Newish 720 owner here

[Smyrna720]

Bear with me, this is cut and paste from another forum, just to save me the time, since I'm lazy. This should be pretty quick and painful.

 

http://forums.nicoclub.com/my-introduction-and-should-i-buy-this-720-thread-t548941.html#wrap

 

http://forums.nicoclub.com/my-i-bought-this-720-and-its-a-pos-so-let-s-fix-it-thread-t550047.html

 

What's up guys. Well, at the urging of a few friends, I am ready to pull the trigger on an 85 720. As you can tell from my screen name, I live in Smyrna TN, Home of the Hardbody, lol. Anyways, I've been spinning wrenches professionally since I was 14, sooo, that's about 15 years now. I'm in the army, I work for the TBI, big into guns, Les Paul guitars, Impala SS/Caprices, all late model GM performance and most anything Chevy. This will be my first "Import" vehicle, but I know they all have wheels that turn, and all do the same basic thing. Suck, squeeze, bang, blow.

 

So, on to the pictures. I have a friend that wants to unload this truck for a righteous price. My question is, is it worth it? Z24, 5 speed, manual steering, A/C, Reg cab, 186K miles, good tires, american bed, mostly stuff you can see in the pictures. I'm bringing it home tomorow for a good once over to check suspension, steering, all electrical, see if it needs a tune up, all that stuff. Look at the pics and at the end, I'll tell you how much he wants for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sooo.... Think it's worth $600 bucks?

 

Next:

 

Wellll, I've pretty much made up my mind to get it. I was going to drive it home last night, but my buddy's roommate mistakenly grabbed the keys.. and he may not be home until next tuesday. Boo. Well, I did look it over good, and came up with a new parts list, and a what it needs fixed list. To the good:

 

Less miles than I thought, "only" 184K

 

 

New cap, rotor, wires, plugs, air filter and carbretarder. Well, reman carb anyways.

 

 

 

 

Amazingly solid. Only rust on the truck is as follows.

 

 

 

 

See all that factory undercoating? Woot woot!

 

Not pictured: New tires, Solid shocks, new battery, new battery power cable.

 

Bad:

 

Rearview mirror broke the fuck off. Where it is, I have no idea.

 

Fuel filler door won't stay shut.

 

 

Something is up with the tailgate. I don't know why it's apart.

 

 

No exhaust, BUT it does come with a Magnaflow cat to so I can pass emissions. And I think the valvecover is leaking.

 

 

Unknown heater issue. It might be a heater core, or it might be a stuck open fresh air door/missing ductwork. I have to dig into it and find out. I also have to do a little searching on what would cause this. Also, blower doesn't work, but it's got a new motor, so all I have to do is trouble shoot it. That's the easy part. And the cheap part. AC don't work, but it is complete and unmolested, so I can probably just evacuate it and recharge with 134a.

 

 

 

Needs dashpad and seatcover.

 

 

The alleged:

 

Allegedly it had ball joints and tie rod ends replaced within the last year and a half. Allegedly. When I get a jack under it we'll see...

 

 

 

 

All in all, I know this is a VERY solid truck. As soon as I can get the owner to take my money and deliver my product, it will be parked in my driveway. Ideally, I would like to be driving it by the middle of January. That'll give me a couple weeks to fix the small things to make it DD capable.

 

FWIW, I'll be the 3rd owner. I think that about covers it.

 

Watch out for the lowering thread to come... as soon as I fix the other crap.

[Smyrna720]

Well, it's home now!First thing it needs fixed is the heater core. Leaks like a b****. While the dash is apart I'll reinstall the the duct work that the last idiots that put a blower motor in it left out. Also, I'll troubleshoot the blower motor circuit.

 

Next, the carb needs adjusted, some vacuum lines replaced and something in the steering is sloppy. I'm guessing the rag joint. Needs an emergency brake cable too. And a driver side door hinge. And a rearview mirror. Then exhaust, then wheels/tire/lowering. I mean, it's a $600 truck, I wasn't expecting perfection.

