1968 Patrol! "The Ghetto Patrol"

[RMP&O]

I think I will start a new thread on this truck, kind of been cluttering up my other Patrol thread with things not really related to that build.


So a few weeks ago I came across this 68 Patrol on Craigslist. It had just been listed that day so was a fresh listing when I saw it. I noticed in the pictures the body looked very very good on the truck. Even though the truck was in pieces I could tell it was complete and in very good condition for it's age. In the ad the seller described how the engine was taken apart due to a busted piston. The head had been rebuilt and a new piston purchased. However, while it was apart they noticed crank bearings were pretty worn. They tried to locate the parts but were unable to find the crank bearings so they gave up on the truck and put it up for sale. I contacted the seller and he said he would take $1300 for the whole lot of stuff, more than just one Patrol worth of parts. I sent the guy a $300 deposit and made plans to drive out and get the truck within the next couple weeks.

We left Friday night from Wyoming and made our way to Elko, Nevada where we stayed the night. The next day we drove down to the bay and into Oakland. We find the Patrol fairly easily but it is in a pretty bad neighborhood. Not to worry though as we were here to pick up a Patrol! I meet the seller, Marcus who is a mechanic by trade. His yard is literally made up of nothing but cars and car parts! Lucky for us his family also has a forklift business across the street so we have access to a forklift. It takes us over 2hrs with 4 guys to get everything rounded up and loaded in my truck and on my trailer. There was a lot more than I was expecting. A second set of axles, a 2nd steering box, a 2nd trans + t-case, a 2nd hood, a 2nd set of stock wheels and many other spare parts. Once loaded it was kind of a mess so we headed to Walmart to buy some more ratchet straps. All in all we ended up with like 9 or 10 straps on our load!

We hooked up with my cousin who lives in Oakland for Saturday night. Had pizza and beers at his place and got some rest. The next morning we are up and heading out early. We left Oakland at 10am yesterday and got back into Jackson, Wyoming at 3am last night! Whew that was one long haul! A buddy is coming over right now to help me unload all this Patrol stuff!

I decided right out the gates I am going to rebuild the engine in this truck first. Along with that will come some other things such as carb rebuild, flywheel resurface, new clutch, starter refresh and so forth. Right now I plan to just make it run and make it run very well! The Patrol has 90,000 miles so is not super low mile by any means. It came from Fremont and obviously was well taken care of for many years. I believe it was garaged everyday for over 20yrs. It still has the old California black plates on it, nice for hanging on the wall in my new shop! The body on the truck is in such stellar condition I think I will be able to sand it back and paint or sand blast it all and paint. There is literally no rust repairs or dents to fix on the body! Pretty amazing really and why I bought this Patrol. After that I am thinking light resto on the rest of the truck, suspension refresh, new tires, various new seals and bearings and get the seats recovered.

I dubbed the truck the Ghetto Patrol because of where I got it from. It was full on down in the hood in Oakland.

More to come but right now here is a picture of us somewhere in Nevada hauling this beast home!

TBC!

Cheers

 

[kpredator]

patrol

good score!!!!!

 

[RMP&O]

So I cleaned out the 68 this afternoon. Went through all the stuff it came with. Huge load of parts! Some stash NOS items and some very rare and super hard to find items. It also came with a spare set of axles, front springs, spare hood, spare trans & t-case, spare bellhousing, spare drivelines, spare set of original wheels and more! All in all a really good project for restoration. Amazing how well it cleaned up with just pressure washing. It really was a city Patrol for most of it's life by the obvious good condition of it.

Any ways, here is the picture spam!

Check this out, when new these trucks had plastic over the door panels and seats. Some is still here on the door panels!

Normally these old Patrols rot out here, not this one. Only light surface rust!

Cali black plates and where I believe it came from.

Very clean body

Cool old sticker

These are normally wasted on a Patrol that saw much off-roading, not this truck! Also note original muffler in 1st pic.

Floor pans just have light surface rust

Headliner looks stellar after a pressure wash

Sun visors very hard to come by, these in great condition. Only one small crack in the steering wheel, easily fixed.

Another spot for typical rot on an old Patrol, clean on this truck!

No rust or rot on the typical spots on the back panels.

Really nice rear bumperettes and solid rear step, usually wasted on old Patrols.

Another shot showing no rust in the rear panels.

Original spare in good condition.

