Half Pint - Z22 swapped 510 goon

[Charlie69]

That is a great idea on the self dimmimg mirror.  Are they available without the map lights.  i wish my harness was done.  Maybe next year

[Lockleaf]

Yes Charlie, they can be find without map lights. They often come with an lcd compass or air temp display in them though so watch for that if you don't want it. I definitely didn't want those.

 

Try looking at some late 90s early 00s fords. They seem to have what you might be looking for.

[Lockleaf]

And "done" is a relative term. I'm actually just telling myself to quit dicking with it and install it. I still plan a/c and heated (and cooled?) seats. I have no speaker wiring whatsoever. I will eventually put the battery under the rear seat.

 

But I'm getting the car going this summer. Those luxuries can wait.

 

I did get the mirror wiring in to the harness and tap the lighting for the vacuum gauge. Vacuum gauge lighting will be hooked to a 2prong connector so it's safely/easily removable if i don't want it. It also gives me a super easy way to add another lighting circuit if i want it.

[hang_510]

Awesome project!

 

Those thicker rubber isolators are the way they come and not really correct. It also didn't help with the hood clearance.

 

Nissan mounts are thick. Aftermarket are the thickness of being compressed for decades.

Mine doesn't fit without them and using stock 510 brackets.

 

Thanks guys. I seem to be putting a whole lot of effort in to making it look I haven't done anything. My sister saw the car for the first time the other day. She was blown away when I told her I easily had more than 100 hours invested in the car already. She couldn't figure out where I had put all that time, the car still looked like I had just dragged out out of a junkyard according to her :)

 

and that beasty has a Bigfoot gas pedal

If you had only rattle canned it 1 color she might have noticed all the effort.

I spent a over 100 hours and 3 different donors to fix the fender rail noone will ever see.

 

I have that gas pedal

[Lockleaf]

I picked up a couple grommets from O'reilly today to see if they would be something i could use as firewall wiring grommets. One was the perfect size. Not sure how i will seal it though.

 

 

Fits both wiring and drain holes.

 

 

And also the wiring hole i cut. For perspective, that's my fuel line on the right. Front passenger area behind headlight.

 

It's Dorman Help 42301.

 

 

Comes with two grommets only one of which was useful in this manner.

[hang_510]

Not sure how i will seal it though.

Black RTV silicone.

Or use hole plugs...

[Lockleaf]

I was thinking layers of rtv (for good curing) or that seam sealer tape/"rope" stuff

[Lockleaf]

Not much, but important. I cut a second hole in the fender well forward of the stock wiper cowl drain hole on the passenger side.

 

 

I will be routing the wiring harness through the new hole so the drain works like normal. Originally, i had the wiring going through the drain hole.

 

I got it painted where i had cut it So i didn't encourage any new rust. Hoping to install the harness in the next three days.

[Lockleaf]

I was able to stretch the grommets over everything in the harness and get them on without having to cut them. I was very surprised i was able to do so, but very happy as well. I had expected to have to cut them to get them around the harness and glue them closed.

 

My wiring is loosely loomed through the car now. I have realized there are a few lengths i should have completely wrapped, so i will be doing that before i get it set in the car more firmly.

[Lockleaf]

 

Snuggly wrapped and loomed in to place. It has enough slack i can mount it to the frame rail above and trace a nice curve around the front of the tire well into the front hole. I will be rivnutting in some threads and then bolting down some wiring retainers to hold it in place.

[Lockleaf]

 

Cleaned and clear coated my bracket and mounted the fuse boxes. For now, the bracket will remain brushed. I think it goes well with the patina. Looks clean but not so clean its out of place.

 

I got my radiator mounting brackets cleaned and clear coated as well, since i was at it, but I'm trying to maintain focus on the wiring.

 

Next up, finish getting the interior wiring in to place. After i get it all loomed through the heating and steering column again, the hard part will be properly locating and mounting everything.

 

I have a "new" hood pop lever to mount, the fuse box to mount, all of which must be mounted in such a way that it clears the a/c piping in case i decide to use that.

 

Wiring punch list:

 

Mount headlight dimmer switch

Finish electrochromic mirror wiring

Connect front door jamb switches

Install and connect rear door jamb switches

Install various retainers and mounts.

 

 

RETEST EVERYTHING!

[LTJ]

Nice work!

[Lockleaf]

Good day.

 

 

She lives!!!

 

First time I've started this engine since I bought it. Fired up with no real trouble. Impressive considering its the old plugs that came in the motor, and the cap and plug wires came off another parts 720 in my backyard.

