My 1969 Datsun 521 kingcab diesel

[wayno]

I cut the passenger side support today, test fitted both of them.




Then I completed them.




I had already put the wheels back on and dropped the rear if the truck on the ground so they will be test fitted one more time before removing the box to do the notches, I will likely do a 2.75" deep notch, and I was going to look into making a mount on the inside for the bump stops, 2.75" is on the edge of not being enough, I will think about it some more.

[wayno]

It's always the little stuff that needs to be done for it to be nice, see how the little levers are bent away from the console I put together, they were hitting.




So what I did was take another set I have apart and I switched the arms, the heat was on the right, defroster on the left, I could not just trade sides as they work differently, so I re-purposed each arm and now they point outward and will clear the console without being bent as the tangs are below the mount bolts holding the assembly on now.


When I remove the dash these assemblies will be used on the new dash, it is likely no one ever noticed I bent them but I knew they were bent, now they are just labeled wrong, one would have to be really picky to notice that, seems like they would notice it was a kingcab first, that would make this label issue sort of a joke, I know which lever needs to be where to have heat and the defroster working, they are permanently in them positions.

[wayno]

I pulled the interior carpet today to look at what the floor boards, the driver side was the worst, I cut out the part that had holes.




I put a patch piece in, the metal was good enough to weld to.


I used a wire wheel on the whole section, I likely should have cut the whole thing out, I will think about it and decide what to do tomorrow.

I actually removed the carpet to see if everything stays dry while it rains tomorrow, I am thinking I still have a small leak, if I do I need to figure it out and fix it before I change out the dash, I am planning sound proof the firewall while the dash is out.
The padding under the carpet had melted to the passenger floor, this might have been because of how I had the exhaust routed when I first put the turbocharger in the truck and used flex pipe for an exhaust, I don't know for sure, the passenger floor looks pretty good but I won't know for sure till I take the wire wheel to it.

[wayno]

It has been raining outside all morning, I just checked the floor boards in the truck(front) and they are dry, so it appears the windshield is not leaking.
I suppose I will likely remove the complete dash(maybe today or tomorrow) and get started on the sound proofing, I am still waiting for the little lights for the instrument cluster(glow plug/e-brake lights), I am hoping they will look more like the oil/ign lights with the chrome ring around them than the last ones I bought, by the time I am ready to install the dash they will likely be here, I am still looking at the floor boards, have not decided on them yet, but they are dry.

[wayno]

I decided to put on another layer, I did it the same way I did the Mini, I still have to smooth everything out as it was raining on me before I was done.
I almost got both holes lined up.




I will put POR15 on everything after I clean it up, and will squeeze as much of it in the edges as I can get, I will likely never sell this truck.

[wayno]

OK, I cleaned up the driver side weld spots so everything was smooth, I then cleaned up the passenger side and then I covered them with POR15, I used everything left in the can(small can).




Next while that POR15 was drying I custom fit the tops of the rear frame arches so they are evenly spaced across the top of the frame without wiggling, I would have tacked them in place except what if I need to drive this in the rain, they are bare metal and would start rusting right away so I will wait till I am ready to do the notch and remove the box, it is all going smoothly so far.




I have a couple jobs this coming week otherwise I would likely take the box off now and start.

[wayno]

I decided to get it ready for the frame notch as it is supposed to be nice the first 3 days of this week, so I took off the box.

[wayno]

I got quite a bit done today, first I pulled out the 4wd 720 leafs, and I installed them on the truck, things didn't go totally as planned, I had to remove the short bottom straight leaf as the pack was too thick, I figure that one is no big deal.


I had to remove the axle covers that go between the axle housing and the U-bolts and put ones on not made to hit a bump stop.




The leafs are on, I hope it will nit need any adjusting.


Then I decided since it was going to be nice this week I will notch the frame, I now have the top stiffeners/braces welded on, where you see white is where I used flux core wire, where it is clean I used solid wire and gas, my Harbor Freight welder just quit feeding the wire on me for no reason, what had happened was it got too hot as it worked when it cooled off, so I pulled out my Passport Plus and finished, I am not sure I had it set properly, but it seemed to be laying out the weld so I kept on going, but it quit too, I blew the breaker 3 times, I was using 110V, I figured out that I have the cord and plug end to use 220V, I bet it will not blow that breaker.














