Nan's Z06 - Road Trip #3

The first Road Trip for Nan's Z06 was to Monterey, California to watch the Corvettes race in May, 2024:

Nan's Z06 - Road Trip #1 

 The second Road Trip was to go to Pahrump, Nevada to attend the Ron Fellows Performance Driving School in also in May, 2024:

Nan's Z06 - Road Trip #2 

Road Trip 3 was in late September 2024 to the Grand Canyon -- our first road trip in the new Z06 with our Corvette Club (North Coast Corvette Club)!

Twelve Corvettes began this trip by meeting at the intersection of I-15 and California Highway 76 at 7:30 AM on Monday, September 23rd. 

Our first trip leg was to drive 206 miles across the Southern California Desert, across the Colorado River to Quartzsite, Arizona for lunch at the Mountain Quail Cafe.

 

Monday was two days after Nan's birthday, and one day after mine. Jan Weber kindly brought birthday cup cakes for everyone and wished us both Happy Birthday.  Such is the kindness and thoughtfulness of this amazing group of people!

After refueling, we were off to Williams, Arizona -- a distance of about 208 miles -- for our first night at the  Grand Canyon Railway Hotel. This historic hotel would be our base of operations for three days.

Once we were all settled in our rooms we gathered together for dinner at the hotel's large conference center.

Tuesday's agenda was accomplished without Corvettes -- we took the Grand Canyon Railway round trip to the South Rim.

Carm, our Club President, had made all the arrangements, including space in the "observation dome" scenic view rail cars.

 

 From this vantage point, the scenery was beautiful for the two hour and 15 minute trip.

We even experienced a train robbery!

Once we reached the Grand Canyon, Carm had arranged for a bus to take us to the various sites along the South Rim. There was plenty of time to experience the majesty of one of the seven natural wonders of the World.

 

 

The bus driver gave us plenty of time for sight-seeing and photos.

 

 

 

In the afternoon we had free time to hike the rim, or to shop for souvenirs before boarding the train for the return trip to the hotel.

Wednesday saw us on the road again, driving to Winslow, Arizona so the we could "stand on the corner"! We visited the public park in Winslow dedicated to the Jackson Browne / Glen Frey song, "Take it Easy", made popular by the Eagles. Each couple had their photo taken with the statue by John Pugh, and as luck would have it, the sculptor was there that morning!  

 Next we went to lunch at the Turquoise Room in the Historic La Posada Hotel and Rail Depot.

Next stop . . . Meteor Crater!  It is the best preserved meteor impact site on the planet.  We watched the video and took the brief tour of the site.

The day ended with a return trip to Williams for the night.  Everyone split up into small groups and went to local restaurants.  We took the advice of the train conductor and went to a small taco shop -- Nany's Tacos -- the food was fabulous.  On our way there we happened upon Pete's Gas Station Museum (I wonder if he has a copy of Beltsville Shell in the museum?).

 

On Thursday, most of our group headed to Sedona for a Corvette car show.  Nan and I decided to return to Carlsbad, and friends Mike and Patty Eddy decided to join us.  

We felt that we didn't want to take either I-40 or I-10 west to the LA area -- too much traffic.  Instead, we decided to use I-8 since it goes directly into San Diego. From Williams we headed East (I know, we were going the wrong direction, but we had a plan!), picking up I-17 at Flagstaff, then headed south toward  Phoenix, skirting their metropolis by taking 308 to the I-10 West for just a short distance.  We next turned south on Arizona Highway 85 toward Gila Bend.

Highway 85 goes about 35 miles from Buckeye to Gila Bend.  When we initially charted the route home, we chose Highway 85 simply because it was a nice connector to I-8.  We didn't realize what a great choice this turned out to be.  As you can see in the map below, once you cross the Gila River, there isn't much of anything until you get to I-8. The highway is divided so that the north-bound traffic is separated from us as we traveled south.  From time to time we would encounter an 18-wheeler going about 65 MPH.  Mike and Patty are great at formation driving, and they kept close pace with the Z06.

After about 20 miles, I couldn't see any traffic ahead, and the map showed no cross streets for miles. So, I decided to attempt a new personal speed record.  My current record, set while coming out of Pahrump, was 151.  It didn't take the Z06 long to pass that speed.  While still in 6th gear (with two more gears to go), and the engine turning at about 5,700 RPM (versus its red line of 8,600) the speedometer went past 163 to a top speed of 164.  There was still plenty of "go" available, and the car was handling beautifully. But I decided "enough is enough".

We announced into the hand-held radio our top speed to Mike and Patty.  Mike replied, "Well, we hit 158!" WOW!  

