Our "new" 1966 Patrol!

[offroadkid]

So we have been a Land Cruiser family since 2003, owning two 80 Series, then a 100 Series, and now back to a 97 80 Series.

Until now, when we took ownership of our (for now unnamed) rig on March 1. Last Saturday we took her down a nice road not too far from the house that is just rolling green hills with oak trees. If you've seen the "Real California MilK" commercials with the cows, it's the same setting! She looks really good from this distance, but does need some fixing (I think there used to be mirrors on the doors and it looks like someone tried to patch up the holes) and eventually I'd love to give her a factory color. There's a couple different shades of what appears to be rattle can yellow!!

In addition to the great rig I was able to buy from my friend was this great vintage parts manual! The story is my buddy's first job was at Downtown Datsun in San Jose, (now home to the San Jose Sharks Arena) as a Parts Driver, then later promoted to Parts Counterperson. He told this story over dinner the other night when he presented me with the manual! He told us that some old guy came in and told him he needed some parts for his Patrol and of course my friend had no idea what he was talking about and told the customer that!! The old guy said, "Look kid...look under the counter in front of your stool and you'll find a big blue binder with all the diagrams and parts for Nissan Patrols!"

My friend was amazed, and he said he studied the manual and afterwards always knew he wanted to eventually own one. So, he did eventually get one and kept the manual when the dealership was demolished to accommodate the new hockey arena and they have been passed on to us!

Thanks for checking it out!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

That thing is ridiculously awesome!

 

[fowldarr]

Looking at one of these this week. Yours looks nicer.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[1x1_Speed_Craig]

Nice!

 

[Patrollife]

Awesome!

 

[offroadkid]

Thanks everyone!! We really like her, she's my daily driver now for my 1.5 mile commute to work. Was originally a hard top, but it was in sad shape. My friend included the bows for a soft-top incase I find one or have one made. I drove the Cruiser yesterday when it rained!

I learned from reading a lot of threads from rmp&o that only 2616 were sold in the US from 1962-69 and only 950 were soft tops! Roy Rogers was a spokes person for the trucks in the USA during the 1960s and he was given a Patrol for his advertising work.

 

[Drunkle Scuzzy]

Never even knew these awesome trucks existed! Looks excellent!

 

[brushogger]

One of the forum members here "RMP&O" is the resident expert on these trucks (IMHO). His restoration work is amazing. You should check out his threads.
Edit: I just noticed you referenced them.

 

[RMP&O]

Awesome! Looks pretty good from the pics. Might be one I was looking at a while back on Craigslist. I am always on the lookout for a solid Patrol at a good price. IMHO, values will be rising a lot on these trucks in the coming years. Right now over on 60Patrol they argue about that a lot and it was the same when I had my website/forum. Any way you slice it though Japanese classics are rising in value and the Patrols are rare here in the states. Classic Cruisers and Rovers though have risen in value a lot in the last 10-15yrs. Patrols are just unknown and not many nice ones out there. An old Datsun sold not long ago for something like $275,000!! Granted it was a super rare 100% original with tons of history, ie not your average Patrol but still, Japanese iron is not worthless anymore. Just look at what Nice FJ40's sell for.

Patrols are touch as nails. The trucks were very well made and Nissan thought of everything when they built them. All metal brake and fuel lines wrapped in rubber for example to prevent damage from vibrations. You can start the engine with a hand crank. Early fuel pumps have a hand prime on them. Fully boxed frame with 5 cross members. Deep water fording kit came on a lot of them in the way of a water tight distributor and various special seals in the drivetrain. First 4wd to have front and rear sway bars from the factory. Nissan really did think of everything on these trucks. New they were $3-4k depending on year in the 1960's. You got a lot of truck back then for that price.

Not the best truck in the dirt so don't except to much offroad. Lack of suspension travel, no lockers and no crawling gears is why they suffer in the dirt along with an old single barrel crab. Fun on dirt roads though and a joy to drive with no top, no doors and windshield folded.

FYI, in 1966 a Patrol only had one outside mirror. This was located drivers side right below the windshield frame hinges,if you look I am sure mounting holes still there on your truck. A simple mount plus arm with a round mirror head on it. Very hard to come by in original form these days. The Roy Rogers Patrol pic you posted has the original outside mirror, note the head is black.

I may have soft top canvas available in the future. Working with an upholstery shop now to build us two of them based on original design and look. This shop is making a pattern so more can be made in the future without the need for a truck on hand.

