming in the mail on Monday. Anyway, the one piece collars are still on there, I'll grind them off eventually). But when I welded the perches, I decided to drop it down to 2.5" and I have very little clearance between the tire and the perch because I didn't really want to cut the 510 springs. So if I ever wanted to run bigger tires I'd have to cut the perches again. Oh well.

[edin]

 

Here are some pictures of the process:

 

Comparison of the two caliper sizes.

 

 

And the pads

 

 

 

 

Installed Strut

 

 

In the daylight

 

 

With the welded perch

 

Finally replaced these cracked lines as well...

 

 

 

Our helpers

 

[edin]

And here's the final front stance with the welded perches. I still need to block the rear; kinda looks goofy right now.

 

 

 

 

 

[edin]

Also, the goon was non op for about three days this week with a leaky clutch. When I was leaving for work the other day, this happened: pressed the clutch to the floor, put it in gear, foot still the floor and the car dumps the clutch on me. two things were happening: I was losing fluid out of the stainless line and also the slave cylinder wasn't sealing. The line that was running to the slave was flared and the slave cyl needed an inverted flare to mate correctly. Basically was sealing concave surface on concave surface so the seal was just a line of metal, not a surface. I'm actually surprised it lasted as long as it did (and that it didn't give out on me while driving...).

 

Here was the line at the master:

 

 

and at the slave:

 

 

I think all my issues were in the line and fittings, but I decided to get a new slave cylinder anyway because the old one pointed right at the steering linkage and I think something moved at some point which broke the line. The 200sx slave cylinder points up so it clears it much better. Anyway, it took me three hours of sifting through the back of auto parts stores to find the flared to inverted flare adapter so that everything seals nicely. So annoying. Anyway, lost some weight on this swap because the old one was cast steel, and the new one is cast aluminum. Moving on up.

 

 

Running a hard line right now, but will replace with stainless soon.