New to Ratsun!

[720life]

Hey Im new to this Forum! I have a 1980 Datsun 720 KC that I bought about 4 years ago from the original owner that is my daily driver but I like having fun making it unique(Thats what Datsuns are good for!) When I got the truck it needed some help as it had been sitting for a while, 10 years. (in a garage luckily!) The original owner did take care of it but there was a few things needing replacing. Since i got it I have put a new Battery, Alternator from a 81 4wd(more amps) , front brakes, wheel bearings/races,upper and lower ball joints, new shocks front and rear, tires, front and rear transmission oil seals, full tune-up and some other miscellanious things but theres always more. Unfortunately I live at the bottom of White Pass on HWY 12 so during the winter months, the roads around here get salted pretty heavily as it is a major highway. And with datsuns being rust-prone, it has not been nice to my truck. Its rusted through the floor on the passenger side and the bottoms of both doors. Unfortunately the original owner did not take the cowl off and clean the fur needles out of it either so its rusted through the engine side of the firewall too. Im really looking forward to the summer coming up though as i do not work as much and will have plenty of time to get some stuff done to it. I plan on putting new floors in for both passenger and driver, getting new doors, sanding and painting it. I have a 81 720 4wd that ive saved a lot of parts off of. Speaking of which there are alot of 4wd parts on it that are in really good shape that I dont need, let me know if you do.

 

Will post pics later of before the road de-icer got to it and what it looks like now.

 

 

 

 

[wayno]

Welcome to Ratsun  B)

 

I used to fly hanggliders out of the Packwood airport, they would tow me up with there ultralight.

There are still quite a few 720s in the wrecking yards, but the 1980 was the only year that had an L20b.

[720life]

Unfortunately both of my local junkyards have the foreign trucks in the lowest part of the yard so during fall, winter and spring it gets about ankle deep with water so I wait until the summer to go get parts.

 

My current 720 is the 5th ive owned. Ive had both the 4WD and 2WD, regular and king cab so Ive played around with em a bit.

 

Glad to be among people that love datsuns like I do   :thumbup:

 

And the ol airport is still there!

[720life]

Heres a pic of it, one I took shortly after I got it. Havent been able to get new ones yet with it dumping rain like it has been here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But I did get  a chance to get my new weber 32 36 hooked up. Would have been fairly quick and easy had it not been for the 2 inside studs being so damn close to the valve cover. Ended up cutting an old wrench in half to make a shorty that i could fit in there. Got it adjusted enough to take a spin around the neighborhood before it started in with the rain again. Its such a power increase over that POS Hitachi. Cant wait until tomorrow to put new platinum plugs, filter, time it and finish adjusting it  :thumbup:   Interested in getting a header for it as well cause my manifold isnt looking to good but ive only been able to find the ceramic coated ones from Pacesetter. I know they used to have the painted ones but havent been able to find them.(Of course, now that im ready to get one)

 

One day soon Ill get it cleaned up and put some new/more pics up.

[wayno]

It looks good except for the stupid fender antenna, I hate them, the ones on the pillar look so much better.

It baffles me why they put them tacky plastic things on the hoods of the 81/82 models, the 80 and 83+ hoods look so much better.

That is a great color, why did the stripe on the box not continue to the front fender well?

It's a good looking truck, have fun with it.

[JoeCool]

That is a nice looking truck.

[Batsun.man]

Lucky, mine was in good shape mechanically, but ate up with rust, yours looks really good though!

[Guss517]

Nice truck, i just picked up 1 my self ! 2nd owner w/ 130k on it!! & runs like a champ!!

[720life]

Wayno-I agree on the antenna. But i live in Lewis County and the only radion stations that even kinda come in are country and christian music and im not a big fan of either, so im thinkin about shaving it and smoothing it out. And as far as the hood goes I want to keep this style and modify it somehow, like maybe covering those vent holes in the hood cause when it rains the water goes right onto my nice shiny brand new weber. Im thinking about putting plates on the inside and maybe LEDS to shine through the vents? IDK its a work in progress. And the stripe down the side was put on by the original owner (unfortunately with a brush) to help with the typical rust-out problem with the 2 piece beds. As of now I am looking for new doors and maybe updating the bed with a 1 piece double wall bed from a later 720. Ill take some pics today of what it looks like after a few years on HWY 12. Its definitely not as nice as it was when i first got it, but its still a great truck and im never getting rid of it.

 

On a side note, I did spot a couple 620 PUs and POSSIBLY a 510, not sure yet, may stop and ask about them today while im out and about.

[wayno]

The 1980 is the only year with them vents, the 1983+ don't have any holes or tacky plastic stuff, keep your eyes open for one in your color, I have seen that color before, just not often.

Your correct about the radio stations, I used to lose everything good at about the "Mayfield Lake" area, I used to drive to the Morton area every weekend to go flying.

