Rust Bucket Race Car Revival

[MNRs 510]

Hello Internet, 

I'm here to tell you the story of my car. It's still being written, but some previous chapters have been very interesting. 

 

In early August 2022, my father and I drove over 12 hours from the Central Coast of California up to a seller in northern California who had a whole assortment of Datsun 2-door 510s in various conditions and states of completeness. 

The one which caught our attention was a 1970 gutted race car shell, already equipped with a 6 point roll cage, hood pins, an emergency kill switch mounted on the front cowling, rear battery box, and a few other interesting quirks. We were planning on building a track day car for occasional street driving, so this seemed like a great starting point for us to restore and build something special together. There was more rust on the car than we would have wanted, but the price was right, so we loaded him up and brought him home. 

Along with the shell, we bought essentially 90% of a complete car, but all in separate pieces. The rear axle, suspension components, running gear, steering assembly, and windows all got loaded into the rear of the truck.

After arriving home, I realized that there was a name painted on the roof which I hadn't previously noticed. 

 

Even though the car had clearly been built for the track, it hadn't occurred to me that this could have actually been a bona-fide wheel-to-wheel race car. I decided I had to look up the name on the roof and see if I could locate the person who used to drive it. 

Sure enough, I was able to contact a gentleman named Barry who was from a small town up in north central Washington, and hadn't seen his 510 race car since he sold it all the way back in 1988. It had been nearly 35 years. 

 

Barry told me as much as he could recall about the time he owned the car, and where he had bought it: 

"In 1986 I met a young engineer named Scott who worked at the Bremerton ship yard at a Seattle BMW track day at what then was called SIR... Seattle International Raceway (Now called Pacific Raceway). He showed up in a freshly, totally gone-through, racing '70 510. It had had a sorted history in the road racing circuit and he rescued it and totally went through everything. We struck up a friendship and I ended up renting time in the car and we both raced it for a season so I could get my International Race Drivers license. Thus different numbers on the car. His # was 56. I did my novice /certification races as 561 (easy to change numbers during a race weekend). At the end of that season his wife said "it's me or the race car dear..." So I bought a totally turn key race car for $5,000! [That's a little over $13,500 in today's money]  

The next season I raced it (then #156) in every race of the season (in H-Production class) with about 35 other cars in that class. 

Finished every race, never wrecked it ( I couldn't because I was flat towing it to every race). I placed 3rd in my class for the season. Felt pretty good about that.

I was the resident foreign car mechanic in our little mountain community and just wanted to race and not wrench on the car. It was a bomber car. Not super fast, but so much fun and street legal."

"Sold the car sometime in early 1988 for not a lot of $$. It was still very competitive and in good shape."

 

Best of all, he was able to give me some photographs of the car from the time he owned it (all shared with permission) 

Barry and his dime. (Note the "Can't Drive 55" sticker on the rear, still present when I purchased it.)

 

Barry's wife Dana, whom he met at the race track. (We all know that ladies dig 510s.)

 

This racing action shot is my favorite picture of the set. If only it was better quality. 

 

I consider it to be a very good omen that the car we bought was a legit SCCA racecar in its past life and it inspired me even more to restore the car to its former glory. 

I had the opportunity to meet BRE legend Pete Brock at the Japanese Classic Car Show in Long Beach back in September, and I had to take the chance to tell him the story of our father-son race car project of reviving an old SCCA ripper.

"Long live the 510s!" - Pete Brock

 

So that's the story of the car up until now. I'm going to start trying to document our restoration project in greater detail, both here and on other social media channels. I hope that you've enjoyed this story, and that you'll continue to follow it as the next chapter is being written. 

 

Best, 

@MNRs 510

[KELMO]

" A seller in Northern California"

 

We are familiar.

 

Welcome aboard. I'm sure we will all keep an eye on this build.

Dig the story, dig the pics.

[Duncan]

1 hour ago, KELMO said:

" A seller in Northern California"

 

'who had a whole assortment of Datsun 2-door 510s in various conditions and states of completeness.'

 

Who could this possibly be?

 

🙂

 

 

[MNRs 510]

2 hours ago, KELMO said:

" A seller in Northern California"

 

We are familiar.

