Project 620 - Build Thread

[79D50]

I am a little late to the game on getting this started but here goes. I am completely restoring the truck inside and out and have spent that last 5 months getting educated on these trucks and buying NOS and aftermarket parts. The motor is an L18 mildly built and the entire drivetrain all the way back to the diff and axles only has approximately 35K miles on it so that will go untouched for now. My theme is less mini truck'in style and more towards the muscle/pace truck look similar to the 70's custom look...minus body kits and huge rakes.

 

I have been restoring/reconditioning many parts myself and there are a few members here I have been doing business with. Sourcing parts has had its up's and down's but overall has been quite easy compared to some other vehicles I have restored in the past.

 

I will load up pics as I go and will start with a few snapshots of the truck before I started and where it sits presently. Hopefully, everything will be complete before Canby. I plan on attending quite a few shows this summer with the finished product. You rarely see these 620's at the regular events here in WA.

 

Before:

 

Body and Paint in Progress:

 

 

More to Come...... :cool:

[Farmer]

Nice. Great platform to start with.

 

Larry

[79D50]

It had to be stripped to the metal in several spots due to finding rust. If this is going to be built to last another 34 years then all the work is in the prep. It was the best foundation I could find to begin work...More pics shortly.

[74datsun620]

Awsume!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great looking 620, Can't wait to see more.

[79D50]

I've been compiling parts.

 

Here is a pic of my NOS chrome front bumper in its original packaging:

 

 

I reconditioned all of the rubber gaskets for the sidemarkers and a few other peices. This is the best to recondition and moisturize rubber. 34+ year old rubber looks brand new and is very supple and pliable.

 

 

I restored the housing for the sidemarkers. First, I dremelled them to bare metal and cleaned out the bulb socket. Second, I bought new socket connectors with the spring and wire as the old ones were pretty much dead. I used 2 coats of primer and 3 coats of base. They should last another 34+ years with no rust. I used KRYLON ruddy brown primer and KRYLON chrome top coat. I've had great long term results with Krylon and Dupont paints. I have a bit of cleanup work to do on these still.

 

 

I have refinshed the side marker lenses and the tailights. This is tricky because if you use too much RPM's on the dremel you can melt the plastic. I know because I tested out this process on a spare lense. I only used about 1500 rpm with 3M finish it rubbing compound....It takes all the fine scratches out and puts a nice gloss on the plastic. They turned out great. Compare the far left red marker to the 2 amber and red on the right. The one on the left hasn't been done yet. I did the inside of the tailights and have yet to do the outside but those scratches you see in the pic will all dissapear.

 

 

Here are the finished buckets for the truck. I bought them this way from a member. The fit and finish is awesome and they were done correctly. I am going to throw another coat of flat black on them and my yellow fogs will get installed when the paint/body is complete. My HID kit will go in these. I have the 4300K DS2 bulbs. I installed the bulbs and tested them off of a battery in my garage. The beam and cutoff is clean and looks very nice. The original housings in the kit were junk (tried many types).

 

 

Here are my new chrome side mirrors for the truck:

 

 

I have some more pics of the body work and will upload those shortly. I have all new seals and rubber stops, odds and ends ordered and on the way. It will get new glass front to back once the interior is complete. That work starts next Monday. More to come.

[79D50]

Here are some more pictures of the body work progress. All of the bed seams are being filled with a fiberglass/bondo resin and the seam where the hooks go has been treated with seam sealer. The seams behind the driver and passenger doors are being filled (top of cab) and the seams on the a pillar are filled as well. It should be a very clean flowing look with the only body breaks at the fender/door, door to bed. The only thing I shaved was the antennae because I listen to CD's and MP3's. The interior will be completely seam sealed from top to bottom to prevent future leaks. Undercoating will be sprayed inside the bottom of the doors, inside the fenders, inside the wheel wells, and underside of the bed. All of the doors and fenders will come off for paint so the jams and nooks/crannies can be prepped and painted. The bed will come off so the back of the cab can be prepped/sprayed and I am spraying in a bed liner once it has been re-installed. The entire truck will have 4 coats of base and 4 coats of clear and be wetsanded 2x after it has cured. There has been no expense or corner cutting on the body work and prep. Progress pics will continue to be uploaded. Hopefully, it will be in primer by Saturday afternoon.

