Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

Getting aquainted with the roadster body. Sanded the drivers door, lots of bondo at the bottom, I was concerned about the bondo covering the swiss cheese, but after removing it there was none. Whew. The skin and bottom is actually solid. It appears that Andy was "raised improperly", the the lower sill/ rocker seam had plenty of folds. I hammered and dollied them to a presentable status, sanded the peeling lead (rear 1/4 seam) back beyond the crusties, and primed.
The left front fender,,,,well thats a whole nother page.

Bodywork is a study in patience and repetition, neither of which I'm good at.

Linda, for reference, sometimes you can use coarse sand paper, but with a very light touch, so technique and experience makes a big difference. Essentially you make deep scratches and keep making finer and finer scratches until the paint can level them. The finer you can start with, the less work to finish.
I learned on wood, mistakes and scratches are much harder to hide when you use an oil finish, but the flip side, you can fix dents with a wet towel and a steam iron

I never seem to end up with the easy ones. Life story.
Dragging hulks from the sticker bushes. I've always had more time than money.

Ah, so somebody finally bought that car... watched it on Craigslist for quite a while. I think the PO was planning on making it a race car. Glad you got ahold of it and are willing to do some work to make it useable again.

Thanks Greg.
It came with a few parts, scoops, grille, hubcaps. And it runs good. Interior gutted no seats nuthin. Just a dash. Didn't get any history on the car either. I was considering keeping that "race car" theme. It seems to be acceptable in the roadster community. I am engulfed in the 69 right now, so I'm not going full on with Andy, just fooling around.

My 69 has lead in the doors,,,Andy has no lead in the doors,,,,,this must be what the lead is for,,,,,smoothing the spot welds ,,,,,I thought it was going to be a 3 piece skin. WHEW.
Maybe the 2000's were finished off a little better than the 1600's? or my 2000 was too rough for the inspector.

I really like all your write ups on this and the other cars... I need to come up sometime and check out the shop... but then your trained eye would be able to see all the bobywork crap on my car. Maybe it's time for me to attend a DROPS meeting!

At least you are driving yours! hiway 18 to snoqualamie, (stop at the falls), to carnation to duvall to monroe to everett,,,great roadster cruise. 2 lane windey 50-70 mph backroads)
You may laugh at my 40 year old pole building! (but it has a heater).
I will try to finish the primer this weekend. I need to pull the right front caliper, and check to see why it is sticking, then make the turnsignals work.
We should have a DROPS gathering.

Now if it would just stop freakin RAINING! I mean, come ON!

Sounds like a fun run, and the falls should be great right now WITH ALL THE FREAKIN RAIN... did I mention it's raining here in Washington... in the middle of July... had to wear my coat to work yesterday...

I'll likely take you up on your invite sometime. Not sure when the next DROPS (that's Datsun Roadster Owners of Puget Sound for those of you who don't know... and probably don't care!) meeting is.

Ya DROPS, as in RAIN drops... grrrrrrr...

Rainy weekend, Andy needs a t shirt.

Gregs672000 wrote:Ah, so somebody finally bought that car... watched it on Craigslist for quite a while. I think the PO was planning on making it a race car. Glad you got ahold of it and are willing to do some work to make it useable again.

Maybe at some point it was their intenton,,but nothing race worthy had been done to the car. The POs were super nice people, and Im glad they stored it indoors.
I tore the rf caliper apart and cleaned it and put it back together, bled an road tested it last night, no stickey, yay. Ive been puttting around with just the e brake, The rears were sticking when I got it, they have all been cleaned since. Car stops good and straight now. Gonna take a break, maybe get the headlights working and get some tabs,,,maybe even a muffler this summer. Anybody have a broken front spoiler they dont want??

Awesome to hear you got it driving, starts making it all feel worth it.

I must say, they are fun to drive. How loud is you car with the side dump? I was thinkin about something like that, save some weight.

Pretty loud. Sounds like an old buggy But with more roar. Not sure about Decibels, attention grabbing but not annoying, to me at least. Motorcycle loud. Idle is surprisingly soft. We just bent it under the frame and since it's so short used only 1-1/2 pipe so it wouldn't scrape the ground. Has just a glasspack.

Andy got a battery tie down, (the "race" bunjee had seen better days), trunk lock/latch overhaul, (100 mph tape works in a pinch but),,, a fuel filter, rubber fuel lines, a non frayed throttle cable, and 2 gallons of seafoam treated 92, in preparation for our journey, (road test). 60 miles on saturday,,,40 on sunday, (after the wedding), added 2 more gallons of fuel, must be getting 30 mpg.