 

40 minutes ago, Duncan said:

 

'who had a whole assortment of Datsun 2-door 510s in various conditions and states of completeness.'

 

Who could this possibly be?

 

🙂

I hadn't asked for permission to share any personal details of the seller. So for now, this person will remain shrouded in secrecy~ 

 

Glad to have some people interested in following the project. 🙂

[iceman510]

we've all seen his yard, and that bright yellow wagon/trailer.  😉

[KELMO]

Rumor has it some have seen more than his yard.

 

 

ifyouknowhwutimean

[carterb]

Great find MNRs, I hope to see you restore this with enthusiasm and then race it on a track yourself!  I can't describe how much fun it is.

--carter

[Skib]

On 10/14/2022 at 9:11 AM, MNRs 510 said:

 

 So for now, this person will remain shrouded

 

7 hours ago, KELMO said:

ifyouknowhwutimean

 

 

 Shrouded is an ironic description 🤣

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Awesome find.

[mikec4193]

Love those old vintage race cars...

 

Thanks for sharing...

 

MikeC

[yenpit]

Cool find! 😎 HAve you looked for the old SCCA # stamped on the drivers side vertical roll bar hoop?  This was the SCCA registration & log book #, that all SCCA cars had to have.  You should at least document that, especially if you plan to modify or remove the roll bar!  If you find that #, contact that SCCA regional office (in WA?) & ask for racing documentation/copies of log bokks etc.  This does not always work, as many of these old SCCA records are long gone.  With that # & name, you can also contact the IMRRC in Watkins Glen NY.......they did help me with documentation on a 510 race car I found (see below).  It is GREAT that you found Barry & he is cooperating, but the more documentation you have, the more value as a race car in the vintage venues, if/when you decide to sell it!

 

I found an old SCCA 510 last year, found the roll bar #, contacted SCCA, they gave me a name, found the original owner/builder online, who eventually bought the car back from me!  He had sold it in 1976, lost track of it!  Once I found it had B Sedan history from the 70's, I could NOT justify taking that history away from it by putting it on the street & I could not afford to restore it to BS specs for racing, so he & I made the deal!

[MNRs 510]

4 hours ago, yenpit said:

Have you looked for the old SCCA # stamped on the drivers side vertical roll bar hoop?  This was the SCCA registration & log book #, that all SCCA cars had to have.  You should at least document that, especially if you plan to modify or remove the roll bar!

I haven't seen anything like that yet, but I definitely would love to find it! 

I wouldn't dream of modifying or removing the roll cage... Other than cleaning it up and adding a fresh coat of paint! We're building this car for the track so I want to salvage whatever race car-y bits that we can (the cowling kill switch, hood pins, etc). I don't think that its history as a race car would impact the value very much, but I do hope to build it as period correct as possible for the time when it was being raced (1986-1988).

That's really cool that you were able to find another old 510 race car and reunite it with its owner! Barry was very happy that I had reached out to him and showed him where his old race car had ended up, and he's excited to see what we're able to do with it. 

 

I'll add a few more pictures since everyone seemed to enjoy them as much as I did. 

 

This is a group shot of cars and drivers participating in a race event at Portland International Raceway sometime between 1986 and 1988. I'm really hoping that there is a higher quality version of this shot out in the wild somewhere. It seems like there must have been multiple cameras present when it was taken and hopefully someone captured a better image, or even just some photos from the paddock. Does anyone recognize any of the cars seen here? (I admit I have a soft spot for those two Mazda RX-7 FB cars on the right)

 

A shot of Barry driving the 510 in a 4th of July parade in the small town of Twisp, Washington.

 

Gotta love hauling the dime behind the Dodge van (Dajiban!) to race events. 

 

For some extra racing history: These photos were taken at Westwood Motorsport Park in British Columbia, Canada. The track closed down in 1990. 

 

Dana prepping the car in 1987-88.

 

Barry racing through a tight right hander.

 

I appreciate everyone's comments and interest! 

My next post will be the start of our journey of restoration.

 

@MNRs 510

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

We hauled our 510 race car with a Dodge van too. Lots of room to put the pit stuff. Not the best horsepower for towing though.

