11 replies to this topic

[shavenYak]

Hi! Welcome to the new condensed project thread for my my Suzuki SS80.
Discussion thread here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=12230

1983 Suzuki SS80C 3 Door
F8B 3-cylinder 796cc SOHC
Mikuni DIDS 2430 single carb
Struts / disc up front, leaf / drum in rear

630kg curb weight
3,295 x 1,405 x 1,335 mm
Turning radium 4.4m (less if handbrake used)
Red

Now here's some historical photos and ramblings from the last five years I've owned this fine vehicle:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

painted my rocker cover with some vht wrinkle paint.



While the car was parked in the parking basement below our apartment someone broke in through the passenger door. The lock was already well stuffed but now its way worse and some of the panel is munted. see below.



I finally did something about it:





Installed Jaycar central locking. So deluxe.



Also got some 'Forever Black' brought back from SuperCheap in Aussie, and did my bumpers and dash:





Looks 1000% better (dash was faded to a light gray before). Forever Black is mean, but after using it I reckon that it's actually exactly the same as the black dye you can get for business shoes to make them black again. But I'm very happy with the result, and it's supposed to last for ages. (Forever?)


Anyway the car has been getting really hard to start lately, I've had to push start it every morning for the last month or so, and quite often again in the afternoon after work. I checked the points, leads and sparkplugs are they were all good.
Quite often after cranking the starter for a while it would fire up as soon as the starter stopped cranking. The coil is a 6volt model with a ballast resistor, and after looking at it for a while and doing some internetting, I realised that there should be a resistor bypass circuit so when the starter is cranking, the current for the coil doesn't go through the resistor and drop to a stupidly low voltage.
So I read through my handy workshop manual which mentioned that only the European market SS80's got a coil resistor bypass added to the starter (because of colder weather or emissions laws maybe?) but the feature was added to all SS80's in later models. (this was added literally the MONTH after mine was made).

So I tried a couple of things, one was to pull a wire from the positive terminal from the starter directly to the positive terminal on the coil. This didn't work. the car cranked really well and seemed to want to fire up straight away, but as soon as the starter stopped, the car died. So instead I just ran two wires from each side of the ballast resistor, and connected a little momentary foot switch in the cabin. I step on this when I crank, bypassing the resistor and giving the coil all available power. It works so good! Fires up first time every time! Very simple solution, but it took me all day to think of it and I now feel very happy with myself. (no more push starting)




worked out later that it was the resistor that was playing up, and have sinced swapped both coil and resistor. Removed the foot switch and has been fine since.

Got a spare cam reground:
Old cam was:

Advertised duration @.004 lifter rise: 255-260 degrees
Duration @ .050” lifter rise: 185-190 degrees
Cam lift: .198”

New cam specs are:

Advertised duration @.004 lifter rise: 282 degrees
Duration @ .050” lifter rise: 205 degrees
Cam lift: .254”

I have had a dash cluster from a Subaru Justy. Once the actual tacho was out of the cluster, it was just a matter of identifying each of the three terminals on the back and hooking it up!
I taped it to my ashtray for the time being, but I want to build some sort of box for it at some point.



In this photo you can also see the panel I made to cover the hideous cutout that had been made when the stock radio was replaced. It's got three switches, two control my two small sony 2ch amps, and the third powers the tacho. the tacho switch is kinda pointless, but the amp switches are there because the car does not have an ACC circuit, just OFF and ON So with the switches on I can still listen to the stereo without the ignition being on.

The second amp is powering a pair of 70's Akai speakers that I mounted under the dash:


They are about 30wRMS and 4ohm, the metal casing is mega thick and really heavy and they sound fantastic.

Got a sweet sump guard from an Isuzu Bighorn - the mounting holes even lined up almost perfectly with the sway bar shackle mounts. Pretty happy with that.



on way back from Ruapehu:




and of course the photo-in-container-yard photo. love it.



Bought home some parts off a newer model Alto - namely some struts and the front swaybar, which is a lot meatier than mine.



overall length is the same, but unfortunately doesn't clear the subframe on one side. grr. Can't use it.

I've had a nice dash sitting around for a while that I only just put in - It's in really good shape, and doesn't have the stereo panel hacked out.



I've never had a roof lining in the car since I've owned it, so every time you shut the door it sounds like kicking a big empty steel barrel or something. I had a plan in the past of putting green astro-turf up there, but it was put in the too hard / cbf basket a while back and that idea's since been canned. But the other weekend I put this in instead:




They're bostik sound deadening sheets, so pretty heavy - will be interesting to see if they stay stuck once summer rolls around. Probably overkill, but was nice and easy to put up. For now I'm stoked. Looks good, sounds good, and smells like a freshly tarred road. mmm.

