Dottie Datsun meets Eskimo Tom

[eskimotom]

Greetings,
I'm eskimotom, totally new to the 311 community, having spent the last 25 years with VW Transporters.

My wife and I came to your community by way of our recently restored 1967 Volkswagen 21 Window Sunroof Deluxe Bus entered in the 10,000 Lakes Concours d'Elegance, in the Foreign Cars 1960 - 1969 category early September in Shakopee MN.

Parked next to us was Matt Thomas of Bloomington (RUTTY) with his red 1968 SPL 311. Our bus took 2nd place, Matt took 3rd, and 1st went to a 1961 Mercedes Benz 190 SL.

I couldn't find instructions on how to link images uploaded to my gallery here on 311s.org into this post, so this is the link to the 311s.org gallery:
https://www.311s.org/Gallery/index.php?cat=18432
I tried the {img} tags with the link, so if someone could point me to some help on that . . . Apparently, I've already exceeded my quota with 7 photos.

5+ years ago, I spotted a Datsun roadster parked outside a foreign car repair shop in St. Cloud MN. Seeing Matt's red Fair lady reignited my interest in the model. Luckily, my wife took a fancy to it as well. Her 1st car was a Datsun. We were fortunate to find this numbers matching 1967.5 SPL 311 1600, #13697 available and brought her home.

I love that, like our 1967 bus, it's a bit of an oddball, being a transitional model with a mix of old and new. Over the last week, I've been extensively devouring information from 311s.org and what little I found on YouTube to understand what I have and how to care for it.

Named Dottie Datsun by the previous owner, she’s a solid runner and was driven summers previously. I would describe her as in fair condition, a good restoration candidate, as she's not an original survivor by any means.

She has an electric fuel pump, an EI distributor and the Volvo 240 front disc caliper conversion, as well as a GM 1 wire alternator. The clock and gas gauge don’t work. The interior had been modified, the console configuration is incorrect along with a few other things.

She came with two totes of spare parts including another head, unused rear brake drums and radiator. One of the previous owners planned to build the H20 stroker, and the deal included the H20 block with head and distributor.

The frame and suspension appear remarkably solid. Apparently in a previous life, the front sway bar was either removed or ripped out in some tragic towing incident and there are two poor rusty patches where the frame mounts were originally. I sense the body is hiding more than I care to know, but that’s typical. The sills have been previously replaced, and the re-paint appears to be hiding considerable filler.

The PO warned me she was running rough, hesitating on rapid acceleration. I cleaned the plugs, carburetor pistons and body, and air filter yesterday. After a few spirited runs to check my work and burn the carbon out of the combustion chambers, the hesitation may be resolved. However she appears to be running close to the red zone so I returned to the garage. I still need to check the timing, valve clearance, adjust the carbs after I find my timing light, last used on a '71 Westy I sold long ago.

My immediate plan is to sort everything out and make Dottie a reliable runner, working toward a more stock configuration time and money permitting.
After we sell the 1967 21 Window Bus, we'll look at a mostly stock restoration, perhaps with just the stroker to have a "street car with manners."

311s.org is an immense resource for me! I'm so grateful it exists and I found it! I frequented thesamba.com (Volkswagens) while restoring the bus. It uses the same phpBB platform, so I was at home immediately. Unfortunately, here I've already hit by max limit of uploaded pictures with about 10, while I was able to upload almost the entire bus restoration in photos on thesamba.com. I had hoped to do that as well here.

If you or someone you know wants a completely new, thoroughly researched and restored 1967 21 Window Sunroof Deluxe bus to add to their stable, send me a PM. Proceeds will help expedite Dottie's journey to showroom condition!

You can learn more about the bus here (copy/paste in a new browser window:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewt ... p?t=618020
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album ... &start=500

[S Allen]

Welcome to the fray and good luck with your project. You can start a thread in the Members Garage and add photos and updates there. At the bottom of your entry before submitting, you should see an attachments tab. There you should be able to add links for your photos. Are you only able to upload 10 photos to the 311s Gallery? I will look into that if that is the case. I believe I may have limited 10 photos per thread but you are welcome to add multiple threads. Again, welcome and enjoy.

Steve

[Bwk2000]

Welcome Tom.

Hell of a job you guys did on the VW Bus! Can’t wait to see what you do with the Roadster.