whoarewe

The Datsun Roadster Book™

Who Are We and Why
Should You Care?

You may be wondering who we are and why
we think we can write a book about Datsun
Roadsters. Please read on to get answers to
your questions.

In August 1973 I sold my 1957 Austin-Healey 100-6 (semi-restored) and purchased my first
Datsun Roadster, a 1600 F Production II race car set up for the Pennsylvania Hillclimb
Association. Almost simultaneously I took a job as a Datsun mechanic for a dealership
near Reading, Pennsylvania. Soon thereafter my girlfriend (soon to be my wife) and I
bought a 1968 2000 from a friend – it had a seized engine and he was anxious to move on
to other things. We were going to fix it up as a car for her.

I spent a full year working as a mechanic. Every roadster that came through the doors
was mine. I filled in the other time with 510’s, 610’s, 240Z’s, 1200’s, B210’s, trucks, and
the occasional Peugeot, Renault, and NSU Prinz – a rather eclectic group of import
vehicles. In the process I learned a little bit about “bending wrenches” on Datsuns of all
types, but especially the roadsters. Loved those 240Z test drives!!

The F Production car was campaigned a few times at the end of the season in 1973 and a
few more times in 1974 and 1976. We had moderate success in hill climbs, SCCA Solo
events, and autocrosses. We had the chance to drive Summit Point, WV, Lime Rock, CT,
and Watkins Glen, NY. We discovered that sports car racing is a rich man’s sport (duh!) –
or at least it was for someone who owned a dealership rather than someone who worked
at one.

Along the way we bought, stripped, fixed, resold, and otherwise fooled with 1600’s and
2000’s in our spare time. We had a pretty good little sideline in used roadster parts. I
also did “private” mechanical work and tune-ups when not at the dealership.

The 1968 2000 became a restoration project. It had some damaged sheet metal and the
aforementioned seized engine. We stripped it to the shell and removed the body from
the chassis. The frame and suspension received copious wire-brushing and brushed-on
coats of RustOleum primer and gloss black (we were a bit inexperienced at the time).
The engine was disassembled and taken to a local machinist who specialized in imports.
He found a piece of electrical tape in the main oil gallery (don’t have a clue how it got
there) at #3 bearing that apparently caused the #3 connecting rod to seize damaging the
crank and rod beyond repair. After a new crankshaft, connecting rod, and .020” (.50mm)
overbore it was balanced and “blueprinted”. My employment at the Datsun store allowed
us to purchase all the critical engine parts at dealer cost which allowed us to do a really
good rebuild. The engine was reassembled but never run.

In late 1974 I abandoned the mechanic’s job and returned to college. Both the F
Production car and the 2000 went into storage in a relative’s barn. In 1977, for a post-
college career, we moved away from Pennsylvania leaving the cars behind until we got
better established.

In 1979 we decided that racing was no longer a realistic plan so we decided to sell the
1600 and took out an ad in Autoweek. Interestingly no one was interested in the car – all
the respondents wanted to know where we got parts. “What kind of parts?”, we asked.
“Brakes, air filters, suspension parts, body parts”, they said. We were also told by nearly
all the callers that their Datsun parts department sent them away with some story about
“parts are no longer available…”.   Hmm. We visited the local Datsun dealer in the town
where we lived and asked the parts manager if he would sell us parts at a big discount.
Our approach was, “you’d never sell these parts anyway and the customers are out-of-
state so it’s not a lost sale to you…”. They agreed and we started answering the
requests by ordering parts for people when they called. Initially our entire inventory fit
on an old door we were using as a work bench.

We eventually sold the race car to some Florida customers, who were brothers. They
successfully campaigned it in SCCA Solo events. They got some good stuff including a 5:
13 Detroit locker and a head with the oversize valves and aluminum retainers. Wonder
where it is now? Are you still out there Bill and Elliott?

As people ordered items repetitively, we ordered extra and began to inventory items.
We received lots of help from Datsun Parts Consumer Relations at the national
headquarters in Los Angeles. We learned of a microfiche parts locator system that
allowed dealers to see each other’s inventories and obtained a copy of the “old” fiche
and began reading it through a microscope and locating a lot of good items like grilles,
steering idlers, heads and fenders. We also had help from some friends on the inside
that checked Datsun’s national inventory so we could determine if a part would come in if
we ordered it. Thanks Sue and Sheila! We sent letters to every Datsun parts manager in
the 48 states asking them to send people to us rather than send them away. One thing
led to another and we began to operate a part-time mail order business that eventually
reached over 1100 customers. We bought a roadster parts book, publication C-034E,
from a dealer in Mississippi and began the struggle to understand it and order the
correct parts. We soon discovered the reason for the dealers sending people packing –
the book was confusing and full of errors! Many times the part you received was not the
part you wanted because of the problems with parts book. Typically, because of their
age the parts were not returnable to Datsun so the dealer was stuck with something he
could not sell or return, clogging his inventory and tying up his capital. We learned the
hard way and kept accumulating the parts since we figured we’d either eventually sell
them or use them in our 2000 restoration. Every calendar quarter our dealer ordered us
a new factory price book so we could see what was what and how much it cost.