The remaining drive back to Carlsbad was great.  We stopped for fuel in Yuma -- our only stop for the about 500 mile trip home.

 

In total, we logged 1,187 miles at an average speed of 59.3 MPH and got almost 20 MPG.

 

Not many people would think of a C8 Z06 as a Road Trip car, but we do!

1 SASY 67 - Update #2

It's time for another update about 1 SASY 67.

Last December I gave a report on all the enhancements to the chrome, interior panels, carpets, console, radio, speakers, and molded rubber parts.

1 SASY 67 - Update #1 

While crawling around under the car reinstalling the seats, I noticed that the muffler had rusted through in a few places.  We certainly can't have Nan driving around in a car with a rusty exhaust system.  So I reached out to the Datsun Roadster Forum for commendations on where I could buy replacement parts. An overwhelming consensus of opinion quickly appeared.  

Jim and Lynn Tyler of Datsun Restoration Products offer a complete exhaust system that goes from the exhaust headers all the way to the rear bumper with high-quality, stainless steel components. Jim had been very helpful with other repairs on Nan's car, so I called him to discuss his offering.  Jim took the time to ask a few questions to be sure that all the components that I received were exactly what would be needed. He custom fabricated everything and shipped the parts quickly. Everything was carefully marked so even I could get it installed correctly!  Here is what we received:

My trusty side-kick, Don Kingery came to help.  We put the Roadster up on the lift in my garage and disassembled everything with ease and speed.  Then to be sure of our next steps, we set the old and new pipes side-by-side.  How much nicer is the new stuff?! Such was the attention to every small detail that everything fit nicely -- even the tail pipe hangers and rubber spacers.

 Question:  "What always happens when you go to repair one thing?"

Answer:  "Something else always needs to be fixed, right?!"

Don and I needed to remove the intake manifold in order to replace the exhaust header.  As soon as we started the disassembly it became evident that the cooling system needed to be rebuilt. There was corrosion on the metal parts and all the rubber needed to be replaced.  

So we removed the radiator, overflow tank, thermostat housing, cooling fan, hose nipples, fan pulley, and all the hoses and gaskets. We had suspicions about the longevity of the water pump, so it had to go too.

While cleaning all the metal parts, I discovered that there was surface rust under the paint on the fan shroud and other parts. 

Back to Jim Tyler we went for everything we needed to completely rebuild the cooling system, including a new water pump.  

We are constantly finding that Nan's Roadster is "weird"-- not all the parts that are supposed to fit are correct.  For this project the issue was that the stud in Nan's engine block was about 5/8" too short for the new cast aluminum water pump housing. The old housing had been chopped off (probably with a hacksaw) so that it would fit the shorter stud.  You can see the difference in the thicknesses in the photo below.

 

So we turned to Vince Hughes for help (It seems like Vince is always coming to my rescue on projects!).  Vince used his mill to shave down the housing boss so that existing stud would be long enough.  While Vince was running running the mill, he let me use his blasting cabinet to clean up all the metal parts.

 And when we reinstalled the water pump, it fit perfectly!

 We used POR15 block paint on the engine block, let it dry for three days, then reassembled everything.

 The car started easily, with no coolant or exhaust leaks!  

 Here are a few shots of the underneath of the car:

Sometimes miracles happen.

Thanks, Don, and Vince, for the help (again) with the Roadster. 

And Special thanks to Jim and Lynn Tyler of Datsun Restoration Products for great parts and solid advice!

Datsun Restoration Products 

John Elder Jumps From C1 to C8

I've discovered that it is dangerous to wander into Paradise Chevrolet in Temecula, California -- you might walk out with a new mid-engine C8 Corvette.  That's exactly what happened to Mike Eddy back in June 2023.  Some of you will remember that story!

Mike Eddy's Father's Day Gift 

 History has repeated itself -- and here's the story.

I met Professor John Elder shortly after I started working at Scripps Research in 2008.  Upon discovering that we each had C1 Corvettes we became fast friends.  In his youth John had a 1961 Corvette, and later a 1959.  Years later he bought another 1961 Corvette and has owned it for 42 years.  Here is a photo of John and me in 2009 at the Scripps campus on June 30th -- "National Drive Your Corvette to Work Day".

 As Chevrolet has released newer versions of Corvettes, John has wondered if he should upgrade his ride.  But he has tricked out his C1 so much that it is a wonderful "driver".  Here is a story that describes all the great things that he has done to "Ol' Whitey".

John Elder's Tricked out 61 Vette

When we put  our 2018 Z06/Z07 on Bring-A-Trailer, John bid on the car in the early rounds, but he stepped back as the bidding got intense.  A few times since then he has lamented at not buying that car.

