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  1. I glooped the two halves together, bolted them up, bolted the tailhousing on and let it set. Following morning it was bolted onto the engine, unsurprisingly a bit heftier with all the gubbins placed back within the box. Its about 9kg heavier than the standard imp box. I then started to fit the first part of the gearshift linkage. The first of those snazzy universal joints, handily available in a diameter to suit the shifter shaft on the Subaru box. I just needed to add a small locating hole for the grub screw... Universal in place.. Engine and box were then bolted back into the car. This bit is so quick and easy when using the 'engine stand 2000'. It takes about 10 mins and I'm getting quicker. It'll be slower when there's shift linkage to undo and driveshafts to slip out of the way. But at least the main heavy awkward part is actually easy. That lot in place I took some pics. Its neat to be able to look out from the one of the lounge room windows down onto the workshop floor and see this... With that lot in place I was able to suss out the angles I could get away with, as shallow as possible and allowing for the handbrake mechanism. I had this old imp gearstick assembly that @dmulally kindly posted over to me. Some previous owner of the car he got it from liked painting things. Everything. Multiple times... I scraped all the layers off, took it apart and cleaned off the dirty old grease. Discovered it had been cobbled together from two old shifter bases. It was originally a very early Imp unit when the very first cars had an automatic choke, which often proved problematic. Hillman then changed the cars over to a manual choke with a nifty little lever in front of the shifter. This mount had been added to the early base. Which means they must have chopped up a later baseplate to get the choke mount. Why they didn't just fit the entire newer base plate I don't know. But what I had in front of me was a frankenstein of base plates with barry spec welding and fixes, but also including a not too badly made bronze bush on the lever where there is normally a (wornout) plastic bush. I had a couple of shift rods to choose from. I chose the least worn. Moving back to the gearbox end I machined up some shaft ends from stainless bar to suit the universal joints. I had some stainless tube and welded the ends in place on the first shaft that runs from the gearbox universal down to the tunnel. Now I needed a sturdy, slippery support to mount in place of the second universal joint. This will not only take back and forth movement on the shaft but also a bit of thrust loading created by the angle on the connecting shaft. I had already bought a lump of slippery hard engineering plastic with this application in mind when I had ordered the plastic for the flywheel thrust bearing a while back. It was bright yellow. Luckily not seen under the car as it would clash with the blue paint. I put a hole in it and machined the outside down. Which also created a pile of pretty swarf.. Then reamed it out to 1" Still a bit tight so out with the adjustable reamers.. until it was just right... Then made a stainless cradle .. The cradle got some wings welded in place and I dug the rivnut tool out.. Mount now bolted in place in the tunnel I had to chop the last tube to the right length, weld on the end and bolt the universal in place.. The front end below the shifter was was standard imp stuff and this is where problems popped up to throw a medium sized spanner in my workings. The side to side gearstick movement across the gate was minimal. Ridiculously so. Like about 1". Or 25mm in new money. Yet the fore and aft movement was about right. But quite stiff. I was contemplating why this was so and what I could do to remedy this when I also noted that 1st gear was where 3rd was and 3rd was where 1st was. Poos. Four years ago when I had compared the Subaru gearshift pattern at the box to the imp unit I thought they were exactly the same. But I had not accounted for the reverse rotation taking place under the imp gearstick. Also I never really thought much about how little of rotation the Subaru box needed on its shifter shaft to shift the internal selector across the 3 rods. Its a tiny amount, like 3 degrees say. Whereas the Imp box has a shorter internal selector and requires more rotation at the shaft. Hence the Imps gearstick knob only moves a teeny bit when coupled to the Subaru box. But the Subaru box has a standard/similar amount of rod movement within (ie 1-2 and 3-4th) which was going to make things trickier to fix. Simple linkage/leverage multiplications that is easier to see than explain. Sorry if your brain hurts. I had to hurt my brain a little bit to suss out a solution but there was only a little bit of smoke. The reason the scooby box is different becomes obvious when you see the scooby shifter setup. Which luckily I can show you because last week thanks to @Leone I was put onto a local fella to me who happens to have many old Leones and Brats kicking about his property and he had a spare leone front wheel drive box that I wanted (always handy just in case...) His property is amazing!!! Long 4wd only driveway up to a ridgetop house with stunning views out over Tasman Bay. Old leones just kicking about... Luckily we have our trusty old 4wd Hiace and that became the days gearbox transporter... Box on bench. Look at that shifter mechanism... The shifter rod attached to the gearstick only rotates a tiny amount when the stick is moved sideways across the gate. But the rod moves 10mm in each direction when shifting for and aft. Simple. Robust. Very Subaru. I can't copy it though because I have turned my box 180 degrees. No matter where I put my pivot point (below or above) I'll have one of the planes working backwards. So I decided to build a new shifter base setup. The most important thing was to reverse the rotation so the gearstick pattern is correct. The imp pivot point needed raising to allow the offset shaft end to be rotated to above rather than below the centre line, so reversing the across gate movement. I would add the ability to adjust both rotation and lineal movement. Started with a new pivot cup because I was not happy with the worn and Barried pressed steel item.. I dug out a large lump of steel bar... Chopped out a square and cleaned it up in the mill.. Big drill = big hole.. Rough machined out a cup shape. Cut a form in cardboard to suit the brass ball and used a die grinder bit to finish the shape... Grinding paste time... Slots for pivot pin.. Lightened the lump down.. Built the shaft up with weld and machined it down so I could add a lower pivot point. Milled some steel like so.. Welded a boss on.. New socket for shift lever ball end... Cut out Barrys previous workmanship... Machined up some spacers and a base plate.. Welded up a little tower (my stainless and steel tig welding is definitely improving, helped muchly by realising that not being able to see what I'm doing does not help much and finally admitting to my age and buying some reading glasses....) Welded tower to base.. Now all together please... Bolted together. You can spot the adjustable rotation, which the spacers allow for, along with adjustable pivot point. In place... Yay- it works! The shift pattern is correct and the action is much smoother. The spring loaded indents on the internal gearbox shift rods are quite stiff, which I noted was the same on the other box with its stock shifter. Its a bit baulky to push past the synchro baulk rings into gear but I think will feel better when the gears are actually rotating. There's certainly no slop in the system and it feels very mechanical - not rubbery. I now note how much flex there is around the shifter base in the imps tunnel (granted a very rusty shell..) Its something I might just try to stiffen up on my blue Imp when fitting this lot in. Phew. That was a little mini engineering mission I was not expecting but that's this project in general
