71 fivetwentyone ( 521 ) 4x4 build

[cosmo]

starting with a 71 datsun 521 pickup stock and for free, i have decided that i need to make it a datsun 4x4. i have a 83 toyota toyota semi built rig already its dual cased, locked front and rear with 38'' swampers, 63's in the rear, and the rear moved up front, hysteer, exocaged with half doors. AKA donor rig. so far i have started the process of switching everythin over. spent the night cutting the suspension off of the 521. had lots of fun with the grinder including it deciding to grab my jacket and wrap itself up right into my chest.

 

but the plans for the 521 are. to switch everything from the toyota to it. going to leave it leaf sprung for now and making it into a very worthy trail rig. but hopefully linking it one of these days. but have lots of work to be done. i will post some picks soon of the work done so far and the rigs as they sit. and of the intense cuting and grinding to remove the front suspension and clean up those frame rails. and to those of you who know my brother, yes i am the better looking smarter, older, cooler twin.

[cosmo]

just pushed into me carport and ready to get cutting.

i cut off as much of the suspension as i could in one piece, proved very hard, only removed two bolts tho.

this is when i finished cutting (10.03pm) sorta after noise curfew, but frame is ready to ground and smoothed

angle

welding

cutting out the old floor pan

the new piece i made and welded in

as you can see, welding on old thin rusty metal was a challenge to me, i kept buring thru, didnt help that the plate that i had was twice as thick as the original pan.

sorry i didnt take any before pics, i spent a day and a half cutting and grinding the frame smooth, and then cut some 2x3 angle to brace the frame and welded it on. thats where the engine bay sits now, i also cut out the rusty hole in the cab and made a piece to fit and welded that in as well, ne step is cutting the suspension off the toyota and getting it onto the 521. i will have pics of the toyota next so you can see what i am working with and why this swap needs to happen. haha.

[Jayden71]

What are your plans for the motor?? That L16 ain't gonna be turnin no 38" swampers!! :blink:

[cosmo]

well if i were to run a l motor, i would run a 30 over l20, i have the block sitting in my shop, but i have a 20r and everything else ill probly use in my donor truck, which is actually my wheeler i just finished putting together. haha so it will probly be all toyota running gear with the amazing looks of the 521

[cosmo]

today started around noonish when coods finally showed up, all i did before he came was drill a hole for the body mount in the floor pan i welded in. today we put the front suspension on the truck. here are the pics. but first the donor rig. haha

piece of junk yota.

started off by cutting the exo cage off the truck, the yota actually looked better with it off... who would have guess.

after that we removed the entire axle assembly.

[cosmo]

then we cut the front hanger off. and to ground it down flush.

this is a cleaned up datsun frame, this is before maybe just cleaned up a little bit.after i welded we welded on the hanger, we looked at it and decided that we needed to box in the frame rail and beef it up alot.this is what we came up with. me weldin and another angle, p.s. coods broke my welded twice during the day, just wanted to throw that in there.

[cosmo]

and when we finished we were happy with it.

 

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after that we started on the actual suspension, first by fabing up some shackle brackets. then we positioned them and welded them in.then we put the leaf's and axle into place and thats where she sits now till another day of work. here are some more pics of here.

[elmerfudpucker]

DAMN! that is sick! I will be keeping an eye on this one!

[cosmo]

okay anyone have any ideas about motor mounts? everyone always puts different motors into datsuns, so i figure that someone might have a simple idea. i got some pretty crazy things i am thinking about but look for the best one.

[datzenmike]

VG. Bullet proof, lots of torque for the tires and with the torsion bars and suspension out of the way will fit well.

[cosmo]

ooops........

the rear suspension coming out of the datsun

after i removed the rear suspension from the toyota

low rider toyota hahaha

here are the brackets i made for the rear leafs. one sucks i am going to remake it. ask coods what my welding helmet is like and you would understand, welding blind. haha. all this work is after a 12 hour day working my second job, so sorry for the lack of pics. but basicaly it is ready for the rear axle to be put in and the engine hopefully will be coming out of the yota on monday, with some help from coods and my dad, i should have this thing almost ready to be driven by the end of next week, and thats me thinking positive, everyone pm coods and tell him to come over in the morning on monday, working by myself is boring haha. anyway i looking at it now and i have everything ready to go . more pics monday.

[Guest DatsuNoob]

Cant wait to see this baby on all four feet! I'll be watching. +1 for originality :thumbup:

[]2eDeYe]

Please don't exo this... :cool:

[cosmo]

2eDeYe' date='18 June 2010 - 07:34 AM' timestamp='1276871641' post='316096']

Please don't exo this... :cool:

 

 

i would never ruin the beauty of a 521 like that, dont you worry, rock sliders thats it. its going to look like a remote control truck.