Only the choke knob missing

90k on this one.

 

[RMP&O]

rare to see this sticker still in place

Also a very rare sticker to see

As you can see everything is in really good condition.

vintage

Only rust on this truck is what is starting to show in the roof rail. I plan to kill that fast.

The other body pieces are also in stellar condition.

Patrols normally rot around the kick vents on the fenders. Not on this one!

Sometimes fenders also rot around the mirror mounts, clean on this Patrol.

Inner fenders are also in great shape.

Radiator support in stellar condition

Paint code #568, one of 4 shades of blue offered.

Trans cover

Some of the hoard it came with!

original seat coverings, known as the "deluxe" seat option. I am going to get these recovered to match the stock coverings.

 

[RMP&O]

Hood needs a little work

Hard to see but there is a dent in the roof to fix.

The windshield glass is original which you don't see very much if at all on these old Nissan 4wds. All glass in the truck is original and in top condition.

Very hard to come by these original bottle jacks.

This is what happened to the motor, the guys who took it apart said they found a nut in the cylinder.

They did purchase a new piston before giving up on the truck.

This is another extremely hard item to come by

I didn't think it was original until I saw this on it

This was in the glove box

The engine ready for rebuild.

That is all I got for now!

Cheers

 

[Lynn]

Dude, you suck.

And I mean that with all the jealousy I can muster

 

[skibum315]

Wow ... what a haul; and all for only $1300 ... you made out like a bandit!!

That's going to be a beautiful truck when you're done with it. I even like the old registration and USN/USMC stickers it has.

 

[fo' runnin']

Wow!!! Too cool!!!

 

[RMP&O]

Thanks guys, I feel pretty good about the score too!

I am already making plans to get the project started. Thinking motor rebuild in June. Also ordering up parts for axle rebuilds, steering box rebuild and some other things.

Cheers

 

[Allof75]

That is one hell of a truck you got there, looks to be in excellent condition considering everything. Great buy!

 

[RMP&O]

That is one hell of a truck you got there, looks to be in excellent condition considering everything. Great buy!

Thanks!

Check out the inside of the rear fenders. Stellar condition.

This was hiding under a 1/4" of funk! Shouldn't be to hard to get a new one made.

This old crate had been bolted down to the bed, it is full of good parts!

Cheers

 

[onemanarmy]

fantastic score...clean title and everything?

I've never heard the answer to this......we got Datsun cars and trucks, but the Patrols were badged as Nissans of the same vintage. Reason behind that?

 

[RMP&O]

fantastic score...clean title and everything?

I've never heard the answer to this......we got Datsun cars and trucks, but the Patrols were badged as Nissans of the same vintage. Reason behind that?

Ya clean title, everything is legit.

I am not up and up on my Datsun history but....

I believe Datsun was used because it was a more flashy name. For marketing more than anything. It has always been Nissan, way back to the 20's but iirc they called it Nissin back then, the Aussie's still do! The guy responsible for bringing the Nissan/Datsun to the USA may have had something (or everything) to do with the Datsun name. He is known as Mr.K. The Datsun name was dropped in the 80's but in a few countries you do see the Patrol called a Datsun Patrol, may have even been badged that way in a few of them. I kind of recall some European countries in the 80's on the 160-series Patrol going by Datsun. Any ways, fairly sure they were made in different plants, the Datsuns in one plant and the Nissans in another. The Patrols have always since the early 50's (up to the latest gen.) been made in the Nissan big truck factory where they make forward cab trucks, buses and so forth. In fact over the years some Patrols have even shared parts with the big trucks, pretty much the only Nissan model that can claim that. So I believe the main reason the Patrols were "Nissan" and other vehicles from that era Datsun is for marketing purposes and because they were made in different factories.

I am sure you can find more and better info about Datsuns with a google search.

Cheers

 

[bushnut]

I always thought it was because the head guy in the marketing department needed a name to call the company and gave his team a dead line by noon the following day. One of the employees blurted "Dat soon?" and the rest is history.

 

[sdemarcus]

Beautiful Patrol, I don't know how someone could ever give up on a unique truck like that. I'm glad to see you saved it from the scrap yard.

To how Datsun came about was Nissan wanted to bring their nameplate to the states but could not afford to fail. So Nissan came up with a name they could use over here (Datsun), and if it failed wouldn't have a great impact on the Nissan franchise.