'79 620 daily

[Braden]

taillight mount? tell me more!!!

[Gary]

yep inspection :( needs to go to a licensed tester (most mechanics really), they'll look at it, pick on the smallest things so they get paid more (thats if they get to do the work, but i never let them), then they'll inspect it again, then if it passes you'll get a green bit of paper, then you give that and some money to local road authority, THEN they'll let you on the roads without shouting at you

 

which is cool, just i dont like how mechanics use RWC as an excuse to rip the shit out of anyone they please, and if you give them any lip they'll say 'we have a reputation to uphold'. dodgy kents. ive got a couple leads on some good shops that are honest about it all though, they let minor stuff slide and are just a hell of a lot nicer about the situation

 

tail light mount isnt anything interesting heh, just i need something that'll hold the lights and numberplate while the tub is off

 

progress;

i spent the day welding the large gaps i made thanks to some not so good design, then grinding it all back smooth :( took ages, but ready to get some stuff welded onto it so it'll stay where i want it

[goes2fast]

Aren't there places in Austrailia where you can buy trailer fenders? They are cheap here, and would be a lot easier than the way you did it. They roll them out in one piece, and are available in steel and aluminum both. Just wondering as I don't know a lot about the land down under, but since there are some really nice automotive bits that are imported here that come from there, I would think that most anything we can get here, you can get also. :cool: You did a nice job of fabbing the fenders though, came out looking just like the rolled ones. I really like your thread, showing how you do everything. I'm starting to better document everything I'm doing on my 620, because you inspired me. I also get a kick out of the different terms you guys use for things, like tub, instead of bed, etc. The actress that plays in the Harry Potter movies was on a talk show the other night, talking about how she has embarrassed herself a couple of times over here. She is going to college here, and asked for a rubber, as that is what they call an eraser in England, but here that is slang for a condom. She also mentioned another example, but I don't remember it, but everyone on the Letterman show was cracking up. Cultural differences are interesting, I think anyway.:D

[works510]

gary,

look good fella,

will get a number of a guy that will buy that alloy carrier centre off ya when I get back to aus.

[Gary]

thanks :D hows the trip goin dan? hope all is awesome in a-town

 

Aren't there places in Austrailia where you can buy trailer fenders? They are cheap here, and would be a lot easier than the way you did it. They roll them out in one piece, and are available in steel and aluminum both. Just wondering as I don't know a lot about the land down under, but since there are some really nice automotive bits that are imported here that come from there, I would think that most anything we can get here, you can get also. :cool: You did a nice job of fabbing the fenders though, came out looking just like the rolled ones. I really like your thread, showing how you do everything. I'm starting to better document everything I'm doing on my 620, because you inspired me. I also get a kick out of the different terms you guys use for things, like tub, instead of bed, etc. The actress that plays in the Harry Potter movies was on a talk show the other night, talking about how she has embarrassed herself a couple of times over here. She is going to college here, and asked for a rubber, as that is what they call an eraser in England, but here that is slang for a condom. She also mentioned another example, but I don't remember it, but everyone on the Letterman show was cracking up. Cultural differences are interesting, I think anyway.:D

thanks! id imagine there are places here that'd sell guards too, i didnt think of it before you mentioned it though :huh: there are a few big trailer places i know of about the place - if i need to do this again ill talk the them first i think. i like your KC :D very hard to find them down here. funny you should mention language differences, the other day me and some chaps at work were laughing about the differences between different states of australia, and new zealand (which might as well be an australian state :lol:). power pole was one, most of australia calls them power poles, south australians call em stobey poles! apparently they're different :\ and kebabs too, they call them euros, everyone i know calls em kebabs. weirdos.

