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SHOCKING NEWS I actually did something cool with my car apart from making it draw stupid graphs! This week's weekend started on Thursday, at Hampton. Like so: I managed a new best laptime of 1.24.0 which is a 2.7 second increase over last time. Mainly thanks to bravery on the brakes and learning the lines a bit better. It's still having trigger related problems which gives it an early rev cut which is a pain in the ass (Randomly cuts at 6000-8000rpm depending on when it decides to play up) However I've now got a proper trigger wheel to swap over to now. I also had the wideband cut out a bit, which I suspect is because it gets very hot. Possibly because of the exhaust wrap? But it seems to be a common-ish problem, and making a brass heat sink usually fixes it apparently. Kyteler was spectating and noticed that when I hit the brakes, the rear of the car lifts UP. After thinking about this, it's the same 4 link angle problem that gives me shitty traction off the line, and is fixable with revised 4 link geometry. So I need to stop procrastinating on that one, as I've known about the problem (and the fix) for a few years haha. After trackday, I drove it about 650kms around the Coromandel for Nats, and didnt have any issues either. So super happy with that! Car's now safely back at home, awaiting the next round of pulling it to bits and wondering why I pulled it to bits.

Success! Huge thanks to Karl and Casey at Autoworks East Tamaki for the use of tools, hoist, endless guidance, and some plainly awesome fabrication and automotive skills. Those late nights were definitely worth it. Springs have yet to settle but the car sits a LOT lower now. Handles a whole heap better too, less boating around corners. Tomorrow I'll firm up the front dampers a bit, then I do believe we are ready to rock the Coromandel. Discussion: http://oldschool.co....showtopic=27846

Whacked some springs in this old girl yesterday.. Haven't got the right shocks yet, but I've got some good ones on the way from Murica'. So currenty not driving it. Once new shocks arrive I'll go and take some good photos. It looks pretty wild in person

Went to Nats. Drove a grand total of 857 trouble-free km over three days using much less fuel than I thought, which was nice. Let's do it all again soon. Springs have more or less settled - firmed up the front dampers for the trip away, though I had to soften it one click in the rear after discovering the back felt a bit too skittish when hitting mid-corner bumps (while trying to keep up with Spencer piloting sheepers' V8 Celica on the way to Waihi). Otherwise it grips well and absolutely flies. The beauty of the rotary engine is that it's so smooth and builds momentum in such a linear fashion that you can keep winding the revs out and the car just slingshots itself around corners. Still needs the wheel alignment sorted as it doesn't track too well in a straight line, but I'll get onto this ASAP. The exhaust stayed in one piece and sounded absolutely mint echoing through the Coromandel hills... there is nothing quite like the unique buzz of a turbo rotary on song above 4000rpm. Most of the odd surging and performance issues seem to have disappeared now that the exhaust has been opened up for better flow, but I'll continue to try improving some of the niggly drivability things. If anything, all of the low-rpm pops and bangs and occasional lumpy/brappy sounds give it more character with the new exhaust, whereas before with the stock exhaust they were just plain annoying - quite possibly because there were no audio cues to work out exactly what was going on. As an added bonus - picked this little thing up on Sunday night at prizegiving: An unexpected surprise after all the ups and downs! Thanks to all who deemed it worthy of Best Coupe this year. Discussion: http://oldschool.co....showtopic=27846

I got to drive this in Coromandel. LUSHER THAN THE GRASS OUTSIDE SHAZ'S CABIN Did you take the left turn out of the campground gates to Thames? Or back past the Coroglen Tavern?

Gave er a good clean and touched up some paint chips. Now it's on trademe as I'm out of Auckland for 3 months and don't want to hold onto it. Tell your friends.

