My 720 Resto

[720inOlyWa]

This past weekend, we made our first full-on long haul truck run all the way from Olympia, to Pasco Washington. I took the Fudgecicle over the pass to crew on the restored 1977 Atlas Van Lines Hydroplane at the Gold Cup. (I was on the resto team, and now I am on the active deck crew when she runs.)

 

240 miles each way, with no real complaints at all. The EGR cap, the big one, got hot and loosened, causing a slight vacuum leak, but a brief stop at an auto parts store lead to a beefy rubber plug being installed (with a tie wrap behind the bump this time) and that secured everything. I hauled a 750cc Ducatti in the bed and a fellow crew member as a payload, too.

 

As happy as I was not to encounter any mechanical maladies, I am looking forward to building a new motor for the old fella. This one s great, but it lacks the snap and the smoothness tat I am looking for. So I met with the (very good) local machine shop yesterday to outline a plan for bringing in my donor truck motor for machining and... balancing!

 

Now that is one key that I look forward to turning!

[720inOlyWa]

Recently,I have found that even the heavy rubber plugs that you buy to plug vacuum ports here and there fail rather quickly. A couple that I had put on myself, about 10k miles ago, have either cracked or fallen off altogether. That really screws up your dead smooth idle, too. I had this experience twice over the past week and it has me in a mind to apply the ‘crimp and silver solder’ technique should these rubber plugs continue to disappoint.

 

I also had the fifth comment on my truck in the past week. Two people had one once and waxed nostalgic about them, one slick acting pacific island dude wanted to buy it, another young gal wanted to trade something for it. (I should have talked to her further) A very pleasant woman, who was getting coffee this morning at the same time I did, accosted me outside of the coffee shop.  “Sir, I am sorry, can you spare a minute?” I prepared for the worst, fearing that I had just been busted for oggling her near perfect 15 year old daughter. But no. “I just love your truck. It is so cool.” She smiled warmly and climbed into her tired Toyota van and drove off. Offering a polite ‘Thanks’ afforded me just one more fleeting glance at nubile cameltoe in yoga pants. Sigh. 

 

My truck aint all that- just a clean runner. Is it summer, or are 720s finally becoming overtly cool vehicles?

[720inOlyWa]

Im not sure that we need to post a picture of my ‘organ donor’ 83 King Cab truck. It is up on the ramps now and I have taken most of the front end components off of the engine in preparation for pulliing it out, along with the transmission. I did a compression test and all of the cylinders are within 5 lbs of each other and within 5 lbs of spec, which was very encouraging. I may have mentioned driving it home and being surprised by how good it ran and shifted. The compression test, along with the condition of the spark plugs when I pulled them, tells me that this will likely rebuild nicely. 

 

Of course, I have no idea whether this is the original engine. The truck odometer says 216 k miles. But this motor doesn’t look like it went that far. Maybe we will find other tell tale hints as we dive deeper.

 

I pulled the black plastic kick plates off of the door jams and installed them in my4x4. I just like the look of black kick plates better than the tan ones. I have a deal with myself: Do something to a truck every day, if possible, or every week, for damn sure, or every month, no matter what else is going on. So far I have been pretty good about doing some little (or big) thing every day, and 100 percent on every week. I have never had to default to the every month standard... yet. I find this is a great way to keep the ball moving forward, even if it is just to replace a couple of kick plates, or to pull the carpet for washing.

[720inOlyWa]

I dropped the driveline out of the organ donor truck. If it matches the one in my 2x, I will send it out for balancing and joints. I also murdered out my wipers. First, I cleaned up a pair of wiper arms that still had decent nut covers, then I prepped and shot the arms and blades with satin black. I believe they were delivered with black paint, because I can spot remnants. But I have never actually found a pair that are still black. Well, now mine are and I can tell you- it really makes a big damn difference! Both of these un-glamourous little chores didn’t seem to merit a photo. But since I usually stick a couple in here, if only to document the absurd amount of time that I have invested in a little truck, I may add a few later.

[DrvnDrvr]

I was hot and heavy into my 720 until work got in the way. Round about July I went to 60hrs/wk at work and had no time for my 720 except for research and shopping for parts. Now that work has slowed down I've replaced the CV axles and am smiling at that pile of parts that I will thoroughly enjoy figuring out how to install. 