 

I filled the bowl with gas and ran it on that. I love the giant view glass.

 

 

After running it i noticed i had melted the sheath off one of the wires....whoops. :)

 

 

Oh well.

 

I also swapped in some LEDs to my gauge bezel.

 

 

The tach may be a bit much...

 

 

Do you think that reflection on the windshield will interfere with my night vision? :)

 

I'm going to have to do something about that. But the speedo looks fantastic. I wish there was more light on the fuel/temp though.

[Lockleaf]

Spent a bunch more time on the wiring today. Lots of logistics that don't photograph well but took forever. I installed and removed the dash at least 3 times today. I figured out the final looming of the entire harness. It all fits in the dash (finally) with everything else that has to be there.

 

I got the fuse box to sit where i want it correctly. Then I relocated the hood pop lever to sit below the fuse box instead of above it. Fits much much better this way. And also allows me to put my vacuum/fuel economy gauge on that side and still use the hood pop. It took multiple layouts and over an hour to make that all work.

 

I also drilled some holes in the steering wheel support and attached a bracket across it. I will be attaching the wiper intermittent amp and the horn relay to this bracket.

 

Here's some random pics of today's work. They don't really help much though.

 

 

 

 

 

[Lockleaf]

Been ticking away at the wiring all week. Loads more little things. Mounted wiper relay, horn relay, flasher relays, and fuse box. Also mounted the vacuum gauge, added more wiring tie downs to hold the wiring, rerouted stuff like 6 times, determined i need to relocate my tachometer circuit board after i repair it (it got jacked on dash while installing gauge cluster), and did more figuring on properly mounting my a/c piping.

 

Not much that photographs well. But here they are anyways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I might be able to actually install the dash for good in the next couple of days...it's been so long it feels wrong somehow.

[Lockleaf]

All day checking off more tiny boxes. Wrapped and secured blower fan wiring. I also mounted the blower "connector" (old resistor modified to act as a connector for the 510 resistor) to the blower housing. Did more work to connector to secure wires to it and protect them as well. I also discovered that a couple layers of large heatshink makes those little sharp tabs excellent wire tie downs.

 

 

 

Painted my metal dash top with vht sayin black frame coating. It stated like this.

 

 

To painting

 

 

 

To ready to rock and roll.

 

 

 

Looks pretty good I'm thinking.

 

Relocated tach. Much better design than previous. I also resoldered some damage. Washers on it are rubber lined do they wont mess with the circuits.

 

Circuit board was on top and interfered with gauge mounting. Here is how it was.

 

 

To this.

 

 

 

Those yellow spacers are the cover bits from 12 gauge crimp wiring connectors. :)

 

Now easy to mount. Easy to connect.

 

 

Had some serious shaft wobble on my upper air door shaft. It was so bad the lever could not actuate the door.

 

This shaft.

 

 

So i lightly drilled out a nut that fit the threads, then used a grinder to cut it down into a flanged bushing that would fix the wallowed out hole.

 

What i made on the left, what it was on the right.

 

 

Slid it on the shaft and tapped it in with a socket.

 

You can kind of see how wallowed out the hole is in this pic.

 

 

Installed

 

 

Then i stacked up washers until the original hardware was pushing it into place so it won't move. (This is also the first pic i posted of the shaft. I don't have a before pic)

 

 

Still not perfect but WAY better.

 

Then i mounted the dash. All the mounting hardware is in and tight minus the two big ones on the sides. The defrost tubes are tight. The vast majority of the wiring is snugged in its place.

 

So i mock installed everything to look at it.

 

 

And for kicks, here's how it looked when i got it.

 

 

Not LOTS left to do but it all has to come back apart.

 

There are a bunch of missing plastic screw retainer things to mount everything. I will replace those.

 

I need to build radio mounts. Radio is held in with scraps of electrical wire tying it in there. I just really wanted to see it. :)

 

A few other odds and ends, but moving along nicely.

 

Here's a shot of the refurbished metal dash along side the untouched dash pad.

 

 

Harsh contrast. No me gusta. I have an idea for an intermediate dash cover to use until I refurbish or replace this one. I'll post it once i get it done.

[Lockleaf]

Still haven't touched the dash top. I'm doing other things. I'm still doing dash work though.

 

Started by replacing all the little plastic screw retainers that all the dash pieces screw in to.

 

Then got to work mounting the radio. I had no brackets to start with and I'm using a 720 radio so i was winging it. It worked out pretty well.

