Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

So, as mentioned in my introduction post, I've been roped into doing a restoration on a 69 2000 that I've agreed to make my daughter's first car. She is 12 right now, so I'm hopeful to have this done before she gets her permit.

The original sin.....




She's rough, but my daughter saw it on a parts run and fell in love with it. I had never seen one before, and to be honest, I thought it was a super cool car to.

Those pics show it with a temporary hodge podge rear axle under it so it would be a "roller". The po happened to have the original rear end that was under it, but after getting it home and tearing into it, I found it was shot. So, this car had no engine, Trans, or rear end. After a quick once over and "cleanup" I think she is worth saving.









So the search for a donor began. The lady across the street from me had a little nissan pickup with a z24 in it, so I asked her about it. She said she would sell it to me for $100, and I immediately said yes. Bought it, loaded it up and drug it home. It's actually a pretty straight little truck considering how long it has set up.





I was almost upset about using it for a donor instead of just fixing it up. And then I did some further reading and realized this was not an ideal donor. So, that truck will probably be seen in the background some.

And then, I saw someone posted another 69 2000 for sale right at the edge of my search area. I messaged him and immediately went to look at it. It was rougher than I would have liked, but it had a complete drive train, a hard top, and most of the body panels I need, it seemed to have in reasonable condition. Also, it came with extra body parts inside.

















So, needless to say, I bought it. Didn't give full price because of the issues it had, but I still feel like it was a little on the high end considering what I got. Eh, the things we do for our children

Anyways, this will be the beginning of mine and her project. It appears it'll be a learning experience for the both of us. And hopefully a good bonding experience. I had to leave to come back to work today and will be here for about 3 weeks or so, but that's not a terrible thing. It'll give us both time to do some research and brainstorming. When I go home we will have a solid 2 weeks to work on it and to be quite honest.... im super excited!

Any suggestions, advice, criticism, or disassembly instructions are welcome. I figure the best first step is to get the donor drive train running and moving under its own power to verify that it's all good. If a rebuild is needed, I'd rather know now. And then once I know I have enough for a full car, start disassembly on both, and pick out my best parts. Then cleanup, rust repair, and sheet metal work to get it all presentable.

Just as a side note, I have never been a purist when it comes to my vehicles. I am going to try and keep this as true to the original as possible, but you have to understand that this thing is going to be for her first car. I will be making some changes along the way for reliability and safety sake. My little girl will be driving it after all. On the other hand.... I won't be putting the ridiculous amenities in it such as ac, power windows, auto trans.... things of that nature.... She picked an old roadster afterall, it should feel like one

The red car fits in the 1970 model year category:

http://www.datsunroadster.com/INFO_PAGES/what_year.htm

It MOST LIKELY has the vastly improved Type B steering (recirculating ball), and the tranny will probably be the Warner type. The PO moved the alternator to the right side, and converted to a GM (?). The original exhaust manifold is retained, and the U20 block number appears to match the number on the cowl tag: numbers matching car.

If you got it for less than the listed price on Facebook, congrats!

Jon

Second Roadster looks like a better starting point than the first one and might have also been white originally...

I was just explaining earlier today that this is exactly what I want to do with my kid in like ~10 years haha

Good luck in the journey

2mAn wrote: Fri Oct 27, 2023 4:35 pm Second Roadster looks like a better starting point than the first one and might have also been white originally...

At first glance it might appear that way, but from what I could see, the frame looked pretty scaled up. That car has seen some serious downtime at some point. Also, that car has no title for some reason, and louisiana is a nightmare on no title cars. I have good title and papers on the white car and I'm not scared at all about swapping stuff.

With all that being said, idk.... let's get torn into them next time I'm home and I'll reevaluate then. Who knows, I might run into something on the white car that's considerably worse. It looked ok from the creeper, but that can be misleading sometimes.

jhayden wrote: Fri Oct 27, 2023 4:27 pm The red car fits in the 1970 model year category:

http://www.datsunroadster.com/INFO_PAGES/what_year.htm

It MOST LIKELY has the vastly improved Type B steering (recirculating ball), and the tranny will probably be the Warner type. The PO moved the alternator to the right side, and converted to a GM (?). The original exhaust manifold is retained, and the U20 block number appears to match the number on the cowl tag: numbers matching car.