    74 points
  2. Ha. So pretty much the day after I had cleaned up that old alternator up and got it running on the engine the second hand replacement for my original unit turned up in the post. It came with a 3 month warranty so I'd better check it works before stripping the engine of its ecu etc. Started to fit it and oh.. Poos. It wont fit. So I took it apart, along with the original.. Discovered its just the front housing that's different and I can swap them across.. So while its apart it would be rude not to clean all the parts up and polish it all (tempting fate just a bit...) Fitted to the engine and started it up. Yay - it works and it looks great, which is really quite important given its right there, in the middle on display. I'll keep the other one in storage just in case I need it one day. Now I could strip the engine back down, removing all the cooling, wiring and fuel lines that I had installed just for bench testing. Then I removed the transmission and put the engine back onto the engine stand 2000, stashing it away because its gearbox tinkering time. This Leone transmission has a few little issues that need sorting out in order for it to run in reverse rotation and not potentially turn itself into an expensive insinkerator or coffee grinder. I could probably get away without doing these modifications because the box is overbuilt for the application but I wanted peace of mind. Remember I had acquired the two gearboxes, 1600 and 1800 items, before getting the engine. Ages ago, in fact 4 years ago I think!!! I had wanted to know if it was feasible to run these boxes in reverse. This pic I posted up way back then gives a good idea on what's going on inside... I had already worked out some of the issues back then and knew what I was up for. With more study I found a couple of other areas that need addressing. Here's another bit of wonderful scribbling I did this evening.. The pink arrows show the new axial forces that are being imparted onto the main (driver) shaft and pinion (driven) shaft. The circles are areas that I think needed attention to make sure it doesn't throw it toys from the cot. 1 : the blue circle. Under high torque loads this area could possibly create the sound of nashing teeth but with much messier consequences. The top left one being the third gear driver wants to move to the right and clip the teeth on the bottom right second gear. In normal rotation they would move apart. There's 1mm of clearance there which is probably enough tbh. But I wanted a bit more and had already worked out how I could get it with no other issues and just a bit of tool making. Which is fun. 2 : The yellow circle. This ring was no going to take thrust loading. It is a strong ring and has a deep groove but I wanted to make sure there was no way it could ever shift. 3 : the green circle. In this area there is a thrust bearing that also acts as a neat little oil pump and squeezes oil through the gear hubs/bushes. Under the new loading the thrust aspect is removed but I still wanted to it pump oil and it was going to be the wrong shape to do so in reverse rotation. So I set to work and checked off each job. I made a bolt holder for ease of reassembly - several different sizes and lengths. Once apart I started with the gear side clearance. First off I needed to split the mainshaft assembly down. 4 years ago I had out of interest tried using a puller on the spare 1600 box, which shares the same layout and design but with smaller parts in many cases. The puller didn't work. But this time round I have the rather handy workshop press I made. I just needed some extra tooling to do this job. Starting with some press plates... Allowing me to carefully press the shaft out... Because I'm not posh (or rich) enough to own a surface grinder I needed to make one. Yes its a bit basic but it will work. I made this... Which allowed me to do this.... I ended up with this gear having the 0.5mm more clearance I wanted. Super happy with the result. Now onto number 3 - the little oil pumpy thingee. I went to my friendly engineering workshop in town and got a big lump of 4140 steel. I drilled it out... Machined out a ring which had to be an exact width. Just in case it needed finishing after the hardening process I made an abor to take it.. I carefully machined it to the right profile, cut the sides down and filed the shapes in, just like the original but in reverse. Happy it was going to work I heat treated it. I have not done any heat treating for over 25 years since I spent a fair bit of time in the blacksmith department while doing my apprenticeship. But it wasn't a super loaded critical component and just had to have a durable hard surface. I didn't take any photos. Hannah was there helping as I carefully heated it up with the oxycet to the austenitic stage and agitated it in some lovely rice bran oil (because I can be posh sometimes) then slapped it in the oven to temper it... Following morning I polished it. It came up sweet and the old file test showed it to be as hard as the oem item. You can see the reversed design here... Here's a little vid I took showing it in action... While stripping the mainshaft down I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that this 1800 box has needle bearings in all of the gear hubs unlike the 1600 box which uses bushes on the mainshaft. So oil starvation would not have been as much of an issue but I'm still really happy I did this modification. Last issue to sort was number two - that ring on the bearing. It would hold fine I'm sure but if could make it bulletproof then why not - it's just a bit of extra machining. I started with another lump of high tensile steel and machined out a ring to suit... This fits over the other ring and then the main thrust plate that sits over the bearing was machined out to suit my reinforcement ring. Its all held in place by the end housing which I have yet to fit. All the potential issues covered I set to cleaning out the casing and then started reassembly. In doing so I discovered that the original axle seals are sided on these boxes. They have those helical lines on the lip surfaces which aid in pulling/pumping oil back into the oil side of the lip ( the lip does not actually touch the steel when the axle is moving and in fact runs on a tiny bed of oil) which I had not realised before I'd bought plain lip seals from an engineering supplies. This pumping capacity is shown to be twice as high in helixed seals. Subaru fit left and right handed items. But I'm running mine in reverse. Luckily the originals were in excellent condition anyway so I machined up a stepped tool, popped them out and swapped them to the other side. The diff axle seal surfaces came up good after a clean. Cute little diff.. I'm now about ready to put some 3 bond gloop on the case half and drop the other side in place. Its looking all very nice, clean and shiny in there...
