69 4door 510 in Maine

[housew]

I Have a mechanical pinion asy for my tranny on the way to play with this bugger so i can have a functioning speedo / odometer. Thanks deans510!

 

new engine bay shot with t3 strut bar and mechanical boost gauge. I need to clean up some wires, but its coming along and looking pretty good to me.

 

used plasti-dip "antique gold" for my wheels. Here's a shot of one of them. Currently wheels are white. Going to rock white on one side and bronze on the other so I can stare at it and know for sure i like the bronze better. Plasti dip peals off if i don't dig it. Pretty cool stuff.

 

 

also got my alignment dialed in to 1/8" toe in (was 1/2" out), beat my rear fenders, got my hood back on, and my gauge cluster sitting in its homeplace and looking awesome. Although i'll have to take it out a few more times as i work on getting all the gauges functioning. Water temp and oil pressure were the must haves for me and i got em.

 

Shes ready for more driving when i get a minute to try it out :)

[housew]

this is how it looks without the index cards

i plasti-dipped my rear rim this AM so i should be able to get a shot of them on the car tonight.

[housew]

so i drove the car last night. No more rubbing, hood stayed down, doesn't over heat in traffic, has good oil pressure all the time. STUPID fun. I forgot how much i love it.

 

either way, im hopefully done with big projects on the dime this year (not forever) but its time to enjoy it. Trying to decide between bronze and white wheels, currently have 2 of each. I posted it on the ratsun facebook and 30 people chimed in for bronze and 23 for white. I was already leaning towards bronze so i think that's the way I'm going. I need some center caps too.

 

 

[housew]

so at some point i need to do a little body work in the back, the paint everywhere is MEH. I don't need it to be perfect or super pretty, and im not looking to do anything right MEOW, but i'm trying to figure out what color it actually is so i can come close to the factory color.

 

background:

paint sticker is illegible and i can't find a stamp

car was titled as a 1970 but has 1969 stuff. Made in 9/1969, dunno when they switch paints date wise

1968/69 have different colors than 1970, so im browsing both to find the right one

Car has been resprayed at one point (overspray on door / windsheild seals) but i doubt they would have gotten overspray everywhere and still did the door jambs, under the seats, in the trunk, under the trunk lid under the hood ect ect so im assuming that color is original. The repaint color matches the stuff on the inside pretty well, just faded.

 

 

So I got some samples mixed up at my local autobody supply place. I got 563 sora blue (what i thought my car was) and 567 nissan blue which i though it MIGHT be. Turns out it isn't really either.

 

color in the jugs (653 is the lighter one)

 

 

 

563 vs hood

 

 

567 vs hood

 

both samples laying on the rear deck (parcell shelf is inside being reupholstered at a 5 min / month pace)

 

Its closer to 657 than 563 by a long shot, but knowing that, there might be other samples that come even closer.

[housew]

looks like my car is a little bit grayer and darker than 657?

 

assuming its using 68/69 paint i would want to try 564 or 574 next

 

 

assuming it was using 70 paint i would guess 660, 660 is available in 68/69 too....

[housew]

I have 0 skillz when it comes to this, this is just screenshots of the color chips and and me holding stuff up against my hood. Lots of erros introduced by scanners scanning in the chips, my computer screen, my shitty cell phone camera ect. Really just for an IF the 567 color chip looks like this, and the 567 paint from the store looks like this, then the paint on my car looks most like.....

 

pretty big mess

 

 

 

more i stare at it the more i want to try 660 though... I don't know what the touch up samples cost, but im guessing i don't want to buy 4 more.

[Nuclear Water Boy]

Plastic coat the whole 510 to simply protect it and save the body and paint for another day. That speedo piece you got from Dean is it electrical or mechanical? I can't really tell from the pic but if you need the pinion I might have one. I like the bronze wheel color.

 

Lou

[housew]

yea, plasti-dip is an option, Not a lot of color choices though, but it would allow my to have a one color car while i was in my body work  phase (rear passenger side quarter outside panel needs love, and I will need to do the tail-light panel at some point. There are also some primed spots around where the inter-cooler was added that i wouldn't mind matching in. Nothing on the list to be done soon, but figuring out the color would ease my mind.

 

 

the pinion im getting from Dean is a mechanical unit. I have an electronic unit to mate up to it to essentially make it electronic again. Catch is the electronic signals it sends out will play nice with my gauge cluster where as the signals from the stock s13 VSS don't. According to USPS that peice should be dropped off today :)

 

thanks Lou,

I'm going with the bronze. Plasti dip sells a copper clear i might try out on peice of scrap. Would add a little shine to it and darken it up slightly. Not sure if i want either of those things, but it has potential haha

[Nuclear Water Boy]

Take the gas door off and go to a PPG store or paint shop that will mix paints and have them do a color match. But then it may be pricey and have a mininum of a qt.

