Spotted this locally and held off looking at it as I would have preferred a wellside. After not being able to find one that wasn't a heap of crap, I went and had a look anyway. Was impressed with how tidy it was (considering it's age, 1990) and pretty much had me sold on the spot. Bit of a haggle on price and picked it up the next day. 2.5 petrol (z24) and 5 speed manual. Does what it needs to do. Rear seats are legit, had four up yesterday (as long as the people in the back are reasonably small). Fold away for ample room for bags and whatnot which is awesome.

Was pretty farmer joe spec, so decided to fix that ASAP. So as per the photos I got busy this weekend, and must say I'm pretty happy with the result. Reused the timber sides (hit them with an electric planer, my new favorite toy), new ply on the deck, and generous amounts of black paint. Next up is a bit of low and some wheels, then that'l be about it. It's got pretty bad drivers side (and fuel tank) sag, so have tracked down some second hand leafs for it, so will make a matching pair, chuck some blocks in, and wind the front down to suit.

Also it's kind of crazy to me that these are almost 25 years old.

But anyway, I am always looking at what is on the market and this popped up, high km's, slipping clutch, reasonably cheap. What's not to love?

It's actually not a 'WRX' its a JDM '20k', which was a weird trim/model in Japan that is really a WRX.

So I went to check it out, test drove etc.

Body is decent, needs some dents fixed and paint.

Battery was dead but jump started ok.

New tyres, recent wof.

Not a fan of the 18's on it.

Engine very oily but drives and sounds fine.

1st gear a bit shuddery but then smooth.

Doesn't pull as well as expected.

Only showing 7psi, should be 12-14psi. Thought turbo buggered or boost control issue.

Idle drops and tries to stall some times.

Made an offer anyway and ended up owning it. Life is short etc.

Introducing my 1991 F26A Diamante 30R-S. This particular example is NZ-new and is one of the few that were specially ordered already built up from Japan, as opposed to the Australian assembled Magna/V3000, or the used Japanese import models that came flooding in a few years later. Being an F26A it misses out on 4WS, it also doesn't have a sunroof, rear wiper or half as many electric gizmos as the JDM 30R-SE does. Oh, and it's AWD with a 3.545 viscous LSD rear end which makes it that extra bit special. You can definitely see where it's a stretched and widened E39A platform (firewall, strut towers, front subframes etc) but you can also see some key GTO parts in there too (V6 drivetrain, rear subframe/trailing arms, brakes).














My short term plans are to tidy it up and complete a bit of a restoration finding the original OEM wheels (or similar) as those Reflex's have to go! My long term plan is to swap in a 6G74 3.5L bottom end with some MIVEC 30M heads that I have, and possibly twin turbo conversion with 5 or 6 speed manual gearbox - but this will be a pipe dream for a while no doubt as I'm still living in Canada. My first steps are to fix up a broken exhaust and get it down to my parents place in Taumarunui.

Feel free to discuss my failings!

So, applying tungsten tipped skill saw, added lowness (I carefully checked the safety instructions, this wasn't contra-indicated):

Slamaque! (Kei car wheels for scale).

This fit in the rear seat, fed the small OS team, and will get more tidied up later.

I've been working on both the car and the boat since August but know I'll regret not having a build diary. I'm really enjoying it so far. 

A quick recap of where I'm up to: 

The boat is a John Welsford 6m Whaler design. I did my apprenticeship in wood machining as a teen and my goal was to complete that and get into wooden boat building but life got in the way and a billion years later I'm ticking this off the bucket list. Thing is I have never built a boat before and have no idea what I'm doing. But that's never stopped me before. 

When I decided on the Whaler some time ago I actually found a similar design for sale with a hot dipped trailer for $500. I thought I might be able to get away with an easy project for once but the hull was completely rotten so it's scrap. But thankfully a lot of the stainless and brass fittings are usable and the trailer is spot on for what I need. Just needs a birthday. 

