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Long Time Lurker - First Time Owner


datphu

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Greetings. My name is Brian, I live in San Marcos CA, and I'm the proud new owner of a 1968 Datsun 510 4-Door sedan. I've been wanting a 510 for a very long time now and have been browsing Craigslist for a while. I finally found one that met my criteria of being mostly stock, drivable, minimal damage, and didn't have a crazy high price tag attached to it. So far so good. The car does have some bumps and bruises but that's to be expected for a vehicle that's nearing 50 years in age. I picked it up in Whittier CA and drove it home about 100 miles with no issues. I did stop a few times to let it rest as being my first time driving the vehicle I didn't not want to overdo it. I already started pulling out the interior bits to inspect and clean things up. It appears that it was sitting out for some time with the trunk open as there is some surface rust inside the trunk as well as vacated wasp nests.

 

My initial plans are to clean up the interior and replace the front seats. The current seats are torn up and offer no support. The back seat is in very good condition and will stay. I also want to tidy up the steering as it has lots of play on center. Brakes are good but I'd like to upgrade to 280ZX brakes if I can find some (I think I mainly need the hubs). But I like the idea of keeping the factory brakes so I can still run the stock 13's as I think it's a nice look. After that it would be on to the engine and suspension. But for now it's drivable as it is, so that makes me happy.

 

Here are a few pics of it sitting in it's new home.

 

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Looks like the front clip has been replaced at one point. Likely from a 69 by the looks of the grille and buckets.

 

Nice car though! 

Yes, there was some damage to the front that required a new grill and possibly a new hood. Also looks like the fenders were either touched up or painted to match the hood. And of course the paint doesn't match the rest of the car so I'm rollin two-tone for now. Would be nice to scuff up the new paint to match the old if possible as I like the aged look.

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My initial plans are to clean up the interior and replace the front seats. The current seats are torn up and offer no support. The back seat is in very good condition and will stay. I also want to tidy up the steering as it has lots of play on center. Brakes are good but I'd like to upgrade to 280ZX brakes if I can find some (I think I mainly need the hubs). But I like the idea of keeping the factory brakes so I can still run the stock 13's as I think it's a nice look. After that it would be on to the engine and suspension. But for now it's drivable as it is, so that makes me happy.

The steering is likely a combination of all the wear in the ball joints, plus the idler arm.

 

The zx calipers and hubs will not fit the 510 struts. If it was this easy everyone would have done this years ago. But wait it's not all bad news but it is a bit of work. You need to swap the 280zx struts onto your 510. For one thing they are an inch or two shorter and eventually you will want to lower your car, trust me. Basically you trim the lower spring perches off both struts. The zx springs are way to wide to fit up into your strut towers. Put your 510 springs top hats and lower spring perches on the zx strut tubes and install. Now the larger caliper and vented rotor will fit. The zx hub also has larger bearings and this is why it won't fit the 510 spindle. I did this on my 710 and it cost me under $30 and the height is adjustable using only a 6" angle grinder. Doubtful if the 13" rim will fit. Some will if you carefully grind away some of the caliper body... but why would you want tiny 13" rims anyway?  

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Thanks datzenmike. I started researching the steering play and it also lead me to the ball joints, idler arm, etc. I lifted the car yesterday to inspect and yes, all the rubber is deteriorated. Time for replacing.

 

Regarding the ZX brakes, yes I understand it would require a bit more work than just bolting on the ZX hubs and calipers. I was actually thinking of getting the T3 coilover setup with the 280ZX struts, assuming I could source the remaining ZX goodies to go with it. Otherwise, I might go with the T3 coilover setup with the 510 struts and maybe get the Wilwood disc brake kit from Troy Ermish. As far as the 13" wheels go, I just think the stock look is nice and clean. But if better (and bigger) brakes means upgrading the wheel size, then so be it. And I know that I'll be itching for wider rubber anyway to help with the handling.

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Part of better braking performance is contact patch as well. An unmodified 510 is rather frightening to drive on the road by modern standards (faster highway speeds, bigger cars, etc). It would be best to -- at the same time you're upgrading your brakes -- also increase the amount of rubber you have touching the ground. It will make the car feel more stable at higher speeds and help make you stop faster (too big without an increase in power though, and you're just going to hurt your acceleration, stock tires are 165s or 175s right? I ran 185s when I first got my dime running, and thought that was scary on the freeway...). 

 

My point being, while the stock look for wheels is cool, it's really not all that great in practice. Though, if you want the old school hubcap look, Chevrolet Corvair steelies are the same bold pattern and should clear the ZX brakes or Troy's Wilwood kit since they 14s. This would also allow you to put more tire on the car. 

