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Thanks Dave. I’ll do some enquiring since Hamilton is the centre of the stainless tube manufacturing industry in NZ

I'll see if I can find pics of one I saw at a car show. It was very neatly done...

Back in the day there were a fair few V8 Cortina's around. 302 Windsor or small block Chev. Good project.

damnnn what a sick car, id offer but id be way to tempted to drive it everywhere and my mate has not one but three EF civics clogging my driveway right now. Always happy to help with an airport pickup or dropoff though bro!

Welcome aboard. A fellow I knew in Northland in the 80s succeeded in putting a 302 into a Mk3 Cortina. Not sure now whether a Windsor or a Cleveland or what transmission he used, probably an automatic of some description. The rules were very different then so definitely read the LVV Manual before you get too deep into it. Best of luck. https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/89804-mahaway’s-mk3-cortina-restoration/

You could go for the traditional Fiat choice

I fail to see that this is an improvement, even over the dick rims

Don't worry, I saw some blank modgies not long ago!

I know you are holding out for a set of these

Ah none of them excites me

If you go on here and search for blank wheels you get a few options https://www.hyperdrive.co.nz/products/category/228/wheels?searchMethod=2&productType=2&plate=&wheeldiameter=15&wheelwidth=&wheelpcd=BLANK&WheelOffsetMin=&WheelOffsetMax= Fake minilites, jellybean, and tridens

Hi im new on here just scored me my first and last project maybe planning on 10yr project so rules will change a bit but got this 73 mk3 dereg plan is to strip it, rust proof then rebuild new just about everything else 302 windsor, 5 speed manual,clutch, diff, brakes, exhaust, suspension, carby, elec,and plenty more. Dunno what the best starting point is reading the lvv manual, strip the car get if sand blasted. Is the conversion allowed to be done has anybody else done them in nz cheers

Ah man I have been on a rim finding mission so I can go to a 14" or 15" rim and improve the sidewall situation, but as the PCD is 4x98mm things are difficult. I did find this pic which has me boned up, those are Maserati BiTurbo 14" rims, oof But as you can Imagine they are not super common. All I can hope for is that Barry has a set in his shed left over after the rest of the car has disintegrated and will flick them on to me.. I will take further suggestions...

Thanks guys, will keep working on the obvious things like brakes and lights etc, then it looks like I will need to trailer her in to a compliance place.

I have plastic sheeting but in this case all the holes in the shell behind the door cards have been sealed off with tape. I forgot to tape off the holes in the A pillar too, but that'll happen when they come off next

My experience of 3D printed metal parts has been good. Where I used to work we made a machine that they had made heaps of, and it had one part in it that was die-cast stainless steel. The die had cost a fortune to make, and only made sense for the production numbers we were doing. Then of course some turkey of a salesman sold a machine that was a "custom" slightly different size kind of thing, and it needed a variation of this die-cast part to make it work. We had one printed in Stainless Steel and it worked perfectly. We were all very impressed.

Did you put plastic under the door cards? I did t see a picture of any, and given your meticulous artention to detail in upur build thread, if you had there would have been one? Mitre10 sell "greenhouse plastic" cheap as chips. You could do all the openings for like $15. Keeping the dust and water out will surely prolong the life of your door cards?

Yeah I've always wondered what it would cost to get one of the local places that cnc bends up pipe to do a job for extractors. However much like metal 3d printing I've always assumed it would be massively too expensive for a one off car project type thing. So maybe it would actually be a pleasant surprise to find out. One problem though is you are probably limited to what you can do with a single piece, in the same way that you cant use a sheet metal folder to fold over on itself so it gets stuck in the machine. Sometimes I've thought it would be fun to buy a big enough induction heater ring to be able to sand pack and bend extractors with induction heating rather than using a torch. Easy way to make sure they are equal length, just start with the same length straight pieces. However I'd probably end up with half finished extractors and zero fingerprints left. Thats an awesome milestone getting some water into the motor, pity about the leaks but there's always something like that!

drill and tap said flat bar ?