I ordered the study plans to see what I was getting myself into. That was a few drawings and 6 pages of high level sequence steps and tips on building. It didn't make much sense to me but I figured the full plans would. What I didn't realise were that the study plans were the actual plans. The full plans just contained more detailed drawings but the steps were exactly as in the study plans. Yikes. Thankfully a nice chap in Australia was very kind to send me the CNC drawings for the bulkheads. I used a small outfit in Porirua called Matt Makes Objects who was a pleasure to work with. I was very fussy about the type of plywood I wanted to use and he didn't bat an eye at my diva like demands for meranti ply. For hardwood in the construction I'm using kwila decking I had left over from the deck and rose wood for the skeg. For soft wood I'm using dressed pine and whatever wood I've managed to scrounge from the tip that looks semi straight. 

The first step of the build was to knock up a jig. I was on a gravel floor which was leveled by a mk1 eyeball. So it was a lot of trial and error to get it vaguely straight. One thing I haven't even bothered to strive for is a semblance of perfection. So it is what it is. To ensure it stays fairly rigid I dug some post holes and concreted in some posts fore and aft. Turned out to be a bit of a waste of time as with the sun hitting it for a few months it has slightly warped anyway. Let's hope it warped it straight. 

The next part was putting on the bottom panel which was the first part I had to epoxy. I am using West system and they have the handy measured pumps. So to get 5:1 you just pump one of the resin and one of the hardener as as the pumps are different sizes it is 5:1 off the bat. 

Once that was done, I gave it a coat to protect it and set about putting the keelson on. That was my first scarf joint and I would do it better next time but it is what it is. I did it at 3:1 and I should have done it at least double that. It's glued and screwed to the bottom panel so not hanging in the breeze so probably doesn't make a difference. 

After that the next part to work on was the centreboard case. I got quite lucky in that a gentleman from the South Island ditched his centreboard for an inboard motor on his so I got it for a song. It weighs over 80kgs so got it transported up no dramas. 

The centreboard case was quite complex and there were some bits I didn't understand on the plans so I decided to go my own way with a lot of it. I get the feeling that will be a common theme on this project. I built it much stiffer than the plans called for whilst deleting the rowing seat stays. Where the pin holds the centreboard in place I made twice as thick. On the inside where the c/b rattles around I put in a few layers of glass sheets to protect the hardwood packers inside. I'll never be able to get to them again so I didn't want to leave it underdone. 

The pin is 316 stainless and has a threaded hole through the middle to screw down a large washer. I'll glue said large flat washer (after I dress the area since drilling took a chunk out) and hope that will keep the water out. It's under the water line so will need it. 

Where it's up to at the moment is that bulkheads 1-8 are in place with only bulkhead#9 to go. That kind of hangs in the air not touching the bottom panel so I'll have to think about how to do that. This weekend I'll do the flooring support stays and put some more doublers (pacman looking things that the stringers pass through) and seat holder thingies on the bulkheads. Each bulkhead has about 15-20 things to get glued on it, sanded smooth, then reglued and filleted whilst wet. Then the fillet needs to be sanded. It's the white toothpaste looking stuff below. 

I've run out of filesize on this post so I'll make another one on the tow vehicle. 

Tbh it was fairly shagged but everything was there. Tyres where hard as rock and cracked, petrol tank was broken and everything generally bent or broken.

I managed so start and run it for a minute while petrol pissed out of the tank and all over the motor so that was promising / dodgy.

I told my boy (then 4) that he could pull it apart and we'll build a go kart one day.

So in less than a day he had the motor out, wheels off and all axils, suspension, wiring and faring fully stripped.

Many months later a mate offered me an old shopping trolley that was laying around his house, mentioned it to my boy and he liked the idea so got my ass into gear and pulled all the bits out of hiding for him to set up as he saw fit to build.

The mock up.

I've got plans to charter a yacht and go sailing around Greece for a month in 2024.  Partly as a throwback to the family sailing holidays I had as a kid, partly as one big adventure with my dad before hes too old to want to do it again and partly as a way to get married in style.

To accomplish this, I need either a RYA Dayskipper or Yacht master certificate... Or an international certificate of competency.  To get the ICC, you basically do a theory exam on navigation and rules, radio exam with a DSC VHF then a practical exam handling a sailboat for a variety of exercises.  Dad's already way overqualified but I can't share a boat with him or one of us won't make it back alive.  Probably me tbh, he's pretty fit 

Chartering a boat in NZ is ludicrously expensive so getting some practice for the exam was going to be a challenge.

