69 510 2dr Project - VG30E/Autocross

[moath]

Hey all,

I'm Aaron and this is my 510:

 

I've had this car since 2002.  I used to regularly autocross it with the Medford, OR autocross club (http://www.ssccmedford.org/), but have since moved to Portland, OR and am so so ready to get it back on the road and race again.

 

I got the car with a re-ringed L16, Weber carb and 200SX dogleg 5 speed.  The front suspension had a lot of the right things done to it to make it quick in the street prepared class, but still had room to grow.  So I did a few things:

ATE super blue, stainless steel lines, new rotors and Porterfield R4S pads.  These made a huge difference in brake feel.  In a 510 with a L16 or L18 I don't know that you need a lot more front brake than this...

 

1" Suspension Techniques front sway bar.  This made a big difference on improving understeer, but was so stiff in the front that one front tire would raise up under hard cornering/acceleration.  I had purchased poly front and rear bushing at the same time, but didn't end up using the fronts since the previous owner had already upgraded the front bushings.

 

This was all the interesting work I'd gotten done before we moved to Portland (2008).  Next post I'll go into what I've done since we moved.

[ggzilla]

This proves even a nose-heavy V6 can still be made to handle. Congrats

 

How do your times with the V6 compare with the L16 times?

[moath]

So after moving to Portland I started accumulating parts to finish refreshing the rear suspension and fixing the nasty extra camber I got in my stock rear crossmember after bumping something.

 

85 300ZX rotors, Wilwood dynapro calipers mounted to a penultimate crossmember for adjustability.

 

Poly bushings for the diff.  Getting the bushings installed here was weird.  The bushings I got didn't fit inside the normal sleeves the rubber bushings were in.  They were the right width for the opening without the sleeves, but were too deep.  I managed to make them work after by trimming them down on a table saw.

 

After getting everything back on the ground things were looking pretty good.  I had also added in new poly spring seats to the trailing arms, but may end up taking those out as they're adding a bit of ride height.  I'll have to re-evaluate my rear spring rate and all that once the VG goes in so it's not really a big deal.

[moath]

This proves even a nose-heavy V6 can still be made to handle. Congrats

 

How do your times with the V6 compare with the L16 times?

To be honest I'm still accumulating the last few parts for the swap.  The big advantage the VG has over a KA (the VG30e only weights about 40lbs more than a KA24DE) is that the weight sits further back.  Parts availability is also great with a VG.  If I break something on a race weekend I can probably get it replaced at the local NAPA where with a SR20 you'd be SOL until you found the right thing. 

[moath]

Next project has been the floor pans:

 

Driver's side and passenger's side rear have been replaced.

 

The driver's side rear pan is is next.  Replacement should be here in a few days.

[Draker]

Who made your pans? 

[moath]

Pans are made my Mark Grimsley. You can email him at rediron07@comcast.net

[Draker]

Pans are made my Mark Grimsley. You can email him at rediron07@comcast.net

 

I've hear his name before. How do you like the product? How about thickness of the metal compared to stock?

 

I've heard good things.

[moath]

I've hear his name before. How do you like the product? How about thickness of the metal compared to stock?

 

I've heard good things.

They're 16ga like the stock sheet metal. They've all fit pretty well, though this car was in an accident once and needed some pieces persuaded to fit.

 

I'd highly recommend them.

[moath]

OK, so after overextending myself for most of 2014, I'm working on the car again.  Back to replacing the driver's side rear floor pan:

 

 

You can see in this picture on the trans tunnel side there was a bit of a gap no matter how much time I spent there with a body hammer. I ended up using a few pieces of wood and a old piece of angle stock to make a lever I could lean on while doing the plug welds:

 

 

Now I just need to spend a little time grinding and replacing another rusted through spot that wasn't fixed by the replacement front pan.

[moath]

Here's the final view of the ground plug welds on the pan!

 

Couple more patches to make near the tunnel:

 

 

Cowl patch going back into place.  This was rotted through to the other side after getting filled up with debris and not draining.

 

I removed the battery box and contoured the metal back out while I was patching up the cowl drain too:

 

I also started prepping to push the wheel well back a bit per the "How to Modify Datsun 510, 610, 240Z Engines and Chassis" book. This should prevent more rubbing with wide tires (you can see a shiny spot on the fender where my old tires rubbed)

The car was in a front end collision at some point (it's got a salvage title) and they welded on a new front quarter section.  They did an OK job, but it looks like the donor was a later model car seeing how everything doesn't exactly line up:

 

They didn't even bother to route the duct correctly...it was just pinched between the fender and the body:

 

Attachment points for the new quarter section. It'll need some Zerorust, but might as well do it while I've got the thing apart...

 

Hopefully there will be more to come this weekend!

[Ctrack]

Looking good mate keep the pics coming

[moath]

Needler scalers are pretty awesome.  I think I took off three or four pounds of crap from the wheel well:


Then some wire wheel work and it's nearly ready for some primer and underbody coating:


I'm waiting for a new wire wheel to come in the mail since the current one is worn way way down at this point. There's a bit more to do before I paint.

