As someone who sells an awful lot of projects out of wooded scenery just like this 1972 Datsun 510 is seen slumbering in, I understand the initial rush to judgment. Why on Earth would you, a sensible human being, want to own a car that has been sitting on the back 40 of someone’s property? Well, it all depends on where you fall on the scale of discovering a forgotten project versus paying more upfront for a turnkey example. If you’re like me and love the idea of bringing a car back to life (and effectively-being the catalyst for making that happen), then a forgotten example like this 510 will absolutely scratch you right where you itch. The seller provides very little information other than confirming the engine and transmission are right where they should be. Find the Datsun here on eBay with bidding to $510 and no reserve.
The 510 has been a celebrated Japanese classic for some time now, serving as a reminder that while BMW grabbed all the headlines with the 2002, the 510 was the same concept in a different wrapper. It found immediate favor at the track where amateur racers tackled road courses and autocross circuits alike with the Datsun’s lithe chassis able to dance to a surprisingly high level right out of the box. Like the 2002, it made owning a true driver’s car more affordable than you would have thought, and also let drivers know that they didn’t have to look just towards muscle cars to find honest transportation that was fun to hustle. Sadly, this 510 has been off the road for many years and will require complete restoration.
Now, at least you’re starting with a complete car. This is the sort of project you’d love to see on a YouTube channel where some aspiring entertainer tries to get the engine to turn over with a can of diesel fuel and a breaker bar. When you see a car like this one that’s clearly been abandoned for what is likely decades. you go into it knowing everything will need to be rebuilt, even if the engine miraculously is able to fire up again. The seller mentions that the Datsun is in “rough shape” but that it’s still restorable; if the underside hasn’t turned into a mess of rot and fallen floors, I could possibly see the same potential that he does – but I’m not holding my breath.
The Datsun’s interior is as rough as you’d expect, but again, just seeing that the seats and transmission are still there tell me this desirable 510 is more likely a refugee of a rural backyard rather than a junkyard find where it’s been picked at for decades. The Datsun is in Tallahassee, Florida, which is a fair distance away from the soggy coastline where a car like this might have perished years earlier from prolonged exposure to the ocean’s salty spray. As the seller points out, this Datsun retains all of its glass, which may explain why the interior is holding up against the test of time and also prove that this 510 isn’t in a junkyard – because if it was, all of the windows would have been trashed inside of a month. Do you think it can be rescued?
Lack of a title is also an issue
No issue in my State of Residence!
What State are you in that makes it easy to get a Title?
Interesting wing nut for the air cleaner.
I’ve often wondered what it would be like to hit my handcwith a sledge hsmmer but never attempted .. one could pull ot a under tree dweller and pray for a title 😼
Fun fact; the 2-door 510 was somewhat decontented compared to the 4-door and wagon. Depending on the year you might be looking at rubber floor mats vs carpet, dog-dish hubcaps instead of full wheelcovers, and a few missing features on the dash. The point was to match the Beetle on price.
I don’t think the seller who mustered up just enough energy to walk into the bushes to get 8 blurred, badly framed cell phone pics and write a 3 sentence description is qualified to say it is “very restorable”.
Good place for it, the 510 was a miserable car, and to even include the reference to a 2002, is, well, I don’t know how to finish that nicely. The only similarity was the rear suspension, the wagon never had IRS and could have really used it, the wagon was the big seller. The rest of the car, there was nothing BMW about it .Why the ill sentiment? A friend had one, we took it to Florida one year ( from Wis) it was awful. I generally don’t like Asian cars, and not because of the old man, ( okay, maybe subliminally) and I’ve had a couple nice Asian vehicles, but the 510 stands out as just a poor car, poorest I can remember. Why? Thin doors, poor seats, lousy heater, cheap controls and on and on. Be that as it may, the 510 was probably one of the 1st Datsuns , of any interest, that many Americans saw, and with gas mileage on everyones mind, it was a hit. Too bad, in just a few short years, the front wheels caved in from rust, and changing the name to “Nissan” didn’t help either. Of the 5 Asian cars offered here, I always thought Nissan was the most cheaply built one. While in the beginning, no one knew, but without question, Toyota turned out to be the best of them all, and still is.