 

progress;

i got the new guards mounted, was a little tricker than i guessed (could really have done with using some RHS or decent flat bar or something) so i had to sort of improvise to make it look less flimsy. its a work in progress so far so see how it goes i spose

 

also made the cover for the fuel tank, just needs another mount for the last corner, and something for the filler to attach to

 

should get them finished or at least close to, tomoz

[Gary]

progress;

mostly finished the guards today, they're complete save for cutting back the welds, im half keen to just leave it like this

 

close to finished with the fueltank cover/filler mount thing, just needs a little smoothing and some paint and it'll be fine

 

tomoz should start and finish tailight mounts

[Gary]

progress;

started and finished the tailgate today, looks stupid with the tailights so close to each other but i couldnt have em hanging out too far or id have been shouted at :( it'll only be for rwc then the tub is going on asap

 

 

its painted, just waiting for it to dry then ill put it all on. ill finish the guards tomoz i think, and get em painted

[Gary]

progress;

went for a spin to a locksmith to see if he could fix my door locks, one is busted and the other one i thought was seized. as it turns out its got 2 different locks, the key for the ignition didnt match the door locks so one of them one was fine i was just trying to open it with the wrong key :huh: he cut me a new one for the lock and now it works good! so since i only had one working door lock to work with i shaved the passenger side one and used its barrel for the drivers side

 

i fitted the tailgate bit, looks weird but hopefully its not there for long

 

also cut back some of the welds on the guards, then did a quick bog job for some of the gaps then painted it. they werent supposed to take this long :( but done now

 

ill try make the locking mechanisms on the doors work today, maybe get the trims fitted and doors on if i can get them unstuck

[Pacific coast Datsun]

Not knocking the metal work...it looks great. But what im wondering is why not just run the bed?

[goes2fast]

progress;

went for a spin to a locksmith to see if he could fix my door locks, one is busted and the other one i thought was seized. as it turns out its got 2 different locks, the key for the ignition didnt match the door locks so one of them one was fine i was just trying to open it with the wrong key :huh: he cut me a new one for the lock and now it works good! so since i only had one working door lock to work with i shaved the passenger side one and used its barrel for the drivers side

 

i fitted the tailgate bit, looks weird but hopefully its not there for long

 

also cut back some of the welds on the guards, then did a quick bog job for some of the gaps then painted it. they werent supposed to take this long :( but done now

 

ill try make the locking mechanisms on the doors work today, maybe get the trims fitted and doors on if i can get them unstuck

 

While you were at the locksmiths, you should have had your door lock rekeyed to match the ignition, that's what I did, so only one key, then I did the same thing you did on the passenger side. Then of course I found a good lock after I welded up the hole. :( I put power door locks and an alarm system on that is real hi tech, as soon as I get close with the fob in my pocket, it disarms, and unlocks the doors, and does the reverse when I walk away. You leave the fob in your pocket, not on your key chain, and if you are car jacked, 60 seconds after it loses the signal from the fob, the alarm goes off, and the starter is disabled,so the thief doesn't get far. Pretty neat for under $40. :D

[Gary]

i asked him about having one key to suit the car but he said no :( yours sounds pretty cool :D i dunno what im doing for alarm yet, was thinking of doing my own immobilising to at least discourage some bastard pinchin it, and looking into some other cool stuff but nothing definite yet

 

Not knocking the metal work...it looks great. But what im wondering is why not just run the bed?

well, i sorta thought doing it this way would be quicker to get it past RWC, cos the tub needs a lot of cutting back and patching, gate latches fixed up, bottom line at the front matched to the cab, tailights needed a little extra work, tub needs to be lined then, and some other work here and there so i thought when i remove it to fix these things id just leave it off for the time being

 

it hasnt saved as much time as i guessed cos i did things a little different, but should still be quicker anywho. given time again id have just fixed the tub and waited a little longer but i spose thats how it goes hey :( its done now though, can get on with the rest of it :D

 

progress wise spent most of today getting other stuff done, visited a wrecker which was depressing. i saw a good KE70 and an old celica in the yards next to all the other dying cars. if i had a shop id have taken the KE70 home with me :(

[WAGON JON]

Ok, with all that welding, this isn't going to be all Mad Max? right?

 

Looks good though.

[Gary]

id have rocked it like it was if i was allowed :( the repair jobs are solid but fair rough, i just want it together so i can drive it again. ive said it before: but not too far to go now!

