Tomakze

Sweet ride, fellow Geek Squad Autotech! Lol. I will be following your build closely!

Holy cow I have not updated this in a while! Photo dump time! I haven't updated because I have been diligently working away. Tons of my time has gone into research, ordering parts, planning how I am going to do things, etc. I've also had to spend a lot of time and money upgrading the garage to be able to support a project like this. We added two more 20amp breakers to the breaker box so multiple high power tools/heaters/welders could go at once. Then I upgraded the insulation after temperatures here dropped well below zero and prevented me from working. Once the garage was in order, the work resumed. Here's a break down of what we've accomplished (I have had many friends pitch in!) 1) finished removing the floor insulation and cleaned the surface. 2) started the long process of removing surface rust, and filling rust holes in the foorboards. 3) stripped the inner fenders, and coated one of them with the first layer of POR15. More rust repair before I can finish. 4) Hours upon hours of cleaning engine components, and it isn't done. I've been systematically removing parts, and using a Dremel with a brass wire wheel to remove dirt and corrosion. The main engine body is done, the carbs are next. 5) did a quick polish of the valve cover. 6) Disassembled the center console and completely restored it, other than the armrest. Pics to come. 7) started mounting seat rails to Miata seats, and modified one of them for the antisubmarine belt. 8 ) Submitted the paperwork to the state for a rebuilder's title. Still waiting to hear back though. 9) Removed the dash, and all parts in the way of the windshield frame. 10) cut out the windshield frame from the parts car so it is ready to be swapped into the keeper. (By a local shop. Decided that was over my head.) 11) Ordered a ton of stuff from Datsunparts.com (and sawed off my arm to pay for it.) 12) pre-lubed and flushed the engine with cheap oil by running the oil pump with a drill 13) There's more, but I can't think of it. Here are some nice photos: The very sad '68 donor, fenderless, and without a windshield frame: The first coat of POR15. Much, much more to come: The center console before: The center console after: And a nice shot of the engine and car: And a long video update, if you care to see it: It is a bit out of date already, mind you.

The entire engine is new! Everything is new, it hasn't even had oil poured in it yet! And it has the "B" cam, from the Solex car, so it should make a bit more power than stock. The mouse got in through the fuel pump hole. It was there, but loose, with about a half-inch gap between it and the block. Clever little bastard made a home out of my oil pan! Crazy, right?

Also, if you want to hear me blab about the car some more, I made a video as well:

I have been a busy bee! I have been working on this thing almost every night. I've also been selling anything and everything I can to raise funds to build it. So far, so good! I've also had some adventures already... for instance, I pulled the oil pan off the engine, and found this: So that was a fun discovery! I cleaned most of it all out, but I will spend more time on it yet, as I don't want this to cause problems. I guess I can actually say my car is mouse powered! Perhaps I'll name the car "mousetrap" or something similar. lol! A buddy and I have also begun prepping the body for POR15. We plan to coat the inner fenders, interior, and perhaps the engine bay. Here is what we've done so far: And I've started stripping the insulation off the floorboards. The heat gun and scrapper made a sticky mess, but a flathead screwdriver and a deadblow hammer makes quick work of it! It explodes into chunks, which is oddly satisfying, lol! In this process, I've teased out a few rust spots I couldn't see before, but it is all really minor. Nothing I'm going to spend much time worrying about. We will clean it up, patch the tiny holes, use rust converter on what we can't reach, and then seal it with POR15. I like being on top of this stuff... ignoring rust is a pretty bad policy! Then I've decided to buy brand new seat rails for the Miata seats I have. The Datsun rails were sticky, so I took one apart and cleaned it all up and re-greased it... but now I can't figure out how to reassemble it!!! :blush: So, brand new seat rails it is. Probably a better plan anyway. Corbeau sells double latching seat rails with great reviews for $50 each. I'm sure I can modify them to work, and have a nice, high quality rail to go with the newly recovered seats.

Last night, a buddy of mine and I yanked the engine, pushed the shell outside and power washed it. It cleaned up nicely. The tranny looks like someone pulled it apart and resealed it. The whole thing is spotless, and looks brand new! Not even a speck of clutch residue inside. The clutch and pressure plate are both brand new, and the flywheel was surfaced. Pretty exciting! Oh, and yes, that is a 4 into 1 header you see!!!

Yikes! Sounds like it is a real bitch to get a title in Washington. In Colorado, you get a VIN inspection, you do a records search (To see if there is a lein), fill out some paperwork, wait for approval, and voila. I bought my other roadster with no title, and aquired one easily. The 300zx I bought was the same way, and now it is titled as well. This will be my third one.

Stop scaring me, man! lol! Hopefully it will be fine. The car has been sitting for at least 4 years, probably more. I found a reciept in the car from 1992, so... :D We will find out soon enough. If the lein is small enough, I would take care of it. It would be pretty amazing to actually loose money on this gig. Worst case scenario, my rust rocket just gets a major upgrade. lol! I'm pulling the motor before the inspection, just in case. ;)

That's terrifying! I have an appointment to get a VIN inspection in a couple weeks, and then I can get a rebuilders title. The DMV assured me if I do that, there is nothing the PO can do.

I haven't seen those threads, but it does keep me up at night. I've done this before, without trouble. In Colorado, if a car has been abandoned for 90 days or more, it becomes the property of the land owner. Technically, the original owner can't legally take it from me, but it would cause legal trouble. I'd have to prove it is mine and fight for it, which I do not want. Hence, I'm starting the process next week!

I'm cleaning it out, and going to try to get a VIN inspection next week. That's step one in getting a "Rebuilder's Title" in Colorado. Then it's legally mine. It just needs to be a rolling chassis, which is exactly what it is.

WOW. Every time i look at this forum I realize how little I know. Props, man.

Here is the new build thread: Enjoy!!! http://community.ratsun.net/topic/64371-the-ultimate-score-the-500-srl311-pair/

So, I took the rusty car to my parent's house to be stored, and the primered car replaced the tan car in my garage, ready to be cataloged and have work begin. You can see the ONLY damage on the car in this pic. The windshield frame is mangled pretty badly. It is twisted, and crumpled at the bottom edges. I think I may steal the frame out of the rusty red car, as it is in great shape. I just have to figure out where to cut it out so i can get the alignment just right. If anyone has any suggestions or wants to help, I'd be SUPER appreciative! Luckily the red car also has a really nice piece of glass that will be going into this monster. I haven't gotten much done yet, but I have had crazy fun finding more nuggets in my treasure trove! Here are a few: As I said, BRAND NEW BUMPERS!!! Electronic distributor? It's dirty, but it also looks new. Let me know if I'm right. KYB GR-2 shocks... new, of course. And the motherload... You know how I said the engine was a bit too clean? Well, it is clean for a reason. It's recently rebuilt! The car's odo reads 41k. I believe that. The blue paint under then hood is the original paint, and it is spotless. Hardly a scratch. No way it would still look that good after 141k miles. I think I've found a real treasure!!! I don't even think I deserve it.

I am a lucky guy. As a kid, I fell in love with roadsters, and vowed I would own one some day. Several years ago, I made that come true and bought a rusty POS '68 1600, and started working on it. It has it's own build thread, and quite a story, as many of you know. Well, next year I'm getting married, and that rusty Datsun played a large role in my fiance and I getting together. So, she suggested we should make it the "getaway car" for our wedding, and drive away in it! I knew it was a HUGE undertaking (As it needed mountains of work), but I decided to try. Since the running car was a total rust bucket, I had acquired a clean, but empty shell. Vin SRL311-14375. Unfortunately, just as I was getting underway to do a body swap, I discovered it would be tricky to get that car titled since it was missing the vin plate in the engine bay. Not impossible, but tricky. I also found some light body damage to the front end, and started feeling overwhelmed. It needed more than I had thought, and time was short. At that same moment I was figuring this out, the facebook page for the local club popped up on my phone with a notification. It had been inactive for a year until then. It said: I was beside myself! There it was, the solution staring me in the face. The price was unbelievable, and at least one of those cars had to be titled, or easier to title at least. I called the guy immediately, and set up a time to meet him that same day. It was only 40min from my house. When I got there, I couldn't believe it. The cars were 100x better than I'd imagined in my wildest dreams! The red one was rusty as hell, and battered, but complete. The primered one though... was pure treasure. No rust could be found. Even the body mounts seemed solid as can be. When I walked around with a magnet, it stuck to every part of the car. it had tons of junk in it, sure, but also parts galore. The guy didn't care about making money, he just wanted the cars off his property ASAP. His son had a friend that originally owned the cars, and had asked to keep them there a while. Then, the friend completely disappeared. This guy had been trying to reach him for years, with no luck. The cars had sat for 4-5 years and the guy had vanished. Now he wanted to sell the house, and the cars needed to go. Earlier I had called the state patrol, and asked if I could legally buy the cars. they said if a car was abandoned on private property for more than 90 days, it became the property of the land owner. All I would need to do is get a bond title, which is exactly what I had done when I bought my other project, an '85 300zx. So, the owner and I rumaged around in the junk being stored in the primered car, and found brand new front and rear bumpers, still wrapped up, a brand new but filthy convertible top, an old tonneau cover, the original hubcaps, a bunch of rubber seals, an old top and frame, all the lights, brand new doorhandles, and more. Leaning against the house was a really nice hardtop, and all the fenders, hood, and trunk lid primed and dent free, along with some boxes filled with more parts. And when we pulled the cover back further, I saw that the ad had been wrong. BOTH cars had U20's under the hood! The one in the primered car looked amazingly clean... too clean... After seeing what I'd seen, I knew I was buying the car. Several pieces in that lot were worth more than $500 by themselves! I gave the guy $100 to hold them, and took one of the unubtainium 2000 grills that I'd been pining after for years, and left. The very next day, I borrowed my parent's help, and we loaded the cars up and took them home. I'll pick up the story in the next post.