My '64 NL320

[LAYEDOUTB2K]

well i finally got a chance to start on it. i bought it about 12 years ago and its just been sitting for the right moment. so far, i got it most of the way stripped down. we need to take it down to our shop to start on the major stuff but im tryin to get as much done as i can before we figure out our lighting issue at the shop. the plans for it are bags, bodydrop, motor swap, right hand drive swap, possibly full time roadster, etc.

[Icehouse]

Talk about rust free!!! Can't wait to watch the progress :D

[]2eDeYe]

No kidding that thing is clean.

[bonvo]

i see alot of body damage but not to bad and no rust major plus what are you swapping into it? what comes in these stock? its so tiny lol

[mike]

Sweet, a rear engine rotary powered NL!!!

[LAYEDOUTB2K]

Sweet, a rear engine rotary powered NL!!!

:lol:

 

 

yeah this thing is really rust free. the only spot ive found on it is on the passenger side wheelwell lip and itll be easy to fix. luckily ive got another fender for it that ill probably pick up on saturday and that back corner wont actually be that hard to fix.

 

they come stock with an E1 which is a 1.2L. the motor thats in it now is an A12 which i robbed the carb and valve cover for my 1200. the 12A rotary thats sittin in the back of it is whats gonna be goin in it.

[peanut2425]

awwww yeah, this is my kind of build. Get it on the ground with a bit of go there if you need it too. Can't wait to see progress, get stuck in so you can take pictures and share them with your ratsun friends :D

[LAYEDOUTB2K]

as mentioned in my other thread, i finally have a place to really work on this truck.

got a little bit of work done tonight. i got most of the front sheetmetal off. i need a new drillbit to drill a couple rusted bolts left on the other fender. i love working with small motors too. i hooked a chain to the motor, stood on the frame horns and lifted the motor right out of there.

this was an interesting way to mount the tranny. the back two bolts couldve really used some washers

 

saturday i should be picking up most of the stuff i need for the 720 spindle swap. right now i kinda leaning towards starting the bodydrop first because im still saving up money to get the rest of the stuff i need to bag it.

[bonvo]

sweeeeet cant wait to see progress how much of a body drop you lookin at doing?

[LAYEDOUTB2K]

still not yet decided on the size of the body drop. i havent measured it yet but it looks like its just under 2" to the rocker just past the pinch. the rocker also isnt flat so the outer part of the rocker is about an inch higher than the inside. not sure if i want to go in and modify the rocker our leave it alone.

[denveratsun]

For what it's worth...you DO NOT need to drop this awesome truck that much. It looks so cool just properly "lowered"...:cool:

 

in my opinion.

 

Cool shot of two 320s in your garage!:D

 

I want one...bad!:blink:

[airedout]

Body drop for sure. But i would be looking into something other than a 720 front suspension pieces. The datto suspension can only gets much lift, and if you plan on running big wheels (or even a stock size wheel and tire combo), chances are you will not get enough lift to drive the thing. The control arms are just too narrow. From all the diff pics ive seen, the swap to a 720 spindle and suspension pieces only makes this worse. I would highly suggest going with a toyo clip. With my setup on my 521 now, i only get just about 8 inches of lift, and thats with kingpings which have no ball joint binding issue ever. Any more lift and the upper control arm starts hitting the upper bag mount, and the bag wants to touch the kingpin. If it were body dropped, i wouldnt be able to clear my 18's with a rubberband (215/35/18). With the toyos ive done in the past, ive been able to get as much as 15 inches of lift with custom built control arms, and 13 with modified stocks.

 

Cool project, good luck with the build!!!!

[LAYEDOUTB2K]

airedout: i was kind of looking into a toyota swap but didnt look too far into it. if the toyota arms are longer, does the frame have to be narrowed even more than how narrow the 320 frame is? or is the mounting points narrower on the frame rails?

 

i hadnt heard that about the 720 suspension. the 720 that i would be getting the suspension from is an '85 which i believe was the year the geometry was changed a little and was exactly the same as the hardbody suspension. at least thats what i understand about it. this weekend ill be picking up a 720 to fix for a daily driver and then i can look at it directly and get measurements off of it then.

[airedout]

airedout: i was kind of looking into a toyota swap but didnt look too far into it. if the toyota arms are longer, does the frame have to be narrowed even more than how narrow the 320 frame is? or is the mounting points narrower on the frame rails?

 

i hadnt heard that about the 720 suspension. the 720 that i would be getting the suspension from is an '85 which i believe was the year the geometry was changed a little and was exactly the same as the hardbody suspension. at least thats what i understand about it. this weekend ill be picking up a 720 to fix for a daily driver and then i can look at it directly and get measurements off of it then.

 

Yes the toyo clip will have to be narrowed a bit. Seth (twistedminis) built this 521 with a toyo clip with a stock motor: http://forum.ratsun.net/showthread.php?t=4202&highlight=twistedminis

 

Heres seths with yoto stuff, look at all the space:

 

Heres mine, no space:

 

I really wish i would have clipped mine, but oh well, i got 3 521's so maybe the next one!!!

[BEEBANI]

Dwight, I built custom upper/lowers for Rusty's NL using hardbody dropped spindles. He is running 18's in the front with 40's and 8" of lift, it had plenty of tire clearance and was sitting almost and stock height. I don't see 1-1/2" of body drop changing it much.

 

I understand what your concerned about, but he's got most of the parts already (I think) and it can work with those parts.

