1964 Nissan Patrol soft top restoration

[RMP&O]

Here is a very nice restored Patrol.

http://www.motorcarstudio.com/1281_V20150403095909/Atlanta/1977-Nissan-Patrol-for-sale

Now the ad claims it is the nicest restored Patrol on the planet. I can guarantee the 64 is going to be nicer!

Cheers

 

[RMP&O]

Sneak peek picture!!


XZL tires mounted up to 16" original wheels. Yup this is the color that the Patrol is going to be!

Cheers

 

[skibum315]

Nice color! I forget, did you decide on a top yet ... what color will it be? Interior?

 

[wreckdiver1321]

That looks awesome!

 

[RMP&O]

Nice color! I forget, did you decide on a top yet ... what color will it be? Interior?

When I get the truck back and there is more paint on body to see I will post the pic that this color was taken from. it is a Nissan color but not an original 60-series Patrol color.

The owner of the truck has about 8 or 10 canvas samples. I am just waiting on him to decide and then we are a go for soft top. Seats are the stock grey vinyl. Nothing inteior wise except door panels and they are just like stock, egg shell in color.

Cheers

 

[mortonm]

Sneak peek picture!!


XZL tires mounted up to 16" original wheels. Yup this is the color that the Patrol is going to be!

Cheers

Wow those are going to look spectacular on there !

 

[RMP&O]

The 64 is back in my shop and I have already started in on assembly.

Cheers

 

[mortonm]

Yes please! Those tires are perfect for that truck.

 

[RMP&O]

The color for the truck was taken from these pictures. Originally a more deep solid green was discussed. That being a fairly common Patrol color, Roy Rogers green as it is known because the advertising Roy did featured his green Patrol. A lot of Patrols out there that color though and the owner wanted something different but still wanted green. I showed him these pics and he liked the color. Problem is, this is not a Patrol color and as such I had no data on it. Why Nissan shows the truck with this color I do not know. It is possible it is simply old school photoshop and the color was altered for the brochure. Who knows really!? We found a later Nissan color that seemed to match fairly close. That along with some other Patrol colors including "dragon green" & Roy Rogers green were sprayed and sent to the owner. He decided on this color.

Personally I think it looks great and depending on the light it looks more green or grey, under HID lights it even looks olive drab green.

Funnest part of the resto is happening now! Bolting the finished items on is awesome and it is finally coming around.

The leaf springs are giving a solid 3" of lift. That is more than we wanted. There is not a ton of weight left to add so it will not drop much more. I actually like it though even with the skinny tires and 3+" of lift. However, the owner wants to lower the truck so I will be getting new leaf springs more in the 1" max lift range. I will be using the lifted leaves on the 64 now on my 68. I want the 68 lifted and will run 33" tires on it so these springs will work good for that truck. Although I may pull a leaf or two from the rear pack to drop it down maybe 1/2-1".

Cheers

 

[skibum315]

That color looks great ... can't wait to see it all back together.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

That looks awesome!

I'm super excited to see it all come together. I love the color and those tires are PERFECT. Nice work my friend.

 

[RMP&O]

Thanks guys. I have got to get some very thin rubber sheets and make up some gaskets before I can proceed to much further. The door handles for example need this rubber gasket between them and the body. Since that is a long gone part I will need to make it. In the meantime, wiring harness, pedals, master cylinder, throttle linkage and steering can all be done and finalized.

Cheers

 

[RMP&O]

Guess I have not updated this in awhile! Sorry about lost pics, I was using facebook to host them and they only show up so long. Let's see if some of the other sites I have pics on will show up here.....

Every hole in the body requires this

reproduction pedal pads

clutch linkage/pivot point all restored, these trucks up to 1968 used manual clutch linkage, not hydraulic. New fuel line in the foreground, the compression nut is original and was plated then installed on the new line.

everything is original down to the mounting bolts, although I did have new brass/bronze bushings made up for all the pivot points on the entire truck.

heater vent for windshield, heaters were an option on these trucks, although most N. American Patrols came with a heater. Since it was not an "every" Patrol item, Nissan used this grey paint, we did a color match on it so it is within 99+% to the original color.

throttle linkage completely restored, only non-original parts are the cotter pins!

