New World Datsuns...

I cleaned up the engine compartment a little(dirt/grease), going to drive this to Blue Lake tomorrow.

The more time I spend on this the better it looks, I at one time thought about buying some stick on side trim that would go all the way around the back on the tailgate also as that stuff will go around corners, maybe in the future.
I sorta wish I had done a 3" body drop, too late now, but i didn't even know where this build was going till I had the heart attack, then I just wanted it finished.

I painted the tailgate with the same paint, cannot get a good photo with the gate closed, it is in shadow.





Now I need a bed cover, but it looks way better than it did just a couple months ago.

OK, I am going to post all the photos I took of this cover, this thing almost fits my truck width wise, if it were even an inch less it would fit, but the gaskets along the edges do not quite touch, but this is good as it don't rub the paint off.
What do you guys think I should do?
Should I cut the front off to where the rear touches the tailgate, this causes an issue if I change my mind, as this came with a fin on the back, there are holes in the top to mount that fin, it I cut the front off then the holes are always going to be there.
Now if I cut this top off to the exact size I need around the edges then it will not hang over the sides and the holes will not be there anymore, but I will not have the double structure anymore and it could become flexible, right now it has a upper and lower surfaces which makes it stiff, maybe even stiff enough to stand on, I am pretty sure it would look better not hanging over the sides, but that way rain water is not going to be getting inside the box anymore either.
Also if I cut it to exact size to make it look right I likely will have to make sides that hang over the lip of the box slightly to hide the edge and keep out the water, this will take a lot of work.
I also can make a hinge point in the front to hold it down, I have not figured out all that stuff yet, I am making this stuff up as i go, I just need to decide what I am going to do first, I can hardly believe how close it came to fitting width wise, if I leave it the way it is the gaskets will be hidden that make the seal on the sides and back and I will have to re-engineer the front gasket if cutting the front off is the way I go.































What do you guys think I should do?

Having experience with those tops, I would say recreating the hing to be strong is never going to work. But cutting the back off means a more finishing work, and if you do that... might as well narrow it too...


Of the one photo you took of the front hinges, that is a top where the metal tabs slide into a slots on a bracket that stretched the whole width of the bed. Then they had more brackets on the sides of the bed to place gas struts. Then more at the rear for the locks to engage.

Jacob had done these but I haven't so my opinion is just opinion. I'd cut the front and reinforce it inside wherever needed to support hinges. I think the width isn't that bad. But please, toss that spoiler in the dumpster.

I can cut this cover to fit so there are no holes in it, but this will leave a raw edge all the way around, it likely will look better also except for the raw edge, and keeping the water out will also be a little harder as seals have depth and width to them, the depth will raise it all the way around and that likely will make it look bad unless the seal raises the edges less than a 1/16th inch.
It will also make opening the tailgate easier, this is why I am asking you guys, in my mind just cutting the front off is way easier, but having that area sticking out the side kinda makes it look goofy, and if I cut the front off and then change my mind it is too late about the holes where that spoiler is, they will be there unless I fill them in as it has been cut and I cannot un-cut it.
I believe the way it is uncut it will take my weight, but when I cut it the lower surface will be removed and this will change its strength, I have no idea what is between the top and lower layers, maybe nothing, or maybe foam, if it has foam I could likely cut it so the inside drops in the sides of the box while the edges rest on the rails rubbing the paint off but a rubber seal should slow that down.
The lower surface is not flat, but I am fairly sure I can cut it to the exact size needed, measure 10 times and cut once, the lower surface will be a little harder, where the 2 surfaces are pressed together is no big deal, but some places will not be that easy.

I have no idea what this cover was for Jacob, I suspect you are right, it had a bracket with 2 slots for the tabs, it also has tabs on the bottom side that look like they could be for struts, all I got was the cover and an eye bracket with a strap hanging down in the middle, I paid $40.00 for this, unless I cut this wrong I am not going to lose here, I will have a cover for this truck.

The core of it should be basically some sort of Cardboard. Probably some hex pattern. These things are made to bottom dollar. They are nice where you see it, and rough else where.

If your goal is to have a 100% dry bed, know this. That is near impossible. The seal (bulb seal is what we called it) with its thickness compressed to fill any voids. We would often have issues at the tail gate sides, and of course at the front.

Sometimes with these things, its not about stopping water from entering, but stopping water from going where you dont want it. Foam tape and silicone can add some damning ability. Which reminds me. When I would re-seal a top, the cheap option for customers was to just use foam tape with about 3-4 layers depending on how much lift we needed. Like some we need 4 so that the top would be high enough to clear the tail gate.

Fiberglass sucks to work with. Its super messy. I wasn't thinking when I wrote above. I would cut the front off at the hinges. You can recreate something to support the weight. As far as the holes go, something as simple as a christmas tree plug. Or filling with epoxy/bondo.

I have basically decided to cut it to the size of the bed, but it will need to be dry outside as I don't want to work on it in the rain.

I can work with fiberglass, I repaired/modified my carbon fiber hangglider a few times, and made the mount flanges on my 720 dually fenders once I cut the to the correct shape of the sides of the bed into the dually fenders, but this is a lot more to deal with, narrowing it is out of the question.
I am thinking I will cut it to the size of the outer rails of the box sides and tailgate, and all the way to the cab on the front as I can trim that back as needed, the bottom side will be cut to the inside dimensions of the box, if it sits too high on the rails because of too many layers I will sand/grind/cut the outer 1.5 inches down to one layer, if the lower section/layer is not attached in enough places anymore and sags I will remove it completely, but then I will need to figure out a way to hold it in position, if the lower section can be left in place I can use that to hold it in position.