Thanks Ratsun for you'all's contributions past and present. Hopefully I'll have time to make my own build thread.

 

P.S delivered 3 generators on 395 S. of John Day/Canyon City last week and I am not ashamed I shed tears here and there. :( :( :(

 

There's things that matter and things that don't.........................................

 

I'm looking at life a little different these days

 

Al

I Do something to a truck every day, if possible, or every week, for damn sure, or every month, no matter what else is going on. So far I have been pretty good about doing some little (or big) thing every day, and 100 percent on every week. I have never had to default to the every month standard... yet. I find this is a great way to keep the ball moving forward. even is it is just to replace a couple of kick plates, or to pull the carpet for washing.

[720inOlyWa]

I hardly have any excuses left for not attaching a lift and pulling the engine and tranny out of my organ donor truck. She is just about ready to come out. Between downpours, I have been prepping for the removal by addressing the steps outlined in the Nissan 720 Shop Manual- one by one. I still have to find a way to get that lower inside exhaust flange nut loose, then it is really down to it.

 

I’ll nick off to Harbor freights for one of those engine stands tomorrow. The weather this week is supposed to be passable, so...

[Charlie69]

How about some pictures while it is raining!

[720inOlyWa]

Glad to oblige, Charlie.  First, a little catch-up. I had an issue with the choke in my Weber 32/36 that I have been struggling with for a while now. It sticks open, it sticks shut. I finally shitcanned the entire carb and put a new one on, one that I KNOW came from Redline. I will pick at the funky one some more to see if I can cure it, and use it later.

 

Once the new carb went on, everything improved to the point where I could follow these instructions to tune it properly: http://sv3power.com/?page_id=371  Geeze, after that, I was hard pressed to want for anything. It really runs good now, hot or cold. In an act of instant karma, I got a compliment in the parking lot of my morning coffee place. 

 

It is really nice to have an organ donor truck, but how long can this vision last in my driveway?...

 

 

I mean the cat has to go, right?

 

I noticed that my ‘organ donor’ 720 King Crab- an 83- had a few little engine compartment ditties that I wanted to add to the Fudgecicle here, so I rewarded my carb work with a little bit of profiling. I really like the light blue paint that Datsun used on some engine compartment components and I noticed the 83 had a couple of pieces in that color. I nabbed them and replaced ‘em in my truck. 

 

 

These parts were black by 1985, but I like the blue better. They will match my modified stock air cleaner nicely.

 

 

Blue parts are hardly worth a post, however, so I did a little functional work as well. (very little) As I get ready to finish up retro-fitting my stock air cleaner to the new Weber, I wanted to take advatage of the early heat available from the exhaust header baffle. The Fudgecicle didn’t have one, so the organ donor supplied one for me. All ready to gather some heat for those cold morning starts!

 

[Gradyfest]

 

I also had the fifth comment on my truck in the past week. Two people had one once and waxed nostalgic about them, one slick acting pacific island dude wanted to buy it, another young gal wanted to trade something for it. (I should have talked to her further) A very pleasant woman, who was getting coffee this morning at the same time I did, accosted me outside of the coffee shop. “Sir, I am sorry, can you spare a minute?” I prepared for the worst, fearing that I had just been busted for oggling her near perfect 15 year old daughter. But no. “I just love your truck. It is so cool.” She smiled warmly and climbed into her tired Toyota van and drove off. Offering a polite ‘Thanks’ afforded me just one more fleeting glance at nubile cameltoe in yoga pants. Sigh.

 

My truck aint all that- just a clean runner. Is it summer, or are 720s finally becoming overtly cool vehicles?

 

 

720s are the koolest! Square truck = BOSS

[720inOlyWa]

As I got deeper into the dissection of the organ donor truck, I discover parts that I can retrofit to my 720 2wd truck, the object of this rehab thread. I get a special pleasure of returning missing parts, especially ones that I did not previously realize were missing.  Today, I discovered the splash pan was still attached to the organ donor, so I nabbed it. I had rehabbed the splash pan on the 4x4 and had assumed it was special to the 4 by, but I didn’t even know that 2wd versions had one. Oh, I love that!

