As we speed toward our 30,000th blog item here at BangShift there are some things that continue to surprise us. Firstly is seeing a car or a type of car that we have never seen before or never knew existed. You see a LOT of stuff while combing through photos and doing stuff for as long as we have here but yet the surprises keep coming and that’s what keeps this whole deal fun. Learning! In this case it is a 1970 U521 crew cab truck that set us onto our back foot. Why? Look at it!
The basic program here seems to be a Datsun 510 that has had a pickup box rather artfully grafted onto the back of it at the factory. Never sold here in the United States, this truck was fond and resorted and used in Costa Rica. The sheetmetal is all good and the seller claims that it is the only one of these in the country. That’s usually a tough thing to say but since we have even heard of the existence of these things we’re going with it.
The car comes with lowering blocks to get ride of the unloaded rake that the little toughie has. We’d just those, add Minilite wheels and then drive the hell out of it. The fact that you can load your whole family in this baby and roll is really great.
Until the 1970s, there were no true “small trucks” in this country. Yes there were the El Camino and Ranchero options but we feel like these could have been a sales hit here, especially for businesses that don’t require a ton of payload but do need room and an efficient delivery vehicle.
So neat!
eBay: Check out this 1970 Datsun crew cab truck – never seen one before!
I’m not surprised you’ve not sen one before as its one huge ugly pile of shit!
Shares nothing with a 510. This is a US-spec 520 pick-up from the B-pillars forward. And probably rides on a 520 frame. Behind the B-pillar sheet metal is something I had never seen. Cool little truck.
It sounds like Geordie had a crummy Christmas….
Do y’all think that little bed is big enough to stuff Geordie’s body in and tote it to the bogs? Never seen one either, but dam, it’s neat!
Australia or Britain, I did see an article on cars with truck beds. If I\’m right it was something to do with being able to drive at an earlier age if it was for farming. Kids would alter the back of the car to be a pickup and some were done as if they came that way.
U body Datsun trucks are the holy grail of Datsun truck nuts, yes we excist.
From what I’ve been able to find they ran from the early 1950s until the end of the 620 trucks in the late 1970s. The 4 door crew cab 720s took over the role of the U body.