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Suddenly our son is 19 years old; the latest race car (135I BMW) doesn’t need me working on it every night and Sharon’s dropping none too subtle hints about cleaning up the back yard. Could it be time for a Rigamortice resurrection! With some trepidation I pulled off the obligatory blue Warehouse tarpaulin and surveyed the remains of a car that I’d bought 43 years ago…. It was obvious that the ravages of time and damage from the last accident had reduced my old ride Rigamortice to the stage where she needed one big resto job…….

Decided to make my own chassis mounted engine mounts The machining begins many hours later mocking up for tubes to be scalloped

Made it to hanmer and back completely without fuss. I probably should have got a wheel alignment and bled the brakes again, but she was sweet. Brewing up a coffee with the thermette after a hard bike ride on Saturday..

Here are my bicycles that I ride (or at least would like to) on a regular basis. Thought I'd post some pictures as some of you may be interested: The first is a Schwinn Fair Lady. The next is my trusty old Raleigh 20. Factory sport model with no luggage rack haha. I picked up a brand new old stock Brooks saddle for it in Napier during Hawkes Boes last year. I still need to give it a proper going over and improve the brakes, gets the gears working better and polish some parts again. I picked up another bicycle a few weeks ago. It's a Morrison something-or-rather (stickers say Mustang but that doesn't seem right to me) featuring a handy peep mirror, pennant flags (Kaikohe HardKore) and whitewall tyres. The rear hub seems to be seized but I will open it up and see what's going on in there. I'd like to be able to take it out for a spin. In the first picture of the yellow bicycle you can see another Raleigh 20 in purple. This belongs to another forum member who will be testing the frame strength at upcoming events.

Pulled the cab off the chassis today. Flipped the chassis upside down so I can finish welding the c-notch. Once that's done it can probably go to get sandblasted. Heaps of room under the bonnet for a supercharger

^yuck if you are only running 7-12psi. stick with 10:1. even if you cant quite get that much boost out of it, a few psi less isn't going to the end of the world. will have a more responsive engine with the extra compression, and wont lose much power. ramp the timing off aggressively past your max boost, so if it over boosts no drama. plus keep good gas in it and will be sweet

Monty Checking out how grippy lol Not sure if please with his new living room ornaments.. Thanks to MM for the springs, we swapped my Original alloys for - sent them off monday morning, and received the springs along with the carbs from Japan on Thursday.. Put the springs on Saturday after work... Discuss; http://oldschool.co....ith-added-moss/

Took this to OS Hamner meat's. 300km trip. BC Coilovers are amazing. Had them on full hard with 3 people and a fully loaded car and it was good! Need to raise motor as it had a few hits, 1 overfull gearbox dumped its excess onto exhaust while overtaking and made some smoke and it needs a longer diff as 3800rpm is not fun for 1.5hours each way. Photo By BeardedBastardPhotography Aka Beachlander

Reunited and it feels so good. Feels weird tbh, happiness of getting it back/sadness of its state of repair. First job is done anyway, replacing smashed drivers door glass. I suspect the clips holding the lifter winder rusted out allowing the window to drop inside the door. Lucky I had spare clips. Something interesting I forgot about this car - It was rustproofed when new in Singapore by a company called Tuff-Kote. The interior of all the panels is coated with a tar like substance which is probably what has saved this girl. Still has rust however especially around windscreen. Will cross that bridge when I come to it, just happy to have it back.

Hi, Just got back from the States. Picked up a C10 Fleetside truck, Custom cab, big window, factory v8 engine, manual. Found it at Pomona swap meet, was one of the more realistic priced car/trucks there. Bought it off some nice Spanish low riders. Pilled heaps of stuff on the back and drove it 100 miles to the next hotel. Got hold of Lucky's towing and had it sent to the shippers to be packed with some other crap and sent back to NZ. Also while there visited a lot of rod shops and car places. Picked up a airbag kit for it, drop spindles and stud conversion. which I'll be installing when it arrives in NZ. Now its just a waiting game. Discuasion Thread

Drove the car for the second time ever since it landed, from the panel shop back to compliance. Already noticed a couple of things that will need fixing interior-wise, but I'll cross that bridge when the time is right. Marvelled at how smooth and rattle-free everything is, having less than 100,000km will do that I suppose. Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/

Awesome. Can I book my machine in for a service?

OK so just to confirm- after I do this work I would have to send vehicle to tsda to have tags reattached?I do know when I had my safari I went to vtnz and the guy removed the body tag and refixed a new one to the chassis for me (I was doing a body swap) Could I rock up with car on trailer and have them do this in my case to avoid any issues? Sorry if it's not your area..