New Member pt. 2, SF/Bay Area

[awsnap]

OK first attempt to buy car out of state fell through. This time drove down to San Diego this weekend and bought a 2-door. Shipping to me this week. Of course there was a lot more body work needed than the orig pictures revealed. I came very close to walking away but I did just drive 8 hours... and seller was cool and threw in a ton of extra parts and came down on price. Very affordable compared to some I've see and clean title, org SD car, blue plates etc. Seller said he drove it couple years ago before parking it and would start again. L18 with 280sx 5 speed. Floors and trunk are fair to good. Worst of it is Driver's side quarter and the radiator support that was crunched. All interior included.

Just wanting to get some idea on the body work. I know there are aftermarket quarter panels floating around but I havent seen the radiator support. Any thoughts?

1972 510.jpg (72.66 KiB) Viewed 2993 times

[okayfine]

First question is what your goals for the car are. DD, show car, something in between? Anything leaning toward the show-car angle, or if you're going to dump $20K in parts into this car (SR, suspension, brakes, fueling, cooling, it all adds up) then you might be better off starting with a better base.

If something closer to a DD, I'd repair the front end, get it back in panels, then go through the mechanicals front-to-back. Take what the PO said with the biggest salt lick you can find at your nearest feed store. Worry about the rest of the bodywork once you've got a running/driving car.

If FutoFab doesn't have core supports, then you're looking at used front clips. They are out there, and being in CA will help you with that. Might contact Troy Ermish to see if he's got anything.

[awsnap]

First question is what your goals for the car are. DD, show car, something in between? Anything leaning toward the show-car angle, or if you're going to dump $20K in parts into this car (SR, suspension, brakes, fueling, cooling, it all adds up) then you might be better off starting with a better base.

If something closer to a DD, I'd repair the front end, get it back in panels, then go through the mechanicals front-to-back. Take what the PO said with the biggest salt lick you can find at your nearest feed store. Worry about the rest of the bodywork once you've got a running/driving car.

If FutoFab doesn't have core supports, then you're looking at used front clips. They are out there, and being in CA will help you with that. Might contact Troy Ermish to see if he's got anything.

Thanks! No show car dreams here. Was thinking along those lines but overall these things are fixable? Ive seen the rear quarters but not the front, but I'll start looking at the classifieds.

What do you mean by "get it back in panels?"

I was thinking about calling Ermish for updates down the road. Just looking for a nice driver with some tasteful mods, but would eventually like to get the body squared away.

[okayfine]

If you were a bodyman, the condition of your car is many, many moons worth of work. If you're not a bodyman (don't have a dedicated shop, don't have the tools and experience) then it's roughly ten times as much work. People have saved cars much worse than yours, to be sure, so this isn't a post to dissuade you from saving this one.

My general experience is that it's better to have a car you can drive, even if it looks like crap, than have a car you can't drive, don't know if it'll run, that also happens to need a heap of cash and time to deal with the body before you get to the mechanicals. Because you can deal with the body while you drive it. The alternative is to put a bunch of cash and even more time into straightening the body while not being able to drive it and potentially getting sick of it before you get to that point. It's happened here on The Realm.

From the pictures you've posted, every panel will need attention. 510's are relatively easy to do bodywork on in that panels unbolt and most of the rest are accessible via the interior. I'd still suggest a thorough assessment of the car in three main subjects - mechanical, rust, body. If the PO is to be believed, reviving the mechanicals is easy and would give you something to drive sooner than later. More pictures of the engine bay and underneath might help us assess that better.

[James]

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0By7Jo ... lItV1M4YUk

This guy is parting out his car - core support looks ok....


WTS: Datsun 510 2dr body part out

[awsnap]

Thanks, saw that and PM'd him.

[awsnap]

A couple more photos:

[awsnap]

Car arrived today, pretty stoked. Looking at it again along with the ton of parts that came with it and feeling not too bad about the project. First order of business is to repair the front clip and find a rad support.

Right Side:



Bad Side:



Otherwise other bodywork can wait.

A bunch of parts came with the car including another set of su carbs. Weber carbs. Manifolds, Some pretty cool looking Procar Rally Seats, larger brake upgrade parts, new master cylinder with booster (Not sure from where), and more.

[okayfine]

Time to start a project thread!