Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

Silly question: what became of the Utah license plate on that roadster? It would be fun to have it live on on my car when it gets running.

SPLutah wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 8:21 am Silly question: what became of the Utah license plate on that roadster? It would be fun to have it live on on my car when it gets running.

Hi Utah, I don't know what happened to the license plate, but I will let the buyer know that you're interested.
PM

Okay, this actually isn't the 'big progress', but it is some progress, and ties up a loose end in my chronology. It feels good to work on something that is more than just cosmetic - something that will actually help move toward driveability.

I refurbed the front brake calipers.

I removed the calipers, lines, etc. and although filthy (like they had been sitting for 35 year) everything seemed to still be really solid. So, I put them in a bag, in a box, another bag, and then in my luggage to fly home. A bit risky as it was my favorite luggage — and any leak would have been a disaster.



But we made it.



At home I further dismantled the calipers, and started the cleanse with a Simple Green soak. I wire wheeled as much as I could, and then tackled all of the nooks and crannies by hand with wire brushes. Not a joy, but everything really cleaned up well.






I debated rebuilding the pistons, they really looked surprisingly good. But seeing as how these were the first pistons I've ever actually looked at, I listened to that maturing and increasingly responsible little angel on my shoulder who told me that stopping the car might be useful.

Humph. Growing up is expensive.

I bit the bullet and bought a set of NOS pistons from Mike Young. The pistons arrived, and 3 of the 4 were that cool old school army green color, but the fourth was a shiny "look at me" finish.



I must have gone clamming when I was doing all of this brake stuff.


I actually did experiment with colors on my old pistons - pics below, but ultimately decided to go with the original army green.










So, I proceeded to annoy Mike with questions about how to make the blingy one match the others. He said you won't even see it, just paint it the color I'm spraying the calipers. I explained that I just wanted them to all match, for no good reason other than I like matchy. Can you imagine the number of silly questions that guy gets asked over and over (half of them from me)? In classic Mike fashion he says "You're killing me…" Anyway, I found some different matchy paint - and he approved! Poor guy having to deal with the likes of me.




Oh, and I was all impressed that a couple of my hard lines still had the black plastic coating on them. I figured that meant they were in perfect shape, I could just clean up on either side of the coating and be done. But Mike warned me that rust can hide in there, so be sure to strip it all off to make certain. And sure enough one of the lines had a bit of rust and light pitting hidden in there. Still solid, but after 10 years who knows? So… listen to Mike. I cleaned up all the lines, painted and clear coated them with engine paint.












Painted the calipers, cleaned and zinc-coated the bolts, painted the attachment bits and the assemblies are done! I don't have any fully assembled photos yet, but will update when I install them. I'm inspired by @spriso and the brakes he has done on the Unicorn. Truly beautiful. If I get half way there I'll be ecstatic.







At some point I'm going to strip the paint and rebuild my old pistons for backups or project funding.

It sure is nice to know that when the time comes they're ready to bolt on.

Next up - Wheels, I think.

The standard way of knocking the gloss off from plating so that paint will stick is with phosphoric acid. It is a relatively tame acid, and is also the base for rust converters. Were there any shim washers between the calipers and the mounts?

It's fun to follow along and not get dirty! Nice work, rewarding too!

C.Costine wrote: Thu Jul 22, 2021 7:47 am The standard way of knocking the gloss off from plating so that paint will stick is with phosphoric acid. It is a relatively tame acid, and is also the base for rust converters. Were there any shim washers between the calipers and the mounts?

Thanks C. Costine, any application involving acid scares me... only because I know myself and how self-destructive I can be — I picture Wile E. Coyote chasing the Roadrunner with an ACME TNT Dynamite Plunger. Doesn't end well.

I reckon on the original parts the gloss was long gone, and the wire brushing seemed to get it down to sticky metal. I guess I'll learn when I'm installing.

Shim washers - are those the thin metal things that 'straddle the saddle' in the center of the caliper?

