Nzdatto Posted May 17, 2015 Report Share Posted May 17, 2015 Hey guys i have always loved the datsun 510 but they are very hard to come by here in nz and people always want top dollar for them... I finally managed to get my hands on one about a year ago. I have had a bit of a head start and done the bodywork but after reading through a few build threads on here i decided i would like to do my own one.. I am not the most mechanically minded person but have plenty of mates who are and a workshop with all the good tools/ hoist and even a spray booth Quote Link to comment
Dirttrack510 Posted May 17, 2015 Report Share Posted May 17, 2015 Welcome to Ratsun, but we gotta have pics :sleep: Like we always say... "Pics or it didn't happen" :rofl: Quote Link to comment
tr8er Posted May 17, 2015 Report Share Posted May 17, 2015 Welcome. You will find the answers here I'm sure, mate... Quote Link to comment
Nzdatto Posted May 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2015 Cheers guys, quick question.. How do i upload photos into the post it doesnt give me the option? Quote Link to comment
Fat510 Posted May 17, 2015 Report Share Posted May 17, 2015 The s a how to post pics in general discussion. It's a pinned topic Quote Link to comment
Dirttrack510 Posted May 17, 2015 Report Share Posted May 17, 2015 Here's your link on how to post photos...http://community.ratsun.net/topic/54932-photobucket-ratsun/ Quote Link to comment
Nzdatto Posted May 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 ok cheers guys i think i got it sorted.. here are a few pics of the datsun when i bought it, it wasn't perfect but i had to take what i could get like i said they dont come up for sale very often here in nz.. the body had small spots of rust coming through in the typical places like rear quarters,bottom of from guards, taillight panel and bottom of doors. and some if it looked like it was full of bog.. but the interior was pretty tidy and it was a good runner so i went ahead and snapped it up 2 Quote Link to comment
Nzdatto Posted May 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 i planned to get it back home and pull it to bits straight away and tidy up but after taking for a small drive i thought id like to get it legal first and have a bit of fun before i take off the road for god knows how long. as it sat down at the workshop i kept looking at it and thinking i need to get some rims now! i jumped online and brought myself a set of 15x8 xxr 001, i also wanted to lower it a bit more and while i was waiting on the rims to arrive i did a bit of research and found that 280zx struts were the way to go. i managed to track down a pair with the bigger brakes so that was a bonus. the rims arrived and i was straight down to the workshop to swap out the suspension and chuck on the rims... i was pretty happy with the end result 2 Quote Link to comment
Nzdatto Posted May 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 shortly after this i bumped into a mate of a mates who was a qualified panelbeater down at my workshop doing some repairs on a rx3 down there, i mentioned i wanted to strip back the datsun and panel and repaint it, he said he was just about finished the job he was doing so offered to do the work for a good price! as i started to pull of the panels i realised the rust was worse than i first thought.. the top edges of the inner guard where rotten as were the bottoms of the front guards. he advised me that the rear quarters looked like they had been bogged up and suggested i strip the whole ass end back to bare steel and start from scratch, once done it was made clear they rust was pretty bad, it was not only the bottom of rear quarter but the inner skin also! i left the car with him for a few weeks and popped down every few days to see how he was going. he was good enough to take lots of photos and send them through to me.. there was rust in the rear guards, tailight panel, around boot, the sills, all 4 doors inner and outer, front guards, inner guards, the floor and around both windscreens. i wasn't too shocked at the extent after all it is a datsun!! here are some pics through the panelbeating stage.. you guys said the more the pics the better so here ya go! 1 Quote Link to comment
Nzdatto Posted May 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 it had been about 3 weeks and i got the call to say it was all done and ready to pickup so i headed down with a trailer and picked it up. i was overall pretty happy with the work he had done, especially for the price! then it was back to the workshop so i could get stuck in and get it ready for paint 1 Quote Link to comment
Nzdatto Posted May 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 i got it back to the workshop and i was dead keen to rip into it, being an ex car painter i done all the prep/paint work myself.. i knew what i was in for and knew i had a lot of sanding ahead of me so for the next few nights i stripped all the panels back off and began with sanding the shell itself, the door jams took forever the paint was flaking off so had to sand back to steel now it was at this time i remembered why i gave up painting!! finally it was sanded so i got it all masked up and sprayed 4 good costs of 2pak primer on it then chucked outside in the sun to dry off 1 Quote Link to comment
