Byron510

Been some time since I read through your thread. Started from the beginning - geez, it's quite the build thread Josh. Good on ya for sticking with it - many lesser men would have.... I'm pretty much off the 510's this year. Bought a house in the spring and am building a shed in the back yard that I've nicknamed Datsun Central. But I look forward to getting back to projects next year. If it wasn’t for time well wasted at work, I'd have never got through your thread today :-) Super stoked to see the history fall out of the woodwork on your car from three different sources, now that's cool. Like your car, my Bronze car also has a worthy heritage that's been worth documenting. Keep 'er going and updates coming. Byron

This is actually a photo I took of a 68 USDM dash that came out of a 4 door many years ago. Funny that it should surface here after all these years. I'm personally very partial to the early dashes myself. I even brought back in a 69 SSS coupe dash from a trip to Australia to install in my Bronze car. That dash panel fit quite well in a Canadian 68 dash frame. I wish you luck on your search, something is bound to come up. Byron

Hi Bob, I remember looking at this thread in 2009 when the truck was basically a concept, the first page of this thread. Life happened in the mean time, added a son, started a restoration of a good friends 510, added a number mods to my own 510 - the Bronze, just been busy is the best way to put it. My wife loves the 520 trucks, one came up for sale last week, and while googling for photos I stumbled upon this thread again. It's taken me a week of mornings and evening's to plow through your build thread. Amazing work, you've done your truck justice, there's no doubt about it. From concept to complete execution, you've simply build a fun truck for many to envy. There's no doubt about it. As I read through the threat now, and realizing that it's been completed for some time now, I still feel a congratulations is in order on the project. I also have a 60+ page build thread on my Bronze 510, and like you I prefer to do as much of my own work that I can. This car was also built t to be an auto X and track car. This fall was the first real track time it got and I look forward to more next year. If you have week to spare, I invite you to browse my build thread as well ; http://www.the510realm.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=530 Great job and an inspiration to many. I suppose a guy like you doesn't sit still and I'll need to go look at your other build threads now. Great job on the truck, it's just inspiring work. Byron

Good morning Josh, That’s an interesting way to make it work on your car. With a 1/4" off the side plates, how much clearance is there between the U bracket and the X-member at the pivot bolt? Also, in your application with the new pivot tubes welded to the LCA, how much space do you have between this point and the U bracket itself? Can we gain some more toe adjustment here if I were to make you a new set? Effectively moving the slot closer to the X member. Keep in touch. Byron

Hi Josh, I have placed a photo of the brackets on my car - rear is at just under 1/2 negative camber and you can still see adjustment left on the brackets – more than enough to bring the camber in to positive territory. My car is low, it was under 5” at the rocker - so comparable to yours for sure. And there is enough toe adjustment to bring that to zero as well. You can see here that the adjustment is close to the front, but it’s not all the way. I wish I had better photos on hand. I've been looking at your thread trying to figure out what is different on your set up. There have been over 50 sets sold, and I've had feedback on at least half of them - all positive. This is the first time I’ve hear of a problem. I'm sure there is an easy answer. I've just shot you a PM, we'll get in touch on the phone and talk soon. Byron

Just to add to the thread a bit, on my car (The Bronze), I run 1/2 degree negative camber in the rear; it's barely visible to the eye even on 7" wide rims with 205 tires. Here are a couple shots of my car after the 15's were put on this year - I didn't change any suspension settings from the 13's I'd always previously run, but in the one photo from the rear at an angle, you can see that the front has about 1 degree negative, where the rear has .5 degrees. In the shot directly from the rear the tire looks perpendicular - but it is at 1/2 degree negative. I'll check back tomorrow, see what you have found out. Byron

