Bill Engelhardt: Roadster: Restoration
9/11/2003
Here's what she looked like the day I picked her up. I bought her from a guy in South San Francisco who had her since 1974.
The roadster was his first car. He had driven her quite a bit back then and wound up rebuilding the engine and various other systems. He also painted her black (she was originally gray.)
I had been looking for a project car on and off for a few years. I was focussing on GM muscle cars, and had driven a few, but the roadster was the first car that I drove that really made me grin. That, coupled with the fact that the cost of purchase was less than half that of the other cars that I looked at, made my decision to bring her home with me easy.
9/12/2003
The first order of business was to replace the water pump. The previous owner told me before the sale that the pump was bad. Luckily, a local Nissan dealer had one in stock.
The replacement wasn't too difficult. I did, however, have to pull the radiator in order to get access so I flushed it while it was out of the car. I also bought a new air filter and installed a new set of spark plugs while I was at it.
After I got her all back together, she ran pretty well. I drove her around a little to get acquainted but I was hesitant to go far because she had been sitting for about 15 years. I really needed to go through her mechanical systems to make sure that everything was OK.
9/16/2003
After a good bath and wax job, I snapped a few "before" photos. I promptly emailed them to my dad to rub it in a little.
9/25 - 10/3/2003
Given that the roadster had been sitting for 15 years, I thought that it would be a good idea to go through all of the systems to make sure that everything would work when I needed it.
I started with the rear brakes and wheel bearings.
The brakes and drums were in good condition. The adjusters, however, were frozen so I had to tear them down, clean them and grease them up. The wheel cylinder bores were a little bit pitted but a little bit of steel wool took care of that.
The wheel bearings and races looked OK so I repacked them, cleaned everything up and put it all back together.
The front brakes weren't quite as easy.
The front caliper cylinders were all frozen, rotors were scored, all 3 brake hoses were cracked, and the master cylider bore was pitted. On the up side, the wheel bearings and races were fine.
So I disassembled everything, got new caliper cylinders, master cylinder, brake hoses, and a set of used rotors. I cleaned everything, put it all back together, and bled the system.
Took her out for a test ride and the brakes were MUCH better than they were before. I thought that the brakes required so much effort just because there was no power assist. The pedal could be a little bit stiffer but baby stops pretty well. There's a bit of flex in the firewall where the master cylinder attaches so I'm hoping to install a brace at some point in the future.
10/10/2003
I scored a set of 4 used Enkei's at a junk yard for $100.
They weren't perfect but they were certainly better then the aluminum slots that came with the car. I wasn't a big fan of the look and the fronts and rears had different offsets.
The Enkei's came off of a '73 240Z so they fit like a glove. I think that they're 14x6s with roughly 4" backspacing.
10/19/2003
The wheels cleaned up pretty well and I got a set of Yokohama AVS ES100 195/60/14s mounted up.
They look good for used wheels and the roadster handles much better than it did on the wheels & tires that came with the car.
Unfortunately, I discovered that the ball joints and control arm bushings were shot when I attempted to have the front end aligned.
10/20 - 11/9/2003
So again I went back to work under the front of the car. I tore down the entire front suspension. Luckily the upper ball joints turned out to be OK. The lowers were expensive enough.
I replaced all 8 of the control arm busings. The boots for the ball joints were completely gone so I replaced them too. The bolts that hold the upper control arm spindle were loose when I started taking things apart so I replaced them with longer pieces and put lock nuts on them.
I figured I should wire-wheel everything and paint it all while I had it apart. It took some time but I think that the end result was well worth it.
I put it all back together, greased it all up, and back to the front end shop I went. They aligned her and I went for yet another test drive. The steering was tighter and the front suspension seemed to work more cleanly. The only problem left was that the steering wheel was now tilted slightly to the right.
6/22/2004
Had been enjoying, rather than working on, the roadster for a while when I heard about Stan Chernoff's brake master cylinder stiffener. The brakes were a bit mushy and I had noticed that the firewall flexed when applying pressure to the brake pedal, so I thought I'd give one a try.
