Monday, June 4, 2012

Been a while, but here's some interior progress

Been a while since I've posted any updates.  Hasn't been a lot of huge progress and I've been busy with all sorts of other crazy talk so I just haven't had time to work on it much.  Anyway, here's a status update:


I got tired of driving around without door panels, so my dad and I worked to figure out exactly what part of the door lock on the passenger side was broken so I could reassemble the driver's side door and order the parts for the passenger side.  After looking at it we figured out that there is a little tab missing on this piece of the lock mechanism.




The part that holds that whitish plastic piece to the metal rod that operates the lock is missing.  I ordered a new one of those white pieces which will hopefully be in today or tomorrow :)  Since we what to replace and how to fix it, I went ahead and set out to put the driver's door back together.  It took forever, but eventually I found something that I thought would be a suitable adhesive.  It's called Windo Weld by 3M and worked like a charm.




The previous owner had already cut the hole out for the speaker, so it's just in there without any plastic to protect the wiring but I think it'll be OK.  I've been driving it without the plastic on there at all in the rain and everything else and haven't noticed any leaks.  Anyway, this took about a week trying to find that Windo Weld stuff.  Then I had to order new plastic clip deals to hold the panel back on.  During that time I figured I'd go ahead and fix the damage that the PO had done to the door panel.


When he replaced the mirror after the accident, instead of taking the panel off he just tore the corner so he could get to the mirror backplate -_-  Some Gorilla Glue fixed this up.



So yeah, I got a little bit excessive with the glue...
After that dried it was another couple of days before the new door panel clip things arrived (bag of 50 was $12 shipped).  I replaced all those and reinstalled the door panel.




It still needs to be cleaned up some, and unfortunately I'm still using the arm rest that's covered in duct tape until I can find a replacement.


Another thing that wasn't working was the dome light.  Well, first of all it was installed backwards.  The dome light in these trucks is supposed to flip down so you can also use it to illuminate the bed.  The PO had installed it backwards so when you flipped it down it didn't do anything useful at all.  I reoriented the dome light and began tracking down what was wrong with the door open sensor.  All the wiring looked good but it didn't ding when the key was in and the door was open on either side.  I checked the passenger side door open sensor and it was connected.  Checked the driver's side and it was not.  After some work (there's barely any slack at all on that wiring) I got the sensor reconnected and reinstalled.  After this I closed both doors and cycled the power on the truck, then opened the door and it started a pleasant little charm sound.  I wish all cars sounded like this, it's not deafeningly annoying like most modern door-open alarms.  The dome light now fades in and out nicely :)




It's so nice having light in the cab... during the night it was practically impossible to see anything in there, and with the on/off switch being on the wrong side it was easier for me to just use my cell phone flashlight than it was using the dome.  I've also ordered a set of factory map lights :)

3 comments:

  1. Jason,

    Thank you for your posts regarding your D21. I was hoping you could answer a question for me, as I can't find anything on the forums. In this post, you needed to replace the white plastic piece of the door lock mechanism inside the door (the part that dangles from the cylinder). Both of mine are broken...and they both broke on the same day, no less. Do you remember what the part was called, where you got it, a part number, or anything? It would really help me out. Thank you very much.

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  2. I got mine from a guy on infamousnissan (david29) he had several of them when I asked about it. If he doesn't have any, then check this link - http://www.nissanpartszone.com/Page_Product/PartDetail.aspx?ModelName=Hardbody%20Pickup%20(1986.5-1994)&ModelYear=1986&ModelSeries=D21&FileType=245&SelectConditions=(1%3dKC%3b2%3dVG30%3b3%3dGST%2fSE%3b4%3dMT%3b5%3dF5%3b6%3dLB%3b7%3d4WD%3b8%3dFED%3b)&ShowConditions=(1%3dKC%3b2%3dVG30%3b3%3dGST%2fSE%3b4%3dMT%3b7%3d4WD%3b8%3dFED%3b)&seeDesc=False&goBack=True&SectionNo=K&ComponentsNo=805

    You should be interested in part numbers 80512A, 80510J, and 80527 M/N. You may not need all of those parts, but if you're going to be tearing into that part anyway I'd go ahead and replace all of it. For me it was a huge pain trying to fix that thing. There's not a lot of room in there to work.

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  3. Thank you very much for the info. I really appreciate it. Hopefully I can get through the installation without too much yelling and tool throwing. Yep, it's tight in there and the rod will keep moving around. Thanks again! --Joe

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