'79 620 daily

[Greiggy]

Holy moly Gary! Sorry to hear this. You guys need your guns back, mate!

 

it definately sucks thats for sure - we are the same here in QLD - we are allowed no chassis modifications, air suspension etc or lowering a vehicle 1/3 of its standard ride height or 100mm (either which is applicable to your vehicle). its a shithole society thats for sure...

[Gary]

it is quite shit :( that said though, if you find a good engineer, one that'll actually listen to you and sort you out, you're alright. otherwise though not so fun

[Gary]

cylinder head hasnt come back yet, nor has the radiator :( as it turns out im waiting till next week for more parts anywho

 

btw fisch you're the man!

 

i got the cylinder head off and had a peek at the head studs to find they werent in too good a shape. they were actually slightly bent and the top threads of near all of em were stretched just after the shank, they were corroded up pretty good too. one of them was bad enough to have been replaced with a bolt (that looked like itd been forced in, the thread was stretched pretty bad) by one of the previous owners

 

so i wanted some new ones, i hit my local parts shop which im friendly with to find they couldnt get me head studs for the J15 (or 13 or 18) from either of their suppliers. so swung over to my machinist again and asked him, he tried two places and said he cant help either. i went to coventry near me (bolt and fasteners place) they said they cant help with automotive applications :( dropped round to nissan , they brought up the 620 after rummaging about for the diagram CD, i watched him flick through to find my J engine and find the part number for head studs to find even he couldnt get them for me :\

 

then i remembered fisch's post about similarities with BMC B engines, went back to parts shop today to find they couldnt get studs for that idea either :( was put onto an obscure little british parts shop in north melbourne who said they might be able to help me :D rocked around just now with some samples, the chap rummaged about out back and had em against a B engine's stud (a reference one he kept) to find the thread in the block did actually match, so he said he can get the 7 small ones easy but the 4 big ones might be hard, but he'll try for me :D ~$6.50 and ~$7.50 per bolt :( but at least i found some!

 

so again, excellent work there fisch!!

[works510]

Gary,

Temp gauge used to work, diff ratio ment it got abit hot on long freeway drives.

Looks to be your making heaps of progress, awesome.

Cant get a dodgey rwc to put it in your name? then just do a L series convo?

You wont get pulled over by the police in it, I drove it daily,everywhere for awhile, didnt even get comments about it (apart from mates calling me farmer Dan) haha

Ive found another 620 with a tub locally, I'll let you know condition of the cab etc when I find out who owns it (its on a farm and dont want to trespass)

Give me a call if you need a disk to disk h190 and ill put you onto someone who will buy that 4.6 out of your 620.

Engineers: I know of 1 a few of the melb datsun guys use, he's decent and not overly expensive, i'll prob be talking to him when I find a bagged C10 chev forsale in SoCal somewhere. (mmm slammed trucks)

[Gary]

hey dan :D been meaning to message you about the H190's on ozdat, ill just get some cash together first, gotta get my reco head back heh

 

fuel guage is working! sorta, temp guage and the like are a cheap fix though i dunno why its stopped working now. you're right about the diff ratio! isnt so nice for highway. i drove a bit slower to suit though so wasnt that bad, tuff J series still tore it up :D

 

ive got a good RWC chap who ignores quite a bit, but the cab rust would be too much for him to ignore. they've got people double checking RWC certs quite often at my vicroads, a mate got picked up by one in sunshine ffs! i dont want my local shop getting in trouble, theyre good chaps :D its bad in some places but not fargone yet from what i can see, just needs work. ill fix it :D the J is in alright condition and will do the trick for now, it'll be quicker to get rwc if i do that, my 510 i think will donate its L20 and 4 speed to the ute

 

im not an expert on diffs by any means but my one feels quite worn. havent pulled it yet (was gunna wait till i replace) so i dunno for sure, suss it later. as said ill let you know about the h190

