blue72's $200 '70 510 Project

[blue72]

With all of the major straightening and floor repair taken care of I still had some minor stuff to fix.

The rear pans were in good shape but they each had some rust holes beginning to form around the rubber drain plugs. I recycled bits of the floorpans both old and new for my small patch panels. Nothing too serious after what I'd already tackled thus far.

 

 

Step 1: Cut out rusty piece

Step 2: Trim new piece to fit

Step 3: Hold new piece level with cleaned edges of old metal

Step 4: Weld into place

Step 5: Smooth it all out with grinder

Step 6: Find different pinhole you'd never noticed before and curse its existence

 

 

There, the area where the passengers rest their feet is taken care of.

 

 

After I made sure there were no more pinholes or thin spots hiding it was time to break out the orbital sander and 150 grit to get everything ready for a couple of coats of POR-15. I had an old can that was mostly gone, but there was enough to do a base coat on the rustiest areas before it ran out completely. I let it set up overnight before driving out to the storage unit to retrieve my backup can.

 

Aah, so nice and clean before the tide of enveloping darkness is applied with a 99 cent paint brush.

 

[Skib]

I rode in Ron's SR20t 510 and holy shit is that a blast :D

[blue72]

I'm sure I'll be waiting a while until that day comes for me Skib, so I'll just be jealous for now. In fact, I've only ever seen one SR20DET and it was on a pallet.

 

Lately I've been waging keyboard stroke to keyboard stroke combat with a nasty computer virus so I didn't feel confident in posting the latest couple of updates here until all was secure again. Here's a little one to show how everything looks now that its protected with a couple of coats of POR-15. I am not going through the trouble of doing all of this work only to see it rust through and break down again.

 

Repaired inner fender support structure:

 

Nice gloss black floorpans:

You'd be surprised how difficult it is to get a clean shot of the whole interior of a 510 2dr without a fisheye lens.

 

 

The next item on the list of repairs is general dent removal and straightening. I found some spare sheetmetal out behind the shop the other day from a '78 Caddy. The 67-72 Chevy truck parts like that inner fender already have a home or else they'd have been cut up by now.

At least the one scrap fender I do have will give me a little something to work with when repairing the 510's lower fenders.

 

After that I'll be yanking the crossmember for either a flip or to weld in some box sections so the SR pan will clear. Then I'll be playing around with those ZX struts. I didn't remove the ones from that junkyard ZX yet because I wanted to do more research first. So far it looks like the early ZX style strut assemblies are possibly the better angled of the two? I was also eyeballing the 210 and 310 brake boosters... Much more to come when I get a clear bay in the shop for a bit.

I'm waiting until this customer's old hunka metal is out of my way:

Edited March 18, 2009 by blue72

[fisch]

 

Oh hell yeah. Ol' Skool Kool man! Me dig mucho!

[blue72]

Has it really been a whole year? Wow.

 

If you didn't know, my father whose 510 this was passed away last year around this time. (if you want, I wrote a little something about him over on HybridZ: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php?showtopic=76709) I have since taken responsibility for the dime, but I'm chock full of projects after inheriting it and my dad's Blazer project (I also sold 4 other vehicles April of last year). Needless to say, after closing down and clearing out the family transmission shop and finding work here doing what I went to school for, combined with the long cold winter, I haven't done much to the 510 in the meantime.

 

I towed it home, acquired a modded crossmember that will accept an SR20 and added a 280ZX brake master cylinder.

That's about it. Recently I've been very focused on getting my Suburban put back together, so that has been where all of my efforts are concentrated now.

 

I did make one large leap forward today though. I contacted the last owner and got a bill of sale for the car. It's been without a title for the better part of the past 20 years, but I'm now one step closer to claiming legal ownership of the little rust bucket.

I'd post a picture, but it's just a piece of paper.

[wana510]

Mann reminds me of my build when I first got her for $300 buks.I wish i would have gotten some of those floor pans u got.All i did was get some sheetmetal cut the rusted floorpans out weld in new metal then coat with rhino guard. Btw love the junkyard pics. My wife cant understand why i love to go to salvage yards on my day off n see what i can find.

