DATCREAM!
Along the fertile Hooptie hunting grounds of the Wallabout section of Brooklyn I passed this little number. It was looking spotless parked next to the BQE in front of a lot filled with dormant Mercedes Benz from the '70s.
This is a 1972-1979 Datsun 620 pickup truck in what I believe is the original color White. The thing is that Datsun had 2 different colors in '72 named White; #8889 was what we would think of as a normal white while #8895 had a cooler temperature and almost a faint green hue like the truck we see here. After the initial year this color was specified as Polar White. WOW VERY INTERESTING.
Datsun trucks can trace their roots back to Model 13 from 1934. With the exception of 1945 (when production of just about everything Japanese halted) the Datsun truck has continued to be built through the present day. In 1970 they started looking much like this model.
At first glance this looks like a flashy aftermarket grill but I believe it's the original plastic unit with a chrome treatment. This is somebody's show truck in the West Coast/Hawaii style (though it should really be lowered to complete the look).
Whoever did the bodywork on this ride shaved off the tie downs and removed the Datsun emblems that would've been on the front fenders. The fact that this doesn't have a rear bumper isn't too shocking however as you could order the truck without one when new.
The diminutive dimensions of this little ride makes it very usable in the city. I would be nervous about people backing into it though.
The wheels give this 620 a tough stance that I think it wears pretty well. The powerplant of this ride was the 1.6 Liter (!) L16 engine good for 96 horsepower. 1974 brought a new 1.7 Liter lump good for 100 horsepower before the mighty L20B 2 Liter engine arrived bringing 110 hp to the scene. All of these engines are dead reliable and totally simple to maintain. They were also very clean running little trucks; the stock Datsun was a 50 state vehicle meaning that it was one of the few that didn't require any special equipment to meet the ultra strict California emissions.
Well we'll leave this little cruiser in the shadow of the mighty BQE for now. In California these little trucks are still daily drivers for many folks. You can see them all over the state chugging right along, some with hundreds of thousands of miles on them. As with most Japanese vehicles of this era they rust out quickly given the chance so it was truly unexpected to see one in Brooklyn. Maybe some day I'll have the guts to pick one up in Cali and drive it back!
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