This page talks about the rebuild of my 1967.5 1600. The entire project took me just under two years. Here is a picture of the Roadster before I started the restoration.
Pretty sad looking wasn't it? I have discovered as many
before me that it does not take long to invest a small
fortune in the restoration of one of these little cars. Boy,
are they fun to drive though.
Some of things I did include:
Frame off-cleaned frame-primed and painted. Disassembled front and rear end. New suspension components Replaced 3-main motor with a 5-main stroked motor-mild cam-U20 carbs on a ported and polished 1600 intake. I have a completely rebuilt 5-speed tranny from a 2000 with mount and drive shaft.
I have had all of the chrome parts replated. I had the body, fenders, hood acid dipped. I did all of the bodywork and took it into a local bodyshop in Santa Rosa to get it painted. The car was painted with a base coat clear coat of Saturn purple. I am very pleased with my color selection. It is a daily driver so by now it has a few road dings and a scratch here and there. It still looks pretty good.
Here is a chronological timeline of some of the major events as they transpired:
Update 2/18/00 I have not updated my project progress for some time. I have completed the installation of my new dash complete with a Chernoff dash cover, a composite dash face from CDM, and new interior panels from Fairlady. I try to spread the wealth. The new autometer gauges look great and everything electrical works as it should. I spent a week trouble shooting electrical gremlins but persistance pays off. I used the dielectric grease some had mentioned on every connection so that should eliminate most potential problems. I am working on the carpet and interior right now. I need to redo the center console, bolt in the roll bar, seats, and refinish the radio console.
I fired up the new motor last weekend. I pulled the distributor and spun the oil pump to get the motor nice and lubed. I spent a day setting the timing and tweaking on the carbs. I plan on taking it into the machine shop that built the motor for me next week. They are going to stick it on their dyno to see how the motor is performing. I have had it out for a quick spin around the block several times but it has been raining here a lot lately.
The new motor seems to run a little on the hot side. I had the radiator recored, new water pump, and thermostat. A stoker motor probably runs a little hotter than a stock 1600 would. I can see the thermostat open when the motor reaches operating temperature. I am looking at putting in a Griffin aluminum radiator with a built-in cooling fan. They are not cheap but you definitely get what you pay for. I will be posting some new pictures this week end.
Update 3/16/00. I am getting real close to finishing my project. The new motor runs right at 200 F with the stock recored 1600 radiator. I have yet to put many miles on it as I am patiently waiting for the custom built aluminum radiator with built on thermostatically controlled fan. It runs like a champ and I am really itching to get it out on the road. I installed a 60 AMP self exciting single wire GM alternator to provide additional power for the electric radiator fan and a new stereo. That was a real snap, as all I had to do was cut down the alternator mounting bracket by about 2". The new alternator bolted right up and I even used the stock fan belt. I put some fusible links in the strategic areas mentioned by Mr. Walters. I still need to hook up a volt meter so I can eyeball the charging system from time to time. I reupholstered the center console, repaired the lock, and put a new knob on the ashtray door. I also reupholstered the radio console, fabricated a new face cover(moving the choke and throttle knobs down and replacing the cigarette lighter with a 12 volt power outlet.) The radio fits in the top of the radio console. I covered the face of the radio console with a sheet of carbon fiber so it matches my dash. I still have a few odds and ends to take care of like door panels, finish covering the roll bar, install radio console. I am planning on making the trip to Solvang next month. I sent my registration in and reserved a motel room. I am looking forward to my first Datsun Roadster meet. I will post some pictures once I get the car completed. I want to take it to Fort Baker near the Golden Gate and get some shots of the Gate in the background.
Update 4/30/00. Well, I have been busy and it has not been all Roadster related. Sometimes we do not get done what we would like to when we had planned to. Does that make sense? I did not make it to Solvang as the Roadster was not ready for the long haul down south. As I said before, I was having some overheating problems with the stock recored radiator. I spent too much money on an alumnium radiator custom made by Griffin. It helped but she still runs right around 210 degrees when I really push on it. I spent the last week breaking in the new motor. I have been on every back road around the local area. There are some pretty twisty roads which makes for great Roadster cruising. I took a trip to the Golden Gate yesterday via the backroads of Sonoma and Marin Counties. More great Roadster cruising roads. I met up with a Red low windshield 1600 in San Rafael. Anyone on the list? We ran together from San Rafael to the Gate. He was hauling pretty fast and I did not quite have that 500 miles of breakin under my belt. Anyway, it was neat to cruise with another Roadster. I took a few pictures of my ride with the Golden Gate as a backdrop. I still have a few little things to do but as a whole she is road worthy. There is a slight problem though as it looks like I might have a rear main leak. I am a bit bummed out by that but we shall overcome. I will try to hold off on that until I get a few more miles on her.
