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Shitty fuckin' day for my 521


Angela

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E-brakes don't hold that well backwards unless you pull really hard, my 521 work truck started rolling backwards on a steep driveway the other day while it was idling, I jumped in it and stopped it before it and the trailer jack knifed, it would have stopped when it jack knifed but it could have damaged my tow package or frame.

I almost always turn my front wheels when I park on unlevel ground, especially when the front of the truck is pointed uphill, but that time I was looking to turn around and a guy was walking towards me(I was in his driveway), but he had a loop driveway so I just kept driving forwards after he told me to go that way.

Did you leave it in neutral, I always leave it in first gear.

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Correct. Brakes should always work better in the forward direction. This is from the proper placement of the leading and trailing shoes. You may have noticed when backing up quickly and you hit the brakes it takes way more effort that when rolling forward.

 

 

Sorry to hear this happened Angela but bonus points for the language. :thumbup: .

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So, a little context here...I was too pissed & depressed to write much more earlier.

 

My Dad & I worked on replacing the brakes & cylinders all the way around last weekend. Got it done but ran out of time to bleed the system & adjust the rears. Truck sat until today when we attempted to finish up. Thanks Mike...we DID have it all chocked, etc while working but had just removed everything in order to take a test drive. While the truck warmed up with e-brake engaged & idling in neutral, I ran in the house real quick to grab my phone/wallet. Dad was outside putting tools away when it started rolling. He tried to run after it but it was useless. I came out in time to see him pushing it up away from the tree.

 

I feel queezy...

 

Dad apologized for not adjusting everything right. I explained that I'd recently learned about what you guys just mentioned about 521 truck brakes being poor in reverse. What I didn't know was that the e-brake was lousy, too & shouldn't be relied upon.

 

I'm feeling queezy again just talking about it...

 

Urgh

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Shit happens sometimes, we learn and move on, it's no ones fault, shit happens.

If I let stuff like this depress me I would have jumped off a bridge by now.

I have a $10,000 Mini with a ruined door window, I welded to close to it and sparks(a lot of them) hit the window and basically ruined it, when I painted my 520 I forgot to close the garage door and got over spray on the back of the Mini, it's going to cost me hundreds to fix all the damage.

I cannot tell the extent of the damage in such a small photo, but the bumper bracket can be straightened, I cannot tell if the bumperette itself is damaged, and I cannot tell from that photo how bad the tailgate is, no one got physically hurt trying to save it by getting run over by the door because they could not get in while it was moving.

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this sucks 

never rely competently on your parking brake on an older car especially 

I have a very steep driveway and have used the parking brake in my 510 with it in neutral running 

makes me nervousness every time yet i still do it 

maybe not anymore 

10 points for proper headline  :sick:  :hug:

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Yeah, shit happens...I know & yesterday it happened to me. It's all good. I just needed a few hours of being pissed & slowly accepting the reality y'know? Just sucks. Right after it happened my 1st thought was Thank God nobody was it in, that it didn't roll all the way down our steep driveway into the roadway & lower canyon, that it didn't hit my Tacoma or my 510 wagon, my Dad's '82 911, or my mom's '65 Mustang Fastback. I would feel terrible. I know I am damn lucky. Thankfully, the tail lights did not get broken, one of the bumperettes now has a small dent & it's bracket is bent. I posted a larger pic so the damage might be more visible. The latch handle & tailgate suffered the brunt of it. The tailgate is now pushed up above the lip at the end of the bed & the latch is bent, tailgate is wedged closed. I know ultimately it can be fixed...it's just that I really love the patina & hate the thought of losing that. I'm hoping the damage can be fixed just enough to be able to use the tailgate but no new paint involved. It'll have a scar, some personal history & that's cool with me. I still rock the fender dent on my wagon where a horse's knee put a tennis-ball sized, round little dent. Eagle Rock is happening next month so I'll be looking for a door latch handle, bumperettes, & maybe some hinges (?). I was just hoping anyone out there who's had similar experience, or into body work might offer some advice about what could be affordably done etc to make this boobo a little better : )

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  Thanks Mike...we DID have it all chocked, etc 

Urgh

 

Just trying to lighten things up. It's a Datsun joke that a brick IS the emergency brake.

