The Roadsterstein Rust Rocket build thread!!!

[Datsun.David]

Was it a round one that you knocked oval? The K&N Tech rep suggested a couple for me to try for the Solex air cleaner... I will advise once I have sorted out whether they work...

[Tomakze]

Cool! What is the Spectre part number?

I forgot to take a picture of the box... If you go into Autozone and ask for the Spectre version of the E-1290 K&N, they can order it. I find the part number though.

It is a round one! Identical to the K&N filter, so far as I can tell.

[Gregs672000]

Well done! This is how we all work together to get problems solved! Now, if only our government could do this!!!

[dbrick]

Well done! This is how we all work together to get problems solved! Now, if only our government could do this!!!

They can, sort of. They spend a year and $100,00.00 to research it, then they order the K&N, but pay $1200.00 each because they want a particular shade of red, for no real reason. Upside, the guy they paid $100,00.00 to now has enough money to buy a Nissan OEM, and the K&N rep gets to play golf in Hawaii.

[Tomakze]

I decided to relinquish the garage back to my parents today, and pulled the car out of the garage. Man, does it feel good to reap the rewards of good, hard work! It was a little hard to start, and I had to fiddle with the carbs a bit, but when it did... It has never run so well!!! It idles smoother than ever, and that new power cable to the starter made a HUGE difference!!! It cranks that motor over twice as fast! I had no idea how bad it was until now!!! It also cranks more times without draining the battery. We cranked it a lot before we got it to start, but it never even slowed down. Once I got it to start, it is easy to start now too. Everything is better, and that feels good. Fuel for the fire for next week! This thing should go under the knife every week now until it is on the road again! Stay tuned!!!

[Tomakze]

Took a video of the progress today! It is uploading, and at this rate, I may go bald by the time it does. 15min video (720p), and an hour and 45 minutes to upload. Anyway, I got the brackets Tim sent me, (If you are reading this, thank you!!!) and started figuring out how to use them. Not as straight forward as I thought, looks like I need a lot of spacers (As in every bolt...) to make it work. I almost thought he sent me the wrong triangle bracket after seeing some of the pictures online, but it looks like there is more than one way to skin this cat, and the bracket I have will work. Tomorrow after work I will wire it, and begin mocking up the brackets.

I did make an unfortunate discovery today while messing around in the trunk... more crappy repairs. Looks like the bottom of the trunk lid was so rusted out, they needed to braze on more metal to fix it. Are trunk lids notorious for rusting? The more I look at this car, the more I think it spent time in the bottom of the ocean, lol! Rust is EVERYWHERE! I also found rust holes while looking up at the dash from the passenger foot well the other day... Good thing I have two bodies, and one has little to no rust! (That I have found so far, anyway... )

Now, for the good news! I made another discovery... my car was originally white, with a red interior!!! Someone painted the original vinyl black (WHY????) along the way, but I found where they missed. I am SO EXCITED to find this out. Ever since seeing that roadster in Super Street that had the SR20DE and the red interior, I have secretly wanted that color. Discovering that was the original color has made my mind... It will be white with a red interior again! That is my favorite color combo, and has been for a while. I had no idea I owned one already, lol!

[Tomakze]

OH! I also checked that part number on the filter, and I sent 67datroad an email with the information, so it can be added to the PMWIKI tech section. The part number is 880351 by Spectre, available at Autozone for $20. http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/ ... 78559_0_0_

[Tomakze]

UPDATE!!!

I got that video uploaded, finally. Enjoy!

[youtube][/youtube]

I also worked on it a lot more today... I installed the fender mirror, started wiring the fog lights (12AWG), worked on the wiring for the new GM alternator, and started figuring out how to mount it. Unfortunately, I found a weird spacer on the front of my engine, and so the alternator mounting has been put on hold. More on that later.

[Tomakze]

Well, I think I have the mounts for the alternator finally worked out. I also successfully installed a new thermostat in the car, since it didn't have one at all, lol! Tomorrow is all about finishing the alternator, wiring it, and probably relocating the battery. I also will be installing a cigarette lighter in the center console, since I have a blank hole now!

[Tomakze]

New video is up! I will let the video do the talking...

[youtube][/youtube]

[Tomakze]

Made great progress today! I installed the security system, and the motion detection. Pics later, although, as any good security system should be, there is nothing to show . I also got the idiot light for the alternator working! It comes on when I turn the key to "run," and then turns off when I start the car. Very cool!!!

I also figured I would post a pic of what my main ignition harness looked like prior to me rebuilding it...



If you look, the main power wire and starter wire were held together with wire nuts. The main power wire's nut just fell off after I touched it. The only wire in the harness that was not cut was the accessory wire. The two ignition wires were very poorly soldered together, and missing about 3" of wire. Scary to think I have been driving with it this way for so long... That was a short waiting to happen! Needless to say, I rebuilt the entire thing, and added length to the shorter wires to get it back in shape. I then soldered everything (and soldered it well). Hooray progress!!!

Only thing left to do on the car electronically is to fix whatever is wrong with the headlights... I tried to just test the switch, but it was doing some bizarre things I couldn't make sense of. I haven't studied the wire diagrams yet, but the only wire that seemed to react at all to the switch was the red one. With the switch off, it had +12v. Pull the switch, and my voltage drops to zero. I am guessing this means I have negative switched lights, but I couldn't get any other wire to react. Also, my parking lights and headlights are non-op. They were working intermittently 2 weeks ago, but now do nothing, and I haven't touched that part of the harness. I don't know what could have changed, or even which part has failed. If anyone has any advise on this, I would appreciate it! Maybe even a description of what the wires on the switch should be doing! I also can't hook up the parking light flash on the alarm until I have this figured out.

[Roman]

New video is up! I will let the video do the talking...

Here you go, the other one didn't show up

[youtube][/youtube]

[notoptoy]

Great progress, almost a bummer you have to take a break when you are so close - at least it's for vacation.

[Garm]

Have you checked the relay for the headlights? It's coming along great! I'm afraid to look under there where all the wire are.

[Tomakze]

Thanks for reposting my video, I have no idea why it isn't showing properly...

Have you checked the relay for the headlights? It's coming along great! I'm afraid to look under there where all the wire are.

This is what I plan to do next... I would be shocked if it was the relay, because I replaced that just a couple years ago... Oh well, worth a shot. I have been meaning to re-wire the headlights anyhow. I am going to try to do that today, and test the switch. If the switch is bad, I can replace it with a switch from Autozone. I noticed they carry pull type headlight switches that look a lot like the original. I already checked the blinker switch to see if the high beam contact was bad, but it seems fine. I may check that again as well.

Does anyone know if the roadster uses switched ground, or switched +12v lights?