 

[79D50]

Here are my wheels. These are a set of mid 70's Western Turbines commonly called Hurricanes. These are the 15 spoke model and they are 6 lug (6 x 5.5) 15X8 with a +3 offset. These were incredibly difficult to find as most out there are 15x8.5 and 15x10 and 5 lug. I took these down to Seattle Wheel and Tire. David and Zach are the owners and they have state of the art equipment and are very knowledgeable. I highly recommend this shop. They straightened the wheels, checked them for cracks etc, welded all the shoulders and outer rims and formed them back to shape. Then, they were bead blasted thoroughly. They turned out incredible. These will get metal etched, 4 coats of base (semi glos black), 4 coats of clear, and be allowed to cure for 2 weeks in a 85 degree climate controlled room before the tires are installed. The tires will be Cooper Cobra GT Radials with solid white letters out. The size will be 235/60/15. I've already had these mounted and fitted and they look tough (plenty of clearance with my 2" drop.

 

[79D50]

Here is a pic of the tire I will use. The car in the pic is the General Lee and the wheels are a similar style (American Racing Vectors). It gives you an idea of what it will look like.

 

[Charlie69]

Great write up! Thank you for sharing materials and rpms used or the rubber and lenses. Keep up the good work.

[sick620]

MAN this is a good quality thread here. I love them wheels. Keep this stuff comin!

[79D50]

Weekend Progress so far: I polished the beauty rings that go around all of the side marker lamps. They turned out well. I used the same 3M Finish IT compound with the dremel.

 

 

Here is an example of the finished product fully restored and re-assembled. I even polished the ends of the screw heads. 2 seconds up against my bench grinder with the polish wheel put a nice shine on them (they are the original screws).

 

 

For reference, here are the parts to restore the wiring inside the side markers. These run about $2+ at your local NAPA or Autozone. That part number for reference is 085800.

 

 

 

Here are some more pics of the side mirrors and bumper I forgot to add in on the last post: Since I am painting the truck white the inside ring of the mirror will match nicely. I need to transfer the mounting brackets from the old bumper to the new. This includes the hardware that mounts to the fenders on each side. I will get that finished soon and post pics.

 

 

I was mocking up the rest of the lights in the buckets and here is what they will look like finished. I just got the buckets for the fogs back from the bead blaster and will be shooting those flat black like the rest of the assembly. All the original screws and headlight retainer rings will be cleaned and polished.

 

I got my new clear front turn signal assemblies and will take these apart to sand down the metal, add 3 coats of primer and 3 coats of base so they last a long time. I will show progress on those when I begin. They are really easy to take apart.

 

[74datsun620]

This is a great build, And thank you on the info keep it up.

[79D50]

Here is the progress on the body work. We have the doors and fenders in primer and took the bed off the truck. I will have to clean up and bend back the spoons on each of the bolt and washer assemblies for the bed. That was fun taking off. The spoons kept spinning with the air gun. I will heat them up and bend them back. If I had it my way I would be re-assembling the bed with nylon nuts on the top but there is no way to get a wrench in there to tighten them down. It should be simple enough to fix the originals. :blink:

 

Here is the underside of the bed:

 

 

Here it is sitting on pallets and cabinets until we get a better spot set up to work on it.

 

 

The frame on this truck suprisingly is in great condition aside form some caked on dirt (nothing a good pressure washing can't fix) ;) There are no funky or cracked welds and everything appears to be straight and true. This was taken off in the early 80's for the original restoration so it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. BTW - As I right this it is 5:10...stupid observation...hahahaha..The original color of the cab was red as you can see in the pics. The original color of the bed was blue. I had one mustard color door and one blue colored door and one black fender. It's a franken truck in its truest form.

 

 

Here are some shots of the bodywork progress. The paint on the front clip must have been 3 sheets of paper thick. A razor blade and a DA took it all off. PITA :angry:

 

[pharouh]

Great build! Nice to see you're doing it the right way.