Meanwhile, we both still had full time jobs in other areas. During the day the phone was
watched by an answering machine.

After a few years we had an inventory of nearly 3000 part numbers – everything from
cylinder heads to carburetors, to hoods to bolts, nuts, and snap rings. We stocked
hundreds of Datsun factory nuts, bolts, and washers of all shapes and sizes – both US
and metric thread. We ran across some interesting items like complete convertible tops
on frames, complete rear axle assemblies, factory roll bars, and factory foot rests (sorry
we didn’t keep any).

We named the company Rising Sun Racing after our previous racing effort. Due to a
sales contract in 1988, in which we sold the business, we can no longer use that name
commercially but to you old hands we are the same folks who founded and operated that
company from 1979 to 1988.

Because of my corporate job we moved a few times and asked our customers to follow
us – most of them did.

In 1980 we pulled the 2000 out of the barn and gave it to a friend to do the body work and
paint. Every exterior panel was replaced except the trunk lid – all 4 fenders, hood, both
doors and one rocker panel. After about 18 months we retrieved it from his shop and
hauled it to our home in Ohio.

In the course of selling parts, people shared with us their stories of problems, pitfalls,
and miscellaneous roadster problems. We listened and took note. We shared openly
with anyone who needed assistance. Available commercial maintenance publications
were based on the original Datsun manuals which had been published by the factory in
the 1960’s in the days of pitiful translations and which had never been updated or
revised – only regurgitated. Clear, useful, experience-based information was not
available.

Part of our business effort was periodic flyers in the mail (real mail) to let people know
what we had for sale but also to communicate information about local roadster clubs.
Each flyer usually included some sort of tech tip (or tips) to pass along the information
given to us by our customers.

In 1984 we began writing, by hand, the basis for this parts and repair manual to assemble
this accumulated knowledge. Like others before us, we concocted a parts numbering
hierarchy to keep the true identity of the part numbers a secret – after all, if everyone
knew the numbers, why call us? We included parts diagrams that summarized the
confusing Datsun parts book to help people order the correct items and give some
technical tips to help keep their cars running. We spent 3 years writing and typing
before we were ready to publish it. We bought a computer to type and print the masters
for our printing company.

In 1986 we began redrawing the exploded parts diagrams to avoid copyright issues with
Datsun’s original parts book.

Meanwhile, the 2000 chassis had been disassembled again and taken to a metal dipping
operation that stripped everything to bare metal. A local body shop painted the entire
chassis and suspension – piece by piece - in polyurethane. The engine and drive train
were gone over again and the engine redone with all new parts – head, carburetors,
starter, alternator, fuel pump, etc. Basically only the original block was left after the
replacements.

By 1987 we had completed the 2000 restoration and had the car on the road. In the
process, over the years, we were fortunate enough to run across some really neat
restoration items including 5 original Bridgestone 5.60 – 14 nylon tires, 4 imitations of the
American Racing Libre wheels, a Datsun factory roll bar, a new Datsun factory top and
frame assembly, a factory oil cooler, and new red factory vinyl for the interior. It drove
and ran like a new car.

In 1987 we issued our Datsun Sports Parts Catalog. It was a novel concept in a notebook
format to allow ease of use and additions or corrections over time. We tried to take
steps to minimize the likelihood of copying including using red paper for the exploded
diagrams which had cost us a lot of money to redraw. We took great pride in that every
single diagram was redrawn and not one was a photocopy of the Datsun parts book. If
you have a copy of the original look carefully and you will see the drawings are actually
tracings – not photocopies. We still have the tracings. In some cases we clarified items
or corrected mistakes. We are not aware of any other person or organization that has
drawn their own exploded parts diagrams - they have all photocopied the Datsun
originals.

In 1987 we restored a second car, a 1969 2000. We did another frame up restoration, this
time with the idea of building an everyday driver rather than a show restoration. The car
was equipped with competition front coils, 1966 rear leaves (softer spring rate), KYB gas
shocks, and a set of 14 x 6 American Racing Vectors. The engine was an R20 – a stroked
1600 block that displaced 1982cc’s. We installed a 5-speed and a 3.90 rear from a 1600.
The interior included a sideways cassette player and stereo speakers. A GM alternator
conversion allowed us to install Hella H4 halogen headlights. It was a real sweet ride
that drove like a dream.

