I know, it's not everyone's cup of tea.
New customer pay job hauled in today. A 1978 Datsun 620 pickup.
It's all there (I think), guy even bagged and labeled hardware for me.
Some people might not think it's a classic but it's 48 years old and the interior looks incredible.
Lady's husband passed away before he could put it back together. She wants it finished so one of her boys can drive it when he's old enough. She also owns the Mercury Comet that's in the shop right now.
@alsancle It's even got whitewalls! 😆

A King Cab, no less! It actually is my cup of tea, I’ve owned four Nissan pickups. I can’t believe how rust free that one is.

The second vehicle I owned was a 1984 Nissan 720, the model that followed this one.
Most of the Japanese trucks from this era have returned to the earth by now. It was pretty cool to see this sitting in the garage.
It's got some rust on the bottom but that's something she can have dealt with at a later date.

So basically the Hardbody chassis with the older body style. Did it have the Z24 engine with the silly 8 spark plug setup? Between myself and my dad, we had four Hardbodies. Loved those little trucks. Aside from the rust, of course.

The Hardbody replaced the 720, I imagine they had the same chassis. I had the Z24 with the dual ignition.
The Z24 likes to crack cylinder heads but mine never did.
You can put the L20 cylinder head from this truck on the Z24 engine if you want to play silly-buggers and try to get more power.

I think they used the same chassis after ‘84. My Hardbodies were a little later so they had the KA24 engines. One of them I started putting together a turbo kit for it with an exhaust manifold from a 240SX and a Garrett turbo from an Eclipse. Got kind of stalled out on the project because they used an odd throttle body that was difficult to fabricate a functional intake tube for. Also had trouble with the turbo oil return line. Tried using a scavenge pump but it couldn’t keep up and it ended up pushing oil past the turbo seals. needed a lot more engineering to make it work and I eventually waved the white flag.

Love it! Stick? I assume they all are.

5-speed with the full center console. Guy spent the big bucks on this one.

You probably could have gotten an automatic but it would have been so underpowered that it couldn’t pull a fart out of a sewer.

My 720 and a Toyota I owned both had the automatic.
They were dogs.

One of the nice things about the 5 speed Tacomas with the 4 banger is you can wind them up and they will sort of get out of their own way. Sort of.

I’m sure. They weren’t exactly spritely even with a 5 speed. Especially on a 4wd with bigger tires, you really had to flog them hard.

I love it. Great for kids to learn how to drive on. I would just toss the camper cover in the dumpster. Sounds like they have younger kids which makes him not that old which stinks.

Yup. She didn't say what happened other than he passed suddenly and I didn't pry.
A teenage boy going to the drive-in with his girlfriend. I may suggest to leave the topper. Just to help a brother out. 😆

In high school, a buddy of mine had a Vega station wagon with the seat folded down and a twin mattress in the back. The girls he dated had angry, disturbed fathers when he pulled in the driveway with that thing.
SmSmart thinking, but do you still have a drive-in theater? All of ours have closed.

These are great little trucks, my uncle had one when I was growing up. Just don't take it on a highway.
Japanese cars have become very popular in my area with younger people. It would make a cool HS vehicle.

Cool little truck. Would not have been embarrassed to drive that in HS.

My HS pickup truck was a rusty, monkey-turd-brown 1981 Toyota pickup.
Should have called it "rolling chastity".

😂

What’s the paint code for Monkey Turd Brown anyway? It was probably an absolute chick magnet compared to the ‘77 F150 I drove for a while in high school.

A customer at the last shop I worked in sent his son to HS graduation celebration in a classic car.
A 1952 Nash Ambassador...
Interesting car but attractive is not the word for it.
I'm not sure many girls would be wanting a ride in an Ambassador, even if the seat folds into a bed.

We will do a HS car topic. It should be gold. I drove 49 Plymouth that had 9k original miles when my dad bought it for me. He figured it would keep me from killing myself. It motivated me to work my ass off hard enough to save the money for a GTO.

Yes to HS cars….

My son drove this to prom about ten years ago. I’m not sure the girl was impressed, but all the Dads at the photo shoot liked it.

Unfortunately John there is no car culture with kids these days. At least one that we as old geezers would recognize. Imagine if we had that vette back in school!
We should do a prom car topic too!

My dad and I never got along very well. No matter what you told him, he knew of something bigger, better, faster.
I took him to a car show one day and picked him up in a '65 Catalina that belonged to the shop. It had a built 455 in it, was lightened and would turn 11.48 in a quarter mile. Looked stock on the outside.
I rolled onto the highway with him carrying on about something I can't remember and put my foot into it as far as it would go.
When he stopped squirming and composed himself, he yelled at me "WTF are you trying to prove, exactly?" Lol.
Just saw this on ebay and it reminded me of this topic. 6500.00. It has the stick.
Up for sale is a 1980 Chevy Luv 4x4 standard manual transmission with the 1.8L.This is a very nice barn find! Everything is original on this truck except for the carburetor. Truck is in good running condition, the body on this truck is in good condition with no rust at all on it , does have some minor dents on the body but nothing major. interior on this truck does need work as it needs a new dash.
