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Ok so as some of you know Me and Neil (Three on the tree) be running in a Cannonball Run style event in September, we had it all sorted out with an Ex Police Chevy Caprice, unfortunately the Caprice was far from as good as promised, what could we do? Oh yeah we could buy another car, something Big, Bad, and hell yeah 70's, it had to be a a Caddy, I mean what else right? The only American car to actually win the Cannonball out right was a 1973 Coupe Deville, so I began to search one out, unfortunately they are far from cheap now, and are starting to get a cult following and there is a $3000 spending limit on the car. Finally after seeing some real dogs, and a great 76 Edorado with no roof (no roof all the way across the USA twice, uh uh!) I found a two owner 79,000 mile gem in El Paso Texas, it had done 79.000 miles from new and was in awesome condition with full service and a recent 8hr road trip under its belt, perfect! Of course I told the elderly gentleman selling it, I would look after his baby and bring it back to a pampered lfe in NZ, he even dropped the price to $2000 because it was going to a good home. I may have neglected to tell him I was going to drive it all the way to NYC, and then drive it flatout with Captain Chaos and the Worlds Fastest Indian at the wheel, all the way to Los Angelies in one in under 40 hrs! Currently its sitting at my mates undergoing a slight "Race spec" conversion in Winslow AZ. And he builds things like this and this So what will happen? who knows, will we make it to The Portafino Inn at Redondo? Will the Caddy even make it to NYC? follow it all here!

Hi everyone, I recently acquired the car of my dreams and Greg (64Valiant) has told me to share it with you. I'm pretty new to forums but here we go: She's a 1972 Datsun 240z in off-white/cream. The previous owner had her since 1976. The Z was driving around 20 or so years ago, but has been parked up in a garage with a cover since around 1995. He passed away four years ago and the family decided to sell it through the Z Club to find an enthusiast to bring her back to glory. Luckily, I was the first serious buyer and the rest is history. NZ new car 85000 original miles I'm the third owner Interior is near mint (no cracks in the dash and factory radio still installed) Minimal rust (no such thing as a no-rust 240 haha) She runs but clutch won't engage, so is probably fused to the flywheel which should be interesting. The rego has lapsed and I'm trying to keep the black plates naturally, so anyone familiar with this process please shout out! Currently assessing what needs doing for Re-vin and looking at options after that. I will keep her mostly stock, only changing the suspension to something a bit stiffer and throwing on some 15 or 16" Minilites or Watanabes a bit later on in the piece. She's a real darling so I'm not going to deflower her with flares or an Airdam. I've probably forgotten something else important but I'm sure you'll all point it out. Looking forward to chatting and meeting everyone. Thanks for reading, -Reubin First fresh air for 20 odd years! Discussion Thread

Man super excitingly, I just won a fully referbished set of wheels for The Torino too!!!!!!! And from Detroit Vintage Wheels no less!!!!! How Cool is that? https://www.facebook.com/detroit.vintage.wheels.giveaway?fref=photo

So early the next morning, large hangover in tow we set off for the sites of Aspen. I immediately pulled out of the Hotel and set off at a good pace. "AAAAAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!" shouts Watton "What? Whats up? calm down" "Arrrrggggggghhh!!!" "Are you having a heart attack?" "WRONG" "What? Whats Wrong" "WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!!!!!" "FAAAAARRRRRRKKKK!" I quickly swerved across the median and back to the correct side of the road, narrowly avoiding spinning out and sending a Geo Metro to the promised land. "Shit I said, maybe I should write something on the dash to stop that happening again?" "No just don't do it again" Watton said starting to fix himself a Gin and Tonic "bit early for that isn't it?" "There might not be a later, the way you drive. and anyway if you don't want one dont have one!" "Well I didn't say that! no need to be testy!" Soon we were winding our hay out of the scrub and up into the hills, the Torino muttering away and sucking down gas like Kim Dot Com at a cream bun festival. Aspen, as you might have heard was home to one of the greatest writers ever, father of Gonzo Journalism Hunter S Thompson, and after reading his novels for years, I was unsure quite what to expect, the scenary and some of the towns on the way there were giving no clues We eventually pulled into one of the many gas stations we would need to suck dry to complete our journey. "Thank god for that said Watton, we're out of Lemons and Limes" He went in to pay and get us some kind of food, when I say "some kind of food" thats exactly what I mean, food in America can in no way be confused with food everywhere else, it seemed to be made of either 1) Sugar to send you in to some kind of diabetic coma, where you become lazy and delireous as you try to keep your eyes open. 2) Caffine to send me straight to the moon and Back, I would begin to shake and then go off on super fast conversation with mostly myself, whilst driving fast and recklessly enough to watch Wattons fingers turn White as he gripped the dash. 3) Mystery Meat, I don't know what it is, the packaging doesnt know what it is, it sort of smells like meatish but tastes uncomfortably like a toasted slipper, and it has a sell by date 25 years from now. 4) Cardboard, no taste, no texture, no real colour, this will be the healthy option. 5) Man made brightly coloured e numbers, with things like Grape drink (contains no Grapes!) Space waffles (e221 e224 e443 e544 etc!) Aspestos puffs (I honestly dont know what they were made of) these were so disgusting even the Grape drink couldn't wash them down. Ok I lied about the name but that's what we called them! I was filling up the car with go juice. I was startled when the first flake of snow dropped onto my nose, oh oh! I thought franticly scanning the sky, we are in a rear wheel drive auto v8, with summer tyres and it looks like snow, this is in no way good. We both jumped back in the car, I looked at Watton now in the drivers seat and said. "I don't want to worry you, but its starting to snow, we dont really have any warm clothes, we are in a car blatently not designed for any wintery occurence, apart from the fact its Red and they will be able to find it easily to recover our bodies when the snow melts in Spring" "If you think thats bad" said Watton punching the Accelerator and fishtailing us out of the Gas station "They didn't even have any fucking Lemons either" (A grim and Lemonless Watton floors it to out run the aproaching storm!)

The front roof was tackled next. The steel work was battened up, framework added and a ply wood roof installed over the top. The plywood was treated with MetalX (timber preservative) and then covered with a standard builders paper. The edges of the plywood then had an aluminum angle fitted to provide a finish edge for the roofing material. I chose asphalt shingles for the roof, they turned out to be easy to fit and quite rewarding once you had learnt not to waste shingles on starter lines! The other important component was the strategic use of Sika Bitumen based sealer. I had become concerned that the height tolerance I had allowed was not enough so i took the unusual step of creating a flat section along the ridge line, this doubled my tolerance. The flat certainly made the fitting of the ridge cap much easier. Finished result looks quite pleasing..............so far no leaks!!

I sorta don't wanna see this turned into anything like the things your mate builds.....it looks too sweet to be super played with exterior wise Needs bull horns on the hood and you to need to dress like Boss Hogg and Roscoe p Coltrane Or 13in hundred spokes and hydros and you two dress like Mexicans

he had done some very nice jobs right?! dont quite know about the logo in every seat he does but here it a tease/taste of the upholstery on the beetle

IT'S OK GUYS, I BOUGHT MILLIONS OF PISS AND PAID ZERO DUTY.

SOLVED! I found this photo I took. Look at that filth! But #3 has a "P" on it. The other set of caps has a "K". So my guess was wrong.

ignore the last photos. these ones are better

Hi Tom Don't panic too much, its just being given a light prep for the X country run, no massive body changes. We are all going to be wearing white Evil Keneval and elvis Jumpsuits with american flag capes, what true blooded American Law Enforcement Officer would give us a ticket?

LOL your so funny!!! i heard its under heaps of valiant parts in his shop waiting for the guy to do some work on his car instead of his mates cars

good fb link I hope your new interior ends up looking something like

you jammy bastard, winning those wheels! Well done, much jealous

i heard your imp was matty b and thats why its under wraps cause you dont want to show people the average paint job till all the chrome is on it?

heres a picture of the spoon i use and the hammer i use to hit it with. Untitled by sheepers-ra28, on Flickr Untitled by sheepers-ra28, on Flickr this is how i use the end to get up behind the surrounding panel. obviously its on the inside of the panel... Untitled by sheepers-ra28, on Flickr and this is the heavy end that i use once there is enough gap to get this between the two skins. ts got a nice curve to it so i can add a bit of concave shape to the arch. Untitled by sheepers-ra28, on Flickr this is the thin end and how i would be sitting it to do the crease at the top. Untitled by sheepers-ra28, on Flickr

