1979 Patrol restoration, Colombian car.

[Camilo]

I already made my presentation in the proper forum section, now I´m going to show you some pics of my 79 Patrol, the process some of the NOS thibgs i have found and the actual stage of the resto.

My car is a 79 that I purchased from a restorer who was involved with the Land Rover world and left aside the Patrol. The car is in pretty good shape, but the goal of this projects was not only make it driveable but restore it almost as new as I have done it with my Datsuns.

Here is the car when I saw it for the first time in pics.





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As i said the car is in good shape and I purchased it right away. The car only spend a night in my house and went to the mechanic's shop to start the restoration.




















Then we start to look for rust, but it is almost rustles.














At this point I decided to cut the hard top and convert it to soft top.



The restoration will include an engine and gearbox manteinance and if it´s necessary a complete fix, chassis and body paint, complete interior restoration with vinyl, electrical manteinance, fill the extra holes on the dashboard like the aftermarket radio... well and everything it needs to leave the car as original as I can.


Here are some NOS and reproductions that I have found.



Japanese tail lights reproductions



NOS badge



ashtray




lock cylinder and keys



I have these knobs from a 73 datsun 260C that I really like to use, but my Patrol has all its original knobs.



Red light, although my car does not have it....



Amber lens made in Colombia.





New instruments panel, and the Nissan badge that goes instead the radio.




As you can see this panel has the brake indicator, it appears that it is a Japanese version dash, the indicator is intended for the level of the brakes fluid, so i´m going to try to make it work with some Datsun 280ZX tokico caps.

I know there is a lot of things to find, as the wheels, the steering wheel, a nice pair of OEM seat belts, the cap of the washer bottle, the complete set of tools... And a lot of more things that I forget or will miss in the process.

[RiverPatrol]

It's going to look fabulous. Yes, it was in very good condition to begin with.

You Colombians make me jealous with the parts you can get.

[Camilo]

Jajaja don't be jealous, OEM parts are getting harder and and harder to find, I could find those red lenses, the badge, the dash, the ashtray, the interior badge, a fender and a door, the white lenses were a trade for a pair of red lenses, the amber and the tail lights are reproductions. I know I can find some other things like the shifts boots and things like that, also used parts but is not that easy as it is with the Land Cruisers o Rovers.

[Esteban]

Congratulations Camilo. You have a very solid Patrol there, and it looks that your are not wasting any time.

Great to follow your restoration and how you do your canvas top. Certainly, you have very good upholstery shops there.

Regarding your instrument panel, I have the same one. When I purchased mine, back when I was in Ecuador, the part number of the instrument panel was for a Switzerland model. It had been sent by mistake to the local dealer, and due to that I paid a fraction of the cost of the original one. Still, I haven't done anything to put the brake light to work...

[Camilo]

Thank you Esteban. Well, yes we have indeed great upholstery shops here, I´m searching for the actual material of the 79 soft tops, I reaaly don´t know if they were made of canvas as the early Patrols, I´m gonna use the best and the most similar material I can find, there is a guy in Ipiales (small city at the border with Ecuador) who has a NOS frame and soft top, but he´s asking for them more or less 4000 USD, totally crazy. The frame I have was replicated from the Raul´s Patrol frame and he is helping me with his advices and broad knowledge.

About the brake indicator, all you have to do, i think, is to find the tokico or nabco caps used in the Datsun cars of that time. I already tried a Tokico one that I have and it fits.

[Esteban]

Crazy price for that frame. Glad you have good help and advice. It will be great if you could post some pictures of the frame fabrication when the time comes.

From what I can recall, the 79 Patrols had the same style canvas top as the previous generations. The 61 series Patrol that came after in 1980 had a different canvas top, and I don't even know if it was canvas or other material.

Thanks for the tip for the brake caps. In my case I'll have to go a different route since my master cylinder is a Ford type.

[mad4hws]

Hi Camillo,
this looks like a fantastic project. I recently acquired a Colombian patrol as well. It looks like your hardtop is the same as mine. I am wondering if the curved windows on yours are glass? mine are not, they are plastic. The rubber also doesn't seat very well. I'd like to get these fixed. Do you know if these parts are common down there? I am going to keep tabs on your project. I'm not ready to do the tear down like you've done just yet, but probably will be in a year or two.

thanks.
Don.

[Camilo]

Hi Camillo,
this looks like a fantastic project. I recently acquired a Colombian patrol as well. It looks like your hardtop is the same as mine. I am wondering if the curved windows on yours are glass? mine are not, they are plastic. The rubber also doesn't seat very well. I'd like to get these fixed. Do you know if these parts are common down there? I am going to keep tabs on your project. I'm not ready to do the tear down like you've done just yet, but probably will be in a year or two.

thanks.
Don.

Hi Don

These hardtops where made here, it appears that every single Patrol imported to Colombia had canvas top and was converted to hard top here. The windows are plastic, I don´t know if these rubber is a common part but I could take a look, I also don´t know if the rubber of my top is ok, but as I said I´ll take a look, maybe I could find something similar, the top will be sold as soon as I can because my car is gonna be converted to canvas top.