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Sounds like more fun than caravan renovation. Next time I'm in credit I'll be in touch...

The purest mitertenite

Nice blade fuse holders off aliexpress are too cheap not to buy them. I got drunk and accidentally ordered two lots of 5. They have a rubber cap too.

Watch for cracked valve guides too after a valve bending.. might be ok but possibly worth a once-over too.

Ol mate today did 600kms Palmy to taupo to wanganui to palmy with random detours ran like a champ. Next pull rocket cover paint and paint air intake and reseal cover

^ This is the method. Fibreglass shoild be ok? But if you do it with carbon it'll be great. I think the SR86 ones were carved out of foam and just wet laid over top, then dig out the foam afterwards:

Got the chance to fuck around with 5his wreck again today. Plumbed in an electric fuel pump. (It was a GMB unit for a subaru leone, bought from rock auto as a lift pump for my 620 ute) but it couldnt suck any gas through either. Like an utter fucktard, i inverted the pump polarity. (That did nothing, no buzz) So i switched it back. That now did nothing too. Then some smoke escaped from the pump. So a brand new pump that never even saw gas once is now destined for the bin. (Its very fortunate rock auto is so cheap) So i popped the gas cap, and jammed 120psi down the fuel supply line to the tank. It didnt really seem like it was pushing much. The old boy showed up, so he shot the air in while i listened at the fuel filler hole. Didnt sound like much. then a huge rush of air burst through. Obviously since it sat so long, the gas had turned to shit and blocked the line. So sooner or later the gas tank will need to come out for a de-scuzzing. So i reconnected the mechanical fuel pump, and cranked it over. The fuel filter quickly filled up, and it burst into life. (Sort of) ran a bit wooly. And wouldnt stay running on the main fuel circuit. 99% sure the old gas in the bowls has turned to varnish, and blocked the jets/capillaries. I dumped 2/3rd of a bottle of CRL into the radiator, and filled the rest up with water. Which involved another fuck around trying to get the hose working. (I took a bucket of miscellaneous hose fittings over with me) Using generous lashing of pedal pumping, i kept it running long enough warm it up. then drained the rad, and repeated a few times. Later i plucked the thermostat, and hosed the block out a few times. Eventually the stuff coming out looked clean. The old boy asked if i wanted him to clean the carb out for me. (Hes just build a 750 DP for his VF, and it piecing together another 650DP 5hat he got for free) since hes semi retired, i said yeah go on. (Im quite time poor) so i whipped it off and gave it to him. (The fuel that dribbled out the bowl vents onto the lawn to empty them was fucking putrid) (the colour of a dehydrated piss, and even more stanky) The manifold is an Edelbrock "street master". Which is a single plane open plenium. But its a design from the post oil shock '70s. (Apparently it won some award in its day) So despite being single plane, its got quite a small plenium volume. Somebody on a mopar forum filled with clever people reckoned they pull quite hard to 4000. This manifold also has the smaller ports to match with the 318 ports. (340 and 360 are bigger) im running a 390cfm 4bbl carb. The small carb means higher air speed. Which makes for really sharp bottom end response. (It should pair nicely with this manifold) the last engine this carb was one was quite punchy down low too. I strongly suspect that it will benefit from a carb spacer. As luck would have it, i picked up a carb spacer a while ago that will spice things up once i get the vehicle back on the road. This carb spacer is tunable up to 250hp. Although i suspect aiming that high would be a one way ticket to a sump full of piston fragments. Then focus shifted to my pile of diffs. Fairly sure the diff isnt an LSD. Since ive pulled apart so many Vals over the years, ive got a good collection. I had the idea in my head one of them was a 3.23:1 lsd. However after removing the back plates to check the ratio on four different VG valiant diffs, apparently none were fittes with that ratio. (And only one was an LSD) You can identify a bougie warner M75 LSD by the extra set of bolts which hold the halves of the nugget together. So after lugging heavy diffs about, and touching gear oil that was put in these diffs possibly before some of you were born, i shelved that persuit. Ive got an LSD nugget that i scored off @unlimitedpower a long ways back. (Reportedly scavanged from a EA-ish falcon) this will be pulled down, inspected, and set back up to the factory spec. (Way back when i first joined OS i bought a Factory VH valiant workshop manual of somebody on here. It has the specs these are supposed to be set up to) If I remember to take pictures, ill do a post when that gets done. So coupled with cutting the grass, i finished the day stinking of gear oil, and stale gas. (And because theres no proper hand cleaner at mums, i had to use cold water surf. (Well, the Pams equivalent)

