I got a 521, Man

[Virginia_PL521]

Well Hey All,

So I have been a long time reader of the forums but only recently got registered and got my datsun. Anyway I thought I would introduce myself and show off my new project. I am Ken and I am in the Navy and stationed in Norfolk, Virginia. My dad had a datsun 520 back in the 70's and apparently my brother had a nostalgic moment cause he bought this one to bring back some memories. This is a 1970 PL521 with 92k original miles. Well he had it for ten years and is over that moment now so it came to me. I intend on using it as it was intended, as a truck and a daily driver. My wife on the other hand has fallen in love with it and thanks to the beautiful artwork "Sake Samurai" by your very own Fisch, she wants the truck. Not only does she want the truck now she wants me to do a full frame off resto, paint it Robin's Egg Blue, and put the front fender mirrors on it, Oh and then she wants to call it her own. For now though I am just working on getting it operational enough to be a daily driver. All in all it is in really good condition with almost no rust. A farmer in South Carolina had it for 30 years and only used it to go from the barn to the fields, but it has been in the SC sun for all 40 years. It was running and could be driven but it had an exhaust leak, that lead me to take off the exhaust manifold, which led to finding a broken smog system and gallery, to taking off the intake manifold. Once i got the engine disassembled I had to wait on gaskets to be shipped in so I took the dash apart so I could redo that, well of course that led to me finding out half the wires had lost bits of their insulation so now I am working on the elec system. I have a small shopping list of things I will need to pick up for it though I am in no real hurry as with a navy paycheck money always seems to be tight. Anywho Pics are below, i have a lot more of them on my picasa site CLICK HERE if you want to look at them. Thanks for looking

 

Ken

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shopping List...

 

Hood Emblem

Datsun 1600 Emblem (right fender)

Heater control switch / knob

interior wiring harness

engine wiring harness

steering wheel

exhaust heat shield (mounts on header, runs tube to breather)

front fender mirrors

rear view mirror (ceiling mount)

smog gallery

all weather stripping

Exterior visor and headlight visors

sun visors (interior)

[Roadracer Al]

That's cool that your wife is behind the project. My wife hates on my 620.

[dat521gatherer]

welcome my friend. any pics of your dads 520 from back in the day you can scan?

[johny5]

sweet 521 . im doing a frame off on a 521 myself

[420n620]

Welcome Ken, you got a very nice 521, I mean your wife does, and to find one on the east coast in that good of condition has to be hard to find, nice score... :thumbup:

 

anyways, looking forward to the frame off restro project. keep us updated and thanks for the pic's, you knew we are picture whores didn't ya. :blush:

[sdsurf]

I may have the two wiring harnesses if you are interested. May also have a 1600 badge

 

Nice truck.. exactly like my dad's from the 70's and mine now. By the way. If you don't want those door mirrors, I'll take em!

 

 

Well Hey All,

So I have been a long time reader of the forums but only recently got registered and got my datsun. Anyway I thought I would introduce myself and show off my new project. I am Ken and I am in the Navy and stationed in Norfolk, Virginia. My dad had a datsun 520 back in the 70's and apparently my brother had a nostalgic moment cause he bought this one to bring back some memories. This is a 1970 PL521 with 92k original miles. Well he had it for ten years and is over that moment now so it came to me. I intend on using it as it was intended, as a truck and a daily driver. My wife on the other hand has fallen in love with it and thanks to the beautiful artwork "Sake Samurai" by your very own Fisch, she wants the truck. Not only does she want the truck now she wants me to do a full frame off resto, paint it Robin's Egg Blue, and put the front fender mirrors on it, Oh and then she wants to call it her own. For now though I am just working on getting it operational enough to be a daily driver. All in all it is in really good condition with almost no rust. A farmer in South Carolina had it for 30 years and only used it to go from the barn to the fields, but it has been in the SC sun for all 40 years. It was running and could be driven but it had an exhaust leak, that lead me to take off the exhaust manifold, which led to finding a broken smog system and gallery, to taking off the intake manifold. Once i got the engine disassembled I had to wait on gaskets to be shipped in so I took the dash apart so I could redo that, well of course that led to me finding out half the wires had lost bits of their insulation so now I am working on the elec system. I have a small shopping list of things I will need to pick up for it though I am in no real hurry as with a navy paycheck money always seems to be tight. Anywho Pics are below, i have a lot more of them on my picasa site CLICK HERE if you want to look at them. Thanks for looking

 

Ken

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shopping List...

 

Hood Emblem

Datsun 1600 Emblem (right fender)

Heater control switch / knob

interior wiring harness

engine wiring harness

steering wheel

exhaust heat shield (mounts on header, runs tube to breather)

front fender mirrors

rear view mirror (ceiling mount)

smog gallery

all weather stripping

Exterior visor and headlight visors

sun visors (interior)

[jefe de jefes]

Nice rig!

