Nick's 1970 SPL311 Restomod

[wick24]

Hello all! My name is Nick, I live in Santa Rosa, CA and I Purchased my 1970 1600 Roadster about a month ago. I owned a 1965 1600 probably 6-7 years ago and loved it for the month I was able to drive it. Unfortunately the transmission grenaded and I was forced to sell it. Recently I have been fantasizing about getting another roadster and found a great deal locally for a total of $550 delivered to my garage! It's going to be a massive project, but this car has definitely found the right home. Plans are to separate the body from the chassis, remove all the rust, give her some fresh paint. Both floor pans will need to be cut out and replaced. I will likely go the sr20det route with rx7 gsl-se LSD rear end and other modifications will be determined as I progress. I look forward to getting to know you guys!

Anyway here are some pictures:








2 weeks ago I removed the engine and transmission. Last weekend I removed all the parts and bolts needed to remove the body (aside from the bumpers). I also solved why my left rear wheel was seized. I had previously thought it was a seized wheel bearing, but the shoes/drum were seized and needed to be cut off. This is how it sits currently:


































As you can see there is a copious amount of rust and I am going to try my hardest to revive this poor car. The only spot that truly worries me is the front left side of the cross brace. Further inspection will need to be done once the body is off the frame. Every other part of the frame seems to have some solid steel under the rust.

That being said, I picked up a Lincoln MIG welder to repair the rusted sections of the body.




If everything pans out, I will be using this rendering I found as inspiration for my build.

[Mattk]

Greetings Nick!! Congrats on the roadster! You’re in the right place for anything roadster. Looking forward to seeing your inspiration come to fruition!

Cheers
Matthew

[ACote]

Very cool! is that original paint? if so that's a very straight car. Factory rocker runs lol. That'll be a lot of patching but hopefully not too crazy.
Flared roadsters are pretty neat. hard to get wide rims to in the front though. This guy in Japan has some good custom flares
Stolen from speedhunter:

[notoptoy]

Whooeee, that's a project. Welcome and best of luck with this. I'm subscribed to see your progress. This is definitely and elephant, proceed one bite at a time!

[spriso]

Hi Nick-- nice looking project! I see it has the desirable late steering box, so at least it has that going for it. Seriously though, it can be saved. Lots of great people and knowledge on this site...

If we can help with SR20DET conversion parts, let me know!

www.spriso.com

Michael

[Vinnyz]

Looks like you'll be busy with weld time for sure Nick!

Several of us on here have bought many of Spriso's bits for our SR20 swaps and big brake kits etc. with great things to say about them!

Looking forward to the updates!

[wick24]

Very cool! is that original paint? if so that's a very straight car. Factory rocker runs lol. That'll be a lot of patching but hopefully not too crazy.
Flared roadsters are pretty neat. hard to get wide rims to in the front though. This guy in Japan has some good custom flares

Those do look nicely done! I believe it *should* be original paint. The car has apparently been parked since 1984 (in a garage that had a leaky roof). I should be a pro welder by the time I'm finished! I'm thinking I'll do a staggered front/rear setup rather than square.

[wick24]

Hi Nick-- nice looking project! I see it has the desirable late steering box, so at least it has that going for it. Seriously though, it can be saved. Lots of great people and knowledge on this site...

If we can help with SR20DET conversion parts, let me know!

www.spriso.com

Michael

Thank you Michael! I definitely plan on purchasing some of your products. You don't think the frame is beyond the point of no return? That makes me feel a little better haha.

[wick24]

Looks like you'll be busy with weld time for sure Nick!

Several of us on here have bought many of Spriso's bits for our SR20 swaps and big brake kits etc. with great things to say about them!

Looking forward to the updates!

Whooeee, that's a project. Welcome and best of luck with this. I'm subscribed to see your progress. This is definitely and elephant, proceed one bite at a time!

Thank you guys! I feel pretty confident that I can take it on.

[wick24]

I've been pretty busy lately finishing up my last semester of college, but I'm still making progress. I built a stand for the body this Sunday using Mark Sedlack's design. Last week I was able to separate the body from the frame, but I'll need to find a better way to evenly distribute the load. I was able to lift it a few feet to inspect the frame and found that the majority of the rust was only on the surface.








Rx7 GSL-SE rear axle and vented disc brakes I picked up a few weeks ago.



As seen here, the front driver's side of the X frame needs a small amount of steel replaced. Other than that the frame seems to be very solid.





The driver's side sway bar mount was torn off of the frame at some point so I'll need to weld that back in place.







Driver's Side



Passenger's Side



I'll also need to weld in some new floor pans, repair a crack in the trunk floor, and patch a couple other spots on the body panels. Despite having a ton of work ahead of me things are looking pretty good. More updates soon.

[Pjackb]

Rx7 GSL-SE rear axle and vented disc brakes I picked up a few weeks ago.

A first when i saw those style 19s I went DUh on a roadster
but saw on your sig after that yo have an E36 Z3 ,
Love those 19s

[wick24]

A first when i saw those style 19s I went DUh on a roadster
but saw on your sig after that yo have an E36 Z3 ,
Love those 19s

Thanks! They're for sale as well as my z3 and other bmw parts! Need to fund my roadster!

[spriso]

I might suggest replacing the frame on that one-- they are not that difficult to come up with, and if you are planning a SR swap, you might be many hours ahead if you can find one with less (or no rust).

We offer converted frames from time to time too as an option as well...

Michael

[GoldHawg]

I might suggest replacing the frame on that one-- they are not that difficult to come up with, and if you are planning a SR swap, you might be many hours ahead if you can find one with less (or no rust). We offer converted frames from time to time too as an option as well...

Michael

I certainly would not disagree with Michael, and I started with a relatively rust free desert car that I had shipped to Ohio for that very reason, but if you fix yours, you may want to consider just redesigning/replacing the whole cross member set up. On my car, someone had hacked out the driver's front crossmember to allow some weird exhaust thru, so I had to replace that. And then I wanted larger exhaust openings anyway, so I did the rear to match. And then there are mods to allow the tranny to mount, and cutting and more welding. If you (or your friends) have higher skills, it might make sense to just replace the entire cross member (especially given the rust). You can look at my build for some of my crossmember replacement efforts.
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=25214&start=15

[bossbob]

Here's a frame in Az, you can make a day trip out of it.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1968-Datsun-Ro ... SwMTRa2mVu

I'd contact him direct, and make him an offer.