NotA510 620 long bed
Posted: 03 Feb 2019 08:18
I'm building a 620, have had her for 3 years now. She's a 1976 long bed, 4 speed, L20. When I bought the truck, it needed everything, said 19,000 miles, was pretty clean, til I got into it.
Here's where I found it, in the state it was in..
Picked it up for $5000 I think, had a friend drive it home, because I had a broken arm at the time.. I didn't really know much about it, other than it was sweet, but ugly, worked okay. Few weeks went by, felt more comfortable driving it, so I took it out. Brakes didn't work, needed two rear wheel cylinders. At this point, I had only dealt with BMWs ( E30,36,46) so I was unaware of Rockauto having most parts.
Anyways, few more weeks went by, still unable to really work on my cars, so I had some friends do the brakes for me, went well. Then I ordered some 3" blocks for the rear, gathered some info, and a friend and I installed the blocks, and reindexed the torsions. Stock shitty shocks still.
I also took off the heinous bed cover, camper hooks, rear crash bumper, front bumperettes.. pretty much everything I hated. So, tires sucked, they were original. So I picked up some Chev Rally wheels, my friend Mike Kohloff powder coated them black, picked up some of the cheapest tires available and sent it.
Looked shitty at this point.. I left it, installed some gas adjust shocks, rode better, and I think I lowered the front more. Then winter happened...
I was doing an engine build/restomod on my E30 at the time, so I spent all my time on the E30 for a while.
Come spring, I moved the truck to my parents garage, to make room for my other cars at my place
At some point I came across Mike Klotz (Bluehandsfab).. Great guy, great ideas.. I purchased a Nissan hard body ball joint conversion from him, which included upper and lower control arm, as well as inner and outer tie rods, with coupling. Very nice product. I had it all powder coated, again by Mike Kohloff. Purchased Belltech drop spindles, some new calipers, rotors, pads, lines etc.. installed everything, along with a 15/16 zx master. Worked well, had it aligned etc..
I cut off the droop bump stops, and tig welded on some plates, which I dimpled with my dimple die set from TMR customs.
The truck had an oil cooler installed when I got it, the original owner had a factory drop in camper which he drove to Vancouver occasionally. It was installed poorly, probably in the dark at midnight with a blindfold on... no pictures tho. So I bought a new cooler, some -an lines, fittings, bent up a bracket, dimpled it.
So, I drove it for a bit, and it sucked, leaked oil, back fired, but I loved it. I pulled the carpet when I got it, and there was some rust scale on the pass side floor panel. Removed it all, but I didn't coat it back, made some mats from rubber. No pics of that. Everything in there is original and mint.
I installed this Nardi wheel, I got from someone from Vancouver, came from a Stagea.
So some time went on, I guess a year ish.. wrapped up my E30. Here's some pictures.
So fast forward to now..ish.. summer 2018, I picked up some new wheels from Love20bee on instagram.
and I left it be for a while, til fall.
I decide I am done with the leaking of oil, back firing, horrible ride, etc..
I guess I was also sick of the rust I kept finding, so I gutted the interior.. Big rust spot on the firewall... Sweet.
Oh and I was sick of the sunroof... and the rusted out battery tray.
A friend of a friend replaced the roof skin for me, replaced the battery tray metal, and fixed up the firewall. Did an OK job, kind of a d bag.
I removed all the rust scale from my rain cowl... disaster, then POR15'd it, then seam sealed it.. Kinda see it here..
Now it's all primed up, ready to paint and looks nice.
That last picture is now. I have a bunch of other details to post.. engine, new suspension, brakes, stuff I've restored. Next post, kinda out of order.
Here's where I found it, in the state it was in..
Picked it up for $5000 I think, had a friend drive it home, because I had a broken arm at the time.. I didn't really know much about it, other than it was sweet, but ugly, worked okay. Few weeks went by, felt more comfortable driving it, so I took it out. Brakes didn't work, needed two rear wheel cylinders. At this point, I had only dealt with BMWs ( E30,36,46) so I was unaware of Rockauto having most parts.
Anyways, few more weeks went by, still unable to really work on my cars, so I had some friends do the brakes for me, went well. Then I ordered some 3" blocks for the rear, gathered some info, and a friend and I installed the blocks, and reindexed the torsions. Stock shitty shocks still.
I also took off the heinous bed cover, camper hooks, rear crash bumper, front bumperettes.. pretty much everything I hated. So, tires sucked, they were original. So I picked up some Chev Rally wheels, my friend Mike Kohloff powder coated them black, picked up some of the cheapest tires available and sent it.
Looked shitty at this point.. I left it, installed some gas adjust shocks, rode better, and I think I lowered the front more. Then winter happened...
I was doing an engine build/restomod on my E30 at the time, so I spent all my time on the E30 for a while.
Come spring, I moved the truck to my parents garage, to make room for my other cars at my place
At some point I came across Mike Klotz (Bluehandsfab).. Great guy, great ideas.. I purchased a Nissan hard body ball joint conversion from him, which included upper and lower control arm, as well as inner and outer tie rods, with coupling. Very nice product. I had it all powder coated, again by Mike Kohloff. Purchased Belltech drop spindles, some new calipers, rotors, pads, lines etc.. installed everything, along with a 15/16 zx master. Worked well, had it aligned etc..
I cut off the droop bump stops, and tig welded on some plates, which I dimpled with my dimple die set from TMR customs.
The truck had an oil cooler installed when I got it, the original owner had a factory drop in camper which he drove to Vancouver occasionally. It was installed poorly, probably in the dark at midnight with a blindfold on... no pictures tho. So I bought a new cooler, some -an lines, fittings, bent up a bracket, dimpled it.
So, I drove it for a bit, and it sucked, leaked oil, back fired, but I loved it. I pulled the carpet when I got it, and there was some rust scale on the pass side floor panel. Removed it all, but I didn't coat it back, made some mats from rubber. No pics of that. Everything in there is original and mint.
I installed this Nardi wheel, I got from someone from Vancouver, came from a Stagea.
So some time went on, I guess a year ish.. wrapped up my E30. Here's some pictures.
So fast forward to now..ish.. summer 2018, I picked up some new wheels from Love20bee on instagram.
and I left it be for a while, til fall.
I decide I am done with the leaking of oil, back firing, horrible ride, etc..
I guess I was also sick of the rust I kept finding, so I gutted the interior.. Big rust spot on the firewall... Sweet.
Oh and I was sick of the sunroof... and the rusted out battery tray.
A friend of a friend replaced the roof skin for me, replaced the battery tray metal, and fixed up the firewall. Did an OK job, kind of a d bag.
I removed all the rust scale from my rain cowl... disaster, then POR15'd it, then seam sealed it.. Kinda see it here..
Now it's all primed up, ready to paint and looks nice.
That last picture is now. I have a bunch of other details to post.. engine, new suspension, brakes, stuff I've restored. Next post, kinda out of order.