710 returns to the motherland gaijin ( Midlife crisis build )

[Greased monkey]

The mission to bring a 710 back to Japan has been a interesting/crazy/expensive journey so far.

The plan is to tear it all down to the shell and media blast it.

 

I'm still debating a motor swap and a couple mods nothing crazy 0.o

 

I got the bug to get another 710 after I found a 1973 Nissan Violet 1600 SSS 1/24 scale model, bought it and now it stares at me everyday.

 

I posted wanted ads pretty much all over the world and joined all kinds of forums and Facebook groups just to try and track a 710 down.

 

The hunt felt useless since most people don't even know what a 710 2 door coupe is. I got almost zero replies (maybe because my WTB ad didn't contain OICs?) haha

 

The few messages I did get were a waste of time,

Stuff like I know someone selling one or I have one for sale and then after I reply I get no new messages. What kind of loser crap is that? Getting my hopes up just to end up wasting my time..

 

Anyway I get a message from an old lady that has a 1974 710 2 door coupe and it's up for sale. She saw my want ad on a datsun Facebook group.

It's located in Lubbock tx and she had it since new. She used haul it behind an RV when she would go cross country.

 

My brother that lives in Guam was visiting me in Japan and just went to visit my other brother in Vegas. I told him about the datsun and he was in the plane to Texas the next day to make the deal.

 

He flew into Lubbock saw the car, went to the bank to do a bill of sale and get everything notarized then jump back on a plane to Vegas all within 3hours. Then it was a nightmare trying to find a transport company that would actually give me a price without changing it at the last minute.

Transport companies= big headache and the "agents/brokers" are so full of S*%T!!

 

A month later my car is finally on the way to Cali to the port.

My friend that imports muscle cars here to osaka helped me with all the logistics to get my car here.

 

Well enough with the rambling and over to the OICs...

 

One more thing for all you grammar police/ grammar nazis go to the corner and F^%off

If it bothers you feel free to cry to someone who cares :)

 

 

 

 

 

The hideous tow bar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[danfiveten]

Nice.  I know my old 610 is on its way to japan from whoever bought it.  I keep hoping whoever got it will join one of the forums im on so i can be like...THAT WAS MINE!!!! lol. 

[HRH]

Aw fawk, you mispelled xanthplasmoidea, oh that's just the worst!!! :D  Grammar Nazi says your spelling and grammar is much better than the 16 year olds that normal post "text-speak."

[Greased monkey]

14 years of sitting in Texas. Time to clean it up,get it running/driving then begin the tear down. The lady was married to a service manager for Nissan. Needless to say but the car was pampered until the divorce I guess..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Spoona_Jay21]

Nice little rig here!

 

maybe I missed somethin, but do you plan to keep the US Spec body parts? and old school SLots?

 

either way, i am keepin an eye on this =P

[Greased monkey]

Dan I hope if someone spent that kind of money to bring a project in then it might be in good hands. If it went to okinawa that's a different story.

 

Nice. I know my old 610 is on its way to japan from whoever bought it. I keep hoping whoever got it will join one of the forums im on so i can be like...THAT WAS MINE!!!! lol.

[Greased monkey]

Haha you might catch me doing that since I can be a lazy person from time to time

 

Aw fawk, you mispelled xanthplasmoidea, oh that's just the worst!!! :D Grammar Nazi says your spelling and grammar is much better than the 16 year olds that normal post "text-speak."

[Greased monkey]

Thanks spoona.

I do plan to keep it us spec body parts and it will stay left hand drive. I will clean up the slots and use it, Japan has a lot of nice 4lug wheels that I like so the slots will be cycled thru. I plan to eventually convert it to 5lug and change out the L18.

 

I thought it would be a little easier to find stuff like like weather strips and other universal parts between the violet but I was wrong. So it will now be a resto mod.

 

 

Nice little rig here!

 

maybe I missed somethin, but do you plan to keep the US Spec body parts? and old school SLots?

 

either way, i am keepin an eye on this =P

[Greased monkey]

Here is my Contribution to the "cold start" videos haha

 

Cleaned the carb and did all the standard thing one would do to get a car running that sat for over 14 years.

 

I wanted to get the car started before disassembly so I know what functions and what does not so when it's time for reassembly I don't have to wonder if I did something wrong or if it was that way to begin with.

 

All the lights work just one bulb was out (easy fix)

All switches function properly

The radio,dome light and even the A/C functions (not cold) but it works :))

 

Tear down in progress lots of polished trim coming off so it will be a slow and steady process

[Greased monkey]

I guess it would help if I post the video :)

I hope this works....

 

That didn't work :/ I guess I will skip videos until my noob self can figure it out.

[king bee66]

its amazes me the amount of crap that collects under the cowl

[Greased monkey]

its amazes me the amount of crap that collects under the cowl

Seriously! I got about 10lbs of Texas leaves,branches and DUST caked in to the cowl and passages.

[Greased monkey]

Getting everything stripped

 

 

 

 

My buddy always helping :)

 

 

The "small" 5000kg winch

 

 

 

Photo bucket is acting up so this is all I have for now.

I started messing with the media blaster on some small parts but nothing crazy yet. If I keep getting loading errors on photobucket I will just stop with the photos till I upload them to the computer.

[Greased monkey]

Photo bucket isn't working for me so no oics today.

Got all the trim off without bending it.

All the glass is out.

Yanked to motor and trans.

It's pretty much a shell.

 

I picked up some media blasting equipment and had some fun on a small project.

I would like to build a rotisserie and do it all myself but I don't think I want to sacrifice the space it'll take up when I'm "done" with it.

I am looking at a couple donor cars at the moment for the swap. I still have not decided yet. I will soon because I need to do all the mock up and fabrication before I take it down to bare metal.

 

I'm sure I will just rebuild the l18 and throw it into some project down the line.

 

I have been having zero luck tracking down any parts on my list so I see a 3d printer I'm my future. I've looked around and think the carbon fibre printer is the key to my problems. I hope the products will last,only time will tell I guess.

Does anyone have experience with 3d printing? I would like to know what kind of pros/cons I can expect. I also would like to to know the ease and what finishes look like compared to CNC machines.

 

One more thing I need is a decent welder for small to med projects. We pretty much just have industrial stuff here and the "small one" is a pain to lug around.

 

Hopefully next time I post I can put some OICs :)

[dukerollo]

Not to poo poo on your project, because i dig it, but why go to the trouble of importing a US one? Are the Violets just as hard to find? Regardless, keep up the good work.

[Greased monkey]

Not to poo poo on your project, because i dig it, but why go to the trouble of importing a US one? Are the Violets just as hard to find? Regardless, keep up the good work.

 

Well first off my 1st car was a 710 and I like them.

The violet is cool but it's just as hard to find here and it cost a fortune.

I like the us model better and it's left hand drive which is what I'm used to driving.

I think the only thing I would use from a violet is the rear bumper (the us has those silly black rubbers) that just take away from the lines of the car.

 

The price I would have to pay to own a violet here vs importing one and building it the way I want is significant.

 

When I started the search I found 2 violets here (none was a 2 door) one 4door and 1 goon

Price was 18.5k for the 4door and 20k+ for the goon! I can only imagine me trying to speed shift from the right hand side lol

 

So left hand drive and to have a a big parts budget were key factors of why I imported one :)

[Greased monkey]

Cluster still looking good

 

 

My brother and son working on removing the side trim. I'm still not sure if I want them back on or not.

I have seen car with and without them on and it does not make it any easier to decide :/

 

 

We only had one broken drill bit while drilling out the rivets. Not to bad I guess.

 

 

Rear glass came out pretty simple

 

 

As if finding parts for this car wasn't already like finding a unicorn, now I have to add to the list... Fakk

The seal was giving me a hard time and I heard the dreaded sound of a glass starting to crack. I did what any reasonable person would do... I punched it and made it bigger :D

 

Now I need to source a glass

 

 

A view thru the trunk

 

 

That's all the pics I have loaded so far, still having issues with photo bucket.

I can only upload one picture at a time and it's really annoying me.

If this keeps up I will just skip the whole oics crap since it's a pain in the ass using my phone for this journey. Oics might have to wait till I get a dedicated camera and start using my computer for something other than YouTube.

 

Off to the races so this will have to wait.

