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La cinq-cent dix


Ratdat

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Thoroughly enjoyable thread.  

 

I asked out the wife about how she would react to an invitation to collect an old Datsun in France.   She said a weekend in France would be 'lovely', i didn't point out that the reality might be slightly less glamorous.

 

If you need any assistance with part shipping from the US I may be able to help, sometimes the delivery costs from US companies can be quite dear.

 

Cheers for the offer. I might well need some bits from over there yey so that could be handy, especially as I have seem some spectacular shipping prices on ebay!

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There's a batterd Prairie still knocking around in Winterton  -  I took a few pics of it recently which I'll try and find and post up.

 

I saw a silver one on Freeman street once but it was quite a while ago. That so far has been the only other one I've seen in the area. Good to know there are some still soldiering on!

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Appropriate badge. C'est un mille six-cent!

 

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I'll do a proper update tomorrow but this will have to do for now as it's late and I'm needing some sleep. here's the state of things at the close of play tonight. I've always been this tidy and methodical in my work.

 

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And just because it's all exciting etc... I dug this out of my parts stash in the shed earlier...

 

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Jeez, you are cracking on with this.

What's going on with the paint on the wing?

Has it all been hand painted in the past?

 

I need to have it running properly. I can't be doing with having a non runner sat here. The plan is to do the sills properly and fettle all the oily bits and electrics, then bodge the rest through a ticket just so that I can get it registered. Once it's got a reg then it can come apart and be done properly. There's too much surface rust do just repair it as is. It'll have to be stripped and blasted really.

 

It looks like it was painted with a broom. It has the worst paint job I think I've ever seen, although whoever did it deserves some credit for masking it up at least. I bought a Datsun 1000 many years ago which had been repainted without any masking so all of the door cards, seats and dash were covered in paint!

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Wow, what a thread! I don't know what I like best about it. Obvs the Datsun is ace but your mates place in France and your general description of the area portrays it as somewhere I'd REALLY like to live. Few people, little traffic, awesome old house, no stress and beer.

 

Great result on a rare car!

 

More of this please.

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Right, quick lunchtime update.

 

Yesterday it was pissing down again so I decided I had to get the 510 into my workshop otherwise I might be waiting days to work on it. This is easier said than done as my workshop has a big ramp outside. You can sometime push a car up with with help but as Mrs Ratdat is away for the weekend I need to think of an alternative. 1 ton block and tackle to the rescue!

 

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And we're in! I stoked up the woodburner (with coal..I've run out of wood) to get it toasty in there to help dry it off.

 

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The main aim here is to get the car running and driving properly, so it's completely mobile. As the cooling system is clearly choked up with shite, I figured pulling the head off along with the water pump and all the other water outlets would help me clean it out a bit. Every single hose on this is shagged so they could all go in the bin. I have new radiator hoses and I expect I'll have something that'll work for the heater. Half the thermostat housing fell apart when i took the top hose off so it's handy that I have a few spare L series engines knocking about still.

 

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The air filter is a right awkward thing to remove on the LHD cars as it's so close to the brake master cylinder. These Hitachi carbs are different to the later SSS twin carbs. these are much more similar to SU's, with proper individual mixture controls underneath. Later carbs are set from the factory and are tamper proof. Idle mixture on late carbs is done via a complicated system on the intake and affect both carbs equally. These early ones also look a lot more like SUs.

 

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Check it out! Under the cam cover this engine is almost spotless. No rust or sludge or anything! Amazing for something that's been abandoned for so long.

 

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Here's something important. That's the cylinder head casting number, 219, and it's this that tells me this is a genuine 510 SSS head. 510 sss had a unique head with bigger ports than later 610 and 710 sss engines. Later heads are marked W53 or A87.

 

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Much as I suspected, the water jacket is full of crud. The water pump is probably ok with a clean but it's easier just to bumg a new one on it and know it's good to go.

 

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Head off and all stripped apart and cleaned. The bores are perfect. No wear at all and you can even still see the factory honing marks. In every other respect this car looks well used and abused but the engine seems to have been looked after. Even the oil that's in it is really clean and the oil filter fitted was a genuine one.

 

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I've figured out why the wipers don't work. The spindles have rusted solid! I'll soak them with penetrating oil for a few days but if I can't free them off I can use the ones off my other 510.

 

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It's amazing that the scuttle hasn't rotted right through as it's filled with soggy, rotting leaves and pine needles. There's even a fair amount of moss growing in it..

 

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Other areas have suffered badly though. The area around and below the fusebox is nasty and is going to be a bit fiddly to repair. A dash out job too.

