Charlie69's 66 520 Build

[gene knight]

where's the other picture charlie

[Charlie69]

This should be happening in the next month.  I am going Wayno on my 66 520, yes I am putting a 1980 720 regular cab chassis under my 520.  This will kill several problems, first it will give clearance for the AC compressor, second it will give me the removable transmission cross member, third it sets up for the E brake setup.

 

Wayno had mentioned that there will be 1 1/2" to 2 inch gap between the cab and the bed.  If this happens then I will shorten the frame accordingly.  My main consideration is that the tires are centered in the in the wheel wells front to back.

 

This will be a brake down grade as my 520 chassis is setup with Mike Klotz disk brake kits and vented rotors.  the 80 chassis has the non vented rotors.

 

This will keep me from having to remove and replace all 3 cross members as I had described before. 

 

The time that this will save will hopefully help me have my 520 at the SWDP Barbecue in August.

 

I will have to remove the motor mounts from the 520 chassis and put them back in my 80 chassis.

 

I hope to strip the 80 chassis next Wednesday with Gen Knights help and have it ready to weld in the motor mounts.  Then I will move on to the cab mounts and then finally the bed mounts.  Then if needed will shorten the frame.

 

I will take pictures along the way.

 

Between now and next Wednesday I will pull the cab and the bed off my 66 chassis. and remove the motor mounts.  I will strip the bed bottom to bare metal epoxy prime and spray on bedliner.  I will finish stripping the rest of the inside of my bed and spray it and the outside with epoxy primer. 

 

Sorry Mark I can not wait any longer for you to finish Grimace and get started on my body and paint.

[Charlie69]

where's the other picture charlie

This one?

 

Gene's selfie!  I have to take my camera in for repairs now!!!  LOL

 

[Pacific coast Datsun]

Sounds like major surgery my friend B)  but i know you guys can make it happen. 

Theres not enough time in the day to get stuff done...

[gene knight]

I'll just add the repairs to your camera to your bill charlie

[Charlie69]

Gene your bill is much, much, much, higher than my bill will ever be! LOL

[Eccles]

man i just took all morning to read this thread,  amazing work and a good read

[Charlie69]

Thank you, trying to make it easier for some one else doing a 520 swap.  Thank you for taking the time to read it.

[Charlie69]

Sounds like major surgery my friend B)  but i know you guys can make it happen. 

Theres not enough time in the day to get stuff done...

 

I think this too at times and then I look back and realize how much time I wasted.  It also helps that I do not text, that alone takes a lot of time out of a person's day!

[Charlie69]

My buddy Alan from Northern Nevada called me last Friday said he was on his way to go fishing, I asked him where he was going fishing at since there is a drought going on where he is and the river and lake are dried up.  Said he wasn't sure.  Tuesday morning I get an early call from him and he is at my front door.  So went had breakfast pickup my brothers trailer hit a junk yard and then went to Gen Knight's house and ripped the 1980 720 cab off and scrapped it. Hit a couple more junk yards   Got pizza for dinner and called it a Day.

 

Got up early on Wednesday and went back to a junk yard we had been at at closing and pickup the parts we had pulled. Then Alan dropped me off at Gene's and Gene and I went to Prescott Valley to hit a junk yard.

 

I hope to remove the bed next week and degrease the chassis.  I hope to get the engine mounts welded onto the chassis and and set the cab on the chassis.  This work will take place at gene knights house as there is more room and he has a much flatter driveway.

 

After the cab is set we will set the bed.  If there is a larger than normal gap between the bed and cab we will cut and shorten the chassis using a hidden fish plate to put the chassis back together.

 

Then it will be time to paint the chassis replace worn front end parts and move forward with finishing the wiring and interior mods and then body and paint.

 

Mark congrats on 1 step closer to your dream job!

[Charlie69]

Made more progress on the 1980 720 chassis today.  Got the bed removed and I will cut the motor mounts off of a 77 620 front frame section.  Gene Knight and I will bring the chassis to my house and set the motor mounts and get them tacked in.  I hope to set the cab on and decide what needs to be done to line up the cab mounts.

 

A little history on the 1980 720 standard cab chassis.  I originally bought this non running truck 1993 for $50 when I was a mill mechanic at the Cyprus Open Pit Copper Mien in Bagdad AZ.  The truck needed a lot of work so it sat for over a year.  My brother wrecked his car and needed a way to get to work.  I went to Phoenix on a Friday night after work only 2 plus hour drive.  I got to Phoenix at 7:00 pm and picked up my brother and headed home to Bagdad. Got home at 9:30 PM.  Rolled out some lights and we went to work pulling the motor and trans.  we made a list of everything we could think of.  Got 3 hours of sleep and we were back on the road to Phoenix.  The plan was to buy everything in Phoenix and come home and have the truck drivable for my brother to drive home Sunday evening.