[datsfun]

The violet is cool but it's just as hard to find here and it cost a fortune.

 

 

I think the only thing I would use from a violet is the rear bumper (the us has those silly black rubbers)

 

 

The price I would have to pay to own a violet here vs importing one and building it the way I want is significant.

 

)

710's ( badged as 160j or violet) in Japan are not as abundant as the bluebird 510 and do take a fair amount of searching. However when you say they cost a fortune, what are you comparing their japanese asking price to? The price of a US 710 or an equivalent datsun of same era and age? I have seen 160j/140j violets sell for JPY650k to JPY 1.8million for mint examples so not exactly a fortune when you compare how much a 510 / 610 sells for, on par I would say.

 

There are quite a few differences between the US based 710 and JDM violet- front fenders, grill, bumpers. Has live axle ( JDM Is IRS), instrument cluster has more gauges, interior trim differs etc..so quite a lot of petty but noticeable differences.

 

I guess in the end you will have a US nosed 710 in Japan which will be a novelty to the local masses.

 

Bookmarked and will be following progress. Good luck.

[MicroMachinery]

 

 

 

[Burabuda]

[Greased monkey]

710's ( badged as 160j or violet) in Japan are not as abundant as the bluebird 510 and do take a fair amount of searching. However when you say they cost a fortune, what are you comparing their japanese asking price to? The price of a US 710 or an equivalent datsun of same era and age? I have seen 160j/140j violets sell for JPY650k to JPY 1.8million for mint examples so not exactly a fortune when you compare how much a 510 / 610 sells for, on par I would say.

 

There are quite a few differences between the US based 710 and JDM violet- front fenders, grill, bumpers. Has live axle ( JDM Is IRS), instrument cluster has more gauges, interior trim differs etc..so quite a lot of petty but noticeable differences.

 

I guess in the end you will have a US nosed 710 in Japan which will be a novelty to the local masses.

 

Bookmarked and will be following progress. Good luck.

When I say a "fortune" I'm talking about spending 1.8-2 million yen on a car that is not completely 100% factory. On a car that I want to do some mods on. Those cars with reupholstered seats,new carpets and new paint I wouldn't call "mint" and I wouldn't shell out that kind of money to pay someone who paid someone to do it (that's over inflated) i would rather just have fun building the project the way I like it and spend a few more bucks in the process knowing how the car is prepped.

 

I'm sure that's a fair price for Japan to whoever does not want or know how to build cars just pay and drive, we all know some like projects and some like to swipe the Visa card around :)

 

Like I said earlier I prefer to be driving/racing from the left hand side anyway ;) this is my second left hand drive vehicle in Japan and if all goes well I will have a 3rd this week.

 

Till next time

[Greased monkey]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This broken glass was the windshield and the cutter cracked it pretty good so it was toast anyway I just hit it and made it bigger. Hit or no hit it was still going in the trash :(

 

If it was the rear I would have still used it till I found a new one and just cover it with the trim, but not the front..

[MicroMachinery]

Best way to do it is with the wire. I once cut one out of a 610 wagon at a wrecking yard(very hard to find, mind you), and as I was trying to push it out from the inside-out, I heard a "POP", looked up, and to my horror, my friend(who was supposed to know what he was doing) was prying it out with a screwdriver! I pointed at the crack forming at the end of the screwdriver and said, "What the f*ck, dude!?" "I didn't do that, did I?" I slapped my forhead, then walked away. Haven't found another one since :angry:

[Greased monkey]

Best way to do it is with the wire. I once cut one out of a 610 wagon at a wrecking yard(very hard to find, mind you), and as I was trying to push it out from the inside-out, I heard a "POP", looked up, and to my horror, my friend(who was supposed to know what he was doing) was prying it out with a screwdriver! I pointed at the crack forming at the end of the screwdriver and said, "What the f*ck, dude!?" "I didn't do that, did I?" I slapped my forhead, then walked away. Haven't found another one since :angry:

I've done some jobs with the wire but if you seen how the glass is on the 710 under the trim the glass is recessed into the body so the wire would have to do a 2 "magical" 90 degree turns to make it work. I guess it goes without saying but I am in search of a windshield :)

[MicroMachinery]

It's the same way on the 610s. Happy hunting :)