[dat620]

nice lookin truck, and pretty clean for sittin out side all it's life, and welcome home, now get to work sailor, swab them decks, tote that bail, get er done...didn't want you to feel out of place, and yea we love pictures...if you need help locating most of that stuff on your list pm me and i will shop the wrecking yards out here in phx az for you..tom

[Virginia_PL521]

Thanks for all the compliments all, here is what i know so far...

 

To Dat521Gatherer : I may have a pic of it somewhere but i doubt it, i went through most of our old photos a couple years back but i know there are a couple boxes of old photos that still need going through. I will have to check for ya but don't get your hopes up.

 

To SDSurf : The more i look into the electrical system the more issues i find. Appears my wiring harnesses are pretty much crap. Only have one door mirror, truck never had one on the pass side, and although it is an original i saw a pair of them at pep boys last week for about $20 each, i can go back over there tomorrow for you and see if they still have them. They were identical to the one i have on the door in the pictures.

 

Several of the connectors are bad from too much time in the atmosphere, i replaced a couple and thought i was good to go but when i put the key in the ignition and turned it the windshield washer fluid pump kicks on and wont shut off, the fuel pump does not come on and a couple bulbs look blown. Digging in up underneath the dash again i have found several sections of the harness that is showing broken / missing insulation on the wiring. Tomorrow i intend on hitting up "Harbor Freight" to pick up a new sodering iron, heat shrink tubing, and a couple (maybe 8) spools of wire and i may just start from scratch and redo a complete wiring harness myself. I have the wiring diagram from my haynes manual (doesn't look right at all) and the one from "The620" (does look right). Ok so i say that i want to do the electrical tomorrow but knowing the heat and the fact i will be lucky to get home before 5pm so it may get pushed to the weekend.

 

To Dat620 (Tom) : Thanks for the support, i am sure i may need several things from you and your junk yards, though alot of the stuff other than what is required to drive it will have to wait until after i get back from disneyworld with the wife and kids at the end of this august. Although if there is an original Steering Wheel out there, then depending on the price i would be interested in one of those.

 

Anyway again i thank you for your support and nice comments and hope to get something done in the next week and get you some more pictures.

 

Ken

[Charlie69]

Check out these guys for OEM type Japanese (Datsun) connectors. I would rewire it myself with these connectors, besure to purchase their crimping tool also.

 

http://www.vintageconnections.com/

 

You can get the wiring schematic (diagram) from someone on here.

 

The wiring on your 521 is very basic and easy to follow with a diagram. I have a 520 diagram but not a 521 L16.

 

Not sure if this is L16 or J13 engine but this is on NICO.

 

http://www.datsunpickup.com/downloads/521_Datsun_Truck_Wiring_Diagram.pdf

 

On Mike Klotz's Site the is a wiring harness diagrame for a 521 with a J13 motor.

 

http://www.olddatsuns.com/data/521_Wire_Diagram.pdf

[mklotz70]

If if turns out sdsurf doesn't have the harnesses, I do. http://community.ratsun.net/topic/12961-521-wiring-harness-complete-75/page__view__findpost__p__173028__fromsearch__1

 

Congrats on getting the truck. Even better that your wife loves it. It's not as fun working on a toy for someone else, but it sure beats not having any support!

[Virginia_PL521]

So all,

It's been a busy busy weekend here and it is only half done. Started working on rebuilding my dashcap. Originally i started out by clipping all the raised edges down, then sanding the foam somewhat smooth, and then finally i filled all the deep cracks with silicone caulk. I had planned on fillin them with black RTV but I have a limited ammount of RTV and a huge supply of caulk. I would have liked to have kept the dash soft and flexible but after getting everything filled in i think now i am going to cover it in fiberglass. Anyway here are the pics of the dashcap resto after the silicone application. at the moment i have the first layer of resin on it but have not attached the fiberglass mat yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So after i played with the dash for a day i moved on to the wiring harness. The pictures dont really do it justice, it is a mess. I started at one end and found one pack of wires where the insulation had broken down and fallen off, further investigation also led me to finding a bunch of splices that were just twisted together and covered in crappy tape. Here are my shots of the harness before i cut into it.

 

 

 

 

So i went to Pick N Pull (junkyard) and ripped a bunch of wire sets out of old beater cars. It may not look like much but the following pics are after three long hours of work removing tape, tubing, and covers plus washing to clear off old tape adhesive. I am still in the process of splicing in replacement wires but i am doin it the right way, you know solder, dielectric grease, tape and heat shrink, the whole nine so for now i can only show you a couple pics of the bundle of wires i managed to salvage.

 

 

have to work tomorrow so i doubt i will get to do any work on the truck but hopefully on monday i will do some additional work on the dash. Pics to follow.

 

Ken

[wildmaninid]

You shoulda ripped out all of that silicone before you did any fiberglass work........silicone does not play well with anything.......and you won't notice it right away but get any time at all out in the sun and get ready for it to freak out. Speaking from personal experience.