 

We hit Ecology Auto Wrecking at opening and commenced to find a good L20B 5 speed. found a car that had just been put in the yard that morning before opening.  Looked good put a battery in it and she fired right up.  Thru it in gear a commenced to do a couple donuts,  She was running good shifted great and got the Ecology Nazi's after us.  We pulled the motor trans and anything else we could think of. $285 later were were out of ecology and headed to the main NAPA Warehouse a couple mile s from Ecology.  we bought all new hoses, Major tuneup parts, oil & filter, trans grease, rear end grease, complete major brake overhaul parts including calipers wheel cylinders drums and rotors.  We also bought radiator flush water pump and anti freeze and a battery and new cables.  Napa had all but calipers and we had to go to the East side of Phoenix to get them.

 

We got back to Bagdad ad about 4 pm Saturday afternoon.  We dropped the motor and trans in and it running by 7 pm.  I went to work on the rear brakes and had my brother do the front.  an hour later we had the brakes adjusted and bled.  All was going good so we called it a night. got up up at 7 am and had breakfast.  Went out to find 2 tires flat.  Went to air up the tires and blew the side wall out.  I did not have a set of spare tires so I took my brother home to Phoenix and told him I would have Mike's Texaco in Bagdad put a new set of tires on it on Monday.  Took Mike all day Monday to get tires from Phoenix and he got them mounted and balanced on Tuesday which was not a problem as I did not need the truck until Friday.  Thursday night I went back to Phoenix stayed the night and My brother and I left out on Friday morning at 6 am headed to Prescott AZ to get title registration and plates for the truck.  we got to Bagdad about 4 pm Saturday afternoon.  Put the plates on the truck  hooked up my boat to it and went cat fishing until Sunday around noon.  I followed my brother  in his new to him 1980 720 truck to Phoenix.  I was driving my 1970 Datsun 521 with a Z20 5 speed.  The little 720 purred like a kitten but struggled to keep up with my 521.

 

My brother drove the truck for years, wrecked it 3 times taught his daughters and son to drive in it and literally drove the little truck into its grave.  When I got it back it was wrecked.  We had switched cabs with an 80 parts truck I had bought.  He lost interest is why I got it back.

 

I gave the motor and trans to Hacked521 and I stored the rest at Gene Knight's house.  I hope the chassis will live on under my 520.

 

Now that I think back my brother never paid me a dime for the 720 or all the parts that went into getting it running!  I am just happy I was able to help him at the time.  He is actually a great brother.

 

Gene Knight has been a great friend over the years also.

 

It is nice to have good people around!

[]2eDeYe]

Good story :D

[Charlie69]

A little progress today on the 520.  I managed to get the engine mounts removed from the 77 620 front clip Gene and I save from the last bent chassis truck we harvested parts from.  Also got the bed cleaned out and removed from the chassis.  Removed the radiator, shroud and fans.  I will pull the heater, AC, transmission shifter and linkage tomorrow.   As soon as I get my brothers engine hoist back I will pull the cab and then the engine and trans.

[gene knight]

Right, I'll believe it when I see it

[Charlie69]

I removed the shift linkage the, dash face, and the cab mounts in preparation of removing the cab from the 520 frame.

 

Made the last bracket for the heater swap.  My brother came over to barrow my welder and while he was here I had him weld a few things up on the 520.  He filled the 4 holes in the radiator support left from moving the radiator up, he welded the last heater bracket in, and welded a spot  on the cowl by the wiper mount. 

[difrangia]

Charlie,

  I just discovered your build thread on the 520 yesterday. Wow, this has been going on over six years or so. Very impressive build. I did notice that you were following my 320 thread and dug around and found yours. I'll be watching this.

 

Steve

[Charlie69]

Thank you Steve.  It has been a journey!  I was in Nevada for almost 2 years, during this time it was supposed to have the body work and the paint done.  Since that did not get finished I have decided on doing some body mods, mostly to the bed.

 

Steve if you or any one is interested below all of my posts are three links (this area is what I believe is called your "Signature") one is to my 66 520 build thread, one is my 86 720 King Cab thread, and the other is to my 85 720 King Cab ST.

[Charlie69]

One more piece of the puzzle was purchased today.  I picked up the brake lines from a 1980 720 today in Kingman AZ.  One step closer to doing the chassis swap.

