Nissan 1964 Nissan Patrol soft top frame off restoration
- Thread starter SNLC
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- #162
Everyone appreciates good craftsmanship!
That's a sweet ass axle stand you got there.
Does the window roll up or down? It does not appear so in the pictures, but I can't tell.
bah....
the window pushes up sideways.
It is a sweet stand, would be better if it was adjustable!
Assembly has begun!
Lot's of prep before assembly. Don't really want to go into details right now but over the weekend paint is drying on some parts. As with most things in this build so far, customizing is just part of the process. About three-quarters of the suspension hardware is prep'ed, test fitted, looks great and is ready to go. The rest will get done on Monday. I am excited to start assembly of the chassis but am making sure everything is ready to go how I want before I assemble.
Here is hardware before any customizing...
Cheers
Now that's a sign of clean build right there....building it on carpet...
Hot damn! Assembly!
Hot damn! Assembly!
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So I have been hard at work on assembling the chassis. Nearly all the leaf spring hardware had to be customized and the u-bolts still need to be cut down. All the greasable pins have been trimmed down to a tolerable length and drilled for a cotter pin. The sleeves for the bushings have also been trimmed to our needed length and then I drilled them on two sides for grease distribution. A lot more work has been done too but I will spare you the gory details!
Please keep in mind the leaf springs are expected to flatten out and settle a bit with some weight on them. Right now it is maybe 300lbs tops on all four of the springs.
Rear leaves and axle in
Installing front axle
Both axles in
Tie rod is just barely in there for now
And both wheels on!
Lot's left to do stilla nd if you are wondering, the yellow tape is because this is all test fit time.
Cheers
Please keep in mind the leaf springs are expected to flatten out and settle a bit with some weight on them. Right now it is maybe 300lbs tops on all four of the springs.
Rear leaves and axle in
Installing front axle
Both axles in
Tie rod is just barely in there for now
And both wheels on!
Lot's left to do stilla nd if you are wondering, the yellow tape is because this is all test fit time.
Cheers
I see some smudges or hand prints on the crossmember, try to work on that okay?
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It has been awhile since my last update!
I have not actually put any hours in on working on the truck since the first week in April. To move forward I really needed some things. I now have the stuff needed but am simply slammed with my day job! Figures.
I have everything for the brakes except for the steel lines. Those we will be bending up ourselves. I have the rubber lines on the front axle in NOS form, the ones that drop from frame to axle I had made and had them made 2" longer to suit the lift. Pads on the shoes have all been applied with rivets, like it was done back in the 60's. The e-brake band got NOS pads and rivets. The master cylinder we had bored out (out of four of them none were good enough to use without this) and a stainless steel sleeve fitted. We have an NOS rebuild kit for the M/C. I honestly would have preferred to go with a later style dual circuit M/C, possibly even a booster. However, we are retaining the stock single circuit M/C. Wheel cylinders are aftermarket out of Australia. Brake springs are NOS.
We have had some side steps and rear step replicated by a steel manufacturing/fabrication shop. We had a stock set but they were pretty beat up, so we had the steps made to match stock. They came out pretty sweet looking and match stock very closely, albeit pressed not stamped. I will post pictures of these before long.
I am in the process of finalizing decisions on the bushings for all the old mechanical linkages, pedals, steering box and so forth. I have met with a second machinist and have a 2nd quote. Just waiting on final decisions to be made. The bushings are actually bronze which we previously thought they were steel. or so I am told, I am no metallurgist! I have the bearings and seal for the steering box now too.
The engine is finally back in our shop after over three months at the machine shop. I got the engine back as a long block. Dramas were experienced during rebuild I won't get into. We are painting the engine ourselves and have a color match 90% nailed down to the rare stock early "sea foam green". We will be leaving the head and timing gear assembly attached but otherwise removing bolt ons, covers, ect. We have had the rad rebuilt and re-cored. The starter was also rebuilt. The old single barrel Hitachi carb also got a full rebuild using a quality kit. The engine got a .030 bore, new pistons, new cam, NOS gaskets and seals, new valves/springs/ect, rocker assembly gone through and all the machining was preformed. We are painting it so the machine shop supplied us with a long block that has just been through the hot tank. We will have to do the final prep before paint ourselves.
I have not actually put any hours in on working on the truck since the first week in April. To move forward I really needed some things. I now have the stuff needed but am simply slammed with my day job! Figures.
