Chris's D21 thingo

Here we go! Christian's old D21 gets a new owner.
I'm not so into playing in the way Christian was, but I'll keep tweaking it to see what I can get out of it.
I have thrown some panels and paint at it so far - I'll post some pics later.
If you haven't seen what has happened so far, take a look at http://www.navara.asia/showthread.php?t=7258 and see what happened to it before I got my grubby little mitts on it.

How it was - a recap... And the future!

Christian has done a great job getting this bucket-of-bolts to where it was at when I took over, but most of his efforts have concentrated on floor-down-and-firewall-forward upgrades.

I thought I'd modernise it a little, clean it up and get rid of some of the dings and rust at the same time. It's not hard to see where the rust came from....




It is the classic (?) square-fronted D21 in white, with a grey bonnet.



..and it was starting to pop here and there with some rusty bits -



This was the inspiration to tart it up a bit.

The build.

I started by pulling the front panels and doors off:



I cut out all the rust I could find and welded in some plates. A couple of cans of underbody sealer/deadener should help keep fresh rust at bay.

I then replaced the front doors with a pair from a Terrano, as I never have liked quarter lights and the one on the passenger door had no latch. The lack of a latch had been overcome by gluing the window shut with silicone. A LOT of silicone.

I carried on with the Terrano theme (Thanks, John!) and it soon had its new front - with gold front doors, black rear doors and front wings and a blue bonnet and bumper.

I had to change the headlights (Terrano's are bigger), sidelights (Terrano's have separate indicators), indicators (in the bumper) and bumper. Fixed up the wiring (all the plugs were different and the wires were in the wrong place) and the bonnet wouldn't close...

Replaced the bonnet latch (the catch lever is a different shape) and it closed - almost.

Needed to replace the bonnet prop/stay - it has a couple of little bends that the Navara prop doesn't have and stopped it closing. D'oh!

Some filler, some masking and I was ready for paint.

Decided to paint it myself (will be handy when I trade paint with bushes/trees/rocks/banks/whatever to be able to fix it up myself).

Looks like this now:





Then I thought I'd make it a little easier to live with and installed central locking and keyless entry.

So - That's it for now... (apart from waiting for a set of door mirrors - ETA a week or so)

Plans:

Bullbar.
Spare wheel carrier.
Side steps.
Internally-mounted compressor.
Some lights of some sort.

Probably a thousand other things that haven't hit me as "ESSENTIAL" yet!

Looking good Chris, way better than she ever did with me behind the wheel.

This is great. Well done mate. I never reached the panting stage with my front end swap!

All I REALLY gotta do is...

... Learn to drive it.
Might need help. A LOT of help.....

It's all good...

unkn0wn said:

Looking good Chris, way better than she ever did with me behind the wheel.

Click to expand...

I tell you what, Christian -
If you hadn't made this truck look interesting, I wouldn't have bought it.
I'm keen to see what you do with the new one!
Stay happy!!

Thanks!

Dion said:

This is great. Well done mate. I never reached the panting stage with my front end swap!

Click to expand...

Cheers, Dion.
Having had Company cars for the past 26 years, it has been interesting to see what I remembered about swinging a spanner.
I'll get there...

What I am really struggling with is getting the tacho working.
Tried 2 clusters and no tach. I like to know what things under my control are doing, so I don't break them.

I'm moving along - keeping the job for tomorrow a light one so I can catch up on some stuff I have been neglecting. The plan is to drill out the three 6mm bolts that are broken off in the front crossmember and re-tap the holes. I should then be able to fit the front bash plate. I'll also wire up the indicator repeaters on the new wings - I didn't have the right plugs, but I raided a Terrano that was being scrapped and cut off all the plugs, with plenty of tails. I'll solder on some shiny new cable and it'll look like they should always have been there.

Still looking at whether I can use a Terrano spare wheel carrier (the swing away type) on the ute. I have got one in the shed, just in case.
If I can reinforce the offside rear corner of the tub enough, maybe it'll work. Not sure if I have the skills to fabricate something that can carry so much weight, over such a long lever, and make it look like anything other than a dogs breakfast, hence I'm still in the thinking stage.