So I bought a boat.

Poor wizard nearly had a hernia dragging this thing over the Napier-Taupo.

From what I know, it's a Ross 780 built sometime in the 90s.  The hull is glass over wood. The Ross was a pretty popular trailer sailer designed for a good balance of racing performance and cruising ability.  The other boat I looked at was an Elliot 780 which is more racing oriented.

This one was a project boat needing some love, so the previous owner has painted most of it and started on the repairs... I don't plan on a full restoration - just gonna make it suit my needs.  If I can kit it out to be able to spend a few days pesting around lake Taupo or tow it up to bay of islands, I'll be happy.

i'm pretty new to oldschool, been around a few other places people might recognize me from so thought i'd chuck up a thread of where i've got to with my car and see what OS thinks.

plan is to keep it road legal so i can still drive it to uni all week, then to the track and home on the weekend. eventual plan is to do targa with the old man. this thing just loves windy roads, almost as much as i do. and thats probably the sole reason i haven't moved on to another car. had this for almost 4 years now. most of the progress has happened in the last year after attending a few track days then started thinking 'shit this is cool!'. have been a uni student studying engineering the whole time i have owned this car so has all been done on a very tight budget and all done myself.

this is how it started;

4afe, single pot brakes, shit arse respray, jamex springs (laugh)

went through and modded the 4afe a bit and also put koni adj. shocks etc in until i got to the point where i needed to do things properly. so went on a big money spending mission

wired in a blacktop with c56 LSD gearbox. added oil cooler and custom extractors to get it a bit better race prepared. oil temps were getting up towards 140deg after track sessions. works nicely with my massive airbox

converted to discs all round and big 275mm rotors with twin pot brakes on the front running TRD black pads i scored super cheap.

then decided to do it properly with a cage and racetech seats and harnesses. still daily driven and love every minute of it!

recently smashed the clutch to pieces at manfield. got a TRD clutch for 30bux and replacing syncro's in gearbox so no more curnchy crunch. hoping to get it all back together this weekend in time to get the suspension a bit better sorted with stiffer springs and HUGE rear swaybar in anticipation of winter series coming up. hoping to do all of the manfield rounds if money permits/nothing goes bang.

let me know what you think. hopefully will meet a whole bunch of GC's at nats for mean yarns!

We weren't looking for for anything in particular but was searching for something tidy and nothing we had before. 

It's a 1997 1.3L manual with 122000km 

Small amount of paint fade on roof and just general little car park dents. 

The interior is so good. Basically brand new. Only thing I had to fix was passenger air vent was broken. One trip to pick a part and had that sorted. 

Up close photo of the awesome yarn they used to knit the interior out of. 

Thanks for looking 

Nick.

However I often make things like this for a laugh and probably so do you, so now there is a thread for that stuff.

Extra points for repurposing worthless shit.

Like this redneck spa I smashed together over the weekend;

Unfortunately the gas ran out for the califont in the shed so couldn't try it out, maybe tonight.

I might put that pump on its own trolley so it can live out of the rain...

After selling the Alto Works, there was a tiny little nugget shaped hole in my life, so I had no choice but to fill it with another Kei car.

If you were following the previous Alto from the start, you might remember this one from here.

Long story short, there was an auction (maybe an estate sale? Can't recall) a couple of hours north of where I live, and when browsing through the list of what was going to be available, there happened to be a Suzuki Alto Works listed. Weird thing to have in a barn, I thought, but hey I'm keen.

I went up to view and bid on the car, and as soon as I saw it, I fell for the little nugget. Who couldnt love that little face.

It'd been off the road for 11 years at that point, and had been sitting the whole time. The interior was foul

The exterior was also filthy, top to bottom, so it was hard to get a good gauge on the condition. Poking around with my torch though, I found a couple of spots that needed attention

The front of each sill, where the jacking points should be, had some rust, including this hole on the passenger's side.