[blue72]

Got the title in the mail last week! This hunk 'o tetanus waiting to happen is all mine now.

 

Next order of business is to get my Suburban running and sell my 1970 Blazer to help fund the purchase of an SR20DET.

[blue72]

Well, this is either a big step forward or backward.

 

Recently I wound up refreshing my memory on the SR20DET swap and pricing. I want to do things well when I do eventually go forward with that swap (proper radiator and intercooler, top mount turbo manifold, decent fuel pump and all new lines, custom exhaust, etc....), but it will still be pricey. Even doing all the labor myself and custom fabbing as many of the parts as I can it'll take me a while to get that much money together (anyone want to buy my '70 Blazer with rebuilt 350 and 5 speed manual NV4500? Hint hint). My mind wandered away from the 510 as I've been putting my Z back together (painted it!). About a week later I was performing my regular check of online classifieds and came across an ad for a Datsun 510 engine/transmission for sale here in town. Turns out it was the original L16 and auto trans that came out of my car.

 

My dad had sold it back to the guy he bought the car from (he's got a 620 shortbed and this was a spare for it I think) and today I got it back again.

 

Chronology:

1970 Datsun 510 2 door sedan with plug-in engine heater is driven from Wyoming to Utah.

For whatever reason running 510 is abandoned at an apartment complex.

Apartment complex owner calls tow truck operator to remove vehicle from premises.

Tow truck operator holds on to 510 for 15+ years, finally puts it in front of his yard w/ for sale sign.

My dad buys Datsun 510. It sits for a few years.

Around 2006 the 510 is stripped down in preparation for eventual engine swap, original drivetrain winds up out in the weather and motor seizes.

Tow truck operator buys seized motor & transmission back for a project of his own. He pours atf and penetrating lube down spark plug holes and covers engine.

510 passes into my ownership, I acquire proper title in my name.

I contact tow truck operator and reacquire original drivetrain just to get car functional again. He graciously gifts me the whole assembly.

 

The plan has always been, and still is to perform the engine swap, but this way I might actually get to drive it while saving up money.

 

It was nearly dark when I got home, so unless it's already snowing when I wake up tomorrow morning a thorough inspection (and breaker bar on the crank bolt) will take place then. For now these are the only oics I've got.

 

 

Perhaps sometime "soon" I might actually be puttering around my neighborhood in this car with full Borg Warner shifting action. It'd be the first time it moved under its own power in more than 20 years.

[Rustina 510]

Wow. This has become one of my top 3 build threads. Keep up the great dude, the total history of this car is awesome!!!.

[blue72]

Hey thanks, glad you like it so far. It isn't exactly fast paced, but I'll get it done some day.

 

Well, yesterday morning I got out the 'ole 27mm socket and breaker bar. Much to my surprise, it spun around quite easily. I thought perhaps that the crank bolt wasn't tightened down at first. The only resistance I met was on the final 1/4 of a full rotation. I stuck my lighted scope down each spark plug hole to make sure there weren't any obstructions in the way. I couldn't see anything extraordinary down there and the cylinder walls looked clean while the piston tops had the usual carbon buildup. I just gave the bar a little extra oomph and it spun all the way around. After that there wasn't any more resistance and it turned easily by hand. The dipstick didn't look rusty and the oil was just a dark black, not murky at all. The oil on the trans dipstick is still a nice bright red.

 

I drove into town and ordered a few parts that it was missing. All new NGK plugs, a couple belts, fuel filter, cap & rotor, points, carb kit, oil & filter and a couple cans of engine degreaser. I spent an hour or two yesterday spraying degreaser, scraping and wirebrushing to get some of the big deposits off, then rinsing it all down. I could finally read all the cast numbers and markings. It's just a plain jane bone stock L16 with a 210 head after all.

 

 

In case you can't tell, it snowed last night. Good thing I'd put a tarp over it. I took those pictures this morning. No more degreasing for me until the air outside warms back up about 20 degrees.

