Ethel: 71 521 Rocker Layer

[521 Dropsun]

Howdy yall. My name is Jerome and I hail from northern California.

I am the proud owner of a 71 datsun 521. I bought it from police impound for 1200 dollars. Had no idea about mini trucks. Never really paid attention. I just saw this little pickup that looked old and pretty cool with it's dual headlights and thought it would be a great commuter. The sticker on the windshield said it had a five speed and ran great. I have a big 72 chevy K20 that is very nice and I was worried about scratching it and banging it up. I worked out in the boonies building fences at the time. Also got about 8 miles to the gallon so the datsun looked very appealing. Test drove it in their little impound lot. Took forever to get it to start and run. I found out a month later that it had a manual choke. felt like an idiot. Anyway.. there were these big speed bumps see... and well.. i decided not to slow down for them... hit the first one at like 40... launched the little datsun a good foot in the air and came crashing down just in time to hit the second speed bump. Well I came skidding into the gravel parking lot and here come the cops. Running. I jump out and yell "I'll take it!" Pissed off faces intantly turned into forced smiles. Paid cash and got the hell out of there. Hit up the freeway and go to shift to fifth....nothing. F ing cops got the last laugh. Not to mention it blew a head gasket a month later for no reason at all. All the tires wern't ballanced, front end was splayed out like a fat chick taking a dump and it didn't have window rollers. I put my seatbelt on the first time and it wouldn't unlatch. I had to cut myself out using a wire stripper. Eventualy gave up on her and parked her in the back barn and forgot about her. Then I met Seth Boman in a machine tooling class. Got to talking and he told me about his toyota he built from the ground up. Struck up a deal and the rest is history. Since that time Ive put over 17,000 dolars into her. Worth every penny. Well her she is just as I got her. This is actually a photo of her being dropped of at Seth's house. No pics before that.

Shortened toyota axle

Link cross member

Battery tray

Hand made tig welded link bars

Bag cups

mounted

Shock mounts

Back ready for paint

Almost put together

Brake line

Back done

Front lower tubular arms

Front cut off

[521 Dropsun]

Z Toyota frame graft

Bag mount and lower arm with toyota spindel

Uppers (from scratch)

On the truck

Smoothed

Body Drop

Low profile turbo muffler. (from scratch)

Tubbed firewall

Mock up

Engine mounts

Set on the ground

Me standing next to it

Painted the wheels

Front cross member

Front sheet metal on

Front shock mount

[LAYEDOUTB2K]

thats sweet you found your way over here. i love the truck and have followed seths build up on here since the beginning.

[521 Dropsun]

Continued

Put together and painted

Hood

Scratch made low profile intake to clear the hood

Bed in place

With trunk

My computer is screwing with me. More to come soon.

[djlotus]

With trunk

 

Freakin love it.

[comply]

I want to put in a request for one(1) incredibly sexy low profile intake.

Holy hell. I wish mine was that good looking.

 

[oldsklminitrk]

Hell yeah your in good hands with Seth I know him from Yotascene.....Thats a sweet lookin truck Im on the hunt for one of them now....my next project. :)

[RB_Shaggs]

here is seth's whole build thread

 

71 521

 

love the truck man.

[521 Dropsun]

Thanks for the support guys. Heres the rest of the pictures I couldn't post.

Outside of the shop.

At the gas station

Walk around

New bigger tires

Notice inner white wall

Stripe being applied

Stripe done

Then about a month later the hood came unlatched on the freeway and slammed into the windsheild showering me in glass. Not fun!

Had to go get another 521 just to get the windsheild out of it! I'll post some pictures of that basketcase up soon. Soo anyway everything worked out and I got actually a cleaner window than I had before. This one was brand new and had never even seen a road. The truck was involved in a head on and so the dude replaced the window and then lost interest. Hence, New window!

[bonvo]

glad to see the owner has made it to ratsun shame about the windsheild though

[nick_m]

I LOVE this ute. It is the coolest little mini truck I have ever seen. period.

[airedout]

Do you remember how much body drop it took to get the rockers on the ground???

[fisch]

So glad to see this truck again! I've missed it! Sorry about the hood and winshield! I am a fan of that hood too, is it badly damaged by the flyup?

 

You really own one of THE most badass Datsuns I've ever seen. I mean that!

[airedout]

Nevermind i already talked to seth earlier.

[Bob3]

Dude - that is amazing! :eek:

 

You inspire my to get off my ass and go out to the shop and get some work done!

 

WOW ! ! !

[521 Dropsun]

Well thanks for the imput guys. I just picked up a set of new tail lights for 150 and they are CHERRY! So I thought Id show you guys what Im thinking of doing. I have some original stub bumpers that Im thinking of putting on. Id need some low profile lights if I did it though because the bed has been dropped about 2 1/2 inches. Tell me if I should go through with it cause I like the look.

[fisch]

Dude badass, you gotta do it!!!!

[Track Junky]

Heck Yeah! Right ON!!! By far my favorite Mini truck.

 

Scott.

[521 Dropsun]

I thought Ive seen some small tail lights for these trucks. My mind might be playing tricks on me though because Im kinda hazy about the details. Did they make some small tail lights for these trucks that I could possibly stuff into the small gap between the gate and the stubs?

 

 

Oh and here are some picks of Gertrude. Ethel's older, ugly sister. And boy does she have a rack on her!

And her ghetto 80s fender flares. They bent the sheetmetal out! Thank god I have a spare bed!

And a original weber with the redline intake.

Edited May 15, 2009 by 521 Dropsun

[datzenmike]

What rear end is that? Thought it was from a D-21 Hardbody.

[521 Dropsun]

No idea what it is. Pretty sure it's stock but I could be wrong. The guy I got it from drove the transport trucks for datsun in the 70s and 80s delivering new vehicals to the dealerships. So its anyone's guess what has been done to this truck. I got soooooo many parts from this guy. He lost his house and he had a four car garage in the basement full of datsun parts. For a hundered dollars everything was mine!:D

[datzenmike]

None of the trucks were 5 stud but this looks very similar to the D-21 and WD-21 rear. It's big.

[pl521sss]

I thought Ive seen some small tail lights for these trucks. My mind might be playing tricks on me though because Im kinda hazy about the details. Did they make some small tail lights for these trucks that I could possibly stuff into the small gap between the gate and the stubs?

 

 

 

Yes

They did came with the smaller style tail lights from 68-69 models

Sent you a PM if your interested

 

[impala_631]

lookin great!!i love the truck for shure..i watched the twistedminis topic from start to finish,seemed like a quick build for the amount of work,anyways great looking truck!!:)

[521 Dropsun]

Thanks man!

 

So we are going with the stub bumper idea to see how that works out. Going to put thoes tail lights a little behind the bumper but at least the bulb will be visable, unlike if I moved the big ones I have now back behind the stub.