Project Unicorn, the resurrection of 1967.5 Datsun 2000 SRL-00342

[spriso]

It started with a phone call, as these things usually do.

“Hey, I’ve found a 67.5 2000 and I want you to come look at it for me…”

“Sure you have… ” I’m thinking, these things are like applies on a tree, all over the place… I asked a few questions quite skeptical mind you, and made arrangements to meet with the prospective owner a few days later.

We meet in a quiet subdivision, and I get the back story on the car…. Customer Ken has been trying to buy the mystery car for 10+ years from the original owner who has not driven the car since the 80s. Other than that, it’s a mystery. The original owner lives in Hawaii, so he made arrangements with a neighbor to open the garage where it was stored for us so we could see what he really had…

After a few pleasantries, the neighbor opened the garage door and said “….have fun…” and left. All I see is a Mercedes and a pile of furniture and other garage debris…

Where’s the car? I wonder—hoping its not under—that.





After a little bit of digging, the familiar black silhouette starts to emerge. Hmmmm. Interesting.



It is obvious that I’m not going to get to the interior without a bunch of effort, so I go around to the back of the car, move some boxes, crates, and even more golf clubs… bingo. There it is-- the true definition of unobtainium-- the stainless license plate trim. Holy $hit. This thing might just be the real deal…



Ok, I’m starting to get excited, this just does not happen every day… We move more crates, more golf clubs (really?) and open the driver’s door. Untouched, just like it was left over 30 years ago. I check the tach 8k! and the 160mph speedo. Whoa.

I open the hood, leaning way over to get it lifted up… in the dark shadows, the U20 emerges. Still there, still intact. Dirty Solex carbs and airbox, the rivet in the C… holy cow… its’ a unicorn. There is literally too much stuff in the way to confirm if it has the aluminum oil pan (its packed in there that hard!)



I lean over the fender as far as I dare, extending my phone out to try to see if this unicorn is going to reveal it’s number… dirty, and untouched, SRL311-00342 finally reveals its identity.

Customer Ken asks if it is the real deal, and I confirm it. He works out a deal to buy the car, and has hired us to get it back on the road for him… This thread will document that process from start to finish as we bring this little beast back to life!

[AC77]

Looking forward to seeing how this project progresses. What a great find!

[S Allen]

That is cool. Will be following this thread with interest.

S

[spags1986]

How cool! Subscribed.

[spriso]

About a week later, my partner in crime Eric Straw and I have a plan to get this car extracted from the garage. We get our tools, spare wheels and tires together, and agree to meet Ken to figure out how badly this car is going to fight us from its long slumber.

Ken brought a few friends of his own, and after setting up a camera for a time lapse video, we start to move the furniture and see what we really have here…



After about 20 minutes, things are starting to get interesting:



The front of the car is cleared and shows some bumps and bruises, but nothing unusual for a 50-year old, original car.



Interested in the grill badge, I see that it is from the Emerald Empire Sports Car Club, which is still active in the Eugene area! http://eescc.org/



Sadly, the fog lights are not original Everwings, but vintage Carello fog (and driving lights)—sadly the lenses on one has succumbed to furniture being stored against it.

Digging around in the glove box reveals a couple vintage autocross tags from various EESCC events:



As expected, the tires on the American Racing Silverstone wheels are totally dry rotted…



After changing out the wheels and tires, project Unicorn is lowered onto the ground for the first time in decades and emerged out of the garage with Ken beaming:



Eric and I pose for a quick shot and Project Unicorn is loaded into Eric’s trailer…



And a video of the event:

[youtube][/youtube]

[spriso]

After getting it to the shop, a quick cleanup ensued to see what was really there

The body is 100% original, with no evidence of paint or body work-- but plenty of small scratches and dents from the furniture storage, but we will work very hard on preserving the paint as original.



The more we dug into it, the more surprises showed up-- original keys:





This was in the center console:



Seatbelts marked 4/67



Trunk is original and clean:



A couple small issues in the trunk floor, but will be easily resolved:



Under the hood was very clean-- need to figure out what the condition of the engine actually is, get the carbs sorted out, and determine why the car was parked (and undo that crazy copper pipe), but that will all come with time.









All the hoses are rock hard, the hydraulics are totally shot, so it needs a deep clean, inspection and rebuild of time ravaged parts.

So, lots of clean-up and inspection still to go to determine the path forward for bringing this back to life... we also have a stack of other projects here that we need to complete before getting too deep into this project, but the Unicorn is such an impressive time capsule, I figured we should share!

[notoptoy]

That is fantastic and an amazing find. Looking at the trunk is crazy - it's so untouched. This will be cool to see, subscribed!

[19692000survivor]

Great find and nice color combination to boot.
I am curious as to the reason the car was left to sit by the owner and not driven for the last 30 years?
I know timing chain failures rank high on the SRL's"Why I parked it" list of reasons".
Also, Whats the odomiter reading ?
Rick

[spriso]

We are working on sorting out why it was parked....

The car has 68,600 miles on it.

Michael

[zippy67roadster]

You have to bring it to Solvang this year!!!!!

[ted heaton]

Even the gas cap is positioned correctly!!!

Thank you Michael for the interesting thread.

Ted

[RCMike]

Pretty!

[cole455]

Very cool!

In all my roadster years, never remember seeing this one at any local events

[sfdaugherty]

Wow. . . Just wow!

[2mAn]

Thats awesome. Add it to the registry.

I wonder how many of the 67.5 2000 are now accounted for