'74 and then some

[JNHEscher]

18mm bolts in and snug. New brake hoses on except for one problem... the front hose are male to female and are supposed to female to female. Air bags got delayed but will show up tomorrow. New speedo and throttle cables on and working. I'll investigate the coolant leak this weekend. There's a very small leak at the heater valve or attached hose. Really wish I could post the pics from my phone but none of the reply options show up.

[JNHEscher]

Quick shot from last night.  Might be able to tack in the front bags and run the rest of the air lines tonight.

[JNHEscher]

Kenny and I torched out the upper control arm bump stop platforms and cleaned up the edges. Looks like I'll be notching into the frame to fit some bags tomorrow. New calipers with brackets, 720 brake hoses, clutch slave and 620 tie rods on the way. Kinda wish I looked for a different caliper option because that bracket sure takes up space where the air bag needs to be.

[JNHEscher]

Sliced the control arms to change the ball joints angles a bit.  At full drop, the ball joints would bind and esentially be the bump stop.  The rod for the factory jack out of the 720 was the perfect diameter to clean up and press and weld into the rolled lip of the lower arms as a sleeve.  The end result was smooth ball joint operation and an even lower drop.

[JNHEscher]

Beginning the frame notching this eve. I never get enough time in a day to do much on this, but I did put in my notice at work. Dec 6th is my last day, and then Kenny and I go full time carbon fiber.

 

I need to have this truck road ready so I can get around town. I had sold all my running vehicles because I drive a company work truck and never get to drive my own. Never had time to make any repairs so I didn't bother keeping anything else to drive.

 

A friend of mine posted a super clean '79 that his dad bought a few weeks ago in the same area I bought mine. I might bug him about making a mold from his hood since its real straight.

[BlackBird620]

Once you get the carbon fiber hoods in production is love one for my 79

[JNHEscher]

Once you get the carbon fiber hoods in production is love one for my 79

Definitely. I'll be starting a different thread with loads of production and final product pics. I'll be looking for lots of input as to how everyone wants parts fitted and styles.

[JNHEscher]

Went to the junk yard down the road yesterday to pick apart the brakes on an '86 hardbody 2wd. Compared the caliper mounting patterns to the 720 and found that the hole spacing has about a half inch difference. The d21 spindle will swap right over to the 720 ball joints and the caliper gives lots more room for the air bag, bit I think I'll just deal with the 720 setup as the d21 uses vented rotors which will be much heavier. Kind of a trade-off, though, since the 720 calipers have that heavy bracket surrounding the caliper. Ah well. All the new 720 parts are here, so 720 it is. To the shop I go.

[GRpufnstuf]

But you can still get d21 drop spindles. That would get you started a couple inches lower and potentially leave more space for air bags?

[JNHEscher]

But you can still get d21 drop spindles. That would get you started a couple inches lower and potentially leave more space for air bags?

Possibly, but most everything I've put on has been free, which I like since this is all temporary. I have all bump stops out, so when its dropped, it goes low enough for the tires to stuff within a quarter inch of the wells, and the trans cross member rides the about the same distance from the ground. I'd call it low lol.

Had I researched Nissan interchangeability prior to all this, I would've swapped all the d21 stuff over. I never really cared for the hardbody style, so I paid little attention to them. Just glad I have the tools to make either setup work.

[JNHEscher]

Got the driver's side notched and plated. Lower bag plate is tacked in. I bent the shock tower down to straighten up the camber angle a bit. For whatever reason, this truck had rather negative camber when I bought, and even more so with the 720 arms on. No shims on the upper arm. Just means I can corner even harder :D

[cruznude]

Beginning the frame notching this eve. I never get enough time in a day to do much on this, but I did put in my notice at work. Dec 6th is my last day, and then Kenny and I go full time carbon fiber.

 

I need to have this truck road ready so I can get around town. I had sold all my running vehicles because I drive a company work truck and never get to drive my own. Never had time to make any repairs so I didn't bother keeping anything else to drive.

 

A friend of mine posted a super clean '79 that his dad bought a few weeks ago in the same area I bought mine. I might bug him about making a mold from his hood since its real straight.

 

 

Hey man, when that carbon fiber hood is complete let me know. I'll take one off your hands QUICK!!!!!

[JNHEscher]

Four more weeks of working for the man, and then I work for my self. Totally carbon fibering everything!

[Eagle_Adam]

coming along nicely man!

[JNHEscher]

coming along nicely man!

Thanks!  Not as quick as I would like, but moving along when I can.  So much more to happen in a few weeks.

[JNHEscher]

A little torch work from Saturday night.  Looks gnarly.

[JNHEscher]

Ended with this last night.  Not too shabby for such a tight fit and slapping it together.

[JNHEscher]

Got called to work most of today, but I made it home and began notching the passenger side. All notched and ran out of 1/8" plate to finish the last little patch. Welded together two pieces of the scrap, which made just the right size for the last patch. Had to cut all this with a cutoff wheel as I ran out of oxygen for my torch (bottle leaked overnight). Needed two little more pieces of plate to restructure the shock tower, but Lowe's changed their closing hour from 10 to 9. To be continued in the morning :/

[JNHEscher]

Bagged!

[JNHEscher]

[JNHEscher]

Front wheel bearings are all done. Noticed a groove worn in both spindles where the inner bearing backs up against the knuckle. It appeared that whomever last did the bearing job on the 720, must've had fumble hands and dropped greasy bearings in the driveway. The grease had lots of small crushed gravel-like rocks in it which caused the bearings to lock and spin on the spindle instead if on their tapered rollers. Took a lot of cleaning to get the hubs clear of all that debris.

New calipers are on. Blew out all the brake lines with brake cleaner. Lotta crud. Bled and bled the lines, but the brakes don't pump up at all. All the air looks to be out. I should be able to fire it up and roll it out of the shop tomorrow to see if the brakes work at all.

[JNHEscher]

Delicious goo.

[JNHEscher]

The new stuff.  Used 720 lines.  Had to cut the male threads down a few and use copper washers to work.  I took out the hard line since the bracket poked into the air bag.

[JNHEscher]

Also ordered another tie rod since Rock Auto sent me two lefts.  New center link and drive shaft support bearing, too. I'd like to find out if the heat works tomorrow since it's 15 degrees and windy out now.

[JNHEscher]

Got a chance to locate the coolant leak and clean out the heater core.  There was a cake of chipped leaves and twigs on top of the core.  Flushed it out while I had it out.  The leak was at the back of the heater valve.  Took it apart and got o-rings but after hitting up every hardware and parts store, I couldn't come up with a similar piece to replaced the rubber stopper which is deteriorated.  eBay turned out to be the only place to get a new valve.  Ordered a new one along with windshield and back glass rubber.

I've yet to fingure out whats up with the brakes.  They worked when I first bought the truck, but not very well due to the lack of fluid in the res.  Seems to be lots of crud in the master cylinder that is keeping fluid from pumping to the lines.