Dan's 66 VG30E Roadster

[DanR]

Re-wrapped the steering wheel with a cover from wheelskins.com

The old, loose and terrible feeling cover.


The wheel in all it's cracked glory. I painted the plastic areas that will be exposed as they were a little sun bleached.


A close-up of the new cover and lacing.


The finished product, man my fingers hurt.

[dbrick]

The finished product, man my fingers hurt.

I feel your pain, have done a few of those. The 2 needle criss-cross is even tougher.
It looks great.

[DanR]

Well I had a long spirited drive around town, then went to a party and was having trouble going up hill with sputtering. The (aftermarket VDO sender from PO) fuel gauge said I had about half a tank left so I ignored it thinking it was a problem with me messing with the FPR earlier. I drove home, less than a mile, with sputtering then got to my street and floored it to about 5k, stalled, and managed to get into my driveway with no gas left. I finally have used over a tank of gas in my car, a new milestone for me. That makes roughly 250 miles per tank as there initially wasn't a working speedometer in the car when I first got it.

[Gregs672000]

What a good Roadster she was to you! She didn't leave you stranded somewhere!

[DanR]

Drove around at night for the first time, I never realized how bad humidity is on the windshield. Wound up stopping and wiping it off with my hat, ugh. I wanted to test out my new camera setup, still picks up too much wind, but you get to hear the usual question if you watch the video after the 45 second mark where I get a bug in my eye. Also I swear if the mic worked properly, the sound under the tunnel is deafening.

[youtube][/youtube]

[notoptoy]

I hope you "educated" him!

[DanR]

As I make progress on making the car whole, instead of simply a body with a drivetrain, the rattles are going away. The other day I heard a high pinging sound, I thought I left a wrench under the hood. Found the problem, looked up what was missing in the parts manual, and now we have some more civility while driving.

Apparently the previous owners way to dampen the rattling was to bend the mount on the hood so there is less movement. Straightened it out, made some rubber washers and a less rusty "cotter pin" and we're golden.

[Garm]

^ I didn't know early props were on the passenger side. Nicely done, I should probably attend to mine too.

[Alvin]

Cool car! Is that an FJ?

[DanR]

Thanks Alvin, but no Toyotas here. If you're referring to what is in front of the car, it's my 96 XJ Cherokee. (unless that was an attempt at humor from the video)

[Alvin]

Thanks Alvin, but no Toyotas here. If you're referring to what is in front of the car, it's my 96 XJ Cherokee.

LOL, i was trying to be funny yet again I have failed
at 0:46s in your video someone pulls up to you at the stoplight and asks "is that an FJ?"
then it looks like the video is edited so we don't hear the rest of the conversation

[notoptoy]

No, he asks is that an MG!!!

[spl310]

Are you sure he isn't asking if it has a HEMI?

[DanR]

I told him no, it's not a Ferrari, but in reality I just told him it's a 66 Datsun and he said he had an MG. It's cut out because a kid with a fart can muffler drove by and you can't hear anything. To be fair it doesn't help that there aren't any badges on the rear (PO handywork), but I did drive it to the store a few weeks ago and a guy was staring at it from the front (where it says DATSUN) and asked me who makes them...

[fj20spl311]

a guy was staring at it from the front (where it says DATSUN) and asked me who makes them...

It's been almost 30 years since Nissan used "DATSUN", so that's a fair question...esp if he was under 35 years old.