A 50 year old Japanesse lady: SRL311 01228

[flyboyx]

Been a little too long for an update, but getting my daily driver to be a solid reliable car halted the progress, but only temporarily. Ive been collecting my change and am close to buying some Bilsteins for the car. You might have already seen the other thread about the upcoming front end refresh. Plan is to install the suspension and see what can be taken care of at that time, and to plan for the future. But today I actually got my hands a little dirty on the Roadster and did a small mod that I wanted to do since I first bought the car: remove the rear overriders. The fronts were already gone, and Ive never really been a fan, so it was time. I also had been reading up on the coke trick on the chrome. Mine was pretty well pitted, but I figured it wont look any worse. Went and bought a coke and got ready to go.

Heres what I started with.

Shine bright by 2mAn

Shine bright by 2mAn

Shine bright by 2mAn

Lets get those overriders off and clean up the dirt...

Shine bright by 2mAn

and heres the "chemicals" & tools of destruction
Shine bright by 2mAn

and lets go!


Overall, not much of an improvement, but Im glad I got it done. The exhaust tip actually cleaned up the best but I couldnt get a good pic, not that it matters. If you look really closely, it got rid of some of it... and some chrome too haha

Shine bright by 2mAn

I also met up with Linda last weekend to get this much needed flexpipe from her that she wasnt using anymore. Hope to address this soon, but Im worried there wont be much solid metal to weld to. We'll see what the exhaust shop says when I get around to it.

Shine bright by 2mAn

PS The overriders are for sale because I have zero intentions of putting them back on

Never had much luck with the coke trick. However, a few gallons of white vinegar, a couple large bottles of lemon juice, and a pound of table salt all mixed together should give you some results. The problem is that you will need a container big enough to soak them in for a few days. You will also need a stiff bristle brush to scrub the rust off every few hours while it soaks.

[2mAn]

From this and an earlier picture, it appears to be a ceramic femoral head from a sample hip replacement implant.

Very cool shift knob, keep it!

haha I promised the guy who donated the shifter that I would leave it on until after the Solvang annual Roadster show which is in April. Maybe by then I will another option, but for now this is it haha

Never had much luck with the coke trick. However, a few gallons of white vinegar, a couple large bottles of lemon juice, and a pound of table salt all mixed together should give you some results. The problem is that you will need a container big enough to soak them in for a few days. You will also need a stiff bristle brush to scrub the rust off every few hours while it soaks.

These bumpers dont have much hope anyways, so I just wanted to try it and see what would happen. It definitely cleaned some up but it wasnt ever going to make the bumpers look new, nor did I care that they didnt...

Good news is that today I sold the convertible top and the overriders so I can move forward with the purchase of Bilsteins for the front, and hopefully soon I can order the rears to go with it. Im eager to get the front done because I have a lot of parts I want to install up front and freshen things up. The rear shocks will be a quick and easy swap while the front will be quite involved. Its time to get this thing ready for VARA university in January. It will be a tedious process to iron out the little details but if I can sell a few more of these parts Im not using, I should be able to have most of the major components to be ready.

[wworm]

Spotted on 680 near cal state east bay. Def not you (about 8 hours too north Lolol) but thought it was for a split second! Gave him a wave. Sweet build!


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[2mAn]

Spotted on 680 near cal state east bay. Def not you (about 8 hours too north Lolol) but thought it was for a split second! Gave him a wave. Sweet build!

I know exactly where you took that picture! Haha I grew up in San Jose. I would usually glance at the big building to catch a rolling view of myself lol

These cars are so much fun and still undervalued. It will be great when I get to really enjoy it in the track with all the other 50+ year old cars

[2mAn]

It's going down this weekend

[SkiFree]

Por15 all the things!

Also, you doing VARA-U this year? With the datsun?

[2mAn]

Por15 all the things!

Also, you doing VARA-U this year? With the datsun?

Yes! Im going to pull the seats, clean all the interior down to bare metal and POR15 all of it. Hopefully there wont be any holes, just surface rust in the corners that Ive seen.

I have an aggressive plan to have the car ready for VARA-U and pay for it all through by selling car parts Im not using/ dont need. It works best, but if it gets close and I need to swipe the plastic I just might because I am missing 2 track days that I had planned to do with the Alfa club, but it was due to school. And now I dont even have anything that I can take anyways haha

[rzerob]

Don't forget to paint over top of the POR15. UV light causes it to break down.

[2mAn]

Don't forget to paint over top of the POR15. UV light causes it to break down.

Most of the floor will be covered and not totally visible. I have a plan for it too but the rear shelf area that will totally be exposed is probably going to get a black carpeted piece covering it. I have a bunch leftover from the rear seat delete I made for the Aluminum Monster.

Thanks for the heads up though, always appreciate input :up:

[2mAn]

My cool neighbor asked if I wanted to go hit the canyons and I definitely wanted to take my car out along with his. The noise coming from 4 side draft carbs (his dual webers and my dual mikunis ) was pure bliss.

Stopped at this vantage point to snap a few pics







Back to work today!

Finishing tearing the old nasty carpet out!



Seat are out and will stay out for now. Measured up the seat area and it looks like my old Cobra from the Aluminum Monster will fit nicely. Hope to have my hands on it soon. The floors will need a few hours to get totally done so I figured I could get the rear shelf area done.

Here I am halfway done scraping the remnants of the padding


And all cleaned up, and ready for the POR 15 prep at this point



Clean, prep and now painted

[parkerbink]

Nice progress. Where were you on Mulholland? I lived at Beverly Glen & Mulholland for 15 years. Miss the canyons.

[2mAn]

Nice progress. Where were you on Mulholland? I lived at Beverly Glen & Mulholland for 15 years. Miss the canyons.

Honestly I'm not sure. We drove from the PCH and went up one of the streets cut across Mulholland and came back down Los Flores .

[jeenyus]

mas trabajo, mas updates.

[2mAn]

mas trabajo, mas updates.

Parts are collecting for something really nice. New custom valved Bilsteins, Mike Young Comp Springs. This will be exciting, but sadly these won't be going in for another 2+ weeks, so I'll just be staring at them

[SkiFree]

Nice new parts! Awesome to see your canyon run, that alfa is pretty slick looking.