Good info, I noticed the alternator was swapped over but didn't look close enough to see if it was the original or a Gm or what. I also noticed the coil and wires were higher end aftermarket models.... makes me curious/scared what's inside. That could be either really good or really bad

One thing that has agitated me is that out of 2 cars, I've still only gotten 2 of the original steel wheels and one hub cap. And the 2 original rims I got are rust jacked to the point ill never put them on the road

Ps I also noticed while unloading it from the trailer, the oil pan on the brown car is like 1.5 maybe 2 inches below the crossmember in the front. Is that normal? Seems like a recipe for disaster in my mind.

Re: the oil pan

At your convenience, please post a photo of that oil pan. A possibility comes to mind ...

Thank you!

Jon

jhayden wrote: Sat Oct 28, 2023 7:49 am Re: the oil pan

At your convenience, please post a photo of that oil pan. A possibility comes to mind ...

Thank you!

Jon

I'm at work for the next few weeks, but my wife is going to take a picture of it this afternoon and send to me. I'll post it as soon as she gets it. The anticipation is killing me though, what is it you are suspecting?

Is the pan "finned?"

Not that I recall, however I didn't inspect it super closely. It was just a quick thing I noticed and thought hmm... we will get a better look when the wife shoots me a picture this afternoon.

Shouldn't be a cause for concern: the stock U20 oil pan does sit a few inches below the front crossmember with no problems. I was hoping you might have lucked into having one of these that many forum members would love to have:

http://www.datsunroadster.com/PIC_PAGES ... 111-02.htm

Jon

Best she could do apparently. It doesn't look as low in the pic as I remember, but some of it might have been how it was sitting on the trailer. Its definitely past the cross member though. And I can't make out any "fins".

That’s a stock steel oil pan.

david premo wrote: Sat Oct 28, 2023 2:47 pm That’s a stock steel oil pan.

Ok cool! So it's normal for it to be that low? Just kinda seemed like a bad idea for it to be the lowest point in the front

Yes, not a cause for concern, unless you make it into a hopping lowrider, L.A. style! And, please let your wife know that she did well with the photo. The underside view from the front doesn't look all that bad for a roadster, and by 240Z standards it is rust-free.

Congrats on the father/daughter project... much to learn about life working on cars... namely patience, problem solving, persistence and budgeting... very valuable!
I won't sugar coat it... you have your work cut out for you! Regarding the engine... please do not run anything but clean fuel (perhaps sourced via a low pressure 2-4lb electric fuel pump and a gas can) through the carbs etc unless you drain the tank first and make sure it's not full of rust. Before starting it, remove the cam cover and inspect the "evil L" that sticks out in front of the cam gear for chain strikes on the underside... the upper chain tensioner does not get pressure and therefore does NOT tighten the chain at start up, causing the chain slack to hit the L, eventually breaking it off and trashing the engine in a quick second. There's a fix for that using nylon shims. Change the oil, pour oil all over the cam and gear, squirt some oil into the cylinders via the spark plug holes, spin the motor by hand and then with the starter, get a fresh set of NGK BPR6ES plugs and cross your fingers! Issues can be typical things like bad points, condensers and sunk carb floats.

I may be telling you stuff you already know, so forgive me... I gather that if you're taking on this project you have good experience. I would strongly suggest you read through the factory manual (on-line in our tech wiki) to familiarize yourself with the engine's design and the other various parts/systems on the car. Looks like you won't need to worry about the emissions system, but you must determine if you have a smog distributor or if it has been recurved or replaced with an earlier version as the engine is timed waaaaaay different and are not comparable. You will ultimately want the earlier distributor curve but it will run with the smog curve. By reading through the wiki you will gain years of knowledge in a short time on what works, what swaps, how you can fix "this", what options you have etc. We are happy to help guide you, answer questions or otherwise cheer you and your daughter on, so don't hesitate to ask ANY question... There's no flaming here and we only support our family members!

Dig in!
Greg