Notice the "dp" on the bolt heads. Pretty much every bolt on these trucks has this on it, which is why we decided to restore it all and use over replacing with new hardware. Everything has been plated, even items that got painted. Nissan did this on these trucks so we are replicating that, plus then you won't get rust bleed in the future.

Clutch linkage and master cylinder. Bowl on the MC cracked during assembly, super old and dry. Got a couple replacements in hand.

Obviously this is the cowl, the rubber gasket under the windshield hinge is reproduction, the one under the hood hinge I made. Some of the hardware on these trucks Nissan painted, some they did not. It is all about how they were assembled at the factory, replicating that in the resto has proven challenging. We didn't paint this body on a jig mostly assembled as Nissan would have.

Nissan would have painted the truck with the hood hinge on the cowl. We didn't do this so got to be real careful not to scratch/chip up the mounting bolts when assembling. Before anything was painted or even primed the entire body I sealed up every single seam with Rust Bullet, a rust encapsulating paint. After this seam sealer was used on every seam.

Reproduction on the weather seal that is from cowl to the not yet installed windshield frame. The rubber simply does not exist for these trucks. I am using a combination of reproduction, original that is restored and small items like rubber bumps or grommets is being sourced from Metro Molded and Steel Rubber. I was able to get a Datsun guy to reproduce a few dozen items for these trucks. He has stopped producing it though so what we got is all we got in new reproduction form.

Oh ya and I just came across this picture, unrestored footwell on the 64.

Cheers

 

[RMP&O]

Been working on a lot of little things on this truck lately, one of the bigger projects is restoring the wiring harness. The 64's original harness is in good enough condition to save. So I am stripping it, checking everything, making repairs as required and re-wrapping with the early grey wrap, it went black in 1966.

Nissan really went all out on these trucks, the attention to detail is awesome. Inside the wiring harness wrap is red wrap and a wax twine to keep it all in order and organized. Crazy to think this has not seen the light of day since 1963 and the last guy who touched it is likely dead. :Wow1:

I always really like this about Patrols, main wires in the harness are dated. Pretty friggin' cool! And yes, Yazaki is the company that manufactured these wiring harnesses for Nissan.

For the trans/t-case badge I am using an original that is un-restored but in very good condition. Although I still need to replace the mounting screws.

This tool box is original, Nissan supplied these trucks with a very complete tool kit. They are extremely rare these days and super hard to come by. This is under the passenger seat, a rubber strap to hold it down is not shown.

Original rubber block for the tool box, restored using wintergreen oil. I have a re-production now though I think I will use instead.

Glass tail light assembly, very good original. This was simply a test fit, more tail light stuff to come.

Window regulator and handle. The regulator is un-restored, just cleaned up. I think I may leave it this way. Handle got fresh chrome, plastic trim is original.

PTO shifter finalized. I went around and around on the boot for it. In the end we decided the center hump rear PTO plug works best, slice it where it has the cut outs and it works perfect. The one fitted is an old one for test purposes. I will replace it with the new one next to it.

Kick vent screens and levers are installed. All original hardware, down to the washers!

Ash tray resto, the one on the right is actually the original for the 64, I used a better condition one to restore. I still need to get some of the tiny screws for it, ones I am using at the moment are originals and un-restored.

Test fitting the dash panels. The green/red lights are backwards in these pics, just test fitting! The lights are for high beam and turn signal, probably obvious. Glove box pull handle is a very good original that was simply cleaned up.

More attention to detail from Nissan on these trucks. The red paint is original on this horn relay, the fuse block also has the red paint.

Cheers

 

[RMP&O]

Head light resto/assembly, luckily I have correct pre-68 Patrol Toshiba headlights. As you can imagine, not many sets of these original Toshiba headlights out there that still work. Starting in 1968, they are Koito's.

Head light pig tail, Koito and Denko. In case you can't read it, it says "Tokyo Denko 1963"

Assembled head light ready to install, with working original nearly 55yr old sealed beam bulbs!

Now for the tail lights, these are a real ***** to restore, mostly because the lens is glass and extremely hard to come by but also because the rubber boots are NLA and needed as they retain the glass lens.

A combo of restored pieces and cleaned up original pieces

pick the best parts and use them

Fitted to the truck, just need some more mounting screws before installing the glass lens and chrome ring. These are basically unobtainium, people would kill for these!

Cheers