Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

Hello to all,

I have seen some cars with the hood support on the passenger side. Mine is on the Drivers side. Does anyone know how it was originally for a 67.5 1600?

John

My 66 is on the passenger side, my old 70 was on the drivers.

I think Rallye's site lists when they moved it, since my comment above is not that helpful..TR

it's on the driver's side of my 67.5 1600. i have no reason to believe that's not the original placement

cheers

The early cars (through the early 67 cars) had a long support on the right side as you are sitting in it. For the 67.5 cars, the support was moved to the left side of the car. For the 68 and later cars, the support was much shorter but still on the left side of the car.

just another example of the strange (pointless) little changes made to these cars over the years

AMEN to that Redtail!! Heck, I cannot think of one single part that did not change. Even the front bumper came in at least two versions. I have counted at least 8 variations on rear bumpers alone...

hey sid,
do you know why all the changes? Were some of these parts manufactured at different locations or something? did all cars from the 60's change parts so often?

at least it keeps things interesting. always something new to learn!

Not a clue! I assume that some were changes due to improvements, or to meet specific market needs. Just when you think that something is carved in stone though, something comes up to prove it wrong! For a long time, folks were under the impression that ONLY the 67.5 2000 cam covers had the rivet in the letter C. That was disproved, then folks assumed that the rivet in the letter C meant it was for Solex cars. That got debunked and so on.

On the prop rods, the rumor is that the move to the driver's side was for convenience since that is the side that the US market opens first for access. That makes sense. The reason to shorten it is to reduce interference when working on the carbs. That also makes sense.

Some of the changes are production conveniences I believe. The 1500 rear bumper license plate light hole was squared off. When the 1600 was introduced, the holes are round. That makes sense from a production perspective. The changes to the firewall to accomodate the brakes is obviously a safety thing - to meet federal brake requirements. The latch strikers are to accomodate the change to the locks which have the post type locking mechanism. It is interesting to see how some stuff morphed though.

You know if you look at in comparng to others, the roadsters did not change as much as alot of the 60's era cars. The big three seemed to change body styles every or every other year, even though the drive train components did not change as much. This comment is excluding the VW Bugs. Did they ever quit making them .. Bill

The general styling did not change for the Roadster while the Big 3 changed every couple of years, but the Big 3 generally kept stuff like mechanical parts fairly consistent. You also have to consider that the ENTIRE roadster production did not total ONE year's production for a lot of the other cars. For example, the Mustang was introduced mid year 1964. By the 1966 model year, they had a special Millionth Mustang special edition. The K code Mustangs are supposedly super rare. I recall reading that there were 26,000 of those produced. That is just about the same as the total production of the 2000.

Just a few rambling thoughts...

Oh, on the Mustangs, I had a 66 and was able to bolt on spindles and brakes from a late 70's Granada to get disc brakes. It was a direct bolt on. You don't see much of that with the Roadster production. They were orphans in many ways...

Thanks for the info!