(very long)
Yes, I slipped in the fall of 1967, and have been hooked
since. A Datsun roadster has been my "daily driver" for
the subsequent 35 years.
At times, things were becoming difficult for me until I
discovered this "support group".
My "downfall" was a sweet, pristine, white 1967 1/2 which I
saw in the showroom of Von Hamm Young Mercantile Co. in
Honolulu in October of '67. We needed a second car since my
employer would only ship one car for my three year
assignment to Oahu.
The "sticker price" was $2745 which included everything.
There was a long list of all of the items which were
included for that price (4 Spd, Radio, WSW, tonneau, etc.)
No heater, though, because that was an optional "extra" for
the Hawaii market. The only additions to that cost (which
was NOT "barterable"), were license and $4% GET. You did
not get any price advantage, however, by being "half the
distance to Japan" in terms of lower transportation costs;
you paid West Coast "P.O.E." transportation. This was still
an advantage since, for most other cars, you paid additional
transportation from the West Coast, too.
I thought it was a real bargain, the price was actually a
little bit less that what I had paid for my first new car, a
'58 MGA, on the mainland, almost exactly ten years earlier!
In *many* ways, I found the Datsun was an improvement over
the MG, particularly the roll up windows.
Upon completion of my assignment in early 1970, I arranged
to have the car shipped to the mainland (East Coast -
Maryland). It arrived via the Panama Canal and was
delivered to the Port of Baltimore. There it remained as my
"daily driver" for the next 13 years. I built a small
"barn" on my property as a place to do some "real work" on
it, when that would become necessary. It did, when, at
about 78,000 miles, I needed to pull the engine for my first
clutch replacement. Don't know if that's a nominal mileage
for a first clutch replacement, or not, but my wife believes
that us having lived near the top of Maunalani Heights
(behind Diamond Head), and it being her first manual
transmission, may have had some affect on the clutch life
;-).
In 1983, I was offered a second assignment to Hawaii. My
Datsun was then at an age of 16 years, with 125,000 miles
and suffering from "frame rot" from winter road salt. I
decided that it wouldn't be a good candidate for the car to
be shipped. It was still running well, and my intent was to
leave it at our Maryland home, and that I would drive it
when I would return on (about) a quarterly basis to
Maryland. (NOT a good plan, as will be seen later...)
Upon arrival on Oahu, and while still living at the Ala
Moana Hotel awaiting our furniture shipment, I lost no time
to begin scanning the newspapers for another roadster. I
found one, a '68 "which had been in storage for 3 years",
before being placed up for sale. Asking $2500. It was
fairly clean, the odometer "showed" some 50K miles, and the
seller accepted my $2300 offer for it. I drove it off;
three blocks from his place, the clutch slave cylinder
failed. It was the first time I had ever had to have a
roadster towed. I had other adventures with this one before
I got it running reliably. (Being stored for 3 years turned
out to be NOT a good deal, crud is gas tank...)
For roadster parts, until then, I had always depended upon
Datsun and (sometimes) the (hapless) J. C. Whitney.
Obtaining parts was starting to become more of a problem
from the Oahu Datsun dealership parts department. The
person I bought the car from, had told me about a place in
the State of Washington, from which I could order them! And
they had a catalog!! I ordered the catalog, and
subsequently, bought many parts from them. It wasn't until
another 10 years had passed, that I learned that they were
*not* "the only game in town" when someone told me of a good
source in Canada. (A few years later, I discovered the
internet...)
After three happy years on Oahu, in 1986, it was time to
return to Maryland. By this time I had the car in good
running condition and had it repainted. In view of the
problems I had encountered with road salt induced rust with
my other roadster, I had this one's undercarriage steam
cleaned and "rustproofed" before it was placed on a ship.
It was delivered to the West Coast, then by auto transporter
to Maryland. It arrived with some damage, this time. Not
as good an experience as the 67.5 had, by coming directly.
Returning to our Maryland home, I found that the three years
had taken a heavy toll on my 67.5. It had failed to start
on one of my return visits, and had been left to atrophy as
a consequence. It, sadly, was to become a "parts car". The
'68 was now my "daily driver". It performed well for
several years until I start noting a "bad sound" in 2nd
gear. I knew that I was going to have to do "something
about that", but I continued to drive it. I managed by
skipping 2nd gear, for about 6 months, until the clutch
release bearing failed, I "limped" home, pumping the clutch,
and parked it in my Datsun repair barn.
I had decided to retire from my employment and to move back
to the State of Hawaii, this time to the Big Island, to a
home we had purchased there. I spent the next several
months, removing the engine/trans. from both cars;
discovering the cause of the "68 transmission problem
(countergear shaft/bearing wear/failure); rebuilding
countershaft ass'y of the 67.5; then, reinstalling the
engine/67.5 transmission into the '68. I then put the 67.5
engine into the trunk., and had "transplanted" many other of
the 67.5's parts to the '68. A little "test drive" in the
back yard and all was set for the car's return to Hawaii. I
drove it into a "Forty foot" container as the final portion
of our household effects for the move.
The '68 has now been on the Big Island for 13 years with the
major events being the touring of the entire BIG island,
from Hawi to South Point, to (nearly) the top of Mauna Kea;
a relatively minor rear end collision; two repaintings,
another clutch replacement (a broken "ear" on the release
fork!!); an unsuccessful attempt to replace the engine with
the 67.5's (long story); and the most recent, a head
overhaul after a exhaust valve failure. A Datsun Roadster
is a GREAT retirement vehicle! (pun intended).
The internet "Datsun Roadster Mailing List" is truly a great
support group for my addiction!! :-)
I welcome contact by list members who may visit the island.
Telephone # is 329-6085.
Dave
'68 1600
Kailua-Kona
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