These guys???:



If that's them... then yes, I stripped, prepped, primered, and painted those. I can't believe I didn't take photos of everything put together and all 'mocked up' because it looked really good, and I am actually pretty proud of the results.

I'll take photos when I see my car again.. fingers crossed for early August.

Gregs672000 wrote: Thu Jul 22, 2021 11:00 am It's fun to follow along and not get dirty! Nice work, rewarding too!

Thanks Greg, I realize that posting the process kind of reaffirms that I'm doing this the right way. I'm learning tons and gaining confidence.

I just really, really, really hope that I don't get so confident that I actually take on another car project.

More soon!
Peter

My Most Irresponsibly Awesome Acquisition Yet

I'm going to abandon chronology for this post... because I got some pretty cool stuff today. It's just me and the pets at home tonight, and no matter how many times I tell them, they don't seem to appreciate what came in the mail today. Self-absorbed jerks.

Somehow I'm already 2 years into this project (!) I certainly picked a crappy year to start a project 531 miles away... but I realize that the time apart from the car forced me to do a LOT of deep research on the glowing box. Looking back, it shows me how much I've learned over that time.

When I first got the car, I obsessed over what parts I might need.

And what quickly became apparent was that I had dumb-lucked into a Really good car. Rough, but one-owner, extremely complete and original. The car had a lot of the hard to find parts - washer nozzles, a good console (that I f'd up), one key works on all locks, mirrors, windshield corners, gas cap, original complete working radio, dash with all knobs, door lock knobs, etc. etc.

Anyway, because I already had a lot of good parts, that focused and educated me on the really, really hard to find bits that I didn't have. And so I've always kept an eye out for that stuff, and actively sought them out.

It basically became about two things I didn't have... the 67.5 visors and the headrests. Notoriously rare. Our heroes Lynn and JT had some visors that they kindly sold me earlier this year. And that meant the last item was the headrests.

I actually came across these headrests very early on, but I was too dumb to know what I was seeing. My real focus was on things that would get the car running, so the headrest hunt was back-burnered. But not forgotten.

I'm a sucker for shiny and rare... I have a garage full of unused "When will I ever see one of these things again?!" You'd think I grew up in the dust bowl during the The Depression. It's a flaw bordering on hoarding.

Anyway, I was perpetually worried that the owner would sell the headrests to someone else, but I held out until some major functional things got completed.

Recently, a few milestones in drivability were reached - so naturally I figured it was the perfect time for headrests that I can't afford.

Brakes, shmrakes.

So I called my friend - and he had indeed hung onto them — hoping that I would eventually come around. I'm so grateful. We struck a deal, and they were just delivered today.

I'm really happy with how nice they are... far better than I remembered (or I just know more now). I mean they're really good, and if I hadn't fully refurbished my seats, I could probably run these as is!











A luxury item for sure, but pretty darn cool - and now I'm done! 100% done with hard to find parts!!!

I can focus entirely on drivability progress!

Bonus info — these are the best jalapeños ever.



Next up: Loose Ends

Great find, and yes, they are in great condition!

In regards to the sun visors, I have always removed them from my roadsters and put them in storage. Its good that you found some to purchase, but I think you will find them almost useless for their intended function, and a bit of an annoyance. Nice to install on the car for shows or roadster gatherings, but personally, I prefer to drive without them otherwise. Also, it keeps them out of the weather and they will hold up better.

notoptoy wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 5:45 am Great find, and yes, they are in great condition!

Thanks Tom. I don't even have buyer's remorse yet! Today I think I'll try to find some paint to match the original... it's nice to have such good examples of what original looks like, because it's unlike any other finishes I've seen on the car. It's not the 'dull aluminum' finish... if anything, it actually looks more like the finish of the seatbelt buckles, but not the 'hammered' finish. I have some 'doe-skin' material left over from my console refinish and if I have enough of that to cover the backs, then I might try to just clean up the original headrest vinyl and run with 'em. Otherwise, I'll buy the repro cover set from a vendor at some point.

bajaroadster wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 8:10 am In regards to the sun visors, I have always removed them from my roadsters and put them in storage. Its good that you found some to purchase, but I think you will find them almost useless for their intended function, and a bit of an annoyance. Nice to install on the car for shows or roadster gatherings, but personally, I prefer to drive without them otherwise. Also, it keeps them out of the weather and they will hold up better.