 

ive been dealing with enklemans for a mates car (i put a pic of somewhere in here), theyre nice chaps and given ive worked with him before id say he'll sort me out alright

 

it'll get there soon :D by the end of next week if i get all the parts ive been promised i'll be cutting sik laps of my suburb running the engine in a little before hitting toorak for my engine crane, then it wont need to go anywhere until RWC

[Gary]

touch more progress;

 

i pulled the head as mentioned, removed valve springs and tappets and jazz

 

removed the rest of the head bolts and cleaned up the block surface ready for its new gasket, i found this;

 

drama :( looks like foreign material caused it judging by the dents in the other pistons. its kinda strange though, the bore is perfect save for the usual combustion marks at the top, the engine didnt have signs of dieseling so i doubt its going to cause pre-ignition, the oil hasnt charred up abnormally and as far as i know the breather system is alright too. i havent comp tested that cylinder but the ring seems fine so im keen to leave it be for now. i cant be bothered pulling the crank again to replace a piston :( otherwise i would. i daresay its been like that for a while anywho. headgasket was in alright condition, looks like the head has had a quick rebuild before

 

to give you an idea of what my headstuds were like, this wasnt the worst of them;

 

also found this;

these crazy datsun engines like to increase their own compression! heh

 

 

got my head back today, chaps said friday or saturday, didnt get a call friday or all weekend so rocked around today and there it is waiting for me :\

 

the head was faced, lots of new valve guides, replaced two ex valves, faced all the valves, fixed up the valve seats and gave it a nice spin wash :D all ready for me to put it back together, 375 clams later :(

 

hopefully getting a call from mr british parts man either tomorrow or wednesday, then i can get it all running again :)

[fisch]

 

 

btw fisch you're the man!

 

then i remembered fisch's post about similarities with BMC B engines, went back to parts shop today to find they couldnt get studs for that idea either :( was put onto an obscure little british parts shop in north melbourne who said they might be able to help me :D rocked around just now with some samples, the chap rummaged about out back and had em against a B engine's stud (a reference one he kept) to find the thread in the block did actually match, so he said he can get the 7 small ones easy but the 4 big ones might be hard, but he'll try for me :D ~$6.50 and ~$7.50 per bolt :( but at least i found some!

 

so again, excellent work there fisch!!

 

 

Great to hear this man! Look forward to seeing it buttoned back together. Sooooo... what would the engineers say about a moss supercharger on there?! Oooo or a cross flow BMC head?:D

[Gary]

the annoying thing is they largely wouldnt care :( an increase like that vs an increase of a few measely hp in the form of another engine, and they go for the latter! someday the J will be tearin it perhaps :D its growing on me!

 

a little more work today;

the head is assembled once more

 

i cut back the rest of the top rails of the tub, lookin alright. i treated and primed em too. unfortunately cos of the body filler all up and down the shop, and that i cut through fair bits of it to get down to baremetal for repair, im gunna need to build it back up so it looks straight :( temporary i spose

 

i picked up radiator today, still some work to make it fit but least ive got something to work with. damn radiator man put me in a shit mood all day, he said 80-100 clams and be done by friday. dropped in friday, nope, monday he says. i drop in today, bluntly says 120, cash, now. so a weekend late and the kent has the gall to ask more than what he quoted me, and demands cash over any other way i was going to pay. fkn rat :( i was short with him when i swung back to give him 120, was itchin for him to arc up so i could let rip a little. wont be going back, unless rad is busted, in which case it'll very likely become a new facial feature for him

 

i might be getting crane dropped off to my house this week sometime instead of me going to pick it up, so cab miggghttt be coming off sooner than expected, thanks to 620's great grandson no less!

 

cant wait to get into it, get new dash in and instruments fixed, and that clock in, and stez and speakers in, and new carpet, and body mounts repaired so the tub lines up, and enginebay cleaned up nicely, and some firewall holes filled, and holes in the quarter panel filled, and some holes in the floor done, and, and, and!!! heh

[Braden]

good build!! man you dont know how many guys would kill for that dash!!!

