nsackett Posted May 17, 2013 Report Share Posted May 17, 2013 I've got an '83 Nissan/Datsun 720, King Cab, 4WD, 5 speed manual. I picked this guy up for $400, all it needed to drive home was an alternator. So i went to auto zone, bought an alternator, and went and drove the truck 60 miles home. When i first got the truck, it was in really rough shape. It's a truck in New England, that's 30 years old, so it was to be expected. Here's some pics of when i first got the truck: Then i went to get it inspected the next week, and ran into a slough of problems. After carefully looking at the poorly done floor panels, we realized there was nothing holding the cab to the cab mount. The floor had entirely rotted right around the cab mount, and they just put the tin floors over the cab mount. Really poorly done. After pulling out the old floors, i had to support the cab with a 2x4 while i repaired the floors and built new cab mounts. Several weeks of fabrication in the middle of the winter later, i had new floors.Pictures of the floors: The last picture is after i had finished tacking in the new floor. patch you see on the upper floor was there when i bought the truck, so i tacked it in, and fiberglassed over it. Pictures of the semi-finished floors: I'm not really too experienced with fiberglass, so it was all a little sloppy, but not a big deal. It's painted with spray on bed liner, to hopefully give it some longevity. Underside is painted with rubberized undercoating. After this i put carpet over it, and sealed up my interior. Re-Vinyled the door panels with black vinyl. so now my whole interior is just black. Pics of the interior to follow once it's re-assembled. Here's some pics before it was finished: Quote Link to comment
nsackett Posted May 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2013 This thing needed a shit ton of body work... Like. a lot. And a lot of fab work. The entire radiator support need's to be chopped up and re built. The floors. it will need rockers soon. cab mounts. the bed was fairly clean, a few rot spots, but not too bad considering. and i need to do 2 frame patches. only some of that is done, but i'll post pics of what i've finished.New radiator support cab mount that i fabbed from some scrap 90 wall: Before: After: Yes, those are fender mirrors, on a 720. regardless, i ordered new fenders, i drilled new mounting holes in the fenders, re-painted my mirrors, and mounted them. they look pretty good too. Before: After: Still needs to be gone over once more, finish sanded, and re-painted. Before: After: Next i decided to tackle some of the engine bay and performance stuff i wanted to do. Immediately, i decided i wanted to do a weber, because my stock hitachi was shitting out on me, and i just didn't want to deal with it, plus i'd heard the power gains from the Weber are fairly substantial. I ordered a header, the weber, a fuel pressure regulator, new radiator, all new front end bushings, and a few other odds and ends. Pics Before: Pics After: So far, i've installed the weber 32/36. The new radiator was mocked in, i'm waiting until the radiator support is finished before i final install it. Installed the NGK spark plug wires. Timing chain/valve cover is off for painting. Deleted a shit ton of vacuum crap. Charcoal canister is next if i can find a good deletion method for it. The header should be in today, and the exhaust should be finished by the end of the weekend. So far, this is about 6 months worth of work, a majority of it has happened in the past 4 weeks. Hopefully the truck will be close to done, and on the road at least by near the end of may. If you want to see all the pictures of the truck with captions i have an album on photobucket for it, i'll throw the link in here: http://s1083.photobucket.com/user/nsackett/library/83%20Datsun%20720?sort=2&page=1 any input is highly appreciated, i know this is a forum of well experience builders, so any advice, or criticism is actually helpful. I want to do about a 1 inch body lift, and maybe a ball joint spacer lift, to get another 2 inches out of it so i can clear my 31's. eventually i want to do a solid axle swap. Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted May 17, 2013 Report Share Posted May 17, 2013 Damn, nice work. If you got the valve cover off.. adjust the valves and retorque the head bolts. Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted May 17, 2013 Report Share Posted May 17, 2013 Damn, nice work. If you got the valve cover off.. adjust the valves and retorque the head bolts. Torque the head bolts on a COLD motor. Do the bolts one at a time, loosen and torque to 60 ft.lbs. Set the valve lash with hot engine. Set 0.012" on both sides. Quote Link to comment
nsackett Posted May 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2013 sweet. thanks for the specs on the torque and valve lash. Quote Link to comment
datsunaholic Posted May 17, 2013 Report Share Posted May 17, 2013 Unless you like your truck smelling like a gas station on warm days, you really don't want to get rid of the charcoal cannister. That's your tank vent, Quote Link to comment
nsackett Posted May 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2013 ^^ thank you for the advice before i removed the canister. i was trying to think of an alternative tank vent back into the carb, but it makes just as much sense to just leave it where it is. Picked up the paint for the valve cover, header came in today, i'll post pictures of all that on monday Quote Link to comment
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