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I've been chipping away at bits on this. First off was to sort out the idle tune (warning - more efi jargon coming up). Since that day I started the engine for the very first time on the bench there have been a few settings changed that are not ideal. I'm not even sure why I changed them but I think it was when I was mucking about trying to sort out the hot start issue very early on. I think also when I changed the idle control valve I might have played with some settings. So in order to start afresh so to speak I looked back through the restore points. These are saved every time the tuning program is used. I can go back through the files, look up a date and 'backdate' the whole tune or part of the tune. I went back to the default warm up curves that are loaded with the firmware, altered a few bits, turned the EGO correction back on (not sure why I had disabled that) and generally gave the settings a once over. I enabled 'incorporate AFR' and set up a suitable ignition based idle rpm timing curve - previously disabled. I then rolled the imp out into the evening light... Removed the engine access hatch from inside... Then I wound out the idle air screw a half turn until the revs came up to around 800ish.. Later on after dinner I went back out and sat inside what was a very cosy, warm, slightly noisy tuning room and tweaked the hot idle until I was satisfied with the idle. The following day we went for a good drive into town. Did a bit more road tuning but the temp was still not really getting high enough and would drop on downhills. I was going to have to fit a mechanical thermostat. Took the car to our local Repco branch and showed the crew in there. Lots of revving up of the engine took place The fuel tank pump access lid was weeping through the 'fuel resistant' gasket card and apart from the fumes its not really the safest situation to have. The clutch master cylinder was still leaking so that needed attention too. Plus I wasn't happy with my fuel lines under the tank - a mix of copper pipe, different offcuts of hose and many hoseclips because it was all I had left the weekend of the first drive when all I wanted to do was drive the car. So out with the fuel tank. I ordered a brand new master cylinder and a high flow 82 degree thermostat which arrived in the mail the following day. Here's some pics of the 'frunk' with the fuel tank removed. Radiator shroud in place. It works really well at directing the hot air out and keeping the tank cool. Removed.. Fiat/lada tandem master cylinder and brand new clutch master cylinder. Note my unsatisfactory fuel line routing.. I got a deal on a 5m roll of injection hose and re-did the lines, ending up with a handful of spare hoseclips in the process. Pic of work in progress.. As for the leaky fuel tank lid. I ordered some 70% nitrile rubber sheet. I'd rung up lots engineering supply places and various workshops locally hoping to find what I needed but no-one had anything to suit. So I bought some from a supplier in Christchurch and the postage cost the same as the bloody rubber! Our local barefoot postman was pissing himself when the square foot of rolled up rubber sheet that could have been posted in a small post bag turned up in a huge box. FFS. Cut the rubber to suit including a new gasket to suit the sender unit.. The thermostat I'd bought was up next. I fitted it into the housing I had fabricated a few weeks ago. Hannah asked if I was going to check it for leaks before fitting but I was confident my welds were fine and it would be ok. Nup. It leaked. I counted 4 pin holes.. So I welded them up and to be sure of sealing I painted the inside with epoxy paint before fitting it back into the car. This morning I woke up and was now a half century old. Wow. Cool. I felt the same tbh but I'm always a bit happier on this day because Hannah usually makes me one of her amazing carrot cakes.. So after a very relaxed morning of cake and coffee I refitted the tank. Since the tank was bone dry we measured in the petrol because I have been wondering for some time about the accuracy of the fuel gauge. Turns out that its bang on. The little tank holds 27 litres when full and with 6.75 litres poured in it measured exactly 1/4. It remained accurate at 1/2 and 3/4 full. Hannah duly jotted the findings down in the little imp book of notes ... We then went for a birthday drive. The engine warmed up so much quicker and stayed warm. It was a very cold and wet day so I wasn't expecting it to get super hot. It sat around 85-90 degrees which I feel is fine in such weather. We did a good 50km route with a variety of hills, straights and twisty bits to extend the engine so allowing the autotune program to do its job more effectively. The tune was much improved with the idle now being very consistent. I still can't get over just how smooth this little engine is. It's amazing. We noticed that at 6000 rpm when the engine hits the limiter the needle on my 2" rev counter ($7 second hand from a swap meet many moons ago) does a big kick-swing. It must be affected by the limiter? I am looking forward to building the new instruments though. An accurate speedo that doesn't swing and a rev counter in line of sight will be a nice thing to have. The gear shift seems to be lightening up in action and getting smoother. I think this is due to the shifter base and shaft guide bush bedding in. There's always been a metal on metal hard knock under full power shifts which I had discovered was one gearbox mount knocking the cross member. I'll insulate it with some rubber and down the line I want to look at stiffer mounts all round. The handling seems fine. Definitely a bit more weight out back, how much I'll only know when I next weigh the car. I'd like to borrow some corner weight scales so I'll ask about my local race car mates. In such wet conditions like today I just drove it as one should drive any rear engined car. Get my entry speed sorted before the corner, don't lift off mid corner and then just power on out. It sounds fantastic and is very fun. Speaking of noise. We are both already used to the drone which comes in at around 2200rpm. Its gone by say 2600-2800 and is worse when under load. So I select the right gear and most of the time its easily avoidable. Its more fun holding onto a lower gear anyway. When the rain had eased I took some pics .. Hannah is in charge of the laptop.. Got home, car still in one piece, oil and coolant still in their respective places. Tyres definitely in need of replacement though (but not until I sort the front camber out). Overall a good result and a nice way to spend a birthday afternoon. To top it all off a friend of ours dropped around a home made sponge cake because I'd looked over her van for her earlier in the week. She told me the cake is very naughty... so this next half century is starting off with a few extra calories

Bulldozer ethrottle Okay so this is one of those things, where the scale of parts isnt always evident when you order them. Haha. The cables on this are so long, I could probably leave the e-throttle at home and drive the car like one of those cable guided missiles. Another issue is that it doesnt quite work how I'd hoped - Instead of pulling two cables "open" it pulls one side open, and the other side shut. So not very useful in its standard state. However pulling the guts out of it reveals It has a neat little planetary gear stack and a big DC motor that still might work. So with a new housing it might be able to sit in the vee and pull both cables. Exhaust manifold stuff My new style flanges arrived, which allow the pipes to slot all of the way through. This, in conjunction with buying bends that have straight sections attached. HOLY SHIT YES. This has been about 3000x times easier to try and make a manifold. I still dont have much garage space so I've been tacking the bits together on the driveway. But it's turned out great so far. Having a big U bend on the runners has made it incredibly easy to get all 3 runners about the same length. I just measure how far overlength they are, then cut off half that distance either side of the U, then it all still goes together fine. So they're all within about 20mm length / about 920mm overall length of each runner. So I could fiddle with it more to get them more exact, but I'm going to call that good enough! It was so hard last time, trying to set the angle of the pipe. While also trying to sit it on the front face of the flange in the correct position. Feels like you need 6 hands at once to hold stuff. This was a breeze by comparison. It's a real pity that I cant just copy the design to the other side though - I thought the steering column was going to be the hardest bit. But the alternator in the way means I cant run the pipes forward at all. So it might take a bit more trickery to get the other side working. But super happy with progress so far. I'm really glad I decided to restart this with the new flanges and pipes. Cant wait to get these finished, exhaust finished, and fire it up again.

