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Brandon's Bluebird Project


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What do the Germans say about your car?

I was in airforce at Birburg?Eifel and live near Echternach on Lux border.

They hated Japanese cars

 

It only arrived here on Friday and other than getting gas I haven't stopped anywhere with it.  Driving around I get a smile here and there.  The guys at the VPC (ie Vehicle Processing Center where you drop-off/pickup up cars for you non-military people) said people were walking by checking it out all morning.  To be honest, I doubt most people even know what it is/that it's Japanese because, from my impression, 510's are pretty rare here.  I'm on a European Datsun Facebook group and it's all Z's on there.  To be fair, my neighbor did say it was nice.  After he saw it, he said he went through some old car books he had and determined it to be a Toyota.   I'll be interested to see the reactions I get about it.  If the weather looks to hold out, tomorrow will be the first I take it into work.

 

 When I was in Japan, noone really cared about it there either except old Japanese dudes; people my age (34) and younger care mostly about the magazine cars they saw growing up (R32s, Sylvias, RX7's, etc.).      I'd go to these Cars and Coffee events where 3 videos would be put up on Youtube after each one from different people.  Most times my car wasn't even in them.  I think only 510 guys like 510s hahaha  Good thing I bought it because I like it otherwise I might be upset.

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The old Germans might think its a BMW if you put some Mesh SSRs on there.

Germans dont seem to care for old cars either. My uncles were alwasy wanted the lateist& greatist. I was wanting the old stuff myself

 

I had a 3 litre Capri in Germany and it had 140hp to the ground as they rate them there. Love the car. Recaros seats 15x7 RS wheels and Bleisteins ect..... The GERMANS called it the FarmersPorsche. Or if they dont like you called it the Turkish Corvette.

 

The Aussie. and New Zealanders love 510s

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car looks awesome man, best color too!  Looking forward to watching the progress..................one day I will have a coupe...

 

 

Thanks, I assure you it looks a lot better in pictures than in person but one day it'll be there.  BTW you have my dream car that turned me onto 510's.  The Hokosuka's are beautiful cars and I have wanted one for a long time, but the 510 is sort of similar and more affordable.  It probably sounds weird, but before I left Japan I was hard set on trying to get my car next to one to take a picture.  Low and behold, the second to last Cars and Coffee I went to one showed up as I was leaving.  I rolled over and parked next to it to get a picture for myself and was so upset that all I had was my cell phone that day.  Luckily, a Speedhunters guy was there that day and took a picture with them next to each other.  The 510 is like the GTR's bright eyed little brother lol

 

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Cell phone pics:

 

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The old Germans might think its a BMW if you put some Mesh SSRs on there.

Germans dont seem to care for old cars either. My uncles were alwasy wanted the lateist& greatist. I was wanting the old stuff myself

 

I had a 3 litre Capri in Germany and it had 140hp to the ground as they rate them there. Love the car. Recaros seats 15x7 RS wheels and Bleisteins ect..... The GERMANS called it the FarmersPorsche. Or if they dont like you called it the Turkish Corvette.

 

The Aussie. and New Zealanders love 510s

 

Do you have any pictures of yoru Capris?  I'd be interested to see them.  I would really like a set of 15" SSR Mesh's, but they are pretty far down on the priority list ATM.

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Thanks, I assure you it looks a lot better in pictures than in person but one day it'll be there.  BTW you have my dream car that turned me onto 510's.  The Hokosuka's are beautiful cars and I have wanted one for a long time, but the 510 is sort of similar and more affordable.  It probably sounds weird, but before I left Japan I was hard set on trying to get my car next to one to take a picture.  Low and behold, the second to last Cars and Coffee I went to one showed up as I was leaving.  I rolled over and parked next to it to get a picture for myself and was so upset that all I had was my cell phone that day.  Luckily, a Speedhunters guy was there that day and took a picture with them next to each other.  The 510 is like the GTR's bright eyed little brother lol

 

YEP!!  Thanks man!  I am going to start a build thread on it soon.  Here is my "wanabre" car next to my friends Hako.  The Hako has always been my dream car coming from 510's:

 

34937922115_dc733bc604_k.jpgUntitled by five1oh2010, on Flickr

 

34127317173_272419af56_k.jpgUntitled by five1oh2010, on Flickr

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I just looked around in your Flikr feed.  Very very nice!  I'm a big fan of your Shakotn build as well; thanks for the inspiration for a clean build.

