New World Datsuns...

Made up this little tool to measure the camber angle. Turns out I've still got about -4 degrees in the rear. Front is perfect at about -.5, I eyeballed that months ago, surprised my eyes work that good.

Simple and effective.

I did something similar when I changed the struts on my moms car. New struts had oval holes where the OEM ones didn't. Just a quick reference off the frame of the car to the wheel hub when tightening made it come out perfect.

Couldn't ask much more from it. Does the job right.

Looking cozy in there. Still need another Z drum to finish this brake job up.

All hardware removed, almost through the backing plate cleaning.












Still needing one more Z drum...

So, when I got these new tires at Les Schwab, they broke one of the wheel studs on a rear wheel. They told me to come back when I have the chance and they'd fix it. Frankly, I just haven't been able to get the car back there. Fast forward one year, and while I was taking that wheel off yesterday, another lug stud snapped.

Not only this, but the wrong washers were used on the other rear wheel and, this meant the Washers wouldn't fit down into their recess. (Remember, mag wheels). So, with the ill-fitting washers the lug nuts were torqued on. This caused the washers to sort of bow into the holes. Think concave oval washers, that shouldn't be concave. The wrong washers caused some galling and damage around the stud holes in the wheels. Discovered this yesterday. Not sure what my course of action will be.

I've slowly been building up the components to have a functional parking brake again. I used this small turnbuckle to connect the two rear cables. It was small enough I was able to re tap the threads to m6 and that plus a lock but got the one side connected. For the other side I just cut a slit into where the left hand threads are and slipped the cable in. Then I have a rubber coolant cap over that end to keep the cable in there and make it look nice. I must say, I think it looks good. Next job will be to recreate the bracket that attaches the end of the cable to the lever on the wheel cylinder.









Side stuff: my drum hardware kit came with two different springs for both sides. One is green and one is black. The black one seems much stronger and I put it one the bottom. Now, my parking brake lever is really hard to actuate by hand. Is it possible the springs should be switched?

Waiting on one more wheel cylinder since I had to order from a couple different places. Also need another drum.

So I'm doing other stuff. Whoever said removing the chrome strips on the drip rails was easy is lying. I like to call it a "wedge fit". Just stripping the exterior of the car down.

Why did you need to take them off?

Not 100% sure how or what, but its getting refinished. Been playing around with ideas and I'm leaning toward vinyl wrap. Time will tell.

You ever do something you wish you hadn't? Here's mine, for this week at least.




The filler was scraping of in thick, soft chunks. I'm gonna call this panel a loss. Well, the lower half anyway. It's so lumpy I wouldn't even know where to start. the back end of it is in bad shape too.

After some passes with the flat bar it looks like the entire right side of the car should be some simple hammer and dolly work.

I also cut the tire off this wheel with a jigsaw and a pair of bolt cutters in about 15 minutes flat earlier. Confirmed their specs 15x7 with 4.5" back spacing. These are the wheels that came in the car. I'm liking them more than before, especially with their size. That said, I'd probably like to sell my mags to cover the cost of tires and then some if possible








Anyone ever heard of auto flex coatings? Plastidip has their own version called proline. They seem like a much higher quality plastidip.

Those wheels will look nice on the 510. The quarter reminds me of my orange car. I think at some point, most 510 hooligans end up pitching the rear ends into light posts right about where the wheel is. At least, that's what happened to mine. (Not me, previous owner.)

This car might be a good candidate for a week at Datsunville.

Indeed! Isn't he way down in the bay area or something though?

I'm kinda realizing this retired racecar shell wasn't meant for a restore. Well, not by someone with minimal body work skills anyway. I wonder what I'd have to pay for a prepped, painted, straight shell. I've already got a full (new) interior and all exterior trim. Hmmm

Orrrr, strip this car, add flares and save everything for a good shell.

Ugh, I've just put so much into this one already. Maybe just work the panels as best I can, put a cheap finish on, and enjoy.

You kinda need to decide what your going to do, if you can get it on the road(not perfect) without having to spend a fortune then you will have a driver that if it gets dented your not going to lose any sleep, my work truck is like that, I try not to dent or scratch it, but if it happens so what, it is a work truck/driver that I don't have a lot of time doing bodywork on it, every few years I buy the cheapest rattle can paint I can find and spruce it up, but it is just a driver/work truck that shit happens to, but I drive it a lot.
My other trucks i try not mess them up, but in the end most are just nice drivers that people notice and say I used to have one of them when I was a kid or my parents had one of them when I was growing up.
It is always nice to have a driver that starts every time that one can leave outside and not be in fear of someone stealing it because it is not that nice nor does it draw a lot of attention like a really nice car does.

I agree. Short term goal is smooth that quarter panel and give the car a cheap paint job. It's a runner, driver, stopper. That's good enough for now.

Got the other rear wheel Cylinder installed also. Still need one more Z drum. Gonna go post an ad up now.

Good plan

So I learned it's hard to find anyone to turn these aluminum brake drums. Well, not hard, but the regular parts houses won't touch the aluminum, gotta go to a machine shop. I also learned that all three of the brake drums I brought in were out of spec. This all also made me realize I put the 510 shoes on, different shoe compounds for aluminum vs iron, don't forget

So, FML. I'm gonna have to buy a set of the drums new. $160 I wasn't expecting to lose, especially after wasting $80 on the used drums. Oh yeah, and I'll need shoes too, which are more than double the price of the 510 shoes.

All this useless aluminum around makes me want a kiln/foundry

There's nothing special about them. The friction surface is steel not aluminum. Its a steel sleeve/liner inside aluminum drum. Your shoes are fine and your parts houses are idiots.

Huh, I didn't believe you so I stuck a magnet to the contact surface. It sure is an iron liner. Hmmm, they can take 1/2 credit for the idiocy. Lol

Doesn't help that they're out of spec. Then again, they might not know what they're talking about there either. I think I'll make another trip to the parts store tomorrow to have them measure and cut if possible.

Hopefully you can get a cleanup cut done on the 2 best drums. They very well may be out of spec but if they're close you'll never notice. The biggest issue is the lack of contact area until the new shoes wear down a bit. Waaay back in the day they used to re-arch shoes to fit oversized drums.
If you can't convince anyone to turn them you can just rough them up with som 36 grit sand paper as long as they aren't out of round. Rear drum brakes are pretty forgiving. Good luck!