[Gary]

over here they'd kill for the tub too!

 

come to think about it id better watch myself :ninja:

[Gary]

waiting for parts still, today did something i dont really need to do, but wanted to do anyway heh;

 

i like the look of front and rear chrome (or in my case, kinda shiny) bumpers but since the rear doesnt have one and im not a big fan of the massive step bumpers etc, i thought id weld the tail-light surrounds together with a filler panel like ive seen done before. i had a look at my current ones, aside from paint and a little surface rust they're in good condition, so wasnt so sure about messing about with the originals if i didnt have spares. i remembered the previous owner gave me spares, but one was damaged so i got em out and had a peek

 

i didnt actually notice the tailight centers were different till i removed em :unsure: clearly one of the previous owners retrofitted some fresh ones into the factory housing, and did a clean job too :D until the passenger side one was bent up good. cut through a fair whack of bog to get down to to steel (becoming less a fan of that stuff as time goes on :() but did what i could to straighten it out

 

got done with cutting out the bits tacked in to cover up excess gap, then straightened out the rest of it by hand;

 

certainly not perfect, quite lumpy but thats precisely what i want :D not an excuse for my many ineptitudes, i can assure you (certainly got lots of those things)

 

i did same with the other side, then made up a center panel to match the profile of the tailight housings. when i say match... heh its closeish

 

tacked it together tonight to see how my handiwork with the center thing went. its straightish, still needs finishing though so might come out nice i dunno

 

might finish it off tomoz if ive got time. the plan with it is to cut it back to bright shiny steel (its mostly down to steel now but all dull lookin) then employ some POR15 glisten. ive been testing some clearcoats said to prevent rust underneath so i might find a way to have complete baremetal bodywork on the street, but still guarding against rust. i tried permalac which failed, and straight clear as a benchmark (did better than permalac ffs), there are more products i want to try but thats not an overly important project at the mo. ive been meaning to test glisten for a while though, this will be a good application :D see how it goes

[fastdadd]

i did my filler plate the same way you did...turned out nice

[74datsun620]

Very nice!!!

[works510]

Looking the goods gary, didnt expect you to be modding it this much.

Keen to get some pics when its finished.

[Gary]

thanks :D

 

headstuds have held me up :( feel bad not doing anything on it so ive been messing about with little things to tide me over. heaps keen to go for a drive once its all good for some cool pics here and there :D

 

studs probably wont be here till wednesday :( i called him thursday after he didnt get back to me, there was an issue with length my original studs were considerably longer than the factory B engine ones. hes been ringing around the place seeing if he can find longer ones, but after ive measured the head and the thread that goes into the block, the measurements he gave me are bang on minimum length i can deal with so i left a message with him friday to order some in

 

today finished off the new bezel. straightened it out a bit more and some more welding to get something that looks quite rough but looks how i want it to :D

 

applied some POR15 action on it via brush, complete with runs heh. cant see it in the pic, i dunno why i took it takes a couple days to cure so it wont go on for a while yet

 

fastdad yours does look good, simple thing to do hey :D

[Gary]

more progress, kinda;

 

a mate swung round with his pathfinder, inside of which were a handful of cool parts for it, and my crane :D so got that back today, now that ive got both of em i can get some more progress happening. i need to strip cab as much as is practical, then knock up a quick frame to lift the cab from the chassis, so will get into that tomoz i think

 

while 620's great grandson (:P) was around for a visit, it received new shocks, lifted springs and helper airbags :D raised it a bit, the helper bags lift it quite a lot, novel idea. the last pic is with it at full high like the manual says to test for leaks, only had time to do the rears :( funny seeing it raked like that

[Gary]

more work :D lots of pics comin up

 

rawrrr

 

got into the cab today, hehe got some work to do thats for sure. 3/6 cab mounts a busted good and proper, will need some fresh and thick steel to replace, the bolts themselves are corroded to the shit, probs need a few fresh bits in the floor too. sills gone, underneath cowl the has some nasty bits but overall pretty good

