Jon’s HL510 Station
Wagon
Name: Jon
Mabrey
Location:
Dawsonville, Georgia
I’m 21 and
this is my 5th car and my 1st Datsun BUT, So far it has proven to be the most
FUN to drive of all my past cars and I picked it up for only $250!
The engine
is a bone stock L20b with only 81,000 original miles on it. I am the 3rd owner
of this car and still have original title with the original dealer tag ring
from HICKMAN DATSUN, which is now Hickman Nissan in Atlanta. The car was in
rather good near rust-free shape but it was plagued with what seemed to be an
electrical problem hell - 5 alternators and 3 batteries later…it now all works
due to my electrical prowess.
After the
great electrical fiasco I soon started to rip out the beat down interior.
I took out
the factory clock and radio and replaced them with some flat fiberglass pieces,
which I painted matte black and I also added a triple gauge cluster along with
a new stereo.
I then
swapped the seats both front and rear out of a 1991 Eclipse GS (my old car that
has a bad drive train) - The front seats were pretty easy to swap (two holes
drilled in the floor rail) The back seats were quite a bit harder as the
Eclipse has rear seats that are the split back types and the 510 has a solid
rear bench seat that simply fold forward. I needed to get the two half’s (of
the rear split seat) to align with the two support rails that I needed to
install to but with all said and done I’m glad I went this route (ahhh… to have
rear bucket like seats)
I then made
use of my revell Datsun 510 model kit decal sheet, which provide the template
for me to repaint the car (which came into my possession with some primed
areas) with a BRE inspired paint scheme. While looking at the
510realm.com website I came across a cool custom painted hood that
featured a Japanese style rising sun flag, I used that idea as inspiration for
my hood.
With the
console, seats and paint done the front and rear bumpers were next. First to go
were the rubber stop chunks, then after I figured out how to let the air out of
the bumper over rides… in went the bumpers - about 3 inches closer to the body
now. The next thing that I did was wire up flashing turn signals with help from
the article on the Dime Quarterly SWEET looking and safety minded! I have also
added some 14x7 Centerlines with 14/185/60 rubber to improve looks and handling.
At the
moment my future plans include either doing an SR20DET engine swap or I may do
a HOT lower-cost rebuild of the stock L20b with some go-fast goodies (Dual
Weber’s, Pistons, U67 head???) only time will tell….
Thanks and
hope you enjoyed!
Jon