72 2 Door 510 Restoration-25 years in the making

[Rush]

Thanks, Stu!
I only worked on the car for about 2 hours today. I had to bomb our property with bug dope this morning. The biting gnats are HORRIBLE this year! I couldn’t take another day of them!

Then I went golfing with my dad & brother. Shhhhhh…. It was 83°, I couldn’t say no!

Tomorrow, I’m hoping to get the passenger quarter in primer for blocking. At least it’ll look different!

[Heinrich]

very well done, excellent progress!!!

[Byron510]

Thanks!
It's the only panel I've gotten from them but I have no complaints. It arrived quickly, was very securely packaged, it's not flimsy at all and it fit well. The only thing that would make it better is if the primer was a weld-through type.

Rush, this is an awesome thread, I so look forward to your updates. In the early stages you took very alternative and practical decisions on so many aspects of your build. Now you’re getting into the final stages and you’re still being home based and practical - while doing everything yourself.
Inspiring to say the least. Thank you for posting this contyhere on the Realm

Question. What company did you purchase this 1/4 patch panel from? I went back many pages and didn’t see a company name. If you could pass this along, that would be great- thanks.

Byron

[Rush]

Thank you, Heinrich!

Thanks so much, Byron. I really appreciate that. I always kinda wonder if many people read my thread so I'm very happy when someone chimes in to say they have. I hope to inspire another person who might feel overwhelmed with a massive project to tackle it. We CAN do this. The Realm is an absolutely invaluable resource and an incredible archive for people like me who do everything themselves. There is such a wealth of information here. It can be a little tough to find it because of the forum software but it IS here somewhere, almost guaranteed! (and I like the fact that there are no douchebags )

About the lower quarter, it came from KF Vintage. The panels are very nice, IMO. The only thing I didn't love about the panel was that the primer isn't the weld-through type. Not a huge deal but if there HAD to be a negative, that'd be it. If their stuff had been available when I made all my other panels, I definitely would have bought them instead of hand-forming everything. My panels came out nice but the savings in effort & time would have been immense!

And I might as well update while I'm at it! Yesterday, I sanded the roof, which had some surface rust. Nothing horrible, thank goodness! I also "prepped my window seals for the paint blend since I had to jamb the window areas a few months ago so I could get the glass in. I never like a hard edge when it comes to clear (like where the new paint/clear would meet the seals). I feel it creates a "flake point" so what I did was create a gap between the seal and the body using 550 paracord. I tucked it in there just far enough to give the seal a little lift while not blocking the paint at the very edge. That creates a kind of feather edge so the paint & clear can just sort of drift in there & snuggle down creating an edge that will be protected under the seal.

I don't know if this is common practice or not since I'm not a professional body woman & I have never seen it mentioned anywhere, but it does work.

[MikeY]

Your woman's intuition is spot on with the cord under the seal. I'm also not sure if it's a pro trick. And I prefer to have the window out. But it's common practice in the back yard I hang out in. We are watching and your doing great.

[cwd240z]

Yep, that's the best way to hide the paint edge when the rubber is already installed. Nice work.

[Rush]

Excellent! Thanks again, guys!

[Rush]

Here's today's progress. I finished sanding the roof down and most of the trunk. I also masked off the driver's side and the front end.
I had to go to town for supplies so I didn't start til 3 & came in at 8:30 so, a short day. Good thing, too! This dang bear was right outside, again!

[RONSLYCHUK]

Nice! Can’t wait to see it painted. My son lives in North Vancouver and they have bears in their yard too. Be careful!

[Rush]

Thanks, Ron!
He's an unwelcome visitor, for sure! He's already thrashed my bird feeder (for the 100th time) a few weeks ago & I guess he thinks there is more for him. I really only get nervous when I'm in the hot tub and I hear something in the woods make a LOUD *crack!* sound!

[ostaylor]

Great progress Rush!

Your thread is one of a few that I follow. I can't figure out if it is motivating or depressing me seeing your pretty consistent pace of updates - Don't go too fast - what are we going to ready when you are done?

[Rush]

Lol! Thank you!
Oddly, I'm kind of feeling the same way! As much as I want to be done and drive my car, I sort of feel weird about the journey coming to an end. It's an odd feeling. Of course, we all know our cars are never really done.

[bertvorgon]

DONE!!! A 510 is NEVER done..ha.....always something to be tinkered with, that is truly
the fun of these cars. Wait till you stop at a gas station. Maybe not so much where you are, as Vancouver was a Port of Entry for the Datsun line.

We get people flocking around, my gramma had one, my brother had one, I crashed 5 of them, I learned to drive on one...

We have had more people come to our cars at cars shows, than the zillion Chevy's and Mustangs! Cookie cutter cars now IMHO.

As Owen said, I follow your thread daily, like a daily page written in a novel I am reading. Your skill set just blows me away, just too cool.

As my car is dead in the shed right now, I can at least follow you vicariously, waiting for the day you drive out the driveway. I know a few of us on this sight will have BIG smiles on our faces for you!

keith

[gooned]

Learning lots of tricks in here, even though I really hope to never do paint & body again!

I too read the updates here first, and agree with the above sentiments. Great build!

Question - what are you treating the roof rust spots with before primer?

[Rush]

Thanks so much, guys. That really means a lot to me!

Gooned, I use Rustoleum rust converter. I sand the area until no more rusty dust is present then I apply the rust converter, then hand sand with 180 til it's nice & smooth again. Then epoxy primer followed by high-build urethane primer. Big fun.

Today, I started on my trunk lid & jamb. I got a lot done but after 7 hours I had to call it a day on the car. I'm having some pretty severe pain in my right wrist & I wasn't really able to hand sand any longer today. So, I turned my attention to fixing the custom paint job on my "new" Harley.

Long story short, the first owner was hit at a stop light last summer right before I bought the bike. The hit threw the bike on its side creating about a 2" hamburgered patch of bare metal on the tank and a ding on the top. I dusted off my trusty ol' airbrush that I haven't used in many years and set to work fixing the art on the tank. Last year, I just dabbed some black paint on the area after filing off the gouges, so it wouldn't rust. I feathered the area out and touched up the art work. Tomorrow, I'll remove the tank, prep & clear it. I think once it's cleared, it'll blend in well. It was a nice change of pace. I'm kinda tired of looking at bare Datsun metal!