Rob's Lame 620 Almost Restoration

[Rob W.]

Ok I thought I would post what has apparently become a project truck. After seeing what you guys are doing I got inspired to do more than just drive this old truck and fix it when it breaks. I figure I might try to fix it so it doesn't break. Ok so I know you guys are ready to just skip to the pictures but before you do I wanted to say I have 4 kids so money is tight and so the fixes will be mostly to make it work better at being a truck not to make it shiny or low. The folks that made this truck built it to work and thats what she's gonna do, hopefully for a long time.

 

So I'll go into the stuff I have already done first (sorry still no pics yet they're coming don't worry):

 

Step 1: Convince old lady I actually need a truck. Actually was very easy, because I do. Tax money always comes right before my birthday and so sweet old lady says yes. ( my old lady generally rocks though so this was expected)

 

Step 2: Find truck. Very easy as well. Last year I found an old Datsun for a friend who wanted a truck that got better milage than his Ford. After awhile he decided he needed to get rid of it because he was having trouble paying the loan he took out to buy it. So I called him up and $1300 had it delivered to my house.

 

 

(I had already started rust removal at this point but this is basically what it looked like when I got it)

 

 

Step 3: Stop the rot. The truck had little bits of rust starting everywhere most were not bad some were. Sanded and wire wheeled and a little bondo

 

Getting there

 

 

got a little help from the 2nd of 4 and she's ready for paint

 

 

 

Step 4: Protect from further rust. We have no garage but were blessed with some beautiful wlndless days (probably last ones until June) and so we started painting. 2nd of 4 was the only one that wanted to help so here he is (safety first of course)

 

Primer is on

 

Now she's green ( the fastest color by far watch how fast your money goes, also the color of hope the only thing they can't take from you )

 

of course everything is faster with a stripe

 

 

Apparently that color scheme is a near replica of the deluxe paint job. The Rustoleum section at Lowes didn't have exact color matches but with a little help from Krylon we got close.

 

 

Step 5: Remove the crud. Nothing is worse that a filthy engine so we cleaned her up a bit

 

 

Now a brief break to enjoy her in the beauty of Northern New Mexico

 

 

Step 6: Stop the strange banging from under the bed

 

Thats not metal

 

Hmmmm...

Neither is this

 

There's your problem

 

Here's the fix for tomorrow though

 

 

also got a tranny tunnel cover from drewsdime so that will go in tomorrow too

 

Step 7: Fix the carb. Ordered weber install coming soon

 

I still plan to do more as money allows I'll keep the updates coming.

[dat77sun]

sweet man, cant wait till you get that weber im sending you put on :D

[]2eDeYe]

The folks that made this truck built it to work and thats what she's gonna do, hopefully for a long time.

 

:thumbup:

[Rob W.]

sweet man, cant wait till you get that weber im sending you put on :D

 

 

 

Me neither almost want to drive out there and pick it up but I guess waiting builds character. Still hate waiting.

 

 

[izzo]

I think it would have looked better with different colored rims, but cool none the less. should have left the grille black, and bumper shiny... meh... eeeeeeeew lol...

[ppeters914]

After seeing what you guys are doing I got inspired to do more than just drive this old truck and fix it when it breaks. I figure I might try to fix it so it doesn't break. ... the fixes will be mostly to make it work better at being a truck not to make it shiny or low. The folks that made this truck built it to work and thats what she's gonna do, hopefully for a long time.

What???? You're not gonna rip it apart for that 800HP-never-been-done-before-because-it's-stupid-but-it'll-be-so-cool engine swap? You know, the kind that guaran-damn-tees it'll never run again?

 

Bravo. Excellent plan amigo.

[Rob W.]

I think it would have looked better with different colored rims, but cool none the less. should have left the grille black, and bumper shiny... meh... eeeeeeeew lol...

 

I agree 100% its all on the list. The whole front, bumper, grill and valance, was twisted and cracked. It will all eventually be replaced (donations are accepted) but in the mean time I just painted it all, saved time and I wasn't too sure it would all go back well if I removed it to paint so it got the green. The wheel will go soon too and I only had green paint on hand and leaving them fire engine red was not an option so green they were. Thanx for the input.

 

Glad you guys like it. It needs some Ratsun stuff though can't decide if I want a sticker or the shifter knob though...

 

More pics tomorrow if all goes well with the welder.

 

 

 

[izzo]

The paint scheme you did down the side screams old school lol

[Rob W.]

Oh it had to be old school.

 

Wanted to see what you all thought. I'm Looking at air filters for the Weber should I keep the stock air cleaner and use an adapter or get a shiny rectangular K&N style redline set-up? I'm kinda leaning towards the first but wanted some opinions

[Rustina 510]

That green color is really nice, is that total paint job rattle can? Good work dude

[Rob W.]

That green color is really nice, is that total paint job rattle can? Good work dude

 

Thanx

Yeah the whole thing is rattle can it looks good in pics and at 5 paces but it's a little rough up close. Works for now though.

[Rustina 510]

If you put enough coats on you could wet San it and clear coat it, we did that all the time in Arizona and people couldn't even tell

[Rob W.]

I t has 2 coats of primer 3 coats of green (4 where the stripe is) and 2 coats of clear. Is that enough??

 

 

Any way here's what we did today

 

I removed the old muffler and exhauast

 

 

Then welded up the cherry bomb. Thankfully I have good neighbors and he was happy to weld it up for me.

 

 

Here it is freshly finished.