 

Now,

 

My "I bought this 720 and its a POS, so let's fix it" thread

Lolz, just kidding. Actually I really like it. Well, it does have some issues, so lets get to it.

 

Tailgate no open. Screws and access plate missing.

Solution: Clean out bed, find plate, no screws. Dig and find some license plate screws. Remove 2 screws to lower linkage down. Bend up tab where handle contacts linkage. Reassemble. Tailgate still rattles on the catch though, so we take some rubber tape strip stuff and wrap around catch on bed until rattle disappears. Rinse wash repeat.

 

Second order of business. Blower motor won't blow. Long story short, I traced the wiring schematic with colored pencil, looked, looked and looked and could not find why the blower motor wasn't getting power. Well I finally found it. Needless to say, when you jiggle the wiring and the fan comes on, you have to take the entire dash out to fix it correctly. FML.

 

 

 

 

 

Getting fixed!

 

 

Yes, those are soldered on. Butane soldering iron FTW!

 

But look what I found when I tore the dash apart!

 

 

 

The truck didn't come with a factory radio or cigarette lighter so these items were "added". This is the wiring mess they did. Hell, the lighter wasn't even in the lighter hole, it was stuffed in the ash tray because the retard couldn't get the jam nut thing off the back of the lighter. One of these were run straight to the battery, two others were jammed in the fuse box. Bare wires jammed straight in. Grounds? Try bare wire, wrapped through a hole, twisted together, with a little duct tape for added security. Talk about rigged :wtf2: I have since liberated the radio and lighter wiring from the stock harness that was taped up, and will go from there when I put the dash back in. I've already installed the cigarette lighter and wiring in the dash. I'll probably add a tach too as I've located that wiring on the cluster also.

 

 

Next. The heater core leaks

 

 

 

Yes it does.

 

Split at the plastic seams. Typical. Core from Advance will be picked up directly. Like in about 20 minutes. Rusty items are soaking in vinegar and derusting in an ammo can as we speak. After, it will be painted silver and reinstalled.

 

Two more pics for the road.

 

 

 

Next up: Check front suspension and install exhaust. Well, most of the exhaust anyways. Steering box is loose inside. I will probably be messing with the adjustment. Yes I know what I'm doing. Next weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Smyrna720]

Ahhh, had a good weekend and made some good progress. The biggest thing is I got the heater box all cleaned up inside and the HVAC system all back together. It was a nasty bitch though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hooray! Also, I went through the entire multifunction switch and cleaned to to look brand new. All the contacts had corrosion and nastyness on them. When I turned on the left blinker, if I wasn't careful, I would turn on... 3 of the headlights. WTF. No pics of inside, but believe me, it was gross.

 

 

Look, made just down the road in Shelbyville TN.

 

 

Now, the dash is still out because I'm still planning on adding a tach in the instrument cluster, but there is something I just don't like about the dash... I'm not sure what it is....

 

 

 

Oh I know, it's that garbage ass foam pad crap that's all cracked to hell. F that thing, I got something for that ass.

 

 

 

 

Now, don't get me wrong, It's by no means finished. The plan is to sand all the rest of the foam crap off so I can seal it, hit it with some glaze, prime it and paint it back like a stock blue color. Then exhaust work, then it's junkyarding for some carpet and seats. And I reckon I ought to change the earl sometime soon here.

[Smyrna720]

Well.... I was doing a little messing around last night. Found out the lower ball joint on the driver side is wasted. Upper looks tight. I need to check out the other side, but I'm sure it's the same story.

 

The whole reason I was messing was for deez. Deez what?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deez, uh, wheels. Not quite as cool as nuts, but still.

 

Now, how did I get the fronts to fit? With a die grinder and an angle grinder.

 

 

This weekend: Finish interior and exhaust. Drive the somebish. I'll put the wheels on when I can find some cheap tires.

[Smyrna720]

Made a little progress this weekend, though not as much as I would like. Did a little digging and made a shopping list.

