New owner in Australia

[1600dave]

Hi,

I've just got back from picking up my first fairlady - a 1966 SP311. This will be followed in the next few days by my second one - a 1965 SP310 . They were a package deal that I purchased off eBay.

I've owned Datsuns since my first car (a 510). Second car was another 510, and my third car was a 610 SSS coupe. I've still got all three in the shed . One of the 510's has become a track toy and I'm currently restoring the 180B coupe - it will be getting a supercharged, efi L18 motor amongst other goodies . Anyway, I have always wanted a fairlady since I saw one in a car yard about 20 years ago, but circumstances have always worked aganist me fullfilling the desire. Not this time

Both are in need of restoration. The SP311 seems complete but has been dismantled and semi-restored. It has had a few patches of rust in the floorpan repaired, and has a section of metal welded into the right hand side of the engine bay. The SP310 is still in one piece and appears to be fairly complete. Only obvious parts missing that I've noticed so far are the clock and amp guage.

Anyway, I'll get some pics of the SP311 tomorrow (its nearly midnight now). I've just finally finished packing it away in the shed after starting at 6am this morning, driving 6 hours to get it, loading it up, driving 6 hours back and then unloading it in the dark

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be asking plenty of questions once I work out what I've got.

Cheers,
Dave

[GeoffM]

Hi Dave, welcome.
The support from the people on this board is great, which I'm sure you'll find out as the project(s) progress.

[S Allen]

Hello Dave and welcome. It sounds as though you were smitten some time ago. We are here to help. Keep us updated on your progress.

Steve

[LI Roadster]

welcome.

Good luck with the "new" rides

[1600dave]

Thanks for the warm welcome

Here's my baby Well, the biggest lump - the rest is sorted into boxes, bags, even a garbage bin. Sorted very neatly too - all the cables are in one box, all the bolts are in a small tincan, and so on. Should make it easy to work out what part goes where

And a gratuitous shot of the dash, just because I love the style of it

[1600dave]

I made the 5 hour trek back down to Canberra to pick up the second of my fairladies yesterday. This one is still in one lump with the exception of the carbs, radiator, water pump and rocker gear which came in a seperate box, and two guages which appear to be missing altogether. The cast iron water pump has a few cracks in it - perhaps this is why the car was taken off the road ?? And the rocker gear has been in contact with water and is now VERY rusty

Initially, I thought this was the worst of the two. Having had a good look, its actually not too bad. Rust is absolutely minimal, only major area is in one sill. The interior is pretty much dead - it looks to have been in storage for a long time as all the vinyl is hard and brittle and a lot of the rubber seals have "melted" to a gooey mess. The body looks much worse than it is as the last coat of paint hasn't stuck and is coming away everywhere, so you can see the light blue underneath the more recent dark blue paint job.

The driver's seat and soft top mechanism that are missing in the photos are still on the back seat of my commodore - I forgot to unpack them when I unloaded the car into my brother's garage.

Couldn't help myself with the last photo - the old and the new (the fairladies and my brother's 350Z)

[Craig Martin]

G'Day,
Welcome to the forum.
I will keep in touch in regards to that H20.
Craig. (aka Bandit)

[my67ldy]

welcome, just love the great pictures, keep them coming. love to see the progress. christine

[Nick64]

Dave,
Welcome to the forum... a bit late. I emailed you before reagarding your purchase and a chance to catch up.

They look great!!!!! I'll take one off your hands easy!

MINE SOOO CLOSE

[1600dave]

Nick - I had every intention of ringing you on the way back from picking up the fairlady's so we could catch up in Sydney.

I also had every intention of getting home before midnight

It took ages to load up in canberra, then the trip back was very wet. Not ideal for a convertible without any top , and a uteload of parts. I had a cheap tarp, it ripped and half of it blew off somewhere round Goulburn. Stopped at a servo and paid WAY too much for another cheap tarp and some rope, tied it all up and continued on for a bit. Got paranoid, stopped and re-did the tarp. Then continued on nice and slowly, arriving back in Newcastle VERY late

Haven't actually done anything to the cars, but have started acquiring stuff. So far, I have a complete set of brakes for the 310 (master cylinder, front wheel cylinders and rear wheel cylinders), reco kit for the 311 front brakes, gasket kit, brand new set of taillights all the way from Yahoo Japan, and a few other odds and ends. Also got the two missing 310 gauges from a guy in the US selling lots of fairlady stuff, although this hasn't arrived yet

[Nick64]

Hey Dave
Who did you get the 1500 guages from???
And what happened to you on the week end??
Nick

[1600dave]

Nick,

Gauges came from a guy in the US selling a lot of roadster stuff.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... &viewitem=

I missed out on the weekend as I've been selling off my vintage bike collection and the guy who bought my old BMW R25/3 wanted to pick it up on Sunday. Couldn't really argue, as he was coming with wads of cash . Incidentally, the reason I'm selling the bikes is to pay for the fairlady's. That was the deal I made with the wife when buying the Datsun's - the money would come from me selling a bike or two rather than out of the family savings.

What was the weather like down in Sydney ? It rained up here in Newcastle most of Sunday morning....

[Nick64]

Did you get a good price for the bikes???
Waether was good. Started to rain about 3. The whole place cleared pretty fast. Nice People.
Dave read my lastest blurb please

[Nick64]

Aarggh ... checked out the site. Forgot you have a different setup to me.
Clock's getting a new motor ( far left) and the petrol guage and temp guage are kaput. (Far right)