So, havent been on here for a couple of months but well lots has been happening lately its all go! Body is back on the chassis all painted, including the underneath, in, out, engine bay etc!! Front end is back on, doors, rad support, front guards, inner guards. Just waiting on boot and bonnet to be finished before fitting them. Engine and box are in and all bolted up, airbags are bolted in and operating off shed compressor. Have the car at home and starting to piece all the new bits and pieces on! No photos the car has gone under wraps till shes done now! Its looking so good but youl have to wait to see ! http://oldschool.co....westpala/page-5

OK. I admit partial (and I mean only partial) defeat The doors are going to a panel guy on Wednesday morning. Many of you will be familiar with The Pinga/Mr Miyagi. I trust him comprehensively. He will do as good a job as I would in getting them perfectly straight... but I think I will do the painting as that's not his strong point. I am so time poor these days it's staggering though. Gah! Wednesday is still April BTW, and not May. Kisses. UJ

Dragged the two vans out on Saturday, I haven't driven or done anything on them in ages, as I have been so busy. Anyway, gave them both a good cleanup, fitted the freshly painted wheels and new tyres to the Sundowner, and then me and a mate drove back and forth to the All Ford Day so I could put them in the "Transit only parking" stand:) Managed to get 5x Mk2's and 2x Mk1's on display, probably a record for NZ!

Was talking to my wife's brothers wife's ex-husband a while back, talking shit about bikes, and told him i'd love a mid 70's two stroke road bike, he said he had an RD I could buy off him. So I did, as it was the bargain of the century/an offer I couldn't refuse. So I now have a slightly dismantled 74 RD250A, with a rebuilt 350. He used the 250 casings, so all the number match/there's no way to tell its got 350 guts. It also has the original plate on the back, so shouldn't be a problem to re-reg it. It came with a piss load of spares, is there is nearly two complete bikes. I'll slap up some pics later, but this is what it will one day look like: (without the front leg protectors and rack on the back, and with a front disc and churer handle bars) PRETTY FUCKING EXCITED. Regards, NZDMAE86.

I should take some photos and show you guys how to use heaps of filler like a pro.

In 4 weeks time It will still be fxxing ages away from being track ready, no rush.

Thanks Guys, I guess it's better to be lucky than rich I've never won anything in my life, but I really wanted those wheels for the Torino so I'm totally stoked to win

I saw that comp and figured they wouldn't want to know about a car in NZ. Well done. Keep the road trip story going. It's a pearla so far.

Ticked one more job off the list this morning. Neat fuel pump and filter on soft mount bracket combo from a E320 merc Perfect setup for those going from carby to EFI but there is one problem and that is the tank inlet side of the pump is over double the size of the feed line from the fuel tank so the solution is a couple of ARO fittings Had a play round underneath the cab and chassis to find a suitable spot to mount it. Sits up nice and high, just need to cut some brackets so its not held on by only one bolt and get a P clip to hold the fuel line reducer. Bonus was it is right next to a wiring grommet to feed the wiring into the cab. Went to test it out and fuel pump no work with 12v straight off a battery, bugger...... oh well it was free anyway so will aliexpress a brand new one from Jack Ma and his mates

I like to think of it as...My interests are far bigger than my shed. C\: Run "Shed Cycle" 10 Print "Shed clean and organised!!" 20 Print "start a project" 30 Print "stuff dumped in shed in a hurry" 40 Print "pull shed apart looking for stuff under the stuff dumped in a hurry" 50 Print "Shed in absolute chaos as I cant find anything, avoid shed as long as possible" 55 Print "Frustration building" 60 Print "Dump more stuff?" 70 input x 80 if X$ ="yes" then 60 90 Print" At breaking point yet?" 100 input z 110 if z$=yes then goto 130 120 Goto 60 130 Print "Clean up Shed, inorganic is in 6 months so stick it on oldschool " 140 Goto 10 ok so it's been 20 years since I programmed in basic...

Yep; I grew up in Appleby-ish area so spent many years riding SBL's finest. Cool to see one reborn!

