1963 Datsun 320 kingcab

[wayno]

The box is mounted with 4 bolts right now and it is as straight I can get it, I noticed looking down the passenger side that the box is bent at the inner fender well, can see it real well now that it is painted, there is nothing I can do about it where it's bent.
I am going to have to adjust the rear axle towards the driver side a quarter inch as the wheel/tire is 3 inches in on one side, and it is 2 1/2 inches in on the other side, I was planning on switching axles as the front tire is right even with the fender lip, while the rears are way in, I already have an axle that will make that issue better.
So I beat on that tailgate for at least an hour and there is no way I am going to be able to make that section flat, so I tried the oxy torch, I got it real hot, the metal was bulging out way more than when I started, I dropped a cool wet T-shirt on it and it sizzled, the center flattened out a little, now it is a 4 inch round plateau, I did it about 4 times but it never got better, I did another bulge also, I might have made that one worse, I put it aside and am going to let it completely cool off and I will look at it tomorrow afternoon.

[wayno]

So I tried the torch again and got it close, but tried doing a small area and made it worse, I will let it cool and look at it again, but I do not think it will ever be flat, it's always going to be sunken or raised slightly.
The only choice I believe I will have is to slit the spots, flatten them out and then weld them back together, but I do not think it will ever be truly flat as I am not that good at bodywork.
The only way I see to get a presentable result is to remove the flat section all the way across and replace it with a good piece, then tack it in place, but I will have to tack it together in steps or it will warp and I will still have to do some filling on the outside as all the tacks would be on the inside so the outside would stay clean of grinding marks.

[wayno]

I made the box side trim pieces this evening, I didn't have long enough ones so I had to extend what I had, I believe I will install them tomorrow but I am going to go look at the trim piece mount piece selection at the paint store tomorrow, I am hoping that I can buy what I need instead of making it, although making it is just time with very little out of pocket.

[wayno]

I installed the box trim today, drilled all the holes correctly and didn't scratch any exterior paint.



There is a gap in the trim between the cab and the box, I cannot do anything about it as the cab is curved in the gap area and I see no way to bend this straight trim around a corner like that, the early Roadsters do not have bent trim either, so it is what it is, I think it still looks better with the trim on the box than without the trim, but I also think it looks better with the box skirts going all the way down to match the cab in front of the rear wheel, and a lower skirt behind the rear wheel also, it's just one of my things I like.
It is raining outside so I took the photos in the garage, there isn't a lot of room in there right now, it's amazing how fast the garage fills up to the point where it is hard to walk around, I could walk around in there anywhere a couple days ago.
I used the larger type molding clip in the photo to mount the trim, 5 on each side and a special home made larger clip where I spliced the 2 trim pieces together, it is easy to see the splice, but it is a 50 foot truck, one cannot see it from 50 feet away.

[Laecaon]

I think the trim on the bed looks super nice.

[DRIVEN]

Agreed. Really nice touch.

[wayno]

Thanks guys, this was the plan since I bought this truck back in 2009ish while I was building the 521 kingcab.
It definitely needs better wheels or at least paint the wheels and hubcaps, I do have 320 hubcaps, but they are never going to be chromed as they are not in very good shape, I figured cleaning them up as possible, then putting bondo on them and make them as smooth as I can, then painting them, just not sure what color to paint them, if there was such a thing as chrome paint that was worth a shit I would go that way, but I have yet to see decent chrome paint.
Maybe silver paint, the front hood trim piece was in very bad shape also, I did what I said above and painted it blue like the rest of the truck but it doesn't look right to me, also the grill is not so good either, I got most the black paint off it, I really don't think that black on the grill, hood trim, and hubcaps is the way to go, the grill is only slightly better than the other 2 pieces and if it was ever chrome plated it is hard to tell, but it does have rust pitting, any suggestions on what to do about these 3 things(grill/hood trim/hubcaps), chrome plating is not an option.
I have an alright 65 grill(chromed over pitting), but this truck is not a 65, I also have a Bluebird grill, it was bought for this truck, but I would have to cut the stock grill mounts off to mount it(sort of a one way trip), but it also has pitting.