 

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Below the bonnet prop bracket is equally shagged. Don't reckon I'll be undoing these bolts...

 

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I'm not sure if it looks better or worse with all the bits taken off.

 

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One more good thing. I managed to clean the black paint off the grille badge and it's in pretty good shape. It just needs the details repainting now. That's a relief as I don't think I'd get one of these easily (or cheaply).

 

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I was hoping to get this back up together and running today but I've just realized I don't have an oil filter for it. Gah! It's probably a good thing as I've now decided that as it's all disconnected, I might as well pull the engine out and have a look at the clutch as the chances are it's probably stuck anyway.

 

Back to work!

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If the wiper spindles are the same as the 4 series (they look similar) I had to get 2 sets (for both mine) from American scrappers.

 

I think I still  have one set of the old uns (-if they're any use as spares they're yours,- but short term  mid 80's Fiat ones did the job -just the sweep was too short (good for MOT though!)

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If the wiper spindles are the same as the 4 series (they look similar) I had to get 2 sets (for both mine) from American scrappers.

 

I think I still  have one set of the old uns (-if they're any use as spares they're yours,- but short term  mid 80's Fiat ones did the job -just the sweep was too short (good for MOT though!)

 

After much penetrating oil and tapping the end of them with a hammer followed by a bit of brute force, I managed to get them moving this evening so it looks like I might be sorted. Cheers for the offer though! No idea if the wiper motor itself works but i have a brand new one of those if not.

 

I had a full day of tinkering today and made some good progress. I'll bosh up some pics tomorrow morning as I'm whacked and want to go to bed now. But for now, here's a pic of how the engine looks currently... 

 

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WOT I DUN YESTURDAY.

 

First job was cleaning up the head and boshing it back on. It din't really take a lot of cleaning as it was pretty good already. Here's what I mean about the 510 SSS head being different. The head it the bottom is an A87 head. Look how much small the ports are!

 

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I had a rummage though all my hoard and found a new old stock gasket set. Look at this lovely genuine head gasket.! These have various coatings on them in different places... quite high tech for the 70's.

 

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No dramas refitting it all. I found this nice early style cam cover in the shed so I cleaned it up and used it in place of the original. I think this is probably from a '69 model but it looks nicer so it's staying! Incidentally, top tip for Datsun L series owners. Mazda MX5 chrome cam cover bolts fit L series cam covers perfectly.

 

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I pillaged a spare engine for replacement water outlets and thermostat housing. Look at the state of the old ones. GRIM. I found a brand new temp sensor in the shed too so fitted that. I've put the thermostat housing on without a 'stat in it for now as I plan to fill the cooling system with some caustic shit to try and help clean it out.

 

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When I had to remove the exhaust manifold, I just chopped through the downpipe as undoing the flange bolts didn't look likely (and the exhaust is shagged anyway). I've been soaking them with penetrating oil in the naive hope they'd come undone..

 

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Well... a partially positive result! Actually, only that one stud at the top is any good. Bah...

 

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Amazingly, with a bit of heat, I managed to wind the two duff studs out of the manifold with some stilsons! A quick run through with an M8 tap and two studs pilfered from an old MX5 cylinder head in my scap bin and it's good to go...

 

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Just to have a break from working on the engine, i thought I'd look at sorting the fuel supply side of things. I stuck an airline on the fuel pipe and it blew air out of the tank. RESULT! Massively good news. I'd totally expected the fuel line front to back to be clogged solid. That saves me one shitty job at least. All of the filler and vent pipes on the tank are completely rotted so I'll have to rob those off my other 510. The state of them allied to the completely rusty boot floor, makes me wonder if this thing was sat in the scrapyard with the boot open for a few years.

 

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Having taken all the pipes off (not hard...most of them just fell apart), the next step was to pull the fuel tank out. There's two bolts accessible from inside the boot but the other two are behind the back seat. Time to pull the seat out. I was expecting a few mouse nests but was greeted with a sea of manky shit in there. *gag*

 

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This had definately been home to more than a few rodents over the last 30 years. Never owned a car with little skulls in it before. 

 

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At this point, I called it a night. I couldn't face cleaning out all that crap last thing at night!

 

On a more pleasant note, rummaging in the shed earlier also yielded a lovely pair of original Koito RHD inner headlights which take the same bulbs as the Marchals that were on it. Got to have yellow bulbs ...it's surely the LAW. Just got to find some outers now.

