SPL311 returning to the family!

[Gradyfest]

Anything new happening with this guy? It's been a couple years I see...

[DatWifey]

No, we moved again after getting it, the husband is in grad school, got two puppies in a year, etc. things have just been busy. But, it is tucked away in our garage and patiently awaiting us to get to this project, as we kind of have a few projects in the wings right now :)

[DatWifey]

Well, here is an 11 year overdue update on this old gal.  

 

We started moving some of our Datsun's to the in-law's place in 2021 in anticipation of Brodster being done with his PhD soon, and selling our house.   As things tend to go with an engineer, his timeline was a bit skewed and here we are, still in the same house, and he's still not quite finished.... but that's just fluff. 

 

With the start of moving things, it prompted Brodster to want to have each of the Datsuns running in order to drive them on and off of the trailers, so that was one major plus!  First was the 510, which already ran, just need a little work of putting a seat back in, and getting something rigged up to fire up the fuel pump and the ignition.  Next up was the 66 520 that we have.  We knew that we had a J13 runner, so again, it was just making some hasty work of it and getting just enough wired up, and the brakes in somewhat working order to putt it around, and also load and unload it on the trailer.  

 

Then came the one best one.... getting the carbs put back together for the Roadster.  We had to carefully drag it out of the garage with a tow strap hooded to one of our Subarus because the brakes where so seized.  Brody sourced as many new components that were reasonably priced (which is very little) for the brakes, and then started a rebuild with the new stuff, and refurbished what we couldn't get new.  He then started the full reassembly of the dual side draft SUs that the mechanic had fully disassembled and left in a bucket for the neighbors who had it in the timeframe between my dad and us.  But, of course, before firing anything up, the gas tank needed to be at least slightly addressed.  The last time that we knew this car drove under its own power was sometime in 2006.  We drained the gas tank and has a horrendous smelling liquid in a bucket for a couple of months waiting for it to evaporate.  The pickup in the gas tank was clogged, so that was a bit of fun to try to get the tube cleared while the tank was still installed.  Needless to say, I could likely go on for quite some time about everything that needed work and a once-over before we even fired this girl up, but we finally did in August of 2021.  Much to our shock, it fired right up, and the motor ran super smoothly.  I of course pretty much ran straight to the DMV and registered it for Collector Vehicle plates so that we could legally drive it around town.  We drove it with 20+ year old tires for a bit before we were able to get some new ones shipped and mounted (thanks Jeff!)  

By November of 2021, we trailered the Roadster down to Brody's parents' place, as we were still planning to try to move as soon as he was done with school.  A while went by, we were still here in WA, he was still in school, and I got a job working with Jeff (Icehouse), and CarterB.  Pretty much the entire time, Jeff has been bugging me that it "would be so cool to drive around in your Roadster, huh Jenn?"  This type of peer pressure has been going on for a year and a half at this point, and I honestly couldn't agree more with him.  Being as I still don't see a completely clear end in sight with Brody's schooling, I broached the subject of having a transportation company bring it back up here because I want to drive it.  Brody was down, and wanted to make a trip down for a week to visit his family and help his dad out with some things, so he booked a flight, and I was trying to iron out details on a transport service to pick it up after he did a couple things on it while down there.  Come time for his flight down and he missed it.  There wasn’t another flight into Redding for another two days, which wouldn’t have really worked with the timeline he had, so we made an impromptu drive down.  While driving down there, Brody mentioned a couple times the possibility of trying to drive the Roadster back up instead of paying a transport service.  I figured if he was down to spend the time to try to make sure we were semi-prepared, we might as well go for it.

 

So, we spent some time helping his dad out with some things he needed to get done, and spent the rest of the time working on the Roadster.  Swapped fuel filters, changed the oil and filter, changed the transmission fluid, and rear differential, and also finally dropped the gas tank to fully clean it this time.  We got our trip under way at 3pm, and drove to Grant’s Pass for the night.  I didn’t like the idea of leaving it in a hotel parking lot overnight, but didn’t have much of a choice.  It may have been a bit paranoid of me, but I didn’t want to take any chances, so we parked it a bit strategically with our other car to ensure that it would have been one hell of a task for someone to actually be able to steal it.  It also had a Club on it, and the distributor rotor removed, but hey, one can never be too careful, right?

 

Overall, it took us about 16 hours with pitstops along the way to make it from Red Bluff, CA to Everett, WA with the old R16 and 4-speed transmission.  Not too shabby.  Other than the temp gauge pegging twice in Central Oregon, there were absolutely zero issues.  This car has absolutely amazed me, being as it sat for almost 20 years without running. 

 

So, it’s back, and I have been daily driving it, and working on it in the evenings and weekends a bit.  Jeff hooked me up with a carpet kit that he’s had for quite some time, Carter helped me get a fuel float un-stuck, and it’s all just been uphill since it’s been here.  My parents had purchased a new soft top for it, so Brody and I tackled that last weekend.  That was one hell of a job, but it’s been nice not freezing my ass off on the way to work in the mornings. 

 

So yeah, it’s running, driving and getting some of the love that it deserves….. finally!

 

And finally, here are the obligatory pics.

 

Dragged it out of the garage to start figuring out what to work on first to get it mobile under its own power

 

Lining them up in the driveway

 

The family taking it out for a maiden voyage after getting it running in August of 2021

 

Randomly ran into, and met SVO521 while we were down in Red Bluff on the trip to pick it up

 

The Pug, Liam, being an awesome shop helper while we worked to get it ready for the trek up I-5

 

The speedometer isn't accurate, so this was Brody's idea to have an estimagte of the speed on the way home

 

Obligatory pic with Mt. Shasta in the background

 

 

In Grant's Pass for the night on the way back home

 

Finally, at work, with Jeff's Sunny

 

Did some floor work, and then installed the new carpet kit from Jeff

 

Also, rebuilt the seats a bit since both were completely blown out.  I can FINALLY see over the dash while driving without sitting on a pillow!!

 

Found a dead mouse behind the radio while replacing the carpet and radio

 

And, finally got the soft top on

Edited July 30, 2023 by DatWifey

[]2eDeYe]

Great to see you posting and the roadster on the road 😄

[KELMO]

14 hours ago, DatWifey said:

Well, here is an 11 year overdue update on this old gal. 

Well, you should get a hall pass for the massive content and a boatload of pics.

Good job.