Seriously? The only thing this sorry Datsun is good for is recycling.
Well I was interested then I realized it was in Florida so no thanks I would be afraid to even hook a chain to it the paint is probably the only thing holding the car shape together. So someone else can deal with it
Howard, I have to say that 99.9% of the time I agree with you. However, this time I have to take the other side of the argument. The Dime is one fantastic car that takes a heck of a beating (I know, as I had one for years). With very limited mods (tires and wheels, shocks/struts and swaybars) they were and still are a complete giggle to drive. The motors are extremely tunable, the looks are great, and the creature comforts are no worse than other economy cars of the era. Look at what these did (and are still doing!) in all sorts of roadracing guise, and rally, and autocross – they are stout performers.
This particular example, however, looks like a parts car at best to me.
cheers,
Bt
That’s okay, I’m not here for a popularity contest, just my views on actual experience, not always what I look up. I never heard it called a “Dime”, that’s pretty funny, and there’s no doubt as to it’s MODIFIED racing history, but it was Datsuns 1st swing at a car for the US, and was an okay start, but there were much better cars to be had. You had to be really upset with Americas offerings to consider a 510. Heck, a less expensive Gremlin offered more in the way of comfort than a 510, and wasn’t until Datsun offered the B210, a much improved car, that things really took off for Datsun.
I don’t know why it won’t let me respond to you down below, but regarding dual point distributors in the 510, the car I drove for more than 100,000 miles—and did most of the work on myself—did not have a dual point distributor. Nor has any car I’ve ever owned. I’ve been told they are a pita to tune, and I remember automotive pitas. Maybe they put dual points in them in Canada, but unless there was some driving need for dual points, Nissan surely wouldn’t have spen the money on more expensive hardware.
I wonder why the car you knew had one. Swapped, perhaps?
You’ve probably read by now that the dual point distributors were first installed beginning with the 70 model year. The second set would retard the timing for smog control purposes. Yours was probably an earlier year
Rexer, I wonder how my 1972 Datsun 510 that I bought new and put over 100,000 miles on before it finally succumbed to rust when it was eight years old had a single point distributor. I did almost all the mechanical work in the car, the least of which was tuneups. (I still have my Penske dwell-tach that I bought at Sears and used until, you know, electronics). I’ve read where these cars were equipped with dual point distributors. I know the difference, and mine wasn’t. 🤷🏼♂️
Unless you bought your 72 new, someone may have gotten frustrated with the dual-point distributor and swapped in a single-point one. I’ve worked on and looked under the hood of many 510s. I’ve never seen a 72 with single points.
A 510 is one of the BEST race cars I ever owned and have driven in Vintage Road Racing. Far more fun than the 67 Corvette and 66 I own and raced!
Great car!
With you on that one Bull. Spent around 3 years racing a bright orange 510 with a complete roadster adjustable suspension in the ’90s SCCA road racing series. Had almost a 90 percent win rate and it was a killer in endurance races. Agree that they weren’t the greatest street cars but they were made to be low cost to compete in the market.
There is a tremendous support community for the 510, and honestly, I think this car is very restorable. Based on what’s visible of the right inner fender, rust doesn’t look very bad. There’s nothing on the battery mount, for example, looks solid and it looks good where the fender meets the firewall. From the picture even the rockers, at least on the left side, don’t look that bad.
I wonder what the front, right side and whole rear end look like. There are enough parts still available to make most of a 510 from scratch.
A good thing is that the things like seats, for e ample. would be replaced by racing or sport seats anyway, along with most of the creature comforts.
A restored and modified 510 will bring $40,000. Surviving 510s are a canvas for creating just about any kind of sport compact you can imagine.
I owned a 1972 510 from new, put a full BRE suspension under it. I never had the money to put a modified engine in it. But I also the opportunity to drive several Corollas from the era and the 510 was by far a better riding car, and even the two-door had room in the back for two, well, smaller adults.
There’s a big reason why Corollas were never popular, to say the least, on the race track, and today there are probably as many 510s in vintage racing as their BMW peers.
A 1.6 or 2.0 litre engine, 4 wheel independent suspension and a 5 speed transmission.
