New World Datsuns...

Justinberni wrote:What size is the speaker sitting in the back?
I've got some 6x9 boxes sitting in my closet that I use to have in a single cab 720.

It's a 6X9 speaker Justin, but I don't want you to break up your set, I only need one, I was going to go to the Goodwill and Value Village to see if I could find one box pretty soon, I just have not been driving it yet, too busy trying to get other stuff done.

When are you going to install the leafs and transmission?

Leafs are in. I'm waiting on the trans for now, working everyday makes it hard to take it apart and be sure it's back together to get to work the next day.

OK, I was trying to find white ABS sheeting to make door cards/panels, I called Tap Plastics and they only had black, I didn't want to use the plastic political sign material as it was kinda dirty, and where ever a mount screw was it looked bad as it kinda sunk in to the material.
I then remembered that I had extra floor carpet material, but I had to remember where I seen it, it took me an hour to find it, I looked everywhere, the attic about 3 times, the last couple times with a flashlight, in both the bedrooms where parts are, and I finally found it, it was here in the garage plain site sitting on the Roadster engine.


Anyway I covered the dirty door cards with the floor covering material.




And then I installed them.








The doors don't close so good now, I might have to remove a half inch from the rear of the cards/panels so they don't touch the door gasket/seal.
I suppose I should make the kick panels now, but will have to buy more plastic material, not today.

What did you use as a fastener?


I have some trunk mats/covers from newer Camrys.
Black corrugated plastic covered in black auto carpet.
Not too thick. Fairly lightweight.

I will be using these as door cards and kick panels.

I just used screws with washers to hold door cards on, you can see them in the photos.
I am more of a function guy instead of looks guy.
I do have an issue, the drive side is leaking bad somewhere, I had to drill a hole in the low spot of the floor board to let the water out, I need to find where it is coming from.

Yeah, as soon as I can locate some proper window felts I'll be doing this.

I figure while I have the door apart, ya know.

I was going to use nut rivets and fender style washers to secure the door cards.

flatcat19 wrote:Yeah, as soon as I can locate some proper window felts I'll be doing this.

I figure while I have the door apart, ya know.

I was going to use nut rivets and fender style washers to secure the door cards.

I used 510 window channel felt in my 521, it works great

And since channel felt is covered in felt, the rubber part is not directly hit by the sunlight, so the Thailand stuff is alright to use. That and its not actually making a water tight seal.

The best stuff is Roadster channel felt, but it is expensive, that's one of the reasons why I generally only use it on the 320s, the other reason is that it fits the 320s channels way better that the 510 felt does, as the channels are narrower on the 320s.
I did use Roadster channel felt on this truck though, I didn't have any 510 stuff to use, funny that the guy I bought it from claimed it was OEM 510 channel felt, I did not have the heart to tell him different, it was on craigslist.

So I pulled off the door cards, took a half inch off the back end, put them back on the truck and the doors close way easier now, I should have done that a long time ago, every time I slammed the door I was afraid something would break.
I also put a 2 inch piece of hose in the channel that the hood sits in on the passenger side and closed the hood, now it sits level in the front, it usually is down on the passenger side and it wiggled while I drove the truck, I always wondered if it would wiggle enough to open up and slam the windshield.
I have the 4 rubber pieces that go on the sides to keep the hood from rattling, but I plan on painting the engine compartment white like the rest of the truck when I install the LZ23 I am building, so I don't want to install the little rubber pieces yet.

I bought a rebuilt 74/75 power brake booster on ebay today to replace the one on this truck, every time I step on the brake it either idles to fast when cold, or it idles to slow when warmed up, it only does this when I step on the brake, so I figure I am sucking air thru the booster membrane, it must have a crack in it now, as it didn't do this before.
I have been considering rebuilding a 219 head I have and putting it on this engine instead of putting the LZ23 in it, it's a lot less work right now, but more money, the other thing I have considered is putting a stock cam in this head, see if that makes a difference, as right now it has an RV cam in it and I am unhappy, it has no power starting out, and it has no power on the hiway because of stock valve size, I actually have a couple L20b heads with stock cams around here right now, I just feel I should be able to get more power out of this engine, or at the very least a better power curve.
I will consider it longer, I have jobs tomorrow and the next day.

So this is an L20b cam, correct?
I pulled it out of a 210 head with small intake ports, so this kinda confuses me, I don't see how the lobes could be any higher as I could not get the cam towers off if they were any higher, as they are as high as the the cam bearings.

I put a rebuilt booster in the truck, the old one had a leak and when I stepped on the brakes when cold the idle would go 300/400rpms up, and when warmed up it would drop about the same and act real lopey like it had a miss.
It's all better now, since it is such a small booster it doesn't make the brakes light to the touch, I still have to press medium, but it is better than nothing, and it is nice not having the engine get weird all the time.

Yes that is a L20 cam. Dont know why, but the are stamped U20. And the center has to two prongs for turning with a wrench.

Laecaon wrote:Yes that is a L20 cam. Dont know why, but the are stamped U20. And the center has to two prongs for turning with a wrench.

Thankyou Jacob, I am thinking about taking the RV cam out of the engine.

I seem to remember the U20 on my L20b also.


Glad you got the booster straightened out. Vacuum leaks make anything hard to tune.

DRIVEN wrote:I seem to remember the U20 on my L20b also.


Glad you got the booster straightened out. Vacuum leaks make anything hard to tune.

Thanks, so am I, it was alright at first, then it started acting up, it didn't act weird unless I put my foot on the brake though.
All this stuff is custom, the booster I received had a longer brake pedal connection shaft, so I had to modify stuff again.

I am going to try the stock type cam, this engine is strange, it doesn't have torque or high end power, it is lose/lose, my original L20b had more power and it was wore out.

Is this the motor you had in the truck going to Blue Lake?

Whatever motor you had was scootin'.


If this is a different one, shitty.

flatcat19 wrote:Is this the motor you had in the truck going to Blue Lake?

Whatever motor you had was scootin'.


If this is a different one, shitty.

Same engine I had at Blue Lake, but it doesn't scoot like the L20b I had in the work truck, but that one had a stock cam and bigger valves also, but it was wore out, I thought stock W53 head valves with RV cam would work out, I was so wrong.
At first I thought it was that Weber carb, but now it has Dual SUs, it starts better, and it does accelerate a little better, but I just don't like it, this truck is way lighter than the work truck, this engine should do better, cam is my next change, get that RV cam outta there.
I have had a lot of small issues with this engine, most I have worked out, this is just another one to work out, I am building a LZ23 for this truck, it is actually mostly done, but I want this one to run right unless someone wants to buy it from me, but I have $300.00 and something in the head right now.

I picked up this today from the machine shop, it's been rebuilt and now has hardened seats, it should be in the truck in the next couple weeks.




I really am hoping to get this done before Blue Lake, I have everything I need now, the head done, all the gaskets needed, and an ARP head stud kit, I am hoping to get this done soon.