 

 

and thanks datsunoob, i have have been working 2 jobs and still doing this. i hope i am giving some others motivation to work on their project.

[cosmo]

thanks for moving this build skib

[cosmo]

i started off by cutting off the front shackle hangers, because someone with whoms name will remain nameless proceeded to swear that they were in the right spot untill we found out that when i set the weight of the truck down on it and the shackles went above zero degrees. pretty awesome huh.

anyway we figured it out.

then we removed the engine from the yota and its just about ready to be put in.

[cosmo]

then we put the rear axle in sorry i didnt take more pictures for all you picture whores out there, i was a little busy. anyway here is where it sits now. and before for comparison. thats where i am now. i just got in my power steering box mount today, isnt it pretty. that is probly going in next, hopefully i will take more pictures next time i work on it. coods has some i will upload them later.

[AtomChurch]

Cant wait to see this baby on all four feet! I'll be watching. +1 for originality :thumbup:

 

 

i would never ruin the beauty of a 521 like that, dont you worry, rock sliders thats it. its going to look like a remote control truck.

 

 

 

Nice job. But as far as original cody's 521 beats you out. You will have the second remote control 521 ever. are you going to put a cb ant. in the same place cody has his?

 

ps. use that grill I gave you for our birthday.

[izzo]

yo cosmo, i got a 720 we could do this to if you want :)

[cosmo]

Nice job. But as far as original cody's 521 beats you out. You will have the second remote control 521 ever. are you going to put a cb ant. in the same place cody has his?

 

ps. use that grill I gave you for our birthday.

atom, yes i understand i am build a version of codys truck, haha. i will have a cb ant. where or near where he put it. i have the grill on the truck now.

 

yo cosmo, i got a 720 we could do this to if you want :)

h2 i am more than willing to help, however if you dont have a divorced case you will either have to get your hands on one, and they are real rare. or you can go my route and just put toyota everything.

 

 

 

also i have made more progress, but have not uploaded the pics yet. i have the entire steering setup done, and will describe how to extend/shorten a toyota steering shaft without cutting and welding which weakens it severly. took me about an hour to figure out but can be done in may less time than that. i will post pics soon, and the next step is to put the motor in!

[cosmo]

first i put in my steering shaft. mounting it was challenging toyota didnt design it for use in a datsun

i made it fit and it fit well i must say.

then i mounted the box and realized that i needed to shorten my shaft alot and i didnt want to cut and weld it, and i look on the net and no one had and information on it, so i figured it out.

all you need is a drill bit and a huge hammer.

then i put the masters in

then i whiped up some engine mounts and put the motor in, just like that.

haha so maybe it took like 3 hours but i did it all by my self.

then i fab'd up a tranny cross member

put the alt in and wired it up.

and then i have to skip alot because i built this truck for the forth of july and stayed up and finished but i didnt get an pics of that work. but here are the finished pics, well not finished but good enough to go wheeling and also i may have crashed it.haha.

[cosmo]

then i crashed it, super bummed. my steering arm came off and i was going near fourty and hit a stump and landed well check the picks.

stupid stump, slash steering arm.

can opener dig it.

[elmerfudpucker]

Damn Cosmo! The only thing I can say is tell that thing not to eat me!!! Holy shit that thing is a mean looking monster!! Think you will still have it to take to Canby next year? I know a purple lowrider truck that would look good under it! ;)

[banzai510(hainz)]

lottsa work put in to them rigs

[cosmo]

Damn Cosmo! The only thing I can say is tell that thing not to eat me!!! Holy shit that thing is a mean looking monster!! Think you will still have it to take to Canby next year? I know a purple lowrider truck that would look good under it! ;)

haha for shure man, its going. i will probly have the frame fixed, i bent it even tho i braced the crap out of it and destroyed the core support and twisted the cab a little bit, most of which you can see from the out side... haha. but i will probly even have some more trips in by then so who knows what dents i will have, hopefull not too many.

 

lottsa work put in to them rigs

yeah which is why i am going to fix the frame and not just build another one, if you check the dates i was pretty much done july 3rd, thats under a month from when i started, and ill tell you what, i pulled three all nighters to get her done for that trip and worked every second on it. if i knew it was that much work i would have never committed to going to the 4th haha. and ill not do a complete build like this for a little while, at least not where i have to fabricate everything to make anything work. it was nice to have a buddy help sometimes, but we still got things wrong and had to redo them a couple times, like shackles and what not, steering took all day, and my pinion angle is still off somewhat. but i will definantly be posting pics of the frame fixin and cutting fenders and the other add ons like rock lights and soon hopefully the roll cage, i clearly need one, i dont know how i didnt roll hitting that stump so freaking hard at an angle like that.