Brian Broughten's Journal

Purchased Summer 2016.
Front end damaged both fenders and hood both doors. Found 6 pages of receipts in glovebox, car was completly restored in 1999 by Quality Coaches and only driven 7K miles since rebuild. Rubber items are 20 years old but appear in great condition Im replacing all rubber due to age despite appearance. I have no doubt this car sat in a heated garage (Brian Johnson Eden Prairie). The engine has 70-75psi on cold startup and runs strong, all wiring appears correct to my layman eye. Very excited to re-rebuild this car.

Sept. 2016
Start parts buying binge. Secure new Petronix electronic distributor and coil combo, aluminum radiator (slightly bent from accident)
aluminum oil cooler and new rubber lines. Scrouge a bone yard hood and one good door from local junkyard, secure a second clean door on way back from Chicago and an extra windscreen. That should be enough to get rolling

Oct.2016
After frantically searching for a correct Datsun 5 spd and phoning the weird guy from CL up North who hordes and collects Range Rovers including crank diesels from across the pond (apocolype could happen any day now)
He wont return my calls anymore and I whine about here in the forum and magically Dick Moritz speaks up turns out he has an OEM 6spd tranny freshly rebuilt he is willing to sell to me! So much awesome, forever indebted to Dick for his knowledge and help! Love the idea of a factory correct build, was reluctant to go to the Datsun but you have to have at least 5 gears in an MG if you want it to last and 6 is even better!

Nov2016
Secure some new Goodyears from Walmart on sale after date coding the tires and discovery they are original from 1999, nobody will touch a tire this old and I hardly blame them. By now Ive finally done a bunch of work, I have 1/2 the car torn down, removed radiator & oil cooler and discard both were too old and bent to reuse. Did this knowing the would both be replaced right after tranny swap. I unbolted most of both front fender neglecting to realize the windshield need to come off because supports go thru the top of the front fenders. These last few bolts look impossible and despite what the critics say I think unbolting the dash is the way to go on this, leave for bodyshop :-). Decide Im not crazy about doing the tranny swap because Im horribly short on tools these days, and Keith is in need of work, perfect storm. Drive over to Complete Auto in Brooklyn Park MN.

12-3-2016
Swap is almost complete. Monza muffler system incl header all fits poorly at best, decide to scrap and go back to factory stock for perfect fit too many other things to do to worry about muffler right now. Keith completes tranny swap today we figured out the clutch bushing is different (square) on OD tranny so I had one overnighted along with a shiny Tourist Trophy single port muffler. I decide Keith is the perfect guy to transition the shiny aluminum muffler to the original stock unit along with a resonator delete because HE HAS MY OLD BELOVED MILLER WELDER. Almost ready for a test drive. Order and install 2 brand new batteries from Interstate. This car is nearly brand new in every regard at this point. Installed new Heavy Duty clutch plate during swap, old clutch only had 7K and lots of meat on the plate but it was from 1rst rebuild in 1999, so better safe than sorry.