Hello from Lake Arrowhead CA

[jr02518]

Funny thing about cars you make a comment about, 25 'ish years ago, they might follow you home. Some day. This is one of those stories. As long as I have know about this car it has lived in a garage and only driven on days that could be called, dry. The owner had purchased the car in 1977 and spent time in Santa Barbara while she went to school. Currently showing 133,500 miles, "Teddy" was not going to Montana with her owner on the escape from California. Up to two years ago the car did see some milage, pushing it out of the garage and on to a trailer begins the next chapter for this car.

Getting the car running was the first job. That completed, I have started in on the oil leaks. But to back up, it runs like a 1970 smog motor that needs to be cleaned and tuned to an earlier spec. So, I will be resurrecting the car as a driver. The frozen smog pump is in a box, along with the rest of the smog equipment. I have removed the air injectors at the head and installed the kit from Dean's parts. Yes, I know the distributor cam from an earlier car is going to be needed to make the timing/advance work, it's always something.

That starts with fixing the oil leaks.

David

[S Allen]

Welcome David. Sounds like you have a good plan. Congratulations on scoring your long watched project.

Steve

[DAC21]

Living at 5200 feet altitude with probable trips to Big Bear lake 6700 feet altitude reach out to the SU Carb Savants for tuning. Welcome aboard!

[jrgs3365]

Welcome David from another So Cal owner! May your roadster bring you many happy years to come!

[jr02518]

Thank you to all for the welcome. I was lucky to be given the opportunity to be a caretaker of this car. The car will be driven more "down" the hill, in the beginning. I learned that a "tune" up the hill will not work, on the coast.

But that was on a '64 Lotus Elan, with webber side drafts. Back when I had almost no clue what I was doing.

[FergO2k]

Welcome David.
While there is a cost, springing for the electronic ignition dizzy upgrade (from notoptoy) is well worth it, one of the best reliability things you can do when removing smog equipment.
Webers have the jets/mixtures set, and are challenged with dramatic elevation changes. Since your SU's are air-regulating, they do quite well with elevation changes. One of our recent backroads runs was Glendale-Angeles Crest-Big-Bear-Hesperia-Desert Hot Springs, then back the next day, and my SU's loved it.

[jr02518]

Learning to add pictures, is there a tutorial I can look at?

[fj20spl311]

Add pictures:

Select Full Editor

datsun roadster screen shot 1.jpg

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datsun roadster screen shot.jpg

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[jr02518]

Here goes. Now I need to create the right photo size.

[Gregs672000]

Nice! Are those slotted mags with spinners? They look great and period correct.

[jr02518]

So, let us add some background to the photos.

The first picture is the differential after it was done/refreshed. Removed from the car it was cleaned, dissembled, cleaned again and rebuilt with the normal parts needed on a used, but not used up rear end.

Second picture, the oil and grease caked mess as found.

The the typical as found shots of a garage queen, owned from 1977 to 2020 by one wonderful person. Yes, spinners on the rims. Now removed and stored away, they are from a period that has passed.

[FergO2k]

So a few things that we all remind/suggest to new owners/caretakers right off the bat. (might be in the TechWiki already)
1. back-up hood and trunk releases. Go get an inexpensive picture hanging kit from any DIY or Dollar Store. The thin wire rope works perfect to drop a secondary trunk release thru the hole in the trunk floor, make a loop, as the stock key/lock arrangement likes to slip/rotate causing a real hassle. The front latch cable drops down and thru firewall, so ends up down inside footwell near front of tunnel.
2. Grounds. these were not real well grounded in stock form, and the engine mounts are very rubber isolated, so check to see that someone has added them. From memory: alt to frame, starter to frame, block to frame. (I know there are 3 on the list...)
3. Make sure battery red cable is not sitting directly on bellhousing, as it can get hot and start melting the insulation, old heater hose sliced and put over or some other insulator works fine.

[C.Costine]

My #1 recommendation is if you haven't gotten to them yet to service the brake and clutch hydraulics. Bleed them and get the water out. TODAY! There is not a moment to lose! You may be able to save the $$$$ wheel cylinders. I changed over to silicone brake fluid because it doesn't hurt your paint and it doesn't absorb water. You will need to bleed and bleed and bleed in order to flush all of the old fluid out. If you don't get the fluid changed at least get the water out TODAY!

With the hood up locate the crossways seam in the underside and get some WD-40 in between the upper and lower layers to stop the rust. The back side of sheet metal there was not painted.

Remove the two cap screws at the bottom of each front fender and pull the fender slightly away and clean out in between the fender and the rocker panel end cap with compressed air. There will probably be built up rust/mud in there. Hopefully it will be dry mud, but it could be wet because as rust grows it sucks moisture out of the air.

Drill a 3/8 hole in the bottom surface of the rocker panel just ahead of the rear wheel well. 3/8 should be adequate to assess if you need to make it 7/8 and put a plug in when you are done.

Yes, I know that it never got wet, but I had a new drivers side floor pan put in mine in 2001 soon after I got it, while the passenger side was still good. After pulling it out of storage fifteen years later, when I removed the carpet from the passenger side there was moisture and major rust under it, requiring another new floor pan. Once rust gets going it pulls moisture out of the air.

[jr02518]

Thank you for the input, some of these were on my list and the rest are being added.