Just bought a 1980 Datsun 720 pickup with 140,ish miles from a guy at work for $750. Runs good, looked a little rough. But I am fixing that...
First I have to say I have been into the "minitruckin" scene since before I could drive, and I am 38 now. I used to have a slammed and chromed out 94 Hardbody I bought new and had until I sold it in 01 when I had grown tired of it. I bought a 01 Frontier crew cab.
My original thought with this truck was to just use it to haul stuff, and a daily driver beater... THAT DIDN'T LAST LONG! I can't drive a messed up looking ride! The previous three owners of this truck beat up and neglected it badly. Looked like it literally hadn't been cleaned in years, just kept it running, mostly by rigging something up. This truck is what a truck should be to me. just the basics, no frills. Not the oversized yuppie family haulers with a bed like newer ones are. Those are not trucks.
I am calling the project "THE SHADOW" after the old radio show, comic books, and movies. Most recent was in 1994 With Alec Baldwin playing the part.
So I started off getting it lowered 3" with Torsion bar adjustment in front, 2" blocks, removal of overload leaf spring for the rear.
Then removal of rust. Then I decided to shave passenger mirror, ugly redneck handmade rear bumper, side moldings, side Datsun emblems, bed hooks, bed body lines. Then Bondo body filler... 2 quarts worth filling small rust holes, small mounting holes from strip molding down sides, mounting holes from pass. mirror, holes from Datsun fender emblems.
Painted grille, driver mirror, stock wheels, and cab vents gloss black. Hand painted Datsun emblem on grille. Did all that LAST weekend and a couple of nights after work.
This morning I got up at 9 but was being lazy getting started, finally got on truck at noon. Sanded the whole truck down. Well, that showed high spots in bed... @#$%&! SINGLE WALL BED... WTF WERE THEY THINKING?! It also showed low spots in body (dents) including three in the roof. How they got there I dunno. So got out the hammer and banged away, followed by more body filler and sanding. Then I got to looking at it and realized I could do better... Filled seam lines on roof and back of cab with body filler, filled body seam lines on bed with a little more body filler. Shaved bed hooks and filled holes. More sanding. Then Filled in/banged out some dents in the tailgate and where taillights normally are. Used up another quart can of Bondo. After using up lots of money on 3 cans of Bondo, thirty sanding discs, a Skil random orbit sander (sanding by hand wasn't getting it), two respirator masks, and lots of hours, my hands still feel like they are vibrating, and my back is killing me, but I am I am finally ready to mask and lay down flat black primer tomorrow. I hope 6 cans is enough!
Now for pictures...
Before:
