LCDC Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 (edited) A year and a half ago or somewhere theres abouts, I found a 1974 Lil' Hustler in spokane washington, banged up, bruised up dented up and old and wore out. I left my name and number and never heard from anyone about it until about 9 months later. The kid who had it had to get rid of it, so I bought it for 75 bucks, minus the title, which I later tracked down from the original owner. I had to close up shop last september for a bit of a sabatical so I sold the truck to a buddy of mine. Along with a bumper bar I had from a truck I bought back in 2006. And original Datsun mirrors. It sat all winter, until today when I went up and got the motor and tranny ready to come out. The other truck my buddy has, the front end drives like a pop can in a windstorm and the cab is so rusted out that its about ready to roll off the frame. So the Lil' Hustler is gonna get back on the road after who knows how many years of being out of service. For now the motor and tranny is going to be replaced with a 1600 and a 4 speed tranny, and I even found some datsun1600 fender emblems from a truck ready to go to the crusher. So I will post pictures of the endeavor as it takes place from start to finish and keep ya'll posted on the progress. I'm trying to push for as much originality but its gonna be a bit of a hybrid. Original Lil' Hustler Motor already out. Didn't Photo the process Dash out. Inside needs work. Old motor going bye bye. Even has the bed side step rails. I said I would put pictures in, you guys are entirely too Impatient!! :D I did most of the work getting the motor ready to come out, while Lugnut assisted handing tools. 5 hours or so crawling under the truck unbolting everything, having rust and dirt fall in my eyes. This stuff would be much better with a hoist. Thats what it looks like now, and heres a hint of what color it may be when its done... Oh, by the way, this is the truck I spent all of Mermorial Day Weekend fixing and putting a motor in after it bounced off the road into some trees, crunched the right fender and inner well and got drove home with no water. A week before I headed to Canby I had to push this truck down the road with my king cab. Then I hit a deer and crunched my truck. Hmmmm. Edited March 22, 2009 by LCDC PUTTING PICTURES IN!!!!! @#?$ Quote Link to comment
72 327 Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Pics??? Glad to hear it may live again though this thread is worthless without pics!!! Quote Link to comment
Skib Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 ^^ its a Ratsun requirement :fu: :lol: Quote Link to comment
420n620 Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^x3 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Quote Link to comment
LCDC Posted March 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 Pictues are posted!!! Quote Link to comment
Rubberman Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 LCDC, Have you got a closeup pic of the white lil hustler sticker on the side of the blue truck? Quote Link to comment
LCDC Posted March 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 LCDC, Have you got a closeup pic of the white lil hustler sticker on the side of the blue truck? Not yet, but I'll get one. Quote Link to comment
420n620 Posted April 2, 2009 Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 Rubberman, if you still want the pics, pm me and I'll run up to where the truck is and get them for ya,,, if it's still there... Quote Link to comment
LCDC Posted April 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 Rubberman, here is the pic for the lil' hustler and measurements. top line 1/8" space 1/4" center line 1 7/8" space 1/4" bottom line 1/8" Hope that helps, sorry it took so long. Quote Link to comment
LCDC Posted April 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2009 Well, a bit of a minor set back. The donor truck for the short bed lil' hustler, this one, was involved in a bit of an accident. I will have the pic as soon as it gets out of the wrecking yard. That truck, the front end drove like a pop can in a wind storm, the cab was about ready to fall off, and I spent last Mermorial day weekend last year fixing it from its last accident. The motor is going in the short bed lil hustler, thats if its in good condition. I was going to use the power booster/mastercylender, clutch cylinder in the short bed. Among other parts as well. Now that the whole drivers side is crunched, it will require alot of cutting just to beable to get the motor out. I will however salvage anything thats not crunched, and we will get the short bed going, but it may not be this weekend. Quote Link to comment