 

Nearly everything was still on the engine. Both of the motor mounts as well as the transmission mount are in decent shape, the positive and negative battery cables are still connected to the starter, heater hoses and brackets, tranny cooler lines and fittings, emissions hoses, even most of the exhaust are there. The only thing that seemed to be missing was the alternator, but that didn't bother me because I still had the old externally regulated alternator from my 240Z that I figured would probably swap right in. Between last night and today I've been trying to do some more research as to which hoses I'll need to replace and which are still available. I went digging through the 510 this afternoon in search of parts and I found the original alternator, coil, ballast resistor, fuse box and a bunch of other stuff I didn't realize I had. It seems I've got most every part to put this car back together (tranny crossmember, radiator, most of the trim, even the original hubcaps and rubber mats) except for items that wore out such as the upholstery and rubber bits like the aforementioned hoses.

 

I've even done my research and found what appears to be the original color code for this car (despite it being worn off of the decal on the rad support). Looks to be 554, Kasumi Green. I'm considering pulling all the glass out, painting the roof section, popping in a headliner and replacing all the glass seals just to try and keep water from getting back in and causing more rust. I'd probably wait until later to finish the rest of the body work though. As I've found out, that takes an incredible amount of time and effort. I've still got to put the glass back in my Z first though, then finish the interior on it. Well, after that I really should mock up that Vintage Air unit in my Suburban and sort the wiring on it too. So, plenty of plans but uncooperative weather is slowing me down. More research for me until it warms up again.

[Wide14u]

keep posting we want to see more

[dennis]

Keep it up, it is coming along nicely

[blue72]

Okay, so late on Friday afternoon I was able to pick up the remainder of my parts order. The day before the delivery truck had been delayed by snow and then broke down. Saturday I braved the cold (it was -15 the night before) to remove the Hitachi DAF 328-8 carburetor which in and of itself was a bit of a struggle. I wound up unbolting the entire intake manifold just to get at that last confounded nut.

 

 

I threw the whole thing in the solvent tank (it was about 30 degrees in the unheated garage at the time) and scrubbed the exterior as best I could while wearing thick gloves so that my hands didn't freeze solid. Then I brought the assembly inside the house to let it and the tools sit near the heater and warm up to room temperature.

 

 

Mechanically, it seemed mostly sound with a few exceptions. The secondary throttle shaft had seized completely and didn't want to budge. Meanwhile, the main throttle return spring had worn entirely through the arm it attached to and was just dangling uselessly. Upon disassembly I found that the carb had been left with gas in it, which had of course turned to varnish. There was a solid 1/4" of reddish brown sludge coating the bottom of the float chamber. When I removed the main jet plugs, the passages behind them were filled with the same hardened sludge.

 

 

After a few more hours of carb spray, a couple more trips to the solvent tank and some generous blasting with compressed air, it seemed that all the passages were clear again. I carefully welded the throttle return spring arm back together. The stuck throttle shaft just took a little Kroil and lots of twisting. After a while it was still turning stiffly, so I popped off the throttle plate and removed the shaft to clean off some unknown black matter. Things got pretty touch and go for a minute when I almost mixed up which jet would fit in what hole, but I sorted it out properly with some common sense thinking (small jet = small bore). Once I made sure all of the linkage arms were back in their proper orientations and that nothing was binding, it was done.

 

 

Now I'm just waiting for some more parts to show up. I've got a few hoses and other rubber pieces on the way from Courtesy in Texas. Looks like I won't be hooking up the air pump though. The hoses for it are NLA from Nissan and I don't see them offered anywhere else. Not that I'm a big fan of A.I.R. systems anyway. Weather forecast says mid to upper thirties here for the next week temperaturewise, so if I'm to be doing any more cleaning of parts they'll have to come inside the house.

[TrevDaddy]

good story and build so far. I know how dreams of big power can be left behind by reality and finances. I like the idea of saving an L16 and the carb looks great now. Keep it up man, looking forward to seeing it run!

[blue72]

Still waiting for parts. I've got plug wires, a rad hose, a PCV hose, heater hoses, some weatherstripping and a muffler on the way.