I also increased my wheel clearance a bit with a big hammer. This is the side of the car that had the accident, so I didn't get too concerned about separating the plug welds and all that since it would have burned hours to get things straightened out enough to separate things cleanly (note the seam being all mangled up here wasn't really affected by the hammering I did).


Tonight I did some quiet work since the kiddo was sleeping and continued assembly of the remaining 280ZX front strut. I'm using Cusco camber plates, 280ZX front assemblies, Koni yellow single adjustable struts, 250lbs sprints, 300ZX front rotors/hubs and 2nd gen RX-7 calipers:


Here you can see the metal bearing I had to order from McMaster Carr (part 6679K19) to fit between the strut threads and the bearing in the camber plate bearing and the strut threads. Fits like a glove now:


Hub all greased up and installed. Now I'm waiting on a cotter pin assortment to arrive from Amazon :P

[Twodoordime]

I'm interested in the rx7 calipers you plan on running on the front, can you educate me further on what is required to run them. I have multiple fc's and lots of calipers off TII's.

[moath]

I'm hoping to follow the idea from this thread:

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/44610-mazda-rx7-4-piston-calipers-on-280zx-struts/

 

I haven't built a bracket yet but I think I'll be doing that some time in the next month or so.

[Twodoordime]

So youre planning on converting to 5 lug?

[moath]

So youre planning on converting to 5 lug?

Nope.  The 84-86 N/A 300ZX had 4 lug hubs that bolt onto the 280ZX struts.

[moath]

Started on stripping the engine bay.  This car has had a lot of paint put on it over the years.  Originally it was cream sand, then I think they painted it orange when they repaired the front quarter section, then the engine bay got painted black.

 

 

Here's the seam where the other front quarter was sectioned in.  Overall it's not terrible, but if definitely will make me feel better about doing more extereme things to the car some day.

 

Hoping to wrap up the stripping this week and get the engine bay primed.

[moath]

Stripping is basically done.  I'm so ready to be done with the body work...until I do something more performance oriented like flared fenders or something.  That's going to wait until some time after the thing is up and running again though...

Passenger side fender removed. I only managed to get 50% of the bolts for the fenders out on either side :(


Round 1 of stripping the passenger's side:


...and round 2 on the driver's side:


Then I hit it with the wire wheel for about an hour:


I think it's basically ready to paint once I finish filling a few holes. Now that it's down to bare metal it looks like they must have brazed the "new" quarter panel in. I also want to reinforce the T/C arm mount where it was repaired since the weld looks a little incomplete. Hopefully I'll wrap all that up tomorrow night.

[moath]

Seam welding is done and the gas tank and lines are out.


Welds on the driver's side are a little proud but penetration looks good.





I definitely have practice to do with my technique but this gets me where I want to go. Next up will be painting the engine bay and the wheel wells.

[moath]

Filling some holes in the firewall.  Solo prepared class rules say no holes more than 1/8" in diameter.  Anybody got a picture of what a 510 firewall is supposed to look like?  Mine's kind of like swiss cheese.

 

First I made handles for the patches.  I'm cutting all the firewall patches by hand out of 18ga, and the floor patches by hand out of 16ga:

 

Starting to fill them in:

Still need to grind and finish making them air tight.

 

A few nights ago I got the driver's side wheel well painted.  I used Rusoleum self etching primer and two coats of their rubberized underbody coating:

 

I also bought factory matching paint to do the engine bay, but I'll be using a auto body epoxy primer shot out of a proper gun for that.  The guy at the paint store said that Rustoleum's stuff is often incompatible with other paints, so I'll just be doing the wheel wells with that stuff.  If you're in Portland Industrial Finishes is the place to go for paint stuff.  They took the time to explain the whole process to me and were able to make a batch of the correct color in no time.

[Draker]

I go to Industrial Finishes in Eugene. Although I've been meaning to stop by Jrocks parents paint shop to check it out. Never had an issue with IF, other than price is a little steep at times. The people are helpful. I got color matched paint as well. It's not perfect, but it's close. 

[moath]

More progress!

 

I shaved the antenna:

 

 

 

 

Found more rust in the rocker and (mostly) fixed it.  This area feels pretty solid overall, but obviously there's still some work left to do.  Since I'm not planning on painting the car during this teardown, I think I'll just zero-rust it and deal with it later.

 

 

 

I finally finished the wheel well mods to fit more tire without rubbing.  The 205/60R13 RA1s I used to run would rub on the wheel well here, so I cut it up, pushed it back and patched it up.  Got the idea from the "How to Modify Datsun 510, 610, 240Z Engines and Chassis" book.

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight I put a coat of Zero Rust on the interior on the driver's side where I replaced the floor pans:

[Draker]

Nice work man! Those floors look good. Zero rust is the shit! 

[moath]

The Zero Rust doesn't stay that glossy, but that's a-OK by me. I'm glad the end is in sight for body work!

 

Thanks for the kind words :)

Edited July 11, 2015 by moath