427
Part of things
Praise The Lowered
Posts: 622
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Sweet dato mate. Nice work so far, but i think the wheels need a change fro sure. Not only an ozzy car but from vic too. I'll have to keep an eye out for you. Cheers
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anth
Part of things
Posts: 72
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update time The front of the car got a slight re-fresh when i painted the grille and headlight surrounds. Now its time to take it a bit further. Here is our starting point: The front apron underneath the bumper was dirty, discoloured, and in need of attention. First the area was rubbed back and cleaned with prepsol, then hit with a few coats of primer. After the primer dried I hit it with some colour. This is the first of a few coats. A few coats later… …and finally, its nice and clean with fresh paint. I also managed to get my spare front bumper on, and got myself some black & white numberplates. Slimline size for the front, and standard size for the rear. Here’s the improved front end. Don’t worry, that grille will be fixed soon! On to the rear of the car, I found someone who had a straight rear bumper for sale so I snapped it up. Here you can clearly see the difference between the two. A few hundred bucks spent at the re-chromers and I picked it up in as-new condition. Shiny! Fitted bumper & new numberplate…now my tail lights look old in comparison. More updates soon
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Speedle
Posted a lot
Need a Country Rock band in the Hampshire Area? https://www.facebook.com/DirtRoadDiaryUK
Posts: 2,221
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oh gorgeous some top tidy work there chap she looks fantastic! and the fresh chrome bumper is just beautiful! mmmmm fresh chrome *drool*
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kinda like the mirrors... Quite timeless.
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194? Willys Jeep MB 1965 Volvo 544 Special 1968 Opel Rekord 1975 Opel Kadett Estate 1985 Mercedes-Benz 230E 1985 Datsun 720 King Cab 4x4 diesel 1997 Volvo S70 2.5SE (ex. "Volvo544special65" - changed to more reader friendly username. )
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nice 510... need to get myself some of those stickers!
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luckygti
Posted a lot
I need to try harder!
Posts: 4,912
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That is a very good looking car. Don't think I've ever seen one before. Mods are coming on really well to. And welcome of course!
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anth
Part of things
Posts: 72
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thanks guys more updates soon...coilovers are on their way
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anth
Part of things
Posts: 72
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Back to the front of the car again. It’s finally time to fix the missing piece of the grille. Chris, a fellow Datsun 1600 owner, sent me a later model (72) grille which had the top slat broken off, perfect for what I need it for. Here’s the piece I’m talking about. It’s not exactly the same as the ‘69 model, but once it’s painted you won’t be able to tell. I made up some small L shaped brackets out of aluminium and pop-riveted them to the loose grille piece. Then I drilled some holes in the grille on this convenient flat section to attach the new piece to. Finally the two pieces came together. Later the whole grille was resprayed grey, so the two middle slats are no longer polished. You’ll see pics at the end of the post of the complete front end. Another problem I’ve been meaning to address for a while is the lack of “Datsun 1600″ badge on the passenger side front quarter panel/fender. Luckily I have a couple of boxes of spare parts, and I had a feeling that I had one of these badges hiding away somewhere. Bingo! It’s a bit worse for wear. When I took it out of the box I was a bit dissapointed because I thought the chrome was flaking off. But just to be sure I gave it a bit of a rub with some steel-wool and metal polish. Well it turns out that it wasn’t flaking off, it was just black paint which had preserved its condition. Good as new! You complete me. The next issue that I’ve been meaning to get to is the small bits of rust on the very front edge of the bonnet where the chrome trim screws to the body. I think the trim has worn away at the paint and started to form some surface rust. Trim removed for a better view. Not pretty… I masked up the surrounding areas and rubbed back the paint a little bit to remove the rust Then it was hit with a couple of coats of paint. The front end all reassembled with fixed/painted grille and no more bonnet rust… It’s so much better now that you can’t see the radiator support when you look at the front of the car. (Go back up to the first image if you’re not sure what I’m talking about) I also fitted some bonnet pins because I wasn’t happy with the amount of movement in the bonnet when going anywhere above 60km/h And finally, the wheels were given some attention in the form of a bit of paint & polish. Before Polished: Painted: Hope you enjoyed this update. Next one will see the car getting some decent suspension upgrades and a fair ride-height reduction, so stay tuned!
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Chris™
Part of things
This is clearly filler material.
Posts: 519
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Fair play, there's some serious attention to detail going on here! The front apron and bonnet look much nicer cleaned up and sprayed and it's starting to look brand new now. Going to be such a great minty fresh car!
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1989 Volvo 340 1986 Suzuki SJ413 2000 BMW 318ti 2006 Lexus IS250
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Speedle
Posted a lot
Need a Country Rock band in the Hampshire Area? https://www.facebook.com/DirtRoadDiaryUK
Posts: 2,221
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just keeps getting better and better! love this car!
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anth
Part of things
Posts: 72
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Apr 16, 2009 23:45:08 GMT
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thanks guys, appreciate the comments on with the updates!... Finally the Datto gets some serious upgrades. Enough of the polishing, painting and little fiddly bits, its time for the good gear. Troy Ermish Racing (USA) rear coilovers & Datsport (AUS) adjustable rear crossmember DIY kit. The rear crossmembers can either be bought as a complete unit (subject to a change-over policy), or you can buy the parts separate and weld them on yourself. I chose the DIY kit because my crossmember already had an enlarged hole for my 3″ exhaust, plus I got a good price to weld it all together so it worked out cheaper. The rear coilovers bolt into where the shock absorbers used to be, therefore the rear end is no longer a separate shock/spring setup. The adjustable tabs are welded on to the crosemember where the lower A arms attach to allow for camber/caster adjustment. Being a 40 year old Independent Rear Suspension design, these cars get heaps of negative camber when you lower them. This kit allows you to control that. On to the front end… Koni Yellow Damper Adjustable front shock absorbers (Z31), T3 weld-on ground control coilover kit, T3 camber tops, and Nissan America 1″ bump steer spacers (lucky find). The struts were shortened 50mm to suit the shorter shocks. Here is one assembled strut. Before I put them in the car, I wanted to try out a little experiment to see if I could suppress a bit of the noise that coilovers are notorious for. I looked around for something circular that I could wrap around the top and bottom coils. I ended up finding what I was looking for right infront of me, the rubber dust boots from my old shocks. I cut off a ring like so… And then wrapped it around the top and bottom coil… Hopefull this softens a bit of the metal-on-metal contact. (Also you can see that I cut the bump-stops in the above picture) One more bit of work before the struts were re-installed. I painted the inner guards with some Chassis Black chip-resistant paint. Before: After: Bump-steer spacers: Camber tops: So now’s the part where I show you pictures of the car sitton on its guts? Well sorry but you’re going to have to wait just a little bit longer, the next update will definitely show the car slammed, along with one other visual modification, here’s a hint…
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Mike
East Midlands
Posts: 3,387
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I can't possibly wait any longer, I'm very impatient! Loving what you've done with it so far.
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Speedle
Posted a lot
Need a Country Rock band in the Hampshire Area? https://www.facebook.com/DirtRoadDiaryUK
Posts: 2,221
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Apr 17, 2009 10:18:38 GMT
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i feel dirty after seeing that suspension setup! yummy!
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Apr 17, 2009 14:06:40 GMT
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Gorgeous car, very clean.
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1992 Sierra XR4x4
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Apr 17, 2009 16:13:13 GMT
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Beautiful, just beautiful. Fantastic work mate, very jealous.
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1981 VW T25
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uncle silvia
Posted a lot
Datsun Club UK - Devon & Cornwall Rep
Posts: 1,483
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Apr 18, 2009 10:04:17 GMT
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Simply Stunning...............
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1981 KE70 Corolla - 1978 B310 Sunny Coupe - 1977 Pink Clubman Mini Shorty
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Apr 18, 2009 10:09:16 GMT
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Lovely, really lovely
It always amazes me the level of aftermarket support for the 510's overseas! If only companies would do more for the other Dattos - but I guess there's so little demand it wouldnt nearly be worthwhile for companies to do it.
Looking forward to the progress on this little beauty
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Your car is not 'epic', this thread is not 'epic'....the OCEAN is epic, the UNIVERSE is epic.... please stop misusing this word!! It would appear Hotrods are the new VWs - aint fashion funny! '69 BUICK LESABRE 350
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61fury
Part of things
Posts: 33
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Apr 18, 2009 17:00:46 GMT
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I don't usually comment , but that is sweet. I really like the stock look and your preservation of the chrome bits. Nice work on all your detailing. Often I read a build thread and everything is great, then its "Aww, No! what he do that for?!" Really, really nice.
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anth
Part of things
Posts: 72
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Apr 19, 2009 10:42:18 GMT
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wow, what a response. thanks guys, all your comments are really appreciated
JohnnySomersett its true, the 510's have a lot more aftermarket support than other models, but the good thing is lots of datsuns can share parts
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anth
Part of things
Posts: 72
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