New member

[quicxsix]

New member, new 510 owner,
I live in Northern California, just outside Sacramento. I bought my first 510 on Saturday, after looking for a short while.
I just sold a 914/6, and was looking for my next project, I looked at some 2002s and a couple of Capris, before settling on a 510.

The car I bought was advertised as a 70,but I believe it is, in fact, a 71. The door vin tag is missing, the one in the engine compartment
Is there, although it is screwed in.

Overall the car is pretty solid, some rust on the bottom right rear fender, a little in the trunk, and lord knows how much more when I start to strip it. I found some old registration papers in it going back to 85,car lived in Montana, then so cal. If there is a Paul Fisher on the board, I have your old car.

Plans .... well first research, then assessment on the components. I grew up in San Jose and watched theses cars Run at Laguna Seca back in the day,
So my heart says l18, side drafts, lsd, gearing, coilovers, bigger brakes etc. But there is the attraction of a bigger motor, modern efi twin cam screamer mated to 5 speed, etc.

I plan on doing as much work myself as possible, I like to wrench, but will need the knowledge of you guys, so please feel free to add thought, direction, and derision if needed.
John

[bertvorgon]

I would say the engine bay tag is correct, PL510-285835 would be a legitimate number and the tag looks original to the car, as that is exactly where it should be.

welcome to the site.

[RMS]

nice starting point ! not too monkeyed with...the drivers side mirror must be fun to use

.....having mismatch numbers on the car feels a bit hinky to me. I would make sure it is well sorted before installing any chash.

[two_68_510s]

Welcome John,
I see your car has the traditional Datsun underdash cable management advantage! Still looks great no matter how often you see it, or different color combination they are!
All kidding aside, it does look good on the surface. Do they use salt in Montana?

[okayfine]

Hello and welcome to The Realm. If you could put your location in your profile, that'll help us know where you are.

There is no door VIN tag. The aux VIN tag on 510s is riveted into the front, driver-side of the dash, most easily viewed from outside the car looking in.

MY70/MY71 is most easily indicated by the color of the speedo needle. White will indicate MY70, red is MY71+. But they're easily swapped, and if you already have a different firewall VIN, then who knows. What does your title say?

[Byron510]

There is no door VIN tag. The aux VIN tag on 510s is riveted into the front, driver-side of the dash, most easily viewed from outside the car looking in.

Although getting tougher as the age of our cars gets up there, the seatbelts are also dated to the month and year of production, and I have found that these have been within 2 month maximum variance from the chassis date of production.

I do understand that 20 years ago when I figured this out, nearly all 510's still had the original seatbelts. But now this is not so with our beloved cars approaching the half century mark in age.

Byron

[two_68_510s]

In case you need a set....

225a.jpg (219.26 KiB) Viewed 3544 times

[quicxsix]

Guys, thanks for the welcome.
To answer a few of the questions
The title says 71
There is no tag on the dash
The seatbelts are dated 1/71
The speedo needle is red/faded orange
So is the number stamped on the passenger side cowl a chassis number?
On my 914 it had a vin and a separate chassis number.

Yes they do use salt in Montana, the first thing that happened when I saw the paperwork, well the second after my sphincter loosening, was to go out and crawl around underneath with my screwdriver, thankfully pretty solid.

Joel, sent you a pm re side marker lights.
Again thanks for the welcome, I will be asking a ton more questions, prowling the classifieds, and more.
John

[quicxsix]

Seeing if my location was added

[okayfine]

MY71, way too much effort for it to have been MY70. Doesn't really matter, as long as the VIN agrees with the title.

VIN on the firewall should match the VIN on the data plate (bolted to the driver's-side strut tower), which should match the dash plaque. Is the dash plaque just missing?

If so, given the other evidence of the firewall VIN being different, I'd be starting to get suspicious of the car's history. Mainly as a way to protect yourself should any of our fine CA government officials get nosy and have a poke around. I'd imagine you could register the car as-is via title transfer without issue...but should an issue arise now or down the line, you're going to be screwed.

[okayfine]

Dash VIN should look something like this:

[quicxsix]

Yeah, the dash vin is missing completely, just a rusty plate
The cowl number is stamped pl510 253751
The plate on the drivers B pillar has also been removed

[okayfine]

Well, you'll need to decide your path forward. And the PO may not even know about the VIN issues, it may have been a PPO. As I said above, the likelihood of you having an issue is not big, but it also not zero. I'll PM you some thoughts.