Dreamsicle acquired ('72 510 4-door)

[mechanicalfeedback]

Hey all, long-time lurker. 

Finally picked up a 510 yesterday after a solid decade of staring longingly at everyone else's.

It's orange, it's rusty, it needs virtually everything, but it was both local to me and came with a price tag I couldn't resist.

 

Monster truck up in here.

 

 

I didn't even have to rummage through the junkyard to find this elephant oil cap!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My coworkers call this a "huge undertaking" but I keep calling it a "blank slate". It is truly....blank.

 

Long/mid-term goals:

- Make this thing the bare minimum definition of "road worthy"

- Paint it slightly less orange

- Rebuild/refresh the L16 (no fun swaps for now, sorry folks)

- Drive it

 

Done so far:

- Rolled it into the garage

- Stood inside with my head sticking out of the sunroof

- Told everyone I know that I bought a Datsun

 

Plans for next week:

- Pull the L16 & trans out so I can make the engine bay not disgusting/start tearing engine down for a refresh

- Remove what little remains of the interior so I can...

- ...Remove the sound deadening and pressure wash the inside of the car

- Bug some guys in Denver I know of that might have rear glass for me

 

That's all for now! Husband is racing this weekend, so nothing major will happen until at least next week. I might go out tonight to put some fingerprints on it or something.

[datzenmike]

Looks fairly original 'just' some damage and stripped parts. Put 'lowering it some' on your long range goals. lol

[mechanicalfeedback]

2 minutes ago, datzenmike said:

Looks fairly original 'just' some damage and stripped parts. Put 'lowering it some' on your long range goals. lol

Absolutely. I plan to give T3 most of my money to help me get closer to Earth lol.

[Draker]

I think @yenpit is semi local to you and may have some parts you need.

[Lockleaf]

Old aftermarket sunroofs are essentially unrepairable at this point.  Hopefully your glass is there and the seal is good.

 

[mechanicalfeedback]

1 hour ago, Draker said:

I think @yenpit is semi local to you and may have some parts you need.

Great, I'll probably buy them lol

38 minutes ago, Lockleaf said:

Old aftermarket sunroofs are essentially unrepairable at this point.  Hopefully your glass is there and the seal is good.

 

No glass, unfortunately. I may have a donor roof in the works and many friends with bodywork experience to "delete" the sunroof. 🤞

[Draker]

2 hours ago, Lockleaf said:

Old aftermarket sunroofs are essentially unrepairable at this point.  Hopefully your glass is there and the seal is good.

 

can always install a slightly larger aftermarket roof. But delete is a good idea too.

[Trophy24]

Yes! Another project start 😄

[Lockleaf]

8 hours ago, Draker said:

can always install a slightly larger aftermarket roof. But delete is a good idea too.

 

That is such a simple answer it never occurred to me.  Genius.

[mechanicalfeedback]

15 hours ago, Draker said:

can always install a slightly larger aftermarket roof. But delete is a good idea too.

 

This is my backup plan if I fail to find a slicktop solution. I just worry about it not sealing properly.

[yenpit]

Good to see it found a home! 😎 FYI the story is it was purchased in the early 80's by a guy in between The Springs & Denver, drove around, got beat up & was parked on the family property out in an old orchard!  The body is actually not too rusty, although it is beat up!  Looks like Ron literally did "all the dirty work", as it was full, up to the bottom of the dash & in the trunk with squirrel nests...........it was NASTY!!  But as pointed out..........it is a blank slate, ready for a new lease on life! 

 

Yes, I have rear glass.............and lots more parts.  We have already made contact via text!

 

TJ

Arvada CO

[mechanicalfeedback]

14 hours ago, yenpit said:

Good to see it found a home! 😎 FYI the story is it was purchased in the early 80's by a guy in between The Springs & Denver, drove around, got beat up & was parked on the family property out in an old orchard!  The body is actually not too rusty, although it is beat up!  Looks like Ron literally did "all the dirty work", as it was full, up to the bottom of the dash & in the trunk with squirrel nests...........it was NASTY!!  But as pointed out..........it is a blank slate, ready for a new lease on life! 

 

Yes, I have rear glass.............and lots more parts.  We have already made contact via text!

