greybeard

Yes, a sad day indeed, watched some of the specials about that day last weekend. I could only watch for a short time before having to change the channel. remember that morning like it was yesterday.

I still have a couple. Had the metal frames on my 620 for years. My best friends father was the first GM of Santa Barbara Datsun when it opened at 36 state street. when we got older I remember having the run of the place and checking out brand new 610s 710s 620s and Z cars 510s and 521s and 620s on the used car lot. His mom drove a wagon on dealer plates and got a new model each year. I had a pair of the metal frames and gave him one about 10 years ago, he still has it hanging in his garage. The red plastic frame was from the later years after he moved on and bought his own store in Ontario CA

Nice! brings back memories of my Auto-X days, a Dad and his Daughter ran a sprite in the Cal Club region. I followed your Jeep build on another forum, so I know this will turn out to be a gem.

I started out working in the back rooms of service stations when they still had bays LOL, then worked at a small shop called Downtown Imports. that specialized in Datsuns, repairing customers cars and selling restored 510s Pick ups, anything Datsun. Then spent some years at a shop in Montecito working on everything from Julia Childs 210 to Howard Duffs 68 GT500 and some exotics. Went on to do Machining at a job shop doing mostly Medical and Aerospace parts and just wrenching for myself. Now semi retired and living in Idaho. Guess I should update my profile, but I don't get to this board as much as I used to. Where are you, and are you at a shop?

My Best friends father was GM at Santa Barbara Datsun in the 70's and we hung out there a lot, in 75 my sister bought a new B210 HB I bought a 510 2 dr from a guy with a bad trans and broken rings that had used it for a movie they made in film school in SB. I replaced the trans and rebuilt the motor in the 510 and worked on it a bunch. Bought my sisters B210 in around 1980 and auto crossed it with good results. had a guy blow a stop sign in 1983 and total the 75 B so I bought a 78 B210 GX off the used car lot that my best friends dad, who now owned a dealership in Oxnard, gave me a deal on. At this time I bought an beat 521 to go with the B for a parts runner and made friends with a couple of guys into Datsuns. they had a Roadster, 521, 510 and a 1200 coupe. I swapped most of the speed parts of the 75 to the 78 and ran auto-x and rally (Starlight and others) until I sold the B and bought a 73 240Z. mean while I found a 620 with a bad carb and distributer for $150. to replace the 521. I gave it a good tune up and added a weber DGV, good as new and had a great shop truck while building the Z with a 5 sp., L28, suspension and all the goodies a road rally car needs. Then a super clean 73 620 came into my shop overheating badly. The owner left it at the shop and took off. after a few weeks the owner couldn't afford to make the repairs, so I bought the truck for $100 and an extra $20 for the new radio he had installed. turned out the block was cracked. I built a LZ24 on 240Z SUs and swapped in a 5sp. That truck evolved onto a 85 720 4X4 chassis, I had that truck for over 20 years. Don't have a Datsun now, but on the look out for an A10 sedan.

For me it's Wild Turkey and 7-up.

720's are off center and use different length axles left and right, the front housing looks the same as an R180 from a z car.

I' I'll see what I have, most will be old school film Photo's of the truck, I'll see if I can scan a couple, I think I have one of it when I first got it, 2wd, with White spokes, and another of it 4wd out in the Mojave. I just don't want to Hijack your thread. There's lots of pix in Juns thread, He's really cleaned it up and made it look nice again. Oh, by the way, your truck would look good BLUE :thumbup:

I have not signed on to this site for a while, so this is the first I've seen this thread... I have to say nice work, it's looking great I did this conversion in the 90's and built the truck in my avatar, I explored the Mojave with it for many years.... I have no build thread because there was no interwebs... This truck is now in the hands of Jun and is the Blue truck at the beginning of this thread. When I built it I used mirrors for a Chevy LUV similar to the ones you have pictured only a little smaller. it gave the look I liked. I like the Green you have pictured, and it needs the white DATSUN lettering on the tailgate for sure. one mod I considered but never did was to mount a 521fuel tank / fuel door to have dual fuel tanks (521 tanks are on the other side of the truck) again nice work and good luck an you build. John.

Jun, Glad all turned out well and it's running again. That's true Mike, but when the gasket compresses, the head, with the smaller L-20 combustion chamber will push the gasket with the smaller bore down into the cylinder as it compresses when the head is torqued down. I suppose the combustion chamber on the L-20 head really should be opened up to the proper bore size for the block... If I ever build another 2.4 i'll go that route. John

Talked to Jun on the phone today, Good to talk to you, and hope that helped.... I forgot to tell you, that motor likes the cam retarded a little, always ran better that way... stay in touch. John