 

YEP!!  Thanks man!  I am going to start a build thread on it soon.  Here is my "wanabre" car next to my friends Hako.  The Hako has always been my dream car coming from 510's:

 

34937922115_dc733bc604_k.jpgUntitled by five1oh2010, on Flickr

 

34127317173_272419af56_k.jpgUntitled by five1oh2010, on Flickr

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  • 3 months later...

Sorry for the lack of updates, I got SLAMMED with life, so I haven't made boat loads of progress.  Since I just got here I've had to start working on getting things I need setup and went to a couple car shows with the car.  Mostly, I've mostly been researching and working on my plan forward.  I really don't like going at stuff without a 90% solution ahead of time.  That being said I've made a little bit of progress forward.

 

Being military you run into situations where some of your things are in storage, back in the United States.  So I had to acquire a lot of things again, including jack stands, a floor jack, a work table, and a welder.  I already have a MIG in storage in the USA so I decided to go with a TIG welder.  It works out because I'll need it for piping/tubing anyway.

 

I decided to go with an Everlast 200DV.  It seemed to be a great bang for the buck, gets excellent reviews, and has any feature a person like myself would need.  Also, it's important that it can function on 220v and 110v since I'm overseas.  Likewise, it was also available for purchase over here; getting larger items can be difficult at times.

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So I started disassembling the CA18DET as well and stopped once the head was off.  It literally sat in the garage like that for a couple months while I was dealing with life stuff.  I got off my keester and got back to it today and disassembled the rest of it.  The good news is that from what I could see it looks to be simply an old, worn stock motor.  I do have a couple concerns I'll mention below.

 

Rod Bearings

So I think these look good.  Obviously, they are worn, but my perception is they are just old and ready to be replaced.  Please let me know if you spot something crazy I need to direct my attention too.

 

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Main Bearings

These look pretty much just like the rod bearings.  Just worn... I think.  The throwout bearing is showing copper on both sides, but I do not know if that is normal.  The crank turned freely on the stand.

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Cylinder Bores

There was some spots of corrosion, maybe from sitting, but the cross hatching is still there and there wasn't even a ridge at the top of the bore.  I have no measured these yet, but would assume them to be stock spec based on the pistons that came out (stock markings).

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Crank Shaft

So the crank didn't have any marring on main or rod journals that I thought was of concern.  One concern I did have as where the front and rear seals sit it's grooved.  I worry this may lead to sealing issues.

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Cylinder Head

I'm still working on getting this apart, but I did pop the cam tower caps off.  I'm fairly concerned about this portion of the engine.  The back two towers have grooves in them along with grooves on the camshafts.  Also, I some of the cam journals have a "brass" colored stripe going around them.  I'll drop it off at the machine shop to have it all checked and worked what needs to be worked with the block, but what is ya'lls impression of this?

 

The "brass" color ring on the journals...

gUaKQf1.jpg

 

The cam journals/caps I am concerned about.  (I have not pulled the exhaust side yet to check those).

yWg8VRf.jpg

 

Guages

So I also picked up an AEM UEGO guage to help with tuning the carbs and also to use with the new engine.  One of my major goals is that I don't want the cars look to depart from stock too much.  I want it to be a sleeping giant.  Part of that is not have things sticking out all over the interior.  I am going to try very hard to keep the stock guages along with anything I add not sticking out.  I believe I can do this by adding just a WBO2 and boost guage.  The car has the other guages already on the cluster (oil pressure, water temp, fuel, tach, speed).  

So the plan is to go with "analog" style guages to aid with blending in and then mount them in the center console.  I have a buddy that has a 3D printer, so I took some measurements and here is the plan...

 

Test just to see if it physically fits before moving ahead...

BKbc1yH.jpg

 

This peice will be attached to the back of my center consoles cubby hole which the prior owner already cut apart ?  Once it's, most likely, epoxied on I am hoping to go ahead and flock the inset area to make the finish uniform.

LA2eRsl.jpg

 

The guages will fit like this with a slight angle toward the driver seat...