Sorry for bit a of a punishing non-update, been a bit spammy lately and no cool stuff happening. However it's exciting to feel like I'm close to getting the motor going again. I got all of the timing cover and sump back on, which honestly takes hours to do. So much gasket goo to scrape off and reapply! And find all of the right bolts gain, ha. Then I managed to get my drivers side manifold all welded up properly. Some pooey welds but seems strong and doesnt leak so calling it a win. I ended up completely redoing the 2nd runner, as I burned a hole that I ended up chasing around the place. Just seemed to get worse and worse! So restarted with fresh bits and it went together a lot easier. Maybe there was still some oil on the inside of the pipe or something. But the 3d printed part welded up fine, it was easier than welding the pipes. Super happy with the decision to print the collector. I might add some extra bracing to hold the three pipes together before they start diverging. The flange is welded on from the back, so it should be really strong. As it's not hanging the pipes just from the weld. The tight fit of the flange can hang the weight no problem. My scheme of welding a little triangle bit on the inside between the pipes, then just welding full around the outside looks to have worked well. Hopefully no leaks and no breakages! Should look good once it starts getting some colour into it once it's heated up. However I will likely heat wrap them anyway once I've confirmed there's no leaks. I've been thinking about moving the alternator somewhere else, so I could have the same design manifold on both sides. But there really is nowhere else to put it, even if I flip it around so it's mounted backwards somehow. Not quite sure how that side is going to work yet. But here's an artist's concept drawing of how my manifolds might end up looking:

VVT pulleys So the titanium cover plate things turned up, and they looked really good. @flyingbrick helped me drill and tap some holes in the cam pulley bolts so they could fit on. While we were there, he was talking about how you can change colour of titanium just by applying voltage through it. Different voltage ends up a different colour which is cool. So we gave it a go. Initially it didnt work too well. possibly because the part was bead blasted or something. But quick acid dip then it coloured up good. Then everything's fitting up good, so motor is ready to go back together. Cant do much at the moment though, as it's too windy and rainy. But next block of good weather and I'll hopefully have the timing done and maybe the sump back on. I've also fitted grade 12 cap screws into all of the pulleys, with the strongest possible loctite. Hopefully that's the last of my VVT troubles.

Cylinder head is on. What's it been? Like 2 years or something. Anywho to recap, 13 to 1 compression 1mm over sized stainless valves Custom valve springs with 80 pound seat pressure Approx 3mm higher lift/custom cams Ported head Probably some other shit.

I thought it might be the clutch line running front to back, so I damped it out and today went for a spin - no, not that. So I spent some time grovelling around underneath tapping things, and found a spot under the central tunnel that definitely had something bouncing around. I invesigated with the endoscope and what do you know! And after a ridiculous amount of fucking around with first a magnet taped to a bit of welding wire and then a bit of welding wire with wet silicone blobbed on the end to act as sticky because the second thing wasnt ferrous; I then tested it to be 100% sure and do you know what? It didnt fucking fix the rattle

With the front end all together, time to put the front back on BUT! Gotta tidy the all the panels up and fix some rust first Used my first patch panel on the drivers fender, its a bit more extensive than the passenger side Still had to make the inside bit which i did before chopping the outer away to give me something to built to This fender is a replacement, the blue is its original colour. And ready for some hammer and dolly action before filling it with more filler than i would have liked, (i rushed the welding and it sunk a bit), but as its aesthetic filler, not 'structural' its still much better than it was. This weird bit on the top of the passenger door too, seems like the door channel dribbled water to collect into that spot or something, managed to cut right across the hole for the door seal clip thing so had to build half a hole into the patch panel, and the grommet thing popped right back Then time for some paint. Its been looking worse rather than better. How it started, just after we got it running for the first time and cleaned it in the driveway: How its going - immobile, exploded across the garage in 1000 bits and looking like shit. Masked up and the 1k lacquer base we got 'matched' and then some clear. Didnt turn out particularly great especially this first go (i needed more paint flow out of the gun, and i also should have put a coat of 2k hig build primer on to seal the filler an), but neither is the current paint, i dont want to hide anything either, its mainly to seal everything and put things back to no worse than before. The whole car really needs the paint taken right back and redone anyway, which may happen eventually, but not now. As you can tell that rear quarter panel is now better than it was, but still a bit wavey. Thats fine - not really prepped the front half of the panel at all, it still needs around the wheel arch and dog leg cut out and patch panels welded in, so on the front half the paint was just to seal it all up and get it one colour again, The rear 600mm of the back end is all good tho, so we also put the tidied up bumper and lights etc back on, which also covers up 50% of the new paint anyway, so that 'side' (the back end) is DUN as far as panel work etc goes. Front panels got spot painted too, and went on much better than they came off! i suspect the last time these were bolted on they were thrown on and bolts cranked down, not adjusted at all, same goes for the doors so pretty happy that some time spent loosening bolts is working out nicely. Will make it much easier doing the sills and scuttle (eventually) with everything else in the right spot The nose cone i dint paint as i knew this needed some more yanking, hammering and filler work to line up with the fenders nicely, but only doable once the fenders were back on and adjusted to the adjusted doors etc This nose panel is a cut and shut from a yellow one and a blue one joined though the drivers headlight bucket. That all needed about 3mm of filler to get it lining up to the fender and bonnet, whcih was a fair bit less than what came out of the same spot then i took it off. (re) learned my lesson from the rear and entirely primed it properly first Then upped the thinner to increase flow so got a thicker base and lots of clear. Turned out much better, but the colour mismatch is a bit more obvious too, nice colour, but not quite as pink/mauve as the (dusty!) bonnet which is also back on) Grille and buckets in and front bumper - had to give it a tweak in the press to close up the 'V' a bit more/push out the centre point. Its not not perfect, (you can see the bumper is almost touching the grill in the centre but less towards the sides) but much better than it was, and apart from needing to take the outer fenders off when doing the sills eventually, the front end is all done too. Back together and on the ground Body work on this side is done* (for now). *'Only' the entire sill below the doors that needs doing, oh and the other side... Anyway very much looking forwards getting it outside and giving it another wash, cleaning out the shop and to being a passenger when we turn it around to do the other side

