I might go look at a 69' Patrol next weekend. Anything I should watch out for?

Where do these things normally rot out?

Long term goal is to swap in a more modern fuel injected engine like a KA24DE.

Thanks for your time,
Peter

With something that old, you'll be looking over everything on it. Look for rot on the frame and around the body mounts, as well as the floor boards. Electricals will be iffy on a 40 year old truck, so plan on doing some significant restoration work unless the thing is pristine to begin with.

I'm also looking for any good reference material. Things I'd like to know more about are the axles, T-case, transmission, engine family, what other nissan engines will bolt up, disk brake awaps...etc

Hi Peter,

I know that on the http://www.rmp-o.com/phpbb/ site there are some pages with the Patrol specs and stuff. Also a few guys have converted the axles to FJ-40 ones and stuff. Did you get the 69 yet? I owned on that I sold and it ended up in your area. If it is my old one you should buy it! The previous owner had put some funky seat covering so you would know right away if it was mine.

The 69 is my favorite year for a few reasons. The front lights, larger windshield vents and hydrolic clutch makes it better. Also, the door strikers changed and seemed to work much better for me. Also, I agree with DR above - watch that electrical! If it is original be careful. Mine burned up all the wiring and I had to do a complete rewire of the whole truck. In the end it was much better. I used a modern Toyota Tercel fuse box. It is perfect size and mounts right on the inner fender. Another item is the points system. I created an electronic dizzy from an early 80's nissan inline 6. It made a huge difference for starting and ease of tune up parts down the road. Check out the How To page on this board and you can read up on my project. There are some pics too. The conversion was very easy to do once you gather up the parts.

Good luck,

Jason

join our forum over at www.rmp-o.com, ton of info over there. and post pictures if you get it!

I'm well into restoring a 69 KL60 and it's adding up quick.
new seats, carb rebuild, master cylinder rebuild, shocks will be toast if they are original, fuel system, rust below the heater coil, rusted heater coil, rusted exhaust system, electical, paint, tires, spark plug wires, plugs, distributor cap....I better quit typing, I'm making myself sick thinking about how much I'm spending. My first one but they seem to be great machines and you will enjoy it.
Hope you married into money.