Early 1970 ('69) Wagon Build

[Jerry Jones]

I've finally gotten around to working on a 510 Wagon that has been in my family for a very long time. I hope it will motivate me to keep up the progress by sharing as I go.

 

The History

The car is a '70 year model, with the 69 style dash and side markers. The car has been in my family since '80, and was given to me as my first car in '97. My dad (Jerry Jones Sr.) has a long history with Datsuns and Nissans - He worked for and raced with Balboa Datsun. He later raced a Roadster and opened J. Jones Z Care (J. Jones Auto Repair) in Lemon Grove, CA and then in the 90's raced a 240 and 280 in the SCCA ITS class.

 

I drove this car in 97/98 until the head gasket went and we realize in the process of repair that the block was junk - It sat until we rebuilt it in 2000. Unfortunately, I only drove it for a short while after that. I had a number of challenges, one of which included the hood latch letting loose in the fast lane on an early morning commute. My long drive to college combined with an 18 year old's bank account made it a hard car to drive daily.....I bought a Honda Civic, and the car sat for the next 12 years.

 

 

The Plan

The existing motor is quite a Frankenstein. I believe it's a Z24 block coupled with an L20 head with stock carb and air filter. As my dad tells the story: When the car was built, it still needed to pass smog (early 80's) - and only a smog guy who really knew what to look for would ever be able to tell that it wasn't the stock motor. Much as I'd love to give this thing a fancy modern motor - I'm going to stick with what it's got for the time being, and focus on repairing the body, interior and suspension.

 

There is a little more rust than I was anticipating, a lot of it hiding under the fenders. I'm think I'm going to strip it down to just about nothing, clean up the panels and hardware, and get it a fresh coat of paint (original color). Body work is a little outside of my area of expertise, but I suppose it's about time to do some learning!

 

The Start

This side worries me a bit....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[yellowdatsun]

That looks more like a true 69 model, not a 70. I doubt anyone would go through all the trouble to swap the dash and side marker lights, plus it appears to have the small front marker lights, which are impossible to change without changing the entire front end of the car. It may be registered as a 70, since the practice in many places back then was to register cars for the year it was sold, not the year it was made. Although the 9/69 build date is very late in the year.

 

Can you close the hood?? If so, than it's not a Z24 block. The Z24 block is too tall to fit under a stock 510 hood.

[Shagy]

also notice that there are no round reflectors under the tail lamps. my 69 doesn't have them, but my 70 and 71's do.

 

Looks like you guys have your work cut out for ya.

 

I know your dad. My father was a good friend/customer of his back in the day.

[Jerry Jones]

That looks more like a true 69 model, not a 70. I doubt anyone would go through all the trouble to swap the dash and side marker lights, plus it appears to have the small front marker lights, which are impossible to change without changing the entire front end of the car. It may be registered as a 70, since the practice in many places back then was to register cars for the year it was sold, not the year it was made. Although the 9/69 build date is very late in the year.

 

 

Truth is, the whole model year thing was always a bit confusing to me. The title and registration on this car always said it was a 1970 and I'm 99% confident that the markers and dash came this way, and were not swapped out. Based on this photo over at the510realm, and some VIN info I had read in the past - this car falls into a mid-year model distinction.

 

 

http://www.the510realm.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15692

 

 

I'm not sure what all the differences are between the 69/70 - side markers, reflectors under the taillight, dash - are there any other major differences?

 

Can you close the hood?? If so, than it's not a Z24 block. The Z24 block is too tall to fit under a stock 510 hood.

 

You're definitely correct about it being too tall - which is why it's got this notched cross member.

 

 

 

also notice that there are no round reflectors under the tail lamps. my 69 doesn't have them, but my 70 and 71's do.

 

Looks like you guys have your work cut out for ya.

 

I know your dad. My father was a good friend/customer of his back in the day.

 

Shagy what's your dad's name? My dad has a tendency to remember most of his customers - I'm sure he'd get a kick out of hearing about you and your dad.

 

 

 

[Rustina 510]

Looks like you already have the 280zx front brake and strut conversion too. Good start dude

[Jesse C.]

I remember your dad! Used to go over there once in while for Datsun stuff. Also used to hang out at Mac McKibens place and go to you dads shop for parts!