 

All most for got, Mark (Pacific Coast Datsun PCD) gave me 4 521 rockers and a 521 tailgate .  I will be doing a custom tailgate and the rockers are for bringing the bed sides down to match the bottom of the cab.

[Charlie69]

Removed heater and AC today.  Cab is ready to pull just need an engine hoist and a second set of hands.

[Charlie69]

Today was a busy day.  I was at Gene's house at 8:30 this morning and he already had the 80 720 chassis outside his fence.  We hooked up the tow bar and proceeded to find my 86 King cab was leaking gas. So we diagnosed that so I can fix it in the morning.  I have to drop the tank or pull the bed to replace the rubber fuel lines I paid to have replaced in Nevada.

 

Any way had to put 2 vice grips on the center link to hold the wheels straight and had turn corners real wide and slow.  Went to a car wash to degrease the chassis as best as I could quickly.  Got the chassis to my house and and my brother Garret showed up to help.  We pulled the cab off of my 520 chassis and then the engine and transmission.   We mounted the 77 620 mounts to the engine and set it in the frame.  We had to remove all the brake and fuel lines that run down the the passenger side of the frame.  We notched the inner fender wells to clear the upper control arms and the steering gear box. goth the cab centered on the front wheels.  Checked the radiator and electric fan clearance an it is to close to fit the fans.  so tomorrow I will pull the 2 steel engine mount brackets and give them to my brother to mod to move the engine back 3/4" to get fan clearance.  We will also move the cross member mounts back 3/4".  I can do this because of the custom firewall we put in the cab.

 

After this is done then I will cut all the cab frame mounts off and we will position them where I need them to work with all the original cab mount holes.

 

After the cab is done it will be time for the bed.

 

I will be stripping the bottom of the bed and getting it coated with bed liner same with the bottom of the cab.  I will sand blast the frame and get it primed and painted after all the mount modification done.  I am pushing to have the truck drivable for the SWDP barbecue in August.  Pictures tomorrow.

[Greiggy]

you can do it Charlie, get it done for Augusts BBQ !!

 

sending lots of good vibes from AU

 

Hope everything is well buddy.

[Charlie69]

Hi Greiggy, all is well.  This will be a challenge but we can do it. 

 

This is all because my AC compressor would not clear the 520 chassis steering gear box.  1980 720 was the first year in the USA that the steering gear was repositioned so the pitman arm and the idler arm are out side the frame rails.

 

In the end I will have a much better driving and riding truck.

[Charlie69]

On Sunday Gene Knight, my brother Garret, and I started on the 80 720 chassis swap on my 66 520.

 

First we pulled the cab and the engine/transmission off of the 520 chassis.  We bolted a pair of 1977 620 Frame mounts that I harvested from a 620 Gene had that had a bent frame.

 

We set the engine and trans in the 1980 chassis and bolted the trans mount to the cross member.  We then lined up the frame mounts to the frame and my brother welded in the frame mounts.

 

We tried positioning the cab on the 1980 chassis mounts and Wayno was correct the do not line up.  We rough notched the inner fender wells for the UCA and the steering gear box so the cab would sit down in the front. 

 

We checked the radiator, shroud, and fans for for fit and there was not enough room to fit.

 

So we all brain stormed and came up with a plan to slide the engine back to gain the clearance for the fans.  We can do this because of the custom firewall we had previously installed.

 

I own both trucks so there will not be an issue with the frame numbers.  I will let MVD know that I replaced the chassis and they can note the title of the frame number change.

 

Monday after replacing fuel hoses on my 720 Gene and I pulled the engine mount brackets off the off the L20B block in my 520 and my brother picked them up on his way home from work for some fab work.

 

Helped Gene today load and haul another load of scrap to the metal yard.  Boy has scrap metal prices gone down.  Anyway before leaving Gene's today we loaded a 521 Bed bottom in my 720 so I could bring it home to use for setting up the 80 720 chassis bed mounts.

 

Hope to be back on it on Saturday.

[Charlie69]

Tomorrow Gene will be by to pick up several cores I have to return to the Prescott Valley Wrecking Yard. 

 

My brother will be by in the morning to hopefully get the cab mounts positioned on the 80 720 chassis.

 

I hope to have time to take some pictures tomorrow.

[Charlie69]

Cab mounts are done. The engine and trans is moved back 3/4".  The radiator and fan fit fine.  I took a few pictures but I buried my camera in the garage.  I can not have a project in my driveway over night, my HOA would fine me and have it towed so everything has to fit back into the garage after a days play.

 

I will dig out the camera tomorrow and post pictures. 

 

The bed will get worked on next week.