Just to let everybody know that I seem to finally be back on the list.
I've been missing my britcars mail fix for several months now, I hope
everything will be stable for a while.
For those who are new since I posted last (about nine months ago, I
think) I'll reintroduce myself. I have a 1968 Datsun 2000 roadster,
which is an honorary British car, since nearly everything on it was
built under license from a British company. It also has all the
classic British sports car attributes - rides like the proverbial
oxcart, the top is a pain to put up and leaks like crazy, and so on.
The good news is that it is not currently in the shop, and in fact
hasn't been since November. Unfortunately, it is winter.....
My most recent adventure was a front brake rebuild, which I unfortunately
had to undertake without the sage advice of my list-mates here. The
brakes are Sumitomo-Dunlop with two 2-1/4 inch cylinders per wheel
on a 15 pound cast iron caliper housing. They look like they could
have come off a Jaguar, and for all I know, they did. They were also
frozen solid. I rebuilt them despite considerable pitting in the
cylinders, and they don't seem to leak so far. How do you tell whether
a cylinder is rebuildable? I also replaced the rubber hoses and the
metal lines which tie the cylinders together. In the process I
discovered that one of the lines had been worn nearly through by
rubbing against the alloy wheels the previous owner had installed.
Watch out for that. Next up is a rebuild of the master cylinder.
The real dilemma I have to deal with now is, do I keep this beast
for a while, or do I try to sell it and get what I "always wanted",
either a Lotus or an early Alfa? Any Lotus experts out there with
advice?
Wayne "glad to be back" Angevine (angevine@badger.colorado.edu)
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