 

gawn, the cab has dropped enough not to line up with the bed, will be good getting it straight again :D

 

 

looks like it has expanda foam behind it and fair chunks of bog

 

lots of these things, snapped bolts :(

 

light list of what i need to do to cab (ie quick glance at this stage, there'll be more than this ill bet)

repair 10 or so small (2-3mm) firewall holes that dont really need to be there

repair two bigger holes in the trans tunnel

repair and beef up 3 cab mounts, might end out cutting out the good one and replacing with same as the other ones

likely need new floor around the middle cab mounts

fresh carpet (place in knox i think will have something for 620)

new dash needs to go in

remove interior mounts for jack and things, ill make a place under the tub for them instead

headlights might need replacing, not sure yet

probably 50% of all the bolts that hold the front valance and quarters on have seized and been sheared off, so they'll need either drilling or easyouting or something

just under the cowl theres a very serious rust hole (gone straight through and is chunky as)

theres a few select bits under the cowl that need attention but could definately be worse

sills are baaaaaad

one or two rusted bits below the headlight surrounds

just behind the doors near the back corners of the cab needs some work

gotta make some new kick panels, the existing ones are nasty

door trims need doing

one bolt hole for front seat rail i think is busted

need to tidy under dash wiring

doors need work, door locks dont work and windows are rattly

drivers side quarter window is bust (got a spare though lucky)

enginebay needs a clean

need to fix speedo

 

not so important but thinkin about;

maybe make a parcel tray underneath, i see the mounts there ready for one

seats could do with a replace but probs not until later

not sure whether to remove the headlining for a peek, might do it later

gotta put clock in :D

need to have a peek at heater, says nissan on it, wonder if its genuine or upgrade?

 

im capable of fixing all that stuff though so im not upset or worried about any of it - ill get through it :D ive got most of it apart, the cab has a few bits of wood in between it and the chassis at the moment, tomoz hoping to get it apart high enough to fit some tubing between so i can make my improvised dolly to lift the cab proper

 

head studs are now on order and on track to coming in tomoz, so likely gunna hit british parts place again tomorrow. see how that goes i spose. might save engine work for when there's no car around it, never done that before, bet it'll feel weird hah

[Gary]

more progress;

cab is dissembled, and now off the chassis!

 

a few minor laws of physics i sorta forgot about, but otherwise went without a hitch. i knocked up a quick frame with anchor points at each corner out of some cheap steel i got

 

got some more chain, jacked the cab up high enough to slide the frame through, hooked the cranes up and lifted away :D

 

needed someone to hold the cab straight so it didnt slide off the frame, need some crane mods and ill be able to do it alone next time and perhaps in future. all fun and games :D

 

tomoz doing a bit of a cleanup, maybe a trip out to a wrecker to try find some 720 parts, maybe some crane mods so i can lift the cab again and get started on cab mounts. see how it all goes i spose

[Gary]

more progress;

swung round to one of my favorite wreckers, found a 720 KC a mate said was there, got me some disc hubs :D might get to fitting em tomoz but see how it goes

 

also worked out a way to lift the cab evenly without assistance, i made a few little addons for both cranes. also got a bit carried away and made a place to hold chain, fixed the bar holder on my mates crane and made a new bar for mine cos it went missing when it was loaned out

 

finally got my headstuds too, cost lots :( but not much choice really, so engine can now finally get back together, ill do that soon too. these are from a BMC B engine, nissan factory ones are on the right of each set (clean lookin)

 

tomoz will see if my crane things work, might pull off my hubs for some direct comparison with my new disc ones see what it needs to fit, aand might get the engine back together

[Gary]

more progress;

crane things work alright, lifts evenly and will be safe with a backup or two just in case

 

i got into my 720 brake upgrade today, started by straight swapping hubs and upper control arms;