 

progress;

today i was up and down the shop so decided i want the front end back together again. i pulled two snapped bolts that used to hold the front panels on, thanks to 5.56 and vicegrips, then welded up a bunch of holes and a bit i cut out earlier, then gave it a quick paint to get it looking cleaner

 

cleaned up the bog job on the passenger door and gave it some paint just to see if it looked straight - matte finish hides imperfections a little better :D the door lock pin is still seized though so im lookin into that

 

i worked some more on the valance too which is nearly ready to go on again, and ground back some of the paint on the cowl. ill work on it more tomoz

[Gary]

progress;

saturday the garage was flooded :( spent most of the day drying tools and cranes and sewing machines etc. the tub got wet too, sorta bad considering paint had been stripped from the front half :( all good now

 

today finished the front valance and the cowl. rough but better, i wasnt having a lot of fun working with filler :(

 

also worked on the drivers side door, and broke one of the window liner things trying to get the window back in (which isnt so bad, none of the liners are in good nick, the outers are rock hard) looks like its going to be tricky getting those window felts in :( ive ordered some fresh ones so hopefully they'll be along soon

 

front quarters i think are next

[Gary]

progress;

 

yesterday i thought fuck it, doors need doing already. so i pulled the latches out for a look to find they were good but still not going down enough for the door locks to work. so i started grinding out the little catch to suit (with my new rotary tool :D) then realised the only reason it wouldnt go down is cos the bit that rotates round when the door closes wasnt clicked around enough. did that, and it worked exactly like it should :huh:

 

spent today getting the insides of the door back together, which started with refitting the door handles, latches and lock barrels then got the linkages back in to find some of the old plastic end things that hold them in were broken enough to not work. the only place it was a problem was the door handle, so i ended up tapping the end of the linkage, then fixed it in place with a nut and some loctite so its removable again later, but shouldnt be going anywhere :D

 

the window channels needed their new felt to go in, so i did that too, the stuff from bangkokparts works good, glued in now and its working like it should, not too tight and it fit properly but best of all no more window rattle! getting the window back in was a lot easier than i thought, just need to put the glass in first, then the quarter window, then sort out the felts, then bolt it all together

 

now that the internals were back together again, i could finally get my new door trims in :thumbup: i used a soldering iron to poke holes in the vinyl in the right spots, layed it over the studs, then made the holes bigger to suit, dropped it down then used stainless washers and nuts to bolt it down nice and tight. aside from the odd twist in the vinyl (which i dont really care for) they came out a lot better than i thought they would. was expecting to have problems with how tight the fabric is when i bent the panel inward to match the door line but it's ok, even better once the door handles are in

 

also got the new door seals in while i was there, again stuff from bangkokparts. i was a bit hesitant with these but they line up good (little bit of slack around the window frame bit, but you can work it in so it sits flush)

 

tomoz maybe finish the sills so i can get the doors on. im avoiding the quarters for now i dunno why

[Gary]

progress;

 

got into some machining today, was sposed to make the radiator hose adaptor thing and some little things to hold the door handles to the door, and the door lock popper things needed new knobs. only finished the radiator thing, im having trouble matching a thread for the door lock things with the kit I have, i think it might be imperial so ill get a bigger kit tomoz. been meaning to for a while anywho

 

so for the radiator thing i had to match a bigger than normal rad outlet to the smaller thermostat housing, so i found some aluminium lying about then drilled then bored through the middle, then to match the step in diameters i cut a 6deg internal taper. first time i've really bored before, i didnt think my lathe would be good at it cos the tool post is a bit wobbly under load, sorta thought itd be worse with a boring bar but actually worked out alright :D then just turned either end to the right diameters and it was win

 

get to buy some more tools tomoz :D also win

[Gary]

progress;

i got the tap i needed, then got into machining the door lock things which took some fiddling but got it done, i like how they've turned out. i turned them to a point to see how sharp i could get it (SHARP), but after realising it'd probably hurt if i had my arm on the doorsill as i do, i rounded em off similar to a bullet :D speaking of impaling myself on things, i stepped on some nails at work today :( straight through my volleys and twice into my foot. a couple hours tomoz to get my tetanus shot kills progress on the ute for the day :( stoopid feet

