I am very curious about the very first few Hardbodies ever assembled? You know those Z-car guys know the story of their cars history down to exact VIN numbers, why can't the HB owners have this info about our trucks? Who penned the design? Where are the conceptual designs and early versions? Does anyone know any good Hardbody prototype stories leading up to the unveiling in 1986? Any spy shots from that time period? And what number HB was the first to go on sale to the public? I know I'm not driving a Z car but I do know I am driving a classic and I'd like to hear the story of the HB and how it came to exist.

Good question, Rev.. I've wondered the same thing before-then my A.D.D. kicked in and I noticed some lint in the carpet or something and forgot about it. I'll try to help find something.

Well Z being a sports car that info is usually tracked from day one of a model trucks not so much. Not like any hard body will ever be a collectors item, but the Z's are already collectors items and many more will be if they have a good history of racing or famous owners. it just is not the same thing, same can be said of any brand vette for instance get tons of bucks at auctions for old ones ever tricked out old trucks do not get anywhere near the money. Apples and oranges

Not totally true. Take Hemmings magazine for example, they have the scoop on some of the least known cars and not all of them are sports cars either. Where do they find that info?

Thats a great question. I know my 86.5 is a pretty early custom ordered truck. If someone has any VIN info, I'll be glad to run mine to find out more info.

Yes maybe there are some rare NON sports cars worth tons but hard bodies are any thing but RARE. Those no sports cars are worth a lot as they are very rare, maybe in another 20 yrs hard bodies will be rare and worth more but mine is 20 yrs old and still running good LOL so not like these things are dying and being crushed to oblivion.

A friend has an 1986 with a 11/85 build date.
Wanna see pics ?

That is def one of the first batch sold in the USA. Show us some pics. This is why I started the HB registry BTW. To help write the story. There is more known about the Pinto than the HB when it comes to pre-production history and I find that really sad. Rare or not the story has never been told.

RT22 wrote:not like these things are dying and being crushed to oblivion.

Up here that is what happens to these. I see one Hardbody a month up here, if that. I see way more Vettes, Porsches and Mustangs everyday that they just blend into the background. My head turns when I see any older Nissan truck because they just don't exist up here in any kind of daily numbers despite how many were sold. And at the rate kids are cutting them up and drifting them into the ground leaves even less that haven't been f*** with. Believe me, the drifter crowd has found the HB and they are going to go the way of the 240 to a slightly lesser degree. Rarity aside, this is not a Hyundai Excel we are talking about, it's the Nissan Hardbody...one of the most popular mini trucks EVER! Why do we know nothing of its origins?!?

I have googled all the key phrases and words i can conjur up, and I come up empty. Might require some digging into the Datsun company, since the design was probably laid out a few years before it was produced. Back then it took so long to get the tooling built for a new design, thats why we have models that run for one style for 10+ years in several manufacturer families.

I have a build date of 12/85

That's a wild truck. For one, it's built in Japan while most HBs were USA built. Secondly, look at that clock! Of the millions of HB pics floating around my drive that is only the second time I have seen that clock. Is that truck fixable or is it toast?


I wonder what information Nissan covered up with the Federal sticker? If you look carefully you'll see the GVWR info is actually a sticker covering up the original dataplate.

I say it is fixable.
And I'm sure the owner doesn't want it.

Why haven't you grabbed it yet?

This weeks "Stump the Expert" question on 4x4parts.com Facebook page is "Who on the Nissan USA design team designed the Hardbody.?". They have till Monday to answer or I get a T-Shirt though I'd rather they actually find an answer to that question.

4x4parts.com's answer was "Tom Semple" who retired a few years ago. Now when I get a chance I want to do some more research into this topic.

Here's a retirement announcement article from 2004.
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2004 ... 25510.html

"Semple was recruited from General Motors Corp. in 1980 as part of the original design team at Nissan Design International, which NDA was known as originally.