 

In the meantime I've kept busy with more cleaning and rebuilding. After rebuilding the carb I degreased the intake manifold and could finally tell that it was aluminum again.

 

 

With the intake off of the car, there were only three more nuts to remove before the whole exhaust manifold came off. Last Friday the temperature climbed above freezing so I unrolled the garden hose and turned it on full blast. Half an hour later it finally spat out some chunks of ice and water started to flow. I finished scrubbing down most of the block and cylinder head. Don't worry, I put plugs in the intake and exhaust ports as well as the water passages before rinsing it off. It's just so much nicer to work on stuff when it isn't all greasy. Much easier to spot future leaks too.

 

 

The air pump and hoses have been removed for the time being. I sprayed Kroil on the tubes that lead down into the exhaust manifold for a few days. Only one of the fasteners turned, and it began to twist the tube, so I gave up on taking those out for now.

 

That night I stripped down the D609-58A distributor for a good cleaning and regreasing. Everything I've read says that this car should have a D412-59 or perhaps a D410-58 dizzy, but all my replacement parts fit just fine.

 

 

There wasn't any shaft play to speak of and everything else looked pretty good. Much to my surprise, the vacuum dashpot still held vacuum. Every other one I've handled has been ruptured. Took me a while to find the correct settings for the point gap though, it was 7/8 of the way through the service manual.

 

After that I threw on the alternator and a new belt. The alternator has a label on it from Generator Exchange in SLC and was rebuilt in 4/79. The oil filter has "Silverline Filters" written on it. As far as I can tell they were bought out many moons ago by a larger company. The facility now makes WIX filters I believe. I've got oil and a brand new NAPA Gold / WIX filter ready to go on it after I make sure it's running right.

 

 

Pretty soon I'll get back in touch with the guy I sold my engine hoist to. I'm hoping he'll let me borrow it for a little while.

[blue72]

New hoses!

 

 

Now I know why the heater hose for the automatic transmission equipped cars have that funky kink in them, to clear the dipstick. I had to get that particular hose from Canada because they weren't available here anymore. The original style hose clamps came from my backup collection. Also got my new NGK spark plug wire set installed today.

 

 

It looks like I'll have to bend up my own replacement transmission cooler line. One of them (I'm not sure which is feed and which is return yet) had been cut in two places and a previous owner / mechanic had patched over the gaps with flexible rubber tube and hose clamps. There doesn't seem to be much info about these little Borg Warner units as they pertain to Datsun vehicles. I have figured out that this is the Muncie built variety with a cast iron bellhousing and vacuum actuated downshifting. They started putting these in the 510 one month before my car was built, so this transmission is serial number 4515. I've purchased a factory 1600 service manual, but it's for '73 and covers the Jatco units in depth.

 

The car didn't have an ignition switch or steering column clamshell when it came into my possession. When I was junkyarding a while back I nabbed the ignition switch from a 280Z with the hopes that it might work as a replacement. I disassembled it and took the tumblers to a local locksmith who made me a new set of keys in about three minutes. I flipped the trim ring over when I reassembled everything. I never knew they would work ambidextrously.

 

 

I'm hoping that the hatch lock assembly I pulled from that same 280Z might work as a replacement for my missing trunk lock.

 

Another piece that went M.I.A. is the whole fuel filler neck assembly. I've got the tank, filler cap and the part that the cap attaches to, but that's it. I visited my spare Datsun parts storage today and rediscovered the extra 240Z fuel filler neck I'd squirreled away. Tomorrow I'll see if that'll work as a replacement. I also gathered up as many spare Nissan/Datsun fasteners as I could find. Luckily I've saved up a modest collection as I've stripped parts off of cars in various junkyards. When my 510 was partly disassembled, all the fasteners disappeared at the same time. I don't have any of the original bolts to mount the engine, transmission, no battery hold down hardware, nothing for the brackets in the engine bay, no radiator bolts, nada.

 

I did scrub down the engine bay today though.