 

 

I guess one of the littler dumber things I did was take about an inch out of the shifter and paint it silver. Also fixed the shifter boot that was not attached to the grommet in the floorboard.

 

 

 

 

Little shorter throws, and it puts it in more of a comfortable position.

 

Also, did some work on the plastics. Repainted the glovebox door and got it put back together.

 

 

Started on the column surround. The top part is all filled, primed, painted and done. The sanding on the lower half is almost done. It should be painted by the end of the week.

 

 

 

I just got the filler thrown on the dash, but no sanding done.

 

 

 

If you look real close and compare the new pics to the last ones I posted, you can see I hacked off the ugly mounting tab for the gauge trim piece. I also cut off the matching piece off the trim. Instead of mounting screws up there, I drilled a couple holes in the trim, and used trim screws to screw it directly to the cluster. I'll throw up some pics of that tomorrow. Now, there will be a gap between, well, most of everything that goes in the dash because of the missing foam. I plan to use single side adhesive foam tape to fill the gaps and make it look and seal correctly. More on that when I'm closer to finishing.

 

Last thing I did was take off the front bumper. I like it better like that. I will be painting the grille silver, the lower part of the valiance flat black, along with the hood and top of the fenders. I'll probably put the park lights back in the valiance somehow. On the flat black hood, I'm going to paint a satin white gumball, and in the middle of that will be a Nissan "Z" like is on the valve cover in silver. That however, is a little farther back on the list.

 

 

Found out too that it needs a carrier bearing something fierce. The rubber is torn out all the way around. I have no idea how it drove as well as it did. I guess that's all until tomorrow.

[Smyrna720]

On with the show!

 

Ok, I said I'd show you some pics on how I mounted the guage surround so here they are.

 

 

 

Shitty pics I know, but you should get what I'm talking about. Also, my tach came in the mail yesterday.

 

 

And it fits, more or less. I had to bust out the die grinder to make room, but yeah. There's something I don't like about it though...

 

 

That's a little better. I still need to paint my old needles orange, but we're almost there. I did a little sanding on the dash last night too.

 

 

Again, getting there. I need to fill a couple spots that still had gouges, prep, prime and paint. I can't wait until this bastard is done, so I can fix the things that the truck actually needs. I just have a really hard time putting something back together if it's not how I wanted. I'm lazy and I don't want to have to do it again.

[Smyrna720]

Well, the good news is the truck is drivable now. The bad news is why I had to do it all this weekend. Something in the transmission broke in my Intrepid, so I had to get this done. Either way, pics!

 

We'll start with interior, since that's where we left off last time. I got the dash and the lower column surround primed here.

 

 

Getting color.

 

 

 

Reassembly.

 

 

 

Needles painted up.

 

 

Ta-da! For somereason I didn't snap a picture with the column together and the wheel om. Don't know why, Ill throw one up later today.

 

 

Got behind the grille and the vailiance area cleaned up and shot with some satin black.

 

 

Grille, after a good washing.

 

 

Grille painted.

 

 

Stainless shined trim up and cleaned.

 

 

And installed

 

 

Right before I drove it out

 

 

Hell yeah. Still got a bit more to do. Change the oil, wheels and tires, brake cable, carrier bearing, headlights, and some other minor stuff. All in all, I think it turned out pretty well.

[Smyrna720]

Now that we're up to date, I figured I'd throw this out there. Thanks to aarivers, I'll be getting a smoking deal on some lower ball joints that I desperately need. Also, I'll be making a trip to pull-a-part for some goodies like a mirror, carrier bearing if they got a good one, some interior parts, carpet, console, and a set of seats. I'm going with a lower profile seat, because I like to sit lower in the truck, rather than higher, like with the rodeo seats. Also, it will probably get lowered this weekend. I got 3 inch blocks, but depending, I may end up taking out a leaf. Just depends. Hopefully I can get some tires for the Silverado wheels too so I can get them on there. Should have a busy weekend so wish me luck!

[Draker]

Welcome! This was a good read!

 

What seats you going with?

[Smyrna720]

Welcome! This was a good read!