I have a small jobs both tomorrow and Wednesday, I had a 4 hour job today and i got a lot done on this, the notches are next, I still need to figure out what shocks to use now as I used the 510 Wagon lower shock mounts/leaf plates, these trucks usually have an eye on the top and stud on the bottom, now I need eyes on the top and the bottom like I did the 520, but the 520 is low while this one is only being dropped a couple inches.

[wayno]

I worked on this again today, I put the weight on the rear axle to find center on the frame, there was not much room left between the axle and frame.




I started by drilling holes all the way around the notch, this makes it much easier and doesn't over heat the angle head grinder.


I did both sides today, there was no room on the driver side inside to drill the frame, so I did it the hard way.








I made the plates for the sides, I still need to drill them for my spot welds in the middle of the plates, I will do them tomorrow.


My welding is looking better all the time, it was windy out so I used flux-core.

[DRIVEN]

Looks sturdy.

[wayno]

It's going to be bullet proof when I am done, it will fail somewhere else before it fails there, I over build because my welding has not always been the greatest, but recently I have been able to see what I am doing and the metal is clean.
My helmet still fogs up but not nearly as fast outside, I can get around 3 inches or more of weld before I stop and lift the helmet and it clears in about 5/10 seconds, you can see in the photos where I stopped and restarted 5/10 seconds later.

It took 4 runs to do each notch on each side, and one run on each end of the bottoms, so it took 20 runs/passes to weld in the notches, the plates will take a little more time as I will do the spot welds first and then weld all the way around, 3 plates and 2 half pieces as the tank mount bracket is in the way, so far I only have nicked one brake line which didn't go thru, and the grinder hit my head once which I am lucky I was not hurt.

[wayno]

I did a couple small jobs today, made it home by 3pm and attacked the notches I got 3 out of the 4 sides done, I have the pass side where the tank bracket is left.
You can see the holes that I weld to the metal underneath, I call them spot welds


Driver side outside


Driver side inside


Passenger side outside


I will likely finish tomorrow afternoon, then I will drop it back onto the tires and see if I can buy some shocks, I am not very optimistic as where I used to buy them the people cannot find anything any more unless you have a number or a stock vehicle, I need to buy shocks with measurements, them people could not even find me a fuel filter a couple years ago, I have only went there the last few years when I have had a number or if it was something simple like fuel line where you find it and they cut it.

[wayno]

I finished up today and painted the bare metal flat black.



Shocks are supposed to be here tomorrow morning, as I expected going to that parts store with measurements did me no good, I came back home and removed one of the 520 shocks and went back, they didn't have any in their warehouse and what they had ordered for the warehouse was on back order, but surprisingly the manager suggested I go to this other parts store as they had their own warehouse and they would likely have them and they did.

[wayno]

Well that part is done, I decided just to undercoat the frame where it could be seen and I have called that part good.





Next is the dash removal and sound proofing the interior firewall, I decided I don't like this truck to be down/un-derivable, I did ride my bike around to order and pick up the shocks yesterday and today, I only drove it down the street so far so I have not driven it fast enough to see if the 4wd leafs are going to cause any issues.
The front needs to be lowered a couple inches, I have a set of drop arms I can use which create no issues for stock rims, or I have drop spindles which will require me to cut the end off the lower control arms to use stock rims, and I will need to modify the tie rods, the drop arms require the removal of the lower control arms(torsion bar removal), while the drop spindles require modifications, if I use the drop arms I can sell the drop spindles.

[wayno]

I was not sure if I wanted to attack the dash today, but I tore it out and found all the wires to make the dash lights work properly(adjustable), I turned out for some reason I had cut off the plug so I went out to my wire boxes and found the plug end I needed, the dash lights work properly.
Then I tested everything and could not get the e-brake light or the glow plug light to work, the e-brake light had just come unplugged, but the glow light must have got stretched as I had to remove the crimped connector and put another one on and then all was good, it got dark so I will work on it tomorrow.