Couple weeks ago I decided to get my wheels tidied up .. got em back yesterday really happy with how they are now to seal em up n chuck em on car .. Tires being used r 185/55/r14 .. thinking of increasing rears to 205/55 or something of similiar for something decent.. 9" rim Here's some wheel porn here's what they orginally looked like Got wheels taken off bead.. Tires r a good fit lol centre's were tigged to the rear lips had em chemically dipped n acid dipped to clean em all up Even took radiator surround and bonnet hinges to be dipped. Centre's went off to powdercoaters . Used Brian n Whyte in kingsland nice guys and really well priced . 40 bucks per rim to go metallic gun metal grey and then clearcoated. Front bands I took to progressive electroplaters n polishers in new lynn travis is the guy to see he's awesome. Here's finished product . What a difference the bands are they are like mirrors now. Thanks for looking

NATS OR BUST. New ZOOM springs, in. Then we started on the exhaust system. It's 2.5" mandrel bent from the downpipe back, with two mufflers and an oldboy-spec twin tip at the rear for that nice standard look. Woo-er, the 45mm ID stock exhaust is definitely not helping things. Stock downpipe is nicely sized though - 50mm. First section off the downpipe tacked together. The mantra here is "rotaries need to breathe." Shiny rear tip. Here's what we pulled out of the car, all of this garbage weighs an absolute ton. This is Yuck! Discussion: http://oldschool.co....showtopic=27846

Lifted the front up a smidge so it doesn't rub so bad. Put some new shocks in front and rear. Took some photos. Happy with how it's looking! Love the interior in this thing!

Sup, so it's about time I put up a build thread for this thing and got some stuff done. Discussion here: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/47324-robbos-1972-toyota-corona-coupe/ 1972 Toyota Corona 1700 Deluxe Coupe Was searching for an old school Toyota for a while but wanted something a little different to the usual k series so after this thing popped up for sale I nabbed it. Not too many around, I know of about 5 floating around in NZ. Sounds like it's belonged to a couple of old schoolers in the past so some might recognise it. Has a few cool bits, factory tinted windows, pillarless, fuel tanker filler under the number plate, hard wired inspection light in the engine bay, disc brakes up front etc. Failed a wof early last year for some rust and had been sitting in the guy's shed ever since. Pic above from just after I bought it (knocking sound coming from FL wheel on the way home, went to take the wheel off to check it out and the nuts weren't even finger tight!) Anyway the good and the bad: Good -Mostly complete (just missing a few interior bits) -Fairly straight body -Runs well when it starts -Has been resprayed not long ago (not a great job though) Bad -Some rust -Auto -Has some electrical gremlins -Weather strips/seals are mostly perished Failed its wof on rust in both sills and the bottom of a door, previous owner said he'd had his mate fix up the door but he'd forgotten to the do the sills (hmm?). Anywho there was also some paint bubbling in both of the roof gutters and around the radio aerial, decided to get it fixed all at once so took it to a cashie panel beater (cheers Mr Mk1 for the contact). Pics of the rust when it was taken back to bare metal, some fairly thick bog in places and the previous owners mates repair on the door was pretty shoddy (combination of new steel, nutech and bog). Panel beater cut it all out replaced with new steel and primered it up. Got it back home and tidied it up a bit and here's how she sits at the moment. So the plan is to sort out the electrical gremlins (either the battery is buggered or its not being charged, has an almost brand new alternator so ruling that out for now) and take it for a wof. Future plans are: Wheels - 14x7ish Mk2s/Longchamps/whatever comes up Fender mirrors - Current side mirrors are crappy Thai replicas Manual conversion - Need to source W40/pedal box Low - May just chop the fronts and throw some blocks in the rear Paint - Might have a go at painting the primered bits myself That's all for now folks, chur.

hello auckland people. i have recently movied to auckland with work, and the exhuast on the corona is very much worse for wear. plus its a mess of bits and peices of other exhuasts. so i would like to get it all new and tucked up as high as possible so i wont damage it as much. i would normaly do this myself, except i no longer have access to my welder and any of my tools, or an area to actually do the work. does anyone have any recomendations for decent shops that wont charge a fortune, or does anyone want to take on the job for me? im out west in whenuapai, so close to that for a shop would be nice, but i could bring it anywhere in auckland if someone wants to do it for me. cheers! Josh

