Supercharged VG30 ,stretched 720 Pickup

[wayno]

They have been on the truck for a few years now, I worried more about the tension rod being relocated to the back than I ever worried about the drop arms.

If I put drop spindles on this truck, that lowest part of the drop arm would almost be touching the ground, it just would not work, if I got a flat the arm would drag on the ground and I would be in the ditch on a good day/scenario, on a bad day/scenario I would hit someone head on, I will error on the side of caution, drop arms only is low enough.

Mike is a bad influence on me, he gives me crazy ideas and the voices in my head.............................

 

 

Wayno those lower control arms are crazy !!!

[Charlie69]

Wayno thank you for the heads up on the "Z"ed LCA and the drop spindles.  Good information.

[wayno]

It really depends on how low you are going, I am low and on the ragged edge of hitting the ground if I get a flat, if I had drop spindles I would be hitting everything with the LCAs that stuck up even a half inch.

Now it would not be that way if I tightened up the torsion bars, but what is the point for me to put on drop spindles when I am already as low as I can go now and be safe, I have already been lower than I am right now, but I kept hitting the ground just driving into my driveway, so I raised it up high enough to only scrape lightly half the time going in and out depending on angle.

Just get it on the ground/daily driver Charlie, then measure everything and see if you have the clearance for drop arms.

BTW it took me 5 hours to make a set of drop arms with all the gussets I needed already made.

Wayno thank you for the heads up on the "Z"ed LCA and the drop spindles.  Good information.

[Charlie69]

I am not sure about dropped arms, but if I do I have already talked to Mike about doing a pair for me if I decide to go that direction.

[Fast720]

Hi Small update , had company from out of town for a week and a bit , so not that much progress , but now its game on !!!!

got the engine out of Blue Thunder and set in the D21 chassis ,got the cab undone and ready to come off , I need to test fit the cab on the new chassis, I would like to have the engine and trans to move back an inch and a half or so too save me some extra work the 300ZX 5sp trans is 2 inches shorter than the VG30 truck trans and the oil pan needs an inch and 1/2 to clear the cross member.

I can adjust the trans cross member , it has several different hole for different engine trans options . but the drive shaft and the oil pan would be happier.

I would really like to keep the A/C so there might be some new brackets needed to move the compressor down a bunch also will need to make a tensioner for the accessory belts , the supercharger belt is where all that stuff goes !!!!!

[Fast720]

Update

Got the cab sitting on the D21 Chassis , the middle cab mount almost line up , have to shift it a bit before marking the rear mounts and so on ...

......

This has to work out because there is No Turning Back Now !!!!

so far its a good test fit , a few bugs to iron out , bumper mounts front and rear cab mounts , just to mention a couple

[Lockleaf]

I would be interested in seeing how far off all the mounts are of you get around to taking pics of that.

[Fast720]

Update

Shortened the box 12 1/4 inches.

The headaches continue .......placed the box on the chassis and it sits about 3 inches higher than the cab , chop cut rebuild something.....

[LTJ]

Nice work on that shortening job!

[Charlie69]

I had the same problem when I installed the bed/tray of my 520 on the 720 chassis it set to high.  I cut the bed mounts off the 720 chassis cleaned up the frame from the bed mounts,  set the bed back on the chassis and blocked it up to the height I wanted.  The I measured and cut down the 720 bed mounts test fit and then bolted the frame brackets tightly to the bed mounts with the new rubber pads in place between the mounts, and tacked them in place, pulled the bed and my brother Garret finished the welds.  Made a new 3/4" thick rear bed mount That turned out to be to thick and threw the body line off a little.  When I pull the bed again we will cut those mounts off and make a thinner one to bring the body line to where it should be.

[sebpv]

gonna have to change your title since its not a longbed anymore?

 

EDIT: nevermind. I missread stretched for longbed somehow...

[Fast720]

Update

Cut all the cross rib rails on the box and still too tall , I have the box sitting right on the frame rails and there's a good inch and a half to go , I don't want to raise the cab , so chop cut something else ? anyway the 720 body swap to a D21 is not working out so great .........I was not happy to cut an almost perfect box and now more hacking or a rear frame mod ?

[maltese]

Raise the bed floor?

[Charlie69]

At this point I would raise the Bed floor like a body drop.  It is a lot of work but you have not ever during this build been afraid of the work involved,  Get on it you are getting closer!

[wayno]

I would like to see a photo from the side from near ground level, is the back of the cab sitting lower that the front when comparing to the frame rail?

I would consider raising the back of the cab only till it lines up, then raise the back of the box till the body lines match, otherwise you are looking at a box body drop which is a lot of work, probably more work than body dropping the cab.

[mklotz70]

I love the cab lifter on the engine hoist!!  I've seen that done for trannies too....under a lift.

 

Starting to look like it might have been easier to just finish what was needed on the other chassis......???

[Fast720]

Hi I am looking to do some kind of frame mod , to do a body drop on that box will be a nightmare because it's only single wall , and it's not flat and all the welding would print threw onto the outer skin, not going to happen , I already tried to raise the cab , the floor to rocker distance is way less than a D21 , you can see half the frame with the cab sitting right on it  ,in my opinion the cab also should get a body drop , raise it up and it looks like a 4X4 , not to mention messing with the rad and engine , steering etc . should have scrapped the project and sold the good parts months ago , ..................................... was ready to throw the towel in yesterday...................................good thing there isn't a cliff across the street from my house ............it would have been doing 32 feet per second yesterday .............................I need a day off

[dukerollo]

Keep fighting the good fight. This thing is too damned cool to become a cliff diver. I'm sure you will come up with an elegant solution.

[datsunfreak]

What about extending the bottom of the bed? Leave floor as is, cut the side just below the floor, add a little strip of metal then weld it back together? Kind of the opposite of what you did on the leading edge? 

 

If the floor is level with the outside seam (which I think it is), you could add some metal right between the seam and the body line. Could even just do it on the front half, then insert a pie shaped piece of metal on the rear so the line goes up a bit...

[datsunfreak]

This mod has been done a lot on 620s and 521s, since from the factory the bottom edges of the bed sides don't match up with the cab. 

[Stoney]

Bodydrop everything!  I say that because it won't be me doing any of the hard work.

 

Case for my argument, the cab is already extensively modified over a stock example, and now the tub is shortened as well, none of the body mounts currently line up and same with the tub mounts to the new chassis, you're planning on lowering the car not raising it, so a body drop gives the visual impression of doing exactly that without suspension changes.

[Josh K.]

Step away and take a deep breathe. Remember the journey is the funnest part ;)

[Fast720]

Update

Taking a new  approach to the build yet again , took a day off and just thought about the whole thing ,and where it's going and what I really want out of all this.

I was hoping the D21 chassis would speed the build up and save some money and time , NOT

It's extremely frustrating sometimes to keep getting hit in the face with more and more of , can't do that because that will run into that and then this is in the way of that AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!.

So its a new approach , fresh start from the chassis up.

I built some saw horses to put the body on , tall enough to get to both top and bottom .

So stay tuned to see what ideas I came up with to solve some of the major issues over the next couple of weeks !!!!!!

[Fast720]

Oh and thanks for all the encouragement guys I know I am not the only one with the same Datsun / Nissan illness

[LTJ]

Looking forward to the new direction, glad you are still going!