USA to Western Australia my two door 510 build
Posted: 02 Dec 2014 05:09
Hi all,
I have been around this forum for a while, dreaming the dream of having a two door Datsun someday. In my earlier years I had two four door sedans and two wagons. They only ever received a mild spec in terms of modifications and were always my daily drivers. My interest came from my older brother and his friends, who all at some point drove Datsun 1600/510's. My brother even raced a Datsun 1600/510 with a FJ20 before progressing to a M3 powered E30. Just recently he has returned to racing via a BMW 2002, some pictures to come.
Given I live in Australia, Western Australia, we never got the two door option of the 510 and like most things in life you always want what you can't have! So like many others I spent lots of time reading the various project builds. At one point I read that Richard (Goichi) was coming to Perth with the US Navy. I extend the hand of international Datsun friendship and took him around Perth for a few days, although that was a few years back, we still keep in touch, truly a nice guy!
Fast forward to the end of 2013 when I purchased some unused Datsport SR20 conversion parts via Gumtree (our craigslist) at a good price. The seller was on the other side of country, I didn't know him, but I took a chance, and sent him some money. The transaction went smooth as silk, which is always a relief. After the parts arrived the seller and I exchanged a few txt messages where we discussed Datsun’s of course. I asked why he decided to sell the datsport gear, he said he had purchased a coupe. He proceeded to send me a picture, it turn out to be Richard's old coupe, the Datsun world seemed so very small all of sudden. Since then, Dan (The new owner of Richard's old coupe) and I keep in regular contact and he has helped me out with some parts for my build – another Stand-up Datsun Gent!
Since I had purchased all these parts for SR20 Datsun 510 build, I need to source a two door sedan, I did manage to find someone to work with me, it took a while, between shipping and unpacking and definitely took some $$$, but I finally have my car here. Without going into too much detail the car on average was as described, however it was missing a lot more parts than discussed and has some more than “questionable” repairs. I guess at this point most people would be pretty disappointed, but lucky enough my family’s business is car repairs and restoration, so whilst the car needs a bit more work than expected, it will be handled correctly. As for me, well I never entered the trade of panel beating and took a very different route professionally, so whilst I’ll do a lot of the leg work and “easy” stuff, the true professionals will be doing the final panel and paint.
General plans, clean and tidy rebuild, including a SR20 swap. Nothing to extreme, I'll have a lot of engineering and department of transport requirements to meet in order to get the car road registered.
Enough talk, time for some pictures….
First off, the car being picked up at the port.
I have been around this forum for a while, dreaming the dream of having a two door Datsun someday. In my earlier years I had two four door sedans and two wagons. They only ever received a mild spec in terms of modifications and were always my daily drivers. My interest came from my older brother and his friends, who all at some point drove Datsun 1600/510's. My brother even raced a Datsun 1600/510 with a FJ20 before progressing to a M3 powered E30. Just recently he has returned to racing via a BMW 2002, some pictures to come.
Given I live in Australia, Western Australia, we never got the two door option of the 510 and like most things in life you always want what you can't have! So like many others I spent lots of time reading the various project builds. At one point I read that Richard (Goichi) was coming to Perth with the US Navy. I extend the hand of international Datsun friendship and took him around Perth for a few days, although that was a few years back, we still keep in touch, truly a nice guy!
Fast forward to the end of 2013 when I purchased some unused Datsport SR20 conversion parts via Gumtree (our craigslist) at a good price. The seller was on the other side of country, I didn't know him, but I took a chance, and sent him some money. The transaction went smooth as silk, which is always a relief. After the parts arrived the seller and I exchanged a few txt messages where we discussed Datsun’s of course. I asked why he decided to sell the datsport gear, he said he had purchased a coupe. He proceeded to send me a picture, it turn out to be Richard's old coupe, the Datsun world seemed so very small all of sudden. Since then, Dan (The new owner of Richard's old coupe) and I keep in regular contact and he has helped me out with some parts for my build – another Stand-up Datsun Gent!
Since I had purchased all these parts for SR20 Datsun 510 build, I need to source a two door sedan, I did manage to find someone to work with me, it took a while, between shipping and unpacking and definitely took some $$$, but I finally have my car here. Without going into too much detail the car on average was as described, however it was missing a lot more parts than discussed and has some more than “questionable” repairs. I guess at this point most people would be pretty disappointed, but lucky enough my family’s business is car repairs and restoration, so whilst the car needs a bit more work than expected, it will be handled correctly. As for me, well I never entered the trade of panel beating and took a very different route professionally, so whilst I’ll do a lot of the leg work and “easy” stuff, the true professionals will be doing the final panel and paint.
General plans, clean and tidy rebuild, including a SR20 swap. Nothing to extreme, I'll have a lot of engineering and department of transport requirements to meet in order to get the car road registered.
Enough talk, time for some pictures….
First off, the car being picked up at the port.