 

Mooneyes makes a smooth dog dish hub cap that fits the Corvair Steelies  ;)

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Yes, I agree with increasing the amount of rubber on the road. Mine has 175's currently and it was quite an adventure driving on the freeway. Freeway driving with only a 4-speed is not much fun either. So most likely I'll end up going with some 14's or 15's and as wide as I can go without any rubbing. Panasports or Wantanabe's would be nice!

 

For now I'll just tidy things up to get it running a bit better in it's current form. I'd like to fix the steering components but need to address the fluid leak going on under the car first. I don't want to put nice parts on just to have them get all greased up. From the looks of the leak it appears to be from the manual transmission pan. Hopefully just needs a new gasket.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 7 months later...
I haven't posted in a while and thought it would be good to give an update on the progress. First thing I did was tidy up the engine a little. It appeared that I had a leak from the oil pan so I removed it, repainted the pan, and reinstalled with a new gasket. I made a couple of attempts to clean the grease, oil, years of crap from the bottom of the motor. So far it looks like the leak is under control for the most part.

 

I then noticed that the coolant was really nasty. It was brown, which made me first think there was an issue with the head gasket. But either way, the coolant needed to be replaced so I flushed the cooling system (including the radiator). While I was at it I replaced the water pump, water pump belt, and thermostat. I guess the water pump was in such bad shape that it was putting strain on the motor to turn it and get warmed up. So after these fixes, the car seems to warm up quickly and idle much nicer. The coolant is staying green which tells me that the it just wasn't changed in a long time.

 

I picked up some Gold Drag DR-20's in 15x7 with 0 offset along with some new tires (195/50/R15) since I needed something bigger to clear the 280ZX brakes that I was able to purchase. So now I have the bigger brakes, bigger wheel hubs, and bigger wheels to clear the brakes. I also have the 280ZX struts but decided instead of modifying them for coilovers, that I would probably just buy the already built setup from T3. I figured while I was at it, I might as well pick up more goodies from T3. Let's just say I got a bit excited and ordered more than I really needed.

 

So far I've installed the T3 rear coilover setup since I figured it would be the easiest and quickest to tackle. I had to roll the rear fenders a bit to clear the wider wheels and tires. The rear is sitting fairly low now with no rubbing so far. I have some old dent removal tools that include big heavy hunks of metal that worked really well at massaging the fender lips.

 

Here are some pictures after the rear suspension install.

 

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I'm currently in the process of removing the front suspension and steering components. Took a break at the moment because removing those tie rods aren't as easy as I originally thought. Good thing I'm swapping them out with more T3 goodies so the re-install shouldn't be as bad. But I haven't gotten that far yet so we'll see how it goes.

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So part of my T3 purchases included the GTX2 setup (control arms + tie rods). It turns out that the 68 has the 11mm ball joints and the GTX2 control arm pin is designed to work with the bigger 14mm steering knuckle.

 

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So looks like I need to try to find me some later model steering knuckles in 14mm. Anyone have some extra's laying around :angel:?

 

And regarding the fenders, I was contemplating getting the JDM/AUS fenders from Futo Fab. The side marker cutout and emblem holes aren't exactly the same, but it might still work. The other option is to get blank fenders from Futo Fab and just cut the holes yourself.

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Someone responded to my WTB posting for 14mm steering knuckles and they are now sitting in my garage waiting to be installed. Today I took another shot at removing the inner tie rods. This time I decided to remove the cross member to get better leverage to knock those suckers out with a hammer. Worked great. And figured while the cross member was out, I'd clean it up and paint it before putting it back in. Also drilled out the center drag link to fit the T3 tie rods that will be going in. Still need to drill out the steering knuckles before I can get everything together. While I had the extra space I figured I'd install the T3 steering box brace.

 

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I'll need to replace the bushings in the idler arm before installing the brace on that side. I was thinking of just replacing the entire idler arm with one from Troy Ermish, but looks like they're no longer available. With the cross member out, I'm wondering if I should replace the motor mounts. They look to still be in good shape but pretty soft. I'll need to see what the replacement options are for these.

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  • 1 month later...

Latest progress report is that I was attempting to remove the rubber brake hoses and replace them with some steel braided ones I picked up. However, those flare nut bolts are proving to be a huge PITA to remove. So I figured for now I would leave them be and focus on putting the suspension and steering components back together. Here's a shot of the initial test fit that I did. Haven't tightened anything down, just wanted to put it together to see how everything would fit together. So far, it's looking good.

 

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