Florida Dime

[cleanone]

So I just picked up my first 510 after owing several Nissans since 1995.  You can see my into thread here; http://community.ratsun.net/topic/52571-is-it-ok-if-i-leave-an-intro-here/

 

I found this 1972 510 in St. Petersburg Florida through an ad on Craigslist.  I brought it home on a trailer for $2800.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over all, the body is pretty solid.  It has been worked on, but pretty solid none the less.  

 

The only hole in the floorboards I have found is on the driver's side

 

 

 

There is a bit of rust on the trunk lid and some cracked paint at the bottom of the rear window on the driver's side

 

 

 

It looks like the hood is the worst part of the car as far as rust goes

 

 

 

 

There is also some rust on the rear quarter window trim

 

 

 

 

The wiring is in question

 

 

 

And it has a Mazda 12a rotary engine with a Holley carb on it.

 

 

 

 

 

Too bad the fuel system is so questionable

 

 

 

Can someone please show me what the stock fuel tank looks like in the proper position in one of these cars?

 

 

 

 

So my goal for right now is to get the car to a point that I feel comfortable driving it.  As it sits the left rear brake line has been torn off and pinched closed, the shocks are completely shot (bouncy, bouncy!), the main oil line on the engine is rubbing against the engine mount and leaking, the fuel tank in the trunk is barely attached and scary as hell, there is an abortion of a muffler hanging off of the back of the car (barely), and the car is sitting way to high off of the ground!  There is probably more that I am forgetting at the moment but I will be addressing as much as I can.

 

The work has already started so it may take a bit for me to catch up in this thread.  I have already gained a ton of insight from this forum alone.  Everyone here seems to have a great attitude and I look forward to doing my part to contribute.

 

Thanks for checking out my thread!

 

Russell

 

 

[racerx]

look like baby supras on rear...good start and good luck with the build.

[bananahamuck]

That wouldn`t be the scariest fuel system i have ever seen ,,, just plumb it with as much hard line in the car as you can,,,  and see if you can`t find a way to get that pump outta the car,, ie under it or something.

the engine wiring looks to have been done in a autozone parking lot,, but little bit of weekend TLC and that will clean up nice..

As a whole package i think shes a really good start.... :thumbup: :thumbup:

:)

[cleanone]

look like baby supras on rear...good start and good luck with the build.

 

Baby Supras on the front too.  13 x 7 all the way around with 185/70/13 balloons!

 

That wouldn`t be the scariest fuel system i have ever seen ,,, just plumb it with as much hard line in the car as you can,,,  and see if you can`t find a way to get that pump outta the car,, ie under it or something.

 

the engine wiring looks to have been done in a autozone parking lot,, but little bit of weekend TLC and that will clean up nice..

 

As a whole package i think shes a really good start.... :thumbup: :thumbup:

:)

 

I suppose you are right about the fuel tank.  It is metal after all.  I do need to plumb the vent line to the exterior and I will look into moving the fuel pump.  I will probably relocate the tank further back so I do not have to disconnect it from the "mounts" ( I use that term very loosely by the way) to put gas in it.

 

 

I already removed the radio, speakers, amplifier and their associated wiring.  It did not comfort me to have the positive lead for the amp draped across the gas tank.  I turned the radio on once and it shut off on it's own within a matter of seconds.  With the "autozone parking lot" wiring job (thanks bananahamuck!) I figure it would serve me best to trim back to the stock wiring as much as possible.

 

[king bee66]

its like you could always just paint over the rust, like the PO obviously did

[cleanone]

So one of the first things I wanted to work on was the leaky oil line.  So I popped the hood and found out that my new Datsun wanted me to work on something else instead.  I have a feeling that this was to be the first of many times the Datsun will decide what needs to be worked on for me.  I suppose that is to be expected with a 41 year old car.

 

The item that was presented to me for repair was the driver's side hood hinge.

 

 

Does that look familiar to anyone?

 

So I removed the two pieces of the hinge so I could get it back in working order.  I was a bit concerned about removing the part that bolts to the hood because of how much rust the hood has.  I think PB Blaster will be a good companion with this 510.

 

 

So is it common for the hinge pin to shear off like that?

 

I used my 12 ton press to remove the pin from each side.

 

 

 

I then dug into my ample supply of O.E. Nissan hardware to find an appropriate shoulder bolt.

 

 

 

 

I had to drill out the one side of the hinge so the shoulder bolt would fit.

 

 

 

 

And then I put it together.

 

 

 

 

It is a bit loose and could probably use a washer to shim it up some, but I installed it as is so I could move on to other things.  I imagine the passenger side hinge will need similar modifications in the near future.

[r0p0doe]

So one of the first things I wanted to work on was the leaky oil line.  So I popped the hood and found out that my new Datsun wanted me to work on something else instead.  I have a feeling that this was to be the first of many times the Datsun will decide what needs to be worked on for me.  I suppose that is to be expected with a 41 year old car.

