The Restoration of SPL-05887

[ianmiller07]

Let it be know Friday 8/19/2016 marks the start of the restoration of SPL-05887.

I purchased SPL-05887 as a Junior in High school. With a little work it was on the road, but not very well sorted. It has a cheap paint job and was missing trim. The interior had new carpet, but a terrible dash, gauges, and door panels. The engine ran but barely. I had little mechanical experience, but was willing to learn, and lets face it I was a Junior in High school with a red convertible.

With a lot of help from the roadster email list I slowly sorted the car out; replacing breaks, suspension, rebuilding the differential and eventually rebuilding the engine, the first time. I made some good friends (I wonder if Mark Dent is still active in the community) and attended a few of the Watkins Glenn Events. During college the car spent most of the time in some state of disrepair waiting for me to save enough money to buy a new part or find the time to install it. After college I focused on the drive train and rebuilt the motor again, as a stroker this time, purchased a new set of Z-therapy carbs, rewired the engine bay and converted it to a 5-speed. This was about the time Mark found the 67.5 1600 that he convinced me to buy and is still in the barn. I even had a little Roadster picnic at my house outside of Reading PA.

In 2004 I relocated to Houston and towed the Datsun south. I drove it for a few months but the transmission lost several gears and I parked it for the summer because it was too hot to work on in the driveway. That summer we bought a boat, that fall we built our first house, more boats and a few kids later and the poor car was still waiting for a transmission.

That is when things went from bad to worse. September 1, 2008 Hurricane Ike flooded our house and put 28" of water over top the garage slab and the car. I removed the interior, pickled the motor and transmission in diesel fuel, flushed the chassis and sprayed it full of Corrosion X. I packed the car off to a warehouse and that is where it sat, forgot in the corner until October of this year. We moved back to the Mid Atlantic (Maryland) and I shipped the car north.

Friday I sent the car to a local l restoration shop, Artworks N Motion, to begin disassembly and body removal for sandblasting. I'm not completely sure what the plan is yet. I am going to let the restoration shop clean and paint the body and frame. While the body work is getting completed I plan on working on getting the frame into a roller. From there I would like to do the motor and transmission work. The rest of the reassembly will depend on time and money. While I don't have enough of either, I am starting to realize, with three kids, I have less time to spare. For now I am happy to know I am on the way to putting my car back on the road. Along the way I'm sure I will start a lot of new threads for advice but I will periodically update this one with progress.

Wish me luck
Ian

[C.Costine]

Good luck Ian, your roadster looks much better than I thought that it would from your description. Congratulations on finally getting it going again, but enjoy the kids, since they will be out of your house in just a few weeks. Birth to HS graduation when you look back at it, is just a blur. I bought my first as a senior at university, but had it for only four years. Twenty years later I bought the one that I have now, and drove it for two years, but then the Ford tractors came and the 311 went on the back burner for twelve years. It has been top priority for a year and a half now, and it looks like within the last week it has finally turned the corner from getting further from done every week to getting closer. You can find out everything that you need to know about your roadster at 311s.org.

[notoptoy]

Welcome back into the fold!

[spyder]

Cool story!

[ianmiller07]

Today we discovered the car was originally blue, then had two coats of yellow and finally two coats of red. So on average it was repainted every 10 years. It has also been in a wreck on the drivers rear. I might be looking for a good rear corner soon, the media blasting will tell.

[ianmiller07]

Progress continues. The body is now at the sandblaster and the frame should be in the paint booth.

Any recommendations on where I could find some new chassis brake and fuel lines? It looks like the vendors only carry the lines on the axles, inter-caliper, and flex lines.

Also; which is the correct side trim for a 66, the concave or convex (see picture on the white parts car below).

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[notoptoy]

Concave on 66. Convex after 67.

[devo]

http://www.classictube.com/1965-11692.html

http://www.classictube.com/1966-13939.html

[ianmiller07]

Awesome. Thank you.

[ianmiller07]

The progress continues. After painting I primed and painted with the Eastwood Chassis Black. No broken welds or rust to repair. I got the chassis back together just to make it a roller. It will come apart again to replace the bushings and boots. I know the steering box and idler are problematic but it doesn't appear this one has much play. I take the cap off the top of the idler and wiggle the wheels and the top of the idle shaft doesn't move more then a 1/32" and the movement is translated immediately into rotation on the steering shaft. Any other checks I should perform that do not involve tearing down the idler and steering box? How difficult are they to replace once the body is back on the frame?

The plan is to use the chassis as it is now for body work and fitting, then pull the body back off the frame for paint. While it is in paint I will replace any worn parts, install the motor and transmission, and re-plumb the fuel and brake lines.

[ianmiller07]

Back from the sand blaster! We stripped the paint from all the flat panel s with a grinder and sent the body to the blaster to finish the hard to reach areas. That kept the panels from getting wavy. Upon return from the blaster we found a little rust in the floor pans, trunk lid, and rear fenders which will all be easily taken care of with a few patch panels. More challenging is there are a lot of dents and dings from over the years (I'm not sure there is a panel the doesn need some work) with a significant rear driver side collision that was poorly repaired. Time for some hammer and dolly work. The collision also tore the gas tank mounts loose from the trunk floor, so those will need reattached.

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[devo]

"The collision also tore the gas tank mounts loose from the trunk floor, so those will need reattached. "

Common problem on these cars since the metal is so thin. Mike young makes these brackets to take the stress off of the trunk floor. Easy to use. Bolt on.

http://www.datsunsports.com/2016/brackets.php