[720life]

Its a nice evening so I finally went out and took some pics

 

 

 

So the past couple days ive been going out and, slowly but surely, scrubbing many years worth of oxidization off the original paint. Ive got both sides done, but Ive still got the hood,roof and the tailgate as you may be able to tell from the pics. Although it does look a lot better, it did feel kinda funny scrubbing off all the oxidization and waxing it when there are quite a few surface rust spots on it lol. But that rubbing compound sure does make easy work of the rust bleeding through. Lots of work planned for the summer.

[720life]

Havent updated this in awhile but here is a really long and pic-filled one...

 

 

Have had a great past 2 weeks with my truck!

Last week, I found a guy on CL with a 84 720 for parts. A long drive for me and my truck (260 miles via Mapquest roundtrip) but with having gotten my weber adjusted just right and the truck running good, I figured it would be a good test for it as I am thinking about some longer road trips this summer and the parts truck had alot of good stuff left on it.

 

So other then having taken a wrong turn that added another 40 miles onto the already lengthy trip and having to drive through monsoon-like rain on the freeway, the truck did perfectly. Didnt spit or sputter once and never got above normal operating temp. It was the longest freeway drive I had done in it and I was rather impressed at how well it did with keeping up with traffic, not getting too warm at all and the MPG. Stopped to check water and oil a couple times and was able to take the radiator cap right off.

 

But enough of the drive, time to see the parts I picked up and other what-not...

 

-A nice pair of door handles cups since mine are sun-baked

 

 

 

-One of the cool little in-dash boxes that still closes

 

 

 

-A pair of great condition arm rests all wiped down and looking good on the outside

 

 

But what im REALLY happy about that I forgot to get a seperate pic of is the windshield wiper arms and pivot bushings in perfect shape  :thumbup:

The two in my truck now are, in typical fashion, all cracked to hell and do not hold up the wiper very well any more. You can see them on the table in the background.

 

 

-And good on the inside

 

 

 

-Some heater control rod things since a couple of mine are broken

 

 

 

-Pretty nice pair of door panels

 

 

Since Datsun decided to make the damn door panels in these truck out of that compressed paper board crap, I was thinking about taking the vinyl (I think?) stuff off and measuring out some pieces of really thin plywood or counter-top wood and put the vinyl on that for door panels to make them a little more sturdy.

 

 

-The type of hood Ive been looking for, Non Vented and in nice shape

 

 

 

-Only a little ding on the front corner, easy fix

 

 

 

-A pair of doors with glass, since mine have rust holes in the bottom on the outside

 

 

 

-Only a little surface rust

 

 

I also got a pair of nice floor mats and a shifter boot, both in nice shape. All-in-all I spent 150$ which I dont think is bad. Plus, hes always buying and parting out 720's so I got a line on parts for the future, maybe a tilt column in the future  :)  

 

I still havent decided on a color for the truck when i do go to paint it. I want to stick with a Datsun OE color, maybe just re-do the yellow since I dont see a whole lot of them that color. Ive got alot of body work to do before I worry about color haha 

 

And some pics of my header, all painted up just waiting to be put in   :thumbup:

 

 

 

Its got a couple days of drying and then Im going to oven cure to make it last longer. I sold some datsun parts, so that money is going towards having an exhaust done from the header back. Thinking about a 2 1/2 pipe from the header back to a flowmaster and a tip to finish it off.

 

 

 

Also got some of the yellow glass paint I had heard about on someones build thread. I went looking for the spray on type but couldnt find it so I settled with the brush on type. It was supposed to be baked in the oven for awhile to cure the paint, but obviously I wasnt gonna stick a sealed beam in the oven so I used my desk lamp and a 65 watt light to heat them up really good and cure the paint. Ive got a few old spare headlights laying around so I was able to do some testing with the paint like how easily it scratched and what-not. I figured out the best way to do it was a layer of paint, another layer of the clear coat and then a couple layers of turtle wax to top it off.

 

Heres what I ended up with

 

 

 

They are actually more yellow then they look in the pic. Im really happy with the way they turned out. I think its gonna go good with the yellow paint of my truck.

 

 

Between the crap weather and the damn Packwood Swapmeet coming up, I probably wont get anything done on my truck for a while. But Im gonna end this now anyways because it has gotten ridiculously long haha

[Guss517]

Ive b n look n for it every where & cant find it no where, what brand of paint did u use?? They look good!!

[wayno]

This is what I use.

 

 

[Guss517]

Thats what i b n l

[wayno]

Thats what i b n lk n 4, no body has it! Even on line if u find it they want u to buy a whole fucc n case, dont need that many!! I have one place to check , i read on a forum 'MICHAELS' iz suppose to have it! Zo we'll see!!

 

That is where I bought mine, but not all of them have it, I had to go to a second MICHAELS before I found one with it in stock.

