New Owner from Southern California

[Gsglen]

Greetings from the High Desert of Southern California! I came upon a 1970 SPL-311 at the beginning of this year and have since been happily buzzing around, finding this the perfect solution for my desire to have an affordable 2-seat roadster from the late ‘60’s to serve as a “car toy” and enough of a project to keep me out of trouble. (The prospect of sending a couple of teenagers to college in the near future drove the budget and the simplicity of this generation of car was what I was looking to find anyway, in hopes of allowing my meager car mechanic skills to suffice.) I had no intention of trying to tackle a restoration and really wanted something to tinker with and drive, while improving things as necessary.

This car has obviously been well cared for over the years, although it is showing its 46+ years. When I bought it the speedometer was not functioning, the window cranks didn’t work, and the shift boot was hanging from the top of the shifter. (Which provided a nice view of the road going by underneath and also functioned as a heater vent once the motor warmed up!) In addition the windshield has a small crack, the dash is severely cracked and was covered with an ugly rubber mat cut to size, and the clock doesn’t work. Other than that the interior is in pretty decent shape, now that I’ve taken apart the center console, replaced the rubber shift boot and leather cover, and painted the metal bits and ash tray. The exterior paint is not original, although very similar to the original Spanish Red, but is peeling in several places and appears to have been painted by someone possibly named Earl Scheib….

Mechanically the car initially ran great, although it’s a little skittish at speed and probably needs some front end work. It leaks oil and the underside is pretty much coated in it, although it doesn’t obviously leak from any one place. I suspect all of the usual things that I’ve read about here, and probably mostly the rear main seal, but I haven’t done anything about it since it doesn’t require much oil to be added to keep it full, and the transmission and axle oil were the first fluids I replaced. (And showed no obvious leaks either.)

My initial project list was to get through changing all of the fluids, clean the oil/grease from the underside and repair the things that did not work. I got through the interior work above, fixed the speedo (by buying the required 90 deg adapter that was missing – my first experience with the vendors.), and assessed that the heater circuit was turned off (really seized at the Summer/Winter valve.) My “upgrade” list was to convert to electronic ignition ASAP, and remove and plug all the smog equipment.

So I I’ve been lurking on this site for months and really appreciate the willingness of folks to provide information and help. I’m going to need it! (More on that in a minute…..) I will become a $$ supporter very shortly as this is an incredible resource and I would like to make sure it keeps going.

Which finally brings me to the sad part of this story…..and why I used past tense when I described how the car is running. I’m pretty sure it now needs a head gasket, and it’s been sitting through the Summer until the kids went back to school and work/vacations backed off a bit. I’ll start another thread under tech discussions to figure out if my diagnosis is correct, and to ask for advice in tackling that job, which exceeds anything I’ve done to date…

Thanks for reading this long post and thanks in advance for the advice I will surely need!!

Here are some pics….

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[notoptoy]

Welcome and great story and intro to bring us up to speed. The head gasket on a 1600 is pretty simple work, nothing too complicated. But of course you will encounter a lot of "while I'm at it" project creep. Start with a compression test. Then, if you are pulling the head to change the gasket, I would go ahead and send the head out to have it gone over - it's not that bad on a push rod motor and will be one less thing to worry about.

[S Allen]

Welcome and your roady looks pretty good. If it is a head gasket that is not a hard job to accomplish as long as you did not overheat and warp the head. Of course while the head is off a valve job is not a bad idea. Keep us posted on your progress/findings. And do not get over whelmed as these cars are pretty easy to work on, 1600 motors are a stout engine.

Steve

[Gsglen]

Thank you for the encouraging words! I don't believe I warped the head, but I'll explain in an upcoming post what happened and what I think needs to be done so I can see if there is agreement and advice for a path forward. I just don't have time this week, as I'm traveling for work.....

Thanks again

-Greg