That is something I didn't even think about untill this weekend I'm only at 4psi hopefully I haven't killed anything I'll disconnect it all till I can find some.

have you got a non return in the vac line to the heater control so it doesn't pressurise under boost? might have blown the vac diaphragms out under dash or damaged the control valve

Amongst all the other cars that have had their time in the garage the past couple of months, the Marina hasn't been forgotten about. This is the culmination of a couple of months worth of work on the Marina. Like usual, motivation has been hard to dredge up for this car, as I know I'm getting closer and closer to the WOF check, which is hella daunting. The "for WOF" list is getting real short now. One of the major things I need to sort out before a WOF check was the rear half of the exhaust, which had suffered from sitting for a while and ended up with a large hole just after the hump over the axle. This blew out to be a large hole after the first time I started the engine One problem I knew about with it, was that someone had been here before and the exhaust was all one piece welded from front to back, making it a lot harder to work with (normally broken into two sections before and after the mid-muffler So I started by jacking the car up on one side and placing it on stands. Not my favourite angle, I had to get it pretty high to clear everything, and couldn't put stands under the axle as it needed to hang down I hosed everything in WD40 and gave the threads a wire brush, to make my life easier A ratcheting spanner really helped on the mid-hanger Once the hanger was disconnected, since the rear hanger hasn't been fitted in a long time (since I welded the rear valance) the rear of the exhaust just dropped down The front manifold joint was easier to get off than I thought, I just had to be patient and keep the threads lubricated and they came off without any damage. Since that was the only other thing holding the exhaust in place (there is meant to be a hanger up the front too, but that's long gone), the whole exhaust was now wrangled from its home. Much swearing ensued. I picked this New Old Stock rear muffler section up off TradeMe a while ago. Compared to the old rear section, this has the correct extra muffler, and is longer Ideally, you'd just undo the clamp on the outlet of the mid muffler and swap the pipes over, but some muppet had welded the pipe into the muffler, on both sides >_< The plan was to cut the pipe close to the muffler and then clamp the new pipe onto it, but there wasn't enough space for a clamp before the pipe started to turn up for the hump over the axle. So I cut the pipe further along, planning to weld the new pipe to the old one I got it all nicely lined up, tacked it in place And then a quick trial fit showed that as hard as it was to get the old pipe out, getting the new one in and above the axle, all one piece, was impossible, no matter how much a swore at it. So I cut the welds and started again. Look, I know it's not pretty, nor does it work perfectly, but it's only temporary and will be sorted later. The long term plan is a new slightly bigger exhaust to allow the engine to breathe better when the twin carbs are fitted... Using some scrap steel and my rollers, I made a tube that could act as a sleeve over the pipes In hindsight, I shouldn't have welded the sleeve shut On the plus side, it did allow me to get the exhaust back into the car The muffler fits nicely, almost like it's meant to be there (it is). I bent up some scrap steel to make a bracket for the rear hanger strap to bolt to (the previous pipe had it welded to the pipe) The length is legit too, didn't even realise that it was short before. It barely cleared the valance Some exhaust paste and a couple of clamps had everything snugged up into place After starting the car and running it to get some heat in the exhaust, yes, the sleeve leaks a little at the bottom, but it's better than a gaping hole in the pipe that it had before. I'll call it a sacrificial failure for the WOF man; that and the handbrake which could do with some more adjustment. Next on my whiteboard of things to do, was to make some door cards so that I wasn't just left with big gaping holes in the doors and the potential for sharp bits. I also wanted to make some A-pillar covers, and remake the parcel shelf trim too since that was broken. Before getting too carried away with my new jigsaw, I started by replacing the exterior handles with a pair of new old stock ones I picked up a while ago. Since the barrel and mech on the back of the new handles were different, I swapped these from the old handles. It was pretty easy to do, remove the C clips, remove the single screw, remove the mechanism and barrels, swap them over, tension the spring and then refit the screw and C clips. Done. One thing I did that was a little more complex was rekeying the new barrels to match my old keys, as the new barrels were in much better condition. I was slightly amused by the passengers handle, which had a very DIY fix at home point Yes, that's a big old rusty nail. In its defence, it worked fine when removed! I did have to pull the nail out to remove the handle though, it wouldn't fit through the hole in the door otherwise. The new handles look and feel lush. I ordered some new gaskets to go behind them too Now, back to that jigsaw. I will admit, I have zero experience working with wood, and don't particularly enjoy it, but here we are. I had one home-made door card from the previous owner, the other door never had a door card on it. This door card was manky AF, with mould on the back of it. It was useful for one thing only, a template. I used MDF as that's what was available locally, in the right thickness, and is easy to work with. I know, if it gets wet it'll soak it up like nothing else, but the plan is to seal the back of it somehow (paint?) and then the front will be trimmed in vinyl. All holes in the doors are sealed with tape. Using the template door card, I traced around it and all the various holes I needed to make and then cut it out A couple of trims and test fits had it fitting reasonably well I haven't quite decided what the final fixing method will be, but in the meantime just to secure them I reused the screw holes the previous owner had made in the door shell The handle looks pretty grotty (both do) but that's after a thorough cleaning with Simple Green, so I might have to dye it. With one door card working well, I used that to make a copy for the other side. The RH side has not had a door card since I've had the car, and probably a few years before that too. The next job for the whizzy blade of missing fingers, was to chop some of the offcuts up and make covers for the base of the A pillars, to close them in. I started with some CAD on the back of a cereal box, clamped two pieces of wood together with a couple of screws through where the clips go, and cut them out The first one went in easily, with minimal trimming If it seemed too easy, it's because it was. Of course they aren't the same on both sides, I forgot about the darn bonnet release bracket It was right in the middle of my new trim. So out came the CAD template, and using some scissors and a screwdriver, I located it and cut a slot to slip over the bracket I'll give the pillar a squirt of black paint when I take this off again later to trim it in vinyl, but for now, the plan worked perfectly It's been a long time since the car has looked this complete The final part I needed was the parcel shelf trim. This piece came with the car, but in two of three pieces, so it needed some creative work in order to make a good template. This is far from perfect, The RH side needs more trimming, but for now it's there, and tidies it up a bit All of these parts will eventually be trimmed in some tan vinyl I have ready to go, but that will happen once the car is on the road and becomes a rolling project. The last couple of things to do before the WOF are to sound-deaden the floors so I can fit this A brand new custom-made fitted carpet set. That will allow me to finally bolt both front seats in once and for all, and fit the new seatbelts I had made. Once that's done, and I fix a couple of small things like the coolant leak it's developed, I'll cross everything and take it in for a WOF. A terrifying prospect after all the years it's been off the road (30 years next year, over half its life) and the work I've done to get to this point.

