DATSUN BY NISSAN
Lurking in the hills of the Greenpoint/Williamsburg border is this little toughy:
This is a 1978 or 1979 Datsun 620 pickup. Along with the Toyotas of the day this was the picture of durable utility. With it's rugged 2.0 Liter 4 cylinder it would gladly toil away forever (or until the rust monster came to take it away) and return great gas mileage in the process.
This one has obviously received a questionable tribal tattoo along the way, but that would make sense on a 37 year old bro with a Napoleon complex. I like how it took one good sock to the jaw and still looks determined.
There is a little bit of an identity crisis happening with the Datsuns of this era as they start to ease in the name change to Nissan. This schizophrenic badging started in 1978, and continued on up into 1983 when Datsun was finally dropped. In reality the company was always Nissan, but they had used the Datsun name for their export vehicles.
The 2 handles that open the tailgate are so basic and utilitarian that they could've come off a truck from the '30s.
I love the era of stamping the truck's name HUGE on the tailgate! Everybody seemingly did it, but the Japanese were the most literal, with the clearest fonts. Mazda had a pickup truck that wins the tailgate game by having MAZDA ROTARY POWER spelled out, filling the back end completely!
Look how practical Datsun by Nissan is with all the tie-downs affixed to the bed; 11 in total! For me the small styling cue that showed they cared is the body line above the door handle which incorporates the leading edge of the bed into the overall design. As for the flamed mudflaps? They go with the tribal tattoo.
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