Frey's 82 720

[frey1691]

Ok about three months ago I got on c-list and put up an ad for a 720. I had decided that I wanted a Datsun because I liked the way they looked however I had no idea that I was going to become a "Datsun owner". Now I am finally getting around to posting my photos and what not of my truck. I’m not doing anything crazy yet as much as I’d like to because I am working on a 7.25 an hour 14 hour a week budget and that is before bills :(. However it has come a long way since I got it but please feel free to give ideas and feedback on what I’ve gotten done so far id like some opinions from people who actually know what they are looking at rather than some dum bass that thinks that it’s a stupid old car and that I’m wasting my time. Anyways here’s what I got so far...

 

ok this is what the truck looked like when I first got it

got it home and got to lookin at it also wanted to get one last picture before I got started on it so I could see where I started at.

Well for basics I had to rig up an air filter which my truck did not come with and do the usual oil change and a little bit of sea foam just to get it running better and what not.

So after the basics I moved into getting the truck reliable and went to auto zone and got ball joints and control arms(apparently one of the lowers cannot be bought from auto zone without the control arm) which proved to be the intro to how working on this truck would be. I bought arms for both sides with ball joints and upper ball joints to go with them so that I could do it all at once. When the parts came in one of the control arms did not have its ball joint so I had to send it back and order a new one. So since I had the parts I started on the driver side which was fairly easy except for the one bolt in the lower ball joint that was stripped out halfway through the threads. My dremel tool and a cutting wheel made for a quick fix for that. Everything went together smoothly after that. So on to the passenger side shouldn’t be too hard right? Well what I have there in my hand is where the lower ball joint fit into the spindle. It was so frozen in there that after hours of hammering and prying and pushing I took it all off and made a trip to the local machine shop where we spent hours trying to heat and hammer some more. We managed to strip out one of the presses and a c-clamp in the process. Finally we had to cut both ends off, mill out the inside of the piece and then use a hack saw blade to cut through one half. Then we were able to relieve pressure and get the piece out I have all the pieces I just have to take pictures of the rest if anyone is interested I’ll put them up too.

later that day I was working on the control arm for the passenger side and could not figure out why I could not get it to mount to the cross member. No matter how hard I pulled or pushed or used the jack or anything I could not get the main bolt to go through both sides. I finally pulled it off just to see if I could line it up better with just the control arm and come to find out that the control arm was mis formed that was the closest I could get to getting the bolt through the hole. Wow did I ever feel stupid after looking at that. So back to auto zone, brought the part back and returned it for the second time :/. Unfortunately because this is my DD I had to put the old arm back on with the new joints not a big deal but I’ll just have to take it all apart later and put the new one in. That was my excitement for ball joints and I do not look forward to ever having to deal with that again it took me all week because of work.

This was a really bad day. Because of how long the truck was driven with wore out ball joints the tires were down to the radial and I was driving on borrowed time so to speak. Well this picture was taken on 12/27/2011 I blew out a tire getting on the highway trying not to be late for work. Oh and this is also our new GM's first day what a first impression. Well called work and got one of my friends to bring me a jack so I could throw my spare on. When he got there he asked if he should follow me back just in case the other tire blew out. My exact words were "If I blow out two tires in one day than I’m just gonna park this damn thing and give up on life." Well less than two miles of driving after I put the spare on and sure enough the other tire blew out. The next morning I woke up and used the spare from his 4x4 Tacoma and went to get new tires. 350 bucks later and I was rocking 4 brand new tires I was pretty excited minus the fact that I couldn’t afford to pay attention afterwards.

Hooray for new exhaust which sounds great I got a thrush welded muffler and ran the pipe out in front of the driver side tire. This made not having a radio not seem as bad since I was excited to listen to my new exhaust everywhere I went. :P

took this photo just after getting the exhaust done to show the guy I got the truck from what it looked like. This is how it looks now for the most part as well.

MORE TIRES!!! Damn I need a sticker that emphasizes tire eating cause that is what this truck has done. I took this picture at the used tire place on 1/16/2012 less than a month after getting BRAND NEW TIRES! I am rather pissed at tires plus for not being more helpful with me since I dropped 350 bucks less than a month before that and two of my tires were toast. But I got bigger tires at the used tire place(no name really btw) and put them on the back so it has a little rake to it now.

getting started on the interior. That’s how much garage space I have to work with the 720 is bumper to bumper with my roommates Camaro project and the garage door is sitting on the bed of my truck just inches behind the back glass because it was raining.

so I pulled everything out except for the dash because I had already had my fun with that one. I cut the radio slot out and put some lights in the vents which looks really cool I wish I could get a good picture cause I would love to show that off. But very nice floor boards they were a little dirty but no rust and all the paint was still there without any scratches or anything I was very happy with that. But got the carpets out and cleaned and ran a whole bunch of wires and got my amps, 2 of my 4 6x9s, and my 12 all wired up. The truck actually sounds really good now I was very happy with that.

made my own little fuse spot for the radio if you can see it it’s the scosche blue wire near the middle.

and that’s as far as I’ve gotten as of now I have a parts truck that I’m trying to get trailered up to my house now and I’ll be pulling the z24 out of it and rebuilding it with hopes of either swapping the whole motor or just the head onto or in place of my stock and powerless z22. But if you like what’s here there’s more to come so check in and I’d love to hear what yall have to say!!

 

[KhausticMess]

Any updates ?