The boot lip had been trapping moisture under the seal too, and rusted along there (and causing a leak into the boot)

The only real damage to the exterior, other than a couple of small dings, was this dent in the front guard. I suspect since the door hinges are bent, that the door over extended forward, damaging both

But otherwise it appeared fairly solid, and most importantly, mostly complete

No one knew if it had run, when it last ran, or if it was previously a good runner. I found the keys on the keyring in the car next to it, so moved them to the Alto, but otherwise it was all an unknown.

The auction rolled around, I did my best but ultimately got outbid. For me, the risk of the unknowns at that point were just too great, so I kept my top bid reasonable.

Fast-forward almost two years, and I get a message from a friend saying, "I put out looking to buy a Kei car, and got offered a car I read about on your very blog. It's too much of a project for me, but do you want me to put you in touch?" Heck yeah I do!

So he passed my email on and the owner dropped me a line "Hi, I have a Suzuki Alto Works for sale, would you be interested in a project"

Of course, I held back my excitement and asked for more details

He came back with a couple more details, but more importantly a couple of photos

Undeniably the same car, car club sticker and all. Unfortunately, he also mentioned the engine was rust seized, and had been sent off to a rebuilder to be stripped and assessed, which resulted in it being declared completely kaput (and a "$10K" quote to rebuild it).

I replied asking for more information about the engine damage and condition of the car and heard nothing but crickets.

Me, being me, couldnt leave it well enough alone. The damn thing was rattling around rent-free in my head, so 7 months after I heard nothing back, I flicked him a quick email asking how he was getting on with the Alto.

"Good timing, I was just thinking I should do something with the car or get rid of it"

After a lot of back and forth, the stars aligned and on my way to the track in the BRZ the other weekend I detoured an hour or so out of my way and went to look at the little nugget.

It was pretty well as expected; the front of the car was all in bits, the engine was spread across a few shelves, and the car was looking a bit sorry for itself.

On the plus side, he had cleaned the car inside and out, and honestly, the interior clean alone was worth having him win the car in the first place instead of me

The engine was pretty dire, but we'll get back to that later.

Anyway, it all checked out, everything was there, the rego was still on hold, and after going away and doing some more research into what on earth I was doing, I made an offer.

We settled on something in between what both of us were thinking, and a friend of his was roped in to bring the car and multiple tubs of parts down to me.

Yesterday the car arrived.

Here is my latest project, Nuggie, the 1990 Suzuki Alto Works RS-X CN21S

I had been super anxious all morning, but actually seeing the car roll up on the trailer, looking ridiculously small, just wiped all the anxiety away and replaced it with excitement.

Whilst discussing the transport with the transporter beforehand, we had been coming up with plans to get the car off the trailer and down into my garage, since my driveway, although short, is very steep. I think in the end it was going to be a case of using the winch on the van to winch the car down into the garage.

But thankfully that didnt matter. As it turns out, not only does the handbrake work, but so do the service brakes. So with a little push, the Alto was off the trailer and I gently guide it down into the garage using the handbrake to control it.

We unload all the parts, and after bidding farewell, I stand back and see the Alto in its new (temporary) home

Theres a couple more spots of rust than I could see at the auction (one of them is the front edge of the bonnet in the above photo, seems to be a common spot), and the paint is flat as anything, but it will hopefully polish up nicely. I won't do that yet, I want a good before and after in the sun.

I couldnt help but check out a couple of the cool little things about the early cars. One of them is visible in the photos above; the vertical door handles. These were only on the early cars, as they later replaced them with normal boring handles when they decided safety was more important than being cool and added side intrusion bars. This even necessitated changing the quarter panels since they have cutouts for your hand on the vertical handle cars.

The front seats are pretty wild too. Such late 80's vibes

You can actually quickly remove and flip the shoulder support on the backrest, for either higher or lower support

Another early feature I'm a big fan of is the super retro dash and the gauge cluster, both of which got "modernised" in 1991.

Moving on, spread across the tubs were all the engine components, and now that I had time to have a decent look at them, it was grim

The main journals on the crank are very unhappy

There are a couple of less than happy valves too. I suspect even if the engine didnt drink a bunch of water that it wouldnt have run very well with a burnt valve

But the block is the least happy

I'm looking into options currently, and have a potential lead on a complete engine that would be a better base to rebuild, otherwise I could bore this block out and use oversize forged pistons. We'll see.