This month's car budget activities: -Ordered extra pipe for manifold as I've run out of long enough straights. -Ordered wideband bungs. -2nd wideband controller ordered so I can monitor each bank. -2nd Collector is still being manufactured, hopefully here soonish. My weekends and evenings have been busy making stuff for goats over the last few weeks, but I think I'm still on a good timeline to get to drags. I've been going back and forth between dreading moving the alternator, and dreading making an equalish length manifold where I cant have U bends in it. However I had a bit of a breakthrough. I realized that my 90 degree bends are a much tighter turn than the 180s that I was using on the other side. This means all of the pipes can still go as far forward as they like under the alternator, and there's still plenty of room. So I've copied the dimensions of the bends and length of stuff back into the computer to get an idea of what to do with the 2nd and 3rd runner to get them fitting okay and about equal. Once again with a 180 degree bend in the shape makes it a piece of cake compared to having to rejig the angle of every single part to adjust it. It looks like this should all fit up and as it sits those are within 5mm length of each other. If some pipes turn up tomorrow (probably not) will hopefully make some progress over the weekend. But it feels good to have a workable plan now. Might cause some other issues but these are future Dave's problem

Progress update for @Nominal New roof over it's head

Some engine got built today. I pre lubed the lifters and got all the air out of them. Assembled the cams and valve drive train. Chucked a few random parts on. Hilariously this engine has 5 temperature sensor locations. Like that's going to fucking help. Also I have some other cam covers on the way for it, these are just too keep the shit out.

Not much news, been chasing a rattle in the cabin for ages without success. I hope its not a bit of sheetmetal sitting in the sill or anything, but that cant be ruled out. I am waiting for a man in Australia to send me a badge and some other stuff but he is not exactly rocketshipping it here, and in the meantime there are actual holes in the boot lid where the badge should be that would definitely let in unwanted water. So I thought I would fudge it temporarily. Here is what should be there. And here is some nonsense; A bit of red permanent and there you are; That will do for now. And here is me fully enjoying the stance last night.

Part of the roof attachment mech is two hooks that are steel bits covered in rubber. After 40+ years this falls/wears off and the roof rattles like fuck. There are many fixes that involve packing shit with tape etc, but as I have the technology I thought I would solve it. First I just drew the boys up and printed them in PLA with carbon fiber, these looked pretty schmick. However the originals have a steel backbone and this was always going to be stronger. So I had the idea to trim all the old rubber off the originals and print a TPU sleeve to replace it. I gooped these on with some leftover windscreen glue, they are working well. The international X1/9 community got pretty fizzed about that let me tell you. I then printed some more plus some of the plastic pads that fit on the car in the same junction for the black X/Elliot. And while I am on a massive printing bender I modded the heater control faceplate by adding some lever detents to keep the levers in position, then drew up some vaguely factory looking knobs to interface with this detail. I made the top layer of the print a Hilbert curve, it gave it an interesting texture; And finally the rattle. More investigation found more shit in there in a completely inaccessible place; So I dumped a shitload of cavity wax (actually a bitumen ish thing) down there to glue it in place, and it kinda worked but not 100%. Shits quieter but still there. Sigh.

