Am I in over my head? '70 2 door from scratch

[MikeY]

I ment poly might not be able to move like the rubber to take up the strain. My understanding is the stock rubber bushing is good enough and poly causes a few problems and fixes none.

[bertvorgon]

Ah, yes. With the subframe "locked" up tight, and the factory rubber bushes actually a very firm rubber, not a whole lot of distortion in the scheme of things...the tires are the big culprit depending on sidewall, tread type, etc, for feel in the car.

As I have said I set my camber and toe a zillion years ago and have not touched the suspension settings.

As anyone who has watched my BIG, controlled power slides, back in the solo days can attest, it was very controllable with what rubber was left in the back.

[Byron510]

Other than the the noise and vibration that the rubber helps reduse. Another factor is flexabilty when adjusting toe and camber. Maybe Byron will jump in. But his rear crossmember adjusters don't swivel on the inboard pivot. So there is some strain on the outside bushing. Not sure if poly is the way to go for his brackets. Kelvin's penultimate
brackets took this into account. But you have to make them from scratch and Byron's are a nice part. Can't remember if datsports brackets take the inboard strain into account.

All adjustable set ups will bind to some extent. My design is the simplest of all of them, which is why I built it. Is it perfect, no. Does it work, yes. Both the penultimate and Datsport designs align the pivot centres into one plane with a much more involved design - through the Center of the bushing. But the bolt itself still has to sit perpendicular to the bracket who thin which it is mounted, making only the Center of the pivot axis actually aligned. Do they work much better at aligning the pivot - yes. But for poly bushings which have no tolerance for deviation, it’s still not great.
The suggestion for all adjustable X-member systems requiring zero bind is to use the monoball - spherical bush upgrade. Then, any system won’t bind, mine, Kelvins, Datsport or even your old school slotted X member. Looking back, about half of the installations I have done personally (including my own cars) have been spherical bush installations over the years.
However, as Keith mentioned, the OEM rubber bushes also allows the rotation on any of the above systems without any harm, and does it quietly without constant maintenance.
No matter how hard you try, the car will get wet at some point. With spherical bushes, you will need to disassemble the control arms to get access to these bushings to lubricate them. The job is a pain for what should be a simple task. And this maintenance is never required with the OEM bushes in place.
I have literally installed dozens and dozens of both my own brackets and the Datsport kits. Long term, the OEM rubber is the most maintenance free of the lot! Systems I built in the 90’s are still out there. And as Keith attests, 35 years of stock control arm bushings on the Rolling Dyno speaks volumes. You can’t really argue much with the results long term.

Sharing my thoughts through practice on the subject.

Byron

[MikeY]

Thanks for chiming in Byron. I just cringe a bit when I see stock bushing burned out. They are getting really hard to source. Or I'm not looking in the right place.

[Byron510]

The 510 ones are the same as the ZX ones. I did buy them a few years back from Nissan, the price was reasonable. Not sure what the availability is today.
Same with the bolts, I have been buying the ZX bolts, as the 510 ones were NLA years ago. The ZX bolts are a flange head design, but otherwise dimensionally identical to the 510 ones.

Byron

[ostaylor]

Ok, after #login-gate I am finally back in to the Realm and shocked to see that my build thread has been dead for a full year (+10 days!!). I have only been locked out since ~December but there has actually been quite a bit going on since early December but I have been unable to update.

After a long pause because I could not find anyone in Victoria, BC to take on the paint job, I finally found someone and I am in the queue, with an expected start date of June (ish). This has me very motivated and I will post over the next few days on what I have been sourcing and the fitment work I have been doing to pre-assemble as much of the car as I can so that post-paint, hopefully everything goes together without too much aggravation.

Pictures and more posts to follow... One teaser - I am on my way home after a business trip and I am picking up an amazing package at my freight forwarder at the Victoria airport this afternoon - I can't wait to see it and will definitely post some pics!

[ostaylor]

Tried to link images from Google photos but could not get that to work, so I am back to downloading, downsizing and posting individual pictures... The pictures are showing up in a bit of reverse order... but here goes with the update...

And the tease from my last post... Apex Engineered front and rear suspension parts, look stunning! Unfortunately, no instructions came with them. I think I've got it mostly figured out, but I have emailed them to make sure.

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To get the rear looking like a 1969... I needed this center Datsun emblem, which I wasn't sure whether I had or not. I did some digging and found it - with all pins intact! It will go to Victoria Plating this week.

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The front end chrome / stainless is tricky and complicated. Every year seems a bit different but I think I have what I need (not all in this picture...). I am going to try to line up with a 1970 look and have all good or very good parts to support that.

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I would have loved to have found a set of original door sills, but that is not looking likely. The Skillard ones are nice, but I did have a problem with them fitting over the seam sealers from Datsport.... I don't have a picture of it, but I had to cut away some / most of the outer material on the seam sealer to get these to fit. I don't think it is a big issue, and very hidden, but I do wonder if the original door sills would have fit better?

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Got these back from Victoria Plating and they did an amazing job. I bought some fine paint brushes and a magnifying headset off of Amazon that I am hoping will help me paint the black bits with some accuracy. Any suggestions for the paint / primer to buy to hand paint these?

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Very excited about how nice my bumper license plate light turned out. Victoria Plating is not cheap, but they are very good. Thanks to MikeY and chasing down every lead I could to find all the parts for this. My car will be a bit of a homologation, but the '69 look from the outside is generally what I am after.

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Trunk fits well and the Datsport rubber is honestly quite amazing... Waiting for the final trim for the final installation, but you can just tell the quality of their parts. PITA getting it from Australia, but they are amazing people and provide a great product.

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Hood fits well and I have the original latch working. I have to say that I like the gas struts on my other car for convenience, but I am pushing this car towards a more stock look...

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[MikeY]

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/133679175022?mk ... media=COPY
This is a link to reproduction door sill. This is for the early cars so just covers the pinch weld. Doesn't have the threshold part that says Datsun. But might look better than the skillard plates.

[72ultraorange]

Owen, can't wait to see that new Apex suspension installed! Looks cool and its ORANGE!

[510rob]

What is the advantage of that rear suspension?

[ostaylor]

As I understand it is supposed to allow greater adjustability. Looks pretty good too.

There is some discussion on the realm, here https://www.the510realm.com/viewtopic.php?t=34694

and on Ratsun.net here https://ratsun.net/topic/80625-apex-eng ... 510-parts/

Mine did not come with installation instructions, so I am waiting to hear back from them on that. They have detailed instructions for their S30 applications, but these are very different structures.

[Rush]

For your vents, One Shot lettering enamel would be a good choice. It lays out beautifully and is very, very durable.

[ostaylor]

For your vents, One Shot lettering enamel would be a good choice. It lays out beautifully and is very, very durable.

Thanks Rush - I had not heard of that before. I'll see if I can source locally.

[loungin112]

That suspension setup has me dreamin'!

I've got a few boxes of T3 components sitting, looking at me, waiting for me to start installing. You're progress is lighting a fire under my butt to get it done. But it's been so cold here lately....

[ostaylor]

A bit of work tonight...

Test fitment of the Gilson SSS Dash - I think this is one of my favourite purchases so far. I love this dash!

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Installed the amazing NOS hood trim that I sourced from 510 friend and artist MikeY... I bit of a gap to sort out on the anchor point 1 screw in from each of the outer sides, but I think I can persuade it into place or have my paint / body guy help so I don't screw it up.

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And I forgot about these... I am either late posting them or I was locked out during #logingate. These DatsunRestomods CV Axels look and feel amazing! Can't wait to check them out... but I know that is a long way off...

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