I like the way you pay attention to the details!

[79D50]

Thanks for the comments. The body work is taking a bit longer than anticipated as we are finding areas which require more attention etc. It will all be worth it in the end. Just about every bolt on the fenders and front end broke off as they were rusted really bad. All of the door, fenders etc will be re-assembled with new hardware. I am excited to see the finished product and get this over to my interior guy in Auburn. I have decided to go original with the interior with a few minor upgrades and custom touches. The end product will be very clean. My buddy is trying to talk me into replacing the running gear with a KA or small block chevy motor. He has the skills and shop to take on the work if I decide to do so. One step at a time :P .

[johny5]

I like, now i need to get off my ass and get going on my 521

[alleycat]

i wanna see those mirrors on your doors.

[79D50]

I have been neglecting my own build thread badly. :unsure: I have tons of new info and pics to load. ;)

[Joss]

That "303" seems do be some good stuff.

Anyone else recommend it?

And Is it pricey? I'd like to give it a try.

[dat620]

303 is very good resto liquid, as is son of a gun, as they have no silicone, silicone deterieoates rubber, it's good for tires also, armour all has silicants in it and is very hard on rubber products, at first looks good, but after several uses it starts to break down rubber, 303 and son of a gun are also very good for vynal and plastics..tom

[DatDoug]

WTF Paul? Wheres the rest of the pics? Lets go! :poke: What color are you going to paint it?

[79D50]

Ok...I've got quite a few posts and pictures to get this build thread up to speed. Let's back up about 3 weeks and start with the bed bolts. Datsun had a very creative design which had its limitations but hey, it was 1976. The bed is bolted down with 6 bolts, 3 on each side. It was a bolt that had a spoon shaped duckbill welded/fabbed to it. Since you can't get a wrench on the topside the idea was that the duckbill would catch at the 90 degree angle of the boxed mounting point therefore allowing the nut on the bottom to be tightened. Well, after time these rust, bend, and weaken, eventally failing all together. I decided to improve upon the design of these bolts and make my own out of more modern material. Here is a full write up with examples and pictures on how to make these bolts.

 

What you see here is 1" by 3/16" steel stock, 2" Grade 5 1/2" stainless bolts (Grade 5 is weldable - keep reading), oversized galvanized washers, nyloc 1/2" stainless nuts, and compression type rubber grommets which have the same characteristics as bushings to a certian degree (these can be compressed considerably without the integrity failing). To the right is are the old bolts, washers, gaskets and nuts.

 

 

First, I had to take some basic measurements. The originals had a slight bend at the tip to catch the middle of the box at 90 degrees. That angle is roughly 43 degrees (measured off the OEM bolt that was in good shape). The angle begins 1/2 inch from the tip of the duckbill and has a deadrise of roughly 1/4 inch. With that measurement taken I now needed to get the overall length. I took the existing bolt, heated up the duckbill and hammered it flat. The measurement was spot on 2" in overall length. The next step was to cut the flat stock in 2" peices.

 

This picture shows the existing bolt (side profile) for reference - see left:

 

 

I cut all of the peices using my dremel and a 1/8" cutting wheel. 1/16" cutting wheel is too thin and the steel is too hard. You will blow through too many 1/16" wheels and that becomes frustrating. Crank the speed up to about 5200-5500 RPM and apply some cutting fluid. I use CRC cutting fluid. You only need a drop. Once you are done cutting your 2" peices (measure 2x, cut once fella's) you will need to drill the hole for the bolts. From one end measure in 9/16" of an inch. Make a mark. Then measure across to find the middle. This is simple, 1" across = 1/2 is middle. Take a punch and strike the steel to make a small impression/dimple. Grab your drill with a 1/8" diameter steel bit and drill your pilot hole. Then grab your 1/2" steel bit and drill your final.

