bullitt210

I know...I know!!! I bought this because I missed my 78 GX. Now I have it and don't have the funds to work on it. It comes down to: 3 kids 1 income 1 'hotrod' I will not part with 1 daily driver that is about to need a motor This car basically will pay for the engine I need for my wagon...hopefully. If it sells at all....

Wow, really? No input on the thread until this beaut of a post.......nice. I actually do feel bad about this and I am certain I will wish I hadn't sold it IF it actually sells.

Now For Sale on ebay..... http://www.ebay.com/itm/191204906911

Well, It has now been 6 months since I started the cut on the front end and I have still yet to find the time to finish that same cut. I want so badly to get this car fixed right and make it a driver again. It has zero rust in it and if the front clip was done right, it would likely be one of the most solid B210's in the country. The lack of miles on this car is astounding and the interior condition shows it well. Now that I have 3 kids and two other cars that could be considered "projects", it is nearly impossible to find the time to put into this Datsun. I wish I had a place to store it away for a few years until I had more time and money for it, but right now, that place is in my garage and it keeps me from parking something else in there that I would rather keep under cover during storms. I may be posting this thing in the For Sale section soon against my better judgement.....

Started cutting the front clip off this thing two nights ago. This should be fun!

At last I had the opportunity to start digging into the FO yesterday. I decided to take all the panels off of the front end and get the Volvo redblock and trans out of the way so I could get a good look at the bodywork the shop did over 30 years ago. From what I uncovered, I was terrified at the idea of someone having picked this car up and started driving it after the "repair". I knew there was damage to the front end when I bought it, and the bodyshop that did the work was so embarrassed about their work, they used seam sealer and rubber undercoating to cover it all up. Not only that but there were bolts missing and loose that held the crossmember and suspension to the car. Under the core support, the radius rod tie-in plates were not bolted up since the alignment of the replacement front end was so far off, the bolts wouldn't go in. The entire clip was booger welded on to the towers rather than using nice neat fill welds where they could have cut the spot welds out instead of breaking them away from the other car. I have started to cut all of the welds that the body shop did so I can remove the clip, fix/replace the metal and reinstall it properly. I also plan to add stiffeners to the front end to add some structural rigidity. I will continue to take pics throughout the project and post them here. While the clip is off, I will likely take the opportunity to get the Volvo redblock mounted and in place while I have room to work from the front of the car. But if I get lucky, I will use the front crossmember from a Volvo 240 and then the lca's, engine mounts and rack and pinion will simply bolt up to the car. More on that adventure later. In the following pics, you will see misaligned and unattached structure, loose fasteners and holes that were blown into the sheetmetal from welding through. This is going to be a big project for me that will take a lot of my time to repair correctly, but I will have piece of mind afterward since I plan to drive this car very aggressively.

Sneak peek at the wheels I plan to use.

Okay, I am going to step back into this project now and try to get some real work done. I got the 302 back in my Volvo and it is up and running so that cleared the working side of the garage out so I can get the FO over there. Since the issue with the Datsun axles arose I backed away to see what my next logical step would be. This means that the front suspension needed to be redesigned to determine wheel track for the rear. I am currently at the point where all of the Datsun's original suspension has been removed down to the crossmember. I jumped in with both feet and decided to mock up suspension from a Volvo 240. I dug out my spare control arms and strut assemblies and began mocking it up to see if it would be a feasible option. At first glance, it in fact does look like it will work quite well. The Volvo control arm bolt to the Datsun lca point and will just need a bracket built to capture the aft end since it is technically an "A" arm. That is the easy part. The Volvo strut assembly is very comparable in length to the Datsun part and since I wanted Volvo calipers and rotors anyway, it makes the transition easy. All I need is a coilover kit and I will have a sprung assembly. That brings me to the steering. I feel that I can use the Volvo rack as well (I mean why not, right?) but there is a challenge to build the proper brackets and make them attach to the stock crossmember. So in true overkill fashion, tonight I plan to take some measurements on a Volvo crossmember. If this is possible to bolt to the Datsun that would answer my rack mounting as well as my sway bar mounting. If this is the way it has to work, I am thrilled with it as it would also answer my engine mounting questions. But this also means the wheel track is going to be quite wide for the Datsun body making flares neccessary. I will start updating this thread as more work gets accomplished. I have one pic now mocking up my wheel choice that I will post soon.

I have the original window sticker and sales contract for the 76 I bought. I'll try to remember to grab it so I can scan and post it here. I thinnk it was right at $4K after a/c, gt steering wheel, am/fm and side mouldings....

^^^Do eeeet!!!

wow

So....I had a dissappointing week. I picked up my axles from the shop where I had left them. He had done nothing but ruin on of them by using a die grinder to remove one of the bearing retainers. He cut too deep and left me with a .125" deep groove in one fo the axles. He didn't think it was a big deal and offered to weld it and grind it back down, when I declined due to safety reasons, he turned his back on me and continued working on another project. This got me to thinking a bit more about what I am doing and I came to the conclusion that it makes sense for me to try and use the Dana 30 (Volvo 1030) diff I have in the backyard. It was slated for another car but now that particular car is being sold so no bother. The only problem I foresee is the width of the axle which will force me to either narrow the Volvo axle or use flares on my car. I am not opposed to either option but I am more in favour of narrowing the axle. Now I will do some measuring and fitting this weekend to figure out how much would have to come out of the tubes and I need to start looking for a shop that could narrow it for me. If I have enough time, I also hope to figure out how much Volvo front suspension can be used as well.

Both engines came with a carb. Rock auto has kits to rebuild them for $7 each!! Anyway, I would be willing to part with one. Contact me at bullitt210atgmaildotcom and maybe we can figure something out.

Looks good!! The stripes remind me of the Yenko stripes I put on my old '78 back in the day....