Benny's beater 620 tackle box

[benny620]

Not much of an update today, did manage to trial fit my mirrors, and they look pretty freaking good if i do say so myself.

 

 

 

and yes, i did just roll paint straight over my fender badges, which is why i'm banning myself from touching any kind of painting apparatus whilst steaming drunk (on port of all things..) at 4am. ohwell, lets call it an 'artists impression' aye.. it started as just a 'test run' on the rear of the bed, then i woke up the following day and stared at this fucking abortion of a paint job, must have dropped the roller a bunch of times cos theres so much shit stuck in the paint, ohwell it will be sanded back and is only serving its purpose as a base coat, top coat with be rattle can pimping haha...

 

in other news, the front end is completely fucked, steering wheel is at 9 o'clock to drive straight and it pulls like a mofo, probably because everything is bent to shit courtesy of the rollover. nothing that cant be fixed with a rather large hammer.

 

gonna order me some new front shocks (pinto ones) as they are short and cheap as hell, even with postage from the usa they are half the price of a set of standard ones

rears im just going to flog a set from a commodore (garden variety family car over here) and there's many many many expired commodores sitting around the island.

[KC Phirus]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

MY FENDER BADGES!!

[benny620]

Sooo.. after again having no joy with the search function, can i flip the (insert technical name here) thingamajiggies that the kingpins sit in? (links the lower and upper control arms) cos to my untrained eye it looks like it can be done and would give about a 1.5 inch drop. feel free to shoot me down but it almost looks possible, wouldn't cost a cent (my favorite kind of mod) and would equal more low, and we all love more low....

 

Suprisingly, after having a bit of a poke around underneath it would appear the only bent up bit clearly visible is the steering centre link, which is bowed about an inch forward causing toe in like a mofo.

I plan to remedy this by cracking the lock nuts, rotating the bend to face downward and jacking it up from the centre link, ghetto i know but (1) everyone loves a ghetto fabulous fix. (2) i'm far too much of a scrooge to buy a straight one. if and when i get around to straightening it up then its time for a tight ass home job wheel alignment.. hello string and tape measure.

i'd get a real one except (1) im cheap as fuck (2) theres no tyre shop or mechanic in my town (3) im not driving it 60km to the main town only for them to say something else is rooted and cant be done

[benny620]

Auto electrics is a black art, i tip my hat to all the gurus who know / enjoy doing it, once again, search is not my friend. Can anyone tell me what colour wires are what on the ignition switch? cos i got my shiny new starter button in the mail today, i don't own a test light or multimeter, the shops are shut and i'm an impatient fucker at the best of times. i'll give a virtual cookie to anyone who can shed some light on the topic.

 

*sadpuppydogeyes* please.

[benny620]

fender indicator assembly (sidemarker to you guys over there) made a rather handy test light, and after poking and prodding for a minute, this happened..

 

 

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5817/suzs.mp4

 

and i'm still grinning like an idiot. simple things make this simple man so happy :)

[benny620]

Been slack and haven't done much to it for the last couple of weeks, until i got some more of grandads thinking tobbaccy.

Wheels, bed, fenders and apron painted,

Crafted a rear roll pan out of a real estate sign.

Made some new shift linkage bushes from some old fuel line, shifts a LOT better now, reduced the throw heaps.

Fresh oil and filter. doesn't sound so tractor any more.

2 new headlights that i scored for a bargain from work.

Replaced the piece of rag secured with electrical tape master cylinder cap with a small radiator cap, fits like a glove.

Ran out of paint, getting some more delivered tomorrow and i'll crack on with it.

Progressed more in 2 days than 2 weeks haha. My new steering wheel will be in the mail hopefully by friday, also picking up an angle grinder and shaving the bed hooks over the weekend

Next up is brakes as i'm pretty sure i have 1 out of 4 working at the moment which ain't too confidence inspiring, also trying to organise the use of a mig for a day to put some metal in the drivers floor

 

 

shitty pics from my shitty phone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gary]

lookin tuff :D lucky to find one with a tub that's reasonably solid!

[benny620]

thanks Gary, the tub is virtually rust free aside from the front panel below the deck, dirt and shit has made its way in there forcing the wall to separate from the deck, a few battle scars but al n all its in better shape than the rest of the rig.