Cool story about the parts book. Congrats on scoring that. Not much will come up available from Nissan using the numbers though. Most parts are no longer available from Nissan. On top of this Nissan uses the latest part numbers, which are from a 1980 parts book, the last parts book on the 60-series Patrol. Sometimes the 1980 parts book shows up on Ebay, via a seller in Kuwait. He sells brand new ones, if you see one, buy it! I find the parts books are great help since they have all the exploded diagrams. Get yourself a repair manual too. There is two of them on the truck, one for the engine and one for the rest of the truck. You can find these on Ebay if you keep looking. Some parts are still available and cross over. I have had two engines fully rebuilt in the last few years, using P40 engine parts. Patrols got a P engine but the next gen was a P40 and that was put in forklifts here in the USA. So you can still get engine parts right here stateside.

So what are you plans for the truck?

Cheers

 

[RockyZuk]

Wow! AWESOME! love the Nismo sticker too

 

[offroadkid]

Awesome! Looks pretty good from the pics. Might be one I was looking at a while back on Craigslist. I am always on the lookout for a solid Patrol at a good price. IMHO, values will be rising a lot on these trucks in the coming years. Right now over on 60Patrol they argue about that a lot and it was the same when I had my website/forum. Any way you slice it though Japanese classics are rising in value and the Patrols are rare here in the states. Classic Cruisers and Rovers though have risen in value a lot in the last 10-15yrs. Patrols are just unknown and not many nice ones out there. An old Datsun sold not long ago for something like $275,000!! Granted it was a super rare 100% original with tons of history, ie not your average Patrol but still, Japanese iron is not worthless anymore. Just look at what Nice FJ40's sell for.

Patrols are touch as nails. The trucks were very well made and Nissan thought of everything when they built them. All metal brake and fuel lines wrapped in rubber for example to prevent damage from vibrations. You can start the engine with a hand crank. Early fuel pumps have a hand prime on them. Fully boxed frame with 5 cross members. Deep water fording kit came on a lot of them in the way of a water tight distributor and various special seals in the drivetrain. First 4wd to have front and rear sway bars from the factory. Nissan really did think of everything on these trucks. New they were $3-4k depending on year in the 1960's. You got a lot of truck back then for that price.

Not the best truck in the dirt so don't except to much offroad. Lack of suspension travel, no lockers and no crawling gears is why they suffer in the dirt along with an old single barrel crab. Fun on dirt roads though and a joy to drive with no top, no doors and windshield folded.

FYI, in 1966 a Patrol only had one outside mirror. This was located drivers side right below the windshield frame hinges,if you look I am sure mounting holes still there on your truck. A simple mount plus arm with a round mirror head on it. Very hard to come by in original form these days. The Roy Rogers Patrol pic you posted has the original outside mirror, note the head is black.

I may have soft top canvas available in the future. Working with an upholstery shop now to build us two of them based on original design and look. This shop is making a pattern so more can be made in the future without the need for a truck on hand.

Cool story about the parts book. Congrats on scoring that. Not much will come up available from Nissan using the numbers though. Most parts are no longer available from Nissan. On top of this Nissan uses the latest part numbers, which are from a 1980 parts book, the last parts book on the 60-series Patrol. Sometimes the 1980 parts book shows up on Ebay, via a seller in Kuwait. He sells brand new ones, if you see one, buy it! I find the parts books are great help since they have all the exploded diagrams. Get yourself a repair manual too. There is two of them on the truck, one for the engine and one for the rest of the truck. You can find these on Ebay if you keep looking. Some parts are still available and cross over. I have had two engines fully rebuilt in the last few years, using P40 engine parts. Patrols got a P engine but the next gen was a P40 and that was put in forklifts here in the USA. So you can still get engine parts right here stateside.

So what are you plans for the truck?

Cheers

Thanks for the info! I looked and saw the three bolts are where the mirror used to be! It came with a bunch of "new old stock" parts, I think there's 4 or 5 waterproof dist. caps still in the boxes, there's a brand new stock fuel pump in the box, and other stuff. Plans eventually would be a frame off resto with a nice blue color, but for now I'd really like to find a stock front split bench seat, & some stock seat belts and replacement turn signal/high beam indicator bulbs. I know the original wheels are 16" but if I can't find those I read that Fj40 wheels will work. I'd like to have some steelies with some tall skinnies!

These are the rigs with colors I like.

http://bringatrailer.com/listing/1964-nissan-patrol/

 

[offroadkid]

Wow! AWESOME! love the Nismo sticker too

Yeah, I haven't decided if I'm keeping that or not!!