"Zeke"- '72 510 2Dr

[carterb]

Your car looks really solid Ted.  Not much rust-repair required.

 

Looking great!

 

--carter

[Tedman]

Yup, except for the driver's side front floor this is a solid rust free car. Must have been a windshield leak for the driver's side floor to get so bad. I didn't highlight it, but tire shredding incident ripped out and exposed a very rusty floor repair. Otherwise, SoCal climate has been nice to Zeke... 

[Tedman]

Made some modest progress this week:

- Finished painting the underside of the floor repair, frame rails, core support and T/C boxes in gray hammertone

- Re-installed the front suspension 

- Re-installed the RF fender and eye brow trim (still waiting for LF Fender to come back from paint!)

- Installed and aligned the rear bumper

- Installed the tail light assemblies with new Euro lenses

- Installed the new front Euro turn signal assemblies

- Installed the headlight buckets

- Installed the lower grille surround

- Installed the grille

 

Here's the tidied up wiring for the tail lights, right then left:

 

 

From the outside with the bumper installed. I really like the look of the shaved license lights:

 

And from the front with the grille and turn signals installed (still need to install that hood trim!):

 

Looking forward to getting the LF fender back, coating the inside and putting it back on the car to finally make it whole again!  

 

[Tedman]

Installed the dash top metal fascia and NOS dash pad which I have been saving for probably 20 years:

 

Scrubbed and degreased the rear fender wells with Simple Green in prep for application of the gray hammer finish Rustoleum. This car is super dry and the factory undercoat is still in excellent condition. I could probably get by without doing anything here but decided to go ahead and paint to match the fronts. For posterity's sake, here are some before pics: 

 

LR inner fender, fore, top, aft, and inner arch:

 

 

 

 

RR aft, top, fore and inner arch:

 

 

 

 

Will post after pics when I get a chance...

 

Also, been working on rejuvenating the dash panels and sorting out the dash fastener hardware. It's amazing how much time I spend searching for, sorting through, and cleaning up old screws, nuts and washers. Very time consuming. Glad I have another '72 2dr for reference.

 

A few small parts I still need (in case anyone has spares you'd be willing to part with, let me know):

1. Heater blower switch

2. Windshield washer nozzle

3. Hood release cable clamp 

4. Heater firewall grommet covers 

 

Carry on...

  

[Tedman]

Got my new heater firewall grommets so I was able to re-install the heater assy and dash controls. What a PITA!  Key was to remove the defroster box retaining screws so the defroster box could be pushed up farther under the dash and provide clearance for the heater assy to fit underneath.  Also helped to remove the passenger side water tube.  Here it is re-installed:

 

NOS heater control cables came with the car so those have been installed. I installed the optional map light switch in the seatbelt warning light hole to the right of the heater controls.  I still need to find a heater blower switch for the left side.

 

Here's a pic of a heater tube grommet cover that goes on the engine bay side of the firewall. I temporarily pulled this one off my other '72. Anyone have a pair they'd part with?:

 

 

[Tedman]

Put the rest of the dash and instrument cluster back together this afternoon. I had previously cleaned all of the dash panels which were various shades of faded, and then treated them with 303 Aerospace UV spray protectant. I'm impressed with this stuff which was recommended by a friend. I guess it's popular with boaters. Anyway, it brings back the black to the faded plastic and leaves a nice matte finish, not all shiny and greasy looking like a lot of products. Sorry, my phone cam kind of sucks in low light, but here's a pic:

 

I am planning to put water temp and oil pressure gauges in the radio cut out. Still need to sort out a few wires for the signal stalk, flashers and driver's door light switch, then I can install the clamshell on the column and the dash will be pretty much done!  Now I really need to get to work on that engine room harness...  

[Lockleaf]

When i saw your pic i was going to comment on how much nicer your dash appeared than mine. I also just barely for mine installed again for the first in over a year. Then i read your comment and now i apparently need to go buy me some 303.

[Tedman]

Nothing major, but made a little more progress...