    66 points
  3. Alright so as of yesterday I'm finally out of mortgage prison! I finished moving house with heaps of time to spare, I definitely wasnt biffing trailer loads of stuff onto the lawn the night before settlement. I got some throttle pulleys cut from stainless. I'll put a radius on the inside of the pulley edges and deburr a few spots, but on the whole they came out really nicely. Quite heavy though, probably could have made some parts thinner. (Everything 2mm stainless) It's looking like it'll be fiddlier than expected to balance the cable length and pulley positions to get the banks even. One thing that I didnt take into account is that there is no tolerance for having a cable that is "overlength" as you physically cant slide the protruding end of the cable into the pulley. However I could probably chop out the relevant section of the pulley to allow this without any issues, as these are still significantly beefier than they need to be. I need to make some end stops of some sort to stop the throttle rails moving forward or backwards so everything stays aligned correctly. You may notice that in this photo I've got the linking cable on the wrong way up. It looks dumb having these on the front of the motor, but down the back is getting very crowded and I've got ants in my pants to get this damn thing fired up. I got the throttle rails drilled, took about 3 hours to drill 6 holes! We had to grind flats onto the rod to get through the hardening. Otherwise carbide bits didnt even make a dent. Next jobs are to print a final iteration of the manifold from Nylon, get fuel lines connected up, and keep working on the exhaust. Then I'm preeeeety close to firing it up!
    51 points
  4. Well after the last novel length wall of text I'll try to keep this update shorter otherwise I'll never finish the thing. Lots of little jobs starting to pop up on my 'to do' list. Driveshafts. Connecting the scooby shafts to the imp axles. A job I wasn't sure which direction I'd take as there's so many different ideas out there on the nerdnet showing 'the best' way to join shafts. First thing I did was to double check the suspension travel allowed by the stock shock absorbers and then use those datum points to work out if there was any growth in the length of shaft required as the wheel moves through it path up and down. There was minimal amount, like maybe 5mm at the very most. I guessed as much because the stock Imp driveshaft doughnuts dont allow for much sideways travel. I then cut one of my 22mm scooby shafts down in length so I could work out the lengths required with the CV joint in place. This move I soon regretted. I was allowing for plenty of plunge into the CV joints to make sure the whole joint could be removed from the box stub axle with the box pushed sideways when removing the transmission. I was happy with the length and then decided to go visit a local hotrod builder friend for some advise. He's well known about for his many many full scratch builds and has done heaps of driveshafts in his time (a fellow machinist by trade too) I showed him the two ways I was considering doing the join. He showed me a better way. Shrink some bored out yokes cut off from some spare axles. Plenty of meat, will never let go and even if they somehow did loosen and spin they cant come out because there's not enough travel in the CV joint to allow them to. No welding needed. He's run axles done in the same way with some serious big block power and they never let go. Just has to be accurate and luckily its the sort of machining/fitting job I like. But i needed to start with almost full length scooby shafts to do it, of which I was now down on.. Roll eyes and back to the wreckers to see this beauty get pulled from the hedge... Hannah helped me remove the shafts. It was her birthday too so wow, what a treat. She got visit the wreckers and get oily. Got home and the shafts didn't fit my CVs. Bigger diameter end. Really weird because I checked online... ha. It lies. Turns out some late 4wd Leones had even bigger axle ends than the imprezzas. Also odd is that one shaft is 22mm and the other side 24mm, although both the same length. Back to the wreckers. This time I got larger 25mm shafts with the smaller ends from front wheel drive Imprezzas. I grabbed two pairs. Same again, 22mm on one side and 25 on the other. Now I had two of each. Got home and spent some time cleaning them up, outside because petrol fumes. Cleaned up the spare pair of axles in the lathe to make sure I had an accurate clamping spot for the later boring. Good quality steel! I turned them down to less than the 23mm bore size and chopped the yokes off. Made lots of swarf Bored out to bang on 23mm with nice radius. Double checked and triple checked I had my lengths required correct. Chopped the two 25mm scooby shafts down to length and turned a step down on one end of each, a radiused step to stop any stress risers. I went for .0015"~.002" interference. Go online and see the debates between all the barries about what a good shrink fit should be There's many variables as well. I consulted my old faithful machinery's handbook. I wanted it tight, but not stressed. Luckily the axle is of good steel. I also made a sample first, using one of the cut off bits of scooby shaft and some 4340 I machined to the same outer dimensions as the yoke. This way I was able to test how hot I needed to get it to expand enough to drop in place. I'll take this to a local engineers who have a press with a pressure gauge and see how much force it takes to wreck this thing Here's about a one hundredth of a millimetre (iirc) getting removed.. Then things got hot.. photos taken after it was done because I had to move bloody quick! Hannah would grab the torch and I would drop the yoke in place. It was a tense bit of time. If the yokes teetered and grab they'd pull the heat so quick and shrink in place before getting to the shoulder. No removing them without damage and I only had the one pair of spare axles. It went well. I was happy and relieved. The light rust flashing off on one is simply due to that one having been left nearer the front of the workshop to cool down and it was a chilly damp start to the morning. They wired brushed up neat as, got painted with black epoxy and when that was set they had new universal joints fitted. I cant try them on the car until I remove the existing axles from the hubs but it should be fine. Next up was to sort the fuel tank out to suit fuel injection. I brought the blue imp in and checked a few ideas out on what I could do. I don't really have room for a surge tank and I never liked the noise on my Viva from the external fuel pump anyway. Nor did I like the way the fuel in the surge tank heats up. Enter the humble Nissan Micra k11 intank fuel pump and surge container... It actually looked like it was just going to fit into the pressed depression at the bottom of the imp fuel tank.. With enough room to run the imp fuel float sender next to it. Cut a hole.. It fits. I'll cut the bracket off the side at bottom of pic and it'll move sideways a bit more.. Made some metal brackets Welded them in and now I have a cradle that takes two cable ties across the top to secure. I needed a flange.... Made this. Its designed to recess the lid about 10mm below the tank top. I want to keep the tank top as flat as possible. It'll have the usual layer of foam over top but I don't want things sticking up proud when the 'frunk' is being used (cant be tearing those bags of concrete now eh....) Many holes drilled and tapped.. Carefully welded in place. Was a tricky job. Thin steel on the tank that had some sort of (probably poisonous) coating. But happy with result. I made another hole... That takes the sender. Drilled and tapped more holes to suit. Now I needed to get fuel from the outside in and from the inside out. I machined up these in stainless.. Thought of a neat way to hold the little bits together for tacking. Blue tack. Or blue tack tack? welded up.. I made an angled recess into the hatch cover so the fuel hose goes even further below the tank line. Visible in that photo are the cable connections. Again - I needed to get power in. I machined some shouldered fittings in plastic.. Luckily the micra pump so handily just uses a simple connector with 6.3 spade terminals. Under the lid... Tank hard work done. I'll paint bits and cut some gaskets. Speaking of gaskets. One of mine between my oil filter pedestal and the block is weeping oil. Plus one of the bolt heads weeps. Typical. Put a Japanese engine in a British car and turn your back for a minute... I've already drained the oil cleaned it up and ran a smear of paintable sikaflex along it and around the bolt head. I didn't take photos because not really exciting. I'll paint it silver and no one will know. Except you the reader. Next up is the exhaust I think.