420n620 Posted April 9, 2009 Report Share Posted April 9, 2009 (edited) Theres little more to the story: Lugnut had a mild siezure and ran into a home. Well lugnuts meds were in the 620 and the 620 had already been towed off before lugnut could get them out of the truck. So LCDC called the tow company to see if he could retrieve lugnuts meds, the tow truck owner would not let him get lugnuts meds because he was Fnn tired and wanted to go home. So LCDC called me and told me what the heck was up and I said call the sheriffs office and tell them that the meds are needed to make sure lugnut wouldn't have a another siezure. Well to make a long story short, the tow company owner was contacted by sheriffs office which didn't make the owner very happy ( F him), while we was waiting for the owner, a city officer was ask to assist us to get the meds and make sure their wasn't going to be any problems. Got the meds after a 1 1/2 hrs of BS and man that truck is F'ed up bad. LCDC and lugnut are going after the 620 today so pic's will be posted when it gets home. lugnut is OK but sore. he is in good spirts What real suxs is the accident happened not more then 50 feet from lugnuts home and the tow bill was around 245.00 smackers.. the 620 was towed 4 to 5 miles away in our neighboring state (Idaho), why didn't the cops call a tow company in the local area where the towing would have been little cheaper and closer to lugnuts house.. JErKS I guess.. Edited April 9, 2009 by 420n620 Quote Link to comment
ariascarlos1990 Posted April 9, 2009 Report Share Posted April 9, 2009 lugnut didn't have a cell phone? sorry to hear about the truck and glad he's ok.. Quote Link to comment
LCDC Posted April 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2009 here it is, the long bed lil' hustler. We got alot of werk to to. you all saw it before from this side. here is the front. and now this is what has to happen. First of all we will have to find out if the motor is in good running condition, but what needs to be done first is a lot of extra work to do that. The distributor broke off and knocked a peice of the mount on the timing chain cover off. He has another one from his 1800 motor. And I'm sure you all know the work required in changing a timing cover thats involved. Then once that is all done, we can test the motor before pulling it. If its good, we'll pull it out and get it all cleaned up and ready to put in the short bed lil hustler. If its bad, we'll puller out anyway, set it aside until it can get rebuilt. We still have a bit of work to do to get the short bed ready anyway. Deal was, we were gonna do this all in one weekend so Lugnut wasn't going to be out a vehicle for too long, but as it stands now, his truck was his only dependable transpo anyway, so monstergaraging the whole thing in a weekend may not happen. We still have to put the new/used dashboard in the short bed and get the engine compartment cleaned up and rattle canned. I'll get more pics of the long bed on my camera. These are from my cell phone and costed 25 cents to email to myself. Got the hood off, the lower valence, both funders. passenger side is okay. Passenger side door is fine. Driver door might be salvageable. If anyone wants a ratty door for their ratsun datrod, let me know. Well, thats it for now, I'll keep ya all posted on the rebuild. Quote Link to comment
LCDC Posted April 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2009 Got the timing cover replaced today. Three hour job for the first time doing it. And Thank the Gods it didn't start raining on me either. The distributor oil pump drive shaft is bent, and all messed up so the distributor won't fit on it. So i have to round one of those up to finish everything. Also noticed today the thermostat housing got pushed out of the head. it stripped the threads out of the front bolt and bent the back bolt. So that will have to be tapped out and I'll have to get a longer and bigger bolt. Hopefully tomorrow, i'll be able to turn it over and run it for a bit. Then next weekend I'll get the motor out, redo the timing cover with gaskets, and git it all cleaned up and ready to put in the shortbed. Quote Link to comment
LCDC Posted April 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2009 the motor is out of the war wagon and the cab is off. tomorrow the fuel lines and brake lines will be pulled off and the back half will be prepped to be made into a trailer. I'm sure the lot of ya'll might not agree with that but in this case the frame is bent, but the muffler didnt went, and the radio was okay. oops lost my train of thought the frame is bent and the front end drove like a popcan in a windstorm. Oh and the drivers side floor boards had been fiberglassed before. i'll try and get a pic of that before it goes to get scrapped. Oh hey i came up with an idea. I wish I woulda left the roof on the cab but after i chopped the floor of the cab in half i looked at the back half and thought what a great set up that would be for a redneck couch. i'll get more pics up tomorrow when I get batteries and a new memory card. Quote Link to comment