 

Cutting Fluid:

 

 

Picture of Steel Stock cut 2" and 1/2" hole drilled:

 

 

The next step is to create the 43 degree angle on the newly cut/drilled peice. I've done the homework for you regarding measurements so just follow these instructions. On the end of the 2" peice opposite of the end you drilled the 1/2 hole, measure 1/2" in from the end and scribe your line all the way across the face. Take this peice and put it into your bench vise (drilled end up). You want to eyeball your scribed line and clamp the peice vertically right on this line. Once the vise is tight only 1/2" of material should be clamped. Again, the drilled end is on top. Grab your heavy duty locking vise grips and get them ready to go. Adjust the grips to where you can grab the peice and lock the tool down firmly. This is how you will bend the peice and having this adjusted beforehand saves time and energy when working with a fiery hot peice of metal. Grab your safety glasses and your work gloves (actually put them on...hahahah) and start heating up the metal until it begins to glow red. This takes approximately 2-3 minutes. Now, this part is crucial so pay attention. You cannot lock down the vise grips on just the end of the peice and expect it to bend where it is clamped on the bench vise. You need to get the vise grips all the way down to the top of the bench vise where the peice is clamped. This will allow you to bend the metal right at the clamping point where your line is vs. the middle or top with an improperly placed tool. Attach your grips as instructed and pull towards you bending the peice to the desired angle (43 degrees). I used a small square to measure the angle. The trick is getting the first one correct and then the others are a no brainer. I will tell you why in a few. Once you have bent the metal let is cool and unclamp the peice. Double check your measurement and if needed clamp and bend some more using the same technique described above. Here is the torch I used, the peice in the clamp, and the finished product.

 

 

Once you have one made you can recreate the angle very easily by clamping your prototype in with another peice and bend to the exact angle. This allows you to reproduce these quickly without measuring over again. As you can see in the pictures I grinded the corners to a 45 degree angle (this is the improvement in design).

 

Let me show you some crude diagrams. Here is the original rounded design in the mounting area at 90 degrees. A rounded design does not have very good surface area contact and is prone to rouding out with excessive force over time. It will fail. The arrows show the contact point to be minimal.

 

 

Here is a perfectly square design and you can see that the friction points would only be the tip of the peices. This does not provide good surface area contact and could also round out and fail with excessive force.

 

 

Here is my design with a 45 degree angle grinded on each end. This provides the best surface area contact and unless you are hercules they will never round out. This design should provide you the ability to take the bed off and on as many times as you like without comprimising the integrity and functionality of the bolts.

 

[79D50]

You will need to weld the top of the bolts to the 2" steel peice you fabricated as mentioned earlier in this post. This is why you got the grade 5 bolts. Here are some side by side comparisons of the finished product next to the old bolts.

 

 

 

All of the material to make these bolts came to $45 bucks at Lowes and Tacoma Screw, and my time to make them was less than 2 hours. After welding and before final assembly, prime and paint the bolts, washers, and nuts flat black for added protection. I used Rustoleum. If you have any questions, let me know.

 

There is much more I have to post so stay tuned.

[dat620]

very nice write up, very cool, thx tom

[79D50]

Since we had the bed and cab off the frame we decided to clean it all up real nice with a DA and some wire brushes. Once we were getting 35 years of road grime and gunk of everything, we shot the entire frame with RAPTOR which is a spray in bedliner product. I highly recommend this stuff. The kit cost about $180 bucks and contains the spray gun plus 4 bottles of spray. We sprayed the entire frame top and bottom, the inside of the bed (after we dollied out all the dents and dings, the underside of the bed, the floor of the cab, the inside roof of the cab, the inner fenders, the inside of the fenders themselves, the inside of the bottom of the doors where the water vents/drains go, the fuel tank (the tank took forever to clean and DA - it was really caked on) and the back of the cab. Of course we removed every speck of rust and dirt before spraying. The pictures are before and after. the pics I had of the cleaned /DA'd surfaces were lost when my BB puked...Shit happens!! This stuff covers awesome and we used about 3.5 almost 4 full kits. This not only strenghthens the integrity of the metal from flex and vibration, but it acts as a sound deadner and will prevent rust from ever coming back - period. Here are some pics:

 

 

More to come.