 

I'm running them also, and get quite a bit of lift with no problem. I'm not running big ass wheels, but it seems to work just fine for me.

[airedout]

Dwight, I built custom upper/lowers for Rusty's NL using hardbody dropped spindles. He is running 18's in the front with 40's and 8" of lift, it had plenty of tire clearance and was sitting almost and stock height. I don't see 1-1/2" of body drop changing it much.

 

I understand what your concerned about, but he's got most of the parts already (I think) and it can work with those parts.

 

I'm running them also, and get quite a bit of lift with no problem. I'm not running big ass wheels, but it seems to work just fine for me.

 

If a 320 only takes 1 1/2 inches to get the rockers on the ground you could probably get away with around 8 inches of lift. Might bit just a little bit concerned with the tire trying to hit the fender on harder turns. Im basing this on the 521 which needs 3 inches of body drop to put the rockers on the gound (not the pinch weld). I know the 521 and 320 frames are very very similar if not identical, but am unsure about the body demensions:

 

Full Lift (cannot be driven at any kind of speed this high, its sitting on the up stops):

 

 

When driving, the truck needs to be at least 1 1/2 to 2 inches lower. Then take away another 3 inches to account for the body drop, it would never be able to be driven that low.

 

I see a lot of people on here and other sites trying to either bag or body drop these old datsun trucks on stock, or semi stock suspensions. To me, the front suspension is the a very poor design, especially for bagged trucks. They can be made functional, but you have to live with the consequences of your decision. Stock suspension with the short control arms will give you a shit load of camber quickly(once moved from your aligned ride height), a large amount of suspension geometry change quickly(once moved from your aligned ride height), and the inability to get a good ammount of lift. Adding balljoints to a poor design, doesnt make it better, its still a poor design but with ball koints instead. You could greatly inmprove the stock design by narrowing the frame section, and making your conrtol arms longer. If i were going to goto all that trouble, i would just stick a clip in it with nearly stock toyota arms. It just seems easier to me this way.

 

Anyway, just putting in my 2 pennies. Ill let you weigh your choice and come up with something. Either way, good luck. Ill be watching for more progress!!!

Edited February 8, 2009 by airedout

[LAYEDOUTB2K]

i had been busy with other projects lately but got some motivation to get started back on this. i got the motor stripped down and set the transmission in. it still needs to go back further but i havent cut the driveline tunnel yet.

 

i then noticed i may have an issue with the header hitting the steering column so i needed to mock it up to check for clearance. so i flipped and reversed the steering box to the other side. i had to cut a whole in the firewall but its going away soon. the dash needs to be sectioned and swapped but the shaft is temporarily zip tied up.

 

[project620]

man i fucked up my bearing on the end of the steering box today....:mad: does anyone know wats it called so i can get it at the autoparts store. or not i ll just get it from the junkyard...:)

[LAYEDOUTB2K]

A little teaser from progress this weekend. More to come soon. :cool:

 

[Creepy Cruiser]

Nice!

[LAYEDOUTB2K]

It's so nice to finally be back to working on this. I kind of took a hiatus from forums and vehicles in general due to some personal issues lately but seem to have my cards straight now. I'm getting real close to having this down to a bare frame now. On to the pics...

 

Once I clean up the garage a little I'll be able to move the body over a couple feet to have more room. I plan on building a little rolling stand for the body to be able to move it around.

 

 

The rearend is very close to coming out.

 

One pesky bolt that won't come out even with a BFH. I'll just cut the hanger off now because it won't be used.

 

Thinking about keeping the kingpins for easy long travel and using RE6s on the upper arms. I'll build hoops off the frame and a removable brace across to the other side since I'll have good height clearance with the 12a that's going in. Thoughts?

 

If I get time tonight, I'll get the last few measurements needed to start designing the back half and 4-link setup. I'll be designing it in 3-d Solidworks so that I can check for clearance issues and get my locations of the link bars right. I will also be able to check my pinion angle change and it'll give me all my cut lines and angles.

[burrito213]

hey..... you got the frame off... its probably a stupid question but how did you do this?.... i want to do the same eventually.

 

or the more common sense question is, was it that hard to remove the frame being that this is a unibody?

[LAYEDOUTB2K]

hey..... you got the frame off... its probably a stupid question but how did you do this?.... i want to do the same eventually.

 

or the more common sense question is, was it that hard to remove the frame being that this is a unibody?

 

It's not necessarily a true unibody so it's connected pretty much the same way a cab and bed is on other trucks, it's just one piece. There's 12 bolts that connect the body to the frame and I just had 2 friends help me lift it off.

[Farmer Joe]

putting the bag on the top of the upper control arm is gonna prolly be a bad idea. the upper control is not designed to support the weight of the vehicle no matter how small the truck is. theres a reason the lower kingpin bushing is brass or copper or whatever it it.

 

i also though about doing the same thing, but its just not a safe option. the lower control carries the weight of the truck, and the upper is there to support the kingpin in the correct way.

 

thats just what im thinkin....

 

oh yeah, why is that steering box on the wrong side of that frame?

[Pacific coast Datsun]

"Thinking about keeping the kingpins for easy long travel and using RE6s on the upper arms. I'll build hoops off the frame and a removable brace across to the other side since I'll have good height clearance with the 12a that's going in. Thoughts?"

 

i too was thinking about a setup like that. I have a pic of a 521 that was done that way & i spoke to the builder. He said it rode ok but didnt get that much lift.

I would definately reinforce / plate the upper arm as a precaution.