Either way, I want it running fairly quickly (without compromising too much, I want it done properly), so have a roughly 6-month plan to be back on the road, and I want it out of the garage within a month or two as I'm very limited on garage space.

Parts have already been ordered, and I'll be making a start on the rust soon. Plenty more to come. Keep on moving.

Plan is a nice solid drive-line and a 4g63T under the bonnet.

The car had been in a carport for quite some time with the hood down, and it looks as though an animal might have been living in there - Presumably a poodle..

The outline at this stage is :

Engine:

Evo 4 head onto vr4 block, with second hand wiseco pistons, grafted together early and late inlet manifolds, factory cast exhaust manifold with an evo 9 turbo flipped to face forward (possibly a mild wheel upgrade) run by and evo 7 ECU. will need to fab up a rear bowl sump and a few other goodies..

Transmission:

We snapped up a 4G63 to W series Toyota Bills auto fab custom bellhousing for cheaps, but not 100 % if it's an ideal gearbox choice given the age and popularity these days.. so will keep the options open. (some discussion of a 6 speed 350Z box)

Diff:

Evo plate LSD - probably solid mounted, but will explore mounting option in greater detail down the track, but probably some form of Mitsi axles I'd imagine? option B would probably be a GTR diff.

So yeah that's about it at this stage..

This is a bit of a joint project with a mate of mine who is into modified evos and hondas..

Sunday: I ripped out around 20KG's of extra wiring, including at least a dozen relays, aftermarket central locking, boot popper, 4 alarm sirens (yes 4) 2 separate alarm systems, air horns, spot lights, 7 speakers and 3 kilometres of stereo wiring. I was a little worried things would not be working afterwards, but all is go except the park lights and the hazards.. although when you press the hazard button it does engage the starter.

Also has the ultimate in rangi throttle switch which looks to have been used for Water meth injection or some such..

Also ran over it with the buffer and cutting compound as it was just to terrible looking.

-still had drivers side to do in that pic.

I guess i could post up pics of pistons,engine bits, and bellhousing etc.. but we'll leave that for another day..

Let the flaming begin...

I just so happened to know of an abandoned Gtir project in a paddock and after a quick phone call a deal was done 

It had been sitting in the paddock approx 7 years. It ran but had a blown gearbox (of course) some rust and dents and every rubber part was perished and dash cracked etc.

I immediately brought up on parts blew it to bits fixed the dents and rust and was ready to send it off to the paint shop, then…….

I bought another one

its about that point things escalated

It was owned by a local papermill from new, and was used solely on concrete/tarmac in the paper machine basement and around site. Because of this, it has had a few modifications made to stop functions being used that were not needed, or would ruin something or someone. I knew when I purchased it that the cardan shaft had been removed so that it couldn't be put into 4WD (would not be happy on pavement) and that the 3-point linkage set up was gone (it was only used to tow a trailer) along with the lever that controls the 3-point up down. Its also had the front rims widened to take an industrial spec road tyre (the rims are only 5" wide standard) and it currently has flat, bald forklift looking industrial tyres on the rear. It was cheap enough that I took the gamble on finding the parts needed to reinstate the 4WD, and knew I'd need the correct sized tyres to keep the 4WD happy. 

What I only just realized is that because they wanted to fit road spec tyres, they have changed the back rims from 18" to 15" (possibly why the cardan shaft was deleted) which really screws up the plan of reinstating the 4WD. Turns out the 18" rims/tyres are not very common either. I was a bit "AWWW FUCK" about the back rim dilemma, but then found a place in Belgium that happens to stock full sets of rims tyres for this unit. But by the time I got them here, they would be the same price as what I paid for the tractor itself. drats. I emailed every tractor wrecker I could find in NZ, and they all came back with nothing. APART FROM ONE PLACE, THAT HAD A COMPLETE TRACTOR, THAT THEY WILL WRECK IF I TAKE ALL THE BITS I ENQUIRED ABOUT, THANK YOU SWEET EIGHT POUND SIX OUNCE BABY JESUS.      

So I have expressed interest in the following parts:

Full set of rims/tyres

Full set of 3-point linkage arms

Lever to control up/down of 3-point linkage

Cardan shaft, UJ's and cover tube thing

Ignition barrel and key

Front grill

Gear knob

RPM/hour gauge and cable that runs it

If I get all these bits, I'll have a complete fully functional tractor on my hands, and still for a lot less than what they seem to sell for.

Pics to come.

So far tractor ownership has been an emotional rollercoaster, but things are looking up, for now.

Regards, VG. 

The one I've had for ages is affectionately known as the BBQ. I bought it as a bog standard E36 328i auto and proceeded to throw 10K at it to make it into a really tidy msport spec car with coilovers and bucket seats. Then the engine caught fire and the lovely folks at Swann gave me the car back and $11k cash.

How I bought it

How it turned out

So.. long story short, on the way is an L98 from a VE commodore, Tr6060 box, and a lot of bleedy knuckles and swearing. 

Engine due in a week so will get stuck in.

Also being a ghey, naturally I got an E46 msport 330i convertible and put the wrong offset wheels on it so it rubs and is twitchy, Great!

Photos to come, I forgot how to code.

XX 

Spanners

I'd love to see what you guys have built that's NZ styled JDM type custom built kits..

Anybody can follow instructions (cough cough) but let's see your custom kits..

These are a few of my up and coming

the so fucking ugly it's cool citreon

Ae86

DX Corolla (close copy of mates old 12a j port)

Corona coupe

MK2 supra xx

GA70 supra (Copy of my real supra)

what does someone with too many projects need?

another one.

take it apart

of course it needs lowering, a scooter engine cause thats what was in the garage, had some spare go kart bits

Now, I hear you thinking to yourself "calm down VG, its just a gay little nana car, and just a daily" and you're not wrong, but I'm going to share this journey here with you as I do plan to waste a bunch of money making this little nugget into a masterpiece of "sad old man in a midlyfe crisis trying to return to his youth by building a try hard boy racer spec car". 

Oh, and the reason for the name growler, my first car (first equal with an LH torana) was a first gen swift, and because I was a teenager I put a fairly loud exhaust on an otherwise std car and it was quite loud and had a growl to it, and my mates named it the growler, with the added dimension that its also a slang name for a vagina and thats humorous.

Anyways, enough of that bollocks, I give you The Growler pt2:

Hello, this is what I hope to be a build thread for me converting my Toyota Platz to rwd. 
A Platz for most people seems an odd vehicle to put money in to and spend this much effort on, but I come from a background of vitzs so naturally I had to do something to the sedan version. I want to create something unique and different and show potential of these strange commuter cars. Here is a photo of the base car.

I have to mention this project is based around chopping the car as minimal as possible so it still has the ability to revert back to fwd for legality reasons. This adds the the complexity of not being able to just hack it up and use a Silvia subframe so it will end up being more of a bolt in a fair. Another factor is that it will be slammed on 13s and when doing that the centre point of the hub is almost inline with the chassis rails so this means it isn’t possible to use a solid rear axles either. 

I look forward to sharing my progress on here.
 

I thought i'd like to make a clock so found a kit, got side tracked and ordered more nixie stuff.

The kit arrived just before Christmas so I have been working on it when I'm motivated enough. 

When I was trying to find info on the hitachi nixies of dads (still can't) I found this site http://www.gstube.com/ and they had a interesting looking display so I ordered it, It arrived today finally.

circuit board and stuff

Dads tiny hitachi nixies

The russian display and dekatraon

I found this particular one at cash converters and bargained them down because I knew it had been there a while.

If you have no idea what these things are think Morrison reel mower but for your carpet they have a spinning brush that basically combs your carpet up all poofy like an 80's women's hair.

Just like a Hillman hunter rather than a Rolls Royce they just seem to survive.

Tonight I ripped it to bits and polished the housings up to get it looking loved again.

Will fit new drive belts tomorrow and fit the cleaned up bag and see how it goes.