 

What seats you going with?

 

Not sure yet. I have some options. There are a metric shit ton of Neons at the yard, and a couple 720's, so that's a start. I'll probably just start grabbing seats from all kinds of cars and throwing them in the truck to see how they fit, and how I sit in the truck with them.

[aarivers]

Nice lot of work you've done so far! It's always amazing what PO's can live with in their vehicles. I just don't understand how some people can leave stuff alone when it's clearly not working or worn out. Can't wait to see the truck up close.

[wayno]

Neon seats almost bolt in, but you sit a little higher than the stock seat.

Welcome to Ratsun, a new member with photos, and more photos, your going to fit right in here.:D

[720RATSUN]

Damn man thats a really nice truck. Looks exactly like mine does. If you havent got your carpet yet you need to check out stockinteriors.com. I had some ordered and it just come in today an it looks way better than i'd expected. keep up the good work.

[wayno]

I just read the whole thread, for a while I was wondering in what reality you lived, in less than 5 minutes ratsun time you lived whole days, and got a days worth of work done, 2 minutes later you were talking like a week went by, I was thinking this guy is going to die of old age before the end of the day.:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Nice job!

They make a console, if you can find one with gauges, make sure you grab the oil sender, also get the whole gauge wiring harness for the gauges.

[hitch]

If that front bumper is as clean as it looks, I'd love to have it. If you go with carpet, and the OE mat is not all torn up in the drivers footwell, save it for me. I could pick them up nearly anytime over the next couple of weeks. Really nice truck and post!

[Smyrna720]

Thanks guys, for the replies and the advice.

 

Neon seats almost bolt in, but you sit a little higher than the stock seat.

Welcome to Ratsun, a new member with photos, and more photos, your going to fit right in here.:D

 

That's good to know. I knew that they almost bolted in, but I really wanted to sit about where I do now. I dunno. We'll see. I'm only 5'11" so I shouldn't be bashing my head off the headliner or anything.

 

Damn man thats a really nice truck. Looks exactly like mine does. If you havent got your carpet yet you need to check out stockinteriors.com. I had some ordered and it just come in today an it looks way better than i'd expected. keep up the good work.

 

Thanks man. Have you installed it yet to see how it fits? I've bought cheaper carpet/rubber mats twice before, and sent them back both times. This looks like some nice stuff.

 

I just read the whole thread, for a while I was wondering in what reality you lived, in less than 5 minutes ratsun time you lived whole days, and got a days worth of work done, 2 minutes later you were talking like a week went by, I was thinking this guy is going to die of old age before the end of the day.:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Nice job!

They make a console, if you can find one with gauges, make sure you grab the oil sender, also get the whole gauge wiring harness for the gauges.

 

Lol yeah, I cut and pasted that from the nico club forum I posted on originally. The 720 forum is pretty dead over there, so I figured I'd give it a go here.

 

If that front bumper is as clean as it looks, I'd love to have it. If you go with carpet, and the OE mat is not all torn up in the drivers footwell, save it for me. I could pick them up nearly anytime over the next couple of weeks. Really nice truck and post!

 

The front bumper isn't that nice I don't think. It's not all that shiny and is tweaked a little on the passenger side, which is weird since the valance was tweaked on the driver side.. Amazingly, you really can't see it in the pictures, but I'll take some pics tonight and show you. I'm going to hold onto it for a minute though. The jury is still out on if I like the truck sans bumper, and I may end up putting it back on. Same with the back bumper. It's coming off this weekend, but I'm for sure keeping it in case I need to haul a little trailer or something.

 

The rubber mat however, is totally fucked. That's why I was going with something different. It's got a big ass hole right where your clutch foot rests, and it gets caught on my boot heel. Pain in my ass and annoying. When I'm at the yard I'm going to check out and see if there's any other vehicle's carpet that would be even close. That's the thing about the junkyard. I can pull anything out of anything and put it something else just to see if it would work. All it costs me is time.

[Smyrna720]

Moar pictures.

