Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

FYI, here are some unsolicited views of trim and 20 year old paint just for the thought of it.
Not exactly original color but it is original 67 trim ...

The addiction continues - Roadster number 4 has arrived. It's a non-running '68 2000. I bought it for it's windshield and hopes of finding other useful parts. I ended up getting some good parts and having some fun taking it apart.

Vermont and the original owner were tough on the old girl:
- Quarter panels rusted out
- Rockers completely gone with galvanized duct material pop-riveted in
- Fender rusted out
- do-it-yourself marker lights
- do-it-yourself hood straps
- original Datsun 2000 grill missing, replaced with chicken wire homemade grill
- has more fiberglass mat and filler then my boat
- lost count of how many times there was single strange house wire was used to hold things up or together.
- Didn't need to unbolt the motor or trans mount. One was not bolted at all and the other two were separated.
- Air horn system was a hoot. Yes they work. I guess the guy was tired of not being seen.
- I guess the rear springs had given out, because a pair of coil springs over the rear axle were added.
- The owner must have been a dukes of hazard fan - notice the orange paint job with CB radio and antenna.
- Check out the hitch - I can see it now. A 2000 lb car towing a 3000lb trailer.
- The best was the 10 penny nails (yes nails - there were 4) used as spacers to hold the exhaust manifold on...

I finally got all the parts off the car and rolled the frame up in the woods.

That CB radio certainly brings back some memories!

The one thing I've really found fun through this journey is the auto archeology, discovering the vehicle's history. It was obvious when I first started my project, my red Datsun 2000 was in an accident in the drivers front corner. It was hit hard enough to distort the frame cross member under the motor (used a different frame on my project). The car's a '69, but had '70's fender parking lights on it. When I started working on the fit of the fenders, I noticed a couple things. The drivers side was a replacement one with a rectangle cutout for the marker light. The passenger fender was original and discovered a previous owner had cut the fender to add a marker light to match the other side. It looked like an angry beaver made the hole. My plan was always to fill the holes so it didn't matter to me. After I filled both the holes I noticed something new. The marker lights were at two different levels. Did the PO not have a tape measure???

Front fender work...

The passenger fender had rust under the support so I cut off the rotten side and grafted in a section from another fender that had front damage.

Passenger door and drivers side rear quarter panel.

I spent a good amount of time modifying the '67 door to close on the tall windshield frame and closing up the window opening for my topless roadster project. After I did the work, I discovered tons of bondo hiding accident damage, so I went through the entire mods again on a second door.

I also made my own rear quarter panel patch. I'm happy with the results.

Steering wheel mods.

I saw this on Overhauling one night so I thought I'd give it a try. They took a large diameter steering wheel, chopped it down, and rewrapped it so it would have a smaller diameter. I took two inches off the diameter, which was about 6 inches off the circumference. It worked out pretty good so far. I'll post the final results when it's all complete.

Final post for today - I promise...

My most daring body mod yet - modifying the rear deck behind the driver - in front of the truck lid. Since I'm going for the true topless roadster look, I figured the big space behind the seats to the rear body deck, was no longer necessary. I took a rear deck section from one of my donor parts cars and began grafting it into the body to fill the space. When finished, there should only be 3 - 4 inches behind the seats. I'll post more picks when I get it all finished.

Your skills are impressive! This will look very cool I think. And don't worry about posting too many pictures, I'm pretty sure there is no such thing.

Very cool and unique build. Keep the pictures coming, we are watching.

Here's a thought. Open the ice wall (front) of the trunk and move the spare tire to the rear shelf. You will use dead space and gain trunk space.

an intriguing mod for sure. Dare I suggest a targa bar.

Matt-
Loving the build. I think the rear deck mod is very cool and creative. Great work and since I have a new bundle of joy I'm living vicariously through yours and other projects.

Cheers
Matthew

Decided to peak into the U20 motor that came out of the "Dukes of Hazard" Datsun 2000 donor car I picked up a few months ago. I'll try my hands at Datsun past detection...

Suspected motor history:
The timing chain must have broke for the first breakdown. The chain busted through the top of the valve cover. The P.O. created a patch to repair the hole, I think. There's square hole under the patch seen in the picture below, right above the gear for the timing chain. That didn't stop the engine from turning. There are valve marks on top of the pistons. The top of the "Evil L" was gone. Looks like it broke off which may have caused the breakdown. The P.O. replaced the valves or the valves and the head and put it back in the car.

The problem that caused the car to be parked - It was pretty obvious that the work on the car was subpar, so I'm sure the engine work to fix the timing chain and head was subpar as well. When I cracked open the timing cover, I found another chain guide (bolted to the engine block just above the crank) that had broke off and was laying in the bottom. When I took off the oil pan I found a 3" long by 1/2" plate with holes on either end just floating around along with various other small metal bits.

The P.O. must have heard the noises in the engine from the new broken off parts, parked the car, and never started it again. From there, the cylinders froze to the walls and now the engines locked up. One of the next owners of the car must have tried to free the engine up by soaking it. Each cylinder was full with an oil of some kind, but they never leaked down, not a good sign. So I drained all the fluids, put it back together, cleaned the outside and stored it for the future. My intentions with this motor is unknown for now. I'm sticking with my running 1600 motor for now.

The lower chain guides commonly fail. I'd like to see the part that you found in the pan.