1986 Nissan 720 will eventually Brap!

What's up world!  Long time Lurker, first time posting on here!  Figured I would share my project I have going on at the moment, its a 1986 Nissan 720 that originally was gonna be an early 90s minitruck build, but got the itch to go a different route.  Think 13B......but first, story time.

I'm not new to minitrucks/cars/vans/etc....  I've built and owned quite a collection of vehicles when I was younger till I moved up here to NC about 15 years ago, before moving to NC, I had quite a collection of AE86s/TE72s/TE31s/AW11/AE101s/MKII/MKIII/MKIV/Toyota Vans&Previas/Nissan Hardbodys/Isuzu Pickup/Chevy Corvair(1967)/Pontiac Fiero/Chevy Nova(1969)/Buick Roadmaster and the list goes on and on and on..... 

Anyways, I haven't really had a project since about 2013 when I sold my Nissan Hardbody I had,  I had alot going on with life, health and just trying to rebuild myself I guess you can say.  Fast forward 2 years ago,  the company I was working for promoted me and got me a shop closer to home which was appreciated since I'm closer to my son's school and also my about to be born daughter at the time.  Well,  one of my techs there had a lowered Nissan Hardbody and it got me wanting one or just a minitruck in general!  So I'm searching marketplace and at the same time,  I had listed a couple of non running Toyota Vans for sale.  Got a response for the vans and was offered this Nissan 720 which was running and driving.  Guy drove the truck to my house which is a good 45-60 minutes away and just him making the drive, showed me it was a good runner and she was!  

So here she is,  the night I went over to pick up the truck and drove it home,  had to stop at Sheetz for fuel and a pic

First thing I had to do, lower it!  front was easy, loosened the torsion bars and added 3" blocks to the rear

Really quick sidenote, the CRX in the background, I bought it from another employee of mine thinking it would be a good father and son project, but my son wasn't interested in it 

De-chromed the front bumper, grille and corner lights

Wasn't happy with the 3" rear drop, so I installed 3" lowering leafs I saved from my old Hardbody and have a total of 6" drop in the rear, then drove to Cars and Coffee with my former employee and his Nissan Hardbody

As it sat like this, I enjoyed it a bit with the occasional drive to Cars and Coffee and drove it to work a few times.  Then on my way home from the last Cars and Coffee I attended last year,  I hit a nasty bump in the highway and not only knocked the torsion keys out, but also got the carrier bearing even more FUBAR and driveshaft was knocking around.  So I got it home, put it up on jackstands and that's when it went down hill....... 

I found some AW11 Side Skirts, got curious and yeah,  I'll make these work when I'm ready for that stage.

And I'll post more tomorrow evening as it is now 12:58am and I have to get up at 4:30am to start my day.  

I love lowered mini trucks.

This should be fun!!

What part of nc?

Ohhh this is going to be good.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

This should be fun!!

What part of nc?

It'll be fun once it's running hopefully.  Lol.  I'm in Coats, literally between Raleigh and Fayettenom

Piguin said:

Ohhh this is going to be good.

Hopefully.  Still a long way to go and being a somewhat new dad, time isn't on my side as much.  But if I can have it running by the time my son gets his permit in a year, I'd be happy

I love these truck builds. Will be watching.

Now about that CRX.... 

clutchsmoke said:

I love these truck builds. Will be watching.

Now about that CRX.... 

Thank you!  Sadly,  the CRX got sold and I'm really regretting it right now.  But that's life.  lol.  Will continue with more pics tonight of the minitruck project leading up to where it's currently at

Well,  I have some down time at work, so here we go.....

So with the front sheetmetal removed, I left it like that for a week or so because I couldn't figure out if I wanted to keep the "patina" or find new front sheet metal and get the body straight.  I was looking online and I've never had good luck with aftermarket body panels before and was really leaning towards the patina look, when all of a sudden while looking on the book of face, I came across some New Old Stock in the box front fenders and front apron and it was tooooo good of a deal to pass up on!  So lets get to work!

