Nephi Bahr

Does anyone know if the datsun door latch mechanism was universal. The ones in the truck are worn but there is a 78 b210 at a local pick and pull. They sell replacement ones on ebay but they are like 40 dollars each.

I remember the first time I drove it around a tight corner and forgot how much body roll these older cars have. But then again my 2 daily drivers are an audi tt and BMW X5 so maybe I'm a little spoiled in the corners.

This was the paint before I spent 6 hours buffing the car. Still need to wax it to protect the paint.

My wife's grandfather owned the car for almost 40 years and he is the one that noticed the difference after the tire change. I noticed it a little movement but have only driven the truck about 30 miles since we got it as I tore out the interior right when we got it. The best part is that there is almost zero rust, just a little surface rust where the paint is chipping in a couple of spots. Crazy enough the only accident the truck was ever in was when he forgot to set the parking brake and it rolled into a tree.

So I'm going to do a spray on bedliner. Should I do black or they sell a tintable version so I could also do orange. The truck runs great but when driving and you hit a bump the car kind of jumps around. My wife's grandfather said this only started after he replaced the tires with larger tires because Costco could not get the original tire size. He had a shop replace most of the front end suspension parts chasing down the problem but never fixing it. I am considering re placing all of the shocks and it probably needs an alignment but did not know if anyone else had experienced a similar problem when going to larger tires.

Value for almost everything is based upon supply and demand. The market near my house is currently selling 1 roll of toilet paper for 1.50. Crazy times. I am currently restoring a truck that was a owned for almost 40 years by my wife's grandfather. I bought the car for 2500 USD but he probably could have sold it for more. I probably could have got it for less but he had spent almost 1500 in the last year for tires, suspension fixes etc. I would first determine what you want the car for: daily driver, show car, cool older car, project, etc. Most of the parts are cheap and there really are a lot simpler than a modern car. If I were to prioritize what to look for it would be in this order; 1. Rust: Older cars may have it everywhere and in my opinion it takes a lot to fix. I list this as 1 because it requires cutting out the rust, patching, bondo, and repainting. I doubt you could ever match the original paint and if you are going to have the car repainted right it's very expensive. If you can do it yourself then its cheap but takes a lot of time. 2. Mechanical: I list this as 2 but these trucks are actually really simple but have little value if they do not run and drive. I personally prefer to buy a discounted vehicle with mechanical problems. Usually you can get the vehicle for cheap. You can do the repairs and then know it's fixed right and use the money you saved for other goodies. I bought a 73 vw beetle from a guy who said it wouldn't start for 400. He had tried to install a radio and disconnected the ground to an aftermarket fuel pump. I had the car running within 5 minutes. 3. Aesthetics: let's be honest we all love the look of these older vehicles and that's why we own them. In comparison to a modern car they are slow, handle like crap, have terrible brakes, suspension...... They are cool to drive and you will get lots of looks but 4. Previous repairs: older cars often have been worked on by multiple owners and sometimes this creates a mess. As for pricing, in Portland Oregon a 620 sells for 500-5000 USD and there are usually 2-10 for sale locally at any given time. 500 not running and needing a lot of attention. 2500 running and ok aesthetically. 5000 for running and good aesthetically. I would recommend getting the nicest one you can find unless you are looking for a project. A previous owner may have spent 3k on having the car repainted but probably cannot sell the car for 3k more. Just understand what repairs you can do and if you think it's going to take 1k to get the truck where you want it then it will probably cost 2k. If you are anal like me, probably 4k. If your going to do the repairs yourself I would estimate how much time you think it is going to take and times that by 4. All I am saying is lots of people take on projects and never finish them.

Spent 6 hours polishing the car today. The paint looks amazing now. I set out with thr intent of making it look better but I'm almost sure it looks almost as good as when it was brand new. I still cant believe that the paint is over 40 years old!

Spent about 6 hours polishing today. 3 full times with harbor freight buffer. I did 4 full passes on every part of the car each time. You can now see your reflection in the paint. You can see in the 1st photo where I have yet to do under the rear window the before and after. I would have died doing the entire job by hand. Just get extra pads as the harbor freight ones fall apart fast. I honestly just wanted the paint to look a little better but it now looks almost new.

