My 1972 two door Datsun 510

[JPE16]

It likely won't be staying yellow. I **** yellow.

Well the important first step is finally complete. The shop renovations are done, and we moved the car there last night. Tonight I'll be putting it up on jack stands and hopefully mocking up the subframe and getting rolling with the front suspension.

First time it's been on the road in 20 years?


All tucked in and ready for the work to begin:


I'm HOPING to have a rolling chassis on street tires by the new year...we'll what the bank account says about that.

[SD202]

ahh yeah its goin down. always love a datsun build.

[Codidly]

Watching this...

[JPE16]

This weekend I started working on the front cross member. I'm using the rack from an S13, so I'll need to maintain the s-chassis' distance between the control arms. I'll also need to "flip" the cross member if I use the 510 x-member.

However if I use the s13 x-member I'll have to lower the point it mounts to the chassis, shift the whole thing back towards the car, and shift the motor mounts forward.

So I'm leaning towards cutting up the 510 one, and making my own control arms and outer tie rods to suit the correct track width i want.

Anyway, I snapped a few pics for comparison sake. Sorry for the dull update. There will be exciting things to come in the next few weeks.

[JPE16]

So, tonight I got angery - errrrr productive.
I'm trying to make a mishmash of a 510 and 240sx cross member. I want to run the 240sx rack, custom control arms, 510 mounting location, the wheel's position in the wheel well, and new engine mounts.
Anyway, I cut some tubing and braced the cross member in preperation for cutting the center out.

With the current "design" the engine will move roughly 2" closer to the firewall, and the front of the transmission will move 1" closer to the back of the rack.

Anyway, I'm exhausted, so HERES SOME PICTURES.



My art attack:

[JPE16]

Well, today I met with someone with much more experience than I with race cars, and racing, and steering boxes....

...well you can guess where this is going now. he talked me into giving the steering box a chance. The assembly I have is freshly rebuilt. So in an effort to have the car out running this year I'm going to keep it simple, get the car set up, and give the steering box a shot.

So anyway, today I got busy and flipped the crossmember.

I braced the cross member (yesterday)



After marking it, and cut it.



Tacked it together, double checked fitment, and welded it together:



All welded up and ready to go:



Now onto the control arms!

[JPE16]

Spent a little bit of time poking around the 510 today with some friends.
I reinstalled the factory steering linkages and box. As it sits, there's absolutely zero slop at dead centre, but I will reserve judgement until I get the car down on the ground with some weight in it. It looks like Tom completely replaced all the joints and linkages, as well as getting a new steering box.

Also put the reversed sub frame in. Looks like I did a reasonably good job bracing it, as it bolted right back in as if it were new.

I also checked to see if the 510 ball-joint would work in the S14 spindle. it's so close to seating! I'm going to take it my machinist tomorrow to see if he can open it up (I would be surprised if it was off by more than a hundred thou) and get the 510 ball joint to seat properly so I can run the s-chassis spindles, opening up more options for brakes, and suspension.

Also, keep in mind I own a powder coating company as a part time business, so all these fabricated pieces will be getting blasted and coated.

Next week I'm hoping to tackle the control arms.

[JPE16]

So, rather than machine the hub, I bought S14 outer tie rods to see if they thread onto the 510 inner tie rod....Whatta ya know they fit...sort of.

So Datsun originally used a right hand thread on the inside and left hand on the outside of the tie rod on the drivers side, and the opposite on the passengers side. Now in the 90's nissan smartened up and only produced one outer tie rod with a right hand thread.

So this works fine for the passenger side but not the drivers side. So I'm having a driver side inner tie rod machined with a right hand thread on both ends, and I will deal with removing the ball joint to adjust toe. Its an M14x1.5 thread, so each turn is 1.5mm which on a standard car equates to about 1/3 of a degree adjust per one full turn. So I SHOULD be ok with this new setup as far as adjustment is concerned.

anyway, passenger install pics:





I also made an order from QA1 today :-)

[sawatsky]

Rad. I wish I found this thread a year from now.

[Simply Classy]

Yep, I'll be watching this one. Datsuns are sweet, so definitely in for more.

[Svenska94Aero]

This is going to be good. Sub'd.

[mule.]

stoked to see where this goes

[JPE16]

I should be getting my tie-rods back from machining tomorrow.

Anyway, this weekend I picked up some parts:


My self lubricating chromoly QA1 rod ends came in from Hitman today. I'm excited to make these into something!


I picked up some Stance GR+ coils, and a 510 chassis harness as a spare as well.


Parts all cleaned up and waiting for a home. I also grabbed some used S13 control arms to chop up (thanks Alex!!)


I've been brushing up on my CAD. I'm still incredibly rusty (not using it for 5+ years will do that) but I do like the mac interface. It's taking some getting used to, but I'm getting there. With the help of my machinist friends, some cool parts should find there way onto this build! Pictured is a very rough mock up of the bushings I'll be using to adapt the rod ends to the 510 front control arm spindle.

This week I'm hoping to get the front control arms tacked together, get the rear coils in, get the fronts suspension hung, and start assembling it. I'd like to be able to break it down and coat it all next weekend. but with the semester winding down, that will likely be a tall task. Especially with the winter work load of wheels ramping up again.

At any rate, fingers crossed this whole crazy idea of mine doesn't bit me in the ass.

[JPE16]

The Tein box is for my daily.

[Svenska94Aero]

What is this mac-based CAD software that you are using? looks awesome so far!