 

Bad pic, but the corner of the headliner is a little fubar'd. I also need a cover for the dome light. And scrape the tape shit off the window.

 

 

Yeah, the floor mat sucks floppy donkey dick.

 

 

Now, for the weird shit. For some strange reason, there are plates where the frame kicks up around the axle. They're flame cut, 1/4" steel. Same on both sides. WTF? Also, notice the bump stops are removed. I'd say somebody was towing with it.

 

Now weird patch panels in the cab. I know the cab wasn't so rusty that somebody patched it. I think somebody cut a hole in it to run something in, then patched it when they were done. I have no idea what or why, but that's my thought. Anybody else got any good ideas on what the hell that might be for?

 

Driver side

 

 

 

 

Passenger side

 

 

 

 

 

[720RATSUN]

Thanks guys, for the replies and the advice.

 

 

 

Thanks man. Have you installed it yet to see how it fits? I've bought cheaper carpet/rubber mats twice before, and sent them back both times. This looks like some nice stuff.

 

Na man i aint got around to it yet. still waitin on my weather strippin to get in. an i'll be damned if im gettin brand new carpet soaked lol. but i'll get some pics posted asap. and i'll post one of just the carpet itself so you can see if you like it

[hitch]

I've got the exact same hole in my blue mat under the pedals. :(. I still may want the front bumper if you ever decide to part with it.

[720RATSUN]

How did you remove the needles on the instrument cluster to paint them??

and what kinda paint you use?

[Smyrna720]

How did you remove the needles on the instrument cluster to paint them??

and what kinda paint you use?

 

Ahhh, good question. I didn't remove them. I went to walgreens and bought some neon orange fingernail polish. Not the cheap 99 cent Crap, but the good $5 a bottle stuff. I wanted to march the tach perfectly. Neon, that's the key. Then, I laid down some blue painter's tape, wiped down the needles down with acetone and painted them. I also took a staple and wedged it underneath the speedo to keep it off the peg at the bottom. The tape served two purposes. Of course, to keep from getting paint on the backface of the gauges, but it also lifted the dirt, lint and dust I couldn't wipe off, making them look really good. Now, it did take like 4 coats or so until I was happy, but YMMV. Last, if you look close, I added a "red line" to the top of the temp gauge and also to the bottom of the fuel gauge. That was 1 thin coat since I needed that to be transparent. I'm really happy how it turned out.

[Smyrna720]

You guys ready for a couple more pictures?

 

Before we get to that, I ended up getting a bunch of stuff done this weekend. Some things that I've really been needing to do but putting off, like the E-brake cable on the driver's side I fixed. The dash light that was burned out on the right side of the cluster. The cigarette lighter that didn't work and wouldn't charge my phone. The carrier bearing that was torn to shreds. Oh, and that hardbody rearview mirror to replace my broken POS. All better now. No pictures, but that's pretty mundane shit right there. Besides, I'm sure you know what an e-brake cable looks like, and you've already seen my dash in a million pieces. Oh, and I changed the oil too.

 

Now, there were a couple things I did that were worthy of taking pictures of. The 3" drop...

 

 

.

 

 

 

And the bucket seats...

 

 

Sorry no better picture of the seats, with a phone camera with no zoom, it's really hard to get a decent picture.

 

Now, the drop was easy as it gets. 3" block kit in the back from O'Reilly's, loosen the torsion bars in the front. I didn't know how far to go, so I just made the bolts finger tight with no load on the suspension. I just wanted to see where I was at, but it ended up being perfect. I just tightened the lock nuts, and finished it up. I know it's toed out a little, but I'll get it aligned here in the next couple weeks. Also on the topic, since I had to replace the carrier bearing anyways, (just got a whole drive shaft from Pull-A-Part) I went ahead and took some 1" bar stock and spaced the bearing up 1". If I had to do it again, I think 1.5 would have been better, but it'll do for now. If I end up dropping it another inch, I'll be spacing the bearing up another inch.

 

Now the seats... The seats are out of a 1989 Mitsubishi Montero. I chose these because they most closely matched the color of my interior.

 

 

I then liberated the seat tracks from a 1993 Rodeo, which I thought would be a direct fit. Oh no, rest assured they weren't. Then, I jacked another set of bench seat tracks from the last 720 in the yard. More on that later. First things first, mounting the tracks to the seat. Well, I needed to move a bolt hole about an inch since the seat's mounting holes were about an inch closer together than the Rodeo's tracks. Next, I took a piece of 2" flat plate and moved the outside most track inboard, because the Montero seats have 16" on center mounting, and the 720 is 15".

 

 

 

You can almost see the plate all the way to the left here.

 

Wait, that's not all! The seat tracks are an inch too short. They wouldn't reach to the rear mounting bolts. I then took the 720 bench seat brackets (I had 4 at this point), cut the feet off, and bolted them back on to the rodeo seat tracks after cutting THOSE feet off.

 

 

Now they finally bolted in. Almost. Until I realized that while unbolting the bench seat, I had pulled the threads out of the factory nuts because the threads were all seized up. This is when I drilled the holes out to 8mm and retapped to 8x1.25, since I had a mess of those bolts because that's what the Rodeo used for seat bolts. Now we're bolted up.

 

Impressions: Instead of moving the outside track inboard, I should have moved the inside track outboard. I sit a little off center and a little too close to the door. I'll fool with it later. Also, because the seat is thicker, my legs are closer to the wheel, and because I can't go as far back, a little too close to the pedals, BUT, if you get in a little recline action, it actually feels kinda sporty. Add to the fact that you sit so close to the door, it just begs for the window down and elbow out. And the lumbar support in these things are BANGIN! Much gooder than the old slip'n'slide bench-o-roni noodle.

 

I also added some new blinkers on the front. Pretty simple. Took them out of the bumper that is no longer there. I wouldn't have put them on, but the corner lights don't blink, and the rear lights wouldn't trip the flasher without more current flow from the front lights. Blah. When I get some, I'll probably niteshades the lenses.

 

 

Edited February 21, 2012 by Smyrna720

[Smyrna720]

Before and after shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Smyrna720]

And the saga continues! I got an email Friday from Pull-A-Part saying that they had gotten an 84 720 in, so Saturday morning, I went to check it out. It was a fairly decent looking KC, so I RAPED IT! Here's what I got.

 

Tons of stuff. Lets start with a minty fresh black dash. Tilt column with intermittent wipers switch. Half console thing with gauges. Shifter. CARPET! Cardboard kick panels. Interior door handles. Door lock pulls. New plug wires and brand new NGK laser plugs. Rotors with new studs. Rear roll pan. Bucket seat seatbelts. Haynes manual. Not pictured: new wire brush and some electrical connections

 

Total expenditure: $130 out the door.

 

Hells yeah.

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I'm normally not inclined to reuse wear items like plugs and wires, but there were boxes in the back of the truck indicating that they were recently replaced, like 3 months ago according to the receipt.

 

For the rotors, you might notice different wheel studs. I used late model GM studs that had a .500" knurl and a speed starter thingy. They came out of a 99 Cadillac Fleetwood, a 1995 Camaro and a 2000 Chevy Venture minivan. I needed to make a stud change so I could get the right lug nuts to run my Chevy wheels. They are now 12x1.5 thread. Also on the hubs, I ground the centers down so I can run the Chevy wheels. Bearings are packed and ready for wheel seals.

 

My truck for whatever reason, didn't come with a roll pan so some idiot could install this gay looking rear bumper so I'm gonna install this bitchin lookin rear roll pan. I'll also try and rig up my receiver hitch that's been sitting under my bench for the last 3 years.

 

Pictures I should have posted earlier.

 

How I raised my carrier bearing:

 

 

Yeah, the rubber looks a little shitty, but it's one of those junkyard specials. Look what came off of it!

 

 

Now, I have an extra DS I can replace the carrier bearing on at my leisure.

[nissanprerunnerdavid]

Did you sand the dash and primer it before you painted it??