Marc,
I agree with you on all counts especially that there aren't enough Roadsters
produced, or more important, that still run, to make the reproduction of the
parts feasable.
Chains can be made by any good chain shop and the plastic parts of the
guides and tensioners should be able to be made "fairly" inexpensively using
used parts as cores. I guess the hard part would be the gears. I think if
someone went to a metal casting specialist, the molds should be able to be
made of the gears as well using the lost wax method. I know I made some
intricate jewelry pieces using that method. I don't know enough to say for
sure if it can be done but it's a possibility.
Suspension parts are another matter.
The 1600s are "blessed" in the fact that Nissan used the motor in forklifts
and the parts should be readily avalable for years to come.
FWIW, Moss mechanical parts from what I have heard from several sources have
gone down in quality and they are almost useless.
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc Sayer" <marcsayer@home.com>
To: "Roadster list" <datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 11:27 PM
Subject: Re: OHC Chains and belts
> datsunmike wrote:
> >
> > While I admire the engineering ingenuity that went on to convert to
belts
> > from chains, I think for the majority of you it would be cheaper to buy
all
> > the chains, gears and guides and far easier or convert to another
engine.
>
> The problem is the timing sets for the U20 are NLA now. Somebody is going
to
> have to ante up to reproduce those parts, and that's expensive. That means
the
> parts are going to be expensive, even more expensive than they were, which
was
> already expensive. I talked a bit with Les about trying to develop a kit
that
> used cheaper and more readily available parts, but from what I could see,
by the
> time you made adapters etc., it would be as costly as reproducing the
correct
> parts.
>
> Roadsters are in the limbo zone right now, where factory parts are drying
up and
> there aren't any repro parts replacing them yet. Most Brit cars went
through the
> same thing back in the late 80s. To make things worse, there are far fewer
> Roadsters than there were of most of the Brit cars. That means sales
volume will
> not support the repro parts as easily and therefore prices will have to be
> higher. The Nissan timing set ran about $700 if I recall correctly, so a
repro
> set will likely have to sell for twice that, or more! And even then the
> manufacturer won't see any return on their investment for quite a while.
They
> only way folks will pay those sorts of prices is if the car value warrants
it,
> and that is going to take time. That increase in value will also make the
cars
> unsuitable for the street. :-( Again, the same thing happened to the Brit
cars.
> Back in the 80s and early 90s you saw MGBs on the street all the time, but
not
> anymore. I used to see a dozen a week or so, now I might see a half dozen
in a
> year. My $2500 72 MGB now is easily worth over $6500. And this is for a
car
> where there are still a lot of them left (there's probably more 70-73 MGBs
left
> just in CA than all the Roadsters in the world), so the effects will be
even
> more severe with the Roadsters. I'm betting that in 3-5 years an honest
> restoration on a 2 liter will run well over $50k to do, and will require
some
> parts to be made by hand. Its sad but true that right now if someone is
sitting
> on a stockpile of parts, they would be just plain nuts to sell at current
> values. The parts are *guaranteed* to go up in value a bunch in the next
few
> years. Luckily, most of the Roadster community (and Vendors) are neither
sane
> nor profit motivated. :-) I remember folks sitting on stocks of MG parts
for
> several years because they knew the parts would skyrocket in value. I know
of
> several people who made quite a piece of change. I also know of several
who
> waited too long to offer their stash for sale and found Moss had already
> reproduced the parts and the value had dropped off considerably, but even
they
> made money. Sadly I wasn't one of them, I sold my parts at fair value
'till they
> were gone and made friends but very little money. I'm betting most of the
> Roadster vendors will do the same, and end up with lots of friends. :-)
> Hopefully they will also make enough money to start reproducing parts or
running
> Roadsters are going to become as rare as a model T.
>
> --
> Marc Sayer
> 82 280ZXT
> 71 FJ510
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