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So that's where I'm at for now.  Sorry for puking out all the pictures and such into one giant post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by BrandonS
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It's hard to tell in a photo how deep the grooves are, but if it's not too bad it can just be polished. Fortunately, unlike a rod or crank bearing, the cam bearing tolerances aren't as critical. If the grooves are significant the shop can line bore them and instal thin bearings.

 

The copper colored line on the center of the cam journals are not uncommon. The oil feed possibly had contaminants or even fine particles running through them for years and it leaves staines. 

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  • 1 month later...

Only some minor changes until it's off the road for winter, but I had some time to work on the car.  A few weeks ago I put my oxygen sensor in thinking I was having fuel related issues, but everything seemed spot on afterwards.  Come to figure out my electronic dizzy finally kicked the bucket, so I threw the stock single point dizzy back in.  I also picked up an MSD from a buddy for next to nothing to go with it.  He's been "reminding" me for months that he had it sitting unused at home.  I've been putting it off since I kept reading they don't make any difference, but I honestly don't think my cars ever ran this well.  The cowl tray made a nice location for it, so that's where it sits.  I put loom over the wires and ran the power down the cowl and the coil ones through the fender.

nMsn2EH.jpg

 

Another friend of mine also printed out the bezel that I drew up for the center gauge cluster.  After staring at that for a few weeks and fearing the inevitable of having to cut my console up I took some time and got to it.  It was a little nerve wracking, but i just measured everything 5 times, taped off a cut line and took my time cutting.  I used a sanding block to flatten it out and get it to the final depth to attempt making it as flush as possible.  I attached the gauge plate to the cluster with epoxy which helped fill in some paper thick gap.  I think it's going to accomplish what I was hoping for;  allow me same gauge spots without looking too far from OEM.  I think it'll be easily overlooked by anyone glancing at my car which is perfect.  I do still have to clean up, sand and paint the inside so that the finish is uniform.

 

So for now I just put a blank cover in the second hole.  I just can't bring it to myself to stick a boost guage in when I'm running NA; I see that as a right of passage I guess.  I am also not sure the direction for guages I will go later.  I was originally planning to stick with the stock ones, but lately I've been contemplating running aftermarket Speedhut or VDO guages behind the SSS dash holes.  I like the VDO, but they don't have a matching wideband guage and I know one single unmatched gauge would drive me insane.

 

The gauge plate after sanding it...

dEQ96pC.jpg

 

After epoxying it in.  I'll let it do whatever curing it needs overnight and hopefully I can get it cleaned, painted and stuck in tomorrow.

img%5D

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Oh I also made it to another car show.  I was actually really looking forward to this one and the Bluebird, probably for the first time, was well received; it's usually just ignored I think.  I was able to pull my car over in front of one of the planes there and snap a picture on my way out.

9uByfPf.jpg


 

Edited by BrandonS
Copy pasting from imgur >:(
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I got it finished for now, but I will end up redoing it at a later date.  I tried a semi-gloss paint and didn't like it, then put a matte paint over that which cracked from incompatibility with the previous paint.  Sanded it all down and got it back to square one and ordered some VHT Wrinkle.  That arrived in short order so I painted it with that.  I really like how this looks on it, a lot.  I ended up using a heat gun to cure the paint, but got a little carried away.  I ended up with warped gauge holes and had to dremel them out a bit to fit the guage in (the right side is a snap in cap).  Also because of it warping, I ended up with a slight crack in the finish along the bottom edge.  Nothing that really stands out, especially once the guage is in, but I know it's there.  Also, I'm 99% sure I'm going to order a Speedhut wideband and vacuum/boost gauge; I think they will match the OE cluster mutch better.  I'll just throw the AEM in my toolbox for whatever project I end up with down the road.

 

ywuzuAl.jpg

Edited by BrandonS
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  • 2 weeks later...

I was fortunate that my car came with a lot of the items it originally had.  One item it never came with, however, was the original steering wheel.  Instead it came with a reproduction Competition wheel...

7I3ebrV.jpg

 

So while I was still in Japan, I made an effort to find a steering wheel that would have been original to the car.  After searching for a long while, I came across just the faux wood hoop and horn buttons.  I bought this with the idea I'd just swap over the internals from the Competition wheel and live with the "Datsun" horn pad.  Well, no sooner did I win that auction, another wheel popped up that had all the parts including the SSS horn pad.  Albeit, the faux wood and wheel were in rougher shape than the first, but at least it had all the parts and I could combine the better pieces of the two together.

