As a way of introducing myself (and my roadsters), I recently bought my
second '68 1600 (SPL311-21845 a.k.a. "Astro"). I got my first '68 1600
(SPL311-21053) "Elroy" in 1988, which I kept running with the advice of
friends at work, some parts I was able to obtain from the local Nissan
dealer, and other parts I fabricated. Needless to say, I often wondered
when something would fail that I could not repair or replace. With the
recent purchase of Astro, I expect to enjoy my Roadsters for some time.
By way of personal history, I am 44, live in Birmingham, Alabama and have
been married since 1984. I have one twelve-year old son, who has
enthusiastically helped me replace some of Astro's parts and swap a few trim
pieces between the two roadsters to optimize Astro's appearance. Ever since
finishing college in 1978, I have been an Environmental Engineer at Southern
Research Institute, working to improve pollutant control at coal-fired
utility boilers and remove technical obstacles hindering more advanced
electricity generation technologies (e.g. gasification) and more benign fuel
sources (biomass).
Just prior to posting this message, I registered my two roadsters on the
311s.org website and signed on to SEROC, but I can't commit to getting Astro
more than forty or fifty miles away from home until I get a few more items
taken care of.
By reading the posts on this list over the last few months, I learned a lot
about these unique and fun cars, and their knowledgeable and helpful owners.
This kind of information on Datsun roadsters is hard to come by in
Birmingham, Alabama, as I have only ever seen three other roadsters in
motion over the past 14 years : ( I am about to do my first head gasket
replacement (Astro was spitting some water onto the exhaust manifold), so I
may have some questions for the collective in the near future.
As a final note, maybe recounting the strangest thing to ever happen to me
in my roadster will entertain as well as warn those who might be putting off
some of those minor cosmetic repairs. While bringing home Chinese take-out
for lunch with my wife one beautiful sunny day, I was shocked when Elroy's
rear wheels locked up, bouncing the car over to the side of the road, and
taking it from 30 to 0 mph in about one second. The take-out went flying,
and my mind went spinning. Also, my jacket (the kind with the string ties
around the collar) that had been lying on the passenger seat, went missing.
While gathering my wits, I searched for the jacket, thinking it must have
blown out of the car. By the time I gave up hunting for the jacket, I had
calmed down enough to check out the cause of Elroy's sudden stop. Both
these mysteries resolved themselves together.
There was this little matter (that I had been meaning to repair) of the
shift boot having rotted through, leaving me a source of warm air for my
hands on cold mornings, as well as a nice view of the road beneath the car.
You guessed it. The string on the jacket had fallen through a rip in the
shift boot and become wrapped around the U joint. In about 1/10 second, the
rest of the jacket had been pulled down and wrapped incredibly tightly
around the drive train, absolutely preventing me from making any further
progress toward my lunch date.
The good news is that after slicing the jacket off the joint, the car was
ready to go. (For those of you who like to make repairs from inexpensive
thrift store items - there are a variety of black purses out there that,
when properly cut and mounted, make very nice shift boots.)
Todd Snyder
'68 1600 (Elroy)
'68 1600 (Astro)
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