 

might get the door pulls finished tomoz while im on the subject of the doors

[Gary]

progress;

doors are done, finally. the windows need their squeegee things but they can go on without dismantling so doors are win for now

 

started out doing the window winders, they just needed a washer of sorts to keep it away from the material of the door trim, so i made those and got them on

 

then spent the rest of the weekend slowly getting through the doorpulls, i ended up making them from vinyl with some steel to reinforce where it screws to the door, and filled it with foam to make it a little nicer

 

will work on getting the doors back on asap, then its quarters and a little more work on the cab and it wont be far off done :D

[Gary]

progress;

spent the last few days doing little fixes all around the place. a few holes in the enginebay needed doing, underneath the cowl needed finishing, and the water channel just under the bonnet had a few rust holes i ground out that needed welding, also did a little finishing around the front of the sills, and fixed a hole or two around that area, welded up the holes for the aerial (ill work something else out later) and put some RTV into the gaps between my windscreen rubbers, and painted the wheel arches with deadener to make it look nice for RWC man hopefully seals it ok - but overall not a lot thats pic worthy :mellow: so i thought id update after a bit instead

 

i got the drivers side door on though, passenger side will be ready to go with a little more finishing on the sill. everything inside fits good, nothing fouling which is nice :D man i cant wait to drive this thing! i wasnt this excited when i got my supra engined cressida going again :huh:

 

also got my window liners (/squeegees) today, and fitted the drivers side today. they dont fit that great but they work ok, if it was a show build id probably be looking elsewhere, but since its not even close... :D

 

its getting close, once i get panels done and front end together, it'll just be little things and it'll move again!

[the 620]

that are doing good work brother

 

I wish now I have space and heading the tools to restore my 620

 

prompt payment so that they do lol

 

greetings from san luis potosi mexico

[Gary]

thanks man :D your 620 looks tuff in your profile pic, you should get a thread going so i can see more!

 

progress;

messed about with the front of the sill on the passenger side, and got the passenger side door on and complete

 

also started the battery box, at this stage i think the plan is to just run pos and negative cable from there to about where the terminals used to be, later on ill find a way to hide it all

 

also got into the front drivers quarter finally, its about as repaired as it'll get, just needs some more welding then some filler and paint

 

will finish that then get onto the other side, front end will be nearly together :D

[datsun 521 ute]

Hi Gary,

Awesome job on the build, I haven't been on here in quite a while, since I sold my 521. I was eagerly reading this thread page by page and all the great work you've done to hopefully see the finished product by the time I got to the last page, only to be dissappointed(in a good way) that I will be left waiting to see the end result. It's a shame you are in Melbourne as I just purchased a 320 styleside and it needs some metal on the cab and maybe a few other places. Really looking forward to seeing the end result.

[Gary]

me too man :( cant wait! its getting closer, just getting through bodywork which is something i dont really want to do, motivation for it is getting tricky but im getting through it now that its sorta working :D caught your threads on ozdat and here, 320's are cool as :thumbup:

 

progress;

spent the day on the drivers quarter, its close just needs more sanding where ive bogged it. not very good at this filling thing but its getting there

 

tomoz will finish it, and get started on the other side which wont be long

[Gary]

progress;

stoopid bodywork. drivers quarter is as done as it'll be, its rough as guts but i dont care i just want it moving already. pics make it look good but in person not so good

 

got onto the passenger quarter, most of the welding is done so i should finish it tomoz :D its had lots of previous repair (pretty dodgy, was caked in bog), so im fighting chunked up steel, body deadener slapped on at the back, thick bog, and considerable rust when trying to weld in new bits. for now just doin what i can, ill look for fresher panels to repair another day

 

might get the grille painted tomoz too so the front will mostly be together, but see how it goes

[Gary]

progress;

more welding, filling and sanding, passenger side quarter is almost there just needs a little more filling and sanding

 

i pulled out the new grille too, removed the trim rings (gotta figure out a more reliable way to keep them on, maybe just cable ties), gave it a clean (found a large dead curled up spider inside :(), then gave it some matte black. looks much nicer

 

passenger quarter will be done tomoz, then either bonnet or ill get the bumper back on properly