Picked up a 720 today (Large Images)

[inzel]

Today I picked up this 83 720 X-Cab. The sides of the bed are pretty shot so Im am currently in the market for one if anyone has one. I paid $300 for this thing and I drove it home from like 35 miles away on the highway. Seems to run really well when its warmed up. Pretty rough before it warms up tho. I am going to build this little guy up and make him a nice DD.

 

Any help is appreciated. Any advice is more than welcome. Any parts that you know would work with this truck, please let me know. I am in the market for quite a few body parts and interior parts so far. Does anyone know if I can fit a regular sized bed on this?

 

[JoeCool]

Nice 720. You may be able to weld patch panels into the bed?

[datzenmike]

This is common with the pre '85 trucks. There's a bed seam that rusts out. Rough running until warm is likely the choke not working or not set rich enough for this cold weather.

[inzel]

Yea I figured it was the choke. Havent dug into it yet tho. Taking it to my shop today to start the build. Im pretty excited about it.

 

Do you think it is better to just get a diff bed? Or weld it and sand it? I called some local pull and saves and they are there for like $100. Dont know the quality tho. Also, is it feasible to put a non x-cab bed on it?

[izzo]

just get a different bed.  I dig the old ones but they do rust out.  The 85 and 86 beds are better and cleaner looking.... 

[inzel]

just get a different bed.  I dig the old ones but they do rust out.  The 85 and 86 beds are better and cleaner looking....

 

Will they mount right up?

[wayno]

Will they mount right up?

 

Only kingcab beds will work with kingcabs, and yes they will mount right up, but the taillights are different depending on the year, you want 83 and later as the wiring is different before 83, brake lights and turn signals are separate on the 80-82 versions.

[inzel]

Ok great. Thanks for the info.

[JoeCool]

just get a different bed.  I dig the old ones but they do rust out.  The 85 and 86 beds are better and cleaner looking.... 

 

I like the 80-82 with the taillights on the bottom like mine personally.

[izzo]

I like the 80-82 with the taillights on the bottom like mine personally.

 

 

^^^ Me too, actually. But the later beds last longer haha.

[JoeCool]

^^^ Me too, actually. But the later beds last longer haha.

 

Are the later beds double walled or did that not start until the D21 Hardbody? Mine is single, they like to rust out bad at the welds where the fenders are attached.

[wayno]

I screwed up here, the 83/84 versions also have the turn signals separate from the brake lights, so you likely could use any kingcab box from 1980-84 with a minimum of wiring issues, but if you use an 85-86 box, you will likely need a converter to make the taillights work correctly.

[izzo]

Are the later beds double walled or did that not start until the D21 Hardbody? Mine is single, they like to rust out bad at the welds where the fenders are attached.

 

 

Yes, 85 and 86 are double walled.  Pain in the ass to fix when you get dents/dings in the bed

[datzenmike]

Will they mount right up?

There were three styles of beds on the 720. 

Bed seam, outer lip and tail lights below the tailgate '80-'82.

Bed seam, outer lip tail lights in upper corners '83-'84.

No seam, no outer lip, tail lights in upper corners and inner bet liner. '85 and on.

 

 

Other king cab beds will fit and short wheelbase beds should too. I would try to find an '85 and last year '86.5 720 bed. As stated they don't have the seam or the rolled outer edge but the tail lights are mounted in the same area. As the cabs didn't change much (if at all) so any bed will look ok on it.

[inzel]

Awesome! Tons of good info. Thank you all very much

[wayno]

There were three styles of beds on the 720. 

Bed seam, outer lip and tail lights below the tailgate '80-'82.

Bed seam, outer lip tail lights in upper corners '83-'84.

No seam, no outer lip, tail lights in upper corners and inner bet liner. '85 and on.

 

 

Other king cab beds will fit and short wheelbase beds should too. I would try to find an '85 and last year '86.5 720 bed. As stated they don't have the seam or the rolled outer edge but the tail lights are mounted in the same area. As the cabs didn't change much (if at all) so any bed will look ok on it.

 

Short wheel base boxes will not fit kingcab frames/cabs, for one thing there are two different short wheel base box sizes, 80-82 style cabs are shorter, so the box is longer, and 83-86 regular cabs are longer by about 3 inches, so the 83-86 boxes are shorter by the same amount.

Only kingcab boxes fit kingcabs.

[inzel]

So I found a bed that I am picking up. It is off a 85 I believe. As far as I can tell, I should be able to just mount this one right on:

 

 

I havent grabbed it yet but I did start work on my build. Here are a couple pics to see it so far:

 

 

 

 

I am also grabbing the doors off of this truck too. Do you know if they will mount right up as well? After that is done the rust should be gone and its time to sand and primer.

 

Let me know what you think so far

[dat77sun]

doors will fit

[inzel]

doors will fit

 

Awesome! Thanks man. This should be pretty cool once its primed and painted

[inzel]

Ok so here is an update. I picked up a bed for my truck and one of the doors as well. Its looking pretty good. I also messed with the carb and was able to fix the hard starting problem. This thing is now running like a top. Here are some pics:

 

 

The bed is being painted with some rust-oleum for good measure.

 

 

Another angle.

 

 

Just got the bed on

 

 

Passenger side after bed and door

 

 

Driver side.

 

I am getting the door for this side this week. Bolts were jacked and I didnt have the needed tools at pull and save. After this, its time for some sanding and some painting. Black on black on black. In the market for some wheels if someone has some.

[izzo]

Man an ST model KC in the yard. sad!

 

Pull whatever you can off that.  Interior should be tits too on those.

[inzel]

Can anyone tell me what years have doors that are interchangeable? I decided that I do not want the power doors so I am going to find some nice manual window doors.

 

Just got some wheels and tires. Will post some pics after I put them on

 

Thanks!

[Telkwa]

Your pictures are averaging 1+MB.  Can you take them at a lower resolution?  300KB or so is more than enuf for the forum, and they'll load a lot faster for us folks who aren't on fiber or a fast DSL connection.

 

I don't think you'll have any problems if you get 720 doors of roughly the same vintage.  The KC and standard doors are the same.  I bought some doors at a wrecking yard recently.  After looking at my doors and the yard ones, I've identified what I believe to be two common problems.  Take a close look at the door metal where it bolts to the hinges.  One of my original doors has a crack leading away from that area and some deformation.  The door doesn't lay flat to the hinge, it sort of rolls away from the hinge along one side. 

 

Also inspect the bottom edge of the door.  Open the door, lay on your back, poke at that small flat shelf along the bottom of the inner door skin.  One of the two doors I bought looked like swiss cheese after I wire-wheeled the rust off.  You can see a picture of it in post #16 of this thread.

 

EDIT:  Those pics in my Project Datto thread are only about 120KB or so.  I set the camera down to 1024 X 768 before clicking.

[wayno]

X2 on the smaller photos, they are way to big and lock the computer up, don't want to go to the thread because of that.

[inzel]

I made the pics much smaller now. My apologies for that.