 

Started by just hacking out some sheet and drilling holes so it would mount to the radio. I made a stencil out of masking tape for the holes then transferred that to the sheet. It worked great.

 

 

 

I bent, cut, and swore until they hung the stereo where i wanted it. But the radio bounced a lot, so i reinforced the brackets by bending the edges over.

 

That wasn't enough so i attempted to dimple them. It worked awesome.

 

 

 

Here's how i dimpled them. Big socket and small socket in a press.

 

 

Here's how they hang the radio.

 

 

And done. For now. I hit them with some black spray paint to finish them. The faceplate is far from a good fit, but this will do for now. I don't even have knobs for it.

 

[Lockleaf]

Next up, center dash panel repair. One of the lower mounting screw holes was busted off pretty badly.

 

Half the one on the right, by the cigarette light is busted off completely.

 

 

To reinforce the repair area i heated a tiny screwdriver and stabbed it in to each side.

 

 

Then i bent a piece of wire and glued that in there. Then glued a washer to the back. I glued a washer to both sides so it would be spaced out from the dash evenly.

 

 

Using tape and straw to build a dam, i filled the whole thing with jb kwik weld. Resulting in this.

 

 

Sanded

 

 

Painted

 

 

Finished

 

[Lockleaf]

Next up, the heater control panel.

 

Mines pretty chipped up. Theres a crack completely through it under TEMP as well.

 

 

I reinforced the big missing piece with wire again. I v-grooved the crack and prep sanded a little on each of the chips along the face.

 

 

I put masking tape on the bottom as a dam and used the jb kwik again.

 

 

It ended up taking 3 layers to get good enough fill to work. Then i started sanding with 400 grit and a couple of tiny files. I used a round file to cut the lip into my repairs.

 

Sanded

 

 

Taped off and painted. I taped off the textured wings so they would continue to match the rest of the dash. I also taped off the labels. I painted it with satin black.

 

 

And finished. Painted the letters by hand. They aren't perfect, but this thing looks lightyears better than it did.

 

[Lockleaf]

And most recently, i took the dash panels completely apart and cleaned them all real good.

 

 

Then tried that 303 protectant on them because i was told it will remove sun discoloration. Left side is done.

 

 

And both sides done.

 

 

I need to finish a couple other small things on the dash before i can get it all rehung, but it's almost done.

[KELMO]

That heater bezel repair looks awesome. I will be checking back in here when I get to my 510......or I could just send my dash parts to you to clean up. :thumbup:

 

Looks good man, thanks for sharing the detail.

 

"303 protectant"  is that a brand or....?????? Curious about that as I have never heard about it.

[Lockleaf]

I tell you what. Ship your 510 dash board to me wrapped securely in a 1200 coupe and i will get it done for you. I will return ship it to you, but since it would be silly to ship it back in such heavy packaging, i will use a box and just hold on to the 1200 to save you money.

 

:)

 

Yeah 303 is a brand of products. This is the one i used.

 

 

I know you can get it at oreillys. Not sure where else.

 

Thanks for the compliments. I'm glad somebody appreciates the detail ad naseum i sometimes post on these little repairs.

[KELMO]

A very tempting offer for sure.  It would certainly save me money on one of the 1200's but then there are the 510's to consider......there really is no way to save money if you own Datsuns. B)

[Lockleaf]

Gauge bezel is 100% complete.

 

I had some brightness issues you may recall with the leds for my tachometer.

 

That took a while to tame down.

 

 

Where it's crazy bright across the bottom is open to the lights directly.

 

So i did some work to that.

 

I cut apart the cover for a dome light from a pathfinder. It was flexible, it cut nicely, and was translucent with nice defraction.

 

Then i zip tied it around a socket and put it in the toaster oven at about 150° for ten minutes, let it cool and voila, nicely curved plastic lens.

 

 

I jb welded the lens into place. Where you see white was the open space.

 

 

Sanded and test fitting the gauge against the lens.

 

After This i painted the jb weld area black.

 

It was still pretty bright.

 

 

So i glued more of that defractor lens to the top of the leds. Then i painted that black. That finally brought it down enough to be ok.

 

I didn't like the 1 white needle on the tach, so i decided to change them all to red. I also painted the tach needle base black so it's "hidden".

 

 

I used a super hardcore UV light cured colored coating. Also known as nail shellac. My wife is a professional beautician, so i abused her stuff. It flowed out more than i expected, so it's not perfect, but they all match and I'm happy. I also touched up the red square on the temp gauge.