What’s not to like!!!
Well for one ,really thin sheet metal that dissolved away after a few years….
The 510 came with the L16 1.6-liter engine only, but you could mix and match crank, connecting rods and pistons to make 1.8 and 2.0 liter displacement. The engines were “modular,” the 240Z six-cylinder just two cylinders longer, with different carburetion, flat-topped pistons (instead of recessed for lower compression), etc.
The car unmodified rode more smoothly than /anything/ on the market, thanks to the independent rear suspension, though replace the deadly 5.60-13 bias-ply tires with radials ASAP.
Only if it were lowered would it handle like a sports car, but, man, was/is there a plethora of parts available to do just about anything.
Re someone’s comment about the distributor: It did not come with a dual-point distributor.
Were they prone to rust? Name something from the era that wasn’t. Ziebart, Rusty Jones, etc, had a good thing going for a while.
Many negative comments, typical for this type of site, come from people who’ve had no experience with the car in question, or were lousy owners or bought a poorly maintained used example.
The eBay auction is closed. Does anyone know what this car eventually sold for?
CarBuzzard, my 1970 510 most certainly came with a dual points distributor from the factory. I *think* it may have been part of an air pollution control system from the factory, but I don’t know for sure. It was a Cdn market car, FWIW….
cheers,
BT
I am shocked that it is up to $999 now!!
I am Not.
I am the current high bidder!
Bidding is over $1500 now. I expect that it will top $3000. In person inspection would be wise, but I am not seeing any critical level of rust. The 510 is a great car. Of course you have to be appreciative of light nimble sedans.
Standard was 1.6 liter engine and 4 speed
They’re nice fun little cars. A relative of mine had a school bus yellow 1971 two door. I used to take it for drives around the neighborhood. I loved it! It was fun to drive. I had to teach them how to drive a stick when they first bought it.
Located in:
Tallahassee, Florida
Back in the seventies these Fiat-inspired people-movers were as common as muck. In the mid ’80s they started to disappear as quickly as they had become ubiquitous. Yes, they had very thin metal and cheap interiors, but they made low-cost performance cars for kids who wanted to modify them a little. While I personally never liked the Datsun 510, I respect people’s attachment to them, and if someone wants to restore it as a nostalgic labour of love, and the price paid is reasonable, then all the power to him or her!
Now the remaining 510s are show cars that are seldom driven, or stuffed in a garage for sometimes decades, to one day be restored. The sheet metal is thin, but the biggest problem is no thought given to rustproofing. Some areas seem designed to rust.
A friend of mine had one when I was about 16 or 17, couldnt get it started , found out the twin points in the distributor were alternating instead of evenly opening … in later years I found out the transmission is worth more than the car, It fits the Spitfire , triumph Herald and the MG midget 1500 .. an overdrive 5 speed , very desirable over the 4 spd
Only the Datsun 2000 roadster had a factory 5 speed. The 510 had a 4 speed or automatic, but many were changed
Are you sure , my friends had a 5 spd and everyone that owns a Herald (such as myself ) are always on the hunt for the Datsun 510 transmission. Let me know if you have one
The dual point distributor was first used in the 70 or 71 510, then continued into 72-73. The second set of points was activated to retard the timing under certain driving conditions for smog purposes
The Datsun B210 engine was based on the British A series, so that transmission would be the likely one if the Herald uses an A engine. But the B210 didn’t have a 5 speed until about 1977. The 510 had an L engine, and definitely only a 4 speed, but it could be replaced with a Z car 5 speed as the Zs also had an L engine.
Ebay selling price was $1994.
Ended:
Jan 07, 2022
Winning bid:
US $1,994.00
[ 16 bids ]
BU, did you buy it?
I had a neighbor that had a sedan version. It had a strange (to me) column shift automatic, if I remember correct. What made it strange to me was I thought they were all floor shift. I was quite young & only rode in it once.
This guy always had cool cars. I grew up with two of his sons, & he was always dragging home interesting cars. He currently has an old Fiat Spyder in his garage, which has been sitting there for decades.
68-71 was column shift automatic. 72-73 was floor shift automatic
So my memory was right! Thank you for the clarification! I am not nuts (in this regard lol).