SunnyCoupe

Tie rod ends and loose seat mounts which are all fair enough and clear fails so no worries sorting those.

@AllTorque hmmmm righto I’ll have one more go at asking for the exact reasoning behind the fail. Always tricky to do without coming across as a knob and them digging their heels in but yeah it just doesn’t seem like a safety issue. Thanks for the reply.

Two years ago my car passed a wof with this corrosion in the front guard. Non-structural, doesn't affect where the guard is affixed to the chassis. Yesterday at the same place with the same inspector it failed. He said the fail was due to it being within 150mm of the bolt. As far as I can read in the VIRM the 150mm limit only applies to proximity to structural elements (hinge/A pillar). Usually I wouldn't kick up a stink but the combo of not being able to find anything in the VIRM about non-structural areas and the fact it passed before has me in a bit of a tizz. Basically just need someone else to tell me its a fail so I can suck it up and get it sorted instead of having a wah about it. Cheers team.

Had to have a lol at one of the lines on the first page of the build regarding the exhaust..."Kinda ugly tip but it'l do for the time being, this is a budget build after all!" Super sick man, the attention to detail is inspiring for munters like me where close enough is good enough. The results you get when nothing is small enough to be overlooked are just mega. Amazing

Hi team, have a few things coming up in summer that would be cool to have this going for, just having a sudden burst of motivation to get it out of the shed. Looking for workshop recommendations, have been a bit hesitant in the past as I'm really looking for a place that won't crush my sills/leave car parts leaned up against it/leave head torches on top of the aircleaner that ding the bonnet when you shut it (true story). Needs a crack in the radiator welded up and a transmission leak located and repaired, had a big puddle of ATF under it when I wheeled it out last. Not necessarily looking for a super cheapy box-o-piss old-school-hookup backyard Barry bodgy bog over, happy to pay the money to do it right but yeah just the priority is getting it back without me having to look at old photos to work out if that ding was there when I dropped it off...thanks team.

That's actually my measure of success these days. Walking away feeling good about my self control and not having to dread rearranging the shed to fit a full set of mini glass or some shit.

Just took the photo of one car this year. Wasn’t even that tidy. Missing hubcaps, coupla scuffs and primer patches. The note on the windscreen just made it for me though, can imagine the salty old munter whinging at club brass going “it’s a historically significant 50th anniversary edition m8os, ya just don’t see them anymore.” Was tempted to leave a note under the windscreen offering him a straight swap for a mustang convertible.

Oof

Blaardy marvellous work on the car and the updates, throroughly enjoyable hour wasted reading through all that.

Cheers heaps to @AllTorque for taking an hour out of his arvo off to sort my wheels and tyres out. Wodda GC chur. The 7" rear wheels were a bit to rubby so have put my 6.5 mesh on the back, just tucks in the guard so pretty happy with that. Also got some tyres on my wider Mark 1s for the back of the Sunny which I've been meaning to get sorted forever. Time to run my own backyard TS Cup.

Found this on trademe in Christchurch, not much to go on from the online pictures except the Barry housepaint touchups, looked pretty untidy but was cheap enough to grab sight unseen. One owner since 1984. Headed down to grab it last week and yea, pretty rough, interior is torn up from 20 odd years of having a lawnmower thrown in and out of it. Hardly any rust though and can't see any old repairs so yea all g. Smells like grass and 2-stroke. 2k and 4 speed, goes like a sewing machine, super well maintained so that's a plus. Was like a go-kart back to picton, used less petrol than my 2008 Kia hatchback, bloody marvellous. Roadtrip shot: Bought some cobra springs and started testing what would work Tri-spokes ended up pretty perfect, 6" on the front and 7" on the back. Bit of rubbing so might look at smaller tyres but the 185/60 fills the guards pretty good. Here's how its sitting. So project finished I guess, will add tidier interior bits as I find them, maybe cut out and treat the small bits of rust and do a mild guard roll on the back if I can find a roller. Wheels could do with a polish. But just details ya know.

Looks good nice and level, surely you'll get some rake back with a heavier engine anyhow. Good being sensible safety clint. should probly look into getting seatbelts for the back of mine, used to be I'd try to catapult back seat passengers from one door to the other around corners on the slick vinyl bench, now i'd probably suggest they bring another car if we are going over 50km/h.

