It was time for the final big repair item on the 510 I bought on Bring a Trailer in 2023. The Rust Monster! I know this is one thing people don't want to deal with and it scares them away at auctions. But I had seen it in person and it wasn't as bad as I worried about and I had somewhat of an idea of what it would take to fix it. The rust was under the rocker panels, and mainly centered in a few spots. the car had gotten a paint job some 20 years ago or so, and it seems they just allowed a few open holes to exist and painted over corrosion to keep it from spreading. It kinda worked.
So, I took the car to a friend of mine who does fantastic work. He ended up tearing out a good chunk of the rocker panels on both sides, removing rust, and treating the area under the rocker panels with some rust-inhibitor. Still not perfect, but it isn't an outside car and it isn't show car.
Overall, though, he did great work removing the rust, welding in or filing in new rocker panel material, re-sealing it all, straightening out the bent pinch-welds, paint matching it all, and even using texturized paint-chip protection material, similar to what most new cars have on exposed underside rocker panels. So now it has that pebble finish under the side trim.
I'm really happy with how it turned out!
BEFORE:
DURING:
AFTER:
Bonus shot: Many people notice and comment on the massive stack of CA registration stickers that this car has accumulated through the decades. That's legit vintage!
Well, I finished installing the clutch a while back, and I pulled out the engine just to do some "tidying up".
Overall, it was in pretty good shape so I decided to leave the bottom end alone. I adjusted the valves a bit, inspected and confirmed that the springs, etc were all in pretty good shape.
I pulled off all items I could, repainted things like the fan shroud, oil pan, belly pan, etc. Decided to leave the block as-is. Did a bunch of grinding and sanding and painting of other bits and bobs.
I bought a new low-profile intake manifold so I don't need an adapter for the Weber carb, and I could then install the nice old air cleaner element I bought to bring her back to a stock look. Had the Exhaust manifold blasted and re-coated.
After doing all that, I put back the oil pan and valve cover with fresh gaskets. Then I tried to re-install everything on my own. It isn't easy without a full lift. I re-installed the engine then I tried several times to get that transmission back attached to the engine while under the car but I had very little room between the Quickjacks while laying on my back with no help. I even tried attaching the transmission and installing the whole thing, but that didn't work well. Not on my own.
So I gave up and I was going to haul it to my local expert Datsun shop but.... then decided to give it "one more try". This time, with 4 jack stands so I wasn't crowded by the Quickjack. After 20 minutes or so of bench-pressing that transmission and using my knee to shove the unit forward to engage with the engine, I was exhausted. I pulled the transmission jack over with my foot and rolled it under the transmission and let it sit. I walked away for about 15 minutes. Sometimes ya just need a break. Rotated the engine a bit with the front pulley to re-align the internals and jumped back under. And presto! I slid that transmission right back onto the engine and tightened 'er down!
After that. it was time to start adding pieces back on. Thanks to lots of help from my friend Alex, we got it done in a few hours. We reinstalled the driveshaft, flywheel cover (had to slightly detach the transmission again), new head-manifold studs and gasket, exhaust manifold, intake manifold and carb, new head gasket, radiator hoses, spark plug wires, distributor cap, vacuum tubes (one still unused off the distributor I need to find a destination for ;-) ). Fan shroud, belly pan, weber carb adapter, air filter element, and the hood.
It was touch and go whether the hood would have clearance. I wanted to re-install the light blue OEM air filter element housing on the weber and bought a new intake manifold to allow the clearance. As we lowered the hood, I felt a resistance, but it didn't seem to be the air filter. So we re-aligned the panel gaps on the hood because they were a bit misaligned. and then the hood slid right down into place with no resistance. Very satisfying.
A highly rewarding rainy afternoon, always better with a friend and a couple cold beers.
A few days later, I filled the engine oil, new coolant, transmission oil, and differential oil. I checked everything twice. Then, it was time for the moment of truth. I checked the electrical, tried a few cranks, checked for leaks, and then fired it up!
And I couldn't be happier. It runs so smoothly now and the clutch doesn't chatter and the gears shift smoothly! I can't describe the mix of joy and relief you get when something like this starts right back up!
But I wasn't done yet! Now I pulled off the wheels again and replaced the leaky rear brake cylinders, installed new rear brake shoes, flushed new brake fluid through the system, and then re-painted the wheels for a close-to-color match look. I love it!
