I just got back from a 2 week RV camping trip out west, traveling from
Michigan, through Wisconsin, Minnesota, out to Yellowstone, down to Vernal,
UT (Dinosaur NM), and back through Rocky Mountain NP, Nebraska, and Iowa
(around 3500 miles). No roadsters sighted, but it was great fun anyways and
mostly good weather and incredibly beautiful. I want to live in Wyoming
now...
Something very unusual that I saw was at the visitor center for Dinosaur
National Monument in Dinosaur, CO. It was an RV based off a Land Rover
Defender, very cool. 20' long, 4-wheel drive, air intake snorkel higher than
the tops of the doors, and two spare tires. The RV part looked quite nice as
well, probably sleeps 2 (maybe 4), water heater so probably mini-kitchen,
probably a toilet or mini-bathroom as well. This vehicle was driven by a
French couple and had French tags, they were looking to drive up Harpers
Corner Drive to Echo Canyon, very rough roads and remote, but very beautiful
in there. My guess is that they had their vehicle shipped over and are doing
an extensive off-road sightseeing tour of North America.
Speaking of SPAM, I recently got some, from the Spam museum in Minnesota! I
hadn't had it since I was a kid and my kids hadn't ever heard of it. Pork,
water, and spices, pretty tasty. At the museum they had a little display set
up with the Monty Python video running. The whole museum was very
tongue-in-cheek and quite good - if you ever travel I-90 through southern
Minnesota, I suggest stopping for an hour or so.
And in the Roadster news department, I was finally able to remove the last
bushing from the lower link spindle (front suspension). I don't know when
that thing was last greased 'cause it was a huge pain to get off. I just
about completely rounded the bushing (I did round four of the six corners on
it) removing it. After getting it off I could see that it had a nice rust
build-up on it. That spindle and bushing gets replaced! I now have the front
suspension completely removed on both sides. I'm going to start on the
rear-end tonight. I'd like to get that off soon so that I can stash the
frame in the recesses of my garage and park my daily driver in the garage
for winter.
I'll be replacing all the nuts and bolts on the suspension, so I'll make a
list as I go along (I plan on using the AN bolts from one of the suppliers
mentioned earlier) and put that on my web site
(http://www.brooks-planck.org/DatsunDiaries) when it's ready.
In reading Andrew's estimate of 500-700 hours to do a restoration, and at my
current rate of work (very slow) and probably doubling that since this is my
first one, I don't see this project being done for a LONG time. That's fine
by me since I want to have a very nice car that will not need this done for
another 30 years or longer if I keep it well maintained.
Mitch Planck
Chelsea, MI
'69 1600 parts donor
'70 1600 frame & body donor
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