The other thing to happen was just the other day I found these red wheels that are just like the white ones I still haven't done anything with, except they've got tires, the paint's in reasonable nick and theyre not multi-stud. So I put them on!
They've got 175-60 13's on which are quite a change from the 145-70 12 I had before. Quite a bit more traction in the corners which has gotta be good! No scrubbing except at full lock where it's only really rubbing the rubber splash guard anyway.







And I'm sure this is what we all want to happen next:



might not actually chop the dog quite that far though.

[shavenYak]

Time to update the thread I think - It's been quite a while, but I haven't really done much to the car except drive it every day.

One major thing to happen was leaving Auckland and moving to Palmerston North. This means we now live in a pretty sweet house that has an even sweeter garage. So for the first time I can park both my cars indoors, and have space to work / store my crap. Installed some sweet fluoros so I can work at night. Makes a nice chance from the tiny shed and carport combo I've had for the last few years.




But anyway, the car!

I had to stop using the alloys, since the Suzuki has 10mm wheel studs, which meant that the factory wheel nuts were too small for the rims and would gouge into the alloy, and it's hard to find aftermarket nuts to suit a 10mm stud.



So since it was time to do the wheel bearings anyway I decided to swap the wheel studs out for bigger, standard 12mm ones. I didn't take any photos of the procedure but basically just knocked out the old studs, re-drilled the holes and whacked in the new ones (second hand honda ones).



Used a bottle jack and some chains to press the wheel bearings back in. Worked like a charm!


Tried a couple of spring replacements for the front struts:

First some Honda Jazz rear springs.



BZZZT!

Then the starlet rear springs:



Great success!

Old struts:



Shiny struts:





Also modified the brake hose bracket since they're such a fucking annoying design that means you have to undo the brake pipe from the hose if you want to remove the strut.

Old:



New:



End result:



There's probably a coil or two that I can chop off and they'd still be captive, but first I'll work on dropping the rear end down as well. Got some blocks, just need to buy some u-bolts.

[shavenYak]

PROGRESS!





Then I got bored and decided to pull the engine out for a quick spruce up and to swap the gearbox out for a later model one. Used a tie down ratchet to lift it out. Getting it down was tricky.





Made me a sweet trolley:





And a quick blast of the Karcher later:




This came out of my gearbox. Don't think it should be that colour eh?




And here's a quick glimpse into the future: G10 Turbo Carb...

[shavenYak]

So I swapped out the old gearbox for a later model one. The old one had a leak from the selector seal, and was just generally old, sloppy and whiny. I had to swap the speedo cable over, but otherwise everything bolted in. Gear selector is much more tight and there's no whine in any of the gears. Feels good man.
Unfortunately after I filled it with oil and went to bed for the night, the right driveshaft seal decided to leak and the next morning there was a liter of oil on the floor.
No one seemed to stock a replacement seal for the box - Suzuki wanted $80 ex japan, which is too much and also wouldn't get it in time for nats.
None of the seal/bearing places had a replacement, apparently it was a bit odd and seals both ways or something. But I ended up getting a standard rotary oil seal from SKF, so hopefully it will be all good.

Old on the left, new on the right:



Installed it today - seems to be holding the oil in ok! Might not last for as long as an genuine one, but it was only $10.




While the car was off the road I thought I'd give the brakes an overhaul.



Pistons were kinda pitted but not TOO bad I think. Kinda planning on upgrading brakes later so don't want to invest too much in these.
... Except I will shell out for a can of gold Hammerite. (PRIORITIES, PEOPLE!)



24 CARROTZ BITCHES

Also spraybombed the rims:


And finally, a shot of my impeccable workshop safety practices:


So now I'm just waiting on the correct caliper kit to get ordered in (tomorrow) and she'll be good to go!

OH and from preliminary assessment, it looks like a coil from the front springs will need to get the choppy choppy to get it level with the rear.

[shavenYak]

Got everything sorted today - this is the current height:





Bump stop gap: about 20mm.. :]



Got a $5 steering wheel and a cheap bosskit. Made some modifications and now have the original horn button installed





Put new pads in front and re-kitted the calipers. Unfortunately the clamp I had on one of the brake hoses came off over night and all the brake fluid drained out.
After bleeding twice, brakes still feel a bit spongey. Should I take it in somewhere and get the fluid reverse-pumped, or will this probably come right after a few more bleeds?

