Eric's '72 Datsun 510 Wagon

[ercchry]

so i've wanted a 510 for a long time, but its just one of those things that i could never justify.... but when i saw this old wagon on kijiji in pieces i just couldnt resist.

went to look at it, kid that owned it was an autobody student or something, he had patched up pretty much everything, and almost the entire car was in primer besides a door, the rockers, hood and one fender, the fender needed a ton of patch work, so i figured i'd just buy a new one. tried to find an original one locally, but that didnt happen and eventually i pulled the trigger on a brand new reproduction by futolab.

turned out he lived in the same community, but with the lack of doors, hood, fenders, gas tank, etc, etc... figured i should tow it home

borrowed a friend's truck and trailer and we managed to get it running out of a jerry can to load and unload, and got it in the garage


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all the bits and pieces were in the back


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tank was out cause he had got it redone


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got that mounted back in its home


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new fender showed up, fit like a glove


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he had it hot wired to move it around, so i started working on the electrical, fuse box is a mess, ordered a new one but its not here yet so i cleaned up the connections a bit and found that the wire from started to alternator was melted away, replaced that and now the key starts it.

had it up on stands and tossed it in drive, noticed the rears brakes didnt do much, tried to bleed them...


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nope...

ordered new everything... but those old cylinders really didnt want to come out, ended up twisting up the hard lines in the process... so spliced in some new line

[img]http://i.imgur.com/jFmG0a8.jpg[b/img]

when i was waiting on the PB blaster to do its thing i started cleaning up one wheel... whoops, now i have to dot he rest haha


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got the brakes back together


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figured before paint i should at least get it all functioning properly, so i started to put it back together

found this piece, still cant figure out where it goes... if anyone knows, that would be helpful!

..oh, also replaced the rad hoses, since those looked original


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mounted the hood and noticed it didnt fit between the fenders, the kid before me welded in new rails for the fenders to ride on... had to massage those a bit to get it all to fit right


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got it..


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driver's door was in pieces since he did some work on it, so put that back together and mounted it


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figured i should give everything a quick coat of primer, since raw metal doesnt really like oxygen...


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car was getting tougher, and tougher to start so i got the battery tested, it was junk, checked voltage while it was running, idle and 2500rpm, was only getting battery power... figured needed an alternator, got one, installed it... same issue... fuck. well silly me, old ass technology, the alternator has an external rectifier, and again... the corroded fuse box was the issue, again... of course. oh well, it was cheap and now i dont have to worry about it.

that was last night, got dark and i turned in after getting the head lights sort of functioning.


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tonight will be trouble shooting the wipers and the rest of the lights... then tomorrow it gets a new exhaust!

also ordered these


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and their negative camber rca's and bolt in camber plates, got some 3" blocks for the rear, and will probably get the leafs redone stiffer and flatter

[roopi]

Sell me this car now! I've always wanted one of these.

[G-ZUS]

Nice!

[xnvy]

You're so lucky!! Subbed. Can't wait to see where this goes. Love the 510's.

[Hallowed_point]

Hella tight car dood! Throw some dayton's on it!

[ercchry]

mmm, and the best part has got to be the insurance quote i got from Bill... $39






















per year

full coverage, casual use (evenings and weekends)... ya it costs more for registration

[NoPulp]

Awesome car!

[Ca_Silvia13]

Very nice Eric. I would love to check this thing out sometime.

[ercchry]

Originally posted by Ca_Silvia13
Very nice Eric. I would love to check this thing out sometime.

just let me know, i'll probably eventually take it to grey eagle or something this summer.

trying to get it ready for street wheelers this weekend, but i dunno yet if that will happen

[J.M.]

Awesome

[JustinMCS]

This looks like a good thread!

[never]

510s are awesome and wagons are awesome. Put them together and you have this, double awesome! Great project...looking forward to see how it turns out.

[510-Trevor]

Watched that wagon on Kijiji for a couple weeks, looks like it went to a good home.

Dave at FutoFab has been great to 510 community, can't say enough good things about him.

The car is looking great, let me know if you need any parts, I have a few stashed away.

If you haven't already, check out the510realm.com and ratsun.net whether you're looking for inspiration or technical information.

You may want to pull the fuse box and give it a good clean. This thread has some good general information for you: http://the510realm.com/viewtopic.php...n+fuse#p237415

[ercchry]

Yeah i've reading up on both those sites, my fuse box has busted tabs though, grabbed a couple blocks from CT and im going to wire those up till my new box shows up, then clean the switches and see where im at. Only things im really missing is front carpet, and kick panels, could use a new dash pad too

[corsvette]

AWESOME! This brings back memories, had a 510 coupe back in the day. Still remember chasing endless electrical gremlins....I bet my fuse box was corroded too, The one thing I never checked lol.

[510-Trevor]

Originally posted by ercchry
Yeah i've reading up on both those sites, my fuse box has busted tabs though, grabbed a couple blocks from CT and im going to wire those up till my new box shows up, then clean the switches and see where im at. Only things im really missing is front carpet, and kick panels, could use a new dash pad too

PM'd about a couple items. Don't have an extra dash pad and given the age of these cars I would recommend trying to find a reproduction. Even an (expensive) NOS pad is going to be at least 40 years old, dried out and prone to cracking in no time once it sees sunlight.

[03ozwhip]

I've always wanted a 510 and ya, I'd probably throw daytons on it for a while lol killer car bro, wish I had one.

[ercchry]

So... got everything working, but uh... after i did the brakes i just quickly zapped the lugs on with an impact and forgot about it (was still on stands for a while after) so, me... overly excited about having everything working go for a shakedown drive... and uh... lost a wheel, luckily was on an empty country road and it just flew into a field (somehow managed to find it)


Huge thanks to unknown303 for bringing out a jack and breaker bar... stole a lug from each wheel and good as new (those drums and pretty heavy-duty, barely a scratch)

But yeah, running okay, using way too much gas though. Got to check that out



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Have a pretty decent dent in the quarter now though

[xnvy]

Is that gas leaking from the fuel cap on top of the primer?

[ercchry]

No, i filled it with one of those shitty jerry cans that you have to push in to make flow and it leaked down from that