1969 Minty 510 Sedan

[tristinGrind]

My name is Tristin and although Im not new to building cars, I am new to Datsuns. Ive liked Datsuns for awhile and finally was able to pick one up in good condition for a great price. Its in awesome condition for its age, though its not perfect. There is a bit of surface rust in some areas and the paint if faded in most places, but there is no rot. Rockers are 100% complete, no floorboard holes, no trunk rust. For her age, shes great. I have some plans for her in the future, but the first things that are going to get take care of with be maintenance related and some of the more important aspects.

Current Issues:
No weather sealing on doors
Heater is crap (I live in Washington... its a must)
Stalls on hard accelerating from a stop
Dash lights are half blown
Ignition is loose (twists when you want to start the car)
Front seats are shredded
Rear seat cover needs replaced (foam and springs are perfect)
Carpet is wicked dirty
Stereo is non-op

Future Plans:
Coilovers
Rims
Wilwood BBK
SR Swap (not sure which version yet)
Aussie rear Venetian blind
Aussie sun visor
JDM fender mirrors
Center console
MKI duckbill

Im not going to get crazy with it, but I would like to update the vehicle to current times. Once I get cracking on the maintenance it should be a great DD as Im going to use it when I go back to school in the Summer. Im going to try to keep everything original looking if possible and only change things if I must. Im going to try to keep the original paint color, interior colors, no garish front bumper colors, no ridiculous fender flares. Clean and simple is the way I like it. Anyway, here are the pictures as it currently sits. I just returned from a 3hr drive to pick her up. Enjoy and stay tuned!

[tristinGrind]

[tristinGrind]

Spent a few hours at my buddies shop (http://www.boss-innovations.com) to check out some of the issues. Unfortunately we couldnt replicate the stalling issue and since neither of us know anything about carbs, we didnt figure it out. Im going to open the hood tomorrow or this weekend and see if I cant figure it out. I did fix the ignition so it no longer twists... Turns out the bezel was just loose. I added some sealant (similar to RTV) and tightened it back down. We swept out the interior- found 25 cents- and reinstalled the carpet. It was in great condition with only a medium sized hole. Im going to keep the original carpet and just clean it up. It could use a thorough cleaning, but its in great shape. Last I removed the bumper stops for a cleaner look and now theyre just chillin' in my parts box.







The sunroof: Its in decent shape... except for the part where its fully caulked in. I tried to open it because it was a nice drive, and couldnt... I thought I was sally-fisting it, but once I got it in the shop and took a look at it; I saw this:

[okayfine]

Sunroof you say? How unfortunate. Never an option, or a dealer option AFAIK, they were mostly PO hack jobs. Odd for such a stock survivor to be so modified, but it happens.

Also wouldn't suggest RTV as glue for the ignition. A '69 will have a threaded chrome trim that will tighten the ignition/sandwich the plastic trim that it fits in. Typically this metal piece will have two small holes - fashion a spanner and use that to tighten. Or you can just put a rag over it and use some pliers.

Take a look through the link I posted in your Intro thread and gather up the FSMs in The 510 Archives link. That'll get you started on your acquaintance with carbs.

[tristinGrind]

I fixed the ignition by tightening the bezel. I wanted to make sure that it wasnt going to come loose so I used a sealant-like paste to keep it secure. It wasnt actually RTV. Yeah Im not sure why there was a sun-roof in to car as it was the only mod that it had. The PO wasnt the run that put it in. Other than it being completely sealed, its not that bad of a job. Its quite a nice install in the interior, but the exterior is a little messy. Im going to try and clean it up... maybe I can make it usable again.

[tristinGrind]

So the weather seals showed up today, my backseat cover solution has shipped, and I got an email saying that my lenses made it into the country (since I bought them from a Mexican Ebay member). My parts collection is ever increasing. Ive done a bit of searching around, and for smaller parts Im looking at... its going to cost me about $1000 unless I get a few parts used. Over all not too bad.



Let the learning begin!

[joker72z]

I'd love some feedback on the lenses from the guy in Mexico. I've seen these on ebay and was hesitant to buy.
Car looks great by the way...keep up the positive energy.
Chris

[tristinGrind]

Another good update I think:

I came into a decent chunk of money this morning. My taxes came back to me and here in a few days Im hoping to receive my enlistment bonus (I just got out of a six year tour as a submariner and Im re-enlisting in the Reserves). Anyway, figured it was a good time to pick up a good sized present for the car and bought a set of rims. Here in a week of transit time, I will be able to rock a set of staggered SSR's at 15x7's and 15x8's. I still need to find suitable tires as well as roll the wheel wells, but this is a start.