I am working on doing the same thing. I have a 78 620. It is the original paint and I am pretty sure it is single stage paint. Paint comes off when I wipe heavy with a rag. This was my wife's grandfather's work truck for almost 40 years and the paint is actually in amazing condition for its age/use. It is really faded but I did one quick pass by hand with McGuire's #9 polish and swirl remover because that is what I use on my Audi. It looks a lot better but from what I have read you need to do it at least 4 times and I think leaving it on for a day before removing. Eventually I would like to have it repainted but just hoping to make it look better now.

Thanks. I saw pictures of the 720 seats but there are no mounting holes. I'm sure she rode in the back but probably on some phone books.

I am working on restoring a 78 620 king cab that my wife's grandfather owned for almost 40 years. My mother in law insists that the truck had rear seats but I do not see any signs of where they would mount so I am skeptical. Does anyone know?

They are not because the heated seat pads are a solid sheet. I made the patterns from the original seats and did sew in the additional attachments but then removed after the heated seat pads were installed. Also some of the issue is related to the difference in seat foam. The original foam was not as wide and probably 1" thinner. Finally, the faux leather stretched easily. I used a walking foot but still found that as I sewed tight corners one side of the fabric would stretch more than the other. Professional upholsterers have machines and the skill to control the speed and feed of the materials around the corners to prevent this from happening. The old seats were the original white vinyl with sheep skin covers. The driver seat foam was so worn my wife's grandfather had put a floor mat under the seat cover to prevent feeling the springs. I'm sure they sell replacement foam but I'm trying to do this build on a budget as im now back up to 5 cars and I have a work truck that I drive most of the time because they pay for maintenance and gas. I know lots of people do their own mechanical work just wanted everyone to know that upholstery really is something they can tackle and overall pretty inexpensive as a DIY project.

I live in Portland Oregon. If anyone's in the area I wouldn't mind trading some upholstery work for other work on the truck.

My wife's grandfather bought the truck in 81 and he just recently moved into a care facility and could not take the truck with him. So to keep the truck in the family, I bought it and am now working on making her look good again. I do not have a garage so this winter has been working on the interior. I originally considered having an upholstery shop do the work but figured sewing really cannot be that hard and most of the lines are straight anyways. So found a heavier duty home sewing machine on Craigslist for $60. I removed the stock seat covers and separated all the seams to create patterns. I decided I wanted a 2 color interior and found the faux leather at the local fabric store. I glued the fabric to headliner material to create some definition for the diamond stitching. The original seat padding was terrible shape and not very comfortable from the factory anyways. So I went to pick and pull and removed the padding from a newer VW Beetle. With some modifications they actually are pretty close to the same size. As the patterns were from the original seat shape and the new foam was slightly different, the covers are not perfect but for my first project I'm pretty happy. I installed a heated seat kit because they are less than $40 on ebay and a must have for every car. I removed the dash, door panels and rear panels and removed them with the same materials. These were all glued on. I painted, self tapping screws orange to attach all the panels. The original dash was cracked so I recovered that section with the faux leather and repainted the metal section. I repainted most of the plastic pieces. And am almost done with the interior. And replaced the carpet and installed sound deadening under all the carpet and panels. Still need to make a steering wheel cover and sm probably going to upgrade the stereo. The project took a lot of time, probably at least 100 hours but I found it was the perfect winter project. I know a professional would have made it look a lot better but I can only imagine the total cost for all new custom interior. Plus most of the work was done in the evenings and I do not sew sober. Here is a breakdown of costs if anyone else is considering doing similar: 10 yards of faux leather at $18/yard: $180. I know you can get the material cheaper online but I really wanted to see and feel the material. 4 yards of headliner material for backing: $36 Seat foam: $4 per seat: $8. I originally was going to take the whole seats and cut out the foam at my house but it was faster to just cut out the foam there. Pick and pull charges $40 per seat but does not have a cost for seat foam. Heated seat kit from Ebay: $36. Sound deadening material: $42 2 yards unbacked carpet off Ebay: $40 Glue/paint/misc: $60 Material cost: $402 Sewing machine/accessories: $140 Total cost: $542 + beer. Plus I can always sell the sewing machine or use it for future projects.

I used to think the same thing until I got a cbr 954rr. Dry weight 369.9lbs. 154hp. That bike taught me there is a difference between hp and usable hp. Sure it would lay that much power to the pavement but when it will pull the front end off the ground on the freeway at 100 my balls weren't big enough to use it all.