New 1971 521 owner

[ansonowicz]

Greetings everyone!

 

I've been trolling this forum for some time now, but haven't had any reason to post yet. I picked up a clean bodied 521 in 2008. Its sat in my 1 car garage forever, without any love. I've finally moved and the truck came with me and now has a nice spacious 2 car garage all to itself ready to get restored/worked on.

 

I've owned an 87 SE-V6 hardbody, 96 V6 Tacoma, 01 Xterra 4x4, so I'm a big fan of trucks. I'm no stranger to working on cars despite my current toy & daily driver is a Subaru WRX Wagon...you know, just a family wagon ;) with some extra goodies.

 

 

Anyway, truck exterior is pretty straight. Only bondo I found is drivers side truck bed. interior is stripped, no dash. L16 is mated to a 5speed (not sure which), and the old hitachi carb was full of gummed up fuel. who knows what the fuel line and tank have in store for me. from what i can see, it's the stock rear axle, its on lowering blocks running stock F150 steelies. Almost all of the bushings seem to be pretty rotted...

 

I'm a torque monger, but i want to keep it nissan powered. Since i'm not much of a fabricator, i'm hoping most kits (if i decide not to go L powered) are mostly bolt-ons. A VG30 sounds really tempting. I think i can find a lot of rear axles available at the junk yard if the stock doesnt' hold up. On the other hand, i'm a complete carburetor newbie. the learning experience of keeping it L-powered sounds gratifying.

 

Thanks!

Anson

(Long Beach)

 

 

 

 

 

[74datsun620]

Very cool truck, Good luck with the restoration.

[izzo]

theres a guy putting a vg30 into a 620, its not as easy as it sounds cuz of the torsion bars. might be in for a bit of fabricating if you go that route. Welcome, and nice 521!

[shancerlelby]

cool truck, i really like the steelies, they seem to fit really well. Who would have thought ford wheels would look good on a datsun?

[freaky510]

nice score cool lookin ride :thumbup:

[ansonowicz]

theres a guy putting a vg30 into a 620, its not as easy as it sounds cuz of the torsion bars. might be in for a bit of fabricating if you go that route. Welcome, and nice 521!

 

hmmm.....based on that alone, I guess I'll stick with L-Powered. what about the Z series? will Oil pan and steering linkage be required? As far as colors go, I'm thinking obnoxious orange, bright baby blue, maybe laguna seca blue. The matte black looks nice but seems to be a dime a dozen here in Long Beach with the rat rod crowd. Interior wise, keep the bench, maybe white vinyl.

[dat521gatherer]

nice you got the rear window slider.

[slowdown]

clean n looks real straight!! i got the back window slider to was that an option?? ne one know??

[dat521gatherer]

in the owners manual there is no back window slider as a option so i think they were all after market. do you have a owners manual? they're cool to have. some of the nice options to have were the locking dlove box knob, locking fuel door, locking antenna, clock that nobody owns, some of the common upgrades that dont require modifications are the datsun 520 metal dash top, 520/roadster inner metal chrome door pull handles, red hazard switch knob, 520 steering wheel horn ring, rear bumperettes. elephant oil cap, valve cover that says datsun 1600.

 

oh the dome light door switches are one of the best upgrades you can do.

 

the original radio delete is hard to find.

 

how about a interior pic of you truck and a under hood pic?

[slowdown]

ya i have the owners manual..i need to get the haines repair manual..i have fender mirriors and in the manual it says there an option but im not sure if mine are original or aftermarket i assume its just a jap option but over there itd be standard so hmm i dont know sorry for side busting your thread ill stop now dig the truck all she needs is some paint!!!

[ansonowicz]

 

how about a interior pic of you truck and a under hood pic?

 

 

I just moved in to my new place, so I'm in the process of organizing the garage. right now there is hardly any room to walk around the truck. I will get it up on stands and take a ton of non-cell-phone-quality pictures as an archive & starting point.

 

Interior is completely gutted.

[Theghost]

Looks like a really good body to start with! Good luck, keep pics coming as you go...

[ansonowicz]

Bringing this thread back to life:

 

 

I scored another 71 for FREE!!!! It runs and non-op registered. The hopes of this truck since its registered is to use the originally mentioned truck above as parts to create a good running, daily truck. I'll be using minor parts like bench seat, maybe some body panels and the 5 speed.

 

But after that, I would like to get rid of the old truck, parts, etc. I'd prefer not to tow it to a salvage yard, that's just plain sad. Anyway, I hope to provide more details as this comes along. I have a pretty full plate, so I make time when I can :)

 

As a bonus, there's a KA24E included. maybe a swap later on.