 

Scored some heater firewall grommet covers (thanks, Seth!). Cleaned, painted and installed:

 

Miraculously, I managed to find all of those long, thin, fine thread screws for the steering column clamshell surround, so I go that cleaned up and installed:

Did the old 24hr vinegar soak on the fuse block, and it cleaned up real nice:

 

 

I could have sworn I had a spare fuse block cover around here somewhere, but can't seem to find it. Still in need of a heater switch and some washer nozzles...

[Tedman]

Alright, so only minor stuff accomplished today between household chores and watching 24 Hours of LeMans. Americans (Corvette and Ford GT) are getting butt-kicked by Aston Martin, so not looking good. 

 

Anyway, I did do a couple things on Zeke. Installed a 2.5 Trans Am badge on the glove box door.  These repro badges tend to fit loosely and sag, but with a few strategic pieces of double-stick tape it's on there tightly now. Also, you can see the shiny new side vent. Bought a pair of 240Z vents from Motorsport Auto. They look great but the fuzzy felt stuff in the dash panel aperture has thinned with age, so they are kind of floppy in there. Need to figure out a way to fix that.

 

Another easy task between commercials- removed what was left of the delaminating original tire pressure sticker from the inside of the glove box door and applied the repro I got from Zeddsaver. It's not 100% faithful to the original but still looks good.

 

Here's the original so you can see the differences, in case anyone gives a s#!+.    

 

Oh, and another thing I did between commercials is install the door bump rubbers that I also got from Zeddsavers.  Hey man, every little bit helps! Back to the race...

 

Wow, just noticed a gaffe in the repro sticker- should read 28psi across the board in the last row, but shows 20psi front in second to last column...

[Tedman]

Got a message back from Norm at Zeddsavers thanking me for pointing out the typo on the glove box sticker. He's going to have another run made and send a replacement. Fair deal.

 

Another somewhat rare part I bought probably 15-20 years ago and decided to use for this build, a NOS under-dash package tray. Today I decided to give it a test fit.

 

 

Here it is temporarily installed. I still need to decide what to do for kick panels:

 

Another part I had in my stash was this rubber seal which I always thought was for the gap between the tail light panel and the rear bumper, but have since come to realize that it's actually a cowl seal as it's too short for the bumper.

 

Rare is the 510 with this seal still intact! Here's a pic of the seal installed (but not yet glued) on the cowl lip.

 

I think that is the proper orientation, though I have not yet found a good reference photo of a factory installed seal.  As you can see from the previous pic, in cross-section there's a convex and a concave side. You can also see in cross-section that the concave edge is slightly longer. This side needs to be facing forward otherwise the long edge will bottom in the cowl gutter before the slit bottoms on the gutter lip. Kind of hard to explain, but here's edge views with it installed backwards, and then what I believe to be correct:

 

  

 

For now I'm going to hold off gluing this seal until I can confirm orientation.    

[datsunfreak]

I feel like the second way is correct? Only had one 510 with the stock seal still on and it bent that way. 

 

 

But also could have been from 30+ years spent with the hood closed...    ^_^

[Tedman]

FWIW, here's a photo of the late Art Hughes' stocker 510. Hard to tell for sure, but looks like the lip is bending forward.

 

Here's a couple of pics of David Jones' restored stocker. In my opinion, David is definitely in the same league as Art for maintaining factory originality.  Anyway, again it is hard to say for sure, but looks to me like the lip bends forward on David's car as well.

 

 

I would like to see underhood pics of Ms. Doty. That should settle the question. Is this kind of discussion even allowed on Ratsun? ;-) 

[Tedman]

So today ended up being Windshield Washer Bottle Refurbishment Day.  Fortunately, Zeke came with a washer bottle in really good condition. The sticker was still intact and the plastic bottle cleaned up nicely. I decided to check if the motor worked, and that would be a negative. Crap! With nothing to lose I pulled the motor and launched into the guts. More on that in a minute, but first, the glory shots of the end result:

 

 

 

I used 1/4" x 0.170" tubing which came with the car in the pile of parts.

 

It's not easy to wrestle the motor from the bottle, but it can be done by hand. Using screwdrivers to lever it out will leave unsightly stress marks in the plastic at the fulcrum points, if you care about such things.  Once separated from the bottle, you can push the motor out of the rubber jacket with a little effort.  The motor housing is aluminum, and tabs need to be pried away to pull out the guts. I used a small thin blade screwdriver. Here's the motor after I pried up the tabs...