[shavenYak]

Cleaned up my Streetfins a bit today, here is what they look like after scrubbing them with a washing-powder paste: (guess which pair came off the front)




Then I carefully sanded the face using a foam sanding block, and polished the lips using Suzuki power, a la Simon's tutorial.



Thinking about repainting the black - I guess easiest way would be to paint, then sand paint off faces?

not sure if I should get the lips cleaned up, they're pretty curbed. Who could repair them and what should I expect to pay?

[shavenYak]

So as some of you may have seen in another thread I did my first proper rust repair using my new mig the other day. Roof skin and frame had rusted out pretty bad in a spot above the drivers door. Was a bit of a mission, but very satisfying to accomplish.


and then

and then

and then

and then

and then and then and then!


So with that, and once I took my lowering blocks out I got a WOF. Always such a releif.

Tonight I thought I'd tackle something that's been bugging me since I lowered the car. As shown in the previous post, the two inch blocks in the back meant that there was only approx 10mm travel to the bump stop. That made for a pretty bumpy ride, and also I don't think the WOF man would have liked it.

This was the problem:



The chassis has these boxes built on to hit the bump stops. From my rough measurements it seems it would be sweet to get rid of them without the axle or wheels hitting anything.

SO I GOT CHOPPING!






Then my portable light broke so I'm gonna clean up and reassemble tomorrow. YAY!

[shavenYak]

Well, I cleaned up the grinding a bit and took it for a drive and it's now fully awesome. Nice and low and comfy. Only problem is the shocks are now able to bottom out before the bump stop hits, so will have to see about getting shorter shocks or putting a bit of those things I chopped off back. I'll leave it for now.


I finally got some tyres put on the streetfins and tried them out.. It quickly became apparent that even +19 is too RWD an offset to clear the guards. Especially at the back. Briefly tried to pump the guards using a steel rod, but didn't have much luck. Would need to chop a bit of the guard out and fit flares. Although the car can sit with them on and there's still about a 20mm gap. Ironic really, since that probably would have worked with those bump stop extensions in. Ahh well.

Also, waiting for alto on fins plz

Might look into getting flares made up, but in that case I might as well get some wider rims since there's a good 2 inch gap on the inside of the arch with these. 12x8's ?

So if anyone's especially keen on these, make me an offer.

[shavenYak]

Got a pair of SW20 seats delivered by exige92 courier service.



Went about adapting them to fit the other night.
I was expecting to have to re position the rails as the suzuki's ones are quite narrow. However turns out the mr2 seats mounting involved brackets attached to the side of the seat, not just rails screwed directly into the seat base as per the suzuki.

Suzuki seat:



mr2 seat:



Getting the seat rails off was a bit hard since they were not only press-riveted on but also spot welded in a couple of places.





But with a bit of persistence and violence I got them off!



So plan was then to attach some lengths of flat steel laterally across the seat base, which I could then attach the suzuki seat rails to.
Like so:



Passenger side seat was easy enough, but the drivers side had a few more controls like seat base tilt, which meant that there was a mounting point missing.

Passenger side:



Drivers side:



After a bit of head scratching I decided to weld on a bit of steel. Which wasn't completely easy since it needed to clear the seat tilting mechanism.






This worked out alright and after a lick of paint, got the seats in the car!






I'm very happy with them, they're 1000% comfier and more supportive than the factory seats. The only gripe I have is that because of the seatbelt stalks fouling on the side seat bracket, I had to move the seats out a little towards the doors. This means that the steering wheel feels like it's slightly to the left. But this is pretty minor and probably something I'll get used to.

[shavenYak]

[shavenYak]

Had these wheels lying around for a while, they're 12" Contessas from an Austin. Thanks to azzurro for hooking me up with the wheel nuts I needed.
I'm going to get my 145/70's from the stock steels put on them, but question is - should I paint them first, and if so - what colour?

[shavenYak]

I've had this Weber 30 DGS carb lying around for a while now. Bought it reconditioned from Weber specialists up in Auckland. It's originally from a Citroen GS.



Only problem is it's mounting bolt pattern is only just slightly different to the original carb, so making an adaptor plate would be difficult.



So I was thinking of getting someone to weld the holes on the intake manifold and re-drill to suit the carb. Other option would be to widen and slot the holes on the carb, which seems a bit rough.
Who knows someone who could weld aluminium for me? Other suggestions?