USA to Western Australia my two door 510 build

[whatsdoing]

Yeah I'm pretty sure that Aussie spec heater box is actually made in Australia.
I think cars made in Australia were made to use a percentage of locally made accessories.
More of a union type thing than using that heater box because we don't need a better one.
As it still gets f&$king cold here, depending on where you are of course.

[Byron510]

I can personally attest to the fact that some areas down under do get cold, if only briefly. I saw frost one morning on the Snowy River just out of Buckan on a ranch I worked on for 3 months. I also saw a couple low single digit mornings just north of Melbourne in April/May that year. I did spend a night under the stars out at Uluru, that was single digit territory as well just before sunrise. I did make it to the top of the Rock for sunrise though. I have to admit it was one of the most memorable sunrises in my life.
You have a beautiful country, met some great people and had an awesome time there.

Byron

[harryagain]

Is the progress on your build actually in real time?
Amazing progress in a short period! Unlike my own

Not 100% really time! Like I said, some work was done when I was waiting for car to arrive. Having said that, I grew up around the shop, so it's just work and you just get on with it. I am sure I'll slow down when it gets to some of the modifications required.

[harryagain]

Decided to measure up the front end of the car and do some panel fitment. I was aware that the car hard previously been involved in and accident and had been repaired. On face value the welds on the repairs looked terrible, but that could be fixed easily enough. It was until we did some measuring and placed the car on a table that it become obvious that the right hand front rail was out but 3mm. So given all of the above, my best choice will be to start again.

[harryagain]

Whilst doing the measurements, we did give the car a bit of a pull,whilst helped a little, there is no getting away from the fact the rail, skirt and radiator support will need to be unpicked and replaced.

[harryagain]

I can personally attest to the fact that some areas down under do get cold, if only briefly. I saw frost one morning on the Snowy River just out of Buckan on a ranch I worked on for 3 months. I also saw a couple low single digit mornings just north of Melbourne in April/May that year. I did spend a night under the stars out at Uluru, that was single digit territory as well just before sunrise. I did make it to the top of the Rock for sunrise though. I have to admit it was one of the most memorable sunrises in my life.
You have a beautiful country, met some great people and had an awesome time there.

Byron

Byron,

The eastern side of the country does get colder than Western Australia (WA). I wouldn't call WA all that cold during winter, but I lived and work in Ireland for a while and those winter mornings are pretty frosty.

[harryagain]

Nice project!! Great to see pics of the progress. I wish I have the time to get mine going again, it will be a while for sure but it will come together I'm sure.

Thanks Richard, The car progressing OK for my liking, a few set backs, but I'll just work through it. That's the great thing about metal, you can always get it back in shape. I am sure you'll return to your CAR PROJECTS once you finish off you shop/shed.

[harryagain]

He are some more pleasing photo's. Its my Dad's BMW E9 coupe. He has owned it since 1981, although its been off the road for a long time. Its finally getting the attention it deserves.

[harryagain]

Just starting to do some of the fun stuff

[harryagain]

Given the decision to re-do the front end of the car I had to search for a donor vehicle. Not the easiest task in WA, as many of the Datsuns here have either been rallied or raced to death, or just plain rusted out. I did manage to find the vehicle below. A very rust shell, but I should be a decent radiator support and shirt and rail. I think I will also use part of the right drive fire wall whilst I have it. I'll strip out anything else useful whether for me or someone else, the rest will be cut up and scrapped.

[harryagain]

The latest work on the car, was repairing some small rust holes. At first glance the rust didn't look to major, it wasn't until I dug a little further that I found a few surprises.

[harryagain]

I guess rusting from the inside out is a fact for any 510. I'll replace all of the affected metal. Once the car is finished I think I'll just routinely of applying fisholene in order to avoid any rust reoccurring. What other products are people using for rust prevention? I'd be very interested to know...

[Byron510]

I feel you are right in the fact that all 510’s came with the rust option included, and it all has to do with how unit body cars were built from the 60’s through 80’s. The 510 had many parts of the car with overlapping metal panels which inherently will trap moisture and will rust. The only true way to keep a 510 from ever rusting is to never let it get wet. And if the car is driven and parked outside, that’s pretty hard to do. So we as car people just live with it.
I had to do the same type of repair on my Bronze car build. I didn’t cut near as far up the panel as yours, but the issue was the same. The solution for me was to avoid the overlapping panels. I replaced this double panel are with a single panel of thicker gauge, and then bonded the inner panel along the dotted line below with structural adhesive to complete the repair of this area. Matching the panels due to the difference in gauges was a bit of a challenge and did require quite a bit of work due to my inexperience in the matter, but it came out pretty good.

Byron

[harryagain]

Its been a long time between posts. I was overseas for a while at the start of the year and then there was a few distractions when I returned. Here are some updates as to the progress of the car.

[harryagain]

Cut out and replaced the rear floors under the seat. Had to be made by hand, unfortunately no panels available at this stage.