Blue '71 Project

[Heinrich]

this is friggen AWESOME
well done, that blue and valve cover contrasts very nicely

[cwd240z]

Nice progress and looking real good so far! Great color. I love engine swaps as much as the next guy, but good to see an L-series build, and an L18 at that! Keep up the great work!

Wow awesome progress.

Thanks guys! I've thought about doing an engine swap down the road, but I wanted to get it together with an L-series first, since it's original and I love they way they look sitting in the engine bay. And I might be totally satisfied with the L18, time will tell.

this is friggen AWESOME
well done, that blue and valve cover contrasts very nicely

Thanks! I bought that valve cover off a guy on facebook a few months ago for a good price, not knowing how I'd like the look of it. But I agree, I think it looks pretty good with the blue. Now I'm just worried about how it'll look with the blue original air cleaner sitting next to it. Maybe I'll paint the air cleaner the same blue as the car??

[cwd240z]

The new brake pads came in, so I loaded the calipers and installed them on the car and attached the brake lines. Also got all of the steering linkage installed, new center link, idler arm, and inner/outer tie rods.

Then I threw a fender on just to see the ride height with the wheels/tires. The tires are Z size, so they're a little too big for the car, but it's all I've got for right now. I'll buy a set of tires for the 15" turbo wheels when the car becomes driveable.

[cwd240z]

Started cleaning up some engine bay bits and installing them. The regulator and the relays originally had a zinc coating, but the coating was pretty corroded and I couldn't bring myself to install an old, cruddy looking part into this engine bay. I tried cleaning them up first a couple different ways, but nothing helped much. So I ended up just wire wheeling the coating off and bringing them to bare metal, then cleared them. I think they look okay.

[cambo]

I like what you did with the regulator and the relays. The car is looking nice!

[cwd240z]

Got the front sway bar installed with new bushings and end links. Also got the fenders and front valance installed, and polished the park lights up a bit and threw them on as well...

[cwd240z]

Disassembled the headlights, cleaned and repainted everything, and reassembled them. They turned out pretty nice I think. Also got a new aluminum radiator, it's a no name 3 row but it appears to be decent. I ended up getting some universal sway bar end link bushings from the parts store to mount the radiator with. I had to cut them down a bit, as they were slightly too thick, but they worked out pretty well. Also started polishing some of the trim around the grille and installed a few pieces. It's nice to see the front end coming back together and looking like a car again.

Anyone have any insight on the effectiveness of the stock plastic fan and keeping the car cool? I'm a little leery of how well it will do, especially with no shroud.

[bertvorgon]

That is less than optimum for sure, the fan is a long way away from the rad too.

I would also suggest, to seal up the rad to the rad support, this will at least make the air go THROUGH the rad, and not spill around, it does help. There are some nice foam strips at home depot that do the job.

here is a link to my outer shroud project, just to give you an idea.

http://www.the510realm.com/viewtopic.ph ... ud+project

I run a 160F thermostat, which helps with a margin of temp increase.

[funwithmonkeys]

I used these to mount my rad.

GN-351.1-Vibration-Isolation-Mounts-Cylindrical-Type-with-Steel-Components.jpg (11.21 KiB) Viewed 3783 times

I also got the outlet of the radiator moved to the side at the bottom. When I had a stock motor the outlet was within about 5mm of the alternator pulley. It made for a pain in the ass to get the belt on and off.

[cwd240z]

That is less than optimum for sure, the fan is a long way away from the rad too.

I would also suggest, to seal up the rad to the rad support, this will at least make the air go THROUGH the rad, and not spill around, it does help. There are some nice foam strips at home depot that do the job.

here is a link to my outer shroud project, just to give you an idea.

http://www.the510realm.com/viewtopic.ph ... ud+project

I run a 160F thermostat, which helps with a margin of temp increase.

Thanks for the advice.

It's not pictured, but I actually did trim the part of the lip on the upper portion of the radiator support to allow the radiator to sit flat against the lip on both sides and the top. I used some rubber vacuum line, split it, and slipped it over the lip. So the radiator is actually pretty well sealed on 3 sides. However, the bottom is not, as the radiator support curves forward and away from the radiator.

The fan does look to be far away in the picture, however it's fairly close, as I can barely fit my fingers between it and the radiator. I actually had to install the fan prior to the radiator, as there wasn't even enough room to get a wrench or small ratchet on the fan bolts.

Did 510's ever have a fan shroud from the factory?

[cwd240z]

I used these to mount my rad.

I also got the outlet of the radiator moved to the side at the bottom. When I had a stock motor the outlet was within about 5mm of the alternator pulley. It made for a pain in the ass to get the belt on and off.

I looked into ordering something like that, but I wasn't exactly sure how thick of a spacer I would need, and I wanted some flexibility in mounting it to get it as far forward as possible. Those do look nice, though.

The outlet on mine is fairly close to the alternator, but there is definitely enough room to remove the belt if needed.

[cwd240z]

Polished up the headlight bezels and the grille. Painted the recessed areas on the bezels black, like original. When I was removing the emblem from the grille, one of the little studs broke, so I had to remove the rest of it and attached a new screw in it's place, then I repainted the face of the emblem. The grille has several little dings in it, but it looks decent.

[cwd240z]

Polished the front bumper up a bit and got it installed on the car. I had to tweak the bumper brackets a little to get it to fit decent.

Then I turned the car around to start on the rear suspension.

[cwd240z]

Got the rear suspension ripped out from under the car. Now to clean it all up and replace bearings and bushings.

[Stu]

Looks awesome. I wish my bumpers were that straight...