 

 

Looks like I'll have a little bit of wiring to fix, but hopefully nothing serious. As I became more familiar with things under the hood it was easy to spot that both the radiator support and driver side inner fender were replaced when this car had been in that accident years ago. There are stitch welds holding each of those pieces on. They still look structurally sound though. If I was really ambitious I'd repaint the engine bay (the paint on the replacement panels isn't nearly as tough as the original stuff), but I'll hold off until later to do that. Eventually I'll relocate the battery to the trunk and remove the battery tray. Then when I do eventually redo all the wiring for the SR swap I'll weld some of the other holes shut, so final paint will hold off until all the modifications are final.

 

Just as soon as I repair that tranny cooler hard line the drivetrain will be ready to go back in again. Looks like my friend will let me borrow the engine hoist too. He's actually the one that did most of the disassembling of this car (he worked for my dad at the time) and when I explained what I was doing with the 510 he told me just how seized the motor used to be. He said that he'd personally stuck a breaker bar on the crank snout with a cheater bar attached to that and jumped up and down on it to no avail.

[blue72]

New hard line I bent up:

 

 

Also had to buy a new copper crush sleeve for the transmission end. The radiator end is a normal double flare.

 

New flexible hydraulic line:

 

 

One of my originals had ruptured. The replacement one I had made at my local NAPA.

 

The engine is ready to go in. It'll happen just as soon as I can get my hands on that hoist. I've rounded up all of the engine bay electricals that I've found, and put most of them back in their original spots. Getting close now.

[blue72]

Wooohoo!

 

 

All that's left is sorting out the wiring that got cut when the engine came out (starter, oil pressure sending unit, under hood light, distributor) and making all connections on the coil / ballast resistor. Tomorrow will probably be the day of truth: will it run?

[blue72]

She runs! Video pending as soon as I set up a YouTube account.

 

 

These were the wiring splices I made last night. Having an extra 240Z dash harness to harvest color correct wires and connectors from sure comes in handy sometimes. The two white wires go to the same starter post as the positive battery cable. The yellow w/ black stripe attaches to the oil pressure sending unit. The black w/ yellow stripe connects to the starter solenoid. The red w/ blue stripe is for the under hood inspection light. Each of these had been cut short when the engine was removed years ago. I soldered in these new extension pieces and used heat shrink tubing to protect the splices, then re-wrapped the harness with non stick harness tape. It's kind of handy when the wires are the right color, makes any future diagnosis easier.

 

After all of those wires were connected, the only circuit left to complete was the coil. Using two different 510 wiring diagrams I hooked it up as best I could figure out. I pulled a decent battery out of another of my project vehicles and plunked it down in the 510. The battery charger was hooked up too because I knew it was going to take some cranking to get fuel up to the carb (from my plastic gas can on the ground). Someone in the past had replaced the original battery cables with newer ones that had ends for side post terminals. I swapped out the positive side to the correct post style, and held the negative side on with the clamp from the battery charger. I tried a couple of electrical items at first, but not much worked. I did get one headlight to glow though. The starter engaged right away and so a crankin' I went. Starting fluid was sprayed down the carb to try and get it to turn over while waiting for fuel to get sucked up by the fuel pump. It was acting like there was no spark though. I checked again with my wiring diagrams and switched around two wires at the distributor side. Then the motor started acting like it was trying to do something, but it still wouldn't quite turn over. My guess was ignition timing, so I loosened up the distributor and turned it to the middle of its adjustment range. That did it. It started firing up with starter fluid after that.

 

The fuel filter was still dry though. After a few lungfulls of gasoline fumes I stuck the hose down further into the 5 gallon gas can. Then I finally felt some resistance. I went too far though, wound up sucking raw gasoline up and into my mustache, blech. As soon as I had gas up to the carb, it started flooding. So, out came the float for some adjustment (spilling gas all over the driver side of the engine), but that didn't do anything, it just flooded again. Instead I swapped out the float valve (the one part I didn't replace when I rebuilt the carb, go figure) and that did the trick. Once the carb wasn't overflowing with gas anymore, and after all the fumes had dissipated, it started up pretty quick. I had to feather the throttle for a minute until it warmed up, but after that it settled into a nice idle. It smoked for the first couple of minutes, coming out of both the tailpipe and the valve cover breather line. I shut it down for a bit to make sure there weren't any leaks, and when I started it back up the smoke was gone. I did make a nice new gasoline puddle under the car though. The fuel return line dumped gas into the cabin (it isn't plumbed back to the tank yet) which then dripped down through the floor and onto the concrete next to the open exhaust tube. I do have a muffler for the car, but not the pipe which connects it to the rest of the exhaust system. The uncorked engine wasn't nearly as loud as I thought it'd be though.