 

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Yeah, so you've done all that but have you put some nice looking wheels on it yet? That's what I want to know. ;)

 

For once I didn't have to as it already has some! Rest assured though, if had come with steelies, it would have been priority No1.

 

Speaking of which... I found this pic. This is where I think the Gotti wheels may have come from... one of these Alfas. Not sure of the bolt pattern is the same or not. Unless they're worth a fortune, I think I might actually keep the Gotti rims and get them refurbished as I kind of like them. Makes a change from Japanese rims.

 

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Edit: Just found another pic...

 

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Here's this mornings shenanigans. Having donned some gloves and a mask I cleared out all the rat shit, nest and dead animals then set about removing the climbing frame. What's the betting that the last hand that held a spanner here while his mate did up the nuts below, also held a lit Gauloise....

 

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Good bit of steel that. I'll save it in case I can make something out of it.

 

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Next job... tank out. It looks like the tank is sound. No visible rust on the outside. Inside it looks like it has a good coating of old tar-like fuel in the bottom. Not sure what to clean this out with yet. I might tip a load of thinners in it or something. In fact, I might see if I can scrape out a sample and test it to see what dissolves it best. The floor and inner arches behind the tank are all good thankfully.

 

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30 years of mouse piss has rendered the area under the back seat pretty surface rusty. Not in the same league as the boot floor though thankfully. Eventually the car is going to get stripped and blasted so it's not a worry. 

 

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It is however an opportunity to do some testing. I saw this stuff in a discount shop when I was buying some engine degreaser. It's made in the States and contains phosphoric acid which is great stuff for dissolving rust but knowing these commercial products, probably makes up about 0.0001% of the contents. At £4 for just under a litre, I figured it was worth a try.

 

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It's like a clear gel and to be honest, smells exactly like that green Hammerite rust removing gel. I slapped a load on and mushed it round with a brush. I'll post up my scientific analysis later.

 

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I also pulled out the trim around the parcel shelf. The rear screen was clearly a bit leaky so i was expecting the worst but was pleasantly surprised to find it's all still solid under there. The back seat area looks a bit more healthy now. Inner arches are better than expected too.

 

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While it was up in the air I had a quick look under neath. I better get a bulk order of penetrating oil in I reckon! Apart from swapping that driveshaft with the split boot and replacing all the brakes, pipes and hoses, I don't plan to do anything under here prior to trying to get an MOT. There's not much wrong with it apart from looking grotty. It can all come off when the shell get stripped down later this year.

 

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The rear valance is hilariously bad. Other than chopping the one off my other 510, there's no chance of a replacement other than from a place called APC in Australia, who charge a fortune for hand made replacements. I might have a go at repairing it but it is pretty knackered! The repair in the centre is class...

 

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I can't think how the bumper bracket could have got that mangled!

 

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I might pull the engine out this evening but otherwise, that's it for now as I have other less exciting things to do this afternoon and tomorrow. But on Wednesday the adventure will continue!

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Jeez, I sort of stopped visiting the forum because it depressed me too much (want shite, can't have shite) - chance visit this morning and WOW, what a find! Congrats Ratdat, it's going to be a beaut for sure.

 

They were apparently offered here... would be nice to find one.

 

3969091872_719cfdf8b4_z.jpgDatsun 1400 1600 1971 by Michiel V, on Flickr

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Hi Michiel, 

There seem to be quite a number of SSS in Portugal but so far that's the only place in Europe where they seem to have been sold in any numbers. There must be one or two still in existence in the Netherlands, no? I'm not sure if there are others in France. 

 

I have a ferry booked to come over to JCS this year. Are you going to that? I'll be taking my Cherry Europe though rather than the 510, even though it should be registered and road legal by then (it will still be looking rather ugly I'd imagine).

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I can't think how the bumper bracket could have got that mangled!

 

 

I can. Years and years of French-style parking the car.

 

I love the HUEG ZORST cutout also. One thing surprising, I did not know these cars had IRS.

 

 

--Phil

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The results are in! 

 

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Looks like the No1 for dissolving gooey old fuel residue is paint thinners, followed by meths. Petrol doesn't touch it at all and neither does brake cleaner. Surprisingly, graffiti remover works but nowhere near as well as thinners. So now my fuel tank has 10 litres of thinners in it.

 

Also, that cheapo rust dissolver does actually work. It'd take a while on heavier rust but on surface rust it work a treat. This was I reckon iof you left it on for about 12 hours it'd do the job ok. It doesn't seem to dry out like that green Hammerite stuff either. I think I'll stock up on a bit of it, as it'll be good for use on NOS panels that are surface rusty. This was after about 5 hours....

 

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