Update 5/23/00. I finally figured out why my temp guage was running between 200 and 210. The adapter I put in the head for the Autometer guage butted right up against the headers which I checked with a radiant gun at 340 degrees. It was sucking heat right from the headers adding about 30 degrees to the reading. I moved my temperature sending unit to the other side of the motor putting a fitting in the bottom passenger side of the water pump. It works great and I get an accurate engine temperature. She runs right around 190 when she is being pushed hard. I still have that pesky leak and have tried a number of things short of pulling the motor and tranny with little success. I have almost 800 miles on the motor and she runs strong. I cannot compare it to a real 2 liter as I have never driven one of those. She does have plenty of pep. There are some great twisties between RP and Sonoma via the backroads.
Update 6/4/00. I was having problems with fuel delivery. I had my carbs rebuilt but that means little these days. The first thing I discovered were the old brass floats still in the float chambers. The rear one had fuel in it so obviuously it has a leak. I replaced both floats with the newer style and that took care of my over flowing fuel problem. It was a good thing I had rubber hoses on the overflows directing the fuel away from the header. Every once in a while the car would stumble as if I had a restriction in the fuel line some where. Severe loss of power was a definite synmpton. I checked all of the normal stuff i.e. fuel filter, fuel pressure and found nothing wrong. I pulled the front carb dome off to inspect the needle and to my surprise the needle stayed in the throttle body. The needle had not been tightened down and would stick every once in a while starving the carb of fuel. I set it at the proper height and tightened it down. The car runs like a champ. Still having problems with that oil leak. I put a new pan gasket in and checked the main cap for a lip. There is definitely oil dripping from the plate between the engine and transmission. I took it into the machine shop yesterday and we put it on a lift. It is much better than trying to look at from the garage floor. We found two small leaks. The oil filter mount bolts were loose as well as the fuel pump block off plate. I took it out after that and drove the snot out of it. It still leaks so it looks like the motor will be coming out. ******SIGH****
Update 7/29/00. Well, I missed out on Shasta again this year. My daughter graduating from college took precedence over Shasta. Hopefully I will finally get to make it next year. A few things have happened since my last update. I replaced the brass floats with the hinged type float. They came with gross jets installed. I had problems while running at speed. I replaced the gross jets with the stock 2 liter jets and she purrs like a kitten. I started looking at ListQuest to find possible answers to my oil leak(rear main in a new motor). I believe it was a post by Jim Tyler stating that not having the rocker cover vent hooked up to a vacum similar to the stock air cleaner connection could cause rear main leaks. Well, I think he was right as I had the single K&N filter units on my carbs with a small K&N filter hooked directly to my breather coming off of the valve cover. I had no vacum and no where to bleed off the crankcase pressure. I had originally purchased an ITG air cleaner from Dean at Fairlady Products. I had used an after market windshield washer unit which made the ITG filter an even tighter fit. I relocated my windshield washer tank to the passenger side of the engine compartment and installed the ITG air cleaner with a few slight modifications to allow for hook up to the connection on top of the valve cover. So far so good. I have a spot of oil but nothing like the gusher I had with the single K&Ns and the breather filter. That spot is hopefully residue from my earlier problems. I have about 1100 miles on her and she runs great. I drove it to work last week a couple of times. Someone keyed me a tad by the drivers side door. It pissed me off but what can you do? I buffed most of it out but am hesitant about driving my car to work any more. I do not know what makes people do things like that but it sure is heart breaking.
11/24/00-To make a long story short---I finally did end up pulling my motor and taking it back to the machine shop. One of the main leaks was a missing O ring that goes on the bottom of the distributor. They repaired the suspected leaks and I put it back in last weekend. She runs strong and better yet no leaks. I plan on attending as many of the meets as I can in the year 2001. It should be a lot of fun. Hope to meet many of you in the new year to come. That pretty much does it it for my 67.5.
6/13/01-Well, it has been a while since I posted anything here. The 67.5 stroker runs great and I have put close to 5000 miles on her already. I made my first Solvang Show and it was fun. I caravaned down with Fred Katz from BADROC. I plan on attending the Shasta show this year as well. I am in the process of forming another roadster club. I enjoy hanging out with the BADROC crowd but there are a lot of roadsters in the north bay and none of them go south for the BADROC events. I have been working on getting people together for our first event as a club and things are coming together. Our first run will be Saturday the 16th of June 2001. We will Run to the Coast and then have a barbecue after the run. A sort of get aquainted affair. Our main goal is to have fun and then to have some more fun. That cannot be too hard can it? Any way, we will meet up at the Park 'N Ride in Rohnert Park between 11:00 and 11:30 AM Saturday morning. The Park 'N Ride is right off of the southbound lanes of Hwy 101 and the Rohnert Park Expressway. Hope to see you there.
You can check out a lot of pictures of my restoration here
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