John is a member of the North Coast Corvette Club.  At every monthly meeting someone shows up with a new C8, which manifests itself in text messages from John having a debate with himself. "Should I sell the C1 and buy a C8?".

John's daughter,  Veronica, lives in Menifee, not far from Temecula.  On March 14th John wandered into Paradise Chevrolet and a Riptide Blue Coupe caught his eye. The car was very well optioned and was even on sale with a Costco discount. So he bought it!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 I'm not sure I've ever seen John more happy -- and the best part of this story -- I think John will keep the C1 giving him the best of both world's!

Congratulations, John!

1 SASY 67 - Update #1

It's been a bit over a year since I posted a story about the way Nan's 1967 1/2 Datsun Roadster found its way back to our garage. . . .

1 SASY 67 Returns to Carlsbad

Since then we have done some restoration work to it. 

We had the original windshield frame, headlight rings, and grill rechromed in April, and new rubber installed between the windshield glass and frame and also new rubber between the windshield frame and the cowling.  Don Kingery (and Nan) helped reinstall these parts.

 

While the windshield was off, a local upholstery shop recovered the dash.

The original VIN plate confirms that this is a "matching numbers" car with the correct frame and original engine numbers, but the plate had aged so much that it was unreadable.  So we purchased a new VIN plate and stamped the numbers onto it.  We put the new plate over top of the original plate on the car (to preserve the originality).

 

 

We next turned to the interior.  We ordered a complete set of carpets and other interior components from DatsunParts.com.  When we removed the original carpets there was some light surface rust on the floor pan, so Don and I scraped off all the original insulation,  sanded the floor to bare metal, treated it with rust preventive paint, and applied new sound deadening / heat protection material.  I was surprised to discover that all the openings in the floor to attach items such as seat belts, the center console, etc, had threaded "receivers", so we took the time to tap the threads of every part at this stage.

Next we installed all the carpeting, and the upholstery for the rear ledge, back panel, side panels, and kick panels (the front seat upholstery had been replaced by Denny Sullivan while the car was in his capable custody -- thank you Denny!).  

The seat belts were cleaned up and secured, and the front seats reinstalled.  We even recarpeted the trunk!

The car never had sun visors, but with the help of Mike Young of Datsun Sports, we secured a set of original hardware necessary to attach the sun visors that we purchased from DatsunParts.com.

Two things motivated us to restore the center console area -- the "wrinkle" paint was chipped in a few areas, and, more importantly, Nan wanted a modern radio that could connect to her iPhone via bluetooth.  So we removed all the components (which also made the carpet installation easier), and I cut a larger opening in the lower dash to accommodate the new radio.  

With valuable help, and advice, from the Datsun Roadster Forum, we located a good product for restoring the "wrinkle" paint finish for these areas.

A local upholstery shop recovered the glove box between the seats for us.

Nan loves her "tunes" while driving, and with a fancy new radio, we needed to figure out a way to install speakers into the tight quarters of the Datsun interior.  After searching unsuccessfully online for quality speaker holders, I gave up and decided to make my own speaker "cans" sized to fit the car.  John Elder came to our rescue by crafting custom round wooden cores on his fancy wood-working lathe.

I covered the outer surfaces and the bottom of each can with carbon fiber material.

After I drilled wire access and mounting holes and they were ready to install -- two under the dash and two behind the seats.

Along the way we replaced the rubber seals on the doors, windshield, trunk lid, the gasoline filler tube, all four gaskets between the tail lights and the body -- so the car has pretty much all new rubber.  

I also recovered the cardboard glove box (in the dash) with carbon fiber material to cover a few holes and reinforce the worn edges.

We also replaced the rear wheel brake cylinder rubber (one side was leaking) and had our local auto repair shop, Master Tech, Oceanside, California, perform a complete lube / oil / filter / fluids service. 

You might ask, "What else could you possibly do to this car?" The photo below provides a hint -- and I'll write a post about that project once it is completed!

Special thanks to Nan and Don for always helping at every step along the way, and for John Elder's wood-working magic.  I've listed below the various vendors who provided such great service and support -- we want to thank each of them!

Happy Holidays from Nan and Cary!

 

ARG Quality Glass, San Marcos CA (Chris Deglmann) ~ installing windshield into frame

DatsunParts.com (Dean Apostal) ~ for all the interior and many other parts

Datsun Sports (Mike Young) ~ original sun visor hardware

Decorative Metal Coatings, Vista CA (Hugo) ~ chrome plating

Jordan Upholstery, Oceanside, CA (Andrew) ~ interior upholstery

Sin City Datsuns (Brian Zana) ~ brake cylinder repair kit

MasterTech Automotive (Rick Sing) ~ excellent auto service