 

The item that was presented to me for repair was the driver's side hood hinge.

 

 

 

Does that look familiar to anyone?

 

So I removed the two pieces of the hinge so I could get it back in working order.  I was a bit concerned about removing the part that bolts to the hood because of how much rust the hood has.  I think PB Blaster will be a good companion with this 510.

 

 

So is it common for the hinge pin to shear off like that?

 

I used my 12 ton press to remove the pin from each side.

 

 

 

 

I then dug into my ample supply of O.E. Nissan hardware to find an appropriate shoulder bolt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had to drill out the one side of the hinge so the shoulder bolt would fit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then I put it together.

 

Same thing happen to mine, your not alone...

[cleanone]

So one of my main concerns about driving the car was the condition of the brakes.  The previous owner told me that there was a leak somewhere so he had to keep adding brake fluid.  Well, it did not take me too long to find the source of the leak.  The left rear brake line had been ripped off and the remaining section pinched closed!  Even the bleeder on the wheel cylinder had been broken off!

 

 

 

So I replaced the line and added a new pair of cylinders.

 

 

 

There was also an issue with the brake hoses.

 

 

 

So I replaced all of those too

 

 

 

My biggest issue with the brakes now are the adjusters for the rear drums.  They are frozen up pretty good.  I have had them soaking in PB Blaster for a week and a half now while I have been working on several other parts of the car.

 

 

 

From doing some research I have discovered that these are no longer available.  If anyone has any suggestions on how to remedy this issue, please help me!  

 

These stuck adjusters will be my last hurdle before I can start driving my Dime!  And I really want to drive it!!  I have been wrenching on this car since I brought it home last month and the only driving I have done is from the trailer to the driveway.  It has been on jack stands ever since.

[cleanone]

One of the first issues I started working on was a leaky oil line.  From everything I have read, rotary engines need to have an oil cooler because the rotors are oil cooled.  It would seem that there are a certain number of rotary enthusiasts that don't really worry about that and decide to eliminate the oil cooler.  The person who installed the 12a in my dime was one of those people.  It looked like they took the factory hard line that came from the oil cooler and bent it up so it would mate up to the oil pump output.  Not only did the line have kinks in it, it was also contacting the engine mount that was fabricated for the car.  As the car sat idling in the previous owner's driveway I noticed that the engine was rocking back and forth separate from the engine mount plate meaning that all 4 bolts that hold the engine on were loose.  Not only were they loose, but they were too long so they all had makeshift spacers!  So as the engine rocked around the kinked up oil line rubbed against the mount plate and eventually wore through enough that the oil line would leak when the engine was running.

 

 

Here you can see the bolts with the make shift spacers.  One of them is in contact with the lower radiator hose.

 

 

 

In this pic you can see the kinked oil line and the motor mount plate

 

 

 

And a close up of the oil line contacting the mount plate

 

 

 

Off of the car you can see the resulting wear

 

 

 

And this is the very well made (lol) motor mount plate

 

[cleanone]

So I had an oil cooler that I pulled off of a Saab 9000 turbo in a you pull it about a year and a half ago.  I did not pay more than $12.00 for the oil cooler!  A similar oil cooler from Mocal new would probably cost around $180.00 or more!  I also had a pair of -8 A/N oil hoses from a previous project that I could use on my new car.  I just had to have some A/N fittings welded onto the oil cooler as adapters are hard to come by.

 

 

 

 

Cutting off the Saab connectors

 

 

 

Here are the fittings I would have welded on compared to the Saab fittings

 

 

 

These are the stock Mazda fittings and the A/N replacements that I bought from my local hydraulic supply house.  16mm for the front and 18mm 90* for the rear

 

 

 

Here are some pics of the finished oil system with the oil cooler and lines installed.  I also installed the proper length bolts on the motor mount and tightened them down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Janksun]

Use heat to get the adjusters apart.

[cleanone]

One of my projects was to lower the car.  Unfortunately there were a couple of issues that needed to be corrected before I could lower it.  The first issue was the front cross member.  It had been modified to accept the 12A power plant.  Unfortunately it had not been modified very well and it hung down way too far below the car as you can see in the next two pictures;

 

 

 

 

Here it is off of the car.

 

 

 

And a close up of the wonderful craftsmanship

 

 

 

Straight off I did not like the design that was used for the cross member.  Without gussets, the lower member was not sharing the load very well.  I decided to replace the 2" square tube with a pair of 1" square tubes that would span the bottom of what was left of the original cross member and thus do a better job sharing the load and gain me some ground clearance.

 

Here is the first 1" tube attached.  I used that to hold everything in place so I could cut out the 2" tube and the crappy welds.

 

 

 

 

Once the two 1" square tubes were welded in place, I boxed in each end of the tubes as well as the open ends of the original cross member pieces on each side.

 

Here are a couple of pictures of the final product before getting a coat of Rustoleum

 

 

 

 

Here is the revised cross member mounted to the car

 

[Mirrorimg]

That looks infinitely better than what was originally there. Well done.

