Greg’s ‘69 SRL311-07324

[Stick]

Starting this thread to document my ownership and work on this car. Originally I thought it would just enjoy it on the weekends and keep it as is. Over the past 2 months, the more I look at it, learn about it and tinker with it the more I envision some changes and repairs, so I thought I would document the journey here.

A little back story and history first. I came about this car through my father who was a racer and car enthusiast long before I came along. Growing up he had and raced Triumphs and later a 65 and a 66 Shelby GT 350 in SCCA events … he always had cool cars around. In May of 2020 he got a wild hair and decided he was going to pick up a 69 Datsun from CA and ship it back east. It was from a guy who owned it since 1969 and my a father would be the second owner. Long story short, when my father turned 80 earlier this year he started to downsize on certain things and said he didn’t want to work on it and was having trouble getting in/out of it. He asked if I was interested and immediately said yes. He did a lot of things to it that I can add to this build thread in the next post.

Overall, when I picked it up from him it was in pretty good shape and looks and runs great. It does however have only 4 forward gears a reverse gear and two neutrals! Eventually I’ll need to pull the motor and trans to get the 5th gear repaired. In the past 2 months I've spent countless hours reading through this site trying to learn as much about this car as it's completely new to me. Learned a lot so far, but still have a ton more to learn and appreciate all of the help from the members ... both active and the past. Only thing left to do now is dive in head first.

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[Stick]

Work to date:

November 2023
- Replaced broken clutch slave cylinder return spring
- removed roll bar

December 2023 -
- Door check/stop repaired
Thread link - viewtopic.php?t=37795 instead of reposting here
- Cleaned up engine bay and tidied up wiring, excess wiring and new connectors
- cleaned contacts on fuels sending unit - improved gauge response

[Stick]

Today I worked on chasing down a short that was blowing a fuse on the accessory circuit. Schematic pointed toward the hazards, clock, cigarette lighter and map light. Rather than digging into the dash I thought I’d start by looking at the suspects running down the center tunnel.

Had a bit of a tough time with the screws in the arm rest console as but finally got them out. Looks like the harness running down the tunnel was crushed in a couple of places that might have been causing the short. I got a bit distracted and the next thing I knew the seats were out and the carpet removed. I thought while I had the center console out I’d see what condition the floor pan was in … I also wanted to see if I could build a spacer for the seat that raised it just a bit off the carpet so it didn’t hang up when moving back. I also had some holes to plug from the roll bar removal.

Also ordered some sound dampening mats to reduce some of the interior noises

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[jamesw]

Wow the floors look great! A lot of people remove the mastic matting that came in the cars but if it's dry all around and underneath maybe just leave it.

Cheers
James

[mikeb]

The whole car looks great! Fix the transmission and you'll have a real gem. How much work did your Dad do on the car after he acquired it?
Good luck!

[david premo]

That is an extremely nice car! You should go buy a lottery ticket, I have not seen an unrestored roadster this nice in a long time. I think you have really nice car to build and make your own. Take your time with it would be my advice, the transmission would need a very qualified mechanic to work on it. The roadster 5 speed is a very unique box and requires someone very knowledgeable and familiar with the transmission.
Dave

[Gregs672000]

Beautiful Car! Love the color and the unique wheels. It looks to be in excellent condition. I do see a couple spots on the floor I would want to consider investigating further, as compromised undercoating can hide rust. Since you have everything out already, I'd dig around the rust spots some and see what pops up. There are excellent rust converters and encapsulating products that would be easy to apply and kill off any future issues. Undercoating could be reapplied and you'd never have to think about it again.

Very excited for you and look forward to hearing more about your adventure. I've loved my car for 37-38 yrs now and it never gets old! Never fails to put a smile on my face, even when it's just sitting and hibernating in the garage like now. Making plans for spring!

[Stick]

The whole car looks great! Fix the transmission and you'll have a real gem. How much work did your Dad do on the car after he acquired it?
Good luck!

My Dad did (mostly had done) quite a bit of work and saved all of the documentation:

Radiator rebuild,
B cam Installation, valve springs and rocker arms
New carbs and tune
Weather stripping
new tires
New front brake calipers, pads and brake lines
New convertible top
Roll bar (I removed it)
New suspension parts
Pertonix ignition
New alternator belt and wires
Fuel tank cleaned/repaired
4 Alloy wheels (as shown in picture). Original set and dog dishes restored
New Vredestine Sportrac tires
New Vitaloni side mirrors
New Shift boot
Door panels reupolstered
New choke cables
replaced Chrome side moldings
Gas filler neck
replacement data plate (have original still)

The original owner also provided four large totes of original parts taken off, tools, new parts, etc along with receipts for some work he had done. Mechanically, the car seems to be in great shape (other than 5th gear).