 

...and after removing the plastic cover, exposing the impeller. Also note the black o-ring :

 

Pull off the impeller and you can see the slot in the motor shaft that engages the tang in the impeller:

 

At this point, you can grip the white plastic piece lightly with pliers and pull it straight out. DO NOT TWIST IT! It has a tang that engages into the wire terminal insulator, and you do not want to break that off. Here's the underside of the white plastic piece which has a metal closeout on it. You can see the plastic tang at about 3:30 on the clock dial.

 

That tang was engaged into the rectangular slot in the wire terminal insulator, shown here at 12 o'clock. You can also see the motor brushes:

 

Now you can remove the wire assy with the brushes...

 ...and then the armature from the can. On this motor there were 2 phenolic spacers on the shaft which I slid off the right side as shown in the pic:

 

There are magnets inside the aluminum can, and some sort of bearing ring in the bottom for the end shaft to seat into. For reassembly I lubed the end shaft of the armature  with silicone grease before re-inserting into the can. Likewise, I lubed the output shaft with silicone grease before re-assembly.

 

At this point, I used an Exacto blade to remove carbon buildup between the thin gaps between the six segments of the gold colored surface that the brushes rub on, and wiped everything off. This motor was pretty clean inside, with little evidence of corrosion. I cleaned the spacers and re-installed them.

 

Oh yeah, here's a wide shot of the parts in order of assembly, more or less:

 

The metal closeout left of the white plastic disk thingy was pretty rusty, so I soaked it overnight in a vinegar bath, then scrubbed it with a wire brush. It is shown here after this process. The plastic disk thingy has a metal bearing pressed into it on the armature side, and a shaped seal in the water side. Here you can see the metal bearing on the armature side:

 

On the other side there's a rubber seal and between the two there's another phenolic washer. The seal can be pushed out from the bearing side through the 4 openings between the "spokes". Here's the armature side of the seal.

 

This thing needs to be replaced but where the hell do you find one?  Since it was still somewhat pliant, I coated it liberally with silicone grease and re-used. The opposite side is either metal, or rock hard rubber...

 

Be sure to re-install the spacer before pressing the seal back in:

 

The o-ring should be replaced as well. I probably should have tried to find a replacement, but decided to just lube with silicone grease and reassemble. If it leaks I will endeavor to find a replacement.

 

After cleaning everything up and lubing the seals and shafts, reassembly is the reverse of disassembly, as they say.  Here's my setup for bending the tabs on the can back. A small brass mallet and punch, along with a skateboard wheel. It doesn't take much force at all to bend the aluminum tabs back into place and seal up the motor. 

 

 

So that would be the end of this epic tale. The motor now spins like an AFX G-Plus slot car motor. Hopefully it seals against the washer fluid...

 

[hosestop@msn.com]

Hey Ted your fender and Real BRE spook is ready hope the old paint matches it should, a little dirty ,eight years old in sea container ,glad I can help get Randy's old car completed.]

[datsunfreak]

Are these original Cadillacs from the 70s?!?   :w00t:

 

 

[Tedman]

No, those are a modern version of the classic '70s wheels.  I do have a few sets of the OG  '70s Cadillacs, though...

 

 

[Tedman]

Back to the car...

 

Finished painting the inside of the LF Fender. Should be ready to go back on the car tomorrow.  

 

Got my Autometer Z Series water and oil gauges from Summit last week. Also ordered a sheet of 1/8" black textured ABS plastic and that arrived today so I was able to make my gauge panel. Both gauges fit into the original radio cutout without modification.

 

 

Now I just need to wire 'em up!

 

[shacks510]

oooh, a map light!

[Lockleaf]

Now that is a quality gauge mod. Looks good and didn't disturb the underlying structure.

