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Rebirth of SRL311-00289 1967.5 2 Liter

So here we will post the information on the rebuild of srl311-00279. To begin with I wanted a 1967.5 2 liter roadster for the past 14 years. Opportunities have come and gone. A fellow roadster enthusiast contacted me asking if I knew of any one that might be interested in a 1967.5 2 liter about a month and a half ago. Well, I thought about it for awhile and I replied that I was very interested. He sent me the contacts information and we began the offering and counter offering. The only thing I had to go off of was the owners word and a few pictures. Was this really a true deal or could it be a scam? No one had actually seen the car so I was flying a bit blind and under the radar. We struck a deal and the clock was ticking. I made plans to drive to Fairfax, VA over the weekend of the 21 of September. 1078 miles one way. I had already paid half and was to deliver the final payment when I picked the car up.

So, Friday 21 September my brother and I leave Carlisle, Iowa with my 18 foot enclosed trailer pulled by my 2003 Tundra at 5 AM. 17-1/2 hours later we are in Fredricks, Maryland about an hour or so away from our destination of Fairfax, VA. We shower and get a few hours sleep. The next morning we head for Fairfax passing though Washington,D.C. There is a three level interstate exchange we have to get off of and navigate to the owners address. Thank goodness the seller had faxed us a map of the area.

We end up driving through a heavily wooded area with a lot of room between houses. We pull up to the address where a girl and a dog are out front. We ask if this is the correct address for the roadster pick-up. She says yes and tells us to follow the road around until we see a barn with a curved door. The roadster is in there. We follow the road around and come to the barn. I get out and open the door and no roadster. My brother starts to panic and I am thinking something is not quite right. We get the rig turned around and are thinking of hauling ass out of there when we see a guy coming down a trail. It is the seller-he says the car is in the guest house garage back up the road. We pull back up there and I jump out to make sure there is a roadster in the garage and there is. The whole deal was made over the internet by a person I have no knowledge of and he already had a good chunk of my change. I think you can imagine how we felt upon opening the barn door to find it empty. Any way, we get the trailer backed up. Which was no easy task.

Next we have to bolt the rear axles on as they were loose so we could put tires and rims on her. The front was easier but there were no links so the wheels would have to be coaxed. The car had not seen rims since 1984. There were tons of parts and boxes on shelving in the garage. We used an electric winch to pull the car up into the trailer. We had fried one set of the jumper cables so we had to borrow a set from the seller. Next we started loading all of the parts off of the shelving. Paid the final amount-got the title and two folders full of paperwork and were on the road by 10:40 AM.

We drive for another 14 hours and decide to stay the night in Bloomfield, IL. We were both exhausted and thought it best not to drive through the night. Showered, drank a beer or two in my brothers case and went to sleep. We were back on the road by 9 AM. We arrived safely and in one piece in Carlisle around 1:30 PM. The car and all of it parts sit behind my brothers garage for now. The first thing I need to do is a full inventory so I can figure out what I need to get this bad boy back on the road. Engine and tranny are going to be rebuilt. I will redo the suspension with new hardware, shocks, bump stops and ball joints.There is some minor body work that needs done and then we will probably respray with a basecoat/clearcoat finish. We may have brought a few Virginia mice with us. We will see.

So the journey continues-here are some pictures of our road trip. I will try to document as much of the work we do as is possible. See ya!

UPDATE:11/02/2007Well, I finally got around to doing a good inventory of the parts and find I am missing some key components. And many of the 20 plus year old parts are so rusted they are really not in a useable condition. The same goes for the rubber bits which were stuck together from sitting so long. I guess that is part of buying a basket case project site unseen. I am not complaining but this is not going to be a bolt it back together restoration as was advertised. It is a numbers matching car that will be my pride and joy.

Engine wise the block is a rusted hulk-20 plus years of sitting has left its mark. I am hoping the machine shop will be able to clean her up and make her look new. It looks like I have .50 over pistons and the B cam for the solexes. The crank was stored lying on its side which is not good. The head was redone over 20 years ago but it will have to be torn down and completly gone through again. Rust again has taken it toll. The valves look new but who knows for sure. So, my brother will drop the engine and head off at the machine shop and we shall see what happens. More to come on that later.

Block, pistons and crank.

The rusted head.

Parts I knew I was missing-the windshield as it was broken by movers long ago. Parts I did not recieve in all of the boxes-the ignition switch assembly and the inner steering column mount which fastens to the fire wall. Those are biggies.

Cool parts I got-two sets of mikuni carbs one early and one late-needing a complete rebuild, Solex air cleaner, 7 Qt competition oil pan, three of the license plate trim rings that are virtually unobtainable, and a pristine set of hub caps which I do not intend to use. This baby will sport Panasports or Superlites.

Early style Mikunis carbs.

Solex air cleaner.

Competition oil pan.

UPDATE:11/22/2007

I dropped the block and its components off at the machine shop that built my brothers stroker Monday 11/19/07. I also left him the head. The machinist asked where he could get some engine specs and I referred him to www.311s.org. Hopefully I do not get any bad news from him concerning the engine or the head. Last week I sent the later set of Mikunis off to Oregon for Dan Garrison to rebuild for me.

I am in search of some missing parts. Bill cole has offered to help me with a few of them. I bought an ignition switch fom Michael Spriso through Bill. Re keyed and all. I am trying to order keys for the door and trunk locks through keysforclassics.com but they have not been responsive at all. I did manage to locate the 4 digit lock code and the early cars use a Taylor D80-E blank. The early and late keys are different. One key does not fit all. I picked up a new dizzy from Skyman off of the forum. Nice piece and since Gary quit building his EI units will probably stay with the points dizzy. I ordered another frame bolt pack and an interior bolt fastener pack from Pat Mahoney.

I am not too happy about all of the missing parts but that is what happens when you tear something apart 23 year ago and move several times. Things tend to end up missing after all that time. I will see this through but as with any Roadster project it will not be done cheaply nor completed over night. That is all for now.

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