Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

After 15 years of hibernation, and being my daily driver for 3 years before that, and my working on her since 1993, when she was my girlfriend's car, I am finally going to get Audrey back on the road.

Step one: got her up on jacks and pulled the rusty wheels & rotten tires off. Wheels are at the powdercoaters, so now I'll dig into the brakes to find out what needs replacing & what's salvageable...

Welcome! Subscribed for watching your progress!

Well, six years after my original post, I've moved to a place with a great garage. No more working on cars in the sun with ants crawling on me. So, time to get Audrey on the road. For real.

I went to Shasta and Solvang for inspiration, and recently got to drive a friend's SR20 swapped '67 to really light the fire to get some seat time in my own car. Audrey is a 1970 1600. I bought her in 1995, she was my daily driver for 3 years, and then she got put in storage when I got a job overseas. She's been sitting, and towed from place to place, and she really deserves better. She still wears what's left of her original silver paint, though lots of it is faded down to red primer. My plan is to get her mechanically sound and enjoy the ride while saving up to do cosmetics / work on my other cars.

Started stripping her down and making my long list of things that need rebuilding or replacing. Looking forward to sharing my journey and getting help from the knowledgeable roadster experts here. I also have a '70 1600 parts car that's rusty, but almost too nice to part out, so we'll see if it ends up getting cannibalized or not.



Got the hood off, radiator out, and started photographing everything, and making the aforementioned list longer.



Engine and trans are out. Yes, that is an ugly yellow Accel coil on the firewall. Hey, it was the 90's...

Erik, I got the engine back into mine night before last, and it is finally going to the body shop Friday for final paint after four years. Here is a suggestion: be very careful with your fasteners. I have spent a lot of time searching out correct replacement fasteners. I purchased replacements and put them in small labeled bags as I removed parts, yet I still ended up wasting a lot of time trying to find correct ones. This is especially true where the part that the screw goes into is too big to take to the hardware store. I also wasted a lot of time by not removing the body from the frame.

Thanks for the tip. Where did you end up finding correct replacement fasteners?

Got the engine apart this weekend. I remember that she burned oil when she ran, and wow, the combustion chambers and piston tops were covered in carbon. Lots of it. Surprisingly, the crank and rod bearings looked great! Hardly any wear, although the oil that's been sitting in there for 20+ years was pretty sludgy. Getting the fused together water pump and spacer off the block was lots of fun. Ah, nothing like the delicious recipe of dissimilar metals, water, and two decades of marinating. Not to mention that 20-something me used way too much silicone sealer when he put it together in the 90's.

Managed to get some more work done today. Finished stripping the block down, freeze plugs out. Modified my Ford FE engine cradle to hold the R16 by drilling 1 hole in each side and adding some outriggers for support, since the motor mount location on the R16 is so far forward.

funkaholik wrote: Wed May 08, 2019 12:38 pm Thanks for the tip. Where did you end up finding correct replacement fasteners?

I didn't source actual "correct" fasteners. I saved the best originals for places where they would show. I got most of the replacements at my local hardware where they have an aisle of bins and drawers of fasteners. They also have both metric and SAE faster indexes that enable you to try what you bring in so that you can make positive ID.

Its exciting to see this start to come apart haha .. I will second what others are saying and take care to bag & tag everything because you never know how long it will take to get it back together.

Thanks for the tips. I have cleaned out the local dollar store of different sized ziplocs and have been very OCD about labelling everything. Bought a vibratory tumbler and it has done a great job of cleaning up fasteners and small parts to zinc coat, paint, etc. I had been blasting them, but the little nuts and bolts take forever. Now I just put in parts, turn on tumbler and leave. There is a bit of media left in the threads but it's easily brushed out. I hooked it up to a timer so it runs about 12 hours & stops. The only downside was the large box delivered to my house that said, "Description: Vibrator" on the side of it...

These bolts and studs were pretty corroded yesterday.



Washed and blasted a bunch of parts last week and they came out looking great. (Thanks, Rob, for letting me use 3 hours of your electricity.) The oil pan was disgusting!

man that tumbler is doing solid work!

Love how its coming along. How are you going to zinc plate everything? Is the plan to just refresh the R16 and go back to OEM?

There is a shop here in the bay area that does great plating. A friend's shop uses them for a lot of jobs, so when I get a big enough (meticulously organized, bagged, and labeled) pile of fasteners, I bring them there and they get them done along with whatever else they are having plated.

I guess I haven't mentioned the plan! I have a U20 crank that is going into this block and a 5 speed that's going behind it. Block is going to Rebello soon to get machined and built into an R20. Trans is with Steve P. in Chico for a going over before being installed. Trying really hard not to let mission creep turn this into a huge project. Really just want it mechanically sorted, and not worry about the horribly faded paint right now.

Finished rear suspension and brakes. Front suspension and steering parts are all blasted, ready for paint and for me to install new ball joints, bushings, etc. Need to treat the surface rust in, and paint engine compartment. Get engine and trans in, everything hooked up and drive it.

Sounds so simple...

Glad to see you back in the roadster Erik! Pettersen is the MAN!

funkaholik wrote: Thu May 30, 2019 11:46 pm Trying really hard not to let mission creep turn this into a huge project.

famous last words...

Update: transmission time!

A while back, I picked up a 5 speed Roadster trans for what I thought was a great price. It was supposedly rebuilt, and came with a bag of synchros and other parts that were replaced during said rebuild. I cannot express how glad I am that after maybe 4 knowledgeable Datsun people told me to have it looked at by Steve Pettersen, I finally decided to do just that before bolting it in the car. Steve found many issues: seals in backwards, shims and spacers misplaced, incorrect snap ring installed, a crack in the bellhousing, and all synchros worn, not replaced. This box would have been a time bomb.

Silver lining is that even with all its issues, it was still a good price for a rebuildable 5 speed. Plus, I now know that the issues are resolved for sure and this trans should last a long time.

Some pics: