I know it has been a super long time since I've made a real post here. So I figured I would document my restoration of my latest project, a 1966 Datsun Roadster. I had been looking for a Datsun Roadster for a long time when I came across a guy who had about 10 of them for sale. After driving into the mountians, and discovering that almost all of them were just huge piles of crap, I settled on 2 of them. One rebuilder and one parts car. The rebuilder had an electrical fire, and needed a new wiring harness. I set out to find a '66 or '67.5 the only years that had the flat dash. After '67.5 due to US safety regulations, Datsun changed the dash to a padded style much like those found in the Z's.


So before we start here is some of the cars that inspired this project:








Dash Differences:





Ok, moving onto the restoration! So I don't have a lot of pictures before I started disassembling the car. When I purchased it the previous owner claimed it to be a "Rust Free California Car" I threw it on the lift, and it appeared that he was correct. I also removed the rear fenders from the parts car and replaced the fenders on the good car with them as the original fenders had been butchered by someone trying to roll them. The parts car had a good wiring harness, which I pulled and installed in the good car and got it running fairly easily.

This is the earliest picture I have of the "good" car in my ownership (no pics of the parts car yet):


I had already removed the winshield, dash, headlights, etc

Rear Fenders Replaced:



So, I proceeded to remove all of the exterior trim, and interior, I was somewhat dissapointed with what I found, but I guess it's to be expected:







Interior:





Not So Rust Free After-All:



Driver Floor:





Pass. Floor:



I'll be repairing these areas shortly. Here are the doors and hood after removal:





My box of exterior and interior trim, baggies with nuts and bolts from various places:




I'll post some more tomorrow.

 

suscribed

 

that IS rust free for a 66...especially one thats not been garaged kept since day 1

 

lemme guess, 2jz is going into it.

 

The 1st dash was so much nicer than the plastic crap of the later dash.

 

Yea, all in all it's really not to bad, I inspected the frame, and it is in excellent condition. The only bad part are the floor boards, which are easy to repair.

lol nope, I originally thought I would put an ITB'd n/a sr20 in it, but no stock engine will stay at least untill it's a driver and I can enjoy it.

Exactly.

 

 

very cool chris!

 

pokemon was my shit back in the day

 

holy sex, in for this build! Awesome score, can't wait to see it come along!