desertdatsuns.net

With the cooler weather tonight Lisa and I decided to drive the Roadster to one of our favorite restaurants, Raven's View. The restaurant is north of Carefree and the elevation is 1,000 feet higher than our house in North Scottsdale, making it about 5 degrees cooler. Beautiful night and the car ran flawlessly. Nothing better than driving a convertible on a night like this.

I've been a bit lax reporting a few updates on Lisa's Roadster. As some of you know, we finally put a black StayFast canvas top on her. Unfortunately, the posties I had previously installed were too short for the top, and a number of them would not stay snapped once I got the car back from the top installer. He told me I needed to replace them with the longer version, and supplied me with a set. That was a good half day project and required a bit of disassembly to accomplish, but all is good now.

On another note, the tires on the car were dated back to 2014, and I thought they looked a bit too large for the car anyway, so all four were recently replaced with 185/60/14 tires. If I had it to do over again, I would opt for 185/65/14 tires, as the 60 series tires look a bit too small and ride a little too harsh.

Last week on the way out to see Guy Pepoy and his Roadster, two miles from home the Roadster died, quickly ending my trip. I diagnosed the electric fuel pump had given up the ghost, so had to call AAA and have the car transported back home. I expect to have the new pump this Saturday, and be back in business. It's always something!

I think the top came out great! Your Roadster looks fantastic.
Too bad about the fuel pump, but I'm sure you have it back up and running quickly.

Dale

I guess that's what I get for buying the cheap pump.

New fuel pump installed and did an uneventful 40 mile shake down run this morning. All good again... probably for another 2 years

That's awesome to hear! Nice job.

Dale

Noticed a little coolant seepage around the base of the thermostat housing so decided to pull that off to re-gasket it, as well as the flange on top which the radiator cap attaches to. Had to drain the coolant down a little to keep from making a mess on the floor. After putting everything back together again, topping off the coolant, and burping the system, I discovered it was still seeping, but not from where I thought it was. It was leaking around the cap itself, which has a rubber seal on it that gets compressed as the cap is tightened. Bent both tabs up a bit to compress the seal more when tightened and all is dry now. Simple, free fix. Love those!

Just love the easy fixes!

A couple of months ago a guy from Desert Z gifted me a very nice set of American Racing slot mags, complete with all the original center caps. After polishing them up a bit, re-tapping all the holes that hold the center caps on, and putting a new set of tires on them, I put them on the Roadster, and am pretty pleased with the results. Duffman, you should like these. They're much "shinier" than the other wheels.

Looks nice, Randy, shiny is good! Any difference in how the new wheels/tires feel than before?