 

Now I realize that about half of you who even bother to read this nonesense are completely happy to be rid of your splash pans. I have heard complaints about fitting them, etc., before. And no doubt about it, they are dirt and grease traps. But they are part of te stock design, and they must have served a purpose. So I am going to put this one on the Fudgecile. Besides, I can see where it really does serve a good purpose. Here it is after the first, and most severe degreasing- a 30 minute scrub with mineral spirits and a stiff parts cleaning type brush.

 

 

I will beat the thing into a fair curve using  my body hammer and a round buck, metal prep it, and paint the inside and out with POR 15 black paint, and then the outside with bed liner paint.

 

 

I also took a little time to repair the little crack line in the seat upholstery where it had previously over-flexed, presumably for years. The seat rehab took care of the underlying issue- a saggy seat with broken no-sags- and this crack fix looks to have repaired the cosmetic one. I will peel that tomorrow morning and shoot a pic.

[720inOlyWa]

...Which reminds me of a story, which has to do with this splash pan, if not the entire truck...

When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to get a set of exhaust headers onto my first car- an Austin Healy Sprite Mk ll. Never mind that the master cylinder was leaky and that I had no idea how to keep it all tuned and running right, I just  wanted that damn header in the worst way, and that was that. This furrowed my fathers brow, of course. Poor judgement. But I did it anyway.

 

So after much wrestling, and several mechanical ‘compromises’, the header is on. I doubt it had much effect, other than to be louder. The car was still an Austin Healy Sprite, Mk ll after all and a strong VW beetle with a tuned exhaust could pretty much kick my ass anywhere, any time. I got the grilling from Dad about how much it cost, what the other items were on my maintenance and repair list, etc.. But his deeper drilling into my motivations for replacing  the header was intense and relentless. It was more like a peppering interrogation really, and my cheeky teenage logic was no match for his well rehearsed withering fire. “What was wrong with the stock header?” “Does this really make the car better? And how, exactly?” Finally, knowing I was defeated in any possible logic based rebuttal, he offered a classic closer with a one-two combination punch: “Do you think you know more than the engineering boys at Austin Healey?” followed quickly by “Remind me- what was the engineering school you graduated from?...“

 

I can’t remember my teenage answer, but I offered enough to make a hasty exit from the room to contemplate things anew in my room. It made no difference, of course- I loved that header, until it rusted out. Sure seemed to make a crapload of heat, though. Anyway, the header was the least of that car’s worries.

 

Fast forward to today, and this truck rehab. I am letting the spirit of my dad- the most classic “You kids get the fuck off my lawn!” type of guy you ever saw- guide many of my decisions in this rehab. That’s why I think of it as a ‘grandpa truck’ restoration: It can have a little bit of quirky shit in there as long as the default is always to the stock configuration.

 

As I contemplated cleaning and installing this splash pan, I could hear him saying “If the japanese drew it in the manufacturing specs, it has a purpose on there, right?“ Only he wouldn’t gave used the word ‘japanese’. “What, do you think, that they hang parts on these things that are freeloaders? Huh? Yen to burn, have they?” followed by his all too familiar one-two type closer “Do you have any idea how competitive the japanese are? How smart?“ And again, with no time to offer an answer, “Of course, they graduated from CalTech and Stanford... And you did art college at Syracuse, right?”

 

I can’t help thinking that dad would give this a simple huff, as if to only acknowledge his obvious and unstated opinion on the matter, as if it shouldn’t merit words.  And that is as close to praise as you are going get from him. Maybe, if he was on his game, it would be followed by one of his totally improvised axioms, offered like it was wisdom from the ages “Peel it, pickle it, paint it.”

 

Of course we will be putting the damn splash pan back on there.

[720inOlyWa]

Splash pan has been severely beaten, given a good scratch on the brass brush wheel, prepped, and given a coat of liquid rock aka: Por 15 black paint. when this kicks off, I will spray the bottom side with bed liner paint, for a little more beefy thickness to the outside finish.