In 1988 we sold the “part-time” business to the current operator. Why did we sell? The
reason is quite simple – we couldn’t sell enough roadster parts to live in the style to
which we had become accustomed during our corporate careers. We went back to the
regular paycheck and job security of corporate America. We believe we made the right
financial decision based on how things have turned out.

We relinquished all rights to the name “Rising Sun Racing” and the Japanese battle flag
we had used as a racing and business logo. The original version of this manual was set
aside and gathered dust after selling just over 230 copies.

In 1989 we sold the 1969 R20 car. We got $11,000. I guess we did a good job – at least he
thought so. Wonder where SRL311-12555 is today….?

We were roadster mechanics and parts people for more than 15 years. We restored two
cars from the ground up. We took apart or cut up nearly a dozen other cars that were too
far gone to save. We dragged hulks home from Mississippi, Tennessee, and South
Carolina. We built up a good business of used / reconditioned parts that were stripped
and cleaned of rust and repainted or replated to look like new. We’ve rebuilt engines,
gearboxes, carburetors, distributors, and steering boxes for use by our customers. We
stood behind our work and had a loyal customer following. There are not too many parts
on a roadster we haven’t taken apart and put back together.

In 2005 we learned of the sale of copies of our manual without any improvements which,
although well-intentioned, was a potential disservice to the roadster community -
especially since we had discovered some engine assembly errors in it that were quite
critical.   We decided to dust it off, bring it up to date, correct it, and expand it. Even
with the availability of the original drawings and manuscripts we have spent the spare
time of over 10 months cleaning it up and getting rid of the dot matrix printing. We can’t
put this one in a notebook like before due to the ease at which things can get scanned
and copied these days. This format does not make it impossible, but it requires the book
to be destroyed to get it apart.

By the way, if you are reading this and it is not a permanently bound book we’d enjoy
hearing from you at poontang188@hotmail.com. If you can tell us where you got it and
send us a copy of the invoice (if you paid for it) it would be helpful. It’s a shame we have
to bore you with this but this book represents hundreds, if not thousands, of hours spent
over 15 years working, thinking, and discussing roadsters with hundreds of people. We
hope you can understand our reluctance to let others profit from it.

We think this new version of the manual is better than the original – which in our opinion
(and others) was pretty good. It has been expanded and has typos and errors corrected.
No, it’s probably not perfect and if you feel you must let us know you found an error,
email us at poontang188@hotmail.com. It has been rewritten in many areas to clarify
confusing text. It includes some scans of a few sections of the Datsun parts book that
we didn’t get around to redrawing years ago so maybe we are not any better than our
predecessors. What this means to you is we’ve expanded the manual from 200+ pages to
over 600 pages of information – without a single, full blank page. We tried real hard to fill
blank spots with illustrations, photos, or tips. In total, the entire manual now consists of
over 150,000 words (in two volumes) – words that we wrote, with very few copied from
someone else. We’ve also included some interesting historical information which we
sprinkled throughout the pages. We’ve added Owner Manual reprints. As noted
previously, we tried to fill the big blank spots that inevitably occur so you get something
to look at other than blank paper. We added so much additional information that we
decided to split it into two parts to make it more user-friendly.   It DOES have additional
information to bring it up to date – well somewhat up to date anyway. It doesn’t deviate
into V6 or V8 conversions, 4-wheel disc brakes, automatic transmissions or the like. If
you want to learn about electronic ignition systems or optical sensor distributors you’ve
come to the wrong place. It’s traditional roadster information – information about
roadsters as they were built and delivered in the 60’s and 70’s.

It also represents what we think about the Datsun roadster which may not be the same
thing you think. That does not make either of us wrong. Everything in this manual is
based on actual events or problems experienced and related to us by Datsun roadster
owners of all types. Every pitfall has befallen us or our former customers.   Every service
step is based on actual assembly, disassembly, or repair of the item noted – generally
written as the repair progressed.

To those of you who bought the original notebook version nearly 20-years ago, we hope
this somewhat fulfills our original promise to you. To others, we welcome you to our
manual.

With apologies to those of you “down under” this manual is written with all references
based on U.S. cars with a left-hand driver position.

No one has put as much information about the Datsun roadster into a single publication.
We still think it’s the most comprehensive, best, original information ever published
about the Datsun roadster for roadster owners.

Time will tell.