Radio Flyer

[RMS]

Welcome to the restoration of my little red wagon. Like most of my 510s i got her from Jason. He imported her from Washington then stuck her behind a warehouse and let the moss and lichen consume her. ( Jason do you have any pics? ) We pick the story back up at the oldest pic i have: Using the stud welder to aid in the straitening of the passenger rocker

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not having any experience with paintwork i brought the car out to my buddy's shop where we spent 350 hours straitening and prepping for paint

[RMS]

after hours of trying to pull the wheel i gave up, left the dash in and taped up the works.

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looking back i should have worked smarter, pulled the dash along with the column, peddles... . then I could have painted every thing. i would have ended up with a better finished project.

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I can say the same about the paint. Rather than sanding off two previous repaints and down to the stock primer. then filling with high build and feather lite to get her strait. i should have chemically striped the shell and blasted on a couple coats of good primer.

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[RMS]

Sealed her up sanded her down with 320 to see what we missed and re taped

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splashed on a gallon of paint

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[RMS]

It wasn't till i got her home, pulled her into the sun that I could see the imperfections and inconsistency of the gloss.

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I used a single stage paint in an uncontrolled environment. We started spraying around 8pm and finished just after 4am.
So was it the cold barn or overexposure of methyl ethyl ketone's through our pores and eye's

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[RMS]

frustrated with the finish i started colour sanding. loaded her on a trailer and took it to a booth, were i got another friend who paints mrec's all day to do the spraying. he blasted on a gallon in under two hours

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at this point i probably spent $500 in tape.

[RMS]

With body work over on the wagon the fun could begin: Reassembly. Not knowing if i would keep the wagon I left her stock and dropped a L16 and 4spd in

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hello "6 inches of rust". that's right I was working on you to.

The hardest part of reassembly was not touching the sides

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[510rob]

mmmmm, so clean!

[RonM]

Man that color is intense! Not sure if the pic tells the actual story, but on my screen it has that super saturated 60's color palette feel. That car will stand out in the crowd for sure. I like the way the bright aluminum of the motor pops right out of the engine bay. Are you going with chrome bumpers, or black?

[q-tip]

paint looks great. is that an old dodge pullin the trailer?

[RMS]

ah yes my first love. my 1952 Dodge m37 3/4 ton off highway gunnery tractor. (RC's warned me against running a decommissioned 50cal Browning M2. however i found that i don't need a m2 in the back, I always get the right of way.

I like the way the bright aluminum of the motor pops right out of the engine bay.

me too, so i made it my avatar pic . the bumpers will come up but I don't want to give away the end of the story.

Now where were we...Oh ya! Reassembly, onto the interior. I was frustrated to find the elephant hide and rear wheel well covers had shrunk during their four months of storage

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i also used the old vinyl as a template and came up short

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[RMS]

The dash came together nice and I was surprised how well the clock i picked up on Ebay held time

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I found out during reassembly that not all Datsun's are the same, from the turn signal switch and hazards to the ignition.

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thankfully wagon fan had the parts i needed. thanks man!

[RMS]

during reassembly i tarped off the wagon from my other projects to protect it from grinder flash and UV's.

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However the biggest danger to the finish was not me, it was from other people. It seamed that every one who saw the car could not resist touching it and rubbing the finish. "hay man looks great", here let me rub that dust off with my dirty ring filled hand"

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So I got a sticker expressing my concerns

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[RMS]

The hours I spent sanding the engine bay paid off.

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Now all I have to do is get rid of the ugly air cleaner and get more stock parts installed.

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The blue leads have to go.

[RMS]

I couldn't help my self was it worth the $100 and three months of shipping time from Australia ?

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EBay addiction's are a serious problem in our community please help by donating to my paypal account.

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pm me for more details and help get goodies like this AC unit (bought for 6inches of rust) installed in the goon before summer arrives.

[RMS]

came together nicely with bumpers from Alvien thanks man.

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it may be my cream puff 510 but i still put it through its paces

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