[wayno]

I probably should say that I have had lots of plans over the years for this truck, I have a couple different types of MG dual SUs and headers/exhaust manifolds for this engine, I bought custom aftermarket dually wheels for this truck that only 5 of the 6 needed rims made it here(thanks USPS), I have dually fenders for it, I have another stepside box that if I didn't use the stock box I was going to cut down the stepside box to make it proportionally correct, I collected so many things for this truck over the years, the side trim is a good example, I bought a box full of early 320/roadster side trim, I bought the back half of another 320 cab and another 320 cab top from Tana 6/7 years ago, but I used a 411 wagon roof I bought for this project instead, this stuff is finally starting to get used.

Nothing happens fast with me, I think about it for long periods of time sometimes, like this computer upgrade, it took me months to finally take it in to be downgraded from Windows10 to Windows7, it happened when that computer guy called me to have his gutters cleaned out and his roof treated, I like this Windows7 operating system, the photo aspect of it has been stable/predictable unlike Windows10.

I hope to have this truck completed before the end of the year, it needs an exhaust system but I am going to wait till I know which carbs/exhaust manifold system I am going to use, right now it has a Weber on it, but I suspect it needs new jets as it seems to idle rough after a sort amount of time unless I rev it up and clear it out every minute or two, I have never had it above 25mph since driving it home 9/10 years ago, the plugs may foul out going down the freeway, the MG dual SUs I have are also made for 1500cc/1600cc engines.

[DRIVEN]

Wheels navy blue. Hubcaps ivory. Chrome '65 grille for now. Leave the hood trim body color. I think that will look pretty sharp while you're looking for nicer "correct" pieces. 99.9% of people will never know it isn't stock anyway.

[wayno]

Today I got all the lights working except the left headlight(burnt out), everything works, park, brake, and turn signals, I also got the 320 bumperettes out of the bin I had them stored in and straightened out the brackets and mounted them, Matt(HRH) pulled them for me from a 320 in a wrecking yard over near him years ago, he pulled other parts also.





Now the Bumperettes need to be painted also, they are not perfect but likely could be fixed and chrome plated, but I do not want to put a lot more money into this truck, I am using stored parts, I do not want to dump money into anything anymore except maybe the U320, I could likely sell that for real money in the next few years but need to get it on the road also.

[wayno]

Well I put a different set of rims/tires on the truck today, I never worked so hard to try and get tires to seat the bead on the rims, I spent more than an hour trying to get the first tire to hold air, once I figured it out and got all the tires on the truck I figured out they would not work as they hit the fender when I turn the wheel, but I got photos of the truck before it started raining.






















It has four 521 type rims/tires on it now, they are 185/75R14, I don't believe they will hit the front fender.
I also stripped the bumperettes of the paint they had on them, someone else had already stripped them to paint them before, a lot of copper is showing now.
My brakes were acting up also, they went most the way to the floor ever since I started working on this again, I thought it was the back brakes as they are old, but it turned out to be the front rubber hose connection to the caliper, I cleaned it up and put it back together, we shall see if it fixed the issue.

[DRIVEN]

That thing looks like a toy. I definitely like it better with stock type wheels. Keep at it.

[wayno]

It sure sits a lot higher than the 520 in the last few photos, I want it a little lower but I need to start on the tailgate and interior first.
I thought maybe those wheels/tires would fill up the fender wells better, but them 205/70R14 tires were too big, and the effort it took to get them tires mounted on the rims made it kinda depressing when they didn't work out.
I am going to try to pound on the tailgate one more time to make it semi flat across the middle section, it is way flatter than it was, I may just do the best I can and paint it, then look for a better one, I will paint the wheels at the same time, right now the truck is in the air in the garage, I can take the wheels off anytime I want, and remove the tires, I am thinking right now that the body color is best for the rims, but I may change my mind at any time.
Here are the last 320 hubcaps I have left, I have nice sets for the NL320 and the U320, this is what I have left, I figured smooth them out with bondo where I had to, prime and paint them.

The only chrome piece I have on this truck is the front bumper and it is bent, the guy that did the work said he knew what was needed, obviously he was delusional as it doesn't even come close to fitting the front properly and the rear NL bumper he did at the same time was worse, that place went out of business soon after I got my parts back, some would say I was lucky.
Anyway except for that front bumper and the stainless steel trim there is no surviving chrome on this truck except for the ring around the front turn signal lenses, the rear lenses, and the semi ugly headlight rings, I thought about the navy blue thing and it just doesn't seem right to me, black doesn't seem right either, so I am thinking silver for the hubcaps, grill, hood trim, bumperettes, I just don't what color goes with this color, white doesn't seem right either although I have seen older Datsun trucks with white grills that looked alright, I have some time to think about it.

