the mini truck craze was in Full swing in Southern California.
I remember those days: I was in high school, and some of the rich kids had 4x4 Datsun pick-ups that were to die for. I loved the lines of the Datsun pick-ups, and a lot of my early driving experience was in a 1969 Datsun station wagon. My D-50 reminds me a LOT of that Datsun station wagon.

You remind me of a part of my own story, I neglected to share, and that is I had decided early last year that I'd like to have a small pick-up, but was not looking too hard for one. My heart returned to the Datsun pick-up...there are a couple kicking around in this area...but something was lost in the appeal, not sure what. I remember when the Ram 50's came out, and I didn't think much of them, at the time.

I now wish I had taken pictures of my Ram before I began detailing it. At that time, I had no idea there was any kind of following for these trucks. In fact, I had to ask the seller what the heck kinda truck it was, there were no identifications in the cab.

All I knew was I saw something in its "face" that spoke of a strong spirit, and the simplicity of the driver's area spoke to me about "keep it simple". ("Pinball Wizard" - don't hear no buzzing damn bells) The seller had not even cleaned out the interior, but I saw through the dirt. On the test drive, I had not even gotten into third gear when my mind was made up.

This truck represents everything I loved about the vehicle designs of the 60's and 70's...before the Taurus ushered in the Suppository Look, with its attendand plastic bumpers and (I swear) subliminal dash light that instructs their drivers to tailgate the car ahead of them.

On a more personal note, OG: I had a supervisor (construction) who drove one pretty much like yours. That was some 35 years ago.