His passion for design helped shape the Maxima, Xterra, the Nissan Hardbody pickup truck, the Pathfinder sports-utility vehicle and the original Quest minivan, which, in 1992, was the first vehicle to win ID Magazine's annual Design Review's Gold Award in the consumer products category. "

"...first big project in the early '80s was to design a killer-looking light truck that would not only wow Nissan's leadership in Tokyo but also win over the mass market in the United States. Semple dreamed up a truck with a muscular body reminiscent of the sports cars of that era. Flowers created a more rational prototype. The Nissan brass chose Semple's design. But the truck that rolled o/ the assembly line incorporated a key component of Flowers's design in its truck bed."

quoted from http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/12/rftf.html

And after reading that we will want to add Allan Flowers as a creator too.

Update: I emailed Jerry Hirshberg asking for his thoughts on the subject. Cross your fingers.

Good research and find Rev.

More info! An interview with Tom Semple around the time he retired from NDI(Nissan Design International). There are two very important bits of info here that prove my point about the HB being a classic that could make it even more popular than it already is today. I'll let Tom Semple tell it. This is from a Q+A Article with Tom Semple.

"Q: What was the first Nissan designed in the U.S. that actually went into production?

A: The Nissan Hardbody pickup, in 1986.

Q: And of all the vehicles you've worked on, which are you proudest of?

A: The Hardbody and the first Quest. Both of those had surfaces on them that you hadn't seen in those types of cars before. The Hardbody truck had [flowing,] almost sports-car fenders. I heard that Nissan had to reprogram its computers to make [the metal stamping dies for] those surfaces."

Quoted from http://autospies.com/news/nissan-design ... time-2105/

This is exciting to me for three reasons. First, the Hardbody is one of its designers favorites. He is very proud of the Hardbody which means he may be more likely to chat about it if I can track him down. That and...I would be proud of it too if I had drawn it but I lack such talent so my hat's off the Mr. Semple for coming up with such a timeless design.

Secondly, Mr. Semple also tells us the Hardbody was the first design by the new US design team at NDA to make it to production. Mr Semple came to Nissan from Buick in the late 70's. One of his best known works is the Buick Riviera with the boat-tail. The Hardbody family tree has some strong roots.

Thirdly, the tidbit of info stating Nissan had to make some changes for the 'sports car' styled fenders on the HB. Now these are the kinds of stories I want to hear about. I need to find Mr. Semple.

HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE UPDATE!!!!

Excerpts from an article in the LA Times Mar23, 1986 talking about how the Nissan Hardbody came about with interviews of Hirshberg and Semple. Simply an amazing story!

"...germ of an idea that would prove to be a bold innovation: marketing two different bodies for the same vehicle--one designed by and for North America, the other for his country and the rest of the world. In any case, that is what would occur when Nissan unveiled its 1986 1/2 "Hardbody" trucks."

"It was early 1982 when NDI kicked off its first major production design program: the all-new Nissan truck."
^^^This would make the HB almost 30 years old as it was conceived in 1982. And it was also NDIs first order of business...feeling honored yet?


""The Japanese emphasized how very important this project was," Semple remembers. "Nissan started the small-truck market, and they wanted this to be the next generation, a vehicle that was all new from the ground up.""

"The first step the NDI staff took was to study all of the other small trucks. And it turned out that they were very similar. "They all had skinny little vertical cab areas with minimum vision, a long, flat hood and cramped headroom," Hirshberg says. "A truck is a three-volume concept: hood, cab and bed. Truck buyers in America insist that it's a practical vehicle, but we all know that ain't necessarily so. People use them to do all sorts of impractical things. So we started with the cab and rethought it."

Out of this analysis grew the idea that the new truck would be designed from the inside out, putting as much emphasis on the needs and comfort of the driver as on load capacity and handling.

