My latest $350 adventure

[ryf]

Thanks, Im really beginning to think I should've gone to school for auto body when I had the chance. Got such a natural ack for this. That tailgate came together in about 2 hours. still needs a little more work to get it perfectly true, but that should only take about an hour with the body hammer and dollies. and maybe a dash of body filler here n there.

the question isn't do you have a knack, its do you enjoy it. if you have a knack and enjoy it, then yeah you need to see if you can afford to alter your lifestyle to be happy, I enjoy making buggies and go carts, but i dunno if I want to work in a hot *** fab lab all day though (maybe if they had good A/C would be ok, but thats not the norm around here)

 

[HellSpawn]

I'll bang on metal all day, I love it.

 

[machinist@large]

I'll bang on metal all day, I love it.

Another closet Michail Jackson fan...(Beat it, beat it, beat it!!!!!)

 

[HellSpawn]

A few shots of the progress..


Got my rollpan fabbed up and started testing my paint on the hood. First picture you see of it is coat 1 after wet sanding, second is second coat. The more coats and the thinner you get, the better it self levels and glassier it looks. (I'm rolling it on)

 

[HellSpawn]

Starting my 4 link build very soon! Been doing all of my measurements and making templates for some stuff. Planning on C-notching the frame.

Pretty soon I'll have the rear of this thing laid out!

 

[syko120]

DATSUN!!! I see a crap load of these trucks at the drag strip running wankel engines...

 

[HellSpawn]

DATSUN!!! I see a crap load of these trucks at the drag strip running wankel engines...

I wish I saw a crapload of these trucks in general, hard to find good body panels around here @ junkyards. Going to end up having to buy new replacement panels eventually. Ohwell.

Anyhoot, small update, finally ordered a headgasket set (felpro) for $30, should be here in a week. Pretty excited to tear the thing apart, and its needed one since I got it, Im just happy its only been an external leak though. Might even pull the engine out completely to clean up the block and paint it some nifty colors.

 

[HellSpawn]

oops! Got tired of looking at swiss cheese rust on the lower qtrs and rockers so I hacked em off. Picked up a sheet of 18g sheetmetal the other day aswell along with some other goodies to start fabricating my 4 link. Im going to have a brand new truck by the time I'm done

 

[HellSpawn]

Headgasket set is in! Been awhile, but now I get to break out the trusty torque wrench and go to town on this thing.

 

[B man]

man i see this type of truck all the time....with 33" mud tires and covered in mud.

so how lows the rear gonna go? you gonna put a good sound system in to?

 

[HellSpawn]

man i see this type of truck all the time....with 33" mud tires and covered in mud.

so how lows the rear gonna go? you gonna put a good sound system in to?

The truck will lay frame eventually (the frame will sit on the ground with the bags deflated) Fully inflated they'll probably actually make the ride height a tiny bit higher than factory.

Already have a aftermarket CD deck, some nice door speakers, and a 10" sub behind the passenger seat (tight fit!)

 

[HellSpawn]

Started tearing down my L20b tonight for headgasket replacement! Here are some pix, from start to where I am now (Need to clean mating surfaces)

The holy wooden wedge of grace!

No cracks or warpage! sweet!

 

[HellSpawn]

Slowly starting to patch my bed back up.

Got one panel in, Also decided I am filling in the recessed area under the bedrails. I think it looks super smooth without it. Just need to cut one long strip out for filling in the rest. I should've done it in one piece, but when you're working alone, its really hard to get panels clamped down to spot weld em. So I'm going one piece at a time.

The top.. Pretty solid, might just fill in the rest with an oldschool method... lead.

Going to eventually sink some different conventional taillights in this thing too. Should look dope all flush like this when its done.

On a side note, I've been collecting steel and parts for the 4 link build. (Postponing until spring as I do not have a heated shop atm.) And Minnesota weather is chilly

 

[HellSpawn]

Small update on the bedside. Got the rest of the top panel in so its all flush to the top rail. I think it looks killa. Going to do the lower qtrs and skirts next. Opinions?

 

[redsox985]

Now hit that with some body filler and an orbital sander. It's looking good.

 

[HellSpawn]

Now hit that with some body filler and an orbital sander. It's looking good.

Thinkin' on going oldschool and using lead for most of it instead of body filler.

 

[HellSpawn]

Building some custom door pods/trim for my door panels out of pine. Intentions are to router them down so all of the edges are super smooth and flow with the door panels. Other plans include either staining them extremely dark, or wrapping in tweed/vinyl, any other suggestions?

 

[HellSpawn]

Today's spoils of war. Little progress, but this should get things moving along quite a bit now that I've decided to just park the truck and get her up on stands for now.


Completely stripped the rear end of everything I won't be needing for the time being. (brakes, wiring, fuel tank, oddball crossmembers and such, ect)

Whats left of the wiring loom for the tails and trailer harness. I will be pretty much removing all of the loom in the truck eventually and starting from scratch. Lot of the wire is really brittle and pretty much gone.

Coating on my fuel tank was flaking off, so I started wire wheeling it. Just the top took like a minute to do, thinking about stripping it fully, polishing it, and clearing it for the time being. I think it would look neat. Assuming I end up reusing it anyway.

Sad state that my interior is in.. Unfinished carpet, old rotten floor mats, red center console for ****s and giggles, and unfinished wood door pods.

 

[Bluethunder3320]

you got a lot of work to do! but its coming nice.

in auto class were working on a similar looking pickup- a 4 cyl. isuzu pup. 80's. its so funny looking and it says "space cab" on the back hahaha

replaced the rad because it was leaky and overheating, but it still overheated after that. it ran like CRAP too. had to hold the gas halfway to make it idle really choppy. so took the head off (that was a PITA, everything rusted) and turns out its a bad head gasket.. machined the head and its starting to go back together.

probably real good on gas. interior looks like a car. but smells like mold. yuck

sad thing it only had 120k

 

[HellSpawn]

Yeah, those old pups are known for their headgasket issues. Believe me, I've done my fair share of headgasket jobs on the older Isuzu 4 cylinders. I've actually got a Isuzu 2.3 sitting on my engine stand awaiting a rebuild . And believe it or not, these old carb'd trucks tend to be horrible on gas. with the weber 32/36 on my 2.0 it gets about 14-15mpg on the highway.

120k isn't bad for one of those trucks. And usually the frame rots out long before the motors hatch. (you'll see alot of the older isuzus and nissans at like 150k with 2x4s inbetween the cab and the bed to stop it from sagging.)