[Stick]

That is an extremely nice car! You should go buy a lottery ticket, I have not seen an unrestored roadster this nice in a long time. I think you have really nice car to build and make your own. Take your time with it would be my advice, the transmission would need a very qualified mechanic to work on it. The roadster 5 speed is a very unique box and requires someone very knowledgeable and familiar with the transmission.
Dave

Thank you, my dad said he spoke with Les Canady regarding the rebuild ... I'd just need to pull the engine and trans and box up the trans to send out west. I'm open to other rebuilders as well ... just want it done right after going through all of the efforts to pull it. Not sure of the clutch condition (although it feels good), but will likely consider having that done at the same time since you have to go through all of the trouble to remove it!

Anyone know of a knowledgeable/qualified rebuilder near Georgia??

[Stick]

Beautiful Car! Love the color and the unique wheels. It looks to be in excellent condition. I do see a couple spots on the floor I would want to consider investigating further, as compromised undercoating can hide rust. Since you have everything out already, I'd dig around the rust spots some and see what pops up. There are excellent rust converters and encapsulating products that would be easy to apply and kill off any future issues. Undercoating could be reapplied and you'd never have to think about it again.

Very excited for you and look forward to hearing more about your adventure. I've loved my car for 37-38 yrs now and it never gets old! Never fails to put a smile on my face, even when it's just sitting and hibernating in the garage like now. Making plans for spring!

Thank you ... I still need to remove the carpet from the tunnel and rear shelf, vacuum out, clean and inspect the floor. I was thinking the same thing to address anything that looked like corrosion was a problem or potential. At some point in the future when the engine is out and trans sent out for rebuild, I may even consider pulling the body to work on underside a better look at the frame/chassis.

[Stick]

Finally had a moment to investigate the floor pan for rust. Started with the driver side forward floor pan which appeared to be the must suspect.
The factory matting in spots appeared dried up, lightly cracked and lifting in spots. I took a screwdriver and poked and pried around and easily removed small chunks at a time revealing rust underneath. As I worked rearward it looks better and didn’t lift off when pried up.

I think the right move is to remove all of the old matting from the driver side, clean up the surface rust and apply the rust encapsulator.

Pics attached - I think it looks worse than it is and will Clean up pretty good prior to laying down some new sound deadening mats.

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[Gregs672000]

Ya yes, my exact experience, only 37 years ago (and considerably worse!). No, not bad at all. I hear that you can use dry ice to freeze the undercoating (you spread it across, maybe on something like plastic?) and then hit it with a hammer and it shatters right off... easier than chipping it if you want to get it all off. You'll probably want some kind of thick undercoating or sound deadening to replace it vs just covering up a few spots as I was thinking before. Good work!

[Stick]

I'll give the dry ice a try .... most of the easy spots are up and the majority left is stuck down pretty hard and is like a hardened tar substance. I have some Silver colored rust encapsulator on the way from Eastwood but.Once I get the mat up I'll lightly sand the flor a bit by hand to knock off anything crusty and smooth it out some. So far it looks primarily like surface rust and have not found anything that needs a major repair ... fingers crossed.

Passenger side looks better, but plan on removing all of that as well. I have new sound deadening mat already that will line the entire interior.

[Gregs672000]

I'll give the dry ice a try ....

Cool!
I hear you have to play the song "Monster mash" while you dance around the garage in the dry ice fog...

[Stick]

I finally got around to removing the original mat from the floor while I was waiting for the Eastwood rust encapsulator to come in. On the driver side I got a bit impatient and tried to pry and scrape it up which took a lot of work. I finally broke down and ran out and grabbed a block of dry ice from the grocery store, broke it up and in small pieces and distributed it over the floor. letting it sit for 30 minutes did the trick and it peeled up in sheets.
Floors are in excellent shape with only signs of small surface rust where the seat reinforcement ran along the pan.

Greg - I have to admit "Monster Mash" was stuck in my head and I may have sang a verse or two when I laid the ice down!

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Even the under side of the pan will completely frost over.

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Pic of bare floor. The rear package shelf and tunnel have a glue residue all over them that is a color similar to rust, but it is not actually rust.

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