Datsun 510 Pro/Stock "SWEET PAIN" COMPLETED BUILD

[LeadFred]

Hi,

It´s been a long time since i´ve post some builds here on the forum, so it is really fun to share some pictures of this build and tell you what i have done.

I wanted to build a very small car with so much drag parts i could put in to this little body,and this is how it started.

 I posted for a long time ago the first pictures of this build in the workbench column but i closed that tag,just because i realized that it would fit in better in the dragracing column.

 

In the beginning of this build i started to cut out doors and all body panels that i wanted to view the details for the spectator to.  When i had did that….????? i start to wonder if i really could do it as the plan i had in my head. after  cutting the hole body in pieces the project went back in the modelkit box for a year.

 

But the following year, I could not quite let go of the thought of my little Datsun. When the time is getting ripe and I had built the building in my head over and over again as the box went up again and the building began to take off.

This is the first pictures of ”Sweet pain” The name is well an explanation of what I thought the building was.

I took, for example, assume that Revell kit was symmetrical.

and it caused problems, including the big wheeltubs,built symmetrically from the start, but did not sit symmetrically in the body when it was mounted.

it meant I had to change a lot to get into a chassis that has the proportions that I wanted them.

 

It is not the best picture,but the rear piece that have the taillights moulded in white plastic,I have replaced with my own cast in clear plastic that I have masked the rear lights and then primed the body panel to get a better sense of realism, The kit's rear panel look more like a toy.

I have not yet cut off the front.

I probably forgot to take a picture of the back panel when it was completely unassembled and unpainted, but this picture shows the original panel to the left and my copy of clear plastic assembled and primed. the tape is on the back just for it not to get paint dust on the inside of the rear lamp glass. Here you can see the mounting holes for the original rearbumper, as you can see, it is not very symmetrical, and then you can understand that maybe it came unexpected problems later.

This is the first try of my chassie,but the engine did´nt fit correct with the headers mocked-up, so i had to change the front frame next.

this is the frame from the kits chassie,but it was to small for a 351 cleveland V8 pro stock engine ,just wanna show you what problems i had before i change the front.

Comments are welcome and more to come....

Fred.

Edited October 4, 2016 by LeadFred
The title was change to pro stock, instead of drag car

[blackbeard]

your off to a great start

[John Clutch]

LeadFred, this is EXACTLY ehat happened to me with my 1/16 69' Charger pro touring project. I chopped it up and then nothing was symetrical. And it been in the box for a year so far, til I have the patience to make proper jigs to get everything to work.

 

DONT CUT THE FRONT OFF NOW!!!! Wait til you have everything else mocked up, then chop the fenders off. Youll be happy that way.

 

It looks great so far! The concept is a great one. Good luck with it bro

[Daddyfink]

Nice project! I plan on building a drag version, but a bit less radical! 

[LeadFred]

Hi,

Thanks for comments, 

I have also this picture that shows the body with the chassie and i have mocked up with the wheels in jig made of silicone putty.

And the great thing about silicone putty is that you cut of areas that dont want the putty in. so this jig only holds the body, frame and wheels to see how you want the stance. it helps when you want to measure parts and proportions. it was in this stage of the build i discovered that the engine was too much high in the frame front. and to get it right i have to make a new tube front with a slight angle on the frame legs, then the engine would fit properly.Next two picture´s show the frame legs that i had to cut off to another angle,but it did not work well,so a new tube frame was the solution. (And John C, i have already cut off the front of the body....sorry. But ...i have another kit of the same car that i can fit the chassie to. the cut body is so fragile so it is better to have a extra body that is untouched to take measure on.

but the pictures show the kits original frame that did´nt work well for a big engine.if you wonder what front wheels i have used in the mock-up,it´s from the Revell Jungle Jim Vega funny car. i will use the tires on this build but not the rims, it´s just for the mock-up.

soon i will give you pictures of the new tube front frame and some engine mock-up.

Fred.

Edited July 30, 2016 by LeadFred

[John Clutch]

Thats great you have another body. Maybe thats what i should do. Thanks for mentioning it. 