 

Last Canby was a rough ferry crossing and a motorcycle fell over on my driver's side fender and fucked it.... repeatedly. As soon as I saw it. it was like a punch in the gut. God what a shitty feeling, I even thought about just turning around. I reported it and did what I could then while driving out of Port Angeles had a talk with myself. It's done, it's shitty, I'll figure out something when I get home, right now I'm on an adventure and not going to let it bother me.   

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I know. My 620 was stolen and rolled, tools stolen. I got it back and fixed it but to this day if I start thinking about it the blood pressure starts to go up. The little cocksucker is probably 35 to 40 now and an adult with a family or hopefully dead of an overdoes. Fuck me.... now I gotta go lie dawn...

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Yeah, shit happens...I know & yesterday it happened to me. It's all good. I just needed a few hours of being pissed & slowly accepting the reality y'know? Just sucks. Right after it happened my 1st thought was Thank God nobody was it in, that it didn't roll all the way down our steep driveway into the roadway & lower canyon, that it didn't hit my Tacoma or my 510 wagon, my Dad's '82 911, or my mom's '64 Mustang Fastback. I would feel terrible. I know I am damn lucky. Thankfully, the tail lights did not get broken, one of the bumperettes now has a small dent & it's bracket is bent. I posted a larger pic so the damage might be more visible. The latch handle & tailgate suffered the brunt of it. The tailgate is now pushed up above the lip at the end of the bed & the latch is bent, tailgate is wedged closed. I know ultimately it can be fixed...it's just that I really love the patina & hate the thought of losing that. I'm hoping the damage can be fixed just enough to be able to use the tailgate but no new paint involved. It'll have a scar, some personal history & that's cool with me. I still rock the fender dent on my wagon where a horse's knee put a tennis-ball sized, round little dent. Eagle Rock is happening next month so I'll be looking for a door latch handle, bumperettes, & maybe some hinges (?). I was just hoping anyone out there who's had similar experience, or into body work might offer some advice about what could be affordably done etc to make this boobo a little better : )

...didn't know mustang fb came out in 64. I know the coupe did. I thought the fb came out in 65 cuz I have one.
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For the bumperette, I would remove it from the bracket.  I would then bolt a fairly heavy piece of angle steel, or channel steel to the bracket, and use that to pull the bracket away from the truck, and to a more straight position.  A heavy piece of steel will hold the two arms of the bracket in place to each other.   A pull can be done with a come-a-long, or even chaining the bracket to a tree, and driving away from the tree, maybe with a slight bit of slack in the chain.   After a pull, or several pulls, put the bumperette back on, and see how it fits. 

 

To remove the dent in the bumperette, set it on a block of wood, maybe with a groove cut in into it, and use another block of wood as a punch to pound the dent from the back side of the bumperette.  Careful, a lot flexing the steel of the bumperette will crack the chrome.

 

Flex the left upper corner of the bed away from the tail gate enough to get the tail gate past the upper chain hanger.  Now, take a longer block of wood, about 9 inches to a foot, and lay in in the bed next to the left tail gate hinge, against the tail gate.  Use a second block of wood to drive the longer block of wood to the rear, with a large hammer (sledge hammer?)  These hits need to be hard enough to rebend the tail gate hinge on the left side to where the tail gate fits good, or OK.  If you are lucky, the tail gate latch may end up in the correct position to work again. 

Another option with the tail gate is to place the longer 9 inch to a foot piece of wood against the left hinge like before.  Then use a piece of 4x4 or 4x6 post across the front of the bed, and a third piece between the two other pieces, with your jack in a gap to push the front and rear pieces of wood apart, pushing the tail gate hinge to the proper position.  Be careful doing this, the jack and piece of wood between the jack and rear of the bed will have a tendency to spring up, quite violently.

 

Use a large adjustable wrench to bend the upper chain hanger into position.

 

You can drive the pins in the tail gate hinge out, with a punch.  You can then lay the bottom of the tail gate on a flat piece of metal, to further work the dent in the bottom of the tail gate away.

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For the bumperette, I would remove it from the bracket.  I would then bolt a fairly heavy piece of angle steel, or channel steel to the bracket, and use that to pull the bracket away from the truck, and to a more straight position.  A heavy piece of steel will hold the two arms of the bracket in place to each other.   A pull can be done with a come-a-long, or even chaining the bracket to a tree, and driving away from the tree, maybe with a slight bit of slack in the chain.   After a pull, or several pulls, put the bumperette back on, and see how it fits. 

 

To remove the dent in the bumperette, set it on a block of wood, maybe with a groove cut in into it, and use another block of wood as a punch to pound the dent from the back side of the bumperette.  Careful, a lot flexing the steel of the bumperette will crack the chrome.

 

Flex the left upper corner of the bed away from the tail gate enough to get the tail gate past the upper chain hanger.  Now, take a longer block of wood, about 9 inches to a foot, and lay in in the bed next to the left tail gate hinge, against the tail gate.  Use a second block of wood to drive the longer block of wood to the rear, with a large hammer (sledge hammer?)  These hits need to be hard enough to rebend the tail gate hinge on the left side to where the tail gate fits good, or OK.  If you are lucky, the tail gate latch may end up in the correct position to work again. 

Another option with the tail gate is to place the longer 9 inch to a foot piece of wood against the left hinge like before.  Then use a piece of 4x4 or 4x6 post across the front of the bed, and a third piece between the two other pieces, with your jack in a gap to push the front and rear pieces of wood apart, pushing the tail gate hinge to the proper position.  Be careful doing this, the jack and piece of wood between the jack and rear of the bed will have a tendency to spring up, quite violently.

 

Use a large adjustable wrench to bend the upper chain hanger into position.

 

You can drive the pins in the tail gate hinge out, with a punch.  You can then lay the bottom of the tail gate on a flat piece of metal, to further work the dent in the bottom of the tail gate away.

 

Thank you DanielC for taking the time to offer some helpful suggestions. I posted a few more pics in hopes it might help generate suggestions also. It looks worse this morning now that the shock/adrenalin buzz is not numbing me out  :crying:

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That is a shitty fuckin day!  I have no advice, but you have my sympathy.  I've spent a frustrating two weeks trying to get my fucking carburetor off, so any post I see here with profanity in the title right now makes me feel a sense of kinship.

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With more pictures, more info.

Removing the tail gate looks to be more necessary to get the vertical crease out of the tail gate.  The right side of the tail gate is pushed out because of the impact between the hinges. 

 

It might be time to start looking for another tail gate, if you cannot fix that one satisfactorily.

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Sometimes the hinge pins come out easy, other times they come out hard, they gave each end a wack to hold them in there, I have bent the hinges trying to get them out myself in the past, first thing I would do is soak the hinges with WD40/PB Blaster or the like over and over over a few days and then try to knock them out.

The issue here is that you are not in Datsun central, there was a 521 in the wrecking yard here a couple weeks ago, but it did not last long as it is already gone while some vehicles sit in there a month or more.

It is also expensive to ship tailgates as they are big and heavy.

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You can likely fix the bumper mount bracket, just pull it off the frame, unbolt the bumperette from it and make it look like the other side, same with the bumperette, pound it out from the back side, do not just hit it with a hammer, you need to use 2X4s and shaped pieces of metal, if you have a large vice it will make both these jobs easier.

Absolutely do not cut them hinges off unless you have several other people say they are not fixable, and I mean several other people, as to replace them you will likely have to make them, you have to save them at all costs, very few can actually make you a stock looking set.

I actually have a set of rusty box side hinges on a scrapped out box I have in several pieces in my back yard, they are very rusty but with some care someone could grind off the excess metal and weld these/one on, I might even be able to remove the whole cross section the hinges are mounted on from one corner/side to the other corner/side, but I would rather you save what you have if you can, as removing that area on yours without damaging other pieces will be very hard to do.

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