Back again Josh, This is the first time I’ve been on your build thread – nice job on the rear LCA bushings! I need to go through the rest of your build. However what I have found so far: -Your ride height at the rocker is comparable to my car, so ride height is definitely not the issue. -Is your rear X member against the floor? It shouldn’t matter that much as my car still has adjustment left at the same height, and should more than compensate even if the X member were in its stock location. -You’re right about the spherical bushes – the first set were in my car for 20 years, I just replaced them in 2005 because I thought I should, not really because they needed to be replaced. There are over 60 sets of these brackets out there, and this is the first time I have heard of an issue with not enough adjustment. There must be something we are missing here, or possibly a combination of things. I can see that you took care to weld the new bushing tubes in the right place; it is possible they are off. I have to admit, the mod you have done I have not seen before. However your photos show your method – it looks good, but I fear something got missed somehow. I have build a number of spherical bushing sets myself for my own projects as well as others - utilizing com10 bushes only sleeving the stock LCA holes. Three other guys come immediately to mind locally as well, all doing similar mods and using my brackets. I know that one guy (Ash510 on the realm) is running zero toe on the rear of his car without concern. There should be enough adjustment. When utilizing the stock LCA, it’s the arm itself bottoming against the bracket which limits the travel. If all else was equal, it would appear that your set up should have more ajsutment in the regard as it appears your tubes may be thinner in cross section – the radius from the center of the spherical bush to the OD of the tube. So there must be something else in the geometry of the set up that has changed. As commented above, relocating the inner tube pivot point on the LCA could also work, but what a pain in the but to do this twice. Your comment above is spot on as to why we should use spherical bushes when correcting the suspension geometry on really low 510’s – the angels do get really extreme. Guys ask all the time if they can use poly bushes with these adjustable set ups – can you imagine the stress on the parts? Keep me posted on the stock LCA, see if there is any change. This should tell us were we need to look. Please stay in touch; I’ll follow up through your thread. There must be an answer that is pretty strait forward. Byron

Hi Josh, Just got your PM - thanks you for dropping me a line, it's been a while since I dropped in here at Ratsun. I'm looking at the photos and all looks good so far, yet I can see no reason for the lack of adjustment. These brackets were designed to work on low cars. My car is 2 1/2" off the ground at the front K member, and sits pretty level. So your ride height isn’t the issue. The brackets were designed to give from 1/4" toe out to way more toe in that you'd ever need. Most guys run their cars from zero to 1/4" toe in at the rear, depending on the cars intended use. I actually run the ¼” toe in setting on R compound tires, it works well. And I still have lots of adjustment left; more than enough to take the settings past zero to toe out is I choose. This is what is puzzling me on your application. I’m going to look through your build thread, and get back to you… Byron

Here are some pics of my scalloped 620. This was my first complete paint job that I did myself. I was surprised that my father let me back to his house ever again after this one! This is 1991 I think. I didn’t keep his truck for too long – some guy offered a wad of cash for it…and it disappeared. Anyways enjoy the ideas; at least you get to see the job on a Datsun. You even get to see my old flared wagon in the background with 13X7 Libra’s and then ultra cool 235/50 – 13 TA’s. Byron

You guys caught the strait axle under that 620, right! The ones that were sold here in NA were made into 4X4's right on our shores, using a jeep axle and transfer case, and were adapted to use the stock 620 brakes. I wonder what that NX truck had for an axle. I know that there was a shop right here in metro Vancouver on Annasis Island that did the conversions. I don't know if they did all the conversions, or just the ones sold in Canada. Pretty cool. I actually love the shots of the rust 510's - ever one has a story and it's kind like art. You wouldn't dare move some of those, it's be like a sand castle disintegrating in your hands. Gotta wonder what's with the vineyards and abandoned 510's? Cool thread. Byron

The Bronze for obvious reasons :D I've owned may 68's, but I've always just simply referred to this one as THE 68, likely because it was my favorite 68 that I've owned/built, and the only 510 that I have ever suffered post partum with out of the countless 510's that have gone through my fleet over the years... ...and this was Sahara, because Nissan called it Sahara Gold And the last photo of Sahara- the car died an untimely death about 48 hours after this photo was taken -and it damn near too my brother with it, thankfully my bro came through, but the car was a total loss Byron

Both mirrors are functional, and as a bonus the pass side unit is wide angle so I really do get to see quite a bit. I'm a tall guy which may be an advantage - a shorter person may have the pass side view obstructed a bit. You'll also notice a 5 panel wink mirror - I pretty serious about seeing what goes on behind me as well! Byron

Wow, really? I must be sitting on a gold mine :D I don't wish to sell anything (please don't ask), but I have 3 pairs of Mikuni's - 2 sets of 44's on comp intake manifolds, and one C&B manifold, and a set of Mikuni 40's. It may be sac-relig... but I turned my 45 Webbers into this... I am pretty proud of the DIY everthing on this EFI set up - not a conversion for the faint of heart.