I have everything for the brakes except for the steel lines. Those we will be bending up ourselves. I have the rubber lines on the front axle in NOS form, the ones that drop from frame to axle I had made and had them made 2" longer to suit the lift. Pads on the shoes have all been applied with rivets, like it was done back in the 60's. The e-brake band got NOS pads and rivets. The master cylinder we had bored out (out of four of them none were good enough to use without this) and a stainless steel sleeve fitted. We have an NOS rebuild kit for the M/C. I honestly would have preferred to go with a later style dual circuit M/C, possibly even a booster. However, we are retaining the stock single circuit M/C. Wheel cylinders are aftermarket out of Australia. Brake springs are NOS.
We have had some side steps and rear step replicated by a steel manufacturing/fabrication shop. We had a stock set but they were pretty beat up, so we had the steps made to match stock. They came out pretty sweet looking and match stock very closely, albeit pressed not stamped. I will post pictures of these before long.
I am in the process of finalizing decisions on the bushings for all the old mechanical linkages, pedals, steering box and so forth. I have met with a second machinist and have a 2nd quote. Just waiting on final decisions to be made. The bushings are actually bronze which we previously thought they were steel. or so I am told, I am no metallurgist! I have the bearings and seal for the steering box now too.
The engine is finally back in our shop after over three months at the machine shop. I got the engine back as a long block. Dramas were experienced during rebuild I won't get into. We are painting the engine ourselves and have a color match 90% nailed down to the rare stock early "sea foam green". We will be leaving the head and timing gear assembly attached but otherwise removing bolt ons, covers, ect. We have had the rad rebuilt and re-cored. The starter was also rebuilt. The old single barrel Hitachi carb also got a full rebuild using a quality kit. The engine got a .030 bore, new pistons, new cam, NOS gaskets and seals, new valves/springs/ect, rocker assembly gone through and all the machining was preformed. We are painting it so the machine shop supplied us with a long block that has just been through the hot tank. We will have to do the final prep before paint ourselves.
Another Patrol thread in chat reminded me....4 months...no pics...no updates.
Hook a brother up.
Hook a brother up.
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Update!
Details of parts I had machined.
As previously mentioned, the stock bearing for the steering box are no longer available, at least in N. America! I took the stock bearing to a bearing supply house and the number on it was matched to this Koyo bearing. They are the same except for the race. To make it fit perfectly, I took the steering box, old bearing and new bearing to the machinist. He made this collar for the new Koyo bearing so it fits perfectly in the box.
All bushings were made for the truck. No more slop in anything! The oil slinger grooves were even machined into the new bushings, just like stock.
all the old bushings that were replaced...
Cheers
Details of parts I had machined.
As previously mentioned, the stock bearing for the steering box are no longer available, at least in N. America! I took the stock bearing to a bearing supply house and the number on it was matched to this Koyo bearing. They are the same except for the race. To make it fit perfectly, I took the steering box, old bearing and new bearing to the machinist. He made this collar for the new Koyo bearing so it fits perfectly in the box.
All bushings were made for the truck. No more slop in anything! The oil slinger grooves were even machined into the new bushings, just like stock.
all the old bushings that were replaced...
Cheers
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I met with the owner of this truck last Sunday. It was great to finally meet him and we spent a good 4+hrs going over everything. I also sent him home with a load of spare Patrol parts!
I am back into the project come November. In the meantime the body guy is painting up the engine, trans & t-case and mounting it up in the rolling chassis.
Cheers
I am back into the project come November. In the meantime the body guy is painting up the engine, trans & t-case and mounting it up in the rolling chassis.
Cheers
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Work starts again on this project Monday morning....
I am looking forward to it!
By the way, apologies for the missing pictures. I am letting my website go and as such any pictures hosted on it are gone. New pictures will be hosted elsewhere.
I am looking forward to it!
By the way, apologies for the missing pictures. I am letting my website go and as such any pictures hosted on it are gone. New pictures will be hosted elsewhere.
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The drivetrain has been painted to a stock early color, only found on Patrols up to 1965. I had several stock items in this color and we simply cleaned the pieces up and started painting samples on them until a match was found.
Bell housing was painted inside and out, a low mile flywheel in great shape was machined and a whole new NOS clutch installed. It also has NOS engine and trans mounts. The red bolts are temporary, just about time to start having some fun putting this thing all together!
Cheers
Bell housing was painted inside and out, a low mile flywheel in great shape was machined and a whole new NOS clutch installed. It also has NOS engine and trans mounts. The red bolts are temporary, just about time to start having some fun putting this thing all together!
