Dieter Wagner has been in touch. He has sold his TC special and has acquired a 1953 TD. He bought the car unseen – i.e. not inspected – from the US with only some pictures and a description of the vehicle from the seller. A little risky, but after a bit of fettling Dieter is happy with the car, apart from one aspect.
The TD has a Datsun five speed gearbox and a 4.3 ratio diff. Whilst Dieter knew about the taller ratio at the time of purchase, he says that in the light of driving experience, the combination of the 5-speed with the 4.3 axle ratio is not very satisfactory as it is ‘too long’. Whilst he can live with it for the time being, he’ll be on the lookout for a 4.55 ratio, or maybe switch axles for one from a TF (4.875) in the future.
Having sourced a difficult to find hardtop for the car, Dieter has been busy restoring it and fitting it to the car whilst keeping the standard hood/side screen arrangement. How he did this will have to wait for the next issue as I’ve run out of space for all the pictures he sent, but here are some photos of the finished set-up and the usual hood and side-screens.
Here’s a couple of pics of the standard arrangement:
TD/TF WORKSHOP MANUAL
Available from the T-Shop http://tshop.ttypes.org at the competitive price of 19.50 GBP plus postage.
