Nana Spec 69' 510

[slowlearner]

2 hours ago, BrothersGarage said:

I would spray the inside with some rhino liner and hit the outside with some bartenders friend = but I don't give a shit about rust.

 

 

LOL 

 

My issue is, the local inspectors will want me to fix it I think. Little imperfection on none structural panels are one thing. Actual holes will usually mean a fail.

[slowlearner]

A few things to report. The last week has seen a solid effort to get the car back on it's wheels again. The first port of call was a the exhaust leak.

 

 

 

The next sticking point was the reverse switch. FB groups were of no help, an online diagram for the 63A2 trans I have was just plain wrong. I even had the wheels on the car already. However, sticking it back on the ground before sorting out the reverse lights would have been a fools errand. And I know, coz I've followed a few of them in the past.

 

 

The tyres and wheel nuts were one of the most expensive single purchases for the car at $520. Edging out the race motor and dogleg 5 speed. It's a lot less expensive than the R180 LSD, but lets not go there. I even had to buy a spare because every single tyre I had was dry-rotted and nasty.

 

Getting back to the reverse switches... In the end, I had to re-solder (note the "L" in it) the connectors on both switches. Then I swapped them, tested them with the multimeter again and finally one of them worked! Sorting the reverse lights wiring also meant some trimming and new connectors, but finally it all lit up! My wife was characteristically unimpressed by my excitement at getting them working, but there was a good reason.

 

 

The car is finally resting on it's wheels again! This is a MAJOR step forward. There's still a list of things to do, but I can drive it in and out of the garage. VERY pleased! 😄 

 

P.s. I know all you "stance" boys will saying it causing you a nose bleed, but I don't care. High is the new low. 😉 

Edited April 28, 2020 by slowlearner

[slowlearner]

Been wanting to make up a Porsche 917 style, lightweight wooden gearknob for the car to go with the Momo wheel in it. It's pine, mahoghany and walnut burl from an 1880s piano that belonged to me grandmother, then my mother (a piano teacher) and then my kids till it wouldn't stay in tune any more. I pulled it apart a few years back to use the timber for various guitar projects.

 

 

 

Scoll through the pics to see the end product. It's been a long process and my initial shaping work on a drill press didn't work. What did work was a combo of a belt/disc sander and cordless drill... at the same time. Needs a few more coats of varnish, but it's good to go. 🙂

 

 

[nad015]

Well you gotta run it high in Australia. 
nanny state.

man that is one cool gear knob.!!

nice work..

[nad015]

I’m also thinking about doing an r180 lsd conversion.

where did you get your diff from?

and did you end up using SWR cv axels?

Is the tailshaft flange for the R180 the same as the R160 or do you need to change the flange on the tailshaft.?

[slowlearner]

I used the standard uni-style half shafts. Stewart Wilkins said they're actually pretty strong if they're in reasonable condition. I did need output flanges to convert the R180 over to the halfshaft 4 bolt setup. Stewart sells them for $AU500, which is cheaper than $1k for axles and CVs.

 

The R160 and R180 input flanges were identical.

 

Stewart pulled the diff apart and swapped the 4.44 ring over to a 3.9 for me. Much better for street and suited my low first gear well.

[nad015]

Oh I was actually expecting more for the price of the cv’s. Might give him a call.

That’s good about the tailshaft flange.

did you source the diff through him? I think if I remember correctly his son has a jap performance parts/ wreakers yard. Or maybe I made that up. 🤔 haha

[Lockleaf]

Bitchin shift knob.  I love the look and the heritage behind it.

[slowlearner]

14 hours ago, nad015 said:

Oh I was actually expecting more for the price of the cv’s. Might give him a call.

That’s good about the tailshaft flange.

did you source the diff through him? I think if I remember correctly his son has a jap performance parts/ wreakers yard. Or maybe I made that up. 🤔 haha

 

Yeah, Stewart's son runs SSS Automotive, which is a JDM import wrecker. The plate/clutch type LSD I've got only came out on a (relatively) small number of JDM STis apparently. I got it from these guys...

 

http://m.risingsunsubaru.com.au/

 

It was the last one in stock then, but they may have more by now. The price I gave you re CVs was based on second hand setups from FB market place. Maddat sell a kit but it's $2.2k with EMPI parts (which I don't trust from my time with VWs).

 

http://www.maddat.com.au/differential/datsun-r200-1600-510-billet-drive-shaft-axels

 

I don't claim to be an expert, but Stewart himself said the stock half-shafts are sturdier than most people think. After all, they used them in the Z and other cars at WRC levels. Hence why I didn't upgrade. I couldn't see the point for 100fwhp.