How many good stories begin with "well I was a little bit drunk" ? A couple of Xmas ago me and my best mate had a couple of beers, then several more, then we started on the shots, I'm not sure what happened, but I clearly remember the talk getting around to cars I've never owned "Gran Torino!" I spouted, "loved Starsky and Hutch as a kid always wanted one never had one", my best mate asked why? we got onto ebay, I dont remember anything else, nothing. In the morning I found out I had won a 1976 Ford Gran Torino in Red, crap I thought, I cant afford this! I was wrong, Very wrong. It turns out I had won a four door Gran Torino in Denver Colorado for the extremely expensive sum of $650, it didn't run and was fully illegal, Damn it I thought, payed the money and put it into storage in a bit of a huff, $50 a month in Denver. Three months later, I was sent a link to an incredible auction going on in Nebraska, 500 cars all from 1950-1985 200 of them Brand new, no reserve scrap starting price. I gotta go i thought, I called NZ Hot Rodder, lined up a story and then called a mate in the UK, "pack ya bags for the 1st Sept, we're off on a road trip" where? he said, "across America" I replied. " great, what are we driving?" Ive got that sorted I replied. $50 later the Torino was in a garage getting its dizzy replaced, a couple of ball joints and a quick service, and ready to roll she was. I flew into Denver, jumped off the Plane grabbed a cab to the storage yard, and there in the corner sat a dejected looking Torino, she fired up first time and we roared out of the car park tyres blazing Starsky style.

are you worried the root is going to go thru the tube? http://www.green-oval.com/data/zeus.pdf

Got these chur olde PYE alloy housing speaker boxes off a fellow member. Speaker/tweeters was looking ok but probably sound not so flash due to there age so did a little project perfect for a cold night while sipping whiskey A mate gave me a pair of soundstream tweeters with crossovers which are the same size as the original so I sourced a pair of cheap 4 inch speakers to fit with them Will mount them behind the seats in the xtra cab and stash the crossovers somewhere under the dash when I figure out what im going to do in regards to a headunit. Should sound nice while still looking old and tatty with the rest of the ute

take note of how clean that floor is now, haha even with paint mines a mission to keep clean haha. And they are never big enough!! want to extend mine a fair bit haha. Nice shed man looks good!

Our next build will be a cabin to get towed up to our ridge top. I love seeing more builds like this! Need to persuade kk into building his housetrailer !

Cheers guys ! Yeah it's coming together nicely . First time builder of a chopper so learning a lot and making up a lot as I go along . Also Governor Sam your always welcome mate ! Always cold ones in the fridge