Dude. All your cars are so clean! It's so fresh to actually see a rx7 that hasn't been rolled bowled and assholed. Had a geeze at it at leadfoot and listened from a distance to you talking to people about it. Mad eye for getting even the tiniest of details perfect with all your cars. Thing that cracks me is how you seem to come across all these super hard to find/mint parts that no one else can get. Pined over it at nats this weekend, and followed you on poker run for a bit and it's good to see its not NanaEd. Disappeared super quick once you got onto SH25 Btw your skylines are things dreams are made of.

No free time to weld at work so tried finishing the wiring. Fail because on sat ago after work I just couldn't find pliers for non insulated crimps..so frustrating. Got horns, too bad after wiring them in and testing they sound like shit. Cut up my spare front piece and fitted to car. I will cut the glass nose piece down and bond it to this steel lip. I really need to buy some clico clips.

Cheers man! always cool to see some vids fro the outside!

Rusti, a chick friend had a '36 Morris 8 back in the 80's. We had a lot of fun cruising in that and she was not averse to driving it hard on occasion. One day we shot a quite long one lane bridge at 60 mph and made a P6B Rover back off.

Cert guy says my frame wont need crack tested. Just mocked it up. Needs some work. The rear engine mount seems to be about 3 inches further back than I'd like so will chop that centre post out and move it forward Dunno if rake is a little too much?

Stripped the struts ready for welding, Then got sidetracked by yahoo auctions again and bought my dream wheels. 14x6.5/7J Focus Racing Spoke. Ripe for widening to 9/10A specs. Currently on a boat. V excite. A+ etc

turn all the compensation off and see what it does, at least it will just get richer when it gets hot.

oh just seen this, may help i dont know !

Sweet ride man, loved watching you beat it around taupo last time you were there. Few shots of you in the vid I slapped together

Buster,s 240Z in the background. I remember that car well.

i lowered it some too. I got the suspension setup changed a fair bit. shorter and stiffer springs, revalved and shortened. figured it wasnt low enough, so Kelvin cut my front strut towers to let the top arms pass through. changed the front wheels to Impul pro mesh. 15x8.5 -8. And bought a set of ssr formula mesh. 15x7.5 and 15x8, unsure of offsets sadly. Uhh, found some OG Recaro SPG. What else? uhh, bought a big Whiteline rear swaybar just to find out that the car is too low to run it.

Well, I haven't been here for a while! I thought I'd post a sad excuse for an update. I drove the car.

let me announce my next act with a song. listen to it while reading the rest of this BOOOOOM!!!!!!!! i got my roof racks sorted for nats!!!! i cut up a couple of my tie downs that i had laying around at home slammed an sp7 eyelet threw the end off them and cut them down to suit kinda sewed the end onto the roof rack it self. looks a bit like this so your probably wondering where that bolt goes?????? well thats my safety belt bolt. super clever i think. hope it works out well for this weekend.

is your maf just jammed into that intake hose? looks like its backwards to start with. from what i hear they run best with stock airbox also. beams weirdos (roman dave, etc..) on here will be able to tell you more

Drug her and manipulate her until she understands. You did not hear that from me. I did not say that.

I totally have shed envy. Love the paint pantry. Brilliant idea, far superior to open shelves. I claim that lack of a decent shed is the reason I don't get much done on my own projects but really it is family commitments and taking care of the farm animals that sucks up my time. You are truly blessed in having a wife / other half who shares your interest in things mechanical. Sadly mine does not and I fear she will never understand the pleasures thereof.