[damon]

I know this car! At least where it went for a couple years after Barry sold it.
 

In 1988 I was 16 and bought my first car, a Datsun 510, one day I was out working on it in front of my grandparents house and a guy stops and asks me if I was interested in buying wheels. He lived just a few houses away and I had seen a 510 on the street for a day a few days before this, so I walked down and to take a look at the wheels. 
 He had just bought a road race 510 with the intent to go solo 2 autocross racing, we ended up becoming friends, I bought the wheels and put them on my car, these are rehearsed first pics I’ve seen with the wheels on the race car! 
 This is the car!!! I got to drive it in a couple autocrosses in Kent at the Boeing space center lot where we had lots of solo 2 racing back then. I think Amazon is on that site now.  I often wondered what happened to the car, he was restoring an old jaguar and offered 510 to me but I had no money at the time, I was a senior in high school. I regretted saying no every day after. 

Edited October 21, 2022 by damon

[MNRs 510]

1 hour ago, damon said:

I got to drive it in a couple autocrosses in Kent at the Boeing space center lot where we had lots of solo 2 racing back then

That's so cool! I remember Barry saying that he sold it with multiple sets of wheels since he had some shaved radial tires for racing in addition to tires for driving in wet weather. You better not tell me that you still have those wheels because I might have to beg you to let me buy them from you! XD 

 

I don't know about you, but having a race-ready 510 to drive around as a senior in high school would NOT have been a good idea for me, ifyouknowwhatImean. Haha

I was driving around in my dad's '66 Mustang and that was bad enough. 

[MNRs 510]

So after bringing the car home, we began the process of assessing what we had, and what steps we wanted to take first for our project.

We're building this 510 to be a track car with occasional street driving. 

 

Eventually we agreed that we would tackle things in three phases: 

 

First: Get the car rolling (and turning, and braking). 

We had brought it home on a simple wooden dolly, so getting the wheels under it was a logical place to start. This would include: refreshing all of the suspension components and purchasing whatever parts we weren't able to get when we bought the car, completing the front 280zx coilover setup, replacing bushings as necessary, reapplying rust protectant to the undercarriage and other parts where we needed to remove surface rust, etc. 

 

Second: Get the car running. 

We want to go ahead and prep and paint the engine bay, so that we can drop in the engine and transmission, sort out any clearance issues that we may have with the L20b which we bought from the seller, as well as finding and purchasing all of the other things needed for the engine bay (throttle linkage, ignition coil and distributor, voltage regulator, horns, etc), completing the fuel system from tank and pump to the carburetor, and getting everything wired in.

Hopefully getting the car running and driving as soon as possible will help keep the excitement of the build alive and help us to not get bogged down with getting every little thing done right before we can start enjoying it. 

 

Third: Get the car painted, furnished, and accessorized

We want to wait until we have the car built and ready to drive before we finish the work on the body and get it painted. There's a high likelihood that small dings and scratches are going to happen as a result of working on and around the car doing all of the prior steps, so getting it painted will come after the build is almost complete. We'll also need to see about things like missing trim pieces, weather stripping, front and rear bumpers if we want them, making sure the windows roll up and down on both sides, figuring out what we want to do for the dash, adding simple door cards and a bit of sound deadening, and generally adding the select creature comforts that we want it to have. 

 

The first thing we were surprised by was the number of Black Widow spiders which were included for no extra charge when we purchased the vehicle. After reflecting on the fact that we had relocated them many hundreds of miles from their homes, we exterminated them immediately. I think at last count we reached 9 stowaways discovered, along with numerous egg sacks. 

[I was going to put a photo here, but I don't think anybody wants to see that, so just use your imagination.]

 

The first order of business is going to be completing the replacement of the passenger side strut tower. There are a few separate pieces needed to reconstruct the strut tower which were included when we purchased the vehicle.

 

A heavy layer of bondo on the drivers side rear quarter panel seems to indicate that some fairly significant damage was sustained at some point. The holes drilled on the C-pillar also indicate that some previous owner was planning on replacing it, but never did.