Cheers
Not to hijack, here's a nice patrol for sale in Bend,OR for 1800. Has F/R PTO. Check CL for the listing.
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Thanks!
Making progress....
Keeping with the early year of this Patrol and doing our best to keep it stock for this year. Nissan made a lot of changes over the years to the 60-series Patrol. Having a plethora of used~spare parts means going through it all, cleaning up the best parts and trying to use things that are specific to the early year. One change made was the vent for the top of the engine went from being simply vented through the early style oil filler cap to being vented via the valve cover and into the oil bath air filter housing. We are using the early style oil filler cap, valve cover and a very rare item, an early style oil bath that doesn't have the breather tube built into it.
Exhaust manifold, this took a lot of work to get clean but it is now ready for paint. I am replacing the studs on the bottom from manifold to exhaust flange.
Intake manifold
Early style oil bath air cleaner housing and vented oil filler cap.
Crankcase vent tube and some other random engine parts
More goodies, the brass bit is a Radiator petcock drain, and it is 50yrs old!
Thermostat housings, early and late style, early is in the foreground and the main difference is that it is all around more beefy with more meat or material present.
Oil filter bases and canisters, early and later style, early is on the right. A number of differences with these which I won't get into right now but the differences may decide which one gets used.
Back at it next week!
Cheers
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Right on. I doubt it has a rear PTO though. I have the only one I have ever seen and I bought it in Colombia, South America. It came off a FirePatrol, aka firetruck. Only rear PTO's I have ever seen on Patrols were on firetrucks. They ran the pump. It is possible though, as Nissan listed it as an option for all Patrols, a side PTO was also an option. The front PTO is very rare too, maybe 25% of all USA Patrols, 2616 of them in total had a PTO winch. It is not unheard of for a complete PTO assembly to sell for $1000 in Patrol circles. The winches are all Koenig but the PTO box and shafts was made by Nissan.
Doing a quick search, a lot of Patrols for sale on craiglist right now. I would love to by one of those cheapo ones with a decent body and frame. And swap in a 4BT, NV4500 and split case. Some FJ40 or FJ60 axles locked up would suit it nice too! No time, cash or space for any more projects though!
Cheers
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I have been working pretty steadily on this truck for the last month or so. Not logging a ton of hours but logging hours nearly every day. All kinds of things needed to be done to proceed with assembly.
Had a handful of items left to de-grease, sand blast and prep for paint, then let the body guy paint this stuff. Had to fab a few brackets to mount the skid plate to the oil pan. Had to figure out what the difference is between early and late oil filter assemblies and decide which one to use. Had to get the brake shoes, wheel cylinders, springs, drums and hardware all installed. Had to yank out the leaf spring u-bolts, chop them off to the right length and re-install. Had to figure out if I am missing any items and also figure out all the hardware I need to assemble plus buy the hardware. Had get the steel brake and fuel lines all figured out and decide on what to buy and use, ie stainless, nickle/copper, powder coated, galvanized, ect. Had to do a resto on the inside of the fuel tank. Had to locate and purchase new felt for the fuel tank, Thor 100% wintergreen for rubber resto and other non-shop duties like this. And I am sure there is some s*** I have forgotten too that I have done in the last month.
In a week or two I should be back into uploading pictures since there will be things to show. Lately the work doesn't really show much results so not much worthy of pictures. Soon though final assembly is in full swing and the pictures will start coming again.
Cheers
Had a handful of items left to de-grease, sand blast and prep for paint, then let the body guy paint this stuff. Had to fab a few brackets to mount the skid plate to the oil pan. Had to figure out what the difference is between early and late oil filter assemblies and decide which one to use. Had to get the brake shoes, wheel cylinders, springs, drums and hardware all installed. Had to yank out the leaf spring u-bolts, chop them off to the right length and re-install. Had to figure out if I am missing any items and also figure out all the hardware I need to assemble plus buy the hardware. Had get the steel brake and fuel lines all figured out and decide on what to buy and use, ie stainless, nickle/copper, powder coated, galvanized, ect. Had to do a resto on the inside of the fuel tank. Had to locate and purchase new felt for the fuel tank, Thor 100% wintergreen for rubber resto and other non-shop duties like this. And I am sure there is some s*** I have forgotten too that I have done in the last month.
In a week or two I should be back into uploading pictures since there will be things to show. Lately the work doesn't really show much results so not much worthy of pictures. Soon though final assembly is in full swing and the pictures will start coming again.
Cheers