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1962 Nissan Junior 40 Truck
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In 1962 introducted a new and thoroughly modern looking new Junior, the 40 series.
 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.
A sales brochure for the 1962 Nissan Junior 40
 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
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
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 
 
Model Variations
 
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.
 
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.
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. 
This vehicle has a Diesel badge under the Nissan Junior badge on the side.
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.
 
Nissan Junior Double Cab  
This tiny grainy image is from the first Junior 40 sales brochure printed, and this is the only place I have ever seen this model listed.
 
Nissan Caball C141  
In addition to the conventional Junior truck there was also a cab-forward version based on the chassis and mechanicals of the B140 called the Caball C141. More information can be found on the C141 page. 

The previous C140 model was always refered to in advertising material as the Nissan Junior Caball, but from the C141 onwards this truck is simply known as the Nissan Caball.
Nissan Junior Van / Wagon  
Meet the bain of my existence ! 
After 25+ 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.
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