[jtinluvr]

My worthless opinion is that vehicles from this era don’t look good with painted trim, they need chrome. I get that chrome plating is expensive, but there seems to be some pretty good chrome paint products out there. You have already proven you can spray a good finish, so may be worth a try? Worse case it’s just paint and you can strip it off if you don’t like the finish.

[DRIVEN]

Agreed. Chrome would look best.

I mentioned the navy blue wheels as a contrast to the light blue. I think it would look especially good with whitewalls. The off white / ivory for bumpers and hubcaps is an old fleet vehicle look. Kind of like how they used to do the roofs white, mostly to hide dents and wear.

[wayno]

I actually had them white wall inserts out I have and was going to install them but could not get them tires to seat on the rim(tires in photos that didn't work), so I spent all my time fighting them tires and forgot about the white walls.

I have never seen a chrome paint that looked like chrome, they all just looked silver, and it has nothing to do with the expense of chrome plating, it has to do with the guys at the plating places, they look at the parts and say it's not possible to fix that part and plate it with a reasonably good result, or they say it is too damaged to fix, of course price does play a part, I cannot justify spending thousands of dollars just to plate a grill with the thousands being repairing it to get a good result.
The bumperettes have damage but I expect they could be repaired, the hood trim piece is not repairable, I have 3 of them, none are repairable, I believe the 62 grill would be too expensive to repair and plate even though it looks alright from a distance, it is not alright, some of the hubcaps have been looked at in the past and were deemed not plate-able, but I have not had good luck with platers in the past, maybe they didn't want to spent the time repairing them, 2 different guys looked at the one hubcap, pointed at the black spots/dimples and said the chrome plating will not adhere/stick to them spots, I have a large fortune into chromed 320 hubcaps already, thousands of dollars into 2 sets(8 hubcaps) of repairs and plating.

[jtinluvr]

Take a quick look for chrome paint on YouTube. They really have some products now that are getting close. If you are seriously considering actual plating, there is a place by me by the name of superior chrome. I have had them do all my chrome work over the last 15 years (well over 10k worth) and the stuff still looks good. Not cheap, especially as they are here in Cali and in the Bay Area, but they are willing to do repairs if you can’t get good parts. As long as either Mark or Miles are still there, I will vouch for their quality. I would offer that if you sent some stuff to me, I would take them to the place for a quote, but I will hopefully be relocating from San Jose to the Roseburg area end of Nov./Dec.

[wayno]

There is a place close to me that I have never used before, the place is used by other small outfits that do the repair work and take it there to be plated, I do not know how that works but I will get a quote from them if I go that route.
I am done sending my parts off to places far away, if there is an issue that is no fault of yours what can you do about it, nothing can be done unless I am close enough to take care of it myself.
When I had them 19 320 windshields made in Orange CA I took my NL320 parts down there to be plated by a Ratsun member, I was lucky to get my parts back at all, and when parts got broken, the guy blamed it on shipping when he was the one that broke the part putting shrink wrap around it, I told him I could not fix that part or get another one, he also had some reflectors for the NL320 taillight bezels that he could not find that didn't get shipped with the rest of my parts either, well I started getting calls from folks that supplied people with 320 parts, they were asking me who this "fixer" guy was, he was calling them asking for NL320 taillight parts and they suggested that he call me, I would have loved to be there to see his face when they told him to call me, he found my reflectors fairly quick and sent them to me on my dime, I got screwed on that deal, I wish he had just said he could not help me and I would have taken my parts back home.
I will ask the paint place I go to about chrome paint and ask what they think, if they have nothing I will search around a little about it but it would be easier for me if you had a link to the paint your talking about.

[wayno]

I worked on the tailgate a little today, I gave up pounding on it and cut it and welded it, I made way more headway than I ever did pounding on it and better results than the get it hot and cool it fast method.





No one will ever be able to sit on this tailgate as it will bend when it takes their weight, so if I try to make it look nice, it will be a for looks thing and it will never look like it did when it was new no matter how long I work on it, but it is a lot flatter than it was, I think if I took it to a body guy he would say find another one.

[Taterhead]

I think it’s looking pretty good Wayne. I would try the chrome paint also, just for shits and giggles. Worst case scenario it’s like jtin said, you could strip it off and do something else.