'69 521 project

[Jstocks]

Thought I'd post this long time rusty old project I've dragged around with me for the last 15 years or so. 

It's a 1969 Datsun 521 that had been well used and abused when I bought it 15 years ago. 
It ran then and needed some brake and suspension work, I bought it with good intentions and planned to build it into a little mini truck rat rod but then my kids decided they needed parenting so it went on the back burner. Now with 2 teenagers that now want no parenting, I'm making time to try and salvage this rusty POS! 
Sadly I let it go a little to far, but it has handled the wait well considering I literally left it in a field for 15ish years. 

I've slowly been picking away at it. 
I've stripped the box off and my brother in law did a frame notch that was partly to get it lower eventually and partly to replace a section of the frame due to rust. 
Last fall we started replacing the floors and repairing the inner cab corners and seat belt mounts. 
I found an old 521 bench that my wife will recover at some point.
Dave from Redux Garage sent me some of his rock panels and I've got the drivers side one roughed in. 

The rear of the cab is coming together, hopefully get the rad support repaired next and then the other rocker and I can start filling in some blanks and putting the body back together. 

I was going to just repair all the drum breaks and bought all the parts from Rock Auto but now I'm thinking I should just bite the bullet and upgrade to ball joints and discs... hard call. 
I'd love to hear some options if you want to share. 
Honestly I'd like to try and get it rolling around for this Summer, I can always redo the front end later. 
Whats the best way to upgrade the front end without having to change the upper and lower control arms for now? 

Thanks for any help and of course your encouragement! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wayno]

There is really no option for the front end except disc brake adapters if you want to keep your control arms, Mike K. made the best ones in my opinion, but he stopped making them, but I heard he might be getting back into it part time, you would have to contact him about that.

http://www.bluehandsinc.com/

There are others out there, but not all of what they have made work properly, I have a set of disc brake adapters that should not exist as they were made wrong(clocked wrong), Mikes would be my choice, but drum brakes work fine for a fun truck if kept adjusted properly.

[Jstocks]

 my brother in law did some work with Mike on his beautiful uppers for his D-21. 

 

The main reason I'm wanting to change now is the front wheel bearings and races will need replacing and I'd hate to do all that work just to scrap it all in a few months. 

But sometimes just getting things rolling is the best way to stay encouraged 🤓😆

[wayno]

I am not sure that is a choice as I heard the bearings are NLA.

[Greaser2]

Silver mine motors has several options for disk brakes with no changes to the suspension.  Pricey.  

Edited February 20, 2020 by Greaser2
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[BrothersGarage]

Nice little truck! After you get the repairs done, what are your plans?

[Jstocks]

The plan is to leave the body a little rough around the edges. 

It'll be low but still drivable. 

I used Monroe air shocks in the rear so I can sit on the wheel lip. 

The front I probably will do coilovers eventually.

 

It was a 4-speed at one point the previous owner put an auto in it.

 

I will likely put a ka with a 5-speed back in it eventually. But for now I'll just get a driving around so I could take it to some local Japanese car shows and have some fun with it.

I have that little Honda 125 that'll go in the back as a nice spare 😆

[yenpit]

Nice project!  😎

[Jstocks]

12 hours ago, Greaser2 said:

Silver mine motors has several options for disk brakes with no changes to the suspension.  Pricey.  

Nice stuff but a bit pricey for this truck. 

Maybe when I find my unicorn truck 😆

[gene knight]

Jstocks: pm sent

[Charlie69]

Sent you a PM.

[Jstocks]

Pretty lazy weekend, I haven't had 2 weekend days at home together in many years

(Coaching hockey and baseball 😆) so I did a lot of sitting on my ass.

I did however find a couple great guys on here that are helping me with some parts and I'm so grateful for that! 

I also moved the truck sideways in the shop so I can hack out the other rocker and have access to both sides lol. 

Oh and I made a new wheel for my old floor jack that's been tripod mode for about 10 years lol. 

That's all🤪

[Greaser2]

I would lower the jack too. 

[Jstocks]

Pretty lazy weekend, I haven't had 2 weekend days at home together in many years

(Coaching hockey and baseball 😆) so I did a lot of sitting on my ass.

I did however find a couple great guys on here that are helping me with some parts and I'm so grateful for that! 

I also moved the truck sideways in the shop so I can hack out the other rocker and have access to both sides lol. 