moparvwfreak Posted April 19, 2009 Report Share Posted April 19, 2009 make the rest of it useable. trailer teh bitch! i would. most likely will with the KC when i get it to teh point of stripage. good luck with the fixin. Quote Link to comment
LCDC Posted May 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 well, got the motor on a motor stand today, and took the oil pan off and the timing cover off. Damn I wish there were more hours in the day. Tomorrow I need to regasket the timing cover, finish cleaning up the engine compartment and get it painted, swap out tranny mounts on the transmission, hopefully get the timing cover and oil pan hot tanked and a whole lot of other stuff, and the derby starts at 6 pm. Quote Link to comment
NEIL Posted May 9, 2009 Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 I love the fins on the doors. Quote Link to comment
LCDC Posted May 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 I love the fins on the doors. Is that what they call em down there? I call em wingy dings. Quote Link to comment
Rubberman Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 Rubberman, here is the pic for the lil' hustler and measurements.top line 1/8" space 1/4" center line 1 7/8" space 1/4" bottom line 1/8" Hope that helps, sorry it took so long. Man sorry, but I just saw this. I'm gonna try and make a match to those. By the looks of it, you want be needing them for awhile. Good luck on getting her back together. Quote Link to comment
LCDC Posted May 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 Got the engine compartment cleaned up and painted today. This is a picture of it cleaned up compared to what it was before. I didn't get a picture of after it was painted but as you can imagine, it was all painted flat black minus having the master cylender and clutch cylinder in there. Before After Honestly, I wish he would have wanted to just leave it blue. also got the timing cover off and cleaned that up at the car wash the best I could. I got it soaking witht paint remover to get the blue paint off, then its gonna get hot tanked monday along with the oil pan. and the valve cover then the timing cover and valve cover are gonna get polished. Hopefully I get thursday night off and next weekend will be an all out monster garage weekend and that truck will be ready to drive out of there. Any one near by that wants to come help let me know. Quote Link to comment
mike Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 LCDC, on the thermostat bolt if you take one of the long bolts off of the valve train assembly on a Z24/Z22 whatever, you can pop the cam gear off the front to get the bolt to fit in from the backside. The threads are a match for the originals and the shank of the bolt off the Z22 is small enough for it to fit all the way through after you get past the threaded part. Dont take the chain off the pulley or move the truck if its in gear, I also stuffed a garden hose down between the chain to keep it tight just in case. Took about 10 minutes. Only downside is that you have to pull the rocker arm cover to tighten/remove the T-stat housing. But seriously, how often do you do that? You dont have to worry about stripping the damn head or getting too long of a bolt and catching the chain either. Quote Link to comment
izzo Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 man that engine bay looked great after clean up, shoulda left it that color :D Quote Link to comment
LCDC Posted May 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 man that engine bay looked great after clean up, shoulda left it that color :D Yeah it did. I was hoping he woulda left it blue so we wouldn't have to mess with painting everything. But as you can see that fenderwell was all eaten up by brake fluid. Well, later down the road, as long as he don't wreck this one, It will be fully restored back to original, including hubcaps. Quote Link to comment
LCDC Posted May 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 LCDC, on the thermostat bolt if you take one of the long bolts off of the valve train assembly on a Z24/Z22 whatever, you can pop the cam gear off the front to get the bolt to fit in from the backside. The threads are a match for the originals and the shank of the bolt off the Z22 is small enough for it to fit all the way through after you get past the threaded part. Dont take the chain off the pulley or move the truck if its in gear, I also stuffed a garden hose down between the chain to keep it tight just in case. Took about 10 minutes. Only downside is that you have to pull the rocker arm cover to tighten/remove the T-stat housing. But seriously, how often do you do that? You dont have to worry about stripping the damn head or getting too long of a bolt and catching the chain either. I was able to get a longer bolt in there to hold it down tight. just now its a half inch/13mm head instead of 12. Quote Link to comment
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