Kylezone's Longbed 521

[wayno]

Center the wheels in the fender wells if you can, in the photo it looks like the cab needs to go back, and the box needs to be forward, is this the cab I suggested that you move the cab forward for fan clearance?
Do you have a valance, I think they look better with it in place.
Is the box going to be a 10 inch extension?

The cab may need to go back, Its a visual thing, but I think in this photo the wheel is slightly turned and isnt helping anything. But I dont think the cab is moving... The front does need to go up a hair. Oddly enough though, this is the result of using the front cab mounts, as no modification is needed there to get them lined up.

The box... um how do I say, isnt anywhere near where its final position is going to be. Its literally just resting on the frame so its not resting anywhere else. So dont worry...

Yes it has a valence...

The bed is roughly 10" longer, a bit more probably.

The bed hook spacing was the best that could be done. With only extending the bed about 10" the spacing couldnt be exact. Its about 1-1.5" shorter I believe.

Yes the front mounts are basically where they need to be when dropping a 521 cab onto a 720 kingcab frame, but there is a little room to fudge it.
I noticed the wheel looking a little turned, and he mentioned the front needed to go up before fitting the box height, he needs to straighten the wheel and take another photo(hint hint ), getting everything level is a bitch, you have to add shims and then stand way back and look at it for a while, and then keep adjusting till you know you went to far, then go back, my 521KC box is still a little low in the rear, but I got tired of messing with it.
The truck is looking good, and I am kinda liking the color now, at first I was ho-hum, but I am getting used to it now, like the round headlights on my 720, it took getting used to.

[kylezone]

yah the wheel is turned a bit in that picture, and the fact that the valance isnt on completely changes the way the wheel-well looks, if i remember correctly the cab is actually half an inch back in relation to the center of the front wheel. The box is going to be extended 10.7" and that measurement was based on the difference between the wheelbases minus the 0.5" back that the front cab mount sits in relation to the front wheel. everything looks a little funky now, but its got some work to do before its all finally put together.

and yah im pretty happy with the bed hook placement =) i think its supposed to be about 17" between bedhooks, and the one on the extended portion is about 15" forward of the last one, but its the best we could do, the bed side has little indents under all the bedhooks that have to be cut out aswell so its not the exact same difference, but visually it not very noticeable.

[kylezone]

so.... its raining.... its a little hard to weld in the rian, so im trying get as much other stuff done as I can.

as far as i can tell wiring should be exactly the same as the l 16 since im just re-using the alternator and starter. tho the one difference is the ignition, the Z24 is twin spark. has anyone ever converted one to single spark with a single coil? ive heard of people just pulling the wires on the exhaust side. but theirs a wire from each coil to the center of the cap.

does anyone know if its one coil per bank of plugs? or does it alternate so that one coil is running the plugs for two cylanders?

[Laecaon]

2 coils.

[izzo]

the anti pollution is designed so when under a load or whatever, the second set of plugs will fire. giving it a cleaner burn. Yes people just remove the exhaust side or intake side or whatever. (I don't remember which) I always just run them (both coils, both sides). You can hook up both coils in any car/truck. It's not as complicated as it seems. You can just run one side if you desire.. I always remove the white wire on the distributor. This makes it so both plugs fire at the same time, all the time. I don't notice any power increase. Just a cleaner burn. The naps z doesn't need advanced as much as the L series. L is what, 10 or 12? The naps is only 3-5

[kylezone]

ok, if you couldnt gusess, school happened, thats why i havnt been posting. aaaaaaaand the truck isnt here with me =(

Jake came over and got it all wired up and running, filled the trans with some gl-3 (i thought they were gl-4 safe, but i guess not) got the clutch all put together, and it wont shift =(

obviously a Ka trans mated to a z24 with a 200sx dogleg throwout collar isnt ideal.... but its all in adjustment and if i pull the shift-fork boot i can see the bearing compressing the springs, so i know the clutch shoud be dis-engaging. The theory im operating under now is that the engine sitting out in the rain rusted the clutch together so its just badly siezed. Tried the whole thing where you spin up the rear wheels and put in the clutch and brake at the same time, but no dice, Im going to try a couple more things, hopefully i wont have to tear it all appart =(

other than that, the bed is still just sitting there, it has a floor and sides now but its far from finished, i was hoping to get it mounted but all the other little problems just started snowballing and i couldnt get it done.

heres a few pics.

front is all put together! i polished all the stainless and painted in some areas with matte black.



break-T showed up earlier than expected.



grabbed an exhaust downpipe. apparently the 720 KC 2wd downpipe is WAYYYYY different from the 4x4 (should have thought of that) but it got cut up and re-shaped and its running to a glasspack sitting right under the driver door.... its loud... but its temporary. ill get a pic later



grabed some VOLVO door seals, they fit almost perfectly!! but need a tiny bit of trimming for them to be perfect,

when i went to weld in the floor of the bed i found out that it was way out of square,





so i cut some of the welds we did on the top rails, and used a jack to push it all back into square, or at least as close as i could get it.



The headliner looks amazing!!! i was busy with other stuff so my mom helped me finish all the quilting.



and than I went over all the welds and any bare metal / bondo just to seal it while im not working on it. This is how it sits right now.



the plan is to head up next weekend and try to get the clutch free and try to figure out the PS pump

the PS pump is being weird, it turns freely by hand, but after running the engine for about 5 seconds it locks up and the belt starts squeeling. Im guessing the Power valve is bad??? anybody ever have that happen before?