alright so ive been asked "how do you stretch a guard?". the answer is its not easy and i want to make this very clear, i have only done this twice. i am not an expert by a very long way. i was told how to do this by my mate Peter the panel beater and that's the grand total of my experience. peter was very clear in his instruction and he told me that if it starts going wrong DO NOT try and fix it. he would come and sort it out for me. i have fluked it so far and have not needed his help to fix anything. so, with that said here is a run down of what i do as best as i can communicate in text. please ask questions and ill try as best as i can to explain. ill take some pictures tonight that will help. 1. Mark out where you want to put the new fold where the guard lip will start from (the new arch line) do this on both sides before you do anything else. 2. Drill the spots and separate the inner and outer skin. 3. Fold the outer lip down. 4. My “spoon” is a broken trailer leaf spring. It’s perfect for this job because it has a skinny end with a bend in it that allows you to get right up inside the panel and onto the back of the flat parts of the quarter when you need to pull the panel out a bit. And the other end is thicker and had a curve to it so it makes putting a convex shape into the arch easier. 5. Using a spoon (whatever that turns out to be) very gently work around the lip putting a crease in the panel for the new arch line, pull the spoon towards you and hit into the car. I use the pick end of my hammer to make a nice tight crease line. The skinny end of my spoon is great for this bit. 6. Once you have a crease hit the spoon from the back to stretch the lip, once again work slowly back and forth, don’t try to move it a great deal with each blow, take your time and it will come. At first I use the skinny end because there isn’t enough gap between the outer guard and the inner guard to get the thick end of the spoon between the panels. At this stage I’m hitting the back of the spoon with the largest hammer I have. You can hit the spoon fairly hard and you should be able to judge how hard to hit it. If it looks like you’re moving it with each blow you’re hitting it too hard. If you can’t really see anything happening with each blow but it’s moving slowly then you’re about right. 7. Go back and forth between checking/maintaining the crease and stretching the lip out. Once in a while use the spoon and the light panel hammer to get any obvious dents or bulges out of the arch and to work the stretched material into the shape you want the arch to be. 8. As you go you’ll find that the top of the crease line will move in towards the centre line of the car. Get the spoon up behind the flat part of the panel and gently bring it out. 9. DISCLAIMER!!!! As I said I was told how to do this buy my mate Peter the panel beater and he said very specifically “if the quarter panel around the arch starts to buckle STOP and I’ll come and fix it”. I’ve been lucky enough in the two times I’ve done this that that haven’t happened to me, I have no idea how to fix it if it does, but if Peter said that the only way to fix it was for him to do it then it must be very tricky indeed. 10. Try to get some shape in the lip (either concave or convex, don’t matter it just gives the lip strength when it’s finished). Once again, my spoon has a great shape to the end of it to help with doing this. 11. The bottom corners are tricky because you have to transition from where the panel was originally to the stretched part through the top. It gets more difficult when it comes time to reattach the inner and outer skins. You’ll just have to suck it and see because it kind of “happens” as you go. 12. When the outer is where you want it start on the inner. 13. Fold the inner lip down. 14. Beat the inner with a ball peen hammer to stretch the inner skin (don’t hit it hard enough to dent the outer) don’t worry too much about the shape, all you’re doing is stretching the steel so you have material to work with. 15. Use the spoon and hammer to move the inner out. Make you crease line around the top in the same place as the outer and work the inner the same as the outer, slowly. I find that if you hold the spoon on the outside of the inner skin pulling it towards the centre of the car and hit the steel right next to the spoon outwards it stretches nicely. You can work your way forwards and back doing this. 16. You might need to give the inner a few goes with the ball peen to stretch the material enough. 17. When the skins are touching again and your happy with the shape (check the flat panel above the guard and the fore and aft parts of the panel for flatness/correctness - usually it goes in and you’ll need to get in there with the spoon and tap it back out) it’s time to weld it back together. 18. Because the two skins are now different lengths you will need to scribe the fold line onto the inner and cut the inner back so the outer folds around it. This is going to be very difficult to explain in text so I think I’ll try and draw what I mean. Untitled by sheepers-ra28, on Flickr Untitled by sheepers-ra28, on Flickr Untitled by sheepers-ra28, on Flickr Untitled by sheepers-ra28, on Flickr 19. Use heaps of clamps right around the lip to clamp the two skins together in place. Check the surrounding quarter panel for correct shape. There is no going back once you start welding. 20. Tack the centre first and work outwards front and back from the middle welding the edge of the inner to the outer where the fold will eventually be. Use the smallest tacks you can because these will eventually be “inside” the lip and if they are big it will make the bottom of the lip all lumpy. 21. Then fold the outer back under. Fold it with pliers until you can hold the dolly on the outside and hit the lip up from the inside. Don’t hit the lip inwards at any point, it will distort the lip and the panel above. 22. When it’s up tight against the inner clamp it and weld it in place. Start in the middle and tack it moving outwards. Hey presto! Finished!! Easy.

Meh..... Talk: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/28117-unclejakes-64-fintail-mercedes/ Might start on the doors soon. Prolly won't

key is to drive through a tunnel. makes everything sound cooler

Should still be able to close the bonnet.

I assume only Neal will show up.

Testing a lead without anything in the end - i.e. A sparkplug is bad for the ign system too btw do you have points or electronic ign? Coils typically dont care what way the electricity flows through them. Mines been positive and negative earth without issue and have seen cars with the wires hooked up backwards and run for years electronic ign doesnt like that tho, and if you have that it may be the cause of.your problems otherwise check the points and bung in a new condensor

I think ben was meaning remove the sparkplug also but if you cant be arsed just chuck a key or some metal in the end of the ignition lead and see if that makes a spark when resting against the block. Only issue I have ever had putting a battery in backwards is that the external voltage reg goes up in smoke as soon as you connect it but if its still charging your all good.

2/2 drop spindles in and oh my its slammed now Almost too slammed so will swap to 195/55 instead of the current 195/50 Fucked both tie rod ends hammering them out after every other trick didnt work to free them Needs an alignment rather badly too DIS BEE TEW LOWE

What are you fucking zipperheads looking at?

Seats sorted, also the new fuel pump has cured the lean issue. Had to mod the trans tunnel some more and ditch the original rear seat mounts.. The base template was a good time saving idea and to save in and outs of the seats and ease of welding / positioning. also had my first tinker with the virtual dyno freeware which is pretty cool. Car is making around 190kw on 1.1 bar at 5000 rpm. So should make the 250-260 kw target easily..

Came with some other shit too but yeah. Anyone wanna buy a series 4 grill? I've got 3 of the fuckers.

so the lancers been of the road for bout 3 years now boss finished the wiring and shes a runner with no "odd" noises finished product off my down pipe bit off old school at the workshop still got lots to do before i can take it for a thrash