Patina is one of those words that a person either is on board with or any time it’s used it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard. Wait, do we all know what a chalkboard is? Just checking, I don’t think they use them in schools anymore. Wait, do they still have schools? Before this spirals out of control, let’s check out this 1986 Nissan 720 4×4 listed here on eBay in Fredricksburg, Texas. The seller is asking $11,500 or you can make an offer.
Yes, that’s a pretty ambitious asking price, especially when a few short years ago I passed on this ST King Cab one, shown here on Barn Finds for $2,500, being the meatball that I am. At the time of that 2017 post, $2,500 was NADA’s number. Today, NADA throws an average value of $2,900 and a high value of $4,000 so I’m not sure where the $11,500 number came from. But as they say, you can’t go up on your asking price so start high. This looks like an incredibly solid example, that probably explains the price. That catalytic converter wouldn’t last two hours in my neighborhood…
The Nissan 720 was offered for the 1980 model year and they came after the 620, which came after the 520, which came after the… 320? Fun fact: in the Japanese language, 420 represents impoliteness or rudeness, so they skipped that number in the series. That’s all a moot point because beginning in 1986, Nissan introduced the D21 or Hardbody pickups, the company’s first American-designed pickups. Although only the King Cab versions were designed here, the others were still designed in Japan. This is a shortbed version which is cool to see.
This example looks great, I don’t really see a major flaw anywhere inside or out. The dash pad is always a red flag for me but maybe it’s there to protect the dash rather than to cover up a cracked dash. The bed looks good, other than some possible rust in areas that have been touched up. After having the driver’s seat repaired, the interior should be set. Although it almost looks like the floor and exposed fan motor have been sprayed blue, maybe it’s a trick of the camera.
The Weber carb gives me the shivers, that’s what my Dodge D-50 Sport pickup has, and at least on mine, it isn’t a good solution to replace the factory carb. It idles at 1,100 RPM with no way to knock it down, I have to redo that. The ST (Sport Truck) model came with fuel injection in 1986. This engine should be Nissan’s 2.4L inline-four with just over 100 hp and the seller has included great photos and a video shown here on YouTube and you can see that it seems to run great. Have any of you owned a 720 pickup?
It says “This listing has ended”,so I guess
that dealer didn’t get the big bucks.
I can’t tell you how much that upsets me.
When I checked it’s still shows as an active listing. Of the 33 completed listing over the last 90 days, including vehicles listed multiple times, they show one item sold. That more than suggests their pricing is out of touch with the market.
Steve R
All the listing says is “contact the seller”, which I assume means he sold it. For how much is anybody’s guess.
.$11,500,00 for this truck? No automatic transmission! Patina my A$$!!! Truck did not even retail new for $11,500.00. Wake up buyers!!!
Personally, I would prefer a truck this size and age with the manual transmission. I would consider this a $2K truck, but in a free market the seller has a right to whatever someone is ‘willing to pay’.
How can you use perfect and patina in the same sentence?
“Perfect Patina?” What’s the difference between perfect patina and imperfect patina?
And in the English language, 420 means something entirely different…
Hitler’s birthday for one.
Not just English, it’s smoke em if you got em…it’s worldwide.
I hate to bash prices because I’m not actually in the market, but this truck would be mildly appealing to me at half the asking price.
It’s like when I was talking to a guy who was selling a rusted chassis for a radio. He said emphatically “that’s the patina”. I said no it’s the rust on the chassis. If your making a rat rod OK, otherwise it’s rust and paint loss.
Way over priced. Went to their e-bay site and everything appears over priced. All vehicles listed have “Make an offer”
But as the saying goes ‘start high then go down to what you really want’
I’d rather have the the little black coupe in the background in one of the pictures.
Cheers
kenzo
Yeah, 1st vehicle I bought new 86 ST 4×4 short bed. It came down to this color blue or the copperish “Orange Mist” one on the lot. I think it was around $9000 new. I beat the $h!t out of it. It pulled a trailer of lawn mowers since new to the 90,000 miles I sold it at. I gave it at most 2 or 3 oil changes and a set of plugs at around 80,000 just because I thought “it should need something maintenance related by now“. It was indestructible and I often wonder how long I’d have had it if I didn’t get a testosterone rush from the Mustang GT I traded it in on. I’d have been much better off keeping the truck if, of course, I’d have had the foresight to have kept up with the oil changes at least. Life-forced workaholism kept me from stopping to change the oil, and it didn’t seem to care.
I think vehicles painted in the 80s suffered from bad paint jobs and failures, not patina.
That’s right, patina this isn’t! Just poor quality paint of the era and neglect!
Most beautiful japanese truck – IMHO – would take it any day
Most beautiful japanese pickup ever – IMHO – would take it any day – unfortunately I live on the other side of the pond –
I have an 86 Nissan 720 King Cab 4×4, 5spd. Rusted over wheel wells. I traded it for my 86 Mazda B2000 CabPlus, 5spd because its 4×4. Suspension feels good. It got wire work under the dash with another fuse box and blower motor switch turned out ok. New rear drums and hardware. The only thing was the left rear parking brake cable has been impossible to find. Like Scotty said about the Weber Carb it idles high, and this Weber on this one idles high also. This one also has double sunroof, tonneau cover, and a row bar. Oh yeah, its got a header installed, new muffler, new evap hoses, new battery and starter.