[LeadFred]

The chassis was cut off where the rear wheel housing starts, and also the cardan tunnel has to be removed because it is just too small. Looking for the new transmission tunnel, I see a ballpoint pen in plastic that appear to have the correct dimensions. Said and done I saw the pen and trim it to fit and put together the two floor halves so the hole floor still continues to fit in the body, then I make a frame to hold the rear end,and then the wheel tubs. This construction section is quite tricky to get to, because if there will not be a good fit on the chassis "in" the body, it will be difficult to get the car good from all angles, and does the body spanning over the chassis, it will becomes quite impossible to get the doors to fit back into the body. I did make a lot of errors along the way,but the best thing about that is that you learn a lot,and When you have dealed with your errors, everything falls into place.

Here you can see the plastic part made out of a ballpoint pen. Also you can see the upper side of the dash, and that was a very imported reference part,because the chassi needed a fixed point when i test fit chassi unit into the body. The chassi need to be in the same height every time you testfit, I need all the time to make fixed reference points for all proportions,and in a later stage of the build it is imported that everything has a predetermind position,if not, you probebly Dont know how the stance Will be.this picture shows the two floor pans and the firewall from the kit without the tunnel.here you can see the silicone jig holds the chassie and the rear wheels in place,not assembled with each other, just mocked up, and the body lifted from the chassis.The engine is Futurattraction´s 351 clevland/pro stock engine. I´ll think this engine is a very god choice for this. Here we can see that i have cut off the old front frame,but still i can place the chassi into my silicone putty jig,and the front of the body can also be put into the jig in the same place as you have seen before.The marking for the front tires are ready to use if you need to mock up them for measuring.

The new front tube chassi can now be made and in the same stage i can control the engine height,so it does´nt sit to high and of course not to low.another angle.Here you see the extra body that also fit into the same jig. and as you see,it is very thin a-pillars and very fragile to work on a body like this one,so a extra body is a very good choice to testfit with and when you get close to your fit you can check with the cut body,this solution saved me alot of broken a-pilars etc.

of the original kit parts i have used so far......the most parts,are Modified to fit.

Next update i will get on to the rear end.........

Fred.

Edited July 31, 2016 by LeadFred

[LeadFred]

The rear axle is a bit tricky to assemble.
Anyway, so I put the rear wheels in the markings of the jig, then I mocked-up the rear axle between the inner wheels in their natural position. The rear axle had then 4-linked plates mounted.(From Futurattraction) Then I had silicone putty on top of the rear axle and pressed gently the chassis in to the jig at the appointed place, waiting to Siliconet would harden. (About 10 minutes). Unfortunately I have no picture of that moment, but I have a picture of a different chassis where I do the same thing, as you will see instead.
Now I can lift the entire chassis with axle,wheels  up from the jig and measuring the distance of the springs located in the 4-link's plates and the frame. trim the silicon impression may be needed because some things need to be able to go freely in the jig. (Picture Obove,is not the Datsun,but the same building technique)
The height of the springs determines how high or low the rear sits in relation to the ground. Then mount the struts in the frame and the rear axle and wheels and put the body on the chassis, then the moment of truth, IF...the rear suspension is too high then disassemble and shorten the strut. it is better to start with a too long spring than too short, because it's easier to see how much to short than vice versa.The mounts for the springs is  made on my lathe.
The plastic pieces between the 4-link plates are just to be correct spacing between the plates when fixing them on the rear end.
The screws are "building screws". After painting and final assembly I will changed them out to RB-motion bolts in scale.

This was the rear end chapter and i´ll hope you enjoy and understand my explanation. Explain technical construction description in English can be a bit difficult,

Fred.

I found a picture of my rear panel that i cast in clear because of the taillights.

Edited July 31, 2016 by LeadFred
lost picture found.

[blackbeard]

what a really great start to a great build

[John Clutch]

Lookin great. Now you can see just how narrow that rear end is gonna be. The 4 link plates are nearly on top of the pumpkin!!!

