Easy Greeny: 1972 Datsun 521 Truck
The Datsun 520/521 pickup was built from 1965 through 1972, right in the middle of the biggest explosion in performance and horsepower in the US market. But Nissan didn’t care, they were building a simple car for simple people and it was powered by a 1.3 to 1.6 liter J-series inline4 that made about as much power as the average domestic’s air conditioning system consumes at idle. Find this 1972 Datsun 521 Truck offered for $7,600 in Folsom, CA via craigslist. Tip from Hugh.
From the seller:
1972 Datsun Truck 521
cylinders: 4 cylinders
drive: rwd
fuel: gas
odometer: 60000
paint color: green
size: compact
title status: clean
transmission: manual
type: pickup
Datsun 521 – clear title and no smog requiredI’m looking for a good home for my 1972 Datsun 521 “GreenBean” pickup truck. I purchased this truck for my son as a daily driver years ago. He moved up to a 4×4 so here we are.
If you’re looking for a cost effective vehicle, that will run forever on a gallon of gas, a hoot to own and that wont break your wallet this may be the truck for you.
• The truck is in excellent running condition and is exceptionally clean
• Original L16 engine
• 60k on the odometer (broken)
• Brand New tires
• Powder coated the factory wheels (not painted)
• Weber Carb with a pressure gauge pump installed
New fuel pump OEM
• New water pump
• Distributor rebuilt professionally
• New battery
• New plugs, rotor, cap
• New battery
• NOS ignition switch with Nissan key
• New marine fuse box
• New thermostat
• Brake master cylinder
• New alternator
Points of interest:
Great conversation piece, lots of fun and chics dig it. It’s a California truck which means NO RUST. This was a work truck in a prior life and the body reflects it. The previous owner slapped some bondo on the doors.
The Dastun 521 Story
The early 1970s through early 1980s period was the Golden Age of small pickups in North America, with just about every major American and Japanese car manufacturer getting into the game.
The L-series straight-four/six engine family served Nissan well for decades, powering everything from the legendary Datsun 510 through the first round of Z-Cars. Based on a license-built version of the Mercedes-Benz four-banger used by the Prince Motor Co., Nissan grabbed this technology as a result of the merger with Prince in 1966. This is the 1.6-liter L16 four-cylinder here, the same engine used in most U.S.-market 510s.
Hey! Didn’t I send this one in?
I was perusing Datsun pickups looking for pictures that included the brake master cylinder because I’m looking for a dual circuit setup for my TR3 and since Nissan licensed everything from Austin the Datsun master cylinder should bolt into the TR3.
The weird thing is that this 1972 pickup has a single circuit brake setup. I thought that by 1972 everything sold in the USA was dual circuit.
I hate it when the brakes fail even more than when the wheels fall off.
Other that that I thought this looked nice. Reminds me of one we had on the farm.
Whoops, forgot to credit this one to yah.
And I’m surprised that single circuit brakes were even allowed on pre-war cars, a single thing in that circuit stops and you are going for a longer drive than you desired.
Yeah, single circuit brakes just aren’t good.
My mother has a fun story about driving out of the Claremont Hotel in the Berkeley hills in in 1950 driving a 1934 Mercury wooden station wagon that turned out to have no brakes. In her telling, once she got it into first gear it was simply a matter of not hitting anything until she could turn onto a street that went uphill. Took about 20 blocks. She said that all she could think about is all those splinters if she crashed.
Brakes failing just used to be one of those things that happened all the time.