Vintage Japanese pickups have been on a tear as of late, with old-school Toyotas in particular leading the charge into higher pricing tiers for what used to be a reliable beater. The Datsun 720 series was its foremost competitor back in the day but it hasn’t yet begun to threaten the Toyota Hilux as king of the hill; consequently, the Datsun is still a good value today. This is an unrestored truck with some upgraded wheels and tires and features the rare “King Cab.” Find it here on eBay with bids to $3,650 and no reserve.
The seller doesn’t mention a lift kit but it certainly sits higher than the stock truck ever did. I suspect it’s a combination of the bigger tires and some suspension modifications. The truck is battered, bruised, and heavily patina’d, but that just adds to its character. The factory yellow paint is a great look for an old-school Japanese rig, especially when paired with the white rally wheels. Personally, I would leave it as-is.
The interior is in far better shape, surprisingly, as these trucks were never treated like collector’s items. The cabin certainly hasn’t been restored but it does still present well, with a clean cloth bench seat, original door panels, a classic three-spoke steering wheel, and cloth floor mats. The later trucks got a cool three-pod gauge cluster in the lower console that would look perfect retrofitted in here. The listing notes it is a well-optioned truck with power steering, power brakes, and factory discs.
These rigs were always underpowered but also unkillable at the same time. You were never going anywhere fast with the fuel-sipping four-cylinder engine, but that’s not the point: you could anywhere, slowly. The Toyota was equipped in the same way with no illusion of speed, so the Datsun stacks up quite favorably, especially in the price department. I love both makes and models but a 720 like this seems like the far better buy if you’re not worried about flipping it down the line.
Most if not all of the Datsun pick ups shipped to USA in this era where 2wd ,4wd was conversion kits.
This truck is a 620, and as a previous commenter noted the 4WD was added. There were no factory-built 4WD 620 trucks in North America. The 720 series started in 1980 in North America and did have 4WD as a factory option.
Cosby Hodges 4WD installed Low 4WD conversion kits here in metro Birmingham, AL back in the day. This ad is from 1975:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/dTDECUXiK1EifDKF7
Copy/paste the link if it doesn’t work.
Awesome old ad
A southern California based company called Wolverine did 4×4 conversions on Japanese trucks in the late ’70s. This would be a great little truck with correctly sized tires.
In the mid 80s I had one of these, also with the king cab, plus someone had put in twin pop out sunroofs. I delivered pizzas in it for two years and nothing would stop it. It was a great little truck, good gas milage and big enough to haul a few things when going camping. I finally gave it up when I found a 72 Celica for only $139 at a cheapo used car lot, which also served me for two years of pizza delivery, after a few minor repairs. It eventually fell apart, and I replaced it with a 79 280ZX.
Just wow – most beautiful japanese truck – IMHO – would love to have this!
Low conversion come to mind
Could be. The name “Low Manufacturing” has stuck in my mind since the late 1970s when I saw it in a Petersen’s Trucking Trends magazine that was ironically showing a high riding pickup — but I soon figured it out when they showed the name of the company owner, Spencer Low. Did a search just now and turned up this page for his old Datsun racetruck: https://www.offroadxtreme.com/features/history/vintage-monday-spencer-lows-75-datsun-racing-pickup/
Exactly! Spencer Low did most of the Datsun 4WD conversions back in the day. He was also an awesome off road racer – he passed away a few years ago.
If we had a pic of the front diff cover, we could tell whether it was a Low conversion or not.
Tag inside truck says conversion was done by Willamett Wheel, Inc. in 1977
I went through a bunch of PL620’s. Another of those “if only I’d known”. Rolled one when the outsized, overweight bus I was towing decided on a different track than I was steering.
Moved on to S10/S15’s. Not sure that’s called progress.
Any vehicle manufactured in the ’70s and ’80s that ended in “sun” was synonymous with rust. This truck is no exception.