I have a confession to make. I feel dirty for what I have done and must come clean. I have raised my car Hear me out though. I know its a terrible thing but my hand was forced and it had to be done. So after my birthday cakes had been all eaten, mainly by me (little fatty), I decided I needed to look at the suspension. My front springs are essentially Rootes 'Monte Carlo' spec which means 195lb" and 9.5 inches long, or about an inch shorter, with one less coil than standard imp springs... But because I'd modified the spring perch on my stock dampers to make the car even lower it meant the Monte springs were not captive at full droop without the aid of retaining straps. These are fine in use in the UK and quite a common fitment on lowered Imps but they wont pass the muster here in NZ for certification when that time comes. I also had a total lack of any height adjustment without resorting to various spacers beneath the springs etc. So I started looking at various coilover kits made specifically for the Imp. There's at least three brands out there that do kits, all made in the UK and all quite expensive once freight is added into the equation. Luckily I ended up chatting to a fella called Frank in Australia who I've bought stuff from before. He imports and sells Gaz coilovers as well as loads of other Hillman based items. He had a near new front pair he was removing from one of his Imps and offered me a good deal on them. They are the 'short' dampers to suit lowered imps and he was including the appropriate 'super low Monte Carlo' springs. These are 8.6 inchs long and needed if I wanted to keep my Imp sitting nice and low. So while they were on the slow boat from Australia I started looking into the rear shocks. The stock Imp items were working ok but I knew that one was low on oil and not ideal in action. I was informed that Nissan Navara D21 front shocks were an almost straight swap so I got a shiny almost new pair from a ute at the local wreckers to try out. To my surprise they were actually considerably softer in damping than the Imp items, both in bump and rebound. Still, I had them to try so I machined up some suitable spacers to suit and the smaller Imp bolts and the top bushes.. Bolted them in place and went for a drive. Nup. I don't like. Too soft and a bit too wallowy. Passable for normal driving on smooth roads but start driving with a bit of enthusiasm and the back end starts getting a little bit flighty, especially in sharp compressions. I would have to sort something else out and started looking into ideas. Then the Gaz coilovers and super low springs turned up. Here are my standard Montes next to the super lows. The same coil count and rating but just set shorter. I wanted to test them just to be sure so things got a bit scientific.. They were rated exactly as they said on the tin. The Gaz dampers and superlow springs showed the overall length from bottom eye to the top of the spring to be very similar to my modified dampers and standard Monte springs. Things were looking promising for me to keep my Imp at the same height. So I fitted them.. I then removed my retaining straps and the arms dropped further, so releasing my springs from captivity I had to wind the collars up 15mm to hold the springs from rattling about. Oh well. I suspected I might end up in this situation. On the bright side it does mean the excessive negative camber has been removed and I also wont be smashing so many hedgehogs/other roadkill with my license plate. I went to sleep and had nightmares about my new lofty height. This morning I revisited it and replaced the absurdly thick, what look to be just generic damper top mount rubbers with my old stock Imp items. This moved the shaft fixing up 5mm so allowing the collars to be lowered the same amount. So I now have a 10mm extra ride height with room for adjustment and completely captive springs. The camber is about bang on for what is recommended on a road imp. I took it for a good drive to try them out but I'll talk more about that soon. Moving back to the rear dampers. I removed the soft Navara items and looked at my leaky unit. The shaft has a small amount of light corrosion just below the bumpstop. Although it was fine when I'd fitted the shocks, 13,000kms thereabouts of driving since has seen it lose fluid. I had a plan. They are pretty common designed double walled units. There is a gap between the outer tube and the inner tube that the piston slides up and down. As the shaft enters the damper the oil height increases from displacement. This cavity was down on fluid. I drilled a tiny hole near the top, through the outer skin and whilst extending the shaft out I added oil with a small syringe. I then tapped the hole and fitted a small machine screw and O-ring. The shock works perfectly enough now, at least until I get some replacements. Now it was time to look at the rear ride height. The new engine and gearbox is at a guess something like 20kg heavier than the Datsun setup. I'll have a better idea next time I weigh the car. Its enough that the car has sunk maybe 5 or 10mm. Not a lot but combined with the higher front it now had a distinctly nose up, bum down look that I'm not keen on. Plus I'd like the driveshafts to be a little straighter. They were heading slightly uphill to the hubs with the angle getting steeper as the rear squats under acceleration. The rear springs are standard 1" lower, slightly stiffer Monte spec. So I made some 15mm spacers. Probably only needed 10 but I can machine them down. It now sits as such. Bum slightly up. Half a tank of gas. Exactly no bags of cement thanks Barry. Hannah measured both front and rear arch heights as I sat down into the car and shut the door. Interestingly, and I think quite a good thing, is that the car drops 10mm equally front and rear. I'm going to try this new setup out before deciding if I skim my spacers down. Another important issue I really wanted to sort out was the exhaust drone. Every time we would take the car for a drive the drone was overpowering. I wanted to believe that we'd get used to it or learn to drive around the drone zone of roughly 2300rpm but it was futile. It had to be addressed. Mention of J pipes, resonator pipes or 1/4 wave resonator pipes or whatever name they might have was mooted by several people. Not just on for this car but also on other peoples threads and on the oldschool exhaust discussion thread. I read up about them and they sounded like an ideal potential solution but I really just didn't have any room to fit them between the exhaust box and the headers. But how about inside the box? Extend the inlet within, tee off from that to the outside and use an elbow to send pipes forwards. I looked through my collection of random stainless tube fittings.. Something like this?.. Hmmmm... it could work and was worth an investigation. Car on the hoist and within 5 minutes the entire exhaust box was removed. V clamps are fantastic. I removed the gazillion 6mm bolts, broke the silicone seal and removed the lid. Some measurements were made and a holes were cut as neatly as I could with the plasma cutter. I hole sawed some stainless tube that matched the inlet diameter.. Welded a slightly smaller 32mm pipe and fitted the tees into each end of the box. Pulled out the heavy length of 50mm 304 stainless bar and cut off some discs Those I machined up into stepped flanges. 4 holes drilled and tapped in them to suit and then welded onto the outlets on the box. The J pipes had the other flanges welded on via the inside.. Above the new Tee pipes within the box end expansion chambers I added a shelf of stainless perforated sheet that bolts in place and then filled the void above with more packing. This was just another way I could absorb some sound.. Lid was siliconed back in place and bolted down. Now the J pipes. I fabricated those up with the bends and made them as long as I could. There are multiple websites with ample information on how to calculate the required length depending on engine rpm, frequency, cylinder count etc etc. But they are usually dealing with exhausts that have just one main exhaust pipe to J pipe off from. My setup is like two 3 cylinder engines really with their own separate exhausts. I wasn't sure which calcs to use. But pretend I have just one exhaust feeding off both banks I was looking at a J pipe length of circa 800mm. I figured I would halve that and my finished J pipes came out at just on 405mm with the ends almost meeting the rear arch inners. I figured I can always chop them down in length so better to start as long as I can. I found some ideal stainless penny washers for the end caps.. J pipes installed... They are a bit ugly though. Although I can't see them from within the engine bay they are easily visible outside and I don't like seeing them. I have also never really liked the way the box ends don't tie in with the back corners so I had an idea to try. I carefully made these stainless guards.. There were already some useful holes I had added to the valance lip for the Datsun exhaust.. Guards/ugly pipe hiders in place... Time to try it out. I was pretty confident that there was going to be some amount of noise suppression but how much ? Upon start up we could both tell it was quieter. Took it for a drive to go pick up yet another customers rusty Hiace for work and yes - it was quieter!!! The drone was knocked right down. Its still there at certain loads but no where near as horrid. Now as per the earlier mention of a drive to try out the new front shocks. Well it was also a good chance to try out the exhaust. This time I was sans Hannah. It meant I could thrash the car to my hearts content without Hannah having to cling on for dear life. There are no grab handles in the car and the Recaros only hold you so much. I took the laptop though and used it as a chance to let the autotune see some of the more extreme areas of the fuel map. 30kms of twisty hillclimbs local to us and a good solid use of the throttle travel. Damn its fun. The exhaust is much better drone wise but I almost want a little more sound. From inside the car its still more straight six than flat six. I'd like more of the guttural, raspy Porsche flat six sound. My exhaust/engine sounds smoother. A bit of this could be because its water cooled and the Porsche 911s I like most are aircooled (and usually twice the capacity...) They are almost clattery at idle, slightly hollow. I do some have other ideas floating in my head about future exhaust designs. I know these engines can sound more 'Porschey' but I don't have as much room to play with as the bikes I have been viewing. But wow- this engine is a little gem. I'm tending to keep it in gear for much longer between corners because its so smooth at high revs whether I'm on or off the throttle. It'll be much better when I build my new dash and have a rev counter right in front, that's for sure. The gear change is getting better and better with use as the shaft bushs loosen up a bit. I have ideas for improvements too but no rush. Its a delight to drop from 3rd to 2nd, a gear change that can make or break the fun to be had in a car driven hard on hills I feel. The program managed a good amount of changes to the fuel table and its pretty good now. Start up hot or cold is great. Just a few bits to smooth out. I'm going to tweak the throttle plate stop screw and idle bleed appropriately. I think the throttle disc is a bit sticky when closed which doesn't help for light throttle action when trying to move off slowly. The rear navara shocks, as noted previously were not helping. Looking forward to the next drive now I have originals back in, complete with all their oil. The front shocks are actually about the same as what I had originally. I have set the damping to what I feel is about the same as the originals. It really doesn't require much damping in the front (unless some internet Barry has finally managed to persuade me that 3 sacks of concrete in the front really is the way to set up rear engined cars) I am going to dig out the go pro, hope the batteries are not dead and try to get some better camera angles along with better exhaust sound representation. I really want to hear what its like from outside with the new exhaust and better tune.

With a known good fuel tank in place time to sort the other end out. Previously we were running the engine off a boat tank in the passenger seat and a clicketyclack electric pump. Dirty ol 173 New valve cover and lifter cover gaskets Water pump replaced with a unused one that came with a $50 FBMP pile of bits (also came with a thermotstat housing that was much better, a fan extension thing that we needed, a valve cover (later model so didnt use), rocker covers and a fan that i painted,, and a sump we will probably use eventually too, so pretty stocked with that score! Cooling system got a wash out too and a new thermostat from my stash (same size as Fiat ) Fuel pump gasket set from Butler Auto Mart, and freshly cleaned Fan pulley, fan extension, fan, and lifter covers And finally new radiator hoses and clamps Unfortunately i had to take the rad out again to solder up a big crack under the top hose but alls well now

Air filter arrived today. Looks like it'll work!

