Nissan Junior

1962 40 Model

In 1962 introducted a new and thoroughly modern looking new Junior, the 40 series. 

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Much of it's engineering was carried over from it's predecessor, the B140, but it's body was all new. Despite it's name, the new Junior was actually quite a large vehicle. As a point of compaison the Junior's wheelbase is the same as a Ford F100 from the same era, it is the same height, and it's overall length is only 6 inches shorter. It sat on huge 16 inch split rim steel wheels that lived inside fully open wheelarches, which gave it a very upright stance. It's styling was heavilly influenced by the Nissan Cedric sedan, and while the Junior was a unique design and far from being a Cedric pickup, the fact that it used the same headlight surround design, front indicators, bonnet trims, mirrors and door handles as the 31 Cedric explains some of the similarities. While it's bonnet design is fairly plain, it's detailed side creases and wheelarch flares give it a great sense of style from the side.

The grilles on these early Juniors consist of seven horizontal bars and three vertical bars in a section between the headlight surrounds, and below that is a wide horizontal strip with four horizontal slots cut into it. The grille and the strip underneath it are painted white, and the headlight surrounds are chrome plated. In 1964 a change was made and the grille was then chrome plated and the strip under it was painted the same colour as the body. This model also had a red Junior badge mounted to the grille. The front bumper bar is painted white and has a slot for an emergency crank handle above the number plate.

 The badges on the side of the vehicle say Nissan Junior. If it is the 1900 version there will be a 1900 badge under the Nissan Junior badge, if it is a 1500 there will be no badge indicating engine size. The wheels on the early 1962 Juniors were painted the same colour at the body of the vehicle, after the 1964 update the wheels were painted silver.

 The engines used for the 40 series were the same as the B140 Junior, with the main engine being the 1883cc H series engine which produced 92hp, and a base model engine which was the 77hp 1488cc G series engine.

The Junior's main sales rival in Japan, and through Asia and Australia, was the similarly sized Toyota Stout. The sales of Nissan's smaller commercial vehicles such as the Datsun 220 and 320 sold in much larger quantities than Toyota's equivalent models, but when it came to the larger sized pickup trucks the Stout comfortable beat the Junior in sales. The Junior was as good as, if not better than the Stout, but a lot of sales were lost thanks to two parts of this truck's name. The name Junior leads one to believe that this was a small truck, when it certainly was not. The name Junior was also a rather unserious name for a fairly serious truck. The other problem was the decission to market it as a Nissan. Nissan meant something in Japan, but in the rest of the world the Datsun name was becoming well established and respected. Rather than cash in on this new reputation Datsun had earned they instead launched a new brand name for many markets, which people did not recognise. The plan was to sell small vehicles such as the Bluebird, Fairlady and 320 pickup models as Datsuns and to sell the larger vehicles such as the Junior, Caball and Cedric as a Nissan. In most export markets this continued until about 1966, when all these Nissans were rebadged as Datsuns.

 The 40 series Junior was in production until 1965, when it was replaced with the 41 series Junior, which was essentially the same vehicle but with a slightly larger engine.

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Grille Variations

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Nissan Junior 1962 Model

The original version had a painted grille with no badge.

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Nissan Junior 40 - 1964 Update

In 1964 there was a minor cosmetic upgrade to the Junior. On the first model the whole grille section was painted white. On the 1964 model the same grille is used, but the section between the headlight is now chrome plated, and the section with the 4 large horizontal slots between the indicators is now painted the same colour at the body. This model now has a red Junior badge mounted to the grille.  

Model Variations

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Nissan Junior 40 

The truck version was available with either a "styleside" cargo area as pictured here, or with a steel cargo area with fold down sides, or as a cab/chassis.  

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Nissan Junior Diesel Q40

The 40 series Junior was also available with a diesel engine. The engine used was the Nissan SD22, which was a 2164cc with a Diesel Kiki brand mechanical injection system that produced 70hp.  

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Nissan Junior F40

Not to be confused with the Ferrari F40.
The Junior 40 could be ordered as the 40-E, also known as the "E Chassis", which gave you only a running chassis with the front section and the windscreen, and nothing else. Another option based on this "E Chassis" was the F40, which was a small fire truck version.

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Meet the bain of my existence !
After 30+ years of research into Classis Datsuns I thought I had unearthed every single obscure model and sub-model out there, until I found this photo on a Japanese language website. A little more research lead me to discover that this photo is from a 1962 Japanese language brochure for the 40 Series Junior, it is only a small photo on the back that is amongst the other variants of the 40 that were available.

Nowhere in any book, brochure, parts book, model guide or any other official Nissan literature is this vehicle mentioned.

It does not show up in the 1962 or 1963 Nissan Commercial Vehicle Guide, and more importantly it does not show up in the "Table of Part Type" list in any Nissan parts catalogs. The "Table of Part Type" list shows every model and every major variation of each model. Going on Nissan's model naming system this would be a V40 or a W40, but no such model shows up, anywhere.

There is a distinct possibility that this vehicle was only a prototype, or a possible future model, and that it never actually went into production.

I can't conceive any possible point in them building such a vehicle, at this time Nissan already had a near identical vehicle in production with the Cedric Van and Wagon, which was an 8 seater wagon powered by the 1900 H series engine.

If you have any information about this model please let me know.

1962 Nissan Junior 40 Specifications

Length - 4660mm
Width - 1690mm
Height - 1730mm
Wheelbase - 2800mm
Weight - 1500kg
Top speed - 110kph
Transmission
Column change 4 speed
Final drive 4.62 : 1

1500 Engine Specifications

1500 Engine
Model - G
OHV 4 Cylinder
Capacity - 1488cc
Bore & Stroke 80x74mm
Power - 77hp@5200rpm
Torque- 87ft/lb@3200rpm
Compression - 8.0 : 1
Carburettor - Hitachi dual throat down draught 

1900 Engine Specifications

1900 Engine
Model - H
OHV 4 Cylinder
Capacity - 1883cc
Bore & Stroke 85x83mm
Power - 92hp@5000rpm
Torque- 117ft/lb@3200rpm
Compression - 8.0 : 1
Carburettor - Hitachi 2D32A dual throat down draught

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