[slowlearner]

A lot to report. I was able to back the car out and drive it up and down the street tonight. Got a few smiles from some neighbours. 😀

 

However, the stupid carb won't let it idle properly. It just dies when she's warmed up. The clutch pedal is also making a weird grindy noise so I'll have to look at that. The dogleg is a little confusing. I suspect the brakes will need another bleed. Still, I will say the car goes a LOT better with a manual. It went ok with the auto, but it's snappy compared to the auto. I could smell some coolant though, so I'm not sure what's going on there. 

 

Some more actual progress. I got the gear shift surround done this evening.

 

 

This involved a lot of hitting with a lump hammer. It wasn't subtle but it did the trick. It got some Sikaflex sealant. It's so stiff it bent my cheap caulking gun.

 

 

The floor got a dose of it where I was sealing up the welds. A light under the floor did the trick showing any pinholes.

 

 

 

The new panel under the fuse box got some love as well.

 

 

I was keen to redrill the holes for my accelerator pedal... but I can't find the pedal. Oops! 🙄 In the meantime I needed to superglue the fuse box cover back together. 

 

 

I managed to close the bonnet on it the other day and snap a bunch of pieces out of it. I was happy to buy a new one till I saw the prices on Ebay. I could only find a whole fuse box and cover.  It was $100+. 🥵  Superglue is good enough for this old survivor.

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by slowlearner

[datzenmike]

Re carb...

 

When the engine is warmed up the engine heat (intake, ports, valves, pistons and combustion chamber will help vaporize the fuel so it should run better in every way. The choke and the choke circuit which provides an over rich condition when cold to evaporate as much gas as possible will now be off. If the idle mixture and/or speed are not properly set for warm running the choke being on when cold will hide this fact. Once warm a lean idle mixture will cause a poor idle.

 

A lean idle can also be a small vacuum leak.

[slowlearner]

12 hours ago, datzenmike said:

Re carb...

 

When the engine is warmed up the engine heat (intake, ports, valves, pistons and combustion chamber will help vaporize the fuel so it should run better in every way. The choke and the choke circuit which provides an over rich condition when cold to evaporate as much gas as possible will now be off. If the idle mixture and/or speed are not properly set for warm running the choke being on when cold will hide this fact. Once warm a lean idle mixture will cause a poor idle.

 

A lean idle can also be a small vacuum leak.

 

The choke is broken. I think I'll need to swap over some parts from my other carb... Or I can give up and put the SUs on. That's a bit of a mission too.

[slowlearner]

Weirdness… The car starts, the indicators and wipers work. But the lights don't. Hmmm, electrical mysteries.

 

 

In other news, I did some quick maths and I've gone over my $15k budget. Not by much, but it's done. To be fair, I only need to buy a few more bits for the EFI conversion so maybe it's ok.

Edited May 10, 2020 by slowlearner

[mrbigtanker]

That is power from starter to fuse box I believe. you should have a spade that it goes to. But you said your lights and wipers are working. hmmmm

[slowlearner]

Weird... 😳

[slowlearner]

Ok, so SUCCESS! 🥇

 

It seems like the missing connector was jammed under some relays adjacent to the fuse box. So I pulled it out and... it was so green it looked like it had been buried underneath pearl harbour. 🤢 Cleaned it up and ruined the planet some more with some contact cleaner. Put it all back together and it everything works a treat. Tested the horn and our dog went bezerk, coz 10pm at night was probably a bit late for that. 🐕

 

I have no idea how the rest of the system was working without the main power wire plugged in. Let's call it wifi?  📻   👽 Seriously, I have no idea.

 

However, I should say there's a sneaky switch under the dash that controls the inner headlights. 🙈  One way, it allows the normal inner + outer lights for high beam with the stalk. The other way though, it let's you to turn on the high beam inner lights with NO other lights on... including licence plate lights. I think we know what that's all about. 🚔

 

I don't really think they'd ever escape the cops with a stock L18 + BW auto though. 🤣 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2020 by slowlearner

[slowlearner]

Am I the only one who likes watching this guy?

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/jaymz03ss

 

His one-liners are #gold. Speaking of gold, the spending continues. After procrastinating for weeks, I stopped whining and bought one of these...

 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/164195433176?ViewItem=&item=164195433176

 

I wasn't keen, but I realize that when I cut this open, likely story is that things inside this panel will not be great. 

 

 

I guess I could fake some patina afterwards. I'll see. 