[kylezone]

aaaaand it finally drives!! I ended up just replacing the clutch, and im glad i did, when i pulled it out it was so rusty that i had to hit the clutch plate a couple times before it detached from the spring plate. so it shifts great now, no grinding or anything. I more or less finished attaching the steering colum and I tightened the V belt for the power steering pump a bunch more as per Jake's suggestion (it was already reasonably tight but apparently not tight enough, so that works too! now i just need to bleed it.





im super excited because crawling under a truck on asphault is much better than overgrown grass and mole hills soaked in coolant and oil.



still lots to do, including getting the bed mounted, but i wont be able to work on it till some time in like mid november, but im really happy with the progress!!!

[Laecaon]

Because there needs to be a picture of the exhaust.

Straight piping is just too loud, so for cheapness we opted for the glass pack. Didnt want it to end under the truck as exhaust gas makes things black... Fortunately the Body lift left enough room for some exhuast pipe to go between the body and frame. So some flex pipe, and some welded on bend to the glass pack gave it this position. I was trying to get it far enough back to have the opening behind the drivers ear. Permanent? No. Good enough to drive it around and not get hassled? Yes. Plus it kinda looks like it was planned to be there.

[Spoona_Jay21]

does the bed need more adjustment? to me it looks a little far back.

could just be the angle of the shot...

[Laecaon]

The bed is not even bolted down. Disregard the bed in all photos until it is stated its in its final position. It needs to go forward and up. Also, still need to get gas tank mounted. I want to run dual tanks, have the 521 tank feed into the 720 tank, then 720 tank to motor.

[wayno]

The box actually looks proper, not extended, over all it looks balanced, it looks like it should look.

[izzo]

nice dude. nice!

I agree. The bed does look balanced, but you can tell it need slid forward. but i did read what you said, it's not bolted down. Good job you guys.

[Laecaon]

Ok, more progress!!!

Dry weekend equals time spent outside. Damn it was cold.

Anyways, he came over yesterday (Saturday), and we tackled getting the bed for the most part mounted. Still a few things to address, but that is a project for you. I was also fighting a wire feed problem on my welder, it would randomly pulse, due to a kinda broken wire tensioner. Also switched back to flux core, because of slight breeze outside, and out of gas, plus Its thick metal and I knew it could take the heat.

We made the front and rear brackets and welded them to the frame. I really like how the front ones came out. The rears, well its hard to bend metal at 90 degrees every time, and also Im a little worried about side to side movement on them, but it is probably fine. One thing is for sure, somehow we made the rear mounts way too tall, despite our measuring, that will get readdressed. The front mounts are nearly perfect.

And we moved the front gas tank mount on the 521 bed back to match the rear mount/gas filler neck location.

I still want to support the bed better in the center; the frame has another set of mounts that could easily be used.

Overall the bed seems very solidly on the truck. Time will tell of course. So yes the rear end of the bed is going to come down. Yes, we need to figure out the brackets for the bumperettes. Yes there is a plan to hide the rear of the frame rails better.

The truck looks super awesome going down the street. The exhaust from outside is actually pretty quiet, but the tone fits the truck very well, every single fart can is louder. Inside the truck is a different manner, its terribly noisy in there.

Power Steering is working correctly, feels like the 80s goodness where they didnt know how not make the steering too easy. 4WD drive works fine, someone converted the front hubs to manual locking. The transmission shifts soooo nicely. So glad that JY tranny worked out, yay 1997 2wd D21! Now it just needs a set of 32s under it.

Anyways pictures, because that is what you are here for.

First off, the whole reason for the body lift:


Bed off!


Rear Bracket, 1/8th steel bent to the U shape, 3/4" square tube for anti squash (and mimicking stock rear mounts), and a extra plate to keep it square, ish.


Front Bracket, 2 pieces of bent/tweaked angle steel, and a plate on top.



And on!





YES WE KNOW THE BODY LINE ISNT STRAIGHT!!!! IT WILL BE FIXED. (for those who dont always read).

[wayno]

That's a fairly high body lift, is that what you were going for, being able to see the whole frame?
It's looking good, the rear mounts are going to be easy to fix, just cut them down and put the top back on.
Are you isolating the cab from the frame with rubber mounts?

[Laecaon]

No, we were going for clearing the t-case. In hindsight, some clearancing may have been better, but I didn't want to cut the floor that much.

seeing the frame is made worse by the fact the beds on these datsuns don't go as low as the rocker panel on the cab. Some vinyl will be hung in the wheel wells to hide the gap better. I don't think the cab to frame clearance is bad, go look at Toyota trucks, they show frame like they are proud of it.

yes the cab mounts have rubber, as well as the bed, like stock.

[wayno]

Well then if the cab is noisy, either some part of the cab is touching the frame/tank/engine/exhaust, or it is void of any carpet/interior/door panels, so it is a hollow drum waiting to amplify any noise.
I found that my noise on the 520 was caused by two places, the tank was touching the cab, and the inner fender was touching the idler arm, once I fixed them places, it was significantly quieter.

[Laecaon]

Exhaust noise... maybe I should have done a semicolon to have better linked the two sentences.

I havent noticed any vibrations really.

[izzo]

That actually looks like it came together kinda easy lol. Good on you guys.

Rear of the bed needs to come down a smidge. Or just run the shit as is lol. Coming along good tho. happy to see this get done instead of turn out like most others do. For sale in pieces!

[Laecaon]

not sure if obvious troll, or still didnt read the letters in red...

[izzo]

didnt read, looked at pics. scrolled right past the red letters. probably blind to them thinking it was a signature.