My next 720 resto

[Lockleaf]

I love the ST wheels. I have one in my truck, I have another to use with an aftermarket adaptor to put in my S13 and now I want a third one for the 510 wagon I just picked up. Your resto looks great, way nicer than either of the two I have.

[720inOlyWa]

Looking good, very inspiring! Makes me feel lazy on my 720...

A 1980 4x4 long bed?!? I’d be psyched to have long bed!

[720inOlyWa]

Just nit picking my way along, mostly fixin’ and cleanin’ what was already messed up. One of the things that I like bet about these 720s is that they really respond to a bit of restorative therapy. I have way more elbow grease than dollars into either one. I pretty much have everything I need to get it running now, and I am in at just under a grand, including buying the truck!

[84720FourWheel]

This thread makes me want to clean.

 

 

Found a brown carpet on this site. I got some original decal stripes from there. I may or may not try to put them on.

http://www.oem-surplus.com/nwp/720-5.htm

[Brohemius]

Edit wrong thread.

[720inOlyWa]

This thread makes me want to clean.

 

 

Found a brown carpet on this site. I got some original decal stripes from there. I may or may not try to put them on.

http://www.oem-surplus.com/nwp/720-5.htm

 

I was sort of trying to avoid the golden carpet. Man, it really gets grody in our wet climate and shows everything too. I need to keep an eye on this site though, so thanks for the reminder visit. I got lucky once, I’ll get  lucky again...

[DrvnDrvr]

This thread makes me want to clean.

 

 

Found a brown carpet on this site. I got some original decal stripes from there. I may or may not try to put them on.

http://www.oem-surplus.com/nwp/720-5.htm

I got a new left cv axle from that site for $75 today. WOW. If you don't use the decal send me a pic I'm probably interested in buying from you.

 

Al

[720inOlyWa]

Today is  big day, heading back under the hood to put the front of the engine back together. Enough of the cleaning and detailing, time to get back to the drive train stuff, bolting things together. I should have my radiator back from the dip tank today, and ready for some black paint. New hoses and belts, all around!

[720inOlyWa]

Flip flopping from cosmetics to mechanics, back to cosmetics. My dash cap came today and so it required an immediate trial fitting.

 

 

 

I have to say, I am impressed with both the concept and the product.  You get a whole lot of tidying up for 69 bucks. Oh sure, it isn’t a color match, but I can change that with a little rattle can, if I want to. (I probably will, I don’t know.) I wont make my potentially regrettable color decision, whatever that may be, until I get things back together under the hood. I just thought you might like to see what a 720 dash cap looks like, dry mounted.

[720inOlyWa]

This s why I haven’t worked on my trucks in a week or so. I was getting ready for the first race of the season.

 

 

I race a 1/8th scale R/C model of the 1982 Atlas Van Lines unlimited hydroplane. Last weekend was our Atomic Cup, in Kennewick, Washington.

 

 

1.) about 60 mph. 2.) 2-stroke 11cc marine race engines, on a tuned pipe, running 60% nitro fuel. 3.) Not really expensive at all, if you Ratsun it and build the fucker yourself. 4.) HUGE wood, yes. Mondo.

 

 

Now back to my trucks for a couple of weeks. I gotta get this 4x4 running as good as my Atlas!

[Charlie69]

That looks like fun.  Do you have any videos?

[720inOlyWa]

Oh, huge fun. Every heat is like a gunfight. With the nitro smoke hanging in the air, it smells like it too!

 

Here’s one from last weekend where I had the fastest draw...

 

https://www.facebook.com/hydroracing?fref=photo#_=_

 

To watch, scroll down a little until you get to ‘video from the RC Atomic Cup...”

[Charlie69]

Thank you that is great fun.  Fast little boats.  Looks like you have great control over yours

[Rhino13]

I can only imagine what it'd be like to drive one of those little boats...

*hit a buoy "shit" hit the land "shit" run into every single other boat, "shit"

 

hahaha

[720inOlyWa]

Wow, Rhino- you pretty much nailed it!

It takes a long time to work up to race leading speeds, but they are a huge blast to drive and race. This is the fifth and last season for this hull. 