Here is how the engine bay started....

cut out the battery tray, or what was left of it.  Cleaned up the rusted areas and applied a primer coat and a base red coat at first

How it ended, found some old metal flake paint in the shed and figured what the hell..... remember, at first I was going to go old school minitruck build at first

So after getting the engine bay almost done,  still not 100% done, especially with the engine swap it'll be getting down the road.  But more on that later.  I decided to clean up the frame.  I ground down the frame, primed it and tried some Harbor Freight Chassis Paint and it's still holding up very well!  Besides some over spray from primer,  But I'll get that taken cared of down the road

You can see the new fenders hanging on the truck rack and the new apron by the front of the truck.

front end is not tightened all the way since I still have to fit the wheels I came across via marketplace

i like where this is headed

Picked these wheels up for $150 delivered, took the tires off and startedto clean them up 

I promise you guys, I took care of the red bleeding through on the face of the wheels and polished them again. lol

front sheet metal still not tightened down, gonna have to trim the inside lip so the front doesn't rub

Man this is great! Love to see a lowered 720!

Hooray for braps and 13b :)

That thing already looks super rad! Excited for updates. 

Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) said:

That thing already looks super rad! Excited for updates. 

Thanks!  Still a long way to go, but here's a pick of the grinch hanging out in the bed of the truck while the wife and I put up lights on our house.  Lol

Alright!  Back to the program!  So I started the bodywork on the truck, getting everything prepped for paint, And started to work on the bed and also came across a good deal for a couple of 13B engines and one of them was out of a RX8 and the other was out of a GSL-SE model and a 6 speed transmission!  Soooo......  I pulled the stock NAPZ engine and 5 speed trans out of my truck, listed it and sold it within a couple of days and bought the 2 13B engines and 6 speed transmission for the same price I sold my stock engine and transmission for!  Winning!  Sorta,  I didn't get any wiring or ECU for either engine, so I will figure this out later.

But I started to work on the bed of the truck, if the rear fenders look funny, it's because I cut them.  I plan to run 15x10" wheels at all 4 corners. 

Here is the engine removed and ready for the buyer to pick up.   

After moving the truck out from under the carport, I got the bed sitting on some old wheels/tires and started to get it prepped.  Still not done,  but wanted it in primer to atleast get back onto the truck and make sure I get the bodylines solid

I work solo at the house, so getting the bed off and back on was fun to say the least....  lol.  If you notice in this pic,  the front of the bed was cut out.  The plan for that, along with the rest of the bed, gonna make a new front panel, bead roll it and reinforce it with square tubing,  the bed floor I'm still debating if I'm gonna cut out and make a new floor panel, or just leave as is and work around it???  I guess I'll figure it out,  once I figure out what I'm going to do with the rear end.  As in Keep the solid axle rear and just get a 8.8 from a mustang/ranger/explorer/etc?  Or go IRS out of something like..... I don't know.... "RX8" or Miata....  Car guy problems seriously

This pic, you can see the sharpie notes I have written down on the bed.  Tells me dents I need to repair, shave certain things and reminding me I gotta fit 15x10" wheels on this

As seen earlier,  I showed AW11 MR2 sideskirts being a possibilty and most likely will become used on this build.  But I also have a AW11 rear spoiler hangin around in the shed and thought to myself "I wonder?"  So here we go!  Thoughts????  I honestly have a topper that I cut up and need to resize to fit the bed and follow the cab contour,  but not sold on it quite yet

Slapped the wheels back on it, so I can remove it from under the carport for work on a friend's car..... Again,  don't let the rear wheel well throw ya'll off,  still debating on if I'm gonna make fiberglass fender flares or do metal fender flares.  

The reason I had to move my truck from under the carport......... lowrider fun!  1994 Lincoln Town Car, has 3 pumps, 8 batteries, reinforced frame and she hops and 3 wheels with ease!  And She's for sale btw!  I need it out of my driveway!  Lol

I dig the radiused wheelwell and no flares, but im biased. 

Dusterbd13-michael said:

I dig the radiused wheelwell and no flares, but im biased.