    37 points
  5. Our new oven came with a huge waste of space under it so I drew up a drawer with wheels on the corners and I got it cut and folded. Then I welded it together. Its designed so the wheel brackets slot into the sides and base but it doesn't need welding, that way I can change the wheels if I ever need to.
    37 points
  6. Back home in Porirua. I picked up another set of wheels that are looking pretty schmick. Recaro seats are also in after drilling one hole in each of the factory Toyota runners. Exhaust fell off on the way to Shannon but easily fixed with tie wire.
    35 points
  7. Collected from the paint shop on Tuesday basically a closed door repaint in the stock colour, nothing fancy Had a bit of reassembly to do, the bellflower pipes and the back seat and associated trim. Also had to find a bolt to fit one that went missing from the convertible top linkage (you can see the disconnected link in the photo above) Might have to hit up @ajg193 to make me a proper one as it is a special shouldered design. Looking it over the rear tyres looked a bit sad, so I pulled the wheels (which needs the tyres deflated) and got that sorted. WOF acquired today so have paid rego too. Just needs a bit of a clean up for the Beach Hop.
    33 points
  8. I had Lets Get Graphic re-make my side billboards in proper vinyl..much better! Accordingly the duraseal peeled off the adhesive and then they had to thinners off stubborn glue..oops. Took it for its biggest run out to rangiora MCM show.. went great until the needles wiggled and it stumbled then the Amp gauge read drain. Parked it up and left it until the trip home couple days later, it did it again but didnt hinder the journey. Few hundred metres from home it backfired and the needle came back to life and it was charging again! By the time id washed it and drove back in shed it wasnt charging again. Tore it open and spotted a broken field wire so i soldered it back on and not change. Weird. Fucked aroubd with tests and bypassing things, external reg tested ok. Left it with a customer whos a sparky, could tell he wasnt into it but said hed take a look but his test bench wasnt working. Few weeks passed so i went and grabbed it back. He did say the wire sheath looked like it was degrading and it might be earthing. Put my pick under the other field wire to tweak it into open space and there was no pull resistance..broken too. Was a bit awkward but soldered a new wire in between the broken ends and threw it back on, Amp gauge working! Then it stopped. Decided it was the centrifugal forces throwing it out and the wee bare wire patch was touching so dripped epoxy glue in/on to make a protective sheath and its been great since. Will get another Alt cause its pretty fragile and old.
    32 points
  9. Making some thank you gifts for friends that looked after us on our recent trip overseas, reliefs of the mountains they call home. Carved out with the cnc to replicate contour lines on a map then run over with the gas torch to highlight the ridges.
    29 points
  10. Nosecone is fully mounted, rough guards are on for mock up. this ute seems to be longer than the other ute. Probably built in a different factory as they are 4 years apart from memory.. im glad I chose to use this ute for RX3UTE, it is the same model and spec now.
    27 points
  11. I modelled and printed some door card clips which as always gives me the deepest pleasure. These worked pretty well after some tweaks. These are not exact copies and are designed so they are easier to print, but functionally they are sweet. The drivers side window winder mech was deeply wrong, the wire tension adjustment was maxed out, hacked and the maxed out again, but the wire was still as loose as fuck and while it kindof worked it made horrible grindy noises. This came from the barrel where the wire was straddling grooves cos it was so loose. It was all down in a difficult to reach place, and those mechanisms are notoriously cunty to pull out and put back. Amazing that I got a bollock into that shot as well. The passenger side was sweet and the wire connection looks like this; After a bit of thought and dicking around trying to take slack out of the wire a genius idea came to me; I routed the wire like that through both lift points, which took up enough slack that I could tension the mech properly. Another 1/4 hr of contortion with a torch, phone and screwdriver and I had the wire slipped back into its rightful track. It works perfectly again, yay!
    27 points
  12. Body painted, trunk and hood should have been done today. Popped up the road and collected the rear bumper and other parts from the panel shop. Plan is to be all back together for the Beach Hop.
    27 points
  13. I've been chipping away a fair bit lately. I managed to find some radiator suport panels. This was my first time doing any sort of panel work, after a fair bit of tweeking I managed to get them good enough to where I was happy. I also filled in the 2 big holes in the engine bay. Years ago I hacked off the washer bottle mount to make room, luckily I kept the remains of it. I made new ends for it to replace the bits I hacked away. Replaced the battery tray. I did a test fit of the engine to sort a few things out. The main things were the gearbox cross member and where to fit a clutch master cylinder and sorting the exhaust. Not a hell of a lot of room, but it worked out OK. The wee fella helped modify a toyota gearbox cross member. I've just finished painting the engine bay today. It's not going to win any awards, but I'm happy enough with it. I'll start the final reassembly now. I sorted out the flywheel/clutch issue too. The guys who did the engine work (Kennally Cams) did some magic to the fly wheel and machined it to accept shouldered bolts to locate the pressure plate as it's being torqued down. Hopefully this week I'll get the engine in for the last time.
    26 points
  14. Did a chunk of the back end wiring today, not much to see as I have tried to keep things tidy so it pretty much blends in. I tried to fit a new power plant, amazing that for the size this unit only makes one pogpower.