I did with one of my Morris Minors And then I replaced the speedo with a spare so it worked again

Getting closer!!! Next job was to strengthen and close up the rear valance. Pics.. Added internal bracing. I probably didn't need to. Its not really under much stress now without an engine hanging on it as per on an original imp setup. Just closes off the back end, gives something to hang an exhaust on and something for the fiberglass engine cover to latch onto. But hey, I'm only adding a little bit of extra weight... Gave the inside an extra layer of zinc rich paint .. Closed it up.. Flap disc on the welds and trial fitted it. I won't yet fit any exhaust mounts. i want to weld those on when the engine is sat in the blue Imp so its all done to suit its home as no two imps are exactly the same. It looks neat in place though. Speaking of exhausts. I needed a bit of rod for a customers job and went searching through the steel rack... ..and I found this bit of stainless rod with an eye pressed in at one end. Its perfect for the valve actuation rod that'll run along the exhaust box.. I've been having a little browse at various actuators on Ali express and I think one of these could do the job well... https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005003796596080.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.148738damrmWCz&mp=1&gatewayAdapt=glo2vnm With the valance sorted and covered in some epoxy paint ready for a skim of filler I could now remove the engine from rusty green imp. That's the last time it'll be sat in there. Not sure what will become of that shell. Maybe garden art? Maybe just chop it up and keep any useful repair panels in case I have a whoopsie with Blue imp? Its not too rusty and could be saved but it would take another fella like me to do such a silly thing to a car where you can buy better shells, rego on hold, for not much money. British imp fans would probably save it though as its a good solid base compared to what I have seen on offer in the UK. Green imp was then pushed outside into the cold and I sat in front of the wood burner, warm and cosy. I cut the main engine loom in half and let in a big multi plug. I'd been contemplating whether I'd be bothered to do this for some time now and I'm really glad I did for it didn't actually take very long to do. It'll make removing the engine even easier with no need to disturb the ecu wiring under the rear seat. I then removed the gearbox and made a cover plate for the gap located below the flywheel. The bellhousing opening it covers faces forwards and I don't want to fill it with stones, dirt, dead possums etc. Removed the flywheel and carefully ground a lead onto each tooth on the Subaru ring gear. Its designed for a different rotation on the starter and in use the starter would sometimes not mesh properly and make a horrible loud 'gnashing of metallic teeth' sound. Not keen on that. I'd also given the pinion a similar grind so hopefully they'll slide in nicer. Time will tell. I then machined up a basic clutch disc alignment tool.. I refitted the valance and exhaust to the blue imp, drove it into the workshop and then removed the lovely comfy, but not exactly period correct (like as if that's an issue with me....) Tomei steering wheel which will now be fitted into our Nissan Micra. I then cleaned up the lovely Moto-lita steering wheel that has been hanging on the wall for years since I sold my Viva HB. My Uncle in the UK worked for a short time at Moto-lita many moons ago and got this wheel then. He'd fitted it in several cars including a few Morris Minors. When he died my cousins gave it to me after his funeral. I'm very happy to be fitting it in the Imp. It's more in keeping and looks great. I was also happy to discover that Imps and Vivas share the same spline pattern so I was able to use the original nicely made boss. I also removed the stereo, speakers and parcel shelves. The speakers were always in the way and getting knocked by my feet when I entered the car so they won't be going back. Then all the blankets and other stuff that's accumulated in the imp. Lol at the several British airways blankets that had found their way into the imp... Next up were the Recaro seats. Out they came. Definitely going back in though. Might not be period correct but they are lovely. In the future, once I've won lotto I'll get them recovered in a more suitable style. Looking quite bare inside now.. I do love the two tone red/black colour scheme on the door cards and the red rear seat. But I don't love the super sticky flashing tape I'd used to hold down the loom under the rear seat. This stuff is great if you don't want things to move or you desire tired hands trying to remove it. Now it was finally time to remove the Datsun engine. Actually now it was time to make a 'Datsun 1200 wheely stand 2000'. I want to have an easier system to remove/refit the Datsun lump without having to use a top mounted engine cradle and sling - a setup that was due to the centre mounted engine cross member. So I made this.. Yes, a bit over built, but it'll find other handy workshop carting uses in the future if the flat six proves itself and the Datsun setup gets sold on. Fitted sturdy wheels, painted it workshop grey and whipped up a plywood engine cradle with room in the centre to drop the cross member down into. Now in action. Much easier and way faster!!! Engine out... Still a neat little engine. If I was to keep it in the Imp (like said above, the flat six has to prove itself) I'd rebuild it, balanced properly, fit my oval port head, sporty cam, itbs and full engine management. Then promptly destroy the Imp transmission... Arty shot... I stripped out the remaining bits from the engine bay, the rear suspension and cross member. Drained the fuel tank, luckily only 5 litres to bother with, removed it and stashed it away in the garage which is now filling up with imp parts. Brought the green imp back in from the chill so I use it to take measurements from. Measured and marked out the cut lines where I need to chop out under the rear seat base for the taller Subaru transmission. Covered the inside glass surfaces with paper. I'll get Hannah to block grinding sparks when I'm doing any cutting from under the car. So that's where I'm at now. Next job is cutty cutty time.