 

The original Dash panel was in remarkably good shape, but the rat's nest of wires underneath it was a bit frightening. 

 

The front valance was cut off at some point. This was likely because many of the bolts holding the body panels were seized with rust.

 

We're also going to need to remove the rubberized undercoating so that we can wire wheel away the surface rust and apply a new (hopefully better) protectant before paint.

 

Clearly the car has been reduced to a pretty sorry state from what it was in its heyday. But as it is, this is our starting point. 

My next post will be the start of the process of welding in the missing strut tower and refreshing the front suspension so we can get the car rolling. 

I really appreciate everyone's comments and support. 

 

I've also started @Boys_and_Their_Toys_Garage on Instagram to share updates on the build process. If you're interested, give me a follow. 

@MNRs 510

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Rough shape, but also a clean canvas. One foot in front of the other is the name of the game here.

[MNRs 510]

On 10/23/2022 at 8:50 AM, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Rough shape, but also a clean canvas. One foot in front of the other is the name of the game here.

Yeah I have a lot of hope for it's potential to be a really amazing car. We bought this to be a father-son project so that we could spend more time together building something more than just a car: memories. And we'll make even more in the car after we're done building it. So it's really not a bad thing that we have a lot of work ahead of us, because that's kind of the point.  

I don't know if I'll be allowed to drive at the Velocity Invitational, but that's really my dream. I'd absolutely love to participate in that event someday. 

[yenpit]

5 hours ago, MNRs 510 said:

Yeah I have a lot of hope for her potential to be a really amazing car. We bought this to be a father-son project so that we could spend more time together building something something more than just a car: memories. And we'll make even more in the car after we're done building it. So it's really not a bad thing that we have a lot of work ahead of us, because that's kind of the point.  

I don't know if I'll be allowed to drive at the Velocity Invitational, but that's really my dream. I'd absolutely love to participate in that event someday. 

 

I heard that the Velocity Int'l only accepts period B Sedan cars.........could be wrong.  Goodwood in the UK & SVRA here have a class similar to that also.  None of our vintage race Z cars have that kind of race history (we build from rusty wrecked street cars + a Z car was not B Sedan), so we have never participated in that kind of class/event!  One of our Z customers WANTS to, so we are always on the lookout for a reasonable priced Z with 1970's race history.  We did have one in our customer base, that was built & raced from new, but Terry had stopped racing it & sold it, just before I started working here, AND it was just before the values of the Z cars started climbing.  I think he sold it for $28k, which was a steal even back then, but it is currently being raced out of Pittsburgh these days! 😎

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Huffaker just sold the orange and yellow 240Z GTU car for something like $300K...

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

6 hours ago, MNRs 510 said:

Yeah I have a lot of hope for her potential to be a really amazing car. We bought this to be a father-son project so that we could spend more time together building something something more than just a car: memories. And we'll make even more in the car after we're done building it. So it's really not a bad thing that we have a lot of work ahead of us, because that's kind of the point.  

I don't know if I'll be allowed to drive at the Velocity Invitational, but that's really my dream. I'd absolutely love to participate in that event someday. 

That's cool. Family projects give long lasting memories.

 

Have you done this kind of work on a body before? I can offer some tips if you like.

[iceman510]

9 hours ago, MNRs 510 said:

I don't know if I'll be allowed to drive at the Velocity Invitational, but that's really my dream. I'd absolutely love to participate in that event someday. 

 

Even if you perhaps can't participate in the Velocity International event, there is a lot of action with the Trans Am B-sedan groups out in CA.  There is also a series here in the Midwest with VSCDA and HSR.  I will be getting into that in the next year or so I hope.

 

https://bsedan.com/

 

https://www.facebook.com/TransAmBSedan25Challenge/   The car for sale posted 9/14 is a teammate of mine at Turn Right Racing.  Made a deal to buy mine before I knew this was available.  It has actual B sedan history which is nice.

 

https://www.historicbcsedan.com/

[MNRs 510]

On 10/27/2022 at 9:11 AM, yenpit said:

I heard that the Velocity Int'l only accepts period B Sedan cars.........could be wrong. 

