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Moss covered 521


Pnwdatsun

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I just purchased my first 521, I couldn’t be more excited. I just got off work early and happened to hop on Facebook before driving home and spotted this ratty truck, with a great ad and knew I had to look at it. Only 10 mins north on my way home I met with a super nice datsun guy. 2 trips and some cash later I had it delivered to the house. Now that I have it here i have decided I would like to keep the moss and years of dirt on the outside and make it as original mechanically. Does anyone know if these truck had any rare factory options? I would really like the cool factor to hit home on this one 

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Rarest part is maybe the under dash mounted clock.  Glove box and fuel door locks are desirable and can still be found on eBay if you want to spend $130 or so, each. Then there are a lot of parts that were better quality or more desirable style on the 520, such as all metal dash & ashtray, metal rimmed parcel tray, metal door pulls. Early models had a red hazard flasher knob some people desire, but chances are a used one is going to be cracked anyways. Dealer installed radio or radio delete plate, uncracked dash and steering wheel, etc etc

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Just a note on the locking fuel door......replacing that will alter your patina on the outside.....and there's no finger pull bump on the factory ones.  A lot of people have punched a hole in a non-locking door to get the security.  Congrats on the score.

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So i initially thought this would be a major project truck in need of a lot of work to get running, to my surprise it fired right up and he explaint all of the work he did. Ripped around the block and paid $1250 towed to my house. As for the rare parts it seems the only interest would be the under dash mounted clock. I will probably try and source out a few period correct parts such as wheels, shift knob and maybe some 520 parts. The goal is "Survivor" with oem functions still in working order. 

 

My daughter is absolutely infatuated with the truck and dragged me down stairs at 7am so we could work on it. Just that bond with her will be well worth the $1200 invested  

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15 hours ago, datzenmike said:

Fog lights,  red??? pull choke knob, bumper over riders on front, engine room lamp, under dash clock, radio, 

Im curious to see those options. i believe mine has the engine room lamp already, dealer added heat box as well. A/c may come later down the road

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This one is hard to say for me

part of me is wash it an let the patina show

other part is keep it as is.just clean the engine bay up

yes Moss will hold the water and rot

 

man it still has the original carb on there 

 

key is lube the kingpins in front  Better clean them out anyways. check the trans oil level.

 

ps most electrical problems on a 521 is the fuse box.corrossion of fuses or broke fuses but at the ends inside you can’t see.best to get new ones

 

i don’t GET wanting lots of options on a cheap Datsun truck especially a 521.Datsun wasn’t know for options Maybe by 1979 they moved up the food chain.

Edited by banzai510(hainz)
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11 minutes ago, banzai510(hainz) said:

This one is hard to say for me

part of me is wash it an let the patina show

other part is keep it as is.just clean the engine bay up

yes Moss will hold the water and rot

 

man it still has the original carb on there 

 

key is lube the kingpins in front  Better clean them out anyways. check the trans oil level.

 

ps most electrical problems on a 521 is the fuse box.corrossion of fuses or broke fuses but at the ends inside you can’t see.best to get new ones

 

i don’t GET wanting lots of options on a cheap Datsun truck especially a 521.Datsun wasn’t know for options Maybe by 1979 they moved up the food chain.

IMG-9807.jpgpost my foto

I will never "restore" this truck so the rot isnt a bother for me, its possible ill come across a better roller and swap parts over and leave this for yard art. I'll be cleaning the engine bay up as much as possible. The Fuse box has already been an issue and i have sourced a good oem replacement. As far as the options it just becomes preference, I had a one owner 240sx with factory heads up display along with a rare OEM factory cup holder and a few misc dealer tools ( jack, nissan spark tester, tool kit).

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7 minutes ago, Pnwdatsun said:

IMG-9807.jpgpost my foto

I will never "restore" this truck so the rot isnt a bother for me, its possible ill come across a better roller and swap parts over and leave this for yard art. I'll be cleaning the engine bay up as much as possible. The Fuse box has already been an issue and i have sourced a good oem replacement. As far as the options it just becomes preference, I had a one owner 240sx with factory heads up display along with a rare OEM factory cup holder and a few misc dealer tools ( jack, nissan spark tester, tool kit).

 

Where did you get your fuse box?  The ones on ebay from thailand are a 3 hot/3 swtiched fuse box.  Your truck should (almost certain) be a 4 hot/2 switched truck.  You can make the other work by changing the bus bars on the bottom.

 

And dig the truck.  Make it your own and enjoy it.

Edited by bilzbobaggins
bfc
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2 hours ago, wayno said:

I also would say remove the moss, it's going to dry out and fall off eventually anyway unless you leave it where it was to start with, moss needs to be damp all the time to survive, it also will rot the metal if it has not already.

You can tell the bed is already toast along the bedlines

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3 hours ago, thisismatt said:

You can tell the bed is already toast along the bedlines

 

The bed on my 521 work truck was worse, the metal sides were falling off the bed, the only thing holding one side on were a couple spot welds around the fender well and the front upright, one day I decided to make my work truck bed into a box and I was almost able to rip one side off with just my hands.

This is what the work truck looked like for a year or two.

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Had they day off due to the slowdown from COVID-19 so i decided to do some tinkering on the truck. I got a new fuse block and choke cable coming in the mail , I removed and washed the Saddle blanket seat covers that more then likely had been on since the early 2000's. I ran up to Ace and grabbed some paint to fix the god awful wheel color, I think the gold and Black look good on the truck for now

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