[housew]

yea, that might be the way to do it, i'll wait on that though until its time to lay down some paint (probably forever haha)

[Nuclear Water Boy]

yea, plasti-dip is an option, Not a lot of color choices though, but it would allow my to have a one color car while i was in my body work  phase (rear passenger side quarter outside panel needs love, and I will need to do the tail-light panel at some point. There are also some primed spots around where the inter-cooler was added that i wouldn't mind matching in. Nothing on the list to be done soon, but figuring out the color would ease my mind.

 

 

the pinion im getting from Dean is a mechanical unit. I have an electronic unit to mate up to it to essentially make it electronic again. Catch is the electronic signals it sends out will play nice with my gauge cluster where as the signals from the stock s13 VSS don't. According to USPS that peice should be dropped off today :)

 

thanks Lou,

I'm going with the bronze. Plasti dip sells a copper clear i might try out on peice of scrap. Would add a little shine to it and darken it up slightly. Not sure if i want either of those things, but it has potential haha

 Oh don't clear coat plastic dip. I've heard that clear coat makes it very difficult to remove when that time comes.

[housew]

not really clear coat, its just more plasti dip that dries shinyer, tints it copper colored, and dries shinier
https://www.dipyourcar.com/plasti-dip-copper-metalizer-can.html

 

 

not happening though, its looks really bad over antique gold. Basically makes it look like a new penny.

the cooper metalizer over black looks really really good though.... If i didn't just buy a bunch of cans of the antique gold....

[housew]

Got the pinion asy in the mail last night. Thanks again Deans510

 

they screw together perfect. The nissan/datsun pinion asy uses a round speedo shaft with a key on it (really just a pinched ridge) and the universal sensor i have is a square shaft. I have made an adapter piece (sorry no oics yet) so they will play well together. Then i need to fabricate a retaining tab (no big deal) and install it.

 

drove the dime to work today. Started, stopped, handled, accelerated ect well. But when i got to work, my left turn signal stopped working, and my whole cluster started flashing. I checked when i got to work and nothing outside or inside works. Right hand turn signals still work fine.

 

I'm hoping its something simple. I'm not super familiar with how the turn signal circut works...

 

Other than that im still loving the car :)

[housew]

Bad weekend for the car.

 

Cracked the Windsheild, I'm guessing that won't be easy to source, or cheap

 

My intellitronix gauge cluster died. Only half of it lights up so that blows. After I disconnected the cluster my directionals and 4 ways work again, so I'm guessing the cluster has an internal short. I have months in to adapting all the sending units to my motor/car, but don't want to buy another one for $350 considering I got a couple months and <150 miles out of this one, with one doa sending unit and no support in the process.

 

Got my speedo sending unit all figured out but that's pointless without the gauge.

 

Got all my wheels painted all one color which is nice

 

Figured out don't get power to my high beams :( car doesn't have high beams currently but I wanted to add them, and now it will just be harder. Where is the headlight solenoid? (Assuming there is one)

 

Found a fixed a leak in a heater core line. 45 year old hose tends to crack.

 

 

Gauges and Windsheild really piss me off, might be done with it for a while....

Edited September 14, 2014 by housew

[housew]

i guess the windsheild isn't a total deal breaker, a JY about 100 miles away has one for $50, i'll be driving by it this weekend so i'll try to pick it up if i can get there during business hours. Rock auto has them listed for ~$250 after shipping. Maybe i pick one up, grab a seal, watch some videos and see if i can get it in there myself. I have a call out to a local autoglass place, ill see if they would do the job with my parts if they couldn't source them (they are still working on sourcing)

 

gauge manufacturer told me to send it in, lifetime warranty so we'll see how that turns out.

 

high beam issue is DEFINITELY the relay. Has a broken wire so i need to get that soldered and clean the relay up. Coil is functioning so the rest should be an easy fix. More post / pics on relay later

[housew]

6 wires going into the relay

 

bottom view

 

bottom view showing broken solder joint (red wire white stripe left side)

 

contact surfaces could use some cleaning,

 

 

and my best guess as to its function based on my pictures and the wiring diagram.

[housew]

seems like a pretty simple solenoid to me.

 

I have low beams, when i hit the high beam switch on the column I can hear the solenoid click and the low beams go out and i don't have any lights. This is how i would expect it to work with the broken ground wire upstream of the solenoid. Solenoid coil has power from parking light circut, high beam switch completes the ground path and energizes coil, coil pulls low beam contact apart and 2x high-beam contacts together (on for outer lights one for inner) which should complete the grounding circut for the high beams but it doesn't cause that wire is broken.

 

So i need to get that wire re-soldered OR divise a way to rewire my headlights to work in in a normal (switched positive at the light) fashion with a modern relay.