[cleanone]

Not only did the front cross member sit way too low, the entire exhaust system was also hanging way down below the car too!

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the bailing wire exhaust hanger!

 

 

 

Plus I had to get rid of what has to be one of the ugliest exhaust muffler/tip combos I have ever seen!

 

 

 

The mounts for the muffler were pretty classic too!

 

 

 

[cleanone]

It seems that the standard racing beat header does not work too well in the 510.  Not only did it hang too low, it also interfered with the steering idler arm.

 

 

 

So I removed the whole system starting with the muffler.  Let me just say that an un-muffled rotary engine is LOUD!!  Hilariously loud!.  I pulled the header off after taking some measurements to see how much higher it needed to go.  In this first pic you can see how much I raised the first pipe.

 

 

 

I also moved the pipe inwards so that it would be closer to the transmission.  This would allow me to tuck the pipe up into the transmission tunnel like it is supposed to be.

 

 

 

The stock flange at the end of the header would not fit in the new position; so I attached the collector that came with the car right to the end of the header.

 

 

 

And here is the header after the modifications

 

 

[cleanone]

This is the exhaust system that I threw together.  I routed it under the transmission output because that is the highest point for the drive shaft.  I used some of the flexible tail piping that was already on the car for a flex pipe.  It will probably blow out but hey, it was cheap.  I thought about running the exhaust through the rear subframe but I realized that I would never be able to remove it if it were welded together.   So I just went under the subframe.  I reused the muffler that was on the car but I cut off the god awful tip and spun it around 180*.  Then I added my own tip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cleanone]

So now it was time to lower the car. Finally!  This is the part I was most excited about.  I did my research as to what springs to use on the rear of the 510 and figured out that the front springs from a Dodge D50 pickup truck were the way to go.  After some more research everything I read seemed to indicate that the D50 is the same as the Mitsubishi Mighty Max.  So I picked up some springs off of a 1994 Mitsubishi Mighty Max as there were not any D50s at any of the local you pull it yards.

 

 

 

According to the article in the Dime Quarterly, you are supposed to cut the springs down to 9-1/2" tall.  So I did!

 

 

 

Since all of the shocks on the car were completely shot, I ordered as set of KYB GR2s.  I know they are not performance shocks but I just wanted to get the car on the road.  I got the 510 units for the rear and the 280ZX units for the front.

 

[cleanone]

For the front I was told that I could just cut the stock springs a bit to lower it.  Unfortunately somebody already had their way with the front springs.  Kids, please don't attack a set of springs on a car with a set of torches!  It just won't work right!

 

 

 

 

Fortunately enough, I already had a set of no name adjustable coilover springs that I knew I could use on this car.  I know that the spring rates are probably less than optimal but they had to be better than the heat treated springs I just took off!

 

But before I could put the springs on, I had to shorten the strut bodies to accept the 280ZX inserts.  I started by removing the stock spring perches.

 

 

 

 

I also did some cleaning while I was at it.

 

 

 

 

 

Fortunately, thanks to someone, I knew right where I had to remove some material from the strut bodies!

 

 

 

I guess someone needed to make some clearance for a set of wheels at one time.  Anyway, they did a number on these things!  After removing the section of material I still had to bust out the torch rig to heat up the bodies and hammer out the dents to get the new insert to fit.

 

Here are the cut down bodies ready to be welded back together along with the threaded tubes for the coilovers.  I decided to use the factory perch welds as my stops for the coilovers.

 

 

 

A bit of Rustoleum

 

 

 

Then assembled and on the car.  No, the ride height had not been set when these pics were taken.

 

 

 

I used the factory upper mounts.

 

[cleanone]

So after getting all of that work done, it was time to go for a drive.  I was so excited!

 

['70dime]

Great work dude! I really like seeing more and more datsuns poppin up in the SE

[Just Joel]

Good work bud, nice seeing one come back from near death ;)

 

Joel

[unionmine]

Its sad to a 510 so half assed that baby had some quality fab work done to it. Glad to see its getting the love it deserves.keep up the good work and keep the pictures coming.

[philcas1987]

dude that car is such a pile. The po holy shit. That car is ratsun! 

[cleanone]

Thanks so much for the compliments everyone!  It is really encouraging.  The main thing with this car is that the body seems to be really solid which is probably the most important thing with a vintage car.  Here are some pics that I took when I went out for that first drive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And what better place to drive my 510 to on it's first outing?  Sonic of course!

 

 

 

 

I have more people asking me about this car than any other I have ever had.  Several have nailed the year too which has impressed me also!  

 

It is such a cool car but it still needs a lot of work before I am comfortable in it.

 

More to come!

[SpenOne]

Cars looking good!

 

I think you know a good friend of mine, his name is Rob. He has a super clean red SE-R and used to live in south Florida (he moved to Ohio). In any case, I sent you a PM about some 510 stuff...get back to me when you get a chance.