 

[720inOlyWa]

Who knew that we would get another great sunny day today? Wow! My plants are grateful. I expected grey and rain this week, but so far, it hasn’t shown up. So time to squirt some bedliner paint on the outside of this splash pan, get it in the sun to dry up hard, and maybe even hang it later on today. I have been prepping and painting things all of my life. Somehow, the crude texture of bedliner paint is one of my favorites. Maybe because it is pretty hard to screw up a textured paint application.

 

 

...aaaaaannnnd installed! I like it. The small animal remains should hose right off of there.

 

 

So much better than pulling feathers out of the fan belt.

[720inOlyWa]

In all of my rehab glow, with the spash pan and whatnot, I neglected to notice- or re-notice- that I was running the original belts. I don’t remember why I didn’t replace them when I did all of that front end work? I replaced them in the 4x4, but I didn’t here on the Fudgecicle. I must have thought them serviceable. In any case, that was 10k miles ago.

 

I have a trip to Chelan coming up, to race in the R/CU Gold Cup. You can bet that I will take my truck. Coincidentally, I bought a  new 3 D cell Maglite for the truck, with this trip in mind. I bought the high lumen LED light because it says it has a lot more lumens and because the Ace sales lady was really working it. Anyway, it is like half again over the regular 3D Maglite.  And holy shit- they were right! This flashlight is the shit for under the hood work. I recommend it highly. It just lights up, period. I can‘t wait for night time to check it out against my tried and true 3D standard Maglite.

 

But damned if all those new lumens didn’t just go and point out how cracked and checked my fan and steering pump belts had become. Shee-it, I wouldn’t drive those to Chelan. No way, no how. Why didn’t I spring for new ones? Huh, can’t seem to remember now.  But when there is a break in the rain here, I am going to go out and check this off my worry list...

 

epilogue: Repaired and checked off the worry list. Spinnin’ new belt logos now!

[DrvnDrvr]

Thanks for the great pic, that explains it. I put an 85 splash guard on my 83 720 4X4. Kinda different under there. No wonder I had to trim it it to get it to fit. Or maybe it was so beaten outta shape I never stood a chance of getting it right. Found in in the aluminum recycle pile at PnP for FREEE.

 

Glad it's there for the same reasons.

 

As a young man, I always wondered how my father could be so down to Earth and still have his head up his ass.

He made Archie Bunker look like Carroll O'Conner.

At 50, I now get it.

 

Hopefully my splash guard will keep my header from rusting out.............not

Damn ODOT and their magnesium chloride.

 

 

 

 

Is the splash guard  year specific? 4x4 vs 2wd. How much so? TIA   Al aka DRVNDRVR

Edited September 16, 2015 by DrvnDrvr

[720inOlyWa]

My organ donor truck is a 83 2wd King Crab and the Fudgecicle is an 85 2wd King Crab. A lot of stuff crosses over between those years. They seem to be nearly the same truck. You know, I just assumed that the splash pan would be the same and rehabbed the thing without ever measuring it. And fortunately, it fit in just fine. But it’s very different animal- and splash pan- on the 4x4 and I don’t know if they are different year to year. 

 

My dad was kind of an asshole at heart. Now that he is gone, I just find his assholeness both funny and instructive sometimes. And since this truck just seemed to me to be crying out for a stock rehab from the first time I saw it, why not adopt his curmudgeonly default settings here? Stock, and no screwin’ around. Yeah, he’d have a lot to say on the Ratsun forum. He’d get us all 86ed for the duration. 

 

By the way, your galvanized metal finish is the correct way they should be, stock. I just gilded the lilly with all that silly painting stuff.

[84720FourWheel]

The 4x4s are the same underneath from 83 on.

82 and before had the big chin skid plate.

[DrvnDrvr]

By the way, your galvanized metal finish is the correct way they should be, stock.

 

Actually I'm pretty sure it's aluminum. I just left degreaser on it in the sun for a couple hours, scubbied it and hosed it off. I'm lazy that way. Looks pretty good though, thanks.

 

Rather have a skid plate than a splash guard but that's what I gots at this time.

 

Gonna go pretty stock with my rebuild. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Can't weld worth a shit anyway.

 

"Half assed" was my dad's favorite. The man was a damn poet.

 

Ratsun search for "big chin skid plate "...................

