Another New Member from SW Ontario

[PandaBoy]

Hello, my name’s Mike & I’ve been reading & researching on your forum for the last few months.

I got my first roadster back in 1971. High school & college days. It was a red 1966 1600 that was repainted silver & black after being rear-ended. I ran this for a couple of years until I wrapped it around a pole & managed to survive but I’ve thought about that car ever since. Back in the summer of 1984 I found the car that I now own. It is a 1969 SRL 311 with Solex carbs. It was listed in “Autotrader” as for sale by owner bur when I went to see it, the car was on a used car lot & the lot owner gave me the story that the car was owned by the national parts manager of Nissan Canada & completely rebuilt by him.

The car came with 4 large boxes of new Datsun parts as well as 2 wooden crates containing the old parts (including the engine & SU carbs) that were replaced. I still have all these parts.

Unfortunately, life got in the way of enjoyment of the roadster & it sat a lot more than it ran over the last 32 years. We semi-retired & moved from Toronto down to Ridgeway in the Niagara area (just across the river from Buffalo NY) & just this summer I finally made an attempt of getting it back on the road. Due to various reasons it had been 7 to 8 years since the car was last started & it had not been stored properly. Fortunately, it has always been kept indoors & the body is OK but the gas had gone really bad & even though it was drained & replaced as well as all of the other fluids a host of problems have surfaced. The carbs, fuel filters, fuel pump etc.. were almost solid with gunk. The piston rings were seized, & a couple of valves were bent & things were not looking good. I do have a couple of original piston & ring sets still in the Datsun boxes that came with the car but I found out that the engine had already been rebuilt & I needed oversize so I ended up ordering lots of parts from datsunparts.com as well as a set of rebuilt 44mm Solex from Dave @ tuning4performance.com & linkage from JT68. Apparently the 40mm set that were on my car were an early version & problematic.

I dropped the car off late June with the local shop that I have been using since coming to Ridgeway & it’s been there since. All of the parts that come up (mainly from California) take 2-3 weeks to arrive so this has been a slow process. Also, I wish that the mechanic & the shop that are doing the work were more knowledgeable with roadsters as it seems that one issue is slowly resolved but another one arises.

I’m hoping to get the car back on the road in the next couple of weeks & then find someone in the area that knows roadsters to really go over it & make sure that all the work was done correctly. The motor was pulled & sent to a shop in Niagara Falls for a complete rebuild using all the parts sent up from datsunparts.com The carbs & linkage came in 2 weeks ago & the fuel pump last week.
 
I’ve attached a couple of photos that were taken in Toronto last time the car was on the street.

I’m hoping to make it down to Watkins Glen next year.

[notoptoy]

Welcome! A very nice looking ride, I like the 1500 Grill. Hopefully when you get it back on the road it will be really well sorted and ready to enjoy for a long time to come!

[johnt]

Hey Mike,

Welcome to the party! We should compare notes. My car is currently "wintering" down the street in Stoney Creek.

[PandaBoy]

I didn't realize that I have a 1500 Grill in my car. I have another one just like it - brand new & still in the original box.

[notoptoy]

Then you have a box of gold!

[PandaBoy]

That's good to hear because I could use some money to offset all of the costs of getting the car back on the road.

[Jack Maskell]

Welcome from Sudbury up north

[PandaBoy]

Finally, back on the road & just in time to put it away for the winter.
41 degrees at the boat launch. Crystal Beach, Ontario Canada

[Datsun.David]

Looks great Michael! You should also know that those are $1000 ++ fog lights and you are running a factory roll bar. Both very cool to see! if you have another box of foglights, or another rollbar... let me know!

Great to have another Canuck on the road again!

dw

[Pjackb]

Mike How are you,
Fellow Canadian here from Quebec, I'd be interested to know what parts you have
Please PM me you tel number please ,
I'm in Burlington every other weeks these days and could take a quick drive to Ridgeway to see what you've got and check out you're roadster
Jacques

[PandaBoy]

Finally had a chance to look through some of my parts & yes I do have a pair of NOS fog lights.
Also have the 1500 Grill & a Solex Air Cleaner Assembly - all still in the original boxes.

[spl310]

I'm jealous.

[mcdadeth]

Hi: Nice looking car. It is great that you have time for it now.

I have a question regarding linkage. I have early solex carbs on the 67 2000, but am missing a lot of the original linkage.

Can you tell me how to get a hold of JT68?

Thomas

[2mAn]

Its crazy that theres a bunch of brand new parts just chilling ... I wonder how many of parts are stashed away like yours.

[notoptoy]

Hi: Nice looking car. It is great that you have time for it now.

I have a question regarding linkage. I have early solex carbs on the 67 2000, but am missing a lot of the original linkage.

Can you tell me how to get a hold of JT68?

Thomas

Just send a PM to JT68 here on the forum, or visit his website, we (Admin) need to update Vendor links to add his information!