[720life]

I went out looking for the same stuff Wayno has but wasnt able find it anywhere. Went to MICHAELS and they had this...

 

 

 

 

We'll see how well it holds up over time. I figured for about 3 bucks a bottle, it couldnt hurt to try. Like I said, I did some test painting on some spare headlights I have before I painted the set going on the truck. After the layer of paint had dried for 24 hours, I put on a layer of just the clear to add a protective layer over the paint. Then let that dry another 24 hours and then put a couple coats of turtle wax for good measure. When I did it this way, it was hard to scratch off so im pretty confident it will last a while. Actually took Acetone and a green scrubbie to get the paint off the test headlight. Id like to know how well the Krylon holds up though...

 

 

An another note ...

Today, I took apart the windshield washer pump I bought last week and cleaned up the brushes for the electric motor and what not and got it pumping good so now ive got a working windshield washer .

 

And tomorrow Im going down to talk to the local shop and see if I can get my exhaust put in before the weekend, then go down the road to see about trading in my tires for some that arent so tall and finally get some blocks for the back and crank down the front T bars and lower this baby :thumbup:

[Guss517]

Awsome!!! Its gonna look bad ASSS!!!

[720life]

And one day soon Ill take these taillight frames off...

 

 

 

 

 

 

and straighten out the rear quarter on the right there and put in the ones I pulled off of my 81 4wd once I sand em and paint em.

[robopineapple]

wouldn't happen to be my right up would it? those look awesome! 

[720life]

  

wouldn't happen to be my right up would it? those look awesome! 

 

Robopineapple-Did you do a topic on the yellow headlight paint too? Lol I didnt even think about how many times the yellow headlight paint had been a topic until this morning when i searched it and saw that quite a few people had done a write-up about it HAHA oops  :blush:

 

Im gonna wax em up good in a bit and put them in before I leave today, Ill take a few pics.

I am going to start to bring my camera with me when i go out and about, I saw another 510 on hwy 508 the other day on my way back from Chehalis.  And I need to restart my photo collection since I accidently deleted about 4,000 pictures last week  :bye:  The Packwood Rod Run, Olympic Peninsula camping trips, cross-country road trips...EVERYTHING GONE...I was so bummed. 

 

Wish me luck today, Hopefully I come home with some new tires and an appointment for the exhaust shop!

[robopineapple]

yeah i just did one a couple weeks ago haha i did the same thing that you did but with a different brand of paint xD i mostly got dogged on it, but i think that they came out perfect

[720life]

Yeah Im happy with the way mine came out, we'll see how well it holds up.

 

 

And I had a small rock hole in the passenger low beam. It always had moisture in it, always annoyed me and the light refused to burn out. I hoped it would burn out so then I wasnt replacing something that still worked. After about 3 years of waiting, I said screw it and replaced it. So 4 brand new headlights got put in yesterday.

 

Stopped by the local auto shop, got an appointment set up to get the exhaust done up  :thumbup:  June 6th, first thing in the AM. Im not paying them to put the header on for me so Im going to put it on the day before and then have my friend bring the truck down on his car dolly. And the paint on the header has been drying for a few days now so I think its ready to be cured in the oven today.

 

Im also looking for a new front bumper. As you can see the one on the truck is pretty trashy. I ALMOST had a nice one with the cool steel end caps, just missed it by a day  :hmm:

 

And if anyone is curious, the little one inch lip on the front of the hood is painted with undercoating to make it a little rock guard. It had a bunch of little chips and knicks in it so it was pretty obvious the little rocks had been hammering it. Doesnt look bad IMO

 

Another thing, I bought a feeler gauge a couple weeks ago to adjust the valves. I figured while I had the valve cover off, I would also paint it. Took a while to nail down a color scheme, but I think I got one figured out.

 

But today is my GF's B-day so I probably wont get anything done on it, just rack up some more miles on the truck taking her out today. Love having a girl that wants to go to Carls JR for her birthday lol

[wayno]

It looks good, especially since the amber you used almost matches the paint on the truck.

Are you going to the Canby meet?

It's the 7th-9th in Canby OR.

[720life]

Yeah thats why I decided to keep it kinda light colored, it went well with the faded yellow on the truck.

I have been looking into going to some meets actually Wayno, just wasnt sure if it was worth bringing MY rusted datsun down to it. Besides seeing all the cool datsuns in the NW and meeting they're owners, it would be good to get a line on some parts and maybe even find someone that does some good bodywork since theres some rust holes in mine that i want to do something about. Exhaust gets done the 6th, meet is the 7th-9th? I am going to try and make it down there. That still gives me enough time to get some other tires on it, probably lower it a bit...Yeah I think I can make that happen.

 

Ive actually never been to one of these meets before, I assume people bring stuff to sell and trade and what-not? What day would be the best to go you think?