Bk3uee5.jpg


In any case, I ended up deciding to take the worse of the two (the one on the left above) and just try to repaint it and refinish the wood section.  So I disassembled the wheel and stripped the old lacquer finish off of the wood hoop, but may have to do a little bit more.  I'm following what I've seen online for 240z wheels and plan to clear lacquer it.  I've also stripped all the paint off the spokes and will obviously repaint them.  I'm going to have to do some primer and sanding though as the rust has left some pitting.

 

As of now, this is where I'm at.  Nothing goes super fast as I'm trying to take my time and not rip anything up.  Hopefully I can get started on the painting later in the week when the rain goes away and the temperatures come back up a bit.
7jSyG9A.jpg

 

Here’s vs the untouched nicer one. Crazy how much a difference the clear lacquer makes. It won't be 100% correct, but I'm honestly hoping it's slightly less red than the original when finished.

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I have also taken the "button" out of the horn pad.  It is just retained in with a small peg and a friction fit clip that had some ahesive over it.  If anyone has any good suggestions on how to refinish this it'd be greatly appreciated.  I need to get the old paint off and fix/mitigate the small amount of pitting.
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Edited by BrandonS
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7 hours ago, sebpv said:

for the texture I would consider plasti-dip. Then a silver marker for the details.

 

So the button is actually lot metal. I need to smooth the texture off of it. I believe it’s all from minor pitting.  One good thing is I can just sand the raised portions with very fine grit paper and buff it to a shine.  Just not really sure how to get into the recessed areas to sand. Maybe I’ll have to look up some model finishing tips or seek out a sandblaster to borrow for a couple seconds. 

Edited by BrandonS
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use paint stripper or a sandblast like you mentioned. Reach the corners with a Q-tip, knife tip, needle or tiny screwdriver. Plasti-dip it. If its metal then just lay it flat on a fine sand paper and that should bring out the details?

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58 minutes ago, sebpv said:

use paint stripper or a sandblast like you mentioned. Reach the corners with a Q-tip, knife tip, needle or tiny screwdriver. Plasti-dip it. If its metal then just lay it flat on a fine sand paper and that should bring out the details?

Yea I think that’s going to be the plan.  Thanks for the suggestions. I also came across something called sanding pens that may come in handy if need be for the tight areas.

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Had an extended weekend so I got a chance to work on my wheel.  I ended up hand sanding the 3 spoke rear part that holds the 3 horn pads, as well as, the horn pad SSS button. I turned on some Youtube car shows and kept wet sanding until the little bumps were gone.  Since it's such a tight area I folded up 800 grit into tiny little squares and just wet sanded.  I then put a piece of 1500 grit sandpaper on a ceramic coaster, put the button face down and did small figure 8's.  I couldn't go too far since it's chromed. Finally, I primered it, wet sanded some more, and then painted it.  I think I ended up with 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint on the button.  Stripping the paint off the polished part afterwards was easy, I just used a flat razor blade and it came right off, probably since it was polished prior to painting it.  The wood part is covered in clear lacquer.  I put 4 coats on.  I think I'll have to put some dressing on the plastic yet so it doesn't look so dull and drab compared to the new paint. 

 

Overall it came out better than I could have hoped for and I'm pretty excited to put it in the car once it's 100% cured.  All that work done, it may not stay in the car, I'm really not sure I'm going to like how thin the wooden section is compared to the Competition Wheel that's in the car now.  In that case, I'll hang it on the wall or something in my office.

 

Before:

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After:

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Edited by BrandonS
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  • 2 weeks later...

So I came across these online and they were a decent price so I went for it.  They're Artrise Venette Vega 15x6.5. The Riversides on my car now are 14x6/14x6.5 and I have a set of Watanabes that are 14x7/14x7.5.  The problem with the Watanabes is the offset makes it so I have to camber them and stretch tires to get the rear to fit.

I'm going to have to redo these as the "chrome" is coming off the spokes and I'd also like to repolish the aluminum barrels.  I am leaning toward black or graphite  where the white is along with that inner lip the bolts go in then keeping the polished lip and polishing the faces of the spokes.  I really like how my Riversides spokes sparkle as you walk by so I think I'd like to keep that.

 

Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

WeG4FSl.jpg

Edited by BrandonS
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