It was my last day at work before the long Iedul Fitri holiday. I finished work on time, went back to my kosan, walked several meters to my favorite coffee shop, and broke my fast there. As usual I finished my flat white and Nutella croissant just past their closing time, paid my order, then walked back to my kosan. I took a quick rest, packed my stuff then went straight to the nearest train station to catch my usual night train back to my house in the other side of the city. It sounded like my any other weekend activity, but it wasn’t, why? Because of something that I did 26 hours ago.
The day before, right around 05.30pm I finished my payment
to someone in Yogyakarta, 560 km away from Jakarta according to Google. A
payment to the previous owner of a 1600cc green 1972 Datsun 510, that was from
then on, mine. Yes, I had just purchased my dream car. Sight unseen, only based
on pictures, videos and written testimony that the previous owner provided. The
tow truck hauling my beloved 510 headed to Jakarta at around 06.00pm that day. This
will either be the best or worst decision that I have ever made.
On the train ride back home that took around one and a half
hour, considering all the waiting and ojek
ride home, I arrived home at around 11.00pm. During the journey back home I
constantly communicated with Ariq for the current location of the towing car,
since the owner of the towing service was Ariq’s friend and the car was to be
dropped off at Ariq’s house so that we can work on the car more easily. Right
before 12 o’clock midnight Ariq told me the tow truck was entering Jakarta, and
looking at the traffic maybe it would take one and a half to two hours to reach
his house. So I took some rest, grabed the keys of my father’s car then drove
to BSD.
Ariq’s house is not that far, about 30 minutes drive via the
highway. As I was driving, my head was filled with expectations. Just a
reminder, I have never seen this car before. Imagine this like if your ex
finaly agreed to meet you after millions of attempts which she rejected with
numerous reasons. All the uncertainties revolving in my head. Has she changed?
Am I too fat for her now? Would I bore her to death if I ended up talking about
cars? Is she already seeing another guy? Does she still think I’m a waste of her
time? With all these thoughts in my head, before I knew it, I had come to my highway
exit and not long after that I arrived at Ariq’s house.
The towing car still hadn’t arrived, so I waited. An hour
later as Ariq and I were chatting, we heard the sound of a diesel truck in
front of the house. It was the tow truck. We opened the gate, and there it was,
a green Datsun 510 on the back of the towing car. We helped the driver to set
up the ramp, gently pushed the car down in front of the house. But we still had
to push the car UP to Ariq’s driveway, with a flat front tire was quite a work
out. It took us several attempt but we managed to place the car where we wanted
it. It was around 2am so I gave the driver a big thank you and a tip and they
left. It was really late and dark, we were very tired and we can’t really inspect
the car. So I decided to go back home and see the car again first thing in the
morning.
The next morning I went back to Ariq’s house. It was my
first time seeing this car in daylight. So how was the “date”? Did it meet my expectations? I would say no
(I am actually laughing as I’m writing this lol). I knew the car was not in the
best shape, but my expectation was that at least I could start the car and take
it around the block at least once. But surprise surprise! Not today pal! The
owner sent me a video of the engine running but what I didn’t know is that the
wiring harness wasn’t actually all connected, so the owner actually had to jump
the starter motor to start the car. Oh and the car did not come with a battery.
But all that aside, I reckoned she looked as beautiful as ever, but seems like
she didn’t really want to meet me in the first place.
To give you all a picture about the condition, this car is currently
in the classic nightmare situation of poorly done body and paint work. The previous
owner told me that this car just had the body and paint worked on several years
ago but he thinks the workshop didn’t do the job as he expected. I assume that this
is why this the car was neglected mid work, and that explains all the missing
bits and pieces and the dodgy wiring (because you know, they usually remove all
the trim and wiring before body and paint work). Furthermore, there are a tons
of work that needed to be done, the interior, door fitting, weather stripping,
window mechanism and many more.
So the next questions would be: What’s the plan? To come up
with the plan, I have yet to introduce you all with the situation, mainly about
the budget and time. I am just an average Joe working in my first big company
with fresh graduate salary. I can’t ask for my father to buy me an SR20 and
full motorsport suspension then let a specialist set it up for me. I have to be
very careful and thoughtful on how I spend my money, and do as much of the work
by myself (and of course with the help of my friends) to keep up with the tight
budget. So expect many learning process and trial and error in this project. As
for the deadline, I could only say that I have a deadline with the reason that
I may or may not explain to you all in the future. To put it simple, by the end
of this year my goal is to be able to drive this 510 safely and confidently on
the streets. Meaning that the drivetrain is healthy, the brakes are working,
and the suspension is safe.
Now let’s talk about the plan. Our plan is to work on this
car bit by bit, tackle one problem at a time. Ariq and I both have our own 9 to
5 jobs, so we could only work on this car on the weekends. Ariq could work on
small things after work, but since I work in the other side of the city I could
only be present on the weekends. For the car itself I have a rough picture on
how I want it to be. Considering the budget and time I’m not going to restore
it to original state, I will build it as to my own preference. I want it to be
rough looking but delightful to drive, much like a canyon carver.
For now my priority is not on the exterior. I will keep the
color and may add or remove several exterior part and may change the wheels, I
want to make the car look good but not too good that it makes me afraid to
drive it hard. As for the engine, we know that it runs but again we have to
sort the wiring and fuel lines, but the goal for now is to make it run reliably
that I could drive it anytime I want. We may have a plan for a different
carburettor setup. For the interior, I intend to keep it bare and stripped, some
kind of a mix of race car and street car. I might also change the steering
wheel and try to find some cheap bucket seat, but I will keep the carpet to minimum
and maybe make our own aluminum door trim.
So yeah, that’s roughly it for now. I expect there will
be a lot of learning process in this project and I hope it would be informative
and useful for you all. We will keep you updated with this project and share
some interesting things that we encounter during this project. Not only the
update, we will also try to give you some background story about his project,
from why I chose this car and how I finally got my hands on this particular 510.
We hope that this will encourage you all to start working on your own car and
get involved in the building process. So do keep your eyes on our feed and stay
tuned for updates to come!