[]2eDeYe]

Sooo.. after again having no joy with the search function, can i flip the (insert technical name here) thingamajiggies that the kingpins sit in? (links the lower and upper control arms) cos to my untrained eye it looks like it can be done and would give about a 1.5 inch drop. feel free to shoot me down but it almost looks possible, wouldn't cost a cent (my favorite kind of mod) and would equal more low, and we all love more low....

 

I remeber this being discussed and possibly pursued a while back. The top and bottom bushings are different diameters, I think there were a few other issues as well, but as I said, it was a while back. :)

[jarvitron]

You can lower the front end 1.5" without any cost without the hassle of trying to dingle with your dogbones, just crank the torsion bars down (that'll get you 1.5" with nothing other than some box end wrenches and some penetrating oil). If you need more like 3 inches, you can re-index the torsion bar (which is more involved but still a zero-parts-cost mod).

[benny620]

Torsion bars are done already mate, i'm sitting on the bump stops (until i remove them soon), its spine crushingly awesome :)

I'll look more into flipping the dog bones when i get my hands on this elusive parts car thats hiding in someones shed. no point pulling apart mine just for research.

 

 

 

[benny620]

Finished painting it yesterday (well, about as finished as it will ever be) Shaved the bed hooks too, looks pretty damn good.

Did a couple of celebratory skids aaaaaannndddd........... popped the diff, well, i guess its the diff, at first it locked, then after some more revs it free wheeled. can still pick all 4 gears just goes nowhere is all.

Making some funky noises from the rear when i tried to move it.

Towed it home behind a little nissan pulsar with my dogs leash.

so my next question for you punters, will a 720 diff fit??

[benny620]

strolled over to the post office today (its about 100 metres away, maybe less) and picked up my sunny wheel. and IT FITS!!

pretty stoked, just going to paint the silver bit white to match the truck, its in pretty decent condition.

its also about 1.5 inches smaller and has a thicker rim.

and for those who are interested, the guy i purchased it from had it in a 510 so theres another factory wheel option for ya

 

OLD vs NEW

 

 

now i need to push it up my driveway and tear the diff out to see what i fucked up the other night

[Gary]

looks cool :D

[benny620]

thanks Gary, been getting a lot of comments on it around town, mostly because everyone knows this car from its 2 previous owners and never thought they would see it back on the road, and no-one has a mini truck on the island, plenty of jacked up 4x4s but no low'n'slow fucktrucks..

Planning to get upto the car graveyard (its not a wreckers, its just a farm where discarded vehicles go to die) and pull the diff from the 720, also there is a series II bluebird rusting away that i'm going to rape for its front lip spoiler might have a scratch around for some tyres too since my rears are down to the wire now.... whoops

[benny620]

not a bad effort for a j15 thats probably pushing half of the originally quoted 70 hp

[benny620]

no real update as such, just a happy snap i took a few hours before the diff unhappily snapped.

 

 

 

pickin up a 720 rear end and swapping the whole lot tomorrow evening. hooray for donor dattos :)

[benny620]

Went and picked up my new rear end along with a few other odds and sods

 

 

A pair of rear shocks that are almost new aside from a nice layer of dirt and surface rust. also got some plug leads, a pair of stock wheels to keep me rolling, and some arm rests that need a quick squirt of black paint.

 

New vs. old shock. pretty stoked with that score

 

 

 

Swapped the rear axle assembly over in the wee hours of the morning, grunting and banging and crashing until i wrestled it into place. not recommended as a 1 man task let me tell you.

Big Hole

 

 

Filling a big hole

 

 

 

It was a straight bolt in aside from the T-piece in the brake line fouling on the shock, i just snapped it off and will clamp the T down with a large hose clamp later on. I still have to attach the handbrake cable cables and bleed the rear lines but all in all it was a successful job.

 

 

 

That's about it for now

[benny620]

Is it wrong that i dont want to leave my datsun behind while i head to the city for 5 days?? will it be upset with me upon my return??

I'd better bring back a present for it. not sure what yet. if i get a chance i'll go wrecker shopping.