Factory RB whats going on. Had no idea, learn something every day. 2 seater lines are sick

So last Sunday morning saw an early start after a big night, catching a plane to Auckland to pick up a new purchase. Had a lovely skate in the sun from the airport to Mangere with a pleasant tailwind and a couple of nice downhills along the way to dull the hangover. I have told myself multiple times I would never buy a car sight unseen again, but this time it was worth it – a few nice surprises making this a nice little peek back into the era of car production in New Zealand. With my interest in Valiants and the Todd Motors story generally, my only real knowledge of the Sigma was that it basically killed big Chrysler demand and production both here and in Australia once Chrysler/Todd Motors decided to make and market them. In Australia, perhaps there was more of an emphasis on them as a Valiant replacement, with the first of them were marketed as Chrysler Sigmas. For new car buyers, the modern, more economical and better appointed Sigma probably seemed the more sensible option over the “new” CM Valiant parked on the other side of the lot – with an engine that dated back to 1969 and most of the sheet metal back to 1971. I can understand the mind-set of the 1981 new-car buyer, but it still rips my undies a bit that for the purchase price of $15,000 you could have probably negotiated and got two Valiants for the price at run-out special prices. Or, ya know, they could headed over to the Nissan dealership and actually got something cool. On paper, this should be cool – Japanese, RWD, manual 5 speed, rev counter even, and easily some of the best looking steel wheels ever made, behind the charger/pacer steel rim. I’m not a huge fan of the styling, for me it’s just interesting - the history and how it has managed to survive. Looking at the paperwork, it was bought new and at some point passed along to the original owner’s son, making it a 2 owner/1 family car. I bought it as part of a deceased estate so just dealt with the lawyer, never met the family unfortunately. Super high KMs but looks like they never dropped the ball when it came to maintenance – service stickers all up to date and even has a VTNZ WoF. Excellent modern repco-special hubcaps to bring the car into the 21st century. So much awesome NZDM-ness, including all-original NZ-standard security etched glass and original dealer sticker and badge intact and in place. The old LPG gear is still sitting under the bonnet, as well as the redundant primer switch under the dash. Has the sticker confirming internal Tectyl saturation, so just the tiniest amount of rust and no sign of any old repairs. Most exciting bit for me is the original bill of sale – listing all the options. Bonnet ornament? $65. Go fast side stripes? $70. The radio didn’t come cheap. In polytech when I was researching Chargers for a video doco, I did a bit of reading on NZ’s heavy trade restictions before imports, so buying a new car was a true luxury, with wait lists for locally produced vehicles or having to deal with purchasing car “parts” using overseas funds to jump the queue. Probably the only time the ol’fulla was gunna get his hands on a new car, so he made it count, even splashing out for metallic paint which has lost its lustre somewhat. $15,000 comes to over $60,000 today running the numbers through the inflation calculator. Compare that with $25,000ish today for the equivalent lancer/camry it’s easy to see how local production rapidly became unsustainable up into the 90s. Handling wise it’s a total boat – a real similar feel to a Valiant actually, except there’s a certain majesty to captaining a big car with an auto box and effortless low down torque as it ambles through and just eats up the hills. For the Sigma you have to employ the small engine manual techniques of high revs and clicking back and forwards between third and fourth. With a small car and a stiff rear end this can be quite fun, but when you can’t feel the rear wheels at all there’s simply no warning before it gets into a tail-happy oversteer party. Cruised alright but was a ten-hour mission in the end, only found one hitchhiker who got a lift with me from Bulls to Sanson. Lucky that because he was a real champion, it sounds like a sharn but he had no shoes, one eye, no voice (coming off a 3 day bender apparently) and bent the air with the alcohol fumes emanating from his person. Had a T-Shirt with a picture of a swastika and George Bush with one of those “same shit different person” type slogans, and apparently had been kicked out of his car back to Dannevirke because he’d got into a drunk fight with his mate in the back seat. I had grave fears for the box of DoBros in the back seat as he didn’t look like he was slowing down, and no amount of self-defence training can match straight up superhuman-meth-strength. And that's my story. Bonus extreme patina shot

hmm yeah I've seen it described as similar to the one that runs at monaco which got me excited. 15 cars like it says in the article would be awesome - but like you say, all looks like could be's. would be disappointed if just one replica shows with a few f5000 cars to make up the numbers. http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/motorsport/81080639/F1-racing-coming-to-NZ-at-long-last