Hi Alex Regarding the several springs nearby. I was recently ambling about some inca ruins, and wandering away from the clearly defined path came across some rather nice plumbing. An aquaduct had been carved into the bedrock of a small hill, leading its way down to a small series of baths. I think this would look particularly attractive if at some point it branched out and flowed over some koru patterns. Will send a hammer and chisel, be sure to squint real hard for saftey. I approve of the bbq cover matching the shed, and hipster bicycle workshop coffee bar. I hope to see a copper boiler with lots of shiny tubing attached sitting atop. Cant help but notice that you also need a second shed however, and perhaps a third for future proofing. A hardwood treehouse would be nice, it will go well with the zipline and canopy walk. Good to see plenty of sit and relax/contemplate areas, but do they ever get used with this amount of work going on. Get a haircut and get a real job Your pal Tortron

your garden needs more tire swans to be honest

shit yeah love it. glad I'm no thte only one that saw ya new loo and thought 'phwoar I'd just love to spend twenty minutes destroying that thing out in the serenity' I can't hurt field mice either. too delicate.

Wow- its been a while since I wrote some stuff about dirt, gorse and sheds. So here I am. It has been a busy last few months sorting out many things. I have not been working much in this time, well not paid work that is. I have certainly been on my feet rushing about here and there trying to get stuff done in some sort of order so we can start getting a little business going. What we want to do more than anything is just build or fix things for people from the comfort and convenience of our own workshop charging a fair enough rate that will allow us to continue on with a pretty cruisy relaxed lifestyle out here. I am sure that is what most here on oldschool want though- most I have met so far have not been chasing silly big monies but instead want enough to play with old cars and shit. So that's us. With this in mind I had to continue on getting the shed up and once it was up I have been full on trying to set it up neatly in fashion I've always wanted before taking on any proper 'paid' work. Sam will attest to this...his Celica has been sitting here for ages while I get stuff unpacked and sorted away. I promise you Sam that I will soon remove all them big chunks of air from your/Janes car and replace them with steel. Phew- that was a big chunk of words. Here's a photo.. Yep- that's our workshop all pretty much finished. The very eagle eyed will spot a few flashings missing. I have to finish them plus fit a really awesome cat themed wind vane my parents gave us. But yeah, the shed is up and what a relief that is! Its been a few months of ups and downs mainly to do with the shed supplier being totally useless. But that's all over now and in the past. So moving on its all inside fitting out work now. First thing was to get a heap of plywood delivered and line it out. This instantly transformed the feel! its also going to help heaps as extra bracing although the shed feels solid as without it. After the ply was up I built was a place to sit with our coffee and ponder ideas in the sunshine. Using a variety of Rimu bits kicking about I made this bench.. More recently I have parked a little breville espresso machine on top- one that my parents threw out because it leaks badly. I'll put up with that for nice coffee in the workshop Now I am part German. Only an eighth but I think enough to make me get off just a little on organisation, ergonomics and efficiency. At times, often, this conflicts with my mums she'll be right kiwi hippy cruisy slant. Hannah is also a tidy freak so the workshop has to be as well organised as possible. Especially if we want people to come along to see us and be potential customers. I hate messy workshops! I hate spending ages looking for tools or stock when it should be in its place and easy to find. Especially if a good customer is paying for this time. Not on in my book. So for the last few weeks in between entertaining guests and trying to enjoy some of this summer after missing out on December and much of Jan to building the workshop etc I have been organising all of our stuff. We had to make several trips over to Blenheim to help my parents move house. While there each time we would bring back a load of stuff that was stored there. We also took down the little plywood shed we had built before we started building the housetruck. All this stuff ended up in a big pile on the workshop floor. This pile had me in hives with the general messyness. Plus we had to make the place a little bit tidy for the visit from the smoking tire crew. So I made some big shelves. Many of the boxes my parents had used to move house were a perfect size for these shelves but they were covered in print as they got them from macdonalds. I turned them all inside out and re-glued them. Now I had a load of neat matched brown boxes. Awesome! So I organised shit and stacked shelves.. I also built a big sturdy bench. Then I covered the top with a sheet of 4mm thick steel. Its great. Really happy with it. You can see to the right in the above image a big steel table. That was the frame we found in the scrub next to the drive. Its burly and has industrial grade castor wheels with grease nipples. It was an awesome find. So I cleaned it up and welded the other half of the sheet of steel to it. So a 2.4 m long heavy roll around workbench. You could put a car on it. So cool. I love it. My last thing to build was something ive had in mind for ages- well before building the shed. I always find storing paint cans, spray cans, screws, bolts etc, seldom used special tools- all the little things that clog up shelves and work tops getting in the way. So I wanted to get this stored out of sight and safe from errant grinding or welding sparks. I built this unit. Made use of spare Rimu offcuts for the door.. which opens to this.. Yeah Im pretty happy with that it must be said. Amazing how much stuff it holds and how clear it makes every where else. We have built another bench- a bit smaller and with a Rimu top. Its in what will be the bicycle area. That area will be sectioned off and solely for our many pushbikes and keeping them on the road (or on the dirt..) Last night Hannah started varnishing the bench tops and the doors. They already look so much better after ust one thinned down prime coat.. Once the building has been signed off we'll start doing the electrics. We'll do as much as we can but will have to get an electrician to connect our switch board to the main meter box and then test/sign the lot off. Already have local guy who is helpful as. Later in the year we can start building the mezzanine floor. This I am really looking forward to! Plus looking forward to painting the plywood and finishing off all the doorways/windows etc with some feature wood. Other things have been happening away from the shed. WE moved the long drop away from where it was - which was a bit too close to the truck to be healthy. Up the hill a bit and in the bush surrounded by big ferns. This involved digging a deep hole- as deep as I could reach. My brother came over and helped us carry the booth up the hill. Its now in a much nicer place to take a dump! I added a vent and sealed up all the gaps and now it draws nicely up out of the vent and smells nice. well in a composty long drop sort of way. We have also been having a go at creating a succulent garden/area. Big thanks to Andre for the Yukkas and many succulents. Its looking pretty good so far and hopefully they will thrive in the hot little valley here. We have called this garden 'the garden of tat' because a friend gave us a pretty awful wood look carving of a lady sitting next to a wolf. Once it was placed down we have started discovering other gems and friends/family have given us other terrible tasteless ornaments. Dad gave us the concrete cast boy climbing up a log which I accidently broke in half. But then glued together with no more nails.. So to finish off this rather long post here are of our 'garden of tat'