I will think about it some more and see if anyone has suggestions not already mentioned that I have not thought about already, I just don't want it to look goofy and it sticking out the sides like it does in the photos looks kinda goofy, the best way would be having it be level with the rails on the inside of the box rails, but that is a level of precision I am not capable of and I am positive it will leak like crazy if I tried.

Well I went all in on this today, it rained last night but was not raining this morning.

I measured very carefully and cut the sides.


Then I test fit it and realized my box isn't really quite square, so I cut the front hinge area off as I didn't want to deal with that right now and it held it up off the bed rails too high, so I cut it to match the cab rear panel under the rear window, then I flipped it over and had to notch the underside so it was the same level as the sides, I removed the front mounts tabs/hinge points, but I was able to leave the metal piece that went all the way across, the photo didn't turn out that good, but you can see how I notched it.


Then I cut the center section that held the rear up, it rested on the tailgate, I leveled around 5 inches, I have about a quarter inch front to rear play.




Then I cut the rear piece off, rounded all 4 corners, beveled the edges so they were not sharp and it is on the truck now, I also put an eighth inch thick seal around the front and sides to try and keep water out but I can see it is not sealing all the way around, especially in the front as the cover has a slight bow from side to side.












Then I started thinking about how to hold the cover down, I took the easy way right now, I drilled a hole in the bed as it has several holes so what's another, I installed a hook in the hole with fender washers on both sides, then I used a ratchet strap and hooked each end thru the brackets for the gas struts and then thru the hook in the bottom center and I tightened it down pretty tight.


I then decided to test it and stood in the middle of the cover and took two photos with my feet in the photos so you can see I was actually standing there when I took the photos, that cover didn't sag at all, it is very strong/stiff.




I need to think of a better way to hold it down, I suppose it could move sideways a little, but front back it's not going to move, I mounted the hook slightly forward of the brackets I used so it would want to move forward if it moved at all, I don't really want to drill holes in the cover, if I were to do that i would just use fancy headed screws and just mount it to the rails and around 5 screws across the front to pull it down and make a seal across the front as that is where I can see light.

I will think about it some more, maybe one of you guys has a good idea that won't take a lot of effort to hold it in position.

A lot of the letters on the keys on my key board have worn off, so sometimes I hit the "i" when I meant to hit the "o" and vise versa, them are the worst 2 letters I get mixed up, so that would be why "in" and "on" get mixed up and i miss fixing it.

I mentioned in my 521 work truck thread that this was broke again(rear brakes), the driver side rear was leaking again, I have always had this issue with this truck, if I do not drive it for a long time the first time I hit the brakes the driver side rear locks up, so I try to remember to push on the brakes in the driveway a few times and things are better most the time, well my brake reservoir was empty, so I filled it and pumped it a while and they sort of worked so I drove to the library, I barely got home and the reservoir was empty again, so the next day I pulled the rear drive side apart and the pads fell off the shoes, one piston was almost out of the cylinder and had been that way for a while as the end near the seal had rust on it.

So I took the brake cylinder out and looked at it, I went to the parts store and tried buying a new one but everything they showed me did not look like mine, so I went home and pulled the brake cylinder apart and honed it, wire wheeled the piston being careful not to touch the seal, put it back together, installed it, put some other shoes I had in a bucket in the shed(I never throw away good parts), when I looked at it all together I realized this was not going to work(cannot figure out why I did not notice this before), I looked at the back side of the other side of the axle and it had what looked like what was in the photos at the auto parts store they were saying I should have, I went out back and removed a brake cylinder from another axle I have, it was rusty so I pulled it apart and honed it, put it back together and installed it, the brakes have never worked so good, they do not lock up like they did before.

So I bought this 1986 frame(only the rolling frame) from a guy back in 2012ish, I assumed it was complete but at some point someone had put the wrong brake cylinder in it(from a 620), maybe that was why it was just a frame, I wanted this frame because it had the wider rear axle, with that and the custom 720 lower control drop arms I made the rims were just about even with the fender wheel wells, I did not want the wheels deep inside the wheel wells, I guess this is why I had issues with the rear brakes for over 10 years, it has great brakes now.

I like how this truck corners, it is so low it does not lean in corners like stock height trucks do, but I have to always be watching for debris on the road as a lost trailer hitch would cause major damage to the bottom side of this truck, the cross member under the oil pan is only 3" off the ground, I raised it to 3" as the frame was hitting/dragging on everything when it was 2.5" off the ground.

I had a buddy in high school that could bust reflectors in the middle of the road with u-bolts on the axle of his isuzu. That’s just too much for me.

If it was that low it likely got busted up pretty fast, I raised mine a half inch so it would not drag just pulling into my own driveway.

We were young and dumb. The bottom of that truck was all kinds of scraped up.

I had to do a lot of things to the frame of this truck to allow me to get it as low as I got it without dragging on the ground if I got a flat, first thing I had to do was cut the cross member out that hung down below the frame, it was the one that the e-brake hardware mounted to, as I recall the two piece driveline center bearing also mounts to it, it is too low to see what is all is connected to it, it would have to be lifted to verify.

If I had known in advance that I was going to lower it I would have done a body drop first, a lot I did would not have had to be done, but I made it into a El Camino/Ranchero before I decided to lower it, so I had no choice but to do what I did if I wanted to lower it, one learns a lot when doing things like that.

This 520 is the quietest vehicle I own that I drive anymore except for the 1964 Datsun NL320 which has not been driven for a long time now, quiet is kind of nice sometimes, I can hear what's going on with the truck better than the others, I have been hauling around the neighbor recently as he has no way around anymore, I cannot hear most of what he says anymore when driving.