I am George Wagner. At the time of this writing, 11/6/02, I am 47 years old, and
I live in Flanders, NJ. I am
married 13 years to a beautiful woman, Dorothy. We have three wonderful
children, George, Jenny, & Chris. I am
literally living happily ever after.
I have been a New Jersey resident for most of my life. It is something that I
want to change one day in the
future. I am a software development engineer, currently working in the
telecommunications field. I have worked in
both the commercial and defense industries since I had graduated from college.
I bought my 1968 Datsun 2000 Roadster in 1982 from Russ, a friend I met in
college. We were both car crazies and
interested in racing. To us, racing was/is a participation sport, not for
watching. But that is another topic to
be discussed at another time. He and his wife both had Roadsters. As fate would
have it, one of theirs was in an
accident, totaling the car. Russ salvaged the engine and transmission from the
wreck and put it aside for the
remaining Roadster. This remaining one needed a bit of TLC to become road
worthy. Time constraints, with a job, a
home, a life, etc. Russ kept putting the restoration project off. One day, he
said, "George, I have a sports car
you might like, but it needs a proper restoration". The only condition was
"Don't stuff a small block Chevy in
it. Keep it original when fixing it up". He did say no to a couple of potential
buyers who wanted to do just
that. It was a simple non-binding request, easy to keep. I bought the car and
parts.
I fixed some of the problems that kept it from running and got it road worthy. I
drove it for a bit during the
summer and I was hooked. This was going to be a keeper. It was a unique car, not
too many around Northern New
Jersey, as I could tell. I had never seen one until I saw Russ'. I have seen
very few since I have owned it. As
I worked on the car, little by little, I put the car back to stock by replacing
the well-worn interior parts,
trim parts, etc.
After a few years, in 1985, I did a proper restoration. I had already rebuilt
the spare engine and transmission
while the Datsun was on the road. My plan was to swap drivelines and keep the
original set for the future. The
spare motor got warmed over a little, .020 overbore, rods, crank & pistons
lightened/balanced, SSS cam, dual
Weber carbs, headers and matching exhaust system.
It didn't need a frame off restoration, but there was enough sheet metal work to
warrant repair. I took the
exterior trim, bumpers, brackets, etc apart and started to do the bodywork. As I
got into it, I decided that a
pro should do the work and sent it out to a shop. A great decision as it turns
out. Instead of a bondo repair job
that I was going to give it, I got welding and leading repair job.
I put this car into storage, courtesy of Dad & Mom's extra garage, God rest
their souls, from 1986 until 1997. I
now drive it strictly in the summer, as the car is registered in NJ as a
historic vehicle, I have "QQ" plates for
it. The registration is a one-time fee, no vehicle inspection, and the annual
insurance costs are way down. This
arrangement makes it affordable to keep the car, but limits me from using it as
a daily driver. This "historic"
convertible is just great for blasting around on nice summer days. Hey!!, You
Roadster owners in warmer
climates, where it is convertible weather the better part of the year, don't
ever treat it as trivial. You have
it made. :-)
I wanted to keep this short, trying to avoid boring the reader. If you got this
far, thank you for reading this.
At the time of this writing my Datsun Roadster Web site is:
http://home.att.net/~wagner.gm/d2000.htm
Go here if you want to see what the car looks like. I am trying to document the
repairs I have made and the way I
did them. It might be of some interest to someone.
Thank you for the bandwidth, and the time you took to read it. Happy
Roadstering! :-)
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