1964 Nissan Patrol soft top restoration

[RMP&O]

This doesn't have to do with the 64 but I thought I would share it none the less, it is just to awesome not to!


This is a 1967 Nissan Patrol WLG60. The "W" is for wagon, "L" for left hand drive and the "G" means built on the MWB chassis. Out of about 1/2 dozen body types/wheelbases of the 60-series Patrol this is the only one that has a unique body. Think of it as your FJ45LV. I guess the same applies though to the pick ups. Any ways, this truck hails from Alaska. It showed up on craigslist a few years back and then a year later a second time. I know the guy who bought it and know where it now lives. This is the only one of these known to exist in N. America and I am pretty confident this truck was originally sold in Alaska, not an import. I have been into Patrols over 20yrs and I have only ever heard of 4-5 wagons in existence. I only know for sure of one or two others. I have actually found more 1950's Patrols than wagons! It is that rare!! For a Patrol enthusiast this truck is more than the holy grail.

The truck is a little rough but looks savable. I am told the floor boards are not that rusty, mostly that is pine chips in there from squirrels living in the truck. It is virtually untouched and not raped, even still has the original snap in vinyl floor mats! Many other unobtainium unique to this model items are also present, ie tire carrier inside truck, all interior panels and door handles/window handles, most of the seats, rad support with provisions for the triple chrome strips and more. It looks to have lived a fairly rough life up north but has survived! Very exciting to see for a guy like me.

A few more.

Cheers

 

[mortonm]

Sweet! Almost 150 hp when new in 1967!!

 

[RMP&O]

The 60-series Patrol engine hp ranged from 125-145 during the 20yrs run of the trucks. I think Nissan changed the compression a little over the years and smog equipment also effected it in the 70s. Toque is usually 235ft lbs but I also recall 245ft lbs. 7-main bearing crank inline-6, like most inline-6's.

Cheers

 

[RMP&O]

So stock side steps are an important part of this build. We had a set of originals, pretty hard to come by and I have only ever seen one or two sets not totally trashed. We used this stock set to fabricate new side steps. The stock mounting brackets were salvaged and saved. A lot of repair work getting them straight but they were savable. The tops were completely fabricated and look exactly like stock. The rear step was also made, retaining the stock mounting brackets. I don't any pics of that right now though.


I took the steps to a place with big enough machinery to press these out. The side step tops in the foreground were made from 5-pieces, all tig welded.

Once that was done we could finish the details on them. The body guy fabricated the band you see around the step. Original steps had this band so we felt it was important to replicate it.

Cheers

 

[Co-opski]

This doesn't have to do with the 64 but I thought I would share it none the less, it is just to awesome not to!


This is a 1967 Nissan Patrol WLG60. The "W" is for wagon, "L" for left hand drive and the "G" means built on the MWB chassis. Out of about 1/2 dozen body types/wheelbases of the 60-series Patrol this is the only one that has a unique body. Think of it as your FJ45LV. I guess the same applies though to the pick ups. Any ways, this truck hails from Alaska. It showed up on craigslist a few years back and then a year later a second time. I know the guy who bought it and know where it now lives. This is the only one of these known to exist in N. America and I am pretty confident this truck was originally sold in Alaska, not an import. I have been into Patrols over 20yrs and I have only ever heard of 4-5 wagons in existence. I only know for sure of one or two others. I have actually found more 1950's Patrols than wagons! It is that rare!! For a Patrol enthusiast this truck is more than the holy grail.

The truck is a little rough but looks savable. I am told the floor boards are not that rusty, mostly that is pine chips in there from squirrels living in the truck. It is virtually untouched and not raped, even still has the original snap in vinyl floor mats! Many other unobtainium unique to this model items are also present, ie tire carrier inside truck, all interior panels and door handles/window handles, most of the seats, rad support with provisions for the triple chrome strips and more. It looks to have lived a fairly rough life up north but has survived! Very exciting to see for a guy like me.

A few more.

Cheers

That looks familiar. Ian, I can tell you are doing what you love and it shows. Your work is top notch.

 

[RMP&O]

That looks familiar. Ian, I can tell you are doing what you love and it shows. Your work is top notch.

Thanks! It is looking like I will get to make the wagon live again! I can't say much more at this time but I am also feeling the vibe to send letters snail mail to Japan to find out how many wagons were sold in the USA and if this is truly the only one. I had luck with sending snail mail letters to Japan over ten years ago so hoping it will pan out again. I am going to solicit them for the archives on 60-series Patrols.

More pics.