    26 points
  15. Nick recharged the AC system and now it works fucking ace. Couldn't feel my fingers by the time I got home so I'm calling that a win. Installation of new discs and drums. Front was easy, as you'd expect. Rear was a bit bit difficult to get the drum of due to the massive lip on the inside. However once I got the drum off I discovered the thinnest brake shoe I've ever seen. And of course the wheel cylinder was leaking so I'll get new bits next week and re- do the whole back brakes. Also I found the reason why I'm now the best 4wd driver in NZ. Auto disconnected sway bar for max flex bro. That's what the 4wd people say, you wouldn't understand.
    26 points
  16. Picked up a pair of trailer guards, aka wheel tubs from a solid GC today. just sat them in place where I think they’ll end up, or there abouts. stood back and admired the look, quite like it. still need to trim to fit snug once it’s all decided.
    26 points
  17. Sold the ROTECH BP, but before I whip it out, have dummy mounted the blower to check cut lines for the bonnet, so I can put a massive hole in it. 40 vs 30 tooth (1to 1) pulley, Unfortunately I'll have to run the under driven pulley to get it through cert which is only 7-8 psi. The small pulley will be double that, but intake temps will skyrocket, and I won't have enough money to get car legal as well as work on cooling. Water meth will be on the cards, as is maybe Water to air intercooler. I'll just focus on redesigning the intake, building a fresh new block, setting up EFI and a host of other items before I worry about decent power. Also that scoop won't pass, so I need to find a low profile solution for air filtration into the Xtreme rotaries 1200cfm 8 injector throttle body., I'll only need to run 4x 1000cc injectors for what I'm doing
    25 points
  18. Also shit I forgot to mention that I put the rear bumper back on. This was harder then it sounds but basically I pulled all the brackets apart, soaked them in evoporust for a few days then painted them all. I beat most of the dents out of the side bits and then bolted it all back in. One of the mud flaps was broken in two so I welded it beck together with a soldering iron using cable ties for welding rod. Is it good as new? No. Will it last a thousand years? Also no But it's back on the truck and works until it doesn't so I'm calling it a win.
    25 points
  19. Radiator situation I've got the Mark X radiator in there currently, and although it made everything nice in a lot of ways in the back of my brain I know it's just not going to work quite right. As the top pipe sits too high. You can see it sits a little higher than the top crossmember too, and this isnt on any mounts yet. Just sitting hard against the bottom. The motor's radiator cap (in blue) sits a little lower than the radiator, and the top hose to the radiator flows uphill towards the radiator. All bad news for ever trying to bleed the air out of this thing. Another issue is that I'd love to have a front facing intake airbox that goes through to the front grill, like a lot of the BTCC type cars have. The best option I've found for a low, wide, twin core radiator that doesnt have a radiator cap (and does have an air bleed) is from an SW20 MR2. Being so much shorter, I can dedicate all of the front grill area for the intake. And they're a common upgrade item for MR2s, so cheap and plentiful. The radiator is 5mm wider than my chassis rails, but the end tanks are alloy and on the sides. So will just need a little slice and reweld to fit at the bottom. If I dedicate the top grill to doort noises, then I dont have a huge amount of frontal area for the radiator coming in from just underneath the bumper. Possibly need to remove the bonnet catch as well, but I'd prefer to keep it over having bonnet pins or whatever. This is a rough approximation of how much space I've got for each thing Red is intake stuff, blue radiator stuff, white is the open area that the radiator can get air through. So a lot of the radiator area will be fairly useless if hard mounted against the front of the car, as it wont get any air flow. so I'll try mount it as far back as I can towards the engine. All of this stuff is a bit off topic to my path towards getting the engine fired up, but I've been working on that too. Last night cut the fuel rails a bit shorter, so there's more room at the back. for the fuel dampers without hitting the body. Then also had the underside of the rails milled down so the throttle linkages dont hit the rail anymore. So that's just about all finished once I've retapped the ends and remade the AN lines to suit.
    24 points
  20. In January 2024 I suddenly needed somewhere to live in a hurry ... so I figured on building something small out of scraps of building materials I already had.. There's no power, water, sewer on the property, but 10 days ago we got most of the driveway in. I'm the kind of guy who thinks a fair bit before I act, so after some further thought most of the scrap timber/plumbing/etc. I had available got pushed to one side as they just weren't going to work. Queue more invoices for better timber (plus freight) I think this project will take until spring 2024 to be weathertight. Shipping delays and huge freight expenses will add to the timeframe and budget. For example I have $500 of under concrete insulation here at the port. The freight bill for that insulation alone was $1,200. The proposed dwelling will be single bedroom and about 60m2 I always start very well but never finish anything. Let's see what happens this time.
    24 points
  21. Replaced oil pump with other unit I have with the SQ Engineering additional relief valve spring setup to bump up the pressure, we seem to be good! If that still doesn't give me good pressure at all times i'll flick the cam caps off and have a measure up New Speedo drive is in so I've now got a work speedo Think that's it really, time for cert? Bumper is back and looking absolutely insane if you compare to what it was previously!
    24 points
  22. New springs made it more consistent,although slightly slower. Different wheels and muffler off when it did the 11.35 previously 11.5@118 every pass I have turned the 2 step rev limit down slightly as it was having trouble holding on the brake which I can probably fiddle with to improve I'd like to get it down to 11.0 so it's more competitive at the night drags https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kdfGgT2pKHw&pp=ygUMVW5kZXJjYXJ2aWV3
    23 points
  23. I have always loved Advan A3As and I managed to I pick up a set of 13x6s. I got the lips fixed, painted the centres and convinced the bro to polish them for me (not a member but cheers mate). Orange and blue is a sharp contrast, but it's grown on me Which brings us now back to first sentence of the previous post. I've just driven this from Wellington to Horopito to Toyota Fest at Hampton downs and back (1300 kms) with a couple of mates. There were a couple of small issues with the KP on the trip but those were quickly and easily rectified. It might be slow, but it got there ha } Have a squiz the oldschool.co.nz sticker I got over a decade ago and never used until now. That's all for now
    23 points
  24. Was out in the shed again today so had a quick measure up and fed the cnc some mdf Quite happy with how much nicer the boot looks with the spare covered, motivates me a bit more to suss some carpet etc. From factory there were a few more trim panels in the boot, hopefully have a set on the way to copy, its something i've never seen before so looking forward to it!