 

worked nicely, steering linkage bolted up perfectly, as did upper control arm and lower balljoint, was all the same as 620. put the wheels back on the ground, no obvious alignment or offset dramas, calipers cleared my stockies too which is nice

 

then pulled all the bits apart so i could compare, practically all of it is the same between 720 and mine. ill end up using my old balljoints cos they're in good nick. rotors need replacing, pads dont but i will anyway, calipers arent bad lookin so i wont rebuild em, one balljoint needs a new boot, need lots of split pins too, hub bearings look good, i broke the hub seals so i could pull the bearings so need new ones of those, and need to give all of it a clean - good thick layer of solid grease all up and down the shit

 

calipers mounted toward the center of the car, just like JGTC! thats gotta be worth some extra hp

 

tomoz need to order some bits in, ill get cleaning too, if i have time might try and get engine back together

[Gary]

didnt get a lot of time today

 

but got the studs in, 7 shorts are perfect height, 4 longs are a touch short, so ive got them not fully seated in their holes in the block. they're in plenty enough, but not all the way. gasket is on, pushrods are in, head is on, just need to organise some washers for the stud nuts and i can get back into it all. current ones are mismatched and a few are a bit damaged so ill suss some more

 

got a few bits here and there at parts place, ordered rotors too. sneaky chap behind the counter said theres a listing, then pulls a face and hisses like he does if the price is nuts expensive, then says maaan gunna be... $22 each. seems 720 rotors are discontinued so DBA is clearing stock for cheap. $44 for a new set of front rotors = win. havent got em in my hands yet though so hopefully comes through

 

tomoz will get the engine together and ready, and hub bits clean, so i can get started on cab soon

[Gary]

progress;

 

engine is back together;

 

manifolds etc are on, just didnt take pics

 

my current alternator isnt so hectic, ive got two spare SR20DE alternators though, going to adapt one to fit. quick pic of it attached to stock bracket to get an idea of what i need to do. wont be too difficult, ill make the stock pulley fit first, then just need to make a decent bracket

[Gary]

progress;

got the hubs back together with new discs, pads, hub seal, packed it with new grease, bearings were good so they stayed, new ball joint boots almost all round

 

just need a new tap kit so i can fix the slightly damaged thread on one of the lower balljoints, my one is only metric and limited to 12mm :(

 

i need to fix two selector forks for brothers U12 pintara over the weekend :angry: not something i want to be doing when ive got the ute to get through, but alas. replacement box is hard, VLSD front which are near impossible to find so im going to try bastardise an open box, see if that works heh

also have a 121 to work on :( ill get hooked right into the ute next week, not a lot has been done lately :(

[swb"74"620]

UPDATES. NOW ! PLEASE.

Just read your whole build up! Getting some good tips haha.

I've got a 1974 datsun 620 im up on the gold coast though, you said earlier in your build up about an orange one i think i own it haha except its half primer now.

I have some 1979 door cards in awesome nick, Black leather ones they came with mine but I wasn't told they didn't fit :|

Damn i must had been lucky! the only rust i have is a 5 dollar note size in the cabin floor.

Oh and Mine came with a couple L20s out of an sss bluebird apparently they bolt in?

[Gary]

nice :D good to see more popping up about the place! the orange one i mentioned has been crushed, so i hope its not yours heh L20's bolt into the later chassis i think, the earlier ones were a bit different. get a thread up, i wanna see picsssss :D

 

progress;

fixed the U12, and the 121 so now can get back to the ute :D while i was doing them ive reassembled my front hubs with some fresh rotors and pads, and cleaned it up a little and got some fresh grease in the balljoints and some fresh boots for the ones that were busted. disc conversion just about done

 

i decided i want the cab lifting dolly thing the other way round too, so today extended that a little so itd work. lifts good now, and ive got complete access to the sills and cab mounts for some work

 

tomorrow i plan on sussing the new alternator bracket, maybe get the pulley working too but ill see. will start on cab soon, trying to tackle one thing at a time