Oh and I made a new wheel for my old floor jack that's been tripod mode for about 10 years lol. 

That's all🤪

[Jstocks]

Well, I got through work a little early today so I chopped out the old passenger side rocker. 

This side was not as bad as the drivers side! 

The drivers side had no sill at all. This one will hold up for a few more years, I'll coat it with rust mort  repair the seatbelt mount and paint the inside and then weld in the patch panel. Along the bottom I'll pinch it with some bonding adhesive.

Looking forward to being done with the cab repair!

 



 

 

 

[Jstocks]

Pretty slow weekend, waiting for some parts to come. 

But I did score a nice set of used 15x10 steelies from a great guy, so we stretched my tires on today. Turned out decent, one less B I gotta worry about 🤪

 

 

[Charlie69]

Did you find some fenders?  Be nice to see your bed painted and installed.  Looking good keep at it.

[Jstocks]

Yeah I think so! 

 

Hoping to have them towards the end of the month and I'll get back at this thing. 

It's easy to get side tracked when you don't have the parts 🤓

Can't move to one thing without finishing the other. 😎

[Jstocks]

 Got some fenders finally.

 

So much work to do now 😆 

This little truck is rusty as hell so everything is a project lol. 

Spend the last couple days breaking off old bolts, and drilling out old screws and sharpening bits. Trying to start at one end and work my way back!

There is a running 1600 and 4 SPD trans for a 510 locally, I'd rather have a KA or SR20 but for the sake of simple this will be the quickest route to further motivation 😆

 

Here's some pics .

 

 

Not a lot of progress but a lot of work lol 😆

[mrbigtanker]

Wow man your my hero, thats alot of work. Do the L series, KA and SR's are so over done already. I love my FJ but honestly if I could turn the clock back I would of stayes L series. Keep up the good work.

[banzai510(hainz)]

Where ever you that those fenders from get the upper A Arm links and the kingpin spindals as spares as you will need them.front hubs with the bearings speedo ect......  your kingpins are most likely shot already.

im on my 3set on kingpin swaps.the fulcrum pin and end grease caps need also for spares.

[Jstocks]

Yeah I'm already, thinking of coming up with a aftermarket solution for the front end. 

I'd love to hear some of your guys suggestions the most cost-effective way to have an adjustable front end that gets rid of the kingpins. 

[wayno]

There is a way to put a 720 balljoint control arms on your 521 but it needs to be done right, I did it and drove it that way for over a decade, but I had one really bad issue, the upper driver side control arm mount bolts kept breaking on me, I was lucky it never happened going faster than 30mph, but it happened likely 10 times before them threads in the frame stripped out from tightening them down as hard as I could all the time, I then bought really hard grade 8 bolts that were longer and put big thick washers on the back shock side with lock nuts and tightened them down until it collapsed the plate on the shock side of the shock tower, they never broke again, if I were to ever do it again I would drill out and thread the upper control arm mount bolt holes to use the 720 mount bolts, I should have done that from the start.

Two mods need to be made, I believe late(78/79) 620 lower control arm bushings need to be used in the 521 frame, and the upper 720 control arms need to be lengthened .75", and most importantly the 720 left upper control arm needs to be used on the right side of the 521 frame and the right upper control arm is used on the left side, this puts the castor where it needs to be for the 521 chassis/frame.

I drove mine with this setup with 1990 Hardbody 2wd/V6 dual piston caliper disc brakes for years, but I put power steering on mine also, the 521 frame is not made to have power steering the way I did it(4X4 style setup), it kept wasting the front frame section.

There is a lot more involved and stuff has to be modified like metric brake line connections as the 521 has SAE connections, but without power steering it is all about them lengthened upper control arms.

[Jstocks]

No one makes an adjustable upper control arm?

There must be a lot to out there to allow a more modern set up. 

 

I'm thinking of making the shock tower a little taller so I can run an air shock in the front as well and a heavy duty bump stop of course, I'm not worried about power steering at all.

 

The upper control arm outer bushings are hammered out so I have some new ones, the bolts are also toast I think. 

 

The front drums are in rough shape, I'm going to pull them tomorrow and sand blast them in hopes of reuse. The front wheel bearings are also messed up, I hope I can find some new ones. 

 

 

 

[banzai510(hainz)]

Wheel bearings I grabbed spares from some other 521s that were parting out

drums you can get new ones but have to PBPlaster the hub and use a 2x4 to support separating it by hammer