They are currently a silver center with previously polished lip. Im going to repaint the centers and try to polish the lips myself. It should be a pretty easy process.

Since the rear seat does not have a vinyl cover, I needed to find a way to cover it without spending a bunch of money on reupholstery. Im not at that stage yet in this build, but wanted to let people sit in the back without ruining my foam. That solution should be here on Thursday. Most of this is be done next week sometime. A friend building a '76 Galant coupe is coming down to spend the week working in the shop together, so all of these parts Im amassing will be installed then. It should be a pretty big change compared to the way that it looks now. Stay tuned for those pictures as there will be quite a few.

[S15DET]

What color are you thinking for the center?

I'll tell you what I did, because I'm so noncommittal. I sprayed a heavy coat of wax-based rust inhibiter (I used LPS), let it dry, then painted right on top of that. The idea is that the wax keeps the paint from sticking, so it's easily removable. So far I've tried two different colors and lived with it for a few weeks. Once I'm happy with a color, I'll remove the layers and paint it right, just an idea.

What size rear tire are you going with. My 205's on 15x7 wheel are a snug fit, and I had to do some clearance grinding and re-welding on the rear semi-trailing arm.

[Dave Patten]

Speaking of "test painting" parts. I remember seeing a wash off paint advertised on TV.

Its called Car Art Paint and is made by Duplicolor and Krylon. It comes in black, white, red and blue, plus green and gold from Krylon.

Links:
http://www.duplicolor.com/products/carArt/
http://www.kpg-industrial.com/products/ ... ary_paint/

[Fixer]

I love seeing all these untouched 510's popping up.

I'd love some feedback on the lenses from the guy in Mexico. I've seen these on ebay and was hesitant to buy.
Car looks great by the way...keep up the positive energy.
Chris

I'm actually working on brining a bunch of their stuff over to this side of the boarder...and possibly remake the goon rear lens.

[tristinGrind]

What color are you thinking for the center?

I'll tell you what I did, because I'm so noncommittal. I sprayed a heavy coat of wax-based rust inhibiter (I used LPS), let it dry, then painted right on top of that. The idea is that the wax keeps the paint from sticking, so it's easily removable. So far I've tried two different colors and lived with it for a few weeks. Once I'm happy with a color, I'll remove the layers and paint it right, just an idea.

What size rear tire are you going with. My 205's on 15x7 wheel are a snug fit, and I had to do some clearance grinding and re-welding on the rear semi-trailing arm.

Im pretty sure that Im going to be doing gold centers and raw accent edges, all with a polished lip. I like the classic JDM gold dished look so I will probably replicate that. More-than-likely I will be doing a bit of stretch to make sure they all fit and wont rub.

[tristinGrind]

Unfortunately the backseat in the Datto wasnt the best. The previous owner said it was a POS so he took over the vinyl cover to have it redone. Well that never happened... so now I have a foam and filler backseat that Im scared to ruin. ALl this means I have to rock the car as a two-seater and cant put anything in the back. The seat itself (save the cover) is in great condition and I want to keep it that way. It looks like this:




A little dirty, but foam is perfect.

I figured I wanted to recover the seat, but I want to do all the seats in the same style and dont have the money to do that yet. What am I to do?! I had a fantastic idea born in my heritage as a mexican Southern Californian and decided to purchase a new cover in a color that matched the car. Now I give you this:







Its not the most elegant solution, but it works. It allows me to have people in the seat and put groceries etc without the threat of ruining the foam. Now I can just wash the blanket instead of trying to wash foam and weird hay filler. Its not perfect yet, as its kind of loosely held on there, but I think Im going to buy some of those elastic sheet stays to stretch it a little tighter and make sure it staying in postion. For $30 I think it will be great.

[S15DET]

Awesome, I think it would be cool to actually upholster it something like that.

[tristinGrind]

Received a package in the mail yesterday (picked it up today) and now I can charge my iPhone in the car and turn my windshield wipers on easier. I now have a new knob for the switch and a cigarette lighter... I dont smoke, but every time I go on cruises my phone dies because I have to use it for directions and music. The radio doesnt work so I have to rock Pandora on the phone. Anyway, not a ginormous update but an update none-the-less.