SRL00170

[69roadster]

Presenting SRL00170. My 25 year search for a 67 SRL2000 came to be one late night night in May of 2019.
A little back story, I have been looking for a 67-2000 for 20 years. Found quite a few over the years, but they fell into two categories, complete basket case - missing a lot of parts, needing complete restoration or rebody, or nice restored cars that I could not afford. What I was looking for was a car that was as complete as possible. One that I could do a rolling refresh or a rolling restoration on. The fall of 2013, I gave up and instead decided to find a 67.5 SPL and build a clone. September of 2013, I found a nice 67.5 SPL in Oregon. I bought it and had it shipped. Over the fall and winter of 2013, I had the car stripped, media blasted, repainted, installed new interior, new wheels and tires, replaced all the weather stripping and seals, rebuilt a U20 with solex l, and installed a 5 five speed transmission. By spring of 2014, the car was road ready. Even though I had built my clone, I still kept an eye out for a 67-2000. One night( Midnight) in May of 2019, I was watching television and decided to do a search once again for a 67-2000. Typed “Datsun Roadster” in Google search and got a listing for a "1967 Datsun Roadster". The listing only had three (very bad) pictures of the front, top of the driver fender, and the back half of the driver rear quarter. I could not tell if it was an SPL or SRL. The only clue I could see was an SRL grill. I quickly signed up for the site it was listed on (Let go) and sent the seller a message to call me anytime. At 1:45am, I got a call. It was the seller telling me he had just listed the car a litter over an hour earlier. After our conversation, there were more questions than answers, as the seller wasn't into Datsun's and did not know much about the car. He said it was his mother’s car throughout high school, which was given to her by her dad. The seller went on to say after high School she got another car and her dad took the roadster. I asked for more pictures of the car to help me identify the specific model. The seller told me the car was stored at his parents' house which was an hour drive from where he was, but would get me more pictures the following day. I asked the sell to not sell the car to anyone else unit he could get me all the pictures I need. Offered him a $500 nonrefundable deposit on the car, and I would send him a payment via PayPal that night. The seller said that wasn't necessary, he would give me first dibs on the car regardless. The next night the seller called me. This was around midnight to inform me he was at his parents' house and wanted to go over my picture request. As you can tell midnight isn't the best time to get pictures of a car you are trying to sell. The first he sent was of the dash, I could clearly see it was a 67.5 but wasn't sure if the car was a SRL because it had an SPL speedometer and a SRL Tack. This raised even more questions . I told him where he could find the Vin tag and the Vin on the frame. He sent a picture of the Vin tag and this was my first real sign that this could be the the real deal . The VIn SRL00170 ENGINE U20411 I about fell off the couch. Then came the picture of the frame SRL00170. My excitement was short lived and the next picture showed a 4 cylinder Ford engine. I asked him to give me a few days to process all the information on the car and I would get back to him.
So now I had found a SRL but but missing some very important parts. Engine, transmission, speedometer, side trim, license plate trim and seats. Also seats from the Ford Mustang the engine can out of as the automatic transmission from the Mustang. I had a major decision to make, I decided to try looking for the engine. I knew it was a long shot. The seller told me his Grandfather sold the engine and transmission a long time ago when the car was still in California.
I logged into 311s.org with only the Vin# of the car to go on I did a search and got a hit on my first try. A post popped up that was discussing which engine came in the 67-2000. Stan Chernoff responded to to post and said that car 170 came with engine 415. I was floored how could have known this. I sent Stan a PM inquiring about the engine. I was shocked when Stan responded to me a couple of days later and told he had bought the engine some 20 years ago and still had it. Stan and I worked out a deal where he agreed to sell me the bare block. Turns out the engine he had was 411 and not 415, . 411 is the original engine to the car. I knew that this had to be the car for me. I called the seller to finalize the deal. Then another road block came. He didn't have the title and the car was in his grandfather's name. His grandfather has been having some memory issues and lived in Californian and the car was in Colorado. We agreed on a priced the seller told me the car was mine if I was willing to wait for him to get the title. This all transpired in may 2019. Stan told me when I was ready for the block to contact him. Summer Fall and the winter all went by the seller and I kept in touch every couple of months just to ensure the deal was still on. One day in May 2020 I was driving my roadster and got a text from the seller saying he had gotten the title from his grandfather if it was still interesting. I Pulled over and called him and got the ball rolling. Called Stan got the engine shipped. I have been working on the car since April, pulled the body, cleaned and painted the frame, replaced the shocks, sent all the hydraulics out and had the rebuild , new brake pads shoes, new brake lines. I have to give a big thanks to Steve Allen, he sold me a donor block and drove four hours and met me half way to save me on shipping . Steve has also been very helpful over the months answering my questions and have been advising me along the way. Also Like to thank James Tyler for his help as well. I'm at the point now the engine and transmission are ready to bolt up on the frame and then place the body back on the frame. Sorry for the long post. Pictures from ad more to come
Carl

[Gregs672000]

Cool Carl, way to stay in the hunt! Look forward to seeing its progress.

[bajaroadster]

In regards to the second picture, dont most cars have the exhaust coming out the back? Just kidding of course. Congrats Carl. An amazing story. Really glad it all "came together", so to speak. Looking forward to following your progress. Any chance your "clone" will be up for sale eventually? If you have the roadster bug as bad as most of us, Im guessing having two roadsters is not gonna be a problem.

[notoptoy]

Amazing luck on locating an original, to the car, engine block after the fact!

[69roadster]

Thanks Greg,
My original plan was to sell the SPL and build the SRL, I just can't bring myself to selling it. Over the spring and summer I have pulled the body clean and painted the frame, installed the brakes,suspension and rebuild the engine. If all goes well I hope to reunited the engine with the car and place the body back on the frame. I have to figure out how to resize the pictures and I will post them.

[69roadster]

Delivery day

After a wash

[69roadster]

I have purchased a restored speedometer from Stan

[69roadster]

Bought a restored speedometer from Stan

[69roadster]

Frame

[spriso]

Amazing story to get the original engine reunited to the original car-- kudos to Stan for making that connection!

Look forward to seeing more progress. BTW, it looks like your steering center shaft is bent-- I would look at replacing that (it should be straight).

Michael

[69roadster]

Well today the car went to get media blasted and off to the body shop. Going to use this time clean parts and send them off to get plated. Going back to the original color, 531 beige gray

[69roadster]

My painter is having difficulty finding the Formula for 531 Beige gray. Anyone know the Formula or where I can find it

[bakerjf]

07AB0008-9405-4647-9061-E91184673BDD.jpeg

Give your painter the PPG code.

[69roadster]

Thanks

[iloveredmeat]

My painter is having difficulty finding the Formula for 531 Beige gray. Anyone know the Formula or where I can find it

I'm looking for the exact same thing... and found this site.

It's pretty cool because it has PPG as well as Sherwin Williams (that's the closest store to me), and lots of search options.

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedi ... un&rows=50

I'm pretty far away from painting mine, so I can't wait to see yours!

Good luck, great color,
Peter