I guess I'm joining the HL510 club finally

[Xiao_Hu]

A gentleman near me is selling three of them and I have agreed to purchase his coupe. It's a 78 or 79, automatic but already has a manual pedal box. It's more or less locked down other than exchanging money, bill of sale and other stuff. 

 

It has a couple of problems that I was hoping to get some insight on. I'm well aware that much of these cars is basically you being on your own with regards to fabrication but I'm just hoping to see if I can get a few shortcuts to pick some problems: 

 

1. The rear crossmember is damaged from rust. I know this is a live axle car. This is why I'm not driving at home but rather putting it on a trailer. Is there any interchangeability with any other Datsun if I have to replace the crossmember? The other idea would be to see if a machine shop or welder can save it, or replace it entirely with another cross member from another Datsun either a parts one or from another model entirely. 

 

2. Driver side floors are gone. I don't suppose anyone has used a 620 or "true" 510 floorpan for patching? 

 

3. Has anyone fabricated rockers before for these? 

 

After deciding to get rid of my 280z project which is in progress and my 720, which is getting the cab redone, I ended up getting right back into a Datsun. Lawl. I love these cars, my best friend has a 71 510 so it actually pairs pretty well. 

 

What are my plans? I haven't really fully decided but I'm definitely going to just enjoy it for a little bit. I wanna definitely go over the car and clean it up because it has been sitting for a while, redo any wiring and clean it really really thoroughly so that it's "nice", bolt on some performance parts etc. I've got a friend with a high performance head that I can potentially use for more power but that's not exactly 100% if I'm going to do that. 

[datzenmike]

Maybe post a picture of your rust problem at the back. The HL510 also known as the A10 or Stanza in Japan suspends the rear axle on coil springs and locates it with four links. The attachment points on the body are just that. I don't remember there being a removable cross member.

[Xiao_Hu]

I don't have possession of the car yet but once I do I will post photos. His description is that there is something wrong with the rear suspension/what he calls the subframe and I don't quite understand beyond that because I haven't seen it with my own eyes but he thinks that it can be replaced with c channel although I am 100% certain that that is not the proper repair based on what I understand about car suspensions. 

 

Either way the sucker is getting trailered, I'm not trusting driving an unfamiliar car that hasn't been registered in a long time home. For 500 bucks I can sell the motor and powertrain easily. 

 

Am I incorrect about it being a live axle based on what you said? I was almost certain that those were a live axle but it sounds like it's a four-link suspension based on your statement?

[datzenmike]

Still a live axle with coil or leaf spring.

 

So the rust and cross member are second hand info. Best wait till you get it home.

[Xiao_Hu]

I guess I spoke too soon he got his marketplace account hacked. Thankfully I gave him my cell phone number and he managed to reach out to me so it looks like the deal is actually on for Sunday so hell yeah I'm happy. 

[Xiao_Hu]

https://postimg.cc/gallery/qhddfBt

 

Suspension is fine, he was misrecalling. Floors are bad, as are rockers and such.