 

I've also been buying EFI parts;

Sard fuel pressure reg

044 fuel pump

AU ford falcon crank sensor

GM intake air sensor

Plus a few fittings and plugs. 

 

Everything there is well above spec for the motor, so I could easily boost it later. Still need to do something about a throttle position sensor. I've got a crazy idea for the surge tank, but I'll come back to that later.

 

[slowlearner]

Oh BTW, has anyone here had issues with there heater/fan switch? Is that a known issue? Mine doesn't work.

[slowlearner]

Had huge week this week. Yesterday was a 14 hour day and I hardly got back out of bed... in fact I started the day working in bed and only got up to keep smashing through until it was done at 4pm this arvo (Aussie for afternoon) missing breaky and lunch. Then it was done and bleh... I was out of brain. So into the shed to turn the car around and have a quick mess around. The car hasn't started well for months or idled properly, so I had another go at the choke.

 

 

I swapped a different choke module in and it worked straight up. I think I could have made the other spring work in retrospect. Instantly I back it up the driveway, a guy came running across the road and drooling over the car. Apparently he really likes 510s and RX2s. Wants to buy something 70s and RWD but his wife wants a bigger boat. LOL. Poor guy. It's running a bit better now and idling properly after a bit of fiddling. I think it could do with some new plugs. It's also dropping a bit of oil. No really sure where that is coming from. Looking forward to rego and daily driving.

 

As mentioned in his 260z thread, I bought this having failed to follow the WWND (What would Noll do?) philosophy. I know. It's wrong. Not building my own repair panel. I've disappointed you @Noll and I'm sorry. @Lockleaf was right. Oh well, too late night. I've hussied myself out to repair panel suppliers and there's no turning back. I'll be showing too much leg on the wrong side of town... hang on.

 

That got out of control way too fast. 😳

 

 

 

In truth I should probably be fixing it instead of writing this post. Scared of screwing it up and procrastinating. I've never attempted this level of panel repair before. But hey, what could go wrong? Right? 🥴

Edited May 15, 2020 by slowlearner

[slowlearner]

So procrastination over. By some miracle, I found my spot weld drill the other day.

 

 

After struggling with the bumper, I ground off the paint and oiled up the welds. In the end I was able to get all the spot welds to come away.

 

 

As you can see a lot of rust came out.

 

 

That wasn't what worried me as much as this 1.5" hole near the bottom of the panel where I thought it would be solid. It was paper thin. This makes me wonder what the other side is like. 😞 Patina isn't looking so sexy anymore.

 

 

The good news is, what I could see of the inner quarter panel actually looks alright. So hopefully I can just rust proof that and get on with putting on the new panel. Anyway, I'll be cutting the outer panel off along the bottom of the tape line tomorrow morning.

 

 

I figured the neighbours would prefer I didn't fire my grinder up at 10:30 at night with their 3 and 5yo trying to sleep.

Edited May 15, 2020 by slowlearner

[slowlearner]

Whipped out the grinder this morning and got to work...

 

 

There wasn't much Datsun primer left on the inside of the panel. 

 

 

I was going to graft the new panel in just under the bump hole. Then I saw rust between the two panels and cut another strip out, about an inch wide.

 

What worried me more was the state of the bottom of the inner panel. Some of the pin holes can be welded up but a lot of that metal should be replaced. I'm figuring out what to do about that. I think small pieces grafted in is the trick. My main issues is the inner panel is very much 3 dimensional. I don't know how I'm going to recreate that. It doesn't have to be pretty, but it does need to work and all the metal is so thin. Any input from @Noll or other old masters would be great. 🙂 

 

I also spent an hour beating out some accident damage in the panel from a previous ding in the back corner.

 

By this time it was lunch time, so I put on a coat of weld through primer.

 

 

Came back from lunch and got the welder out and... I'd run out of gas. Typical. 😞

 

Edited May 16, 2020 by slowlearner

[banzai510(hainz)]

Like watching the build 

[Lockleaf]

Check out the Mazda Cosmo restoration from Aaroncake on youtube.  Early on he does a bunch of body work and hand builds some complex 3d pieces like yours.  It might give you some inspiration

[slowlearner]

8 hours ago, Lockleaf said:

Check out the Mazda Cosmo restoration from Aaroncake on youtube.  Early on he does a bunch of body work and hand builds some complex 3d pieces like yours.  It might give you some inspiration

 

Thanks, will do.

 

I actually watch these guys all the time. They do some amazing work. The 60' Fury is a total resurrection.

https://www.youtube.com/user/coldwarmotors

 

[slowlearner]

Speaking of which... from 16:57. Some wagon fun.