Just a quick update. I've been in contact with the original NZ owner, he's a real character. At the age of 85 he's just bought a McLaren only to find he couldn't get in or out of it, so has bought a new supercharged Vantage as well! (Oh how the other half live). Good news is that he's helping all he can and although he hasn't any registration details he does have some early pictures and has offered to swear an affidavit saying that to the best of his knowledge it is the same car. Being an ex MP and well known public figure it will hopefully add some weight when we put in an "alternative documents application" to NZ Transport. I'm still researching the cars history; we bought it as a pile of parts from a Turners Police auction after it had been confiscated in 2000 under the proceeds of crime act and had been in police storage for about 6 years, (the previous owner had been locked up for manufacturing meth!). It's a crazy story and I'll post a quick thread of the rebuild when the history is all confirmed. A quick few pictures of the almost completed car.

Before we did all that, we had taken the petrol tank out to see inside it and look above it. Despite what came out The inside was really nice. Even the sender works. Great news! For some reason i havnt got any pics of the outside of the tank before tidying it up, but under the mud it was cleanish, but lots of surface rust especially in the low areas and where the anti rattle pads were. A few dents, but nothing major and bst of all no holes. so after some cleaning and de-rusting the outside it got a coat of 2k grey, (125p Ute colour ) again just with a brush. A new seal on the sender and some new rubber pads to replace the old hairy stuff that was on there and cleaned and lubed the cap. Under side of the boot got a tidy up too, pretty nice really, no holes above the tank at all, and the surface rust mostly came off with the sander + phosphoric + converter Tidied up the 3 vent lines (they go up behind the diff, no time like now!) then a coat of rustkill matt black (this is still wet) just to seal everything as hopefully there is no reason to ever be back under the tank again. Before installing the tank, we remade the exhaust. The front pipe is 2inch from the factory log manifold to this muffler which is no good and the tail pipe after it was only inch and half and rusted out anyway. Can see the pea shooter tip sticking out in this pic from when we picked it up, RIP Bill I had a 2 1/4" combo bend and some flanges 'in stock' already left over from the 2300 wagon, and i figure 2 1/4 will be 'fine' for pretty much any engine that ends up going in it including the 173 in it , so thats what we used, Did some thinking and measuring and thinking and looking at the old pipe that came off and dsome more thinking and eventually ordered another combo bend and a clearance s bend/straight through muffler (was only $50 instead of $220+ for what we should have probably got) from autobend. the two combo bends together worked out to be juuuuuuuuuust enough. Immediately after the new muffler i installed new 2 bolt flange, as the old one was fully welded, so i thought id be clever and make this removable, but jokes on me as once it was all tacked i couldn't 'unscrew' the pipe from its loop around the diff/floor anyway, not without letting the diff droop but thats where the jackstands were sooo... Anyway, its got to do a bit of a Raurimu Spiral over the diff Then scoot around the edge of the tank and the back of the diff Then up the channel between the frame and the boot wells. Used the last 45 bend as the tip as a bit of a nod to the peashooter that was on there before. Test run was a success with only a couple of inevitable pinholes found and plugged, It s bit hard to tell if its too loud (it probably is) or just right when its echoing off a concrete wall in a bunker, but, its a much more suitable noise and look than the wet farts that came out of the old rusty muffler and twirly straw.

Monthly update.. Got the roof on. What a drama. Thought I would be saving time/money getting the flashing kits with the Velux skylights.. nope. Unless I was planning on doing the roof myself, no roofer wants to use these and would rather install a custom flashing. Oh well, roof is on, just need to order the skylight and barge flashings which will be done when I’m ready to order the sill and fascia flashings in a few days. Shed is all wrapped and cavity battened.. due to going with metal cladding the battens need to be separate from the steel due to the CCA treatment, so we stapled a strip of DPC to every batten. Got flooring down in the attic storage space.. And moved the water tank to its spot.. Cladding inspection passed today, so another big few days coming up soon.

Had this big ol copper hot water cylinder in the paddock for ages, was always gonna do something with it... So cut both ends off to make some wood bins, pulled out the element/temp probe tube and knocked out dents. Cylinder was so big there's a whole centre section I may make a drinks/ice bucket out of yet... Looked at putting claw foot legs on the bins, but just bought cheap wooden fruit bowls off Temu, along with brass handles and some edge strip. The bowls are around 300mm dia, and quality reflects the price (cheap AF), one arrrived broken and the wood is damn near balsa spec, but they'll do... The ends of the cylinders were quite convex so I hammered them down flat and cut a decent hole in the bowls and gave them a coat of cedar stain/varnish... Then sanding, sanding, sanding with 120 grit to get a rough polish. I'm leaving it rough with character scratches and dents, cos they're wood bins... Then wiped down with wax & grease remover, and sprayed with clear spray bomb, bolted base to copper with some big washers, added a black edge strip, riveted some handles on, and done... Only did one today as a concept but came out OK I think. Two would look better each side of the fire so I'll cut off the copper base ring, solder some brass frost plugs over the holes and do the other one the same...

The headers decided to start leaking at Teretonga, which probably explains all the flames out the rear end Pulled them off to inspect, and there was a decent sized hole in #3. It would have been pretty thin from port matching and must have cracked and blown out. @eke_zetec_RWD made these headers for me back in 2010, so they've done pretty well! I was planning to give them a. cleanup anyway. They came up pretty good after a quick sand blast: Welded up the affected area and tried to use as little heat as possible: And a quick lick of high temp paint: Then I spent this afternoon wrapping the headers (another job I've been planning to do for over a decade). I won't be in a rush to do another set.... It's a fiddly job. Should help with under bonnet temps a lot, so it'll be worth it. Back on the car:

Now, just to throw another spanner in the works, there was a new deadline for the rebuild (or at least a temporary hurdle). A change in jobs (and careers) to a Porirua-based association meant we had an impending move to Wellington coming up, and I am very grateful to Aaron for fitting the car in and laying down such an amazing paint job in such a short amount of time. However, the now-rapidly approaching relocation meant rather than taking the time to piece the car back together slowly, it was a case of stuffing as much back into the car as quickly and temporarily as possible so it could be moved. Already regretting life choices at this point - the weather got colder and wetter the further south we went. Who knew that Waiouru had sleet in February? While the Telstar was fine to tow it over the hill and back, it probably wasn't going to tolerate 10 hours-plus pulling a dead Escort full of parts, so I went with the more sensible option of hiring a Hilux for the big drive down country. Not least because it could then also carry all of the crap in the garage that didn't fit in the moving truck... Once it was tucked up in the new garage, the long and involved process of 'clean, paint, lubricate and refit' could begin. Oh, and a whole lot of this stuff: I figure if it's managed to prevent the Accord from dissolving into a flaky puddle, it must be good (and I really like the smell of it for some reason). Many cans later, and all of the cavities were waxed. Some of it went on the car too, puhuhu As predicted in an earlier post, I've blinged it up a little bit. While it was a pretty un-fucked with original car when I bought it, a base model Escort sort of isn't the greatest place to be. Part of the goal for the restoration was to make modifications to it based on what was available in period, and mostly from the Ford parts bin. Sort of an 'if you worked at a Ford dealer in the '70s and got cheap deals' kind of exercise. It's also an excuse to use some of the parts I've hoarded over the years. So, to that end, it has a full set of factory bronze-tinted glass, remote driver's mirror, centre console, and stainless window trim from a Ghia, 13x5" Rostyle wheels (of the correct earlier offset, either from an early Sport or a Mk2 Capri - this wasn't intentional as I'd have preferred the '79-onward spec wheels with an increased negative offset, but at least I can claim they're correct for an early Mk2/tbh the main factor was just that they were cheap), and a couple of different 2V Weber carburettors. Tried a 32/36 DGAV on it initially, which was simply too big - because it's intended for a Cortina the throat sizes are wrong for anything under a 1600, which means the air speed through the venturis is too low to achieve proper fuel atomisation (so it bogs at low RPM, and generally doesn't have a good time). It has a jetted-down 32DGAV 5E currently (fitted as factory to a 1600 Sport) which has smaller venturi sizes and works better, but the manual choke conversion for a DGAV has never really worked properly, so when I saw a 32DGV 15C (the factory manual choke 1300 Sport/1300GT carb) come up on TM, I jumped on it. Shortly after that, a set of factory extractors popped up, so I grabbed those too. Dad very kindly donated a Sport air filter housing to the cause, and all of these will find their way onto the car once I've built the other engine sitting in the shed. This will end up being based on 1300 Sport specs, with a few extra David Vizard tweaks thrown in (and hopefully the car's original 1100 pistons, for more compression). Managed to score a factory Sport gearbox for it too (which has a closer ratio and allegedly stronger gearset from OE), so that will go in when the engine does. I also built up a 3.89:1 final drive for it, to give it some longer legs on the motorway than the 4.11 it had. Hasn't made a huge difference, but every little helps. Spot the difference. Anyway, circa April '21 it went for its first WOF post-reassembly, and shortly afterward it made the trip up to Auckland for the north harbour all Ford day. This was actually a pretty momentous occasion - the old man brought along his Escort estate (which he's had since the early '80s, and I learnt to drive in), and the two finally went to a show together. It only took like 8 years for it to happen... And that pretty much brings us up to the present day. Still have it, still have plans for it, still have parts in the shed waiting to go on it. However, with a growing fleet and a Fairmont that's taking increasing amounts of time and money, those things are taking longer to happen. Ah well, it's still nice to open the garage door to it. Discussion for additional Escort barrying here:

Background: I built my first workbench a few years ago, mostly 100x50x3mm box section, quite a bit of surface rust (was cheap as chips) and used MDF for backing and some melamine coated MDF for the bench itself (total 36mm). It has been good, but it can be hard to do everything on one bench. This was just when I moved it to its current home, before it got swamped in all of the things behind me when I took this picture... I was sick of not being able to use grinders/sanders until I had tidied the clean stuff off the bench, and I was sick of my "clean" project stuff becoming "dirty" project stuff when I inevitably used grinders and sanders without tidying up the bench first. So I needed a new bench. Goals: House drill press, bench grinder, bench sander, air compressor and the vice. "Shelves" for some smaller plastic trays I had lying around. Materials I either have or can get easily Wheels on one side so I can raise it with the jack and move it out of the way. (added later) A small "lid" that stops die grinder swarf and bench grinder dust from covering the other car in the garage. Build: It starts with a plan, so I measured everything I wanted to have fit and made some loose 3d models to see how it would all come together. I won't swamp the post with fusion renders, so heres one showing approximately what I was going for. On the bottom left you can see I had cooked something up using some box section steel as a "foot", with some wheels just on the outside of the foot. The bench normally sits on the solid foot, but when you barely lift the right hand side, the bench comes up entirely on fixed wheels. Started with a rough frame (very rough welding... stick isn't my forte and I'm not wasting a bunch of time cleaning the rust off! Added the rest of the structure, shelves notched with a skilsaw and a hammer... Benchtop is 25mm ply with melamine coating, heavy stuff! Result is a pretty decent attempt at a dedicated grinding bench! Discussion: This bench remains covered in dust and swarf, but the primary bench can have long-term electrical or welding projects hang out without getting completely filthy. This bench also can be moved by one person lifting up the right side (kind of heavy with all of the tools+air compressor), but the low profile jack can get under it and lift it too, making it quite maneuverable. If I had to do it again, I would: Not buy the cheapest possible ($5/sheet) non-structural MDF cover for the shelves and backing, it really is crap to work with, and I'm certain I'll have to re-do most of it as soon as someone even sweats near it. Measure twice, weld once. Quite a bit of the structure isn't perfectly square, which is mostly fine for a workbench but its kind of problematic for the shelves, backing and sides to all line up. Make it full height with a proper lid, and provisions for lighting. For now I've jerry rigged a portable worklight as the main lamp, but the shadows are too harsh. Provision some sort of handle on the "picking up" side. It has no good way to grab it, so the jack is the primary way of moving it. Goals achieved, thanks for reading!

The car dropped some coolant out the back of the head after running it up to temp last night. I knew my coolant pipes back there were pretty dodgy and had them on the list to sort out anyway. The old setup was a combination of hoses, hose clips and a bit of Altezza hard line. Ugly and was never good. I've updated it with a cap screw blocking off the small hose (instead of a bolt in a rubber hose ) and an AN fitting with an elbow. It's a lot tidier than the old way, but kinda bulky, so there's a few nuances to fitting it with the engine in the bay. Ran it up to pressure and it seems good. That's a win! Then I noticed a small oil leak... my melty cam angle sensor that's been through hell finally decided to start leaking oil. So I guess that's my next job to sort

Spent the last week of late nights smashing out some more on this thing trying to get the body back to the painter. Got the wheels bolted together, sealed up and tyres on to test fit on Friday night, Stoked with how thats all come together very happy with how it looks. Rear needs the diff head clearanced for the floor and some minor trimming to fit the height. Have been going over the car front to back making a list of the final things to do to get the car back to paint. List of smaller fab stuff to get done which im in the plan of getting that booked in. Assembled the freshly chromed rear bumper and mounted up to the powder coated bumper brackets for a final test fit. Chipping away at things like mounting fuel filters, plumbing etc, making a list of parts that i still need to buy. Quite alot of progress which is good!

Still quiet at work, so did more on the ute. don’t really get much done, more pacing, looking, thinking, picking shit up, thinking nope not today. so I saw the compressor sitting in the box and decided to mount them. have settled to mount these below the deck at the headboard. The tank will sit above the deck. I’ve just run out of room in the back with the fuel tank going there and now the watts link. im fine with that. The compressor lines will come up through the deck and into the ends. i also decided to mock up the exhaust that runs from the headers to the tip, this has to dump in front of the diff. looks like a damn rocket ship of doom. ill make up a bit of an exhaust cradle as a hanger. will remake the headers to suit.

Good luck little buddy!

Picked up this sideboard in 2021 - dates from approx early 60s. My place is a little older, but all vaguely true mid-century. It was rough as guts and therefore cheap. I enjoyed the sculptural handles and legs, and needed a project for my new shed. Stripped it down completely (not needed and caused issues but I learned a lot) Reassembled slowly - the top slabs needed to be run through a local joiner's sander as it was warped. Danish oil or nothing Complete - this took many months realistically. Whites Aviation ftw - my house appears in that ancient aerial photo of Whangaparaoa Humble abode - Don sofa and armchairs (resto inbound on these). Girl skate decks "Chair" series, with Eames chairs featured (also have the rare Chocolate "Modern Homes " series. TVs not welcome here.

Started to get into this again try get some progress going. My 15-16" step lips and barrels turned up from Pine Engineering, bloody stoked with them, has worked out 16x7 and 16x8 with 2inch lips on the front and 3 on the rear. Have bolted all together and just need to seal up and then fit some tyres to make sure all fits good but looking good. Have chipped away at a bit more of the plumbing and some minor mods to the radiator to make the EWP work/fit properly. Getting close to wiring, mount pedal box and a couple of minor fab tweaks then its ready to strip and off to paint. Also got the Tremac in, requied the shifter to be flipped 180 degrees and it comes out perfactly in the centre of the factory hole so can keep my console. Required some minor trimming to get it to fit but looks good without needing to mod the tunnel majorly so pretty happy with that.

Will look pretty good once it's done IMHO.

Been a while but an update we have, Thai thing has just been a workhorse, before the last wof I went over the vehicle and found the driveshaft required rebuilding, so it got 3 new UJs and and new hanger bearing, I also replaced the pinion seal, the diff has always been noisy and when had the old seal out the pinion bearing looked average, I fitted the seal, rebuilt driveshaft and went and got a wof, next weekend I filled the tank, went for a cruise and got home to find an axle seal had let go and ruined the brakes, So I figured it was time to rebuild the diff and do some other needed repairs, after 6 years of abuse it was time to replace the boot floor Aside from the self inflicted damage, some rust had come though so I bought a replacement floor pan from Chucks, pulled the fuel tank and cut the floor out trimmed up the replacement Trim fit trim fit repeat Got it tacked in today, fit is pretty good, got one corner that is not as happy as the rest but I’ll work that out in due time Diff is getting dropped off at Diff specs drury tomorrow to be rebuilt, was going to do it myself but time is just getting away on me and I need this car back together so I can make a move on some other projects, which will free up the funds to finish my Plymouth Talk about this here: https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/53628-bens-61-belair-talky-talk/

Took the car to Clint yesterday for a "pre-cert" checkup, and unfortunately the list was much longer than I had hoped! Lots of small stuff, which would be easy to fix. But some fairly big issues around the "half chassis" which had been added to the rear, as well as some issues to the original front chassis. Upshot is, that while it probably will still pass tech for drag racing, the only way it will ever become road legal is to build a whole new chassis for it. At this point getting it road legal by building a new chassis is a much bigger project than I am prepared to take on. So for now I am going to continue down the path of keeping it is a drag car only, and tidying up a lot of areas cosmetically, as well as improving on some safety items which are in need of attention. If I am still in love with the car in a few years time I may look at getting a custom chassis built then. Big shout out to Clint Field (Cletus) BTW, super helpful guy who has probably saved me from a world of pain and expense had I tried to get it road legal and THEN gone in for an inspection. I can definitely recommend his services to anyone in the Auckland area. Meanwhile, I am gathering some parts together, such as panel cuts, windows, regulators etc. to try and make it look more presentable. It looks good at a distance, but there is a certain amount of ugly close up that I want to knock out of it! Will update again soon.

It was too expensive to get some channels folded up for the motorcycle trailer so $20 in reinforcing steel and I made some, was a ridiculous amount of welding but I only have $42 invested in the trailer.

Today I learned what eight people filleting blue cod can do in a day. Fishing is Chatham's primary industry (followed by farming and tourism) and the fishery is largely in incredibly good shape. My plan is to plant around 30 fruit trees this year. The soil is largely sand so it makes sense to add affordable fertiliser... which in this case is cod skins and guts. The plastic bins are known as a dolav. There was 1.2 tonnes of skins and gut in the pair of them (no fish frames)... all waste product from just eight people cutting fish yesterday. Impressive.... and don't worry about cod being decimated. It's a great table fish and quotas are really well managed. The future looks good. Hopefully my avocados don't stink.

The blasting begins Nothing toooo surprising as a result. Rust in normal places, awful attempts at rust repairs in normal places. overall it's straight, which is the main thing! Bonnet/Boot/Front valance are in great shape, as well as one of the doors. Passenger door has a bit of rust but nothing extreme Rear arches have been cooked a bit.. will have to see what the panel guy reckons on this one... It's heading over for rust work now so watch this space!

Progress is slow, but I am getting there... Engine slotted in and getting the ancillaries on, because this is an SII engine (not an SIIa or later) its a bit of an odd duck and aftermarket parts arent a straight swap. Have replaced the brake/clutch masters and run a few new lines where needed. Been spending the last week on constructing a new wiring loom - ended up making one good one out of 3x hacked ones. Its mostly an SIII loom which I've adapted to the SIIa facia and run a few extra wires for the floor mounted dip switch and remote starter etc... May not look like much, but its nicer and tidier than what replaced it, and I can go to a proper fuse box etc. Should be ready for fire up soon and we can see if this thing can move under its own power again...

This one came north on a yransporter, wasn't much fun reversing it down the ramp in the rain. I took a couple of pics for 'Drive Your Woodie Day' and got one published in the Woodie Times (club magazine for the US-based National Woodie Club)

Does the old guy remember what it's rego number was? There's a reasonable chance I have the plates somewhere under my hydraulic press

Big shout out to Aaron at Full Noise Auto Restorations Ruakaka for laying down a stunning coat of paint: Telstar will tow anything. And yes, it's on the trailer backwards - in fairness, it didn't have an engine over the front axle, and I didn't want to blow the rear window out of it...

Been a while since I updated this but there have been a couple of things done. The brakes got sorted. Turns out I had to adjust them so there was quite a bit more drag than I would have normally done. I had to swap over some components too but I forget what those were. Probably a slave. I had it all booked in for LVV so I could at least get the list of works to do whilst I am not working and after a long and comfortable drive I thought Id check the fluids. Blown head gasket. Typical. So I cancelled the inspection and parked it in the shed to stop bird shit from landing on the gravel. The ea81 I picked up from @cubastreet just got finished being fully reco'd and I have grabbed that. Seems a waste putting such a nice engine in such a cursed car. Anybody have a gen 1 brumby or baja bug floating around they want to offload? Anyway when I cbf'd Ill drag it into the workshop and switch the engines over. It was diabolically fast with the 1600cc so with the ea81 it should be a lot of fun. Because I'm going to forget, the engine builder said I need to run the break in oil and plain water for 500kms then oil/filter change with 20w/50 semi synthetic or mineral oil with fresh water and the additive he gave me.

Didnt get a chance to go for a drive today but I was thinking about the lack of rotational stiffness in that joint and how it would make things probably sub optimal. The push pull felt fine but the sideways lever movement/shaft rotation felt pretty woolly. So I came up with a plan that got implemented just now. Should improve things. Probably.

Not much of an update, but at least she's home now.... Made the trek down to the property just outside of Hamilton on Saturday rolling 3 hours sleep after landing at 6am from Australia. Loaded it up and managed to get my trusty 2wd Hilux through the mud in their paddock no problem. LSD came in handy. Just as we were loading up my girlfriend spied a mid century couch she really liked in the shed. The brothers who were clearing the estate said there are two matching chairs up in the house as well so they ended up coming back with us as well.... Definitely got some looks heading up the motorway back to the old mans shed, but lucky we packed some extra tie downs and I had some sitting in my ute too. Maybe it will be easier to get permission to go out to the shed if I bring her to work on her lounge suite project when I work on the Moke..... So here it sits.... Still got the engine and head sitting in the back that I need to take out. Plan next weekend is to give it a wash to get the 35+ years of barn find dust off and give it a vacuum to get all the rat poo and acorn shells out of it. That will probably be about it for a while, as there are some small things I need to sort out for my Mini ahead of Mini Nationals. Which is on Labour Weekend this year in Cambridge. I want to keep it rolling as long as possible as its easier to move around etc. Still pretty stoked about the condition this came in. While the gf was up in the house looking at the chairs, me and the old man popped the side covers off where the battery goes and in front of the fuel tank and it is absolutely mint under there, just a little bit of rust to take care of in the toe board where the bottom of the subframe bolts up (common place for minis to go). Plan is to ditch the canopy and/or maybe make it removable. Might try get a bikini top made just for a bit of sun protection similar to below. Long term plan is to take care of the bodywork first while letting my funds recover a bit and save up for a new engine. Will chip away bit by bit and see how I get on. Till next time....

The exhaust is all done. I'm absolutely stoked with the how it fits. Sounds good so far and it should be even better on the racetrack Another quick family photo whole these 3 are together in the workshop:

Fuck me....this poor old girl has been parked up out at my nephews place for a while now and before that it sat under a cover on my drive for 5 weeks..... Thats it under the cover lol Don't worry I havnt sold it ..just got so much other stuff on the go. Building another turbo pinto for my nephew And building a twin carbed Supercharger pinto (because I have mental issues). And putting a mk4 together for a mate. But don't you worry your pretty little heads she will be back one day and I probably pull her apart as I've over thought things and have planes that I don't think I can achieve....but will try anyway. Cheers

So.....in a fit of madness, this happened: The last 12 months have been a bit of a shit sandwich (and I might even have a bit of an offload in the Depression thread at some stage) but one of the main things Ive chosen to keep my sanity is to finally attack some of the projects that I have been putting off due to "poverty"....when in reality the money was there but I was just prioritising other (shitt) things over them. So for the rest of the year the focus will be on the CBR MC17 I grabbed off @a.craw4d with the goal to having it running for summer. 2025's big project will be the Sierra, hence the first purchased piece of the puzzle above....its a manifold for a Weber 32/36 to go with the other ideas: - Kent FR32 fast road cam - RX8 5/6 speed box (to be determined) - Mags and Gaz shocks all round. - Possibly YB pistons and rods in the Pinto 2.0 205 block. - Possibly EFI? Id love to chase some numbers around 150-175bhp which should be doable without getting too involved. I'm eyeing up a carport kit as well to keep it out of the weather, but this is all doable. The money was always there, it was just getting wasted on stupid stuff.

Well, following on with the disaster that was my 'Cheatin' The Reaper' 38 7Y, I have regrouped and decided to put the running gear (engine & box), seats, gauges, fuel system into another vehicle. My criteria was: It had to be a Ford, or at least a member of the 'blue oval' wider family. Left hand drive, so US origin. Road registered so I can have some legal fun. Modern. When I say modern I mean at least into the 1990's. So that was what I was searching the auction sites and Farcebook Marketplace earnestly looking for. What I ended up buying is none of the above! Nope, it's a late 70's / early 80's Triumph TR7 The shell is really clean so will not need any remedial rust work. Engine bay is wide enough to take my 5.4 quad-cam, so minimal cutting and fettling in the engine bay. The nice thing is that the bit's I'm transferring over are already made and/or already there, so there shouldn't be much fabrication work to do. I'm not going to be as anal with this build. It will be nice (hopefully) but not overly trick.

Nice to play with the quickjacks for a change too.

Some new stickers. Keeping the Castrol theme but they never gave us anything, and Nicks put soo much effort in he should get what advertising benefit there is to have.

Found a friend

And done. Well almost. i do have 4 more welds to finish on the inside of the link boxes. I’ll do that when I add in a backing plate to tie the link plates together. At the moment the inner plates are only attached at the top, so I’ll plate the back to tie them together. this thing gets 8” drop from ride height haha, overkill. But, from my calculations, that even with a 4” drop, I can still fit my bump stop in the notch. also realised that on the front lower arm, the bag is offset, so this also gives me room for a bump stop to be fitted easily. stoked with that. it is now time to finalise what wheel choice I’m going to run. i have a set of 18s but would require some “guard mods”. i have another wheel in mind but need to work out what offset I can run. im not good at figuring out wheel offsets.