[wayno]

Well everything works in the dash except I didn't use the deluxe 411 instrument cluster as I am waiting on the little lights, I can make another mini harness for the brake/glow light/brights indicator when it comes time to change them out.

Here is the powder coated dash face/top, it's ready to drive again till I pull it apart for the next faze.

[wayno]

I forgot to mention that all the original sound proofing was still on the firewall, I suspect it likely is made with asbestos, so I left it where it was untouched, I will likely put some sound proofing below it to the floor boards, not sure if I will put anything on the floor boards except the rug and padding below the rug, I actually have an original plastic/vinyl floor cover, but it is blue and not so pretty, I believe I bought it to have a template to make one out of a nice vinyl material, everything except vinyl holds moisture.

[wayno]

OK, this is what I had planned, I was going to use my drop arms I made, but when I measured them they were 3/4" shorter, that is not something I wanted to do on this truck(narrow the stance), I also was not wanting to cut the tips off my lower control arms at this point so the drop spindles are also not going to be installed.

Here are the drop arms.



So I pulled the front bump stops, cut about an inch off them and I put them back in position as they were touching static before cutting them, then I lowered it to where the front gap between the fender and tire were about the same as the back using torsion bar adjustment, the back fenders are not round like the front so this may have been a waste of time, but I think it looks better.



It has a slight rake, I figure it is around 2" lower than before, I will drive it now and see how much the ride has changed, I liked the ride the way it was except for it always bottoming out the rear axle if I hit a big bump(metal to metal), but I always thought it was slightly too high, with them front bump stops touching before it didn't lean a lot going around corners, with the firmer rear leafs I hope it stays the same even though the front bump stops are not touching anymore, I do have a gap now.





The lowest thing under the truck right now is the exhaust, it is about 3 3/8" off the ground, I am sure it was over 5" before and it never hit anything, I hope it don't start hitting speed bumps in parking lots, I really don't want to have to watch where I drive this truck like I do in the 520, parking lot speed bumps are a problem with that truck.

By the way, if that rear suspension were to ever bottom out in them notches, I would take the box off and put bump stop mounts in the inside as there is room, I have 3 3/4" travel between the tops of the u-bolts and the top of the notch, I don't think it will ever hit as I had way less room before and it took a big bump for it to bottom out, also these leafs are firmer.

[wayno]

So I drove this to do my grocery shopping today, I can feel the bump stops hitting where before they were almost hitting so when I hit a bump I just had a firm ride, now I feel it hit the bump stop, it likely doesn't help that they are flat now instead of pointed, either I will get used to it or I will do something else, maybe I will remove them again and make them pointy, something that has a little more give than a flat bump stop.

If I had another set of lower control arms I would likely make a set of drop arms but the stock length and I would leave the shock mounts, my drop arms I have were made to go really low, so I removed the stock shock mounts in favor of the stud/stud design rather than stud/eye, this way I was able to use Roadster shocks that were very short compressed(8.5") and they would not bottom out and get blown, I had a 1/4" left on the shock.

[wayno]

I fixed the starter bolt today, I took everything apart on the driver side of the engine, drilled the starter mount hole all the way thru the back of the case and I installed a long bolt and put the starter back onto position, it didn't really go all that smoothly as the starter didn't want to go back in, but I finally got it mounted without breaking it.
I also mounted the EGT probe before the turbocharger, I didn't take photos because I just wanted to get it done, the probe is dead center in the hole, and it goes almost the whole way across the exhaust tube, I think it is perfectly mounted.
I also put the air heater element under the throttle body and wired it up, but I didn't use it to start the engine, I just started the engine to see if I had any oil leaks and there are no leaks, but it was dark out so I will check everything again tomorrow, it appears that the blue 90 degree elbow is now rubbing the under side of the hood, I might trim the elbow, but the engine started right up and the starter appears to be working properly with just the 2 bolts holding it in position like stock.

It has not been cold since I installed the air heater element in the turbo piping, at least it is not cold enough when I get out of bed, I am still waiting for the mid 20s to test the air heater element.

I worked on this all day and talked to myself several times when things were not going right, but hopefully it is done, I had actually planned to do more, but once I had the starter mounted I just wanted it derivable so I kept going till it was.