    23 points
  25. …………Yes I know I’ve been a slack prick, re: this thread. With final arrival of summer the good ship Aquaholic insisted that I take her and some of my disreputable mates out fishing… (What could possibly go wrong?). It was a hot day, we got thirsty, we drank heavily and we “got fush”…….(as you do). A few days later my brother turned up at the Viaduct in this bloody monstrosity, and the good ship Aquaholic (and a certain part of my anatomy) felt very, very, …. small…….(Sibling rivalry can get complicated!). ….so we headed north. The view from the bridge was cool…… Accommodation wasn’t too shabby…. …. And the lounge was bigger than the one at home… Thankfully there was a bar on board for self medication! Back home I was stricken with a bout of the much feared “home handyman-itis” and I accidentally started rebuilding the front of the house… (Note the cunning accumulation of Brownie points with the “ever lovely Mrs. sr2”). After the above brief hiatus I’m finally back to Rigamortice’s wiring. I’m trying to document as much as I can because my memory is like a sieve. I managed to source some cool old fashioned bullet connectors…. I’m almost finished under the dashboard, getting sick of working upside down. The dip switch still works so I hit it with some contact cleaner and we’ll see how it lasts. I’m running relays on the lights so it won’t be carrying the amps that it used to. I’m using my 70 year old meter just because I can. The horns are all wired up but they sound like two strangled cats, I’ll have to do some research on how to tune them. Circuit breaker in place instead of a fusible link. Mounted the battery earth cut out through the fire wall Repurposed an old offset ring spanner for a battery clamp. Managed to get some life out of the interior light with a new bulb and fresh wiring. Cleaned a ton of crud of the diffuser…. And it works.
    23 points
  26. Got back from Japan with my little UP Garage purchase. fitted it as soon as I got to the shop this morning. Dayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyymmmmmmmm
    23 points
  27. Just took this for its maiden voyage. Zero travel in the front . 50 percent of a exhaust. So bumpy and so rowdy. Love it . Still a shit load to do but darn it's a good feeling
    22 points
  28. Been a bit slow last few months as been trying to get new shed finished but finally in there and got hoist up so back into the car. Motor and box need to go in as one piece from underneath with front subframe so bought a trolly lifter thing which made life so easy. Chucked the motor and box back in with the cooling system last weekend to work out a plumbing list to order all the oil, water, fuel braided lines and fittings. Also working out brake line routes and working out what else i need to do to finish off prep to strip it and get it back to the painter. Basically want to have the car dummied up in full then get painted/motor built etc so once painted its just assembly to finish.
    22 points
  29. Boring update: I finally changed the rear subframe mounts. Here's the one I had been most concerned about. I had expected to find it in worse shape once it was off the car. Hardly worth worrying about really. This rubber-to-metal bond is the only thing that seems to keep the IRS assembly attached to the car. There is a radius arm connected near each rear hub which twists the whole IRS assembly in its mounts as the car leans in the corners, creating a passive rear wheel steering drunken snake effect. Wikipedia says this "...may result in significantly improved handling". May? Anyway, the mounts can fail from age or too many burnouts, and then you definitely won't have significantly improved handling. In this shot, the two subframe mounts have been removed: You can see the IRS cage thing, the tricky double shocks and springs, the light reflecting off the inboard rear brake disc, the skinny anti-roll bar terminating at the base of the RH spring (not present on all XJSs).... You can also see that I managed to change the mounts without disconnecting anything such as the exhaust, brake lines, roll bar, driveshaft, radius arm etc. I did one side of the car at a time, using a jack and an axle stand. New mounts fitted (this is on the opposite side of the car, to mess with your head): Now that these mounts are done, I'm not gonna be THAT guy:
    22 points
  30. Well its a month later and I am getting back on form, hence this effort today; Plenty of room to finish off the wiring now. There was a minor mishap during engagements, now I need to figure out which Fiat Uno that distributor is off. I'll give the donk a clean up, new oils and filter, new plugs etc. Might drop the sump to see the state of play. For some reason it has way more oil than it actually needs, not sure why.
    22 points
  31. The seats actually came out looking quite good. So I put them back together and put them back in the truck. Fuck, so much more comfort. And now both seats have adjustable lumber support. Then I fitted a cooling fan I had to the AC condenser. I made a bracket and it's in there pretty good. I made up the wiring loom for it but it got dark so I'll fit it tomorrow. Also I bought new discs and drums for it.
    22 points
  32. Bolted more shit on. I thought I had better reassemble the doors and check their function before chucking them on, and shortly I noticed that this little tit on the door latch had broken off, which would mean I would have to unlock the passenger side and reach over to unlock the drivers. See that tit on the diecast part? This actuates the lock from the door key; Commence bodging And it worked! I was quietly pleased with that as those latches are pretty much unobtainium these days Then I realised that I was trying to use the passenger latch in the drivers side, so that was all a waste of time. Except that the boot and engine cover latch levers are in the shut off of the passenger door. So actually it will be pretty useful to be able unlock the passenger side to get to those. I seem to recall this not working previously. So fuck all left to do really; Windscreen Box on and engine in Final wiring connections in the engine bay once the engine is in Passenger door Boot and engine cover Carb tune I am assuming the brakes will probably need rebuilding, we will just have to see. And whatever other fuckery arises.
    21 points
  33. I had planned to have to weld in the front portion of the yellow guard because I deemed the panel damage beyond my skill to repair. The step thing on the corner had been totally flattened by someone else's previous attempt. I had a go at it myself maybe a year or so ago. But then the other day, I thought I'd have one more go, if I fucked it up I could still weld in the other panel. So I just hit it much harder... I think it's acceptable now, I reshaped the step and didn't fuck up the two... ridge line things. Should only need minimal filler. I also trimmed the doner front panels so I could trial fit them. This car had run into something and pushed in the front panels, folding over the lower front seam. I was unable to get the panels the budge with a slide hammer, so I decided I'd use the front panels from the yellow one, which were surprisingly rust free, unlike the rest of the yellow car. Front panels look like there will be no issues fitting them. I'm not ready to weld the panel back in, I still need to prep behind it for epoxy.
