boxboy

Just 2 cents from a previous owner of your truck. I replaced the fuel pump just before I sold the truck 3 years ago. I bought an NOS pump and then replaced the diaphragm with a brand new one. That is not to say that the ethynol might not eat through pretty quick, but my guess would be that this isn't fuel related. The other thing that came to mind was that the alternator is NOT a stock item unless you have reverted back to original. I replaced the original externally regulated alt. with a new internally regulated one. The one issue I had was that the ALT light would come on at really low RPMs, I assumed because of the difference in pulley size. I could be wrong. Good luck. I miss the truck like crazy. I check in here from time to time to watch your progress with it.

Looks awesome XXL! I have serious regrets about selling this truck. Glad it is good hands. If you get tired of her, let me know!

I don't have any suggestions, but I will say that you should get some good money for those original panels. I went through great trouble to preserve them and get them looking nice. I replaced the actual masonite panel as they were warped from years and moisture. But the skins are in remarkable shape. Nice to watch your progress!

XXL, I am fairly certain that the jack and tools are from a mid 80's Toyota. That is why there appears to be something missing for your hold down clip. The original jack would be much shorter and wider than the Toyota one. I made the brake adjuster tool pictured there from an old screw driver. The original jack rod would have been one piece, not three like the Toyota. I am curious as to the point of your work with the heater hose? I never had any problems with that and when I changed the water pump everything fit exactly like the original. The other thing that is not original on that truck are the headlight relays. When I got the truck there was no relay at all and it was just wired direct. Not a good situation. So I put in the two relay system as instructed by Mike Klotz and others on this site. I also did the 1 wire alt. mod since there was a short in the old wiring that I mistook for a burnt out external regulator. As it was not original anyway, I thought I would make the improvement. A new regulator costs as much or more than the internally regulated alt. Plus, now upgrading to more amps would be easy. I enjoy seeing your progress. I will be eager to see the seat when you get it done.

XXL--You have purchased my truck! I put a lot of love into this pickup over the course of about 2 years. If you look through the 520 threads under boxboy you will get the back story. I bought it from a guy who had no mechanical ability or understanding and most of my time was spent on getting the mechanics cleaned up and operational. You probably won't see much of me on here, because it is too painful to associate with the Datsun religion I have left behind. I loved my 520 far too much. I would be curious to know what you paid for it. Once I sold it, it changed hands about 4 different times within the course of 3 months. I even passed up the offer to buy it back for $1000 less than I sold it for! So hard to do! I spent a lot of money and time to keep this thing original and uncut. I know the J13 isn't sexy, but he alternatives other than the A series require some cutting and squeezing. That is much the reason why I will not be on here too much. To see her hacked would throw me into a depression! She is yours. Do what you have to. Have fun, and be good to her.

It's a sad, sad day. Since acquiring my wife's great-grandad's Ford, I have had trouble affording and having time to invest in my favorite project ever which has been my little 520. I have never had more compliments on a vehicle than I have had on this little hauler. I have so much time invested. But the previous owner saw it the other day and made me an offer I could not refuse. With the start of some master's degree courses in the fall and my increased leadership at my church, I just don't see any hope of getting to the things that I wanted to do to my truck. The new owner says he will get the engine rebuilt this year, and the body and paint as well. I guess he has the money to invest, where I was trying to do it myself and make it "mine." I have learned a lot and enjoyed every minute of it. But I couldn't turn down the offer of every penny I had invested to this point. Of course that doesn't include time, but when you are having that much fun, it is hard to justify getting paid for it, right? I am hoping to continue to follow all of your builds. Keith, I am especially watching your original resto. Now to work on the Ford. Not nearly as fun to drive, and a lot more expensive, but a family heirloom. I am going to miss having a truck. I may look for a nice Nissan Kingcab with jump seats for the kids, but not another project.

the relevant thing in the photo was the Datsun "Daddy" T-shirt on the Corona bottle. How dry my nuts are is irrelevant to this post.

Can't complain about this Father's day gift!

I actually would be interested in this. I will have to check out the cost. Might save a lot of $ in buying tools I may only use once in a great while, and give me some much needed instruction. Any ideas on the cost?

I have spoken with a friend of mine that has welded for over 40 years. He says he thinks he can do it. He prefers stick welding to wire. He welds on thin metals for art type creations, but was pretty confident he could handle this. Now I just have to get it cleaned up (hopefully with a detail sand blast gun) and see how much rot I have to cut out. I will be at Canby on Saturday, so maybe I can get some input there. I just wasn't necessarily ready to get into this full tilt yet. I started soaking bed bolts last week just thinking ahead. I wish I had a spare bed to swap on so I could still drive while repairing.

I did some more aggressive wire brushing yesterday. There are a few more pin holes, but it is so close the the spot welds that I am afraid that if I work from the outside of the truck it will expose more damage between the bed metal and the side metal where the spot weld are. So I may talk to a welder. Can anyone tell me what gauge of metal a 520 bed is made of?

Phosphoric acid? I have some "rust mort" if that is the same stuff. Probably need to wire brush at least any real loose stuff off to make that do anything, right?

Yeah, I am not 100% convinced I want to start on major body work at this point. Not at least until after Canby in a couple of weeks. If I had a dumby bed to put on there so I could use the truck it might be okay after that as long as I could take it slow. I don't want to drive around with major holes in the side of my truck. I am just too proud I guess. Not a true "Ratsun" guy I guess. I have dreams of making this truck look nice, eventually.

I have what I think is a pretty good specimen of a '68 520 pick up. It is amazingly straight, and I didn't think it had too bad of rust. But I noticed the other day while I was sweeping out the bed that some of the seam seal was lifted up just behind the fender. So, I just couldn't help but pick at it. A little poking with a screw driver revealed that I have a pretty soft line just above where the bed floor spot welds to the side wall. The rust is in the side wall itself. Without sanding or wire brushing it down, I can't know for sure how bad it is, but it doesn't look like it gets down into the spot welds. Anyway, here are some pictures. I want to fix it right, but I don't have welding skilz. I imagine I could handle cutting and cleaning and even fitting a new patch if that is what it takes. Just wondering if I will most likely have to grind the spot welds and then have the new patch plug welded, or if I can get away with just welding above the spot welds. Take a look and tell me what you think.

ggzilla, my profoundest apologies for not just listening to you in the first place. I ran the S to the BATT as I had done previously, but this time instead of running the black and white wire from the harness to the WR wire from the IGN light (yes it does say IGN) I ran a new wire bypassing the harness completely. BINGO! I had about 12.4V at idle and revved the crap out of it and never got above 14.65 V. Then I loaded it up and still above 14.5V no sweat. The J13 idles at about 450 rpms, so it takes a little rev to get the light off at start up. I may bump it up a bit to 6 or 700 and see if that helps keep me above 12.5 at idle. But I am done, finally. So now I get to thinking that it is quite possible that I never had a problem with the VR or the other ALT, but simply a bad wire between the two. That sucks, because I could have saved $60 , kept it original, and saved countless hours of fretting. But then again I learned a lot, and have better charging now. I might have had this problem since I bought the truck and didn't know it. My IGN light would blink once in a while and speed up with my RPM's. Someone on here told me it was no big deal. I guess perhaps it might have been. Thanks again man, I can't say it enough. I was about to give in. But if my Datsun never does, how can I, right?