Hi Baja. Hope you're doing well down there. We had a very humid day with good surf a week ago, and it got me reminiscing about my Baja travels in college. Sigh.

Anyway, visors... I've heard similar I think. But I've driven a grand total of one Roadsters for about 10 minutes, and it was junky, visorless, but a blast. So, I have no idea if I'll like the visors or not. But when I removed my windshield, I could tell that my car did have them at some point, so to honor the originality, I wanted to get some. I don't reckon I'll be doing car shows, so if I don't like the visors, I'll probably just let them go.

Off to the paint store!

bajaroadster wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 8:10 am In regards to the sun visors, I have always removed them from my roadsters and put them in storage. Its good that you found some to purchase, but I think you will find them almost useless for their intended function, and a bit of an annoyance. Nice to install on the car for shows or roadster gatherings, but personally, I prefer to drive without them otherwise. Also, it keeps them out of the weather and they will hold up better.

Wow, I beg to differ! I find them extremely useful, more so than any other car and not in the way at all. I usually have them parallel to the top frame when not in use, or up, but I just recently thought to myself "l'm really glad I have these!"

Regarding the headrests... great score! And while I know that they are hard to find and you may want to keep the car original, I find them useless in the stock design angle. Mine were modified before I bought the car 35 years ago, and I didn't know it until going to Shasta a few years later. Mine work, don't cause any interference with the roll bar, and IMHO look better. I would not be able to put the seats back anywhere near as far. Who ever did it made it look factory. I posted some quick pics... ignore the stuff in the car... they look a little forward in the pics but they're not, and allow you to actually rest your head without looking at the stars.

Gregs672000 wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 10:43 am
Regarding the headrests... great score! And while I know that they are hard to find and you may want to keep the car original, I find them useless in the stock design angle. Mine were modified before I bought the car 35 years ago, and I didn't know it until going to Shasta a few years later. Mine work, don't cause any interference with the roll bar, and IMHO look better. I would not be able to put the seats back anywhere near as far. Who ever did it made it look factory. I posted some quick pics... ignore the stuff in the car... they look a little forward in the pics but they're not, and allow you to actually rest your head without looking at the stars.

Hi Greg, I believe I've heard that about the headrests, too. Before I started on my car and was in assessment mode, Mike Young suggested I might want to put in later seats with headrests, because they're more comfy and the headrests are actually useful. The 67.5 headrests are almost like an afterthought... oh wait, they are!

And wow, yours are significantly altered. I can totally see how that's a much better configuration. I guess I'll get mine in and see how all my geometry lines up. I like what the modifier did, and if need be, I'd try to mimic that solution. Thanks, that's a good thing to know.

I'm happy to send better pics. It really looks factory.

Iloveredmeat, be sure to remove all Coca Cola, Vinegar, citrus fruit, lemon juice, tomatoes, and any marinade that you may be inclined to use, from your premises before it ends badly for someone.

C.Costine wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 7:17 pm Iloveredmeat, be sure to remove all Coca Cola, Vinegar, citrus fruit, lemon juice, tomatoes, and any marinade that you may be inclined to use, from your premises before it ends badly for someone.

Regarding the shim washers... I read more carefully your note, and in the diagram below, I'm now thinking that you might be asking about a shim that aligns with part 34/35 and is on the opposite side of the caliper and is in between the caliper and the 'body/' mount???



All my attachment hardware is up with my car, and fingers crossed I get up there in a couple of weeks, and I will check to see what came off.

Thanks,
PM