1971 Datsun 1600 aka 510 Wagon

rotorman_12 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:19 am

Hi guys,

Finally went to the darkside, I’m a long time Mazda rotary fanatic but recently bought this gem,

The opportunity was too good to resist as the condition of the car was simply amazing.

It’s a 1971 datsun 1600 wagon (510 in the US),

Should be suited for daily duties once this will finished.

The car had been owned by an old man since new, the guy I bought it off had it for some time and has done a few things to it, some things I approve some I don’t.

The car was a long way from where I live, but once I saw it I knew I had to have it, as cars like these aren’t advertised because they sell straight away.

Once bought I had to put it on the hoist to double check my instincts and to see if there was any unseen nasty issues.

All pretty clean under there, nice thick under body has been applied in the past,

Checks on arches and drainage holes, no rust, all fine and not blocked.

This is ridiculous! A datsun that the same age as my Mazda that has no rust issues?!

Anyway, at this point I have taken a bit of time off work and since this shell is virtually defect free, I have put the Mazda on the backburner and this should give me enough time to bowl over what I plan for this car, and this taking over daily car duties.

Car currently has an L20b engine in it mated to a 4 speed stumpy gearbox,
Front end and rear has all new suspension,
180b shocks, master cylinder, front brakes have been put in.

Issues:

-There are 3 small dents in the car,
-The clear coat is fading and about to peel,
- The previous owner made a mess of the R/h strut tower with brake fluid, the paint is gone.
- Its metallic British racing green, sorry but on a E type jag maybe,
But for me no thanks, don’t think its original colour anyway as it looks to have had a respray in the past,
(Original colour was red)

Plans are to respray and panel all the body myself as I see this as a good base to learn some new techniques as I haven’t dwelled in that side of car restoration.

rotorman_12 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:43 am

Quickly changed out the things that bugged me,

Had this old steering wheel laying around that suited the car more,

Ripped out the stereo, really wished he didn’t cut these gaping holes in good door trims!!

Or bash the door in to make the speakers fit, Grr,

Shame I have to get new ones now,

Ripped out this stereo Junk,

And put this original radio back in, looks much better,

But I won’t be listening too much of it because I bought this!

Who needs radio when you got the sound of 2x 45 DCOE Webers!

Engine is a L20b,

(I put and polished "DATSUN 1600 OHC" rocker cover to clear bonnet and mislead everyone. :wink:

)
Has A Regraphed S2 Bluebird dizzy
Top Gun leads (damaged in transit :evil:

)
HEC215 ignition coil
Old school Alfa fuel pressure regulator
Fuel pressure gauge and associated fuel line plumbing
Extractors
74deg cam, ported head work (peanut head),
Twin 45 DCOE 13 Webers on a big bore manifold,
Fully blueprinted/balanced bottom end, lightened flywheel and strong clutch
Estimates of a 120hp at wheels,

This hopefully should keep me interested for a while as I’m used to big noise and high rpm :lol:

,

Was feeling all high and mighty until this showed up next door! :shock:

Brand new Lamborghini Super Legerra, wow.

rotorman_12 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:57 am

Took the engine out today,

From this:

To this:

Really easy on a hoist with an engine crane with load leveller!,

I’m never going back to on the floor with jacks/stands and a block and tackle,

Took all accessories out, unpicked all brake lines of the firewall, labelled all wiring and bunch it all up together so when I paint the engine bay.

Undid the steering box, to get to that chassis rail and strut tower,

Will blast this area in the coming days and prime for paint.

3 days into it and the project is coming along nicely, engine out, stripped out exterior and everything else that needed to be done.

Stay tuned for updates and some body work soon.

Cheers.

rotorman_12 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 21, 2012 5:26 am

Its been a while, and the car is actually mostly finished since november, but have been that busy with work havent had must chance to show it off.

some more build pics:

paint shopping:

door mirror mounting holes had to go as I had other plans:

fixed a few small dents, welded over front bumper mounting holes:

put up the improvised paint booth:

after i scuffed paint and smoothed all chips and dents, its masked up ready to get a coat of hi fill:

after that it was time to paint interior and and engine bay:

settled on a solid grey/blue colour (looks quite grey under the harsh fluro lights??)

Under the daylight once dry looked much nicer blue:

spent a terrible week blocking the body back:

improved on my extraction fan setup for final coat:

so much so the walls were caving in, had to board up the floor with plywood and restrain the wall:

paint off the gun:

and out of the booth:

new assembled and painted grill:

rotorman_12 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 21, 2012 5:40 am

Now for the fun part!

Fixing up the engine bay and installing the new engine and new R30 gearbox:

Fuel system to handle the webers:

Braized new fuel pickup in, using the old one as a return:

Connected the empty fuel tank under an exhaust for a good while before braizing the new pick up in:

Shipment of awesome stuff:

stay tuned for more...

gokiburix · **Posted:** Tue Feb 21, 2012 9:21 am

wow!! so much work has been done so quickly! AWESOME!

and...welcome to the GOON SQUAD!

-goki

rotorman_12 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 21, 2012 6:26 pm

Thanks!, it certainly was a lot of work done in a short time.

I should be hitting you up for a goon squad sticker after looking into the ratsuns thread!, didnt realise they had such a following in the US.

time to see whats inside the boxes:

Set of venetians:

NOS fender mirrors:

Set of ssr supersharks 1 pcs:

Bought 3x of these new Jdm bluebird badges:

Trial fitting showed it cleared everything fine as is:

Spent a weekend polishing them ready for paint:

rotorman_12 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 21, 2012 6:46 pm

And this it the day i rolled it out and finished it a month and half after i got it (25th of November):

And these are recent cruise pictures:

john · **Posted:** Tue Feb 21, 2012 7:32 pm

Well done sir! :tu:

tj75gc · **Posted:** Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:52 am

Awesome car! I love to see original interiors being kept / restored, especially here in Australia where the trend seems to be paint it hot pink , stick it on 20" wheels and replace all the interior with cream coloured pleather :shudder:

Personally I think they look a little funny without bumpers but each to their own. I do love the colour combo of the blue w/ red wheels

Needs more low though :tu:

1971 Datsun 1600 aka 510 Wagon

Who is online