I emailed Stan (az589@lafn.org,) sent him a check for $41, and he mailed me the bracket and necessary bolts.
The installation was pretty simple. The bracket bolts in from inside the car. It braces the bottom of the master cylinder to the firewall along side the steering column.
The brace made a pretty big difference. The pedal was quite a bit firmer so stopping was quite a bit better. Thanks Stan!
6/25/2004
Found out that there was a 240Z show in Danville this Saturday so I finally removed the luggage rack (which I had been meaning to do since I bought the car) just in case anybody decided to take a look at her while I was there.
I got some chrome caps to cover the holes in the trunk lid. They look pretty sweet.
She looks SO much better without the rack.
6/29/2004
Baby had been running pretty hot lately and really hot on the way out to Danville for the 240Z show. So, it was time to do something about it.
Per Mike Young's advice, I started with replacing the thermostat.
As you can see, the old one didn't look too good. Getting it out was a bit of a nightmare too. The aluminum spacer block was frozen on to the steel studs so I had to use a combination of driving a gasket scraper between the head & the spacer and applying heat to the spacer to enlarge the bolt holes to get it off the engine.
I eventually persevered and managed to replace the thermostat with a 160 deg. unit intended for a Chevy Biscayne. It was Prestone part 300-160.
Unfortunately, it didn't make as big a difference as I was hoping. Baby still ran hot under load. I guess I'll need to get the radiator re-cored after all.
On the up-side, I was able to get the right gaskets (with a little copper staple in them) so my temperature gauge started working without the extra ground I had added to it to make it work a while back.
7/26/2004
I hadn't adjusted the valves or re-torqued the head since I bought the car so I figured that there was no time like the present.
I was pretty surprised to see how clean things were inside. I kind of expected it to be all gunked up after 35 years and 118,000 miles.
As it turns out, there is a typo on in the Clymer manual so I wound up with the lash set incorrectly the first time. A quick note out to the 311s.org site set the record straight. After setting thing the right way, baby ran like a charm.
Valve lash settings:
.008 - intake
.012 - exhaust
Valve adjustment procedure on 311s.org site
7/29 - 7/30/2004
I couldn't take it anymore. The roadster was running really hot (at the edge of the red on the temp gage.) I pulled the radiator & got it recored.
This really made all the difference in the world. Now my baby runs cool as a cucumber.
8/28/2004
Now that I didn't have to worry about overheating, I was able to spend some time on more "optional" stuff.
The choke was sticking on the front carb and the car was just running rough in general so I pulled the carbs and disassembled them. I cleaned them up, fiddled with the choke linkage, and replaced the fuel hose that ran from the float bowl to the fuel nozzle. Some site on the web recommended using "Tygon" tubing for the fuel hose. I was able to buy some at a local small-engine repair place. It worked like a charm. After I got the carbs all back together and on the car, I tuned them up (a few times.) Now both chokes work and the car is running really well.
3/10/2005
It's getting warm again and I haven't touched the roadster in months.
I did some tinkering and cleaning getting her ready to go out in the sun. I pulled the visors out because the driver's side visor kept moving down in the wind and blocking my view. I also made my own air filter hose because I got tired of having an oil soaked air filter.
3/11 - 3/12/2005
Now I'm on a roll.
I pulled the dead air pump (shaved 11 lbs.), installed a new fuel filter, and replaced the rubber fuel hoses. The battery hadn't been secured since I bought the car and with the air pump gone, there was nothing to keep it from really flying around the engine compartment. The battery was dead from sitting over the "winter" so I bought a new one and got a hold down for it. The battery is a Die Hard - group 24F (group 24 is stock but the inboard position of the F keeps the terminals away from the edge of the hood.) The hold down is a universal unit that I bought at Kragen. It's not the greatest but it will do for now.
Tomorrow, I'm off to hang with other roadster dudes at the San Carlos Airport.