[LeadFred]

OK,I have some more photos to give you.

This is the new tube front, The tabs that holds the frontwheels to the frame are glued in place, And also the plates that the engine is connected to.

The small pipe end in the front are mountings for the radiator.

The tabs are from Dirtmodeler.

Here we see how the engine is mounted with an adhesive clay,just to be able to say that everything will fit and that the engine should not touch ground when the chassis is in the jig. because that is that height the chassis will have when the front is on wheels.

This is a piece of the rollcage that will be difficult to get in place unless i mount it in advance. I have chosen to join together the rest of the rollcage in the drilled holes of the upper side of the dashboard , Then it is not obvious when the final assembly is made.

Moreover,it is easier to paint the rollcage if it is loose.

And this is the rollcage.

 

Here it is mocked up in the chassi,and you can see what i mean about the holes in the dashboard.

Comments are welcome .

 

Fred

Edited August 7, 2016 by LeadFred
corrected som text.

[MrObsessive]

WOW! I love it!!

Some excellent work you got going on! And yes, that was a very good suggestion to not separate the front clip till you could see how things would go for the engine. I love all the scratchbuilt details-----------this is the kind of thing that really makes you take everything piece by piece and seeing how it all comes together little by little.

[DrKerry]

Very kool, will be keeping an eye on this build for sure!!!!!!

[John Clutch]

Lookin great. Thats also my approach to the dashboard. 

[LeadFred]

Hi from Sweden,

This pictures are the last pictures before i started painting, 

and what i have done is that the chassie has now a god fit in the body, i have also checked the mounting of the engine.

The rollcage is lose so it will be more easy to paint, the picture shows just the rollcage taped in place with the body on,just to make sure that all components will fit after i have start painting,because if it dont fit well after the paint is on,it going to be far more work than it already is.

And i think this is the critical stage in this build,whats come after this is more of the paint and details.

and i have pictures of painted parts but i will sort them out before i will uppload them.

Hope you enjoy this.

The trunk area,i will build a fuel cell and batteries with some details here.

After i have masked of the shock absorber legs it will be pimed and then the color.

Body on in a early stage of the rollcage building. Just to check the corners of the rollcage "inside" the body.

Here is more testing,and the rollcage is fitting well with the body on. 

Soon i will upload more of this build,

to be continued......

Fred

 

[maltsr]

Thanks for guiding us through this, Fred, very impressive work so far.

[LeadFred]

OK,

This is the first pictures of the painted rearend with components.

 

[LeadFred]

More Pictures,

The color of the car will be blue with two red stripes and i want to use the same colors on the firewall/floor and also the red color on the tube front/ rollcage.

This is just painted and also a layer of clear..

I have also put on decal on the rear wheeltubs and the tunnel at the floor with some carbon fiber decals

Here is my scratch built headers. they are made of evergreen plastic rod,

Here they are painted gloss black before i will do the alclad effect. To say about that, is that it was very tricky to get these headers to fit in this small car.

and also get the right feeling of proportions when they are mounted on the engine, The space i have in the front of this little car is very limited.

and when i check the chassie with the engine in place and with a front tire in the jig i´ll think the headers will fit properly.

Fred

 

 

[maltsr]

Now it's starting to come to life - the carbon fibre decal work looks great.

[LeadFred]

Thanks Paul,

I see that the last picture had a little more details applied to the chassie, i can see the Lenco shifters and a bit of the steering. I Will be updating more of these details and how i did it and what type of aftermarket or scratch build items i have used. 

Hope that you guy's can find som inspiration to your builds. 

Fred

[Davewilly]

Its looking pretty good!  This is going to be pretty mean looking when its done!

[cobraman]

Very nice work .

[Jeepxj]

Very C??L car.

[John Clutch]

Looking great bro. Nice choice on colors too. 

[jwrass]

Fred,

Super Trick Build! Awesome Craftsmanship...... The silicone jig is very cleaver. Thank you for sharing is build.

 

Jimmy "RASS"