[Tedman]

Did some wiring on the Autometer gauges today. I'm taking the gauge illumination +12v power and ground from the bullet connectors in the factory tach harness for the clock so they will work with the light switch. I made a little sub-harness (not shown) to go from the bullet connectors behind the tach to spade at the gauges. I'm using the blue factory radio ignition switched power wire for the gauge +12v power, and grounding the gauges to a nearby existing screw hole in the metal body of the dash structure. Autometer recommends installing an inline 4A fuse on the switched power wire to each gauge. I already had these blade fuse holders left over from wiring my SR car, so I wired them in. All connections are accessible from behind the center dash panel so they can be disconnected and the panel easily removed as an assembly. Here's a pic:

 

Now I just need to run 1 wire out to the engine compartment for each gauge sensor, which is the beauty of electric gauges.  I actually far prefer the look of mechanical gauges with their 270 degree dial sweep (vs. 90 degrees for electric gauges), and that is what I ran for auxilliary gauges on my SR car, but for this car I didn't want to cut any large holes in the firewall for the bulky mechanical senders to fit through, nor worry about bulkhead feedthroughs for engine fluids. FWIW, here's the gauge setup in my SR car, also Autometer Z Series:

 

In other news, I re-hung the re-painted LF fender. Finally Zeke is a whole car again!  Paint match is really good considering the paint has been sitting around for 10 years in Brad's storage container since he originally painted the car.  Need to do some hood alignment as it sits high in the left rear, and the fender gap is too large. I think it will be OK with some adjustment at the hinges.  

 

You'll also notice that the grille is entirely installed for the first time. It looks pretty good! I have NOS fender eyebrows and a NOS lower grille trim in my stash, but these used parts are in real good shape, so I may just go with 'em and save the NOS parts. You might also notice a couple of rivets in the lower LF valence. The flailing tire tread incident ripped those spot welds out, so I installed a couple of rivets to re-attach the tab to the core support. Planning to dab some red paint over the rivets, but it won't matter much since they will be behind the spoiler. Coincidentally, the LF of my SR car was damaged while owned by the original owner, and the very same spot welds were repaired with screws! Anyway, here's a front view pic:    

 

Gotta admit, I've been procrastinating on re-doing the engine compartment harness, as well as getting the engine rebuilt. Time to get with it! Upcoming plans are to drag my old L20b out of storage, pull the head and send the short block off for rebuild and balance (and maybe a valve job on the head?). While the block is out for rebuild I can tackle the engine room harness. Also planning on installing an Acura Integra wiper motor. Then there's finishing the interior.  These are the seats I have in mind:

http://procarbyscat.com/seats/Rally-Houndstooth

Stay tuned...

 

[GoGoGo]

Reached out to the owner of the Art Hughes car and asked him about this. He sent the following pics showing it folding towards the back of the car. Hope it helps!

 

 

[Tedman]

@GoGoGo Thanks for the pics!

[Tedman]

Checked off a few more miscellaneous items thanks to the Eagle Rock Datsun swapmeet last Sunday.  Picked up a heater switch, and found a hood latch cable clip.  Also went home with a crusty 510 wiper motor to be used as a parts donor for the Integra wiper motor swap. 

 

The heater switch had the knob, but was missing the jam nut and plastic spacer. I made the spacer from a plastic standoff I had laying around. The jam nut was scavenged from the donor wiper motor gear box. Oddly enough, it's the same as the one that fixes the plastic driven gear to the shaft inside the gear box. 

 

 

 

Hood release cable clip after de-rusting, and then painted with new screw:

 

 

Took apart the donor 510 wiper motor and de-rusted the bracket and arm:

 

There was a lot of corrosion, hence the pitting, but nothing a little paint won't cover up.  Rubber isolators are in good shape, and it came with the clip for the lever pin. Ordered a '94-'01 Integra wiper motor tonight, so looking forward to fitting that up. Took apart, lubed and refitted the linkage arms under the cowl today, so that's all ready to go.   

 

Funny, this part came in the boxes of parts I got with the car. I never really knew what it was for. For some reason I never put two and two together until I started to disassemble this wiper motor. I guess Randy had the motor can painted to match the car. No idea what happened to the rest of it...

 

Carry on...

[Tedman]

A few updates- 

 

Installed the front bumper and spoiler:

 

Installed ~ 2sq. ft. of Dynamat in the doors. They make a nice '"thunk" when closed now. 

 

...and I now have front seats!

[Lockleaf]

Interesting seats. I dig the fabric. What are they from?