 

Wow, that was a few years ago! Good luck with your build!

[Jerry Jones]

Took inventory of some parts today. There were several seals I had that had been sitting in their original packaging in the car for the last 12 years or so, along with what I'm going to need to track down. It looks like I've got two perfect door seals for the two driver's side doors, and lengths of some other seal that I can't identify.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone know what this seal is for? I'm not even sure if it's actually from a 510.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the only other seal on the car that is worth a damn is the front window seal (was replace in '00). The rest are brittle and leaky.

 

 

[Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy]

Definitely not a 510 seal, I think that the second set of numbers with an N at the front is a 1200 designation? Can't remember, but when I thought I had a set of wagon rear seals the turned out to be an in 240z and outer 1200, I think that the numbers are very similar but the N is 1200 and H? is 510?

[philcas1987]

thats either a hood or hatch seal. that is a true 69. i have a 12/69 with 70 everything

[fivetenguy]

It's an outer hatch seal, I believe. I just bough one myself.

[Jerry Jones]

I think you guys might be right - it's a pretty close fit to the hatch seals.

 

Made some more progress on the car tonight - really making an effort to get it torn down as far as I can....so I can start the hard work. I try to get a little done every day or so.

 

Today started with pulling the cargo area glass on either side. The plan is to replace all these seals, and having the glass out should make paint much simpler.

 

 

 

Then, with a little help from my brother, and some comedic commentary from my wife - we pulled one of the doors. The rest will come off tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Drivers seat came out....

 

 

 

Hanging out on the back seat for a bit - I started thinking about how much I wish I had kept this steering wheel in good shape....saw one selling on ebay for nearly $600 recently.

 

 

 

Then my dog decided to hop up and hang out in the car, and all I could do was laugh...who cares if my steering wheel needs a bit of love!

 

 

 

 

 

Managed to get a lot of trim and other interior bits out tonight. Finally stopped after getting the back seat removed. There were so many hilarious things about this phase that I decided to call it a night - but not before thinking of ways I was going to harass my dad for not closing up this hole in the drive shaft tunnel. Well, there was that - and then the time we spent going through all the childhood legos and toys that have apparently been lost since my childhood.

 

 

 

Good progress tonight - looking forward to making some more tomorrow.

[WAGON JON]

Looking good. The rust issues are a simple cut and weld. Keep up the good progress!

[ggzilla]

Model year in USA is confusing.

 

It is up to the car company to decide when it starts and when it ends. From January 2nd of the previous year that have the right to call it a new model. But "tradition" is that it starts in October of the previous year. But they can postpone it too if they want.

 

In other words, the "model year" starts whenever they wanted it to. Sometimes they moved it a month or two to correspond to production changes in Japan.

 

For the 1970 510 it started October 1970, which is the traditional start of the model year.

 

Also consider that the build plate was attached in USA. Japan-market Datsuns did not have them.

[Jerry Jones]

Got quite a bit done with the car this weekend. I know tearing it down is the easy part - but it feels great to see so much progress so fast, especially after seeing the car sitting and rotting for so many years.

 

In all the years I've had this car, I had NO Idea that the bottom of the back seat folded up - I always just folded the upper part of the seat down right on top of it!

 

 

 

I got all the doors pulled off, and started tearing them down a bit. I'm looking forward to nice smooth rolling windows. :)

 

 

 

 

I think I should be able to clean up these rear panels well enough to not replace them.

 

 

 

 

There's quite a lot of rust in the cargo area - but none of it is rusted through (I think this stuff happened fairly recently...the last couple years or so).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week I hope to finish pulling the carpet, and even though the headliner is pretty well intact - it's too badly stained for me to make look nice. At the end of the day - all the painting and rust cleanup will be easier with it taken out anyway. After the carpet is out, I may go ahead and start carefully removing the dash. Another piece that I hadn't intended on doing when I started this project, but given some of the rust that is visible at the firewall, I think it might be best to search out all the potential problem areas. After poring over pages and pages of other people's builds, it's obvious that the weld seems are a common problem - I hope to give this car a nice permanent solution.

[Jerry Jones]

Managed to get out and work in the garage for a little bit last night - before heading out of town for the weekend. I've definitely reached a milestone with this - I've never stripped a car down this far.