Nzdatto Posted May 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 next i tackled the doors guards boot and bonnet, by the time i had them all sanded up and ready for primer my finger tips were a couple mm shorter! i was well over it especially knowing i had to sand the whole thing again! i took a couple weeks off working on it and started to look at colours... at first i was looking at solid pastel colours like red green blue white etc but i decided I'm more of a metalic man so went down that path.. i finally decided i would like a silver/gun metal and thought it woulld go good with the chrome trims etc.. i spent about a hour in the printshop looking through colour chips and spraying some test panels and finally came out with 4litres of a factory nissan gun metallic colour.. i really liked the look of it in the sunlight didn't have much of a dark flip to it like most the gunmetals do..by now i had found some more motivation to get it painted so back to the workshop i went and got stuck into blocking down the with 240 grit then buzzed over the whole thing with 400grit. being a silver i wanted to paint the whole outside in one hit so there was no chance of panels looking slightly different when put back on.. i started by spraying the door jams, boot jam, inside of doors, guard edges and under side of bonnet and boot. i decided i would do the engine bay at a later date seeing as i had always planned on a sr20det conversion. 1 Quote Link to comment
Nzdatto Posted May 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 now it was time to bolt all the panels back on and get it ready to paint the outside, i got them all sitting on there and gave it a quick buzz over with 400 grit to get rid of the overspray. then 1 final check over to make sure there were no imperfections before i went at it with the spray gun..i was pretty happy with it so spent the next couple hours masking up the door jams etc so no overspray would get through the gaps, masked off the windows and rolled in into the booth! 1 Quote Link to comment
Nzdatto Posted May 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 now the fun part! i was a bit worried about how it was going to turn out as it had been about 5years since i last painted a car but decided to commit.. whats the worst that could happen right? turns out painting is just like riding a bike! it turned out great i was stoked with the end result and especially with the colour! gave it a day to harden off the pulled it out and gave it a 2000 grit sand and a polish. come up mint! 3 Quote Link to comment
Dirttrack510 Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 FAWK!!! Nice posts! That looks awesome! Nice work. 1 Quote Link to comment
Lockleaf Posted May 18, 2015 Report Share Posted May 18, 2015 Very nice color choice. Car looks gorgeous. Nice work. Quote Link to comment
Greiggy Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 wow. amazeballs. killer job, the 510 looks awesome good work !! Quote Link to comment
WICKED JESTER Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 awsome work great color cant wait to see what comes next :thumbup: :thumbup: Quote Link to comment
Nzdatto Posted May 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 cheers guys, next was the fun part of putting back together..i was looking around for different wheel options, ideally i wanted ssr mk3s but decided to wait till i finished everything else first. a set of 15x8/9s grid vs popped up for cheap but i knew 9s would be a tight fit.. they were so cheap i couldn't say no. i tried the 9s on the back but they were rubbing on the guards however it looked assume! i was now committed o making them fit, i machined the inside of them down 5mm which made it slightly better but unfortunately i had come to realise they were going to be very impractical Quote Link to comment
Nzdatto Posted May 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 meanwhile i started putting all the chrome trim and rights grill etc on.. it was finally looking like a car again and i was happy with how it looked. i decided to put up a post trying to find someone keen on swapping the 9's for 8's, it was only a couple days before i found someone local that was keen so that worked out good. however they were gun metal centres so i would have to paint them but that was no biggie.. i has a quick idea of painting the 2 wheels gold to see what they looked like before i went ahead with silver.. i quite like the look of them in gold altho silver does look cleaner.. i still haven't made up my mind yet what do you guys think? here are a couple pics 1 Quote Link to comment
Nzdatto Posted May 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2015 i had been looking on local buy sell site for datsun 510 parts everyday and there just happened to be a 71 510 rolling body just listed for a very good price, it looked pretty sound in photos so i gave the guy a call and pretty much told him id take it, i cudnt help myself. the body was in very good condition it had been sitting in a dry shed for the past 10 years i knew it would make for a good project.. it also had good tidy bumpers and all the chrome trim etc was there 1 Quote Link to comment
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