    21 points
  34. Clutch cover is away getting stiffer springs put in. I have ordered many specific X1/9 bits from a UK company that pretty much only do X's and Lancia Montecarlo's. So many little things that I was going to have to fudge and now won't have to, so thats nice. In the last couple of days I slapped the last of the paint on so it is (mostly) one colour, and this evening has been all about bolting shit back on. Quite a few little trim bits seem to be missing but nothing to prevent function or legality so far. Nice from far, far from nice.
    21 points
  35. I ground a chunk of steel to hammer into the nut to free it up Then had to cut all of the rubber off the old hanger and press the bearing off. The new one should have gone straight on and I blindly slapped it on with the F facing the front. However, the F is supposed to face the back and the price was jammed on. It took a hour to get it off without fucking it. Fortunately the new bearing came with a new nut as that was fucked too. Haha. Reinstalled the driveshaft and also a trigger wheel to get driveshaft speed for the ecu and 4wd controller I am going to run.
    21 points
  36. Always looks better after a wash. And from my favourite angle. Finally got around to changing the oil, really should have been done sooner, there was so much crap in the sump, all that lifter paste. VW's don't really have a sump, or a filter, just a sump plate with a tea strainer around the pick up. Ignore the big square sump in the picture, that's aftermarket and my car is probably to low for such things All was going well until I went to reinstall the tea strainer plate arrangement. The gaskets in the oil change kit have recently gotten at least three times thicker, so now the six little studs are getting very short. Only had just enough engagement, one but had to go sans crush washer. Have continued tuning the carbs, @sluggy suggested cranking the accelerator pumps, so I've been doing a little at a time, everytime it's gets a little better and nicer to drive, idle is very low but very smooth and doesn't stall, just seems weird not having it shake the car at the lights. Mrs even commented on it.
    21 points
  37. Interior polishing: Like most 50yo cars, the dashpad had cracked up pretty bad, long term i'd like to throw the check book at it, but in a budget friendly manner I called on my lovely GF and her knowledge of spotlight. We trimmed off the worst highpoints and double sided taped a layer of tablecloth liner to the pad, the idea here was the padding would hide the worst of the cracking once the vinyl leather was stretched over This was put on with the bare minimum of contact adhesive to keep the dashpad in close to original shape if needed for proper restoration further down the track. Finish result blends in well, of course the corners are a bit messy, but far nicer to look at than the old pad. Haven't been able to make a firm decision on the carpets but had an idea Chomp out some 7mm marine ply on the cnc, wrap in carpet offcuts from the 4wd.... Floormats that don't shuffle around.
    20 points
  38. Albert the NDT man in Wingate has tested the welded struts for cracks. Took 10 minutes. He has an electromagnet and a solvent containing iron particles dyed with a flourescent dye so they glow in a UV light. He puts the magnet across the weld and sprays it with the fluid. The magnetic field aligns the iron particles which you can see under a UV lamp because of the dye. Any cracks will cause misalignment because the field goes around them. So I've got a certificate that says it's passed. YAY!
    20 points
  39. The door with the plasma cutting was pretty wonky, so ended up finding a replacement. Managed to get all of the doors paneled and into paint. A bit of dust and a couple of runs, but I'm definitely getting better with the paint gun. Now working on sandblasting the door hinges and cleaning up the boot lid, before reassembly, wet-dry sanding and a final coat. Stoked to be making some good progress again.
    19 points
  40. Sporadic sunday morning update. Intention with this project was to do the bare minimum and get it to functional. So that doesn't appear to be happening, shock horror. If it's worth doing, I guess it's worth doing right. Or burying myself deeply it in and selling on OS in boxes for $500... Finished tidying up and rewrapping all the loom in the front. No pics. Decided to get it up off the ground so I can make the floor all pretty, I figure with revinning I'm not going to fuck around and have them pick holes it it, the jobs just have to be done. Easiest way to do that was drop the running gear out and lift the body off on to some stands I hacked up. It was a surprisingly simple task. Might turn it into a brodozer on 37s... I haven't taken many pics, but I've scraped all the under seal off the underneath from the doors back, it's really sound and haven't revealed too many other gremlins. I've dropped the brake and fuel hoses out as these are toast. Thinking I'm gonna get a little pot sandblaster to deal to all the surface rust, then brunox/paint/under seal. Also discovered another 20hp under the bonnet. Not sure if they get picky on this shit for revin?? Meant to be L24.. I wanted to start at front and work my way back, but I need to bits to ensure I can align everything, so until such time I decided instead to attack the rear. Drilled and cut rear panel off, have started cleaning shit up and deciding how I'm going to attack the patch work. It needs new floors either side of spare wheel well, but weirdly the well itself is fine. Needs ne bottom quarters and a little bit of inner quarter and inner wheel tub work,so I'm just gonna start picking away at all that. I'm enjoying the process. Also, @ajg193 found my missing plate under one of his presses. And @ThePog found me some sweet widened Jeep rims which I'm gagging to get my mitts on
    19 points
  41. Have being doing a lot of stuff recently to try get this ready for beachop. The doors now open electronically with the small spring loaded knobs next to the window. And lock using the factory lexus Remote. Door Rubbers are all on. Window rubbers are all glued up. Bitumen sound deadening in the doors. Is much more of a pleasure to drive. Even with the door cards off. Reversing Lights added and wired in. Have moved on to version2 of the boss air struts. Such a better product. No welding the bush onto the bottom, they come with a threaded boss on the bottom and a range of Threaded mount options. Also a 1/8 female npt hole for the air supply. Instead of the Hydraulic style male fitting and hose they had before. Made it to the last southwards Cars and Coffee in Kapiti. Excellent morning out with lots of cool cars to see. Matts & mine were easily the lowest cars present. Had forgotten about the 1954 210 inside. Was a nice surprise. Have also put a false floor in the trunk. With a 4 channel amp beneath that. On top of the space saver. Wired into the parcel shelf speakers and ready to wire into the front door speakers this weekend. Have an infinity Bluetooth Amp adapter to wire in, instead of a headunit. (despite costing more than a decent headunit) Also next up is to get some gas struts onto the hood. in place where the springs would of been. As at highway speed the hood likes to lift and float around. And is quite disheartening at 100kmh.
