Datsun 510

[VTECFOUR]

Friend just picked up this vintage Revell Datsun 510 kit and will lend it to make a body mold.



The 510 was one of my favorite cars growing up, so it was a no-brainer to take up the offer.



What I like is that the fender flares are molded into the body so that's one less onerous task to do.

Sight measured it to my Sunbeam Tiger build and my adjust-o-wheelbase chassis with fit and not require any changes to the front and rear wheel tracks.









Looks good.

Time to prep for a mold.

Dan

[JamieB]

I love the 510, this should be pretty cool!

[Lou E]

Very cool, looking forward to seeing this one come to life!

[WB2]

Please don’t do the lowrider look.

[tin_indians]

[Z-carfan]

YES! Love the 510! This one is on my to do list, I have 2 of the BRE kits.

[VTECFOUR]

Cast my first body.







Lots of voids but at least the fender flares, front spook and front and rear end detail came through.

Dan

[Lou E]

AWESOME!!

Any plans of making these available?

[Z-carfan]

Great looking cast!

[VTECFOUR]

Having problems with successive casts.

Roof is not the right shape with being concave or convex from cast to cast. Silicone mold is just too thin in that area for a correct and consistent contour.





Been softening up roof area under warm water and pressing against a hard, flat surface with mixed results.

Maybe just using filler and sanding will be fine in the end.

Yep, always something to deal with.

Not the end of the world.

Dan

[VTECFOUR]

Making individual window templates from the kit's originals. Applied masking tape over the original clear windows, cut to shape and taped them onto .030 styrene.



Will cut out and use as templates for the resin copies. Kit's individual windows sit flush with the body on a recessed edge. Gotta be careful not to remove the edge from the resin bodies when filing and sanding.

Dan

[VTECFOUR]

Prepped the resin body with lots of filing, puttying, sanding and grinding. Body weight came in at 22 grams just slightly more than the model kit's 20g.







Mounted the body to my Tiger build's adjustable wheelbase chassis.



Stance works for me.

Lots of body work left to do.

Dan

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Hey Dan, I have always wanted to do a custom convertible 510. Got a bad enough roof that you were going to scrap it?

[VTECFOUR]

Hi Waay,

Casts so far are reasonably good. Nothing that's scrap and can't be salvaged with putty filler.



Dan

[Quickcars]

Looking forward to seeing the end result. Looks great so far. I still have a 510 kit that I need to find BRE decals for. Will probably use a hrs2 chassis for my build (because I have no idea how to build my own).

QC