I went and applied Rust Bullet to every seam on the firewall, tub, soft top frame and rad support. I had already previously applied it to the doors, front and rear. The point of doing this is the panels are welded together from the factory. There is corrosion between these panels no doubt about it. Nissan did not seam seal these seams, at least not on the early Patrols. To kill any rust or corrosion and seal it up I applied the Rust Bullet to all seams. I used a brush and forced the Rust Bullet into the seams. Now I am sanding it all back, the final prep before priming the body and endless hand sanding for the body guy.

Many other body parts are prepped and ready for primer. As far as body work, this is the final stages before paint. Keep in mind these are 50yrs old panels that have been restored!

Cheers

 

[skibum315]

I can't remember if I've said it in this thread, but your attention to detail is amazing ... thanks for documenting it all, as well. I've enjoyed following along as you go through this restoration, and I hope you'll allow us the same pleasure with the wagon if (when ... ...) it comes to that.

 

[RMP&O]

No worries, my pleasure! If I do the wagon it certainly will get a build thread.

Cheers

 

[RMP&O]

Radiator prepp'ed for paint.

Some body pieces in primer

Cheers

 

[RMP&O]

Wiper motors tested, torn down, cleaned and prepared for re-furbish. These are specific to 1965 or earlier trucks. I have 5 of them, all work but one and the bad one just needs a wire soldered to work. The two best will be used.

This 1964 Patrol has the optional dual horns. The primary horn is called the "high" tone horn while the 2nd optional one is called the low tone horn. I tested both, the high worked but the low did not. So I tore down the low horn.

During tear down a screw busted off. So I had to drill and tap it for a new screw, 6-32 was the smallest size I could find. You can see the busted screw in the top left of this picture.

low horn on the left and high on the right.

the contacts in the horn.

On the low horn the contacts were dirty so I cleaned them.

I re-assembled the horn and it now works good!


A very nice set of head light buckets have been prepp'ed for resto. The buckets on the left get painted grey, the parts on the right get plated with zinc/yellow chromate.

Cheers

 

[RMP&O]

Cheers

 

[RMP&O]

1964 & 1977 steering column seal, complete different and not interchangeable.

Cheers

 

[RMP&O]

Nearly to the end of a sage that is the hardware for this truck! I believe I went off about it before in the thread, it was scattered, it was scavenged and it is now compiled and nearly restored! Once it was decided to retain as much as possible of the original hardware on the body of the truck this became a mission. Not only did I have to figure out approx how much was needed since the truck was torn down 10yrs ago and I have no sample trucks around, I also had to go through it all once compiled. Pick out the crap hardware or not original. Separate it all and catalog. Then go through it all and clean up with a bastard file and some 120grit to remove tool marks and knurling on heads. Oh ya and this was after de-greasing and glass bead blasting. To finalize the resto on all this stuff it is being sent off to be zinc and zinc with yellow chromate plated.


This is why we feel the need to use this stuff. You can clearly see it is specific to the Patrol. Most your trucks or Japanese trucks are going to have this style of body hardware with a "brand" stamp or some kind of identification on the head. A lot of Japanese hardware is also a depressed head, I assume to shave steel quantities as well as weight.

non-depressed head type

original hardware, before and after resto

rare NOS hardware on the left and restored on the right, less new zinc plating

an assembly of hardware for the front doors, all cleaned up

original fuel line hardware, these will be put on new fuel line after plating

starter and generator hardware to be zinc plated

Warn f/w hub hardware getting zinc

Here is front fender to rad support gaskets. These are after resto with winter green and lot's of hand cleaning. They looked as bad if not worse than the one up top before resto. 50yr old rubber!

These are headlight gaskets, again 50yr old rubber after I restored it.

Cheers

 

[mortonm]

Impressive. That must be the most tedious operation on this truck by a long shot

 

[RMP&O]

Impressive. That must be the most tedious operation on this truck by a long shot

Definitely. Not done with the tedious task though, once it all comes back from plating it has to be used to assemble the truck! Luckily I am heading to Colorado tomorrow to pick up 2 Patrols, both 66's. One is a soft top and the other a hard top. The hard top truck is to serve as our parts truck on the next resto, a 67 WLG60 Wagon pictured earlier in the thread! The 66 soft top I guess has 15,500 original miles, it won't be scavenged for parts as it looks to be to nice and original. Any ways, point is right now I do not have a truck to use as a reference for re-assembly of the 64. That makes it much harder to do and get it all right in terms of where specific hardware goes. By Sunday though that delima is done as I will have two 66 Patrols here to use for reference.

Cheers