 

TJ

Arvada CO

Hey TJ! Yeah looks like you’re in contact with my husband. Looking forward to meeting you and clearing out your parts stash lol. 
Thanks for sharing the story on this car! I’m a sucker for history lessons, love that it’s mostly been a Colorado car. 

[mechanicalfeedback]

Happy Monday! Unexpectedly found time yesterday to get some work done. Racing got cut short for the spouse due to a failed oil pump; a moment of silence for his LS bottom end.

 

Had some friends come over to drink my beer, and they vacuumed out the leftover squirrel nests as compensation.

 

 

Most of the sound deadening came out much more easily than anticipated, but I'll still need to secure some dry ice to get the last of it out.

 

 

One of our friends posing with a very satisfying piece of sound deadening. You can see my garage floor in the bottom left corner lol.

 

 

Confirmed "numbers matching" drivetrain, if you're into that sort of thing.

 

 

 

Cut this sucker out since I have no plans to keep a stock exhaust. It was full of acorns.

 

 

Might come out after work this week to pull the rest of the accessories and get this bay cleaned up. I'm trying to hone in on getting the shell cleaned up so I can start collecting sheet metal and getting prepped for body work/paint. I'm leaning toward a repaint in Safari Gold, as I've always loved that color. Signal Orange is fabulous but may just be too orange for me.

 

In other news, I'm selling my 240sx this week after much deliberation. I thought about pulling the KA and putting it in this thing, but that would mean another S13 shell taking up space behind the garage. Maybe I'll get lucky and come across a KA or L20b builder, but having zero engine experience beyond selling parts at dealerships, I figure the L16 will work for me to learn on. For now.

[yenpit]

I'm glad to see more pics of this...............lots of the "hard to find parts" are still there.........dash harness, fuse box, heater box, headliner bows etc etc!

 

If you rebuild the L16, you will likely want to run a different cylinder head to get more power out of it.  The stock L16 "210" head has small valves & small ports......there are big valve, big port heads that bolt right on!  I will have a better cylinder head if you want!  I also have an L16 engine with a big valve, big port head on it, was SAID TO BE REBUILT, but we never ran it.  Might be a better starting point.............??

 

That stock cast iron exhaust manifold will flow BETTER than the cheap "shorty header" being sold these days & the cheap shorty header is NOT the best quality!  If you want a proper tubular header, I think Troy Ermish of Ermish Racing in CA is the only guy making a proper long tube header...........not cheap, but excellent quality!  Problem there is, if you buy his header for the L16, that header will not fit the L20B in the 510 chassis, if you later decide to go with that.  The L20B has a ~~3/4 inch taller block deck (increased stroke.......that's where they got the BIG BLOCK 2.0L capacity!! 😆 ), so it lifts the header up 3/4 inch, thus it WILL NOT clear the floor pan.  You could always build a "channel" in the floor pan later for clearance, if you go with the L20B, or buy the proper Ermish L20B header if you go L20B!  Ahh, choices! 😁  I might have a good USED long tube header......??  Personally, if you stick with the L16, I would use the stock exhaust manifold & downpipe, then run a 2-1/4 max diameter exhaust system with whatever style rear muffler & tip you like!

 

Check out kfvintagejdm.com for excellent quality rust & damage repair panels!  We have used his 510 & his 240Z panels............MUCH better fit & quality than any other panels out there!  I have some crappy AlfaParts/Wolf Steel panels for the 510 if you need them......cheap, cuz I will NOT use them! 😣 

 

Come up one of these days, get a tour of our vintage race shop (I think we have 10 Z cars here now!) & buy some parts for the 510!

 

TJ

[yenpit]

PS don't throw anything away!! 

[mechanicalfeedback]

9 minutes ago, yenpit said:

PS don't throw anything away!! 

If I've learned anything from Talyn's Z cars, it's this haha.

Didn't know that about the headers! I'll probably just run the stock manifold for now, and take your advice on the rest of the exhaust. As cool as an L20 would be, I'm thinking I'll be hard-pressed to find one nowadays...by the time I'm interested in any reasonable engine swap I'll probably be more in SR20/KA24 territory, simply due to their availability in the car scene I'm used to.

Either way, I'll need to find a day soon to drive your way and clean out the parts you have! No racing for a while so we'll have time.

 If I manage to get started on tearing down the L16 before then I'll post pictures and decide if its worth refreshing.

 

I've browsed kfvintagejdm and their stuff looks great! Good to know it actually is lol.