Also i've been tossing up the idea of replacing the beaten up dash with one from a Bluebird TRX. not sure if you guys had them on your side of the pond so here's a link to a wiki oic of one

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/1985_Nissan_Bluebird_(P910_Series_II)_TRX_sedan_01.png

there's a dead one of these sitting in the same field where my diff came from, fucked beyond all repair but dash was still intact i think..

and here's a random google oic of a similar dash (ignore the bits missing and extra gauges.

http://users.tpg.com.au/dextere/bluebird/int.jpg

I think it would look good in my 620. painted black of course.

yes? no? maybe?

[Gary]

retrimming looks cooler :D a lotttttt easier too

 

 

 

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/32243-my-new-521/

[benny620]

Yeah that dash does look nice but its a bit too nice for my budget. the aim is cheap and cheerful, built with bits. a frankenstien as such.

Anyway works been rather scarce as of late so the datsun dorras are almost non existent at the moment. I did lash out and buy some spark plugs and a new starter button cos mine broke, heres a quick clip of the new layout.

 

http://img337.images...37/1748/eue.mp4

 

the top of the dash above the assembly was badly perished and missing a lot of foam so i just cut it out and covered it with some alloy, still debating weather or not to swap the whole dash or try to fill and reskin the stock one.

 

My exhaust has been blowing pretty bad and getting worse so i gave it a bit of a wiggle and it damn near fell apart in my hand. The ghetto solution, cut out most of the rusty bits and shorten it to exit just infront of the left hand rear wheel.

 

 

 

my woman's is bigger :blush:

 

cheers.

[benny620]

Happy easter Ratsuners. I got a call from a mate on holidays somewhere up in rural part of south aus, he stumbled across a set of wheels for me :) easter comes for datsun too ya know!

they're 15x7 sunraysia wheels, similar to the weller wheels, there pretty common on Patrols and Land Cruisers over this way. i'll get em shipped over here in a week or so

Here's a google pic since i havent seen them in the flesh.

 

 

i'm told there white but they will getting a coat of black and some chrome trim rings. should have a bit of poke on the rear due to the wider 720 axle (time to pull n roll)

fronts will be about flush i think. either way i wont have poor fitting wheels that hit my swaybar and hide in the front arches anymore.

 

i also bought a 96 Toyota lexcen wagon (which is a re-badged Holden commodore) [aussie GM family wagon] for the princely sum of 100 clams. 3.8l V6 does nice skids :) still got a weeks rego on it,Hardly datsun news i know, but i'm going to sort a few gremlins out then hopefully sell that and........ buy my mates d21. probably better fix the mrs' 310 first though as she might get a bit shitty.

[benny620]

Been driving the wheels off it for a while now with no dramas other than the hood hinges disintegrating and for some unknown reason the starter stopped working on the weekend.

On occasion it will crank over but usually there is nothing when you try to crank it over. I'll deal with that later.

Lucky everywhere in this town is on a slope of sorts, only had to push it once so far...

 

Problem

 

 

 

$3 worth of overpriced bolts and nuts from the hardware. drill a couple of holes and a bit of gentle persuasion with a hammer. fuckin sweet.

 

 

 

opens and shuts nicely, also i stuck a random spring in the hood latch and now getting the hood open is only a 1 man job.

Yes i know its rough as but until i get a mig welder and some skills that's how its staying. Besides there's something amusing about fixing stuff for small change.

[benny620]

After months of thinking how much its going to cost me to find a windscreen and assorted other parts for it, I began to wonder if i'd even be able to find one at all.

These cars aren't too common anymore, most have been scrapped now. I have come across 3 complete cars for sale since i bought mine, all way out of my budget and all on the mainland.

On sunday i put an ad on the island swap and sell facebook page, "looking for any old dattos, utes in particular, whats laying around in your paddock or in your shed?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight i got a reply from a woman I've previously purchased a welder from

 

"Neville has a 1500 ute"

 

made a phonecall.

It's complete, runs, it has a windscreen!!! and all his kids learned to drive in it.

Its mine for $200 whenever i come collect it.

 

I'M STILL GRINNING!!

[Gary]

awesome :D

 

windscreens can be had from most installers, just explain it isnt the 1200, its the 1300, the cab chassis one. they still probably wont understand but they'll get it eventually. mine did anywho. might have to get it from SA though