68 2-Door Restomod

[okayfine]

I certainly went with the 68 dash, but I may upset some purists,

Purists tuned out by post #4, the rest of us are happy another 510's being brought back to life!

[two_68_510s]

YES, the pics are alive! Great stuff.

Also what Julian said! I certainly admire and love the stock vintage car, but I really didn't hesitate to do a mod or two.

[WxMan]

Nice work on the dash! That really cleaned up well. I love those Defi RS gauges. I splurged and ordered myself three of those two years ago. They are still in their boxes though as I'm not far enough along in my build yet to need them.

[two_68_510s]

Hey the dash is excellent, great non-destructive mods, really fine work.

Question about your taillights, could you show a pic of the back after the repair? All of mine (except two that I keep under wraps) have the backup light plastic "can" in the back totally disintegrated.
For some reason the backup takes a harder hit than the rest. Anyway I wanted to see how you put that together.

[Byron510]

For some reason the backup takes a harder hit than the rest. Anyway I wanted to see how you put that together.

Joel, the answer is simpler than you think. A group of us were discussing this very topic 20 years ago wondering the same thing - and someone in that crowd tuned in pretty quick - 'UV'.... The red ( and Amber lenses of the rest of the worlds 68's) offer some UV protection where the clear lens offered nothing. If the entire tail light housing had been exposed to the sun, you'd see that the whole housing would disintegrate the same way. You see this on junk yard cars that haven't had a trunk lid, explain the whole bucket ( at least back when 510's sat around in junk yards!)

So there you have it, UV killed your lens backs. It made the plastic so brittle that the first time anything simply leaned against that wiring harness, the lens bucket just fell apart.

Byron

[KCMO_68]

Hey the dash is excellent, great non-destructive mods, really fine work.

Question about your taillights, could you show a pic of the back after the repair? All of mine (except two that I keep under wraps) have the backup light plastic "can" in the back totally disintegrated. For some reason the backup takes a harder hit than the rest. Anyway I wanted to see how you put that together.

So the backs of the clear side were completely cut out of the set we were going to use. The middle housing of another set was then cut out and bonded to the set we would use. Some heat reflective material was added to the back side to hopefully keep it from disintegrating in the future. Then just some elbow grease to clean it all up.

[Three B's Racing]

I painted mine with chrome paint in `97 and today it still reflects nicely. I thought about the aluminum but thought about the chances of the foil shoring out on the bulb possibly causing an unwanted issue. But I did use the foil back in the early 70's not thinking about shorting until a Toyota ended that 510.

[KCMO_68]

Around this same time all of the chrome parts were sent out to be fixed (lots of dents) and rechromed. I found out after the fact that some of these parts are still available as new parts... let's just say that could have saved me a few $ knowing that. Also got a lot of the nuts and bolts cleaned up.

[KCMO_68]

Because the header was custom it didn't exactly match up to any out of the box exhaust options. So parts were ordered from Vibrant and we decided to go with a setup that was hopefully understated. I wanted it to look like it could have come on the car originally, but still be something that had personal touches. I like how it turned out honestly.

[KCMO_68]

I painted mine with chrome paint in `97 and today it still reflects nicely. I thought about the aluminum but thought about the chances of the foil shoring out on the bulb possibly causing an unwanted issue. But I did use the foil back in the early 70's not thinking about shorting until a Toyota ended that 510.

*Writing down* c-h-r-o-m-e p-a-i-n-t ...... probably going to steal that idea at some point. Thanks for the tip.

[KCMO_68]

Test fits were all done, so everything came off the car (besides the suspension... unfinished wheels were put on at this point).

Wanted the engine bay to look clean and nice so the holes we would not be using were welded up and grinded down. Then the car was sent off for bodywork and paint.

[KCMO_68]

While the car was fairly clean there was a ton to do at the body shop. I'll post a ton of photos after this, but thought I'd write up a little bit of what happened along the way. The car ended up having a lot of bumps and waves in the metal. They were able to repair the roof, the rear quarters, the doors and fenders. But the hood, trunk, and front valance were messed up enough that I was told it would be significantly cheaper and an overall better end product to get new pieces for those. This was super defeating at the time. I really thought that the original car wasn't in that bad of shape, but once they showed me what was wrong I understood. So we ordered a new hood and front valance from Futo Fab and I found a rear deck lid for sale here on the realm. By the time all the metal work was complete it would be about 8 months later. I kind of expected the entire metal and paint process would take half of that... but apparently if you want it right it takes time.

Photos to come.

[Three B's Racing]

I painted mine with chrome paint in `97 and today it still reflects nicely. I thought about the aluminum but thought about the chances of the foil shoring out on the bulb possibly causing an unwanted issue. But I did use the foil back in the early 70's not thinking about shorting until a Toyota ended that 510.

*Writing down* c-h-r-o-m-e p-a-i-n-t ...... probably going to steal that idea at some point. Thanks for the tip.

Always glad to help. That's a really nice job on the 510 NICE!!!! But I've gotta ask,,,why is it you don't lift the 510 from the front on it's intended designed lifting points? In my opinion lifting from the unirail is not an ideal point as it was never intended nor designed to be a lifting point? You see a lot of 510s (well I did when I used to work on friends when I lived Cali) with that exact same area damaged from lifting from. My 510 had damage in those areas on both sides of the car I had to fix. I have a fixture I made from a block of polyurethane that fits into the 510s designed lifting points I've used for year, just a thought.

[KCMO_68]

Always glad to help. That's a really nice job on the 510 NICE!!!! But I've gotta ask,,,why is it you don't lift the 510 from the front on it's intended designed lifting points? In my opinion lifting from the unirail is not an ideal point as it was never intended nor designed to be a lifting point? You see a lot of 510s (well I did when I used to work on friends when I lived Cali) with that exact same area damaged from lifting from. My 510 had damage in those areas on both sides of the car I had to fix. I have a fixture I made from a block of polyurethane that fits into the 510s designed lifting points I've used for year, just a thought.

Hasn't caused a problem yet, but thanks for the heads up. Something to watch for in the future.

[KCMO_68]

The car certainly had it's problems and would be in store for a lot of metal work to get the car back to the point that we would be able to spray paint on it. I've attached some photos... the roof was dented all over, there were patch panels from previous owners that were done poorly, and rust... ugh... the rust.