i had a mk3 zephry put bedford pistons a 3/4 race cam had the block decked raymanes head ran 3 side draft webers 45 fittered mk4 zodic gear box home made extractors tuned length 2/half inches exaust last meter was copper to give great tone ,blew everthing in chch back street drags got 7 miles to the gallon wish i still had it , over in oz now just fitting a 289 high pro in the mk3 t5 w/c gear box mustang 3/4 diff

Bits of progress... Bled the clutch, feels a bit odd being cable and hydraulic and I'm not really a fan. Really do need a way to fit that MC in there. But my fabrication skills are about as close to zero as you can get. Door lock tabs that were welded from the inside. Asshole of a thing to remove. Next up, door rods were broken and I couldnt find any. My clever plan to find some 4mm steel tie wire didnt work as Bunnings/M10 needed me to buy 50m of it for fencing. So next best thing, went to pick a part there was a Ford Courier at the entrance with its doors dismantled so grabbed those rods. Cut it to length and bent it up. Works a treat! Pick a Part is dire, havent been in close to 10 years, all the kids were grabbing bits off Prius' and Nissan Notes. We had it good. Ford Courier door rod that got cut up and bent up to save the Starlet. All doors are in working order, and lock curtesy of the Solexs! Wasnt as hard to sort as I thought it would be, would've been easier if the OEM bits werent missing. Next up, passenger door handle didnt work because there was no plastic bush. Couldnt find one and the standard ones are slightly different. Cunning plan hatching, this rawl plug sacrificed itself. Photo of what I needed: Photo of my rawl plug replacement. I dont imagine itll last as long as the proper part: Stripping back the problem areas: Lastly, test fit. SHIT YEAH! Car on stands, ill drop it this week once the driveshaft has been installed. Mid way through lining up the front bumper.

Cheers dude! I've managed to sort it with a die grinder and some light rasp work. Your tool would definitely be the better way to sort it. The starlet had a lock hole plus little tabs inside to make a star type pattern.