 

I started with pulling down the headliner. I think my dad had this made by his upholstery guy 20-25 years ago. It came out really easy considering I already had the doors and trim off, along with so much of the glass. I quickly realized, it's time to finally get the windshield out as well.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm glad I pulled the windshield - it seems that whoever replaced a windshield in the past wasn't very nice with the box cutter. Where the paint was cut - there's some nice festering rust.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy with my progress on the interior so far, I decided to polish up my organization skills, and start digging into the dash. Truth is, a lot of this part of the car is in pretty nice shape. I'm looking forward to cleaning up all the knobs and bits and bobs...they'll look sweet with just a little new paint in the lettering.

 

 

 

 

 

I was excited to get the Speedo out, this thing is really going to sparkle with just a small amount of cleanup.

 

 

 

Part way through - I got distracted and started pulling the rest of the carpet. My dad had mentioned it had some foam for sound deadening. The stuff is pretty old, and probably not nearly as effective as some of the modern materials...but someone really took their time with this. (Pretty sure Jim at Bernie's Upholstry in Lemon Grove).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Under the foam and cushion was some strange material that seems to be throughout the car. It's form fit, but quite brittle. It's white on top, black on the bottom, and I think it probably came from the factory. Because I had heard so much about rust in floorboards and at the seams of the firewall, I started chipping some of it out. The color under it doesn't match, and looks like it's just primer. I think I've exposed a part of the car for the first time since it left the factory. It's even cleaner than it looks in the pictures, and even though there is a little rust at the firewall seams, the floorboards are pretty much perfect.

 

 

 

 

 

As it sits now. Not much stripping left to go before I get to work on the hard stuff.

 

 

[Jerry Jones]

I've had mixed feelings about pulling off this strange "tar paper" like material. In some places, the primer underneath is virtually perfect. Then I find patches like this....

 

 

 

 

 

Very little remaining in the interior now - I figure I may as well just finish removing the last of the pieces. Steering column and pedals, that's about all there is.

[jrock4224]

i see your into stand ups... i was hoping i could load mine in and out at the lake through the hatch...if not i got a two spot trailer that i will tow with my wagon ... i got a 750 and a 550

[Jerry Jones]

Yeah, pretty involved in the sport - and generally do quite a lot of international travel throughout the year. I'm definitely planning to setup the wagon to tow my small trailer. Have a look at my webpage if you are into stand ups; the content is a bit out of date, but it's got some good stuff.

 

http://jetskier79.com/

[troyt]

Most excellent, another wagon build, love it even more since it's staying in the family! I like the idea of keeping it oldschool, just like Dad ran it.

I stripped pounds of that 'tar paper' out of my goon, it's early generation soundproofing material that hardens over the years. I used a hammer and screwdriver to get most of it up, some people use dry ice on it to make it brittle and easier to break off. It actually does a good job, no reason to remove it unless you have rust issues or a desire to make your goon as light as possible.

Good score on an OE hatch seal, hopefully it still works for you.

[jrock4224]

updates?

[Ira210]

Yeah, pretty involved in the sport - and generally do quite a lot of international travel throughout the year. I'm definitely planning to setup the wagon to tow my small trailer. Have a look at my webpage if you are into stand ups; the content is a bit out of date, but it's got some good stuff.

 

http://jetskier79.com/

Crazy just checked your webpage...Jerry Brandon came into my bar today in Morro Bay! And I see Taylor Curtis Driving around his window cleaning truck all the time. I've got photos of both those guys launching their skis out at our big wave spot here on the central coast. Small world! :thumbup:  Nice work on the car BTW

[jrock4224]

Yeah, pretty involved in the sport - and generally do quite a lot of international travel throughout the year. I'm definitely planning to setup the wagon to tow my small trailer. Have a look at my webpage if you are into stand ups; the content is a bit out of date, but it's got some good stuff.

 

http://jetskier79.com/

wow cool page u look ike u go the life........wish i rode as much as i did when i was younger....36 now so i will make apledge to ride more this yeaqr ..its great work as its tough to ride a stand up or x-2......my friends have sea doos and what not,   there pussys riding should be a challemge.....pretty cool vids and stuff......lots of magazine coverage too ... thats awesome

[jrock4224]

double post