You're meant to hammer the whole key in while the pulley is installed, I should have added that to the instructions

That was Elliot who owns the X that is getting some loving at Ellis Street Autos. He just happened to see me parked up outside Supercheap so stopped and loitered til I came out, we had a good chat and I took him for a wee dort. Edit; you should swing by and have a go...

I saw this doort past me today with maybe even an @HumberSS or look a-like. (Don't tell the Mrs if I'm wrong!) in the co-pilot seat. Sounded/looked awesome.

Are you sure thats real key steel?

When I sold the 2gr out of my blade the buyer was replacing a motor that had snapped a cam and ate itself. I wonder if this happened to him too?

This arrived! Thank you @Doug Hill <3 It's a little narrower than I expected but I have to trust the process. First I used the caliper depth widget to figure out the exact points the keyway starts to taper so I could figure out what length the key should be. Grand pappy's old hacksaw was okay but not the cleanest separation so I brought out the angle grinder with cutoff disc to get it to the correct width, filing to get it to 100%. Perfect! A little slanted but that'll jam up once it starts running. It's nice to be unblocked again!

Can't say that I have bothered. Just drive from rpm mostly

FS: Ulta high flow valves, Using stem curvature technology to maximize intake airflow. 4x more airflow that a regular valve, due to letting air in on every stroke! $400 ONO, no low balls. I know what I've got Should have the head off by tomorrow some time if the weather stays good. Looks like the other bank is totally fine, hopefully the valve seats and so on are okay on this one. Juts whack some new valves and cam pulleys in hopefully. But thats best case scenario EDIT:

@tortron ever tried to adjust the accuracy of a bmc Smiths speedo? I’m keen to give it a bash.

and I think some have wings, to lock into the holder? YMMV

Will check my stash when I get out of hospital, cheers.

Murica doing great things with detroit 2Ts

If you have spare slots in the fusebox, for the love of OCD, use them! They generally use standard uninsulated female crimp terminals, so easy Jaycar are open Sunday https://www.jaycar.co.nz/63mm-non-insulated-spade-connectors-pk-10/p/PT4630

Thanks team. Odds of getting wet will be very very slim. Dry weather car and it will be tucked with fuse box. Example photo above. I have the ratcheting crimps which seem pretty solid. Have same setup in other car for years. But figured I'd see if anything inherently wrong with the setup before using it again. Was looking to use spare fuse box slots, but doubt id have the correct fittings to slot in. The vacuum setup on the carb will already blow your OCD socks off if you happen to pop the hood.

so something slower than an N/A 80-series diesel cruiser exists ??

Nothing electrically wrong except extreme OCD triggering. If likely to get wet then terrible and if the fuse blows you will hate past self when the wires rip from the crimp as you struggle for grip to replace.