I think you're correct about this... But that's okay. I still haven't looked into all of the qualifications for myself yet because I'm holding on to hope still. Haha

But at the same time, I don't want the way that I build the car to be influenced by things like that. At least not to a significant degree. Does that make sense? I want to build the car that I originally envisioned, not having to squeeze my "dream build" into a box that I didn't really like the shape of.

On 10/27/2022 at 10:06 AM, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Huffaker just sold the orange and yellow 240Z GTU car for something like $300K...

That is an INSANE amount of money, Lord have mercy. But then again that is an incredible car. 

On 10/27/2022 at 10:08 AM, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Have you done this kind of work on a body before? I can offer some tips if you like.

My dad has done a considerable amount of body work, but never on any Datsuns. He's only done that work on his old Mustangs. So we'll be navigating new waters when it comes to 510 specific welding and fabrication challenges. I welcome any help that I can get. 

 

On 10/27/2022 at 1:06 PM, iceman510 said:

Even if you perhaps can't participate in the Velocity International event, there is a lot of action with the Trans Am B-sedan groups out in CA.  There is also a series here in the Midwest with VSCDA and HSR.  I will be getting into that in the next year or so I hope.

I really appreciate you sharing this with me. I want to learn more about what things I can do to have fun driving my car. In the beginning, that will probably be something like doing autocross and driving around a few cones so I can start feeling where the tires loose grip and how to pick a fast race line so I can finally start installing the driver mod. I'll look into all of these. 🤠

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Well, if you've got help from someone who's done it, you're probably good to go.

 

One tip I will give, and this is something that 90% of the amateurs out there don't do - PRIME BETWEEN LAYERS!!! Rust will form between two pieces of steel that are welded together if there is nothing to protect it. I have made this mistake before and the results are devastating. Made me cry the first time I saw rust forming around the edges of a panel that I welded and painted only months prior.

 

If you have a cavity open that will be closed up and impossible to get paint in, prime that area too.

[yenpit]

On 11/5/2022 at 10:35 PM, MNRs 510 said:

I think you're correct about this... But that's okay. I still haven't looked into all of the qualifications for myself yet because I'm holding on to hope still. Haha

But at the same time, I don't want the way that I build the car to be influenced by things like that. At least not to a significant degree. Does that make sense? I want to build the car that I originally envisioned, not having to squeeze my "dream build" into a box that I didn't really like the shape of.

That is an INSANE amount of money, Lord have mercy. But then again that is an incredible car. 

My dad has done a considerable amount of body work, but never on any Datsuns. He's only done that work on his old Mustangs. So we'll be navigating new waters when it comes to 510 specific welding and fabrication challenges. I welcome any help that I can get. 

 

I really appreciate you sharing this with me. I want to learn more about what things I can do to have fun driving my car. In the beginning, that will probably be something like doing autocross and driving around a few cones so I can start feeling where the tires loose grip and how to pick a fast race line so I can finally start installing the driver mod. I'll look into all of these. 🤠

 

Quick response from a quick read.............being in the vintage race industry (I work at Ignite Performance in Arvada Colorado.........Facebook is the most active social media), when we have a "new" customer that wants to go racing, I open a discussion about how good they might be, any previous racing history etc.  Most say not much...........I tell them to build/have us build a car to THEIR DESIRES, because they will likely NOT win a race any time soon!  That however, needs to be "within reason".  By that, I mean if they don't WIN, other racers likely won't care what they run.  If they WIN, they will likely get contested & if the car is not "legal", they could lose their license with that group AND likely need to modify the car to suit.  We have had a few surprises with NEW drivers, where they actually did well!

 

You need to decide WHICH race group you want to run with & then follow their rules & regulations in your build.  Most groups have a technical inspection, where you could get "busted" for something illegal within their rules.  Example...........we run nationally in our 240Z's, where most groups have adopted GTO GTU rules regs, which allowed the use of 15inch wheels.  Our local group where we also run had NOT adopted these rules regs, so they demanded we run 14inch (stock size) wheels, which we could not do, cuz of the big brakes we use.  That said, we wanted to "support them" monetarily (and of course get to race locally), but we could only run in "exhibition class".................but at least we ran with them!