[blue72]

This was about the third or fourth startup, after all the smoking had stopped. I tried to clamp the fuel return line so that the gasoline puddle wouldn't grow any bigger.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS6GYB4KKw

[Rustina 510]

Great work dude!!! That's great you got it running, I can't wait to get mine going asap

[blue72]

Hey thanks. I read through your thread so far the other day. Looks like we're in opposite situations. I'm between jobs at the moment, so I have limited funds, but plenty of time while you've got constant overtime and are gathering parts.

 

Between yesterday and today I've been replacing the flexible brake lines and performing a general inspection of the suspension and brake bits.

 

 

Nothing too unusual, just the expected 41 year old worn rubber bushings and disentigrating seals. I do have two u-joints on one halfshaft with no needles left, so they need replacing. Plenty of rust on the front rotors from sitting so long. Original calipers though, complete with directional instructive stickers. I also threw on a pair of Z car iron cross rims w/ 205-70 R14 tires I had kicking around. One of the rear rims that had been on it was the wrong offset and had been rubbing on the control arm (so that's why it was so hard to push last week!). Looks a little odd now with wider tires rear and skinny ones on 13" rims in front. Tomorrow I'll likely be bench bleeding the master cylinder and then bleeding the rest of the brake circuits.

[blue72]

Took the brake master cylinder out and started bench bleeding, but it was worn and fluid started leaking past the rear seal. Ordered a rebuilt unit today.

 

Removed that offending halfshaft yesterday.

 

 

Those U-joints did not want to come out. I eventually gave up on the old hammer and drift method and stuck them in the press instead. Even then it took quite a bit of force to bust 'em out.

 

Here you can see that only 4 of the 8 caps were still intact.

 

 

Ordered some new Neapco 1-0029 joints today. Should have them tomorrow.

 

So, while waiting for parts to arrive I decided to start hacking sheet metal off of the car for fun. I bought some new abrasive and cutting discs this morning and got to try out one of those nylon RapidStrip wheels for the first time.

 

 

Okay, this area really needed some attention. There were two pieces sandwiched here originally, and both had rusted completely through. Obviously it was going to need some help behind the panel too.

 

A very short while later:

 

 

Then:

 

 

I've seen others mention that this sandwich configuration helped trap moisture in that area, and it seems most other people have removed the inner layer. I figured I'd keep the upper lip though, just to help with a little extra structural rigidity.

 

A couple months ago my brother-in-law had been out jogging and came across a Dodge D100 hood that someone had thrown in a field. It now sits on the side of the house, waiting to donate its sheetmetal to my project vehicles. I cut a 13" x 17" piece out and did some preliminary measurements and markings, then I started bending.

 

Here's my extremely complicated and expensive sheet metal brake:

 

 

One more bend and we have this:

 

 

It just needs a little final trimming and tweaking. Not quite sure what I'm going to do about the fender lip yet, but I've got a few ideas to try.

 

This is where I knocked off for the night, after welding in some small patches:

 

[blue72]

Wait a minute, am I going forward or backward here?

 

 

Well, at least all of the rot is out of the way. Now to re-create the inner and outer fender lip.

 

 

I bent this piece up for the inner lip, but I still need to figure out how to get it to curve appropriately. More experimentation tomorrow.

 

I also asked Skib to change the title of my build thread here, what with the recent developments in the drivetrain department. I'm thinking perhaps that I should set a new goal for the next little while, no single piece I purchase for the car can cost more than the original purchase price of $200.

[blue72]

Most definitely moving forward now.

 

Thanks to the magic of television we now have this: