Courtesy of Google Images
Sometimes it's funny what gets you where you want to go. If you are in the service industry that something is likely to be an overworked and under-appreciated vehicle. Thankfully, none of mine were worked as hard as this picture. Don’t know who this truck belongs to. It’s a google image but the signs tell me it's Houston and that's close enough to get it the opening picture of this article..
It's not one vehicle that stands out in my mind. It's a group. That group is comprised of three Nissan pickups (years 79-81-87). I also had an S10 that probably should be here but it doesn't fit well in a Nissan story. I would estimate that I have driven Nissan pickups around 900 thousand miles over a 30 year period. They were not perfect but Nissan sure got my respect and they allowed me to take advantage of some opportunities that put food on the table. They also allowed me to work at something I liked while learning how to become a civilian.
It's not one vehicle that stands out in my mind. It's a group. That group is comprised of three Nissan pickups (years 79-81-87). I also had an S10 that probably should be here but it doesn't fit well in a Nissan story. I would estimate that I have driven Nissan pickups around 900 thousand miles over a 30 year period. They were not perfect but Nissan sure got my respect and they allowed me to take advantage of some opportunities that put food on the table. They also allowed me to work at something I liked while learning how to become a civilian.
Courtesy of Google Images When I retired from the Navy I had a bit of a problem fitting in with the civilian world. That could make a series of articles. I would contend we all have PTSD to some degree after any extended time on active duty. If you are so afflicted you don't fit in well in the civilian world. At least I didn't.
Before I left my last post in Guam I purchased an almost new Datsun King Cab pickup. It was unusual in that it had a four cylinder engine backed up by a three speed automatic transmission. It had 5,000 miles on the odometer and the original owner couldn't make the payments. After being shipped to San Francisco and driven home to Kansas, that little truck took me to Chicago for a job. I had bought an aluminum shell that had wind damage. That shell allowed me to load most everything I owned for the trip to Chicago. The same job then transferred me to Houston. This truck is identical to it except for the color. Since I took very few pictures before the digital age, google images will have to serve again.
The company in Chicago thought the Houston streets were paved with gold in and they sent me there. Folks in Houston were dealing with an oil slowdown in 1981. They didn't really care how it was done up North, failed to recognize our obvious expertise, and did not care to share their golden streets. They made it a point of telling me so and the job was short lived. I chose to stay in Houston and strike out on my own rather than return to Illinois for a job in Joliet. Every winter that makes me happy. Every summer I'm not so sure.
Before I left my last post in Guam I purchased an almost new Datsun King Cab pickup. It was unusual in that it had a four cylinder engine backed up by a three speed automatic transmission. It had 5,000 miles on the odometer and the original owner couldn't make the payments. After being shipped to San Francisco and driven home to Kansas, that little truck took me to Chicago for a job. I had bought an aluminum shell that had wind damage. That shell allowed me to load most everything I owned for the trip to Chicago. The same job then transferred me to Houston. This truck is identical to it except for the color. Since I took very few pictures before the digital age, google images will have to serve again.
The company in Chicago thought the Houston streets were paved with gold in and they sent me there. Folks in Houston were dealing with an oil slowdown in 1981. They didn't really care how it was done up North, failed to recognize our obvious expertise, and did not care to share their golden streets. They made it a point of telling me so and the job was short lived. I chose to stay in Houston and strike out on my own rather than return to Illinois for a job in Joliet. Every winter that makes me happy. Every summer I'm not so sure.
Courtesy of Google Images I took a job with an air conditioning company and went almost crazy doing inside sales. I'm not sure if the ex-marine who owned the company recognized my leadership capabilities as a retired E-8 or not. He may have simply wanted to show me who was boss. I was soon recruited by his competition so it doesn't matter.
So that they could add services during the terribly slow winter season (remember, it was Houston and winter is optional), that company sent me to Vermont for a school on sweeping and inspecting chimneys.
Black Magic chimney sweep company had advertised in Mother Earth (and elsewhere) that they could teach you a trade in a week. Now you might think that a chimney is useless in Houston and I just might agree. Useless or not, they are dangerous when you use them and it was work I knew I could do. After all, I was still young and gung-ho. The following link probably contains as much theoretical information as the school did.
http://www.grangerlandrfd.com/chimneys-101
Sweeping chimneys was the first of a long line of outside work. The job also meant I needed something that would carry a certain amount of tools and equipment. I figured that I could make do with what I had. Really, I had to as I was pretty much broke.
Courtesy of Google Images In short order my pretty little 1981 Datsun King Cab became adorned with ladder racks, overload springs, and air shocks. The shell (or canopy) originally came without side doors. That can make getting a tool from the front of the bed a real effort. A camper shop installed the side doors (called windoors) for $80 each. I was able to lock the back and use the whole bed. The bed suddenly made the truck as functional (but not as tough) as something much larger and I began to work it to death.
Courtesy of Google Images In January, 1985 a string of broken promises led me to start out on my own. I hired my brother-in-law to do the air conditioning and heating. For a while I pretty much stuck with doing chimneys.
Hurricane Alicia had given her blessings to Houston in 1983. There were plenty of trees down and we were a company that talked daily to people who burned wood. In 1983 you couldn't give away firewood because the market was glutted. By 1985 the low hanging fruit had been picked. It was then that one of our clients told us that her parents had lost about 20 massive oak trees. They were just in their way but to us they represented money.
I had no way to carry firewood so I bought a trailer identical to this. It came from a lady that previously had a small camper shell installed and actually took it camping. Camping in a camper, what a novel concept. I put helper springs on it and between it and the truck we carried a bunch of stuff. I’m told that a cord of oak weighs about 3,000 pounds. I suppose that I carried that much a few times. The truth is that the truck was plenty strong enough to carry the weight but it had a hard time stopping. Pretty scary. There is a really short half life on brakes and universal joints on something like this. That’s the reason that I also owned a one-ton Chevy cube van. You can read how I messed that up by copying and pasting this address in your browser: http://www.grangerlandrfd.com/hard-working-wheels
Hurricane Alicia had given her blessings to Houston in 1983. There were plenty of trees down and we were a company that talked daily to people who burned wood. In 1983 you couldn't give away firewood because the market was glutted. By 1985 the low hanging fruit had been picked. It was then that one of our clients told us that her parents had lost about 20 massive oak trees. They were just in their way but to us they represented money.
I had no way to carry firewood so I bought a trailer identical to this. It came from a lady that previously had a small camper shell installed and actually took it camping. Camping in a camper, what a novel concept. I put helper springs on it and between it and the truck we carried a bunch of stuff. I’m told that a cord of oak weighs about 3,000 pounds. I suppose that I carried that much a few times. The truth is that the truck was plenty strong enough to carry the weight but it had a hard time stopping. Pretty scary. There is a really short half life on brakes and universal joints on something like this. That’s the reason that I also owned a one-ton Chevy cube van. You can read how I messed that up by copying and pasting this address in your browser: http://www.grangerlandrfd.com/hard-working-wheels
Courtesy of Google Images In 1980 Nissan began using an engine called the NAPS-Z in their pickups and rear wheel drive vans. It had an aluminum head and a cast iron block. It’s reason for being was that it was very clean burning. I think it had a hemispheric head and know it had a plug on each side of the combustion chamber. That always seemed to confuse the technicians who dealt with it. Those who didn’t know simply didn’t understand the 8-plug distributor. There was one spark plug that you couldn't pay someone to change. Those engines had more get up and go than they had a right to. They also had head gasket problems.
Head gaskets claimed the life of three engines in the 81 truck. The thing that always amazed me was how tough the transmission turned out to be. Those three engines took that truck almost 350,000 miles and the transmission was still humming along when the last engine died. The NAPS Z engines lasted well enough that it was only by killing a couple of them that you could come to realize how fragile the head gasket really was.
Overheating was the main culprit but sometimes you could kill an engine by the time the gauge registered a problem.
Head gaskets claimed the life of three engines in the 81 truck. The thing that always amazed me was how tough the transmission turned out to be. Those three engines took that truck almost 350,000 miles and the transmission was still humming along when the last engine died. The NAPS Z engines lasted well enough that it was only by killing a couple of them that you could come to realize how fragile the head gasket really was.
Overheating was the main culprit but sometimes you could kill an engine by the time the gauge registered a problem.
I later bought a 79 that I could not kill. This is actually it and not a google image. It probably lasted so long because it had a cast iron head.
We made jokes about driving a Datsun and a half but that trailer would haul. I learned the value of trailers and now have an SUV and two of them. After several years of use a pickup trailer normally becomes torn up to the extent that you need to convert it to a wooden flatbed. I found out by accident that the a Datsun would accept the six bolt chevy wheel when I went to buy replacement tires. One side was 15 inch low profile tire. The other was 14. Two 15 inch tires and wheels from my Dad's C10 made it an even heavier hauler.
The trailer in the picture actually came from a 74 Ford Courier that my vocational class managed to tear up. It won't accept the chevy wheels because the hub is too large. The pickup bed finally appeared to be more patch than original bed so it made it to the junk yard.
The trailer in the picture actually came from a 74 Ford Courier that my vocational class managed to tear up. It won't accept the chevy wheels because the hub is too large. The pickup bed finally appeared to be more patch than original bed so it made it to the junk yard.
After I became a teacher, (1991) I pulled the trailer with my Lincoln Town Car. I really hated to beat up that car. That's actually the major reason I bought this 79 Datsun. Well, that and the fact it was almost free. Mechanically it was very sound except for something my mechanic friend called an anti-backfire valve. Shut it off and it sometimes backfired which made it very popular at gas pumps in certain parts of town. I used this truck to commute 100 miles per day when I was teaching at an adaptive behavior center across town. It was Nissan’s seminal effort to make a king cab and it was much better than a regular cab.
This truck's main claim to fame with my students was the time it participated in the art car parade. It was the year after the Houston Rockets won their first championship. We extended the bed with lumber and put a basketball hoop in the back. We drove slow and kids slam dunked for the whole route. If I remember correctly they got stage fright and I wound up replacing a couple with grandkids. The paint job was something to behold and you can see some of it here. For the parade we even had plywood basketballs zip tied to the wheels. More on that can be found here: http://www.grangerlandrfd.com/class-project-art-car
Did you ever wind up with too many vehicles? Well I did. I gave away that truck a couple times but it kept coming back. Finally gave it to my daughter and told her not to ask to give it back. Just sell it when you’re done.
Did you ever wind up with too many vehicles? Well I did. I gave away that truck a couple times but it kept coming back. Finally gave it to my daughter and told her not to ask to give it back. Just sell it when you’re done.
This is the 87 Nissan "hardbody".
I have a friend who owns a flower shop. One of their delivery drivers blew up (overheated/ head gasket) the engine in this truck. It was black when I got it and hot as could be in the Houston summer. I put a junk yard engine in it and proceeded to drive it into the ground. Had almost 350k miles when the junk yard engine gave up the ghost. It would possibly still be trucking if I hadn’t given it to a co-worker. It overheated on her husband and he parked it. She asked me if I wanted it back. I needed it again so I said yes.
It wound up in the High School shop to be used as a training aid. That was a mistake because the school administration overloaded the shop teacher with kids who didn’t want to be there. That's like herding cats and my truck suffered. Blew a head gasket just after having it replaced and had leaks all over the place. In fact, this picture is the day the head gasket blew the last time. Had just painted it, given it an East Texas redneck ac unit (the shade over the cab) and was ready to roll. It was the final straw.
I have a friend who owns a flower shop. One of their delivery drivers blew up (overheated/ head gasket) the engine in this truck. It was black when I got it and hot as could be in the Houston summer. I put a junk yard engine in it and proceeded to drive it into the ground. Had almost 350k miles when the junk yard engine gave up the ghost. It would possibly still be trucking if I hadn’t given it to a co-worker. It overheated on her husband and he parked it. She asked me if I wanted it back. I needed it again so I said yes.
It wound up in the High School shop to be used as a training aid. That was a mistake because the school administration overloaded the shop teacher with kids who didn’t want to be there. That's like herding cats and my truck suffered. Blew a head gasket just after having it replaced and had leaks all over the place. In fact, this picture is the day the head gasket blew the last time. Had just painted it, given it an East Texas redneck ac unit (the shade over the cab) and was ready to roll. It was the final straw.
Courtesy of Google Images This is our latest stab at Driving Nissans. We have had two of these, a 2010 and a 2013. Combined mileage is about 160,000 miles with no repairs. We would still be driving the first one had we not had a left knee casualty. It was a six speed manual and we replaced it with a CVT.
There are some things about it that are irritating to me. You cannot put a luggage rack of any type on this car without voiding the warranty. The payload is 800 pounds which could be easily exceeded with four wide bodies without luggage. What it does do is move people and it does so very efficiently. I wish it could also be equipped to move our canoe but that is where the next vehicle comes in.
There are some things about it that are irritating to me. You cannot put a luggage rack of any type on this car without voiding the warranty. The payload is 800 pounds which could be easily exceeded with four wide bodies without luggage. What it does do is move people and it does so very efficiently. I wish it could also be equipped to move our canoe but that is where the next vehicle comes in.
Had things worked just a little differently it might not have been a steady diet of Nissan. The quality of this 4Runner makes me wish I had given Toyota a shot at some point. The engines might have lasted longer.... but maybe not.
One of the chimney sweeps who worked for us once made the comment that I was getting a draft horse for the cost of a quarter horse. He was right but I did have enough sense to know that I needed a couple draft horses too. You can find them here: http://www.grangerlandrfd.com/hard-working-wheels
Seems to be a good note to leave on.
One of the chimney sweeps who worked for us once made the comment that I was getting a draft horse for the cost of a quarter horse. He was right but I did have enough sense to know that I needed a couple draft horses too. You can find them here: http://www.grangerlandrfd.com/hard-working-wheels
Seems to be a good note to leave on.
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