[84720FourWheel]

That's just what I call it.http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r561/ShaneG/imagejpg2_zpsd751313d.jpg

[720inOlyWa]

Attempted vinyl seat crack repair. It went ‘okay’, I guess. I used the Permatex kit, purchased from OReilley’s. With the light tan, it is pretty hard to match it spot on. Fortunately, the fabric underneath was in good shape, so it was a simple matter of building up a filling in a small canyon of vinyl, then setting it with heat.

 

I try to do some small thing every day, some significant thing every week, and some important thing every month. Relentless, like Patton’s army.

 

[720inOlyWa]

When you are bombing around town with an empty bed, the effects of age and wear can be masked, to a degree, by the light duty. Heading to coffee across town, there is a hill that I pull easily in third gear, and it gives me the illusion that she is still fairly fresh. I can duck out onto the freeway and spin up to 70mph with relative ease. Everything’s great with the world, right?

 

Not so fast, Bub.

 

This past weekend, I loaded up 300lbs. of racing gear and headed off from Olympia to Chelan, 250 miles- and three mountain passes- away. I’m telling you, that is some real work. And her engine age really showed it, too. I’m not hearing rod noises or anything, but the snap and compression is missing. I really should have done to this engine what I am abut to do to my ‘organ donor’ engine, which is to say total, complete, rebuild. Blueprinted and balanced.

 

Going to coffee this morning, I skipped up the hill in third gear, just like always, with an empty bed. But the hard breathing she did to get over Blewitt Pass, Tiger Mountain summit, and Snoqualamie Pass has not been forgotten. We have a patch of great weather here for the next ten days and I intend to make the most of it by getting the new motor project into 5th gear. 

[720inOlyWa]

Who else is dumb enough to be pulling an engine out i the rain today? where was my burn to get this done back when we were enjoying a nice September? Shit.

[84Rollover]

Thanks for a great read. I just "inherited" an '84 4x4, when my wife paid the tow bill to get our youngest's truck pulled out of a ravine. He traded the poor beat up, but still running truck (I bought it cheap for his first car, let the son-in-law drive it for a couple of years first) for what was a low mileage cream puff. Now I'm rebuilding a standard cab shortbed that currently has a straight tailgate, my wife says she'll drive it. Just started the search for donor body parts.

[720inOlyWa]

Well, it is the new year and, after a dreary couple of months of inactivity, I kinda feel like it is high time to make a 720 chore list up for Spring. Let’s see...I have yet to pull the engine from my donor truck, due to weather and lack of steam to do it. so that is number one, of course. I knew last fall that I would regret it if I didn’t get this old donor truck parted out before the deluges came. Now, I do. My plan was to rebuild the engineand transmission over the winter, but I haven’t really had te dough to make that happen, so there it sits, pissing of the neighbors. I‘ve gotta get that handled.

 

In the mean time, I have been driving the shit out of this little truck, and my heart only grows more fond with time. We are buddies now. But friendship with me comes at a steep price. Over this winter, I have spilled two 12 ounce lattes in my lap, puked on the door panel once, and my dog puked on the carpet once. The cab is coated in puggle hair because Hazel loves the truck rides as much as I do, and insists on coming along. Just life stuff, actually.

 

So this weekend, the seats come out and we begin with a thorough cleaning!

[720inOlyWa]

I have a puggle dog, and she loves my truck. The Pathfinder console that I installed early on gives her front paws an excellent place to rest as she surveys the world going by. she has a lot to say about any dogs that we may pass. Hazel the puggle is my 720 truck buddy.

 

Problem is, nothing sheds like a puggle. They are absolutely the best dogs going except for the shedding. Holy shit! Saturday, I went to sears and got a new set of attachments for my shop vac and went after puggle fur in all three cars- my truck, a 95 Subaru Legacy wagon, and Mary’s piece of shit Versa. The first task in spring cleaning took all damn day long, and the shop vac ended up with an inch of blonde in the bottom.

 

This week looks to be nice weather, so I will make a sweep of the local wrecking yards and make plans to pull the donor truck drivetrain (finally). Even I am getting damn sick and tired of seeing it out there on jack stands, in the rain. Yes, as the weather warms, the 720 fever retunrs...