More than a few people may be surprised to hear that the King of Cowboys, Roy Rogers, loved Nissan’s trucks and their 4×4 Patrol in particular. He loved them so much that he was a spokesman for the company in the early-1960s touting their rugged SUVs. This 1967 Nissan Patrol would have looked right at home on the Double Bar R Ranch but it can be found here on eBay in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The seller has a $13,800 buy-it-now price or you can make an offer. Let’s saddle up and check out this Patrol.
I bet that there are quite a few Barn Finds readers who have never heard of Roy Rogers. Come on, you can admit it, we won’t judge you. He was as big as the western sky in the 1940s through the 1950s in movies and television as a singing cowboy. No really, singing cowboys were a thing back then. We don’t expect anyone under, ohhhh, let’s say age 50, to know who Roy Rogers is, just so you don’t expect all of us over age 50 to know who Chris Hemsworth is. Fair is fair. Cowboy movies were the action movies of today. Roy went to the big round-up in the sky in 1998 but his legend lives on in reruns.
Nissan brought the Patrol to the United States from 1962 until 1969 and they were the only Nissan-badged vehicle here until the early-1980s. You can see that this one has been painted, a lot. It’s as patriotic as Roy Rogers was, although I would have expected him to endorse Jeeps, such as the Willys CJ-2A known as Nellybelle that was used on his tv show, rather than Nissan products. At the time, he was a perfect all-American spokesman for this Japanese company. They ended up only selling around 2,600 of them in the US so they are fairly rare to see today. Jeff showed us a 1969 Patrol a couple of weeks ago here.
The seller thinks that this one was originally the light blue color as seen under the hood, but it appears to have had at least two other colors in its lifetime. They say that it’s a “desert find” from the California/Arizona border area and as such, there isn’t much rust, but there is a bit of rust on the rear panel that’ll need to be taken care of. Luckily, like a Jeep or Toyota FJ, there aren’t a lot of complicated curves and angles on this Patrol so that’ll make it easier to repair.
The engine is Nissan’s 4.0L inline-six with around 125 hp. The seller says that it runs and drives and has had a recent carb overhaul and a new fuel pump. It shifts and drives fine and I’m sure that Roy Rogers would approve. Are there any Roy Rogers fans out there? How about Nissan Patrol fans?
Buyer will have to drive it on the New York Thruway between Harriman and Albany, where at least two rest stops still have functioning Roy Rogers restaurants.
“Yippie-i-o-ki-yay”, although, I don’t know if Roy actually sang those words, but I never knew he was a spokesperson for this. Given the incredible popularity of that show,( every kid had a Roy Rogers costume and toy 6 shooter) I’d have to think a better sponsor could be had. “Nissan ( surprised it’s not a Datsun), what the heck are those? Never amount to anything”,like we said in Milwaukee in the 60’s. Never even saw one, why would you, a Jeep or Bronco did just fine, but,,boy, were we wrong. Like I said before, a storage facility near me has one, sitting outside deteriorating. If that person knew they could bring 5 fig,,,( chuckling), sorry, 5 figures, it wouldn’t be sitting there. Again, clearly, I’ve got one, you don’t, mentality. 5 figures, preposterous.
His show ran from 1951 through 1957. He used NelleBelle, a 1946 Willys CJ-2A that he actually owned in the program because he noticed that after WWII, Jeeps were very popular, especially with children. Rogers himself owned a Jeep which he used for hunting, off road cruising and travel to and from his studio.
“Big as the western sky,” Nice one Scotty. Your comments reminded me of my late Grandfather. When I was in my 20s I noticed he had some LPs including Roy Rogers and I said “I didn’t know you like Country and Western music.” He replied, “Well I don’t go for Country, but I do like the Western music.” Until that moment I didn’t appreciate the distinction, but thanks to him I never lump “Western” in with “Country.” This Patrol is perfect for exploring Cowboy Country or any back-country. I wouldn’t do anything but mechanically maintain it, and I hope it lives a long life of being used as intended.
I doubt that Roy Rogers became the spokesman for the Nissan Patrol, because he loved them. For a fee, Roy Rogers lent his name to anything and everything. He was a pioneer in marketing himself. He endorsed, and put his name on everything under the sun, from toys, to cereal, to clothing, blankets, comic books, restaurants, lunch boxes, guitars and more. I’m sure he was paid a nice little fee, to “love” the Nissan Patrol.
To me, the Patrol always looked like a cheap knock off of the Land Rover, which was nothing new for Nissan. Before the Patrol, they built another 4×4 that looked an awful lot like the Willys CJ2 and 3.
But Nellybelle was a Willys! :)
A very good point, Jim! I left out that part – fixed it, thanks!
My old boss inherited one of these when he bought a rural property where he would holiday it was a one owner with an aftermarket Canopy Industries hardtop ended up bringing back to Sydney and selling it to collector a lot of these ended up with Stromberg carbies fitted a hell of lot more reliable than the Japanese one
I’m 49 so under 50 , but I grew up watching Roy Rodgers and John Wayne movies EVERY Sunday after church at my grandparents house , for years in my late teens and twenties I couldn’t stand anything western , now I count John Wayne as one of my favorite actors , not seen Roy in years , but would like to. My have to stream one of his movies and think of my grandfather.
I enjoy seeing all (internationally) the ‘trucks’ of the era have that lill ‘scoop’ “around the corner” at the tail gait area. Even this 1 w/the ‘double dor’ style
gait. This, like the Toy is a lill longer threr than the ford or others due to the weight/need for door post & renforcement w/that swinging L&R ‘dor’. I guess they all got rid of it in the 60s?
Thanks Scott, not as small or quirky as some ‘of yours’ but again, well written, informative and very interesting…