Serious though.. If the Internet's getting you down then maybe time to see a Dr? I mean, shit sounds depressed. I'm not taking the piss either, just saying. I have copped heaps of abuse and negativity through here. Maybe I don't mind so much because I know I usually deserve it. PS, seriously again, if people aren't feeling good then see a Dr.

Hey guys been pretty busy over last couple days have finished the remaining rust patches which r behind the front 2 guards ! Here's some pics CT rust converter followed by epoxy primer. Drivers side Ok so Ive welded everything up shell is now rust free as far as I no ... will finish pulling engine shit out 2m n start prepping that . Paint has alot of chips so will start sanding it all back might even have a crack at bogging some of the easy / more unseen bits lol .. Have also split my rims to take the centre's to get acid dipped ... Discussion thread here //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/42444-matteybeans-1978-rt104-corona/?fromsearch=1

Still kinda confused how you got rego without a WOF. I thought you need a WOF to get rego?

Another up date ! Spent few hours this arvo on her .. finished fixing rust around front windscreen .. Here's pics . The rust mission is almost over !!! As per all the other repairs old owners had done this was no different .. old patch straight over the top of rust they welded it in but didn't bother to cut it out ... lazy assessment Couple little ones . Again old patches straight over rust.

so it's all done, bar some tidying up... have taken it for a proper drive this morning, and probably barely used more the 1/8th throttle, it feels fast... pretty pleased

there some stuff about about ackerman angles in the front steering as to how much of an arc the rear has to go through too