[housew]

so im thinking i will be using 2x regular 4 prong relays and make my own harness, unless said harness is already out there.

 

relay 1 for low beams:

pin 30: +12v supplied from alternator/starter (my battery is in the trunk)

pin 87: +12v (or close) supplied to low beams

pin 85: grounded for coil

pin 86: +12v for coil from parking light circut

 

relay 2 for high beams:

pin 30: +12v supplied from alternator/starter

pin 87: +12v (or close) supplied to high beams

pin 85: grounded through highbeam switch for coil

pin 86: +12v for coil from parking light circut

 

with this setup the low beams should come on when i pull the headlight switch, and the only current going through that switch would be a tiny amount for the relay coil. The low beams would stay on as long as the headlight switch was pulled.

 

With the low beams on if i pull the high beam switch the lows will stay on, and the switch will ground the relay coil, and send +12 to the high beam circut. It would add another coils worth of load to the headlight switch, but it will still be WAY less than running the bulbs like it was before.

 

both high and low would go off if i hit the high beam switch.

 

This should work great for me, i shouldn't have to hack any of the wiring, I can use a spade connector at the plug to tap into the highbeam switch for grounding and the parking light circut for +12 signal, and ground the lights like a normal car. I plan to run a hi/low HID kit (HID low beam and halogen high beam) . With this wiring they will both be on for high beam which i want so when i drop down to low the HID doesn't have to boot up (dangerous).

 

So i guess i have to buy some relays, relay sockets, h4 sockets, wire, loom, ring terminals, spades ect and make one up. Going to look online and see if i can get an off the shelf harness I can just adapt into first.

[housew]

drove the car last night to make sure my new heater core hose didn't leak. Verified i can still absolutely smolder the tires in 3rd, didn't try 4th cause i was scurred. I really enjoy how fast this little brick full of rattles is.

 

also failed miserably at soldering my relay back together. I couldn't make anything stick to the broken off bottom tab no matter how clean i thought i had it. I'll let my brother have a go at it (electrical engineer / mr. fix everything) since his soldering skills are far beyond mine.

 

Doesn't matter much if i end up replacing it with modern relays, but knowing me it will be days or weeks untill i get that harness built.

 

 

I also rewired one of the h4 plugs from my hi-low-hid kit and verified i could wire it up switched ground and it worked no problem.

the stock wiring appears to be pretty good size (12 gauge i think) so with the high beams on i would be rocking new setup is 35x2+55x2=180 watts = 15 amps

stock setup is 35x2+50x2=170 watts= 14.2 amps

so its not really any more draw than stock, so in theory i could get away with it.

 

I also haven't verified that hi-low hid kits are actually supposed to work with both on at once. I can wire it that way, but i don't want to run into a heat issue with the housing or bulbs. I know the halogen is RIGHT next to the xenon so maybe when the high beams are on, the halogen keeps the xenon warm enough that when you switch back to low beam they are instant?

 

If that's the case and i wire them separately then the system would be seeing ~1/2 the load it saw stock and i shouldn't "need" a harness. I should measure voltage drop and see what i come up with.

 

I actually don't have any complaints with the stock light output from JUST the outer low beams, i'm just doing it cause the car came with the HIDS and its part of my "facelift". Maybe the 85amp alt from the sr20det helps.

[housew]

so my car totaled itself today.

 

 

I drove my truck to work, my 510 drove down the driveway into a tree by itself. I just got the call from my wife, pics when i get home.

[r0p0doe]

so my car totaled itself today.

 

 

I drove my truck to work, my 510 drove down the driveway into a tree by itself. I just got the call from my wife, pics when i get home.

What the fuck :confused:  must not of had the brake on or in gear? or she's lying and she smashed it lol, hopefully it ain't too bad man.

[housew]

It's bad.

 

We'll see what insurance says. Hopefully not "go fuck yourself"

[Dime Dave]

Will,

I just sent you a picture of the wiper arm and then I read this, bummer!

 

I have a rust free 4 door shell that could be purchased if you are interested. 

[housew]

I might be into that dave. If you have an idea of what you want for it and a pic or 2 send me an e-mail. I have a trailer and could come fetch.

 

I'm going to talk to my insurance today (doubt they will help me, post some pics, and try to figure out my next move.

 

Still starts, runs, drives, and stops nice though, wonder if it will pass tech for autocross haha.

[r0p0doe]

I might be into that dave. If you have an idea of what you want for it and a pic or 2 send me an e-mail. I have a trailer and could come fetch.

 

I'm going to talk to my insurance today (doubt they will help me, post some pics, and try to figure out my next move.

 

Still starts, runs, drives, and stops nice though, wonder if it will pass tech for autocross haha.

Pics or it didn't happen :rofl:  jk but we would like see and process the damage...