Have a happy week!

Chris_in_Ravenswood said:

I tell you what, Christian -
If you hadn't made this truck look interesting, I wouldn't have bought it.
I'm keen to see what you do with the new one!
Stay happy!!

Click to expand...

New ones coming along nicely, I also have to workout a spare mount, so if your comes along nicely I might have to steal the idea

Thinking the old girl needs a turbo shortly, she struggles on hills and overtaking, so i think that's on the list for soon.

Chris_in_Ravenswood said:

What I am really struggling with is getting the tacho working.
Tried 2 clusters and no tach. I like to know what things under my control are doing, so I don't break them.

Click to expand...

When I first put the engine in the tacho worked, but with the Navara cluster it was reading about 4 times higher than normal (this is to be expected from the different sensor types). obviously this was before the dam dash fell apart.

I never tried a Terrano one as I read the wiring was different, not sure where.

It would be disappointing to not have it working, since you made the dash look so pretty

If all else fails you might be able to use an adjustable after market tac using the standard sensor?

Still have to catchup for a drive sometime!

The terrano sensor is read by the "ecu" that drives the EGR valving (it does nothing else). It outputs the signal to the tachometer in a different waveform. Changing the clusters will not help given you don't have the "ECU" fitted. I usually advise to just fit a d21 td27 sensor.

nice job so far unknown and chris, looks good.

Dion said:

The terrano sensor is read by the "ecu" that drives the EGR valving (it does nothing else). It outputs the signal to the tachometer in a different waveform. Changing the clusters will not help given you don't have the "ECU" fitted. I usually advise to just fit a d21 td27 sensor.

Click to expand...

Cheers, Dion.
The original cluster had 2 issues -
1: No needles (not broken, none)
2: the tach spindle was bent flat over onto the card.
I picked up a cluster from a Terrano as that was all I could find and, as I said, no Tach.

Makes sense now.

I'll keep an eye on the second-hand scene for a D21 cluster, but, in the mean time, I might dismantle both and see what magic I can create.

Today I drilled and tapped a few 6mm holes and put the bash plate on.
It was a bit rusty, so it needed some paint. At this point, I looked up at the row of paint tins in my garage and I spotted the can of Cherry Red.....



Maybe I had my mental age set to 14 when I did it, but it looks pretty cool, I think!!

Cheers!

Ronnie said:

nice job so far unknown and chris, looks good.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Ronnie.

I'm not sure, but...

... I think I know why the speedo isn't working!

I don't know much about these things yet, but I THINK it is supposed to be longer than this, and connected to something at BOTH ends??



I'll pop out and get a replacement this arvo (if I can find one).

I did get the door mirrors on, so I am getting to the point where I am legal (Woo Hoo - Then I can actually go out in it!)



I started cleaning up the Bull Bar and found it needs some work -



I have got some 3mm plate and will fabricate a new inner (which will take all of the load), leaving the existing outer skin (with some filler) to look nice...

New cable! Gotta be easy now? Surely?

Picked up a cable from a wreckers. Looks a bit different:



(In case you can't tell, the new one is on the OUTSIDE.

Straightened the tacho centre pin on the old Navara cluster and put some fresh needles from the Terrano cluster.

Got the cable in at the dash end ok and swapped the instrument cluster back to the Navara one. Hopped underneath and fed the cable through to the driver's side transfer case.

Here is where I am stuck. I CAN'T FIND ANYWHERE TO SCREW IT INTO!

There are a couple of blobs on the transfer case -



- but NOTHING that looks like a speedo fitting.

Looking at the picture above, any ideas where it might go?

Right near the tail end, on the driver's side. It should scream out at you.

Yeah its there, I took it out when I replaced my transfer case chain, should be towards the rear of the T Case on the drivers side

Scream out at me? No, not really...

Hi guys,
I got underneath and played the speedo cable out (following the path it should take) and had a look at whatever was near the end of the cable.
Only one thing and, as was said, it would have a blanking plate over it.

Is this it?



If not - Am I even in the correct spot?

(WOW - I feel dumb, right now...)

yep thats the spot, looking good mate !!

Nailed it