[720inOlyWa]

While slowly putting the engine back together, I took a break to work in some common repairs on the window frames. I have seen this often n our 720 trucks- the black paint bakes off the frame, leaving the porous primer, which allows surface rust to begin. Untreated, it pits and eventually turns the frame to a consistency resembling the inside of a Butterfinger bar. Fortunately, we are only at stage one here: some surface rust with hints ‘o pits coming.

 

 

So I sanded, treated with Por15 Metal Prep, carefully taped it off, and shot it with three coats of Rustoleum 2x1 satin black. Here is one side, ready for paint.

 

 

And here it is, just after pulling the tape.

 

 

Much better than before, I’d say. 

 

[Charlie69]

Nice I need to do this to my power doors also.

[Brohemius]

Lookin good! I also need to do this to my doors, they look just like yours did.

[720inOlyWa]

While I am at it with the black paint, I laid a few thin coats on the rehabbed radiator. It passed muster during the pressure test, but for some reason (read PO abuse) the solder joints on the mounting bracket on the left side were broken. They torched right back in place, however. Then it was pressure washed and dipped, painted black this morning.

 

 

Since I am finishing up with the cooling system rehab, I cleaned the overflow bottle and rubbed out the paint beneath it.

 

 

A rubbed out area reminds me that yes, I did rehab this component. The rub out, so to speak, is my reward for full functionality restored. That just doesn’t sound right, somehow...

[720inOlyWa]

Today is about cleaning up vacuum lines to nowhere, and replacing the dash cluster. Slowly, the finishing touches are coming togeher under the hood. While this process plods on, I take breaks form those chores to higrade my three dash clusters into one really good one.

 

 

Once the radiator hoses arrive from RockAuto, I should have most of the mysteries under the hood sorted out. I still need to replace vacuum lines, add the choke wire, and about 20 other small jobs, but it is finally starting to look like it should under the hood- instead of an oil and dirt caked nightmare, like I found it.

 

[84720FourWheel]

Are you going to paint that dash cap to match?

[720inOlyWa]

I planned to paint it, yes. If I can find a decent match via rattle can, I am bound to shoot it. I just need to finish (start and finish) the rest of the interior clean up first, I figure. Carpet, functional dash elements, a new rear view mirror, etc.. It is nice to get the chance to make some real progress lately.

 

The kick pan was fairly corroded on the upper surface, which is not a great sign. Somewhere along the line, these hillbillies (read PO) spilled a soda over the dash cluster area, so I got a first hand look at how Nissan planned to address this eventuality. I was impressed. I accidentally discovered that it was Dr. Pepper. You don’t want to know the details.

 

I had to use the existing cluster and graft the best gauge set into it so that I could retain the same plugs, which is why the cleanup was necessary. (The speedo and temp gauge harness was slightly different so I could not just swap out clusters.)  Amazingly, no gauges were badly affected, but it took hours to carefully swab out all of the residue. I still have an hour’s worth of work to do to clean all of the bulb contacts correctly.

 

It should go back in tomorrow, before the UPS guy gets here with my radiator hose set.

[720inOlyWa]

Here is the organ transplant (clock, temp gauge, which had been altered by the Dr. Pepper.) in progress. It took an entire episode of Shameless to clean it up and swap out the parts. I hit the bulb connections with 3200 grit micromesh, wetted with DeOxit. I also replaced dead bulbs, which concerns me on a couple of levels.

 

 

The finished package, ready to reinstall in the morning.

 

[Rhino13]

Looks great! I'm getting my cluster with the tach and clock soon, hopefully it'll at least look half this good haha.

Also, awesome counter tops.

[denmarkboy]

Looks great! I'm getting my cluster with the tach and clock soon

 

hopefully before canby !  :sweat:  

 

lets make it happen this week 

 

 

Here is the organ transplant (clock, temp gauge, which had been altered by the Dr. Pepper.) in progress. It took an entire episode of shameless to clean it up and swap out the parts. I hit the bulb connections with 3200 grit micromesh, wetted with DeOxit. I also replaced dead bulbs, which concerns me on a couple of levels.

 

 

looking good , you bring this sweet truck to canby  ?