The design team built a mock-up of the passenger compartment to test the idea that by pushing the windshield forward and extending the cab rearward, the interior space could be enlarged without increasing overall size or reducing cargo capacity. They produced more than a dozen sketches of vehicles, took them to Japan and won approval to proceed with full-size renderings and clay models.

For better aerodynamics, they "sped up" the windshield (increased its angle), shortened and sloped the hood, raised the sides and rear of the bed and wrapped the upper doors into the roof and pillars. To improve visibility, they increased the glass area all around. To give a strong, broad-shouldered look, they gave the fenders subtle, neatly integrated flares (Semple calls them "triceps") front and rear. "We tried to preserve all the things that truckers want," he says, "yet make a very smooth new statement with it.""


"The design was completed in January, 1983, and shipped to Japan to be translated into the full-scale fiberglass model from which the body tooling would be derived.

Three years later, the production result still looks like a truck, but even the casual observer can see that it's different. The new proportions are obvious clues. Then you notice the sloping nose, swoopier windshield and larger doors and windows. Inside, unlike most small pickups, it has enough leg and headroom for the comfort of six-foot Americans."

""We are not aiming for controversy," Hirshberg says, "but this thing is going to be noticed. It's exactly what we meant. We can't hide behind the excuse: 'Well, the engineers screwed it up.' It came through the process just as we intended it to.""

""And, boy, when the ball gets rolling and we begin negotiating, and then by the time we're finished, they honor that design totally. When it started rolling off the production line, our jaws dropped open at the degree of adherence to the initial concept.""

""The '86 1/2 truck, introduced in January, improves on its predecessor in other ways as well. Its wheelbase is more than three inches longer, for better ride, while its front and rear track widths have been increased by about three inches and one inch, respectively, for better handling and stability. Its optional overhead-cam, fuel-injected V-6 engine (similar to the one in the 300-ZX and Maxima) is the largest in its class. It has the most ground clearance, the biggest standard fuel capacity and the deepest and widest cargo bed in the compact category.

As successful as the new truck is likely to be, the next obvious question is how soon this pioneering two-design concept might be extended to the company's passenger cars. "I think it's safe to assume that the same logic applies," Hirshberg answers cagily. "Nissan is making strides to make internationalism more than just a word. Until now, it's meant that our products are sold in a lot of different countries. Now they're going to be adapted and attuned to those countries."

When Jerry Hirshberg first took that fateful call seven years ago, it may have seemed like a practical joke. But it may well have been not only his future and Nissan's, but that of a whole industry, on the line.""


Full read= http://articles.latimes.com/1986-03-23/ ... can-cars/4
All quotes are credited to above link.

We are driving some historical vehicles here. I always knew the trucks were special and now here's examples why. I'm not done digging for info. Let's see what else is out there.

I don't own a hardbody, but I subscribed anyway.

More proof the Hardbody is a classic. Made MotorTrends top 15 Nissans list. The Hardbody is not done making history yet I see. Look at the other vehicles on the list, it made me smile to see the HB up there with all those greats.

http://www.motortrend.com/features/mt_h ... 240sx.html

"Our take on the 1986.5 Nissan Hardbody:

"Rock-hard handling aside, the overall package is very good, and the V-6 engine is great. The team at NDI may not have hit a home run the first time at bat, but they certainly hit the ball into deep centerfield."

very cool Rev! Keep digging!

Mine has a 12/85 date on it. We're the original owners and my son drives it still. Has 165K on it.

Does your VIN start with 1N6 or JN6?

JN6ND11S8GWxxxxxx

That would make it pretty early and built in Japan.

So far the earliest I have seen is from 11/85. When I have time I search used car sites grabbing VINs to load into my database.

An interesting note. I just received a copy of Nissan's Hardbody ad form 1987 titled "Biggest, Widest, Strongest" which claims the Hardbody was the first truck to win the Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA). I am doing more research on this and will chime in when I find out anything.

Subscribed for awesomeness and a former hardbody owner.