Awesome looking Duster!  

Just adding more to get up to date, as mentioned in my last post, been doing lowrider things.  Anyone that knows me from way back in my late 90s Miami/Orlando days,  know outside of drag racing and drifting, lowriding was life and still is!  Been babysitting this lincoln for almost 2 months now I think, more so cause my friend is trying to get me to buy it and I would,  but I love sleeping inside a nice warm house next to my wife.  Lol.  With that said,  it's a fun car that has all the hard work done to it, but I'm anal and rather build something myself instead.  Just how I am,  but it is a dope lowrider and definitley a fun car to cruise around in.  

What makes the car dance, 3 pumps (1 for front and 1 for each rear corner) 8 batteries and old school with just 4 switches and an extension switch to hop from outside the car......

Anyways, back to the minitruck and the soon to be engine swap from a donor vehicle.  So I sold the stock engine and transmission along with the factory ac components and some other small stuff to another Nissan 720 owner.  I've been trying to figure out how I'm gonna make one engine out of two and throw it into the truck, but came to a slight stop because I prematurely quit my job I was at....... to say the weight lifted off my shoulders is an understatement.  Sometimes you have to take risks in life and just say berkeley it!  With that said,  I just happen to be bored cause one person can only clean the same house over and over again to keep busy and really didn't want to spend money till I had a new job.  So as usual,  I'm scrolling marketplace on the book of face, just scrolling and not really looking for anything in particular and thats when I saw it listed.  2004 Mazda RX8 Partout, message me with your needs.  So, sent a message asking for the engine/transmission/ecu/wiring and instrument cluster and keys.  Seller responded back with "800 and you can have the whole car"  What?!?!?!  So now I'm hooked, I to go check it out after my wife left the house with the kids and get there to see a bunch of cars and a tow truck.  Thinking to myself, I wonder how much he'll charge to tow it to my house?  lol.  Anyways,  I'm greeted by the owner of the place, small independant shop owner and he takes me to the RX8.  I'm looking at it, he tells me to pop the hood as he has a jump box and I'm like no way, she runs?  He hooked up the jump box and says crank it......  Well I'll be gawd damn!  It fired up and ran!  So since I didn't go to the bank on the way in cause it was deep out in the country and I live in the country, I asked the owner "got cashapp?"  he said yup and I gave him the asking price with no questions asked!  He also has a 4th gen camaro with a LT1 and T56 transmission I will go back to get as the same day I bought the RX8 that my wife knows about cause it's here at our house,  I also bought a 1992 Caprice wagon she does NOT know about and that 4th gen camaro will be my donor car for a manual swap Caprice Wagon.  But for now,  RX8 pics.  lol

Engine seems stock, minus the intake system, underdrive pulleys and catback exhaust.  Cranks right up, drives very well and I was amazed at how well it performed while driving it home.  I was not expecting a running and driving vehicle when I went to go look at this thing, and for $800..... I'd be a fool to not buy it.  Lol.  But yeah, gonna use this as a starting point for my truck since it runs and drives.  Gives me plenty of time to build a Hybrid Renesis out of the 1st two engines I bought.

Teaser pic of the caprice wagon I bought, still need to make the drive to Jacksonville, NC to get it, but the weekends have been super busy with lowriders and family things

$800 for anything that runs and drives is crazy cheap these days. In for updates!

Well,  I'm still debating on using a topper for the truck,  Since I'm thinking about building a rollcage, I figured the topper would hide it perfectly.  Not sure,  still up in the air.

And yes that is a Toyota Van in the background, slowly getting that road ready, hopefully by February 24th which is my Bday.  

Here is the topper when I got it, traded a set of stock steel nissan wheels for it.

Put it on the bed, definitely needs to be shorterened width and length wise.  Need to add a bit of height to it as well as get top of the topper to match the contour of the 720 roofline....  wtf am I in for???   lol

I honestly wasn't prepared when I started to cut the topper and fit it in place to see where I need to shorten, widen, extend, etc.....  so I just grabbed whatever I had to keep the topper in place to firgure out my next move