Roadster sighting in South

roadsterdude · Post by **roadsterdude** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 6:46 pm

I find that hard to believe..
I doubt if its better than your sr20 powered 67.5 Black roadster.

Redtail · Post by **Redtail** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 12:15 pm

Hi Alvin,
That was me! So nice to be noticed. I bought the car from Mark in Walnut Creek around 2 months ago, and I drive it to work a couple days a week. That was Thursday you saw it right? I had just dropped my top off at the upholstery shop to get a seam re-stitched and was eating lunch at the Pizza place. I'd love to get together and talk roadsters sometime if you're interested. Maybe we could organize a fun run?

These cars are really rare. I've only ever seen one in San Francisco - on Haight Street, an orange (?) hi-windshield. Really clean with a cd player under the passenger dash. Anyone around? I also saw a white roadster in a driveway in Tiburon one time too.

Post by **ppeters914** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 12:52 pm

Um, you're in San Fran....the car came from Walnut Creek...how come the Oregon plates?

Lovely! Exactly why I want to (eventually) repaint ours red. However, chrome gauge trim rules!

Redtail · Post by **Redtail** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 1:18 pm

Part of the history of the car. A serviceman owned the car and had it in Hawaii for most of the 80's, then it went to Oregon for most of the 90's and finally came to the Bay area a few years ago. I guess the plates werenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t changed over for quite a while because these pics were taken in may, and by the time I bought the car there were Cali plates on it. I have most of the receipts and they tell a very interesting story.

DELETED · Post by **DELETED** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 8:43 pm

DELETED

SLOroadster · Post by **SLOroadster** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 11:04 pm

Keep your eyes open if you are in Napa, or on 780,680, or 101 on Sunday. I'm in Napa with the RAD2LTR, I'll be out and about with it tomorrow perhaps.

The drive up was uneventfull, the engine sneezed 5 times through the carbs over 200+ miles, I think I took care of the electrical issue, I have about 600 miles on the engine now and it hasn't missed a beat. It has lots of torque, and pulls like a monster in 5th from about 3800 rpm. It is definetly a high RPM engine, but has a huge amount of torque down low.

Will

Redtail · Post by **Redtail** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 11:33 am

Hey Alvin,
My name is Zack, and i do work in South City. The roadster is currently out of commission though

The brakes were pulling badly to the right, and when I took apart the cylinders on the front calipers, I found they are all pretty badly rusted and probably need replacement. I have been thinking about the volvo brake conversion, but there practaclly zero clearance between the wheels I have on there right now and the caliper body. Does anyone out there know if the volvo calipers are larger than the stockers? I don't know if I should attempt the conversion or just bite the bullet and get all new cylinders on the front calipers...

I should have all this sorted out in a couple weeks and I'll be back on the road before ya know it. We should definately get together for a run and some photos then.

SLOroadster · Post by **SLOroadster** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 6:36 pm

Stay with the stock brakes. You will have more surface area, and you still have 2 piston calipers. With a set of AXIS METALMASTER or Porterfield pads your car will stop plenty fast. You will also have fewer places for them to leak. If go go through Carl Jager up in Vancouver he has stainless steel lined calipers that will not rust.

Will

Redtail · Post by **Redtail** » Wed Sep 22, 2004 11:37 am

Hey Will,
I looked at my wheel/caliper clearance again yesterday, and there is no room to spare. in fact, the po (or whoever put these wheels on) had to grind 1 or 2 mm off the bottom of the outer wheel cylinder for the wheels to fit. not a real big deal, but I'll probably have to regrind the new cylinders a little to get them to fit.
With that in mind, I figured if the volvo calipers are any larger than the stockers I'd be out of luck. So I orderded a new set of 4 cylinders and some metalmaster pads. I'll letcha all know how the install goes.
-Zack

Post by **ppeters914** » Wed Sep 22, 2004 12:31 pm

Grinding the brake cylinders so the wheels would fit? YIKES!!!!

I can understand beauty over function sometimes, but not when we're talking brakes.

What wheels are those that required this modification?

Redtail · Post by **Redtail** » Wed Sep 22, 2004 12:54 pm

I'm not sure what brand wheels they are, but you can see pics of them above. I know it seems like a really bad idea, and whoever put the wheels on should have just purchased the correct size wheel, but aside from getting a new set of wheels and tires there is not a whole lot I can do about it now.
The grinding doesn't actually look like very much at all - only about 1 or 2 mm on the outer wheel cylinder around the lower 2 mounting bolts. The edge of the mounting tab the bolt goes through is just ground up for a little more clearance, nowhere near any hydraulic parts. It's hard to explain in words, but it's worked for this long so I should be able to get it to work again with new cylinders. it would have been nice if the right size wheels were fitted the first time though

Redtail · Post by **Redtail** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 12:36 pm

Was roadster sighting, now the brake saga!
I finished the calipers 2 weeks ago and finally got everything back together and working well. The grinding wasn't too major, just a bit of a PITA. I started work on the rear brakes last weekend and when I got them apart on sunday, I found the shoes and drums on both sides were absolutely COVERED in brake fluid!!! there is no way they were contributing any stopping power at all as the brake fluid acted just like grease on the shoes. I got everything cleaned off and back together with fresh shoes- stopping distance and pedal pressure are much improved.
The PO told me the shoes were contaminated with fluid and would need to be replaced, but he installed new wheel cylinders in the drums. Nearest I can figure, the old wheel cylinders leaked brake fluid all over the drums and shoes, and the PO just replaced the cylinders to stop the leak, but didn't actually clean anything or replace the shoes because he knew the car would be gone soon. Talk about half-baked. oh well, everything is together and working great now, and practically every part of my brake system is new, so I should get reliable service for a while.