 

 

 

The little truck has an real cool deep sound now and it seemed to run better but then the carb started cutting out (i don't think its related to the pipe because its happened before and ran great for 30 miles or so) so I didn't get too enjoy it too much. Can't wait for that other carb to get here.

[Rob W.]

STEP 7. After what seems like forever all the parts finally came for the carb.

 

So got the old one off

 

 

That was a lot of fun that bolt on the front passenger side is super fun. And after a fairly uneventful installation here she is with new lungs

 

 

I wondered also does any one know if I can remove this thing

 

 

It looks like I can unbolt it from the manifold cut a gasket and make a cove plate for it.

 

So I'll tell you I don't know if the old carb was jacked up seriously or not but I do know that Weber carb makes a HUGE difference.

 

Anyone want some smog bits its all coming off tomorrow. I'll make you a great deal on the whole bunch of it.

 

Oh and thanx dat77sun for the great deal on the carb

[dat77sun]

hey look at my build thread, i did the weber swap and i removed that thing and made a block off, look at my build thread for more info

[Rob W.]

Removed all the smog bits today sure simplified the look of the engine bay.

 

 

Not sure what's next now but we'll see what I'm inspired to do next.

[Pacific coast Datsun]

Looks good Rob..have fun with the truck :D

[Rob W.]

Thanks I think I will now she doesn't need anything else now for a while so now I can just sit back and drive for a while. I really do enjoy the difference the exhaust and carb have made didn't think it would be as much of a difference as it has been.

[Drakoe1]

Nice job man! Looks real good, I like keeping the simple approach to her. And that rattle can job came out real nice, its funny how many people won't even know it was rattle canned till ya tell em haha

[Rob W.]

Thanx Drakoe1

 

Lets start with a little disclaimer on this one I know this shouldn't have worked but it did and sorry no pics.

 

The "new" carb I put on started leaking from the diaphragm and I disassembled it to see if the seal had gone bad. It was still well sealed and when I pushed it you could see fuel leaking out of the diaphragm itself. No rebuild kit anywhere near by and I could see letting fuel leak all over the hot parts and I suck at waiting. I decided I would try to rebuild the diaphragm with rtv. After drying it thoroughly I spread a thin layer around it and continually pushed it in and out and reapplied rtv as needed until it was completely covered when pressed and released. Reassembled it and let it sit 24 hours. It has been 5 or 6 days since this and still no leaks I don't know how long it will last but I will get the right parts soon. So anyway I was surprised it has held so well but it has cool huh. I'll let you know how the rebuild goes on the carb.

[Rob W.]

I'm not sure what is happenning to me but I think itsRatsun's fault. In general I never wash wax or clean my vehicles just drive em and fix them when they break. For some reason (I think its this forum and the fact that thye truck is just such a fine piece of machinary) I decided to see if this baby could shine So I got to work on her yesterday. I added a couple of coats of wax on the panels facing up as we have some pretty intense sunlight out here and washed the whole truck. I had a bottle of Armor all so I went to town with that too. Here's some pics.

 

 

 

 

 

Also finished up the installation of the Weber and mounted and routed the choke cable looks pretty good. I added my Ratsun shift knob and now I can roll in style. ;)

 

On another note and for your information. I had "fixed" the diaphragm on the carb awhile back and its still holding and running well. I got a rebuild kit in last week but I kinda wanted to see how long my home made diapragm will work before I use i guess I'll find out soon or may rebuild it if I need to take the truck farther than to town and back...

 

 

 

 

I was pretty suprised how well the interior shined up. All in all it was a good day.

[MicroMachinery]

My Advice: Stay away from Armorall. Go with Mother's brand "Protectant". It won't dry out your interior, but moisturizes. I haven't treated my interior since December and it looks great still.

[izzo]

armour all is the devil, sure it looks good for 20 minutes. after that your old dash will crack!

 

My orange 510 had 2 big cracks in it. I used armourall to shine it up. Next day, the entire thing looked like the desert floor...

[Rob W.]

Might have to go get some of that Mother's stuff this afternoon then So far its ok though. Thanx for the tip

[Rob W.]

Finally did some more work on the 620 today, the temp gauge had quit working the day before it was delivered to me and I had put off fixing it. Any way the other day I was reading a thread here that gave a pretty clear way to check if it was the gauge or the sending unit. So gauge worked fine so I ordered the sending unit from Autozone. When I got it I noticed it wasn't quite like the old one but looked like it would fit. Anyway got it in and it works great so now my dash is 100%.

 

I also had temporarily fixed the carb as described earlier and had been waiting to see how long the RTV would hold since it had been too windy lately to do carb work anyway. It's been over a month and I knew I was pushing it so since it was a windless day today I decided to rebuild the carb. All went pretty smooth but I had notced the carb felt loose when I took it off and just figured it was the top nuts. Well like an idiot I didn't wiggle the adapter plates before I reinstalled the carb and it was still loose after I tightened it down. So I had to uninstall it and the adapter plates and tighten the bottom bolts on the thing. Got it all back together and of course it runs great without the air leak on the bottom plate there. Guess I'll keep a better eye on that from now on.

 

The truck was running pretty good even with the adpter like it was though. I took it on a 200 mile trip last week up some pretty major hills. My 2000 ford ranger that I drove for work used to struggle to keep 45 on one of those hills and pulled a lot of the time a 65 (speed limit is 75) on others but the 620 pulled them all and could even accelelerate on the steepest one. Pulled the whole trip at a steady 75-80mph. So very cool I feel comfortable enough in this truck to take even longer trips now. Anyway sorry no pics but I tell you I sure am enjoying this little truck.