The 510 Realm

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.

Some pictures after sanding blasting. The plan was to sand all hard to get too areas, along with any area that can handle the rough treatment of sand blasting. The last thing that I wanted was warped quarter panels or door skins. The rest of the paint will be chemically stripped.

Rust wise the left lower seal in front of the rear wheel appears to be the worst. The floors will require some work too, but I have already sourced some replacement panels.

Bonnet, boot lid and doors midway through being cleaned up.

This is something I've seen on a few cars on this forum, but I never seen it on an Aussie spec car myself. The fix will be to find a donor door and replace this section.

After I chemically stripped the doors, bonnet and boot lid, I sand out any of the small surface rust spots that were hiding under the paint. I treated the areas with WURTH Rust Convertor. I went a little crazy on the first few panels, my thinking was that more was better and I didn't want to have any rust issues moving forward, when the product final dried I realized I had to sand down some areas again, because I laid it on just to thick. If you are going to use this product only a very light coat is required.

Next, I got all the bolt on panels into primer. Whilst the panels are in need of some work, I wanted them sealed.

Next up was to strip and clean the rear quarter panels and the roof. I thought the rear quarters may have a few surprises in terms of damage and rust. Although once the paint was removed I could see that the panels were reasonably original and had not been played with two much by the previous owners in its life. Left hand side of the car will required, patch panels on the seal in front of the rear wheel and for the rear quarter panel. Some might try and repair the lower quarter panel because there is no actual holes, but I think its cleaner just to cut and replace.

Right hand side, I had already treated some areas with rust convertor, before taking the photos

Lastly, the worst of the rust/damage on the right side. The lower quarter is actually solid (I'll need to take a picture) on the right hand side and has never been replaced - SMALL WIN !

and finally the roof, only three small blemishes that will need some attention. Finally the car has been totally stripped of the old paint.

Was this the one from BringaTrailer? It looks really solid btw. Nice find!

http://bringatrailer.com/2014/09/06/own ... 10-2-door/

Great work, thanks for sharing. Look forward to more.

greenthumb wrote:Was this the one from BringaTrailer? It looks really solid btw. Nice find!

http://bringatrailer.com/2014/09/06/own ... 10-2-door/

No, it wasn't that car. When I was searching for a car I wanted a complete shell with no motor or gearbox, as I knew I would not be using the original running gear.

S15DET, thanks for the support, always appreciated!


So when I was waiting for the car to arrive, I thought I could start a few smaller projects in relation to the build. I started with the rear end brakes and swing arms.