 

Reassembled and ready to rock.

 

 

Last major step in dash restoration is the dash cap. Its looking like this.

 

 

 

 

Still working on the plan for this.

[Lockleaf]

I made a plan for the dash. Then I made another one. Then I made a third one. Then I decided I would do it "right". So here's my attempt at budget friendly "right".

 

I decided I would go for a full dash pad restoration, of the upholstered variety. Here's how I did it. I know there are better products out there than what I used, and one day I will try those products. But for now, this is where I went with this.,

 

The last pics of the post previous post show how bad my dash pad was. So I started the repair by making that worse.

 

 

 

 

 

I attacked it with a flap wheel on my grinder and tried to remove all the surface cracks and V out the deep cracks pretty good. Everything I watched and read on dash resto talked about how the dash on either side of a crack is actually raised up to a lip that has to be brought down to be level to the dash again. So I did that with the flap wheel as well.

 

I wasn't sure which technique I was going to fill the dash so I tried a couple. One classic forum technique is to use expanding blow foam, aka "Great Stuff".

 

 

It is polyurethane foam, which is what most dashes are made out of, it's flexible and sticky, and fills stuff well. Downside is its pretty porous, and can be compacted and distorted. But I tried it anyway.

 

 

Frankly, after trying to fill just like 2 cracks, I gave up. I couldn't seem to control the flow of the stuff and I seemed to be getting it everywhere but where I wanted. So I thought I would try another technique.

 

I had seen a video using fiberflex to fill dash cracks. I didn't have any of that but I had some pretty flexible plastic. So I tried plastic welding to fill a deep crack.

 

 

 

 

 

At first it seemed like it was going really well, but as the filler got thicker, it stopped being flexible and when I flexed the dash at all, the repair would tear the foam it was connected to. So fail number two. I looked in to fiberflex more and found out that it is actually a superflexible adhesive. Basically it's the ultimate in hot glue.

 

I was frustrated but decided to remove the plastic filler and try the blow foam again. I taped over some gaps with masking tape so the foam would have something to sit on. Then I played with the can for a bit to try and figure out a little finesse in my control. Once I figured that out it went much much better.

 

 

 

Here's how it looked after filling and curing for about 30 minutes. The can says wait 8 hours for full cure, so that is what I did. I waited until the next day.

 

Once the foam had cured I attacked it with an electric bread knife. I used that to shave all the big lumps down nearly into shape.

 

 

 

 

Then I grabbed my palm sander and some 80 grit and went to town. WEAR A MASK OR BREATHER, cuz damn. it's gross. and probably carcinogenic.

 

 

 

 

Once I had shaped everything I discovered I had a couple of low spots. Some hadn't filled well enough, others I got a little over enthusiastic cutting or sanding.

 

 

After filling I let it cure overnight again, then the following day followed the same cut and sand process to finish the shaping.

 

The next suggested step for the upholstery type resto is to layer the whole thing in some kind of thin dense foam to ensure a consistent feel and appearance under the fabric. I spent a while looking for budget options for this kind of thing and finally it occurred to me to use a yoga mat. I got mine at walmart for about $7.50.

 

I adhered everything with Bosch 77 spray adhesive. It seems to work good and is common in this type use. But it works better if you use it in moderation. Hosing an area with it made it work worse.

 

 

I layed out the yoga mat and just cut a large chunk that was bigger that the dash pad.

 

 

I started by just gluing the "lip" where it tucks under the metal front half of the dash. I used document clamps to hold it all in place while it cured initially.

 

 

I left a clamp in place about every 4 inches while I glued the rest of it. I glued the top next, but I didn't put a lot of stretch or stress in to the yoga mat. I just rolled it on to the glue and made it smooth.

 

 

 

The part I stretched at all was around the center where the dash fits over the heater controls. I stretched and pulled and clamped and none of that worked super well, so I ended up slitting the mat in the inner corners to get it to lay properly. I hand trimmed everything with an exacto to get it where I wanted it. I had to also cut and trim the end flaps to get it all to lay together nicely. Once I had glued the end caps down, I sanded the edges of the seam to roll it over more smoothly as well.

 

 

 

 

 

I used E6000 to glue the end caps in place, because i needed something I could work up in with popsicle stick or a toothpick to anywhere it wasn't sticking as well as I wanted. Then I used the document clamps to hold the yoga mat down while that cured

 

 

 

Heres the finished yoga mat wrap.