Blue '71 Project

[RONSLYCHUK]

Nice job. Very clean install.

[ostaylor]

Great looking battery kill switch! Where did you source that?

[cwd240z]

Thanks guys. I got that switch from Amazon, it's just your basic battery cut-off switch and I made that little metal box to mount it in.

[cwd240z]

Made a little more progress. Installed the starter and made the last battery cable, also installed the distributor, carb and various coolant and fuel hoses. Not a huge fan of the color of the NGK plug wires, but it's what I've got so they'll work for now. I need to bleed the brakes/clutch, fill everything with fluids, then hopefully see if it'll run sometime soon.

[slowerthantime]

Looking good Chris.

[cwd240z]

I got the car running last weekend, so that was pretty cool. Adjusted the timing and it seems to be running fairly well, it's a little cold natured, but it cranks right up and idles nicely. I let it run a few times checking the oil pressure, water temp and looking for any leaks or abnormal sounds. Only a small oil leak from the valve cover gasket and I'll probably need to adjust the valves a bit.

I mounted the drivers seat so I could test drive it. I'm using a pair of E30 sport seats. The color is terrible but they need to be recovered anyway so I'll do that later, they are good enough to use for the moment. I used the original 510 seat risers/brackets and just drilled new holes to match the bolt pattern of the E30 seats. They sit slightly higher than I'd like, but they aren't too bad.

Then I pulled it out of the shop for the first time in almost 4 years, washed it off and took it around the block a few times, seems to be doing alright so far. I need to get a full exhaust made for it, right now I'm just using a piece of the old original exhaust.

All lights work except my headlights and turn signals, so I need to dive into that and figure out what's going on there.

[cwd240z]

The plastic tail light buckets from my car were in pretty terrible shape, very brittle and falling apart. I had always wanted to do some sort of LED tail lights so they'd be brighter and hopefully keep me from getting rear ended. Almost a year ago I commissioned a guy to build some custom LED tail lights for me, and I just recently got them in the mail.

Since I wasn't using the original light buckets or wiring, I cut off the original plug from the tail light harness and spliced it together with the new LED panel wiring so they would just plug straight into the 510 body harness. I then made some custom rubber gaskets to make up for the missing light bucket, I ended up with about a 1/4" thick gasket that took the place of both original gaskets and the bucket. The design I wanted, was the tail light illuminates around the perimeter on 3 sides, the brake light is the entire center section, and when the turn signal is on it takes over the outer portion of the brake light where the original signal would be, then reverse is in the normal place. I only have the tail and brake lights working right now, so that's all I have pictures of. I still need to connect my reverse light wiring on the transmission and figure out what's wrong with the turn signals.

The perimeter tail lights would probably look better without the center trim ring on the lens, but I like the way the trim looks with the lights off, so I've left them on for now.

[cwd240z]

I put the car on the lift last weekend and did a bolt check on everything. Connected the reverse light wires and got them working, adjusted the rear camber a bit, adjusted the front toe, and greased all of the ball joints/steering components. The headlights also work now, there was just a loose connection in the switch wiring. I've got a muffler and exhaust tip for it, hopefully next month I can take the car down the street to the muffler shop and have them build the rest. A few pics of the car outside the shop while shuffling cars around...

[eastbaysolo_73]

Those are some nice looking LED taillights you made there. Great looking car. Patina!

[jeffball610]

I'm not sure what you're referring to with your turn signals, but be aware that since LEDs take less current to illuminate that incandescent bulbs, you need a resistor for the stock turn flasher to work or an aftermarket flasher made for LEDs.

I'm sure you knew that, but just letting others know before diving into a mod like this.

[bertvorgon]

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=30781&hilit=LED+flasher

This might help for any LED flasher questions in our 510's. Mine has worked flawlessly for years now.

[cwd240z]

Those are some nice looking LED taillights you made there. Great looking car. Patina!

Thanks! I'm really liking the patina on it, I may change my mind and never paint it.

I'm not sure what you're referring to with your turn signals, but be aware that since LEDs take less current to illuminate that incandescent bulbs, you need a resistor for the stock turn flasher to work or an aftermarket flasher made for LEDs.

I'm sure you knew that, but just letting others know before diving into a mod like this.

You are correct. My turn signals not working is unrelated to the LED's though, it's a wiring or switch problem, I just haven't dug into it yet.

[cwd240z]

I installed some sound deadening on the entire floor and up the firewall. Also removed the entire dash to take apart and clean up. While that was out, I took out the old windshield. The lamination in it had deteriorated and was terrible to look through. When I ordered a windshield a while back, it showed up with a crack on one of the corners. So I ended up with 2 windshields, one just had a crack in it. So I figured rather than throw it out, I could at least use it for a little while until I take it back out to paint the car. So I bought a "cheap" windshield seal and installed that one for the time being.

Then I drove it down to the exhaust shop and had the exhaust built for it.

[Doraemon]

Looking great!



When I saw the circuit board I thought you had sequential lights

[cwd240z]

Turns out the #2 spark plug threads were pretty chewed up in my cylinder head, and it shot the plug out a couple weeks ago while it was idling. I could've installed a helicoil, and I might still do it just to repair it and have it as a spare, but I went ahead and looked around for another cylinder head. I ended up getting a pair of A87 heads, one closed chamber and one open chamber. I took the closed chamber head to the machine shop to have it reconditioned. It should provide a little better performance than the stock head, especially once I install the other set of carburetors I have on it.






Old cylinder head removed




New head gasket and head ready to be installed