    19 points
  42. Im still thinking about this once in a while. Tracked down a less fucked right front guard. It was up welles ways. @Goat kindly let me use his house as a freight forward depot. The seller dropped it off, and a mate who was passing by collected it the next day. Picked it up tonight. Defo needs a wee bit of work. But i can buy the inner and outer bottoms off the shelf from Automotive Panel Craft in Oz. Thanks to @Classicdat for lugging it south for me too!
    18 points
  43. Nearly ready for first startup. Just a couple of jobs to do, one being to attach old exhaust to new headers until i'm able to get a proper system made. Don't laugh but I cut both ends out of a baked bean can, slit it down the side and with the help of some hose clamps, made a sleeve and clamped over both pipes. Should be ok for a while. Checked all fluid levels and filled radiator with hot water as mechanic suggested as been sitting for a while since build. Removed plugs and cranked motor until oil pressure light went out. Replaced plugs and turned key. Motor started straight up and sounded really good. Ran it up to temp and checked for leaks of which there were none. Time for a trip around town. Goes well but needs a tune. Brakes are good and everything else works except fuel gauge. If anyone has a suggestion of where I could get my 32/32 weber carb tuned around Christchurch could they leave a message on Project Discussion page. Cheers Project Discussion https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/84912-petes-mk2-escort-1600-sports/page/3/#comment-2618039
    18 points
  44. A few snaps from Toyotafest. If anyone got some feel free to share as well. Great to get the car out and chat to lots of people about it. Lots of motivation to finish it now! Trailer queen for first and last time hopefully Finley loved it too
    18 points
  45. Story time/ going down the rabbit hole. The issue- I never did any homework at all when it came to buying this blaupunkt head unit. If I had of I would have very quickly been made aware of how crap it is. Is unusable as far as changing the volume, shipping tracks or doing anything. Its physically impossible to change the volume accurately, and most of the time is not possible at all. Totally my fault for not checking a single review or anything. So, present day me (well yesterday me actually) was yarning to Nick the sparky about steering wheel controls and clock springs and whatnot and he said "I've got a 2013 Highlander steering wheel, see it that fits" It does. I needed to make a indicator canceling wheel to adapt the new wheel to the hilux. Not super difficult, made a frankinstien rig up to machine a parallel diameter in the back of the wheel. Them made a ring that I will shrink onto the back of the wheel once I confirm its fits the truck. Then the next hurdle will be getting signals through the clock spring. It has 3 spare wires that aren't used so we can use those to send signals to the head unit. But there are probably other clock springs that will fit the truck that have more wires if we need it.
    18 points
  46. I mentioned in my last post that I had new shocks on the way, well, they arrived, so let's get them fitted. I began by jacking the rear of the car up, putting it on stands and removing the rear wheels. This gave me access to the shocks and springs. Both the yellow stripe and the part number on the shock indicate that it was a poverty spec shock from a low spec (not Works) Alto. Note the missing lower rear spring pads, the spring shouldn't be sitting on the metal like that. The spring also had the incorrect colour code, yellow and white, not blue and white like the Works spring has. Other than the paint mark they look visually the same, I don't know if the Works has a higher spring rate or anything. Removal is really easy. On my car the side boot trims have been cut, I believe for the damper adjusters for the adjustable rear shocks the car used to have. This gives me perfect access to the nut that holds the top of the shock in place. Because I didn't care about the old shocks, I used a rattle gun to zip the nuts off. Before completely removing the nut I supported the rear beam with a jack under the spring, so the force of the spring wouldn't ping the arm downwards With the top nut removed, I removed the lower bolt on the shock and removed it. This one was very dead. Because they have gas in them, once compressed by hand they should extend to their full length again. This one had no resistance to compressing it and made no efforts to extend. The other side was only marginally better, where if you left it for about 5 minutes it would have extended in full (it should extend to full in a matter of seconds). The new shock has the correct KYB sticker and P/N on it, but it appears the new replacements don't get paint codes like factory-fitted ones do; the factory paint code for a Works is purple and green. I ordered these from the parts book to Works part numbers, so I know they're correct. With the shock removed, I could push down on the hub by hand and pull the spring out. I then fitted the new lower spring pad, in the correct orientation based on the service manual I then replaced the old upper spring pad and fit the spring The new shock slips into place next The top mount on the shocks is interesting to me. The top of the shock has a captive rubber mount and steel sleeve. There is then a top bush and metal washer that sandwiches the shock tower into place. On the underside of the shock tower there is a metal cup that locates the captive bush Even the top bush is weird, the shoulder goes face-up The washer sits on top of it and the nut is placed on top As the nut is tightened, the bush squishes and flattens out under the washer I guess compressing the bush like that creates a fair bit of tension, so the shock won't be rattling around in a hurry. Other than jacking the hub up to ride height and torquing the lower shock bolt, that was one side done. I copy pasta'd the other side. and then onto the ground it went. With the combo of fresh new zero km un-saggy springs and the lower spring pads being fitted, the rear ride height has increased a touch. It's only a couple of mm higher and should settle a little as the springs bed in. I know why they put the KYB sticker where they did now The Suzuki lineup at work the other day Looking clean sans tow hook now too So, how does it drive now? Well, the blown shocks explain a lot! I thought it was just lame povo spec shocks, but even that wouldn't have been as bad. On the road at low speeds the rear feels firmer, but there is a huge difference in how the car feels on the open road, the rear is much more planted and doesn't pitch and dive so much. In the corners, it's a lot more controllable and the rear doesn't feel like wobbly jelly. I still think it needs the extra stiffening of the rear swaybar to balance it, but cornering speeds can be higher than they were beforehand and the rear follows the front wheels like it should. I reckon it'll be good for a second or two off my laps at Manfield next time, particularly if I can get it to rotate as the Jazz did (no hope for trying to do that when I was lacking any confidence in the rear end). Some more (boring) bits should be with me soon to tidy the interior up further, and other than that I'll just keep driving the pants off it. Should hit a milestone soon too...
    18 points
  47. Finished ! Much enjoyed, will trade again. /pics Chur
    18 points
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