Dad's Datsun 510

[Balleristic31]

Once the bay was looking good, the cast iron (surprisingly somewhat tubular) exhaust manifold was sticking out like a sore thumb in the bay. That got refinished and is looking much better. Also below you can see the DP racing steering box brace installed along with some custom motor mount spacers made from space age material (aka high density cutting board).








Then attentions turned to suspension. Everything in the suspension needed replacing, with most of it having the quality of workmanship best illustrated in the following photo:

And another pre photo of the front setup:


This car will be a dual purpose street/track car, so the plans for suspension were to go with a relatively aggressive setup that could also be streetable. Front end components came from DP Racing and FutoFab and are of excellent quality/fit/finish.







First up, chopping up the strut towers to make room for the camber plates. A keen eye will see them all cut out in the painted bay photos from the previous post.



Next was to prep the strut tubes for coilovers. Very similar idea to e30s: remove the dust shield and spring perches to allow for shortening/welding of the new components.









Perches welded on:





Strut assembly painted and assembled:


Wheel wells were painstakingly stripped of all paint, stich welded where necessary, and undercoating before being painted body color. Finished photos below…


Now for the real money shots! Camber plates in:


Struts and control arms! Note the massive bumpsteer spacer.




And just for fun we fit the new brake setup as well…


More to come ;)

[2mAn]

Now you might have noticed a bit of paint in the engine bay in those last few radiator photos. The entire bay was prepped and painted in body color tan and wow, did it make a huge difference.

It made a HUGE difference for me too, highly recommend it and glad you guys did it too

[jeenyus]

that color is awesome. I think about this build every time i see a toyota with it.

[iwantspeed]

looking good!

[Balleristic31]

Once the carbs were cleaned, we threw in some new NGK plugs, changed the oil/filter, and fired the car up for the first time in many years! Hearing the throatiness of the dual Mikunis and the rasp from the exhaust was beautiful to experience. I think we have a video somewhere of that first start which I will try to get uploaded…



Now that we knew it was a runner, it was time for more work to really move forward.



First we test fit some trumpets on the carbs for fun… This car will have foam air filters, but the open trumpets are just so damn cool. In these photos you can also see the simpler single outlet water neck that was from some type of 80s Toyota that aided in cleaning things up.









Next we took a look at the radiator setup. The 18RG has its radiator outlets on the opposite side as the factory 510 configuration, and the previous owner’s original swap radiator setup was full of garbage 90s parts store components. Perfect opportunities for upgrades.







After a bit of searching, we found an OEM VW radiator would fit the bill for the slightly awkward setup. The upper and lower hose were a combination of tubing/hoses that got the setup to be much more robust.



















After a couple bends on some aluminum for brackets and a beauty cover, this was the result:

























Now you might have noticed a bit of paint in the engine bay in those last few radiator photos. The entire bay was prepped, stich welded, and painted in body color tan and wow, did it make a huge difference.





























Much more to come! :D

[IRON-E]

Keep the updates coming buddy.

[s14brent]

awesome, i love 510's, i was actually looking for one before my e30, they were priced pretty high even 6 years ago. i ended up giving up when a friend offered to sell me his e30. sandstorm looks great btw!! I really like that toyota color!

[Balleristic31]

On a trip home from Spring Mountain Raceway in Nevada, Dad stopped in at BRE to get the car certified as a BRE tribute car. So awesome!



Back home and back to work. With paint and body in a good place, it was time to tackle the 18RG. The engine turned over smoothly, so we were hopeful it wouldn’t take a ton of effort get the thing to fire up. Below are a few reference photos I took of the engine before initial tear down.








First step was to completely go through the twin 40mm Mikunis that had definitely seen better days. The amount of fuel varnish in the bowls/jets was laughable, and we even found a few surprises as we disassembled and cleaned. Multiple hours of cleaning/rebuilding yielded impressive results.










Left is done, right is still to be cleaned and rebuilt. A bit hard to tell the difference based on this shot, but it's worlds better.

[e30m3s54turbo]

I love the story about your dad 510.
I got to drive friends rally 510 years ago. It felt like go cart.

[rzerob]

I have always been interested to see if the 510 grille could be made to fit on an E30. Any chance you could hold it up to the E30 and get some pics?

[jeenyus]

speaking of bmw parts on a 510

That's is sick. M20 turbo for the win.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

[rzerob]

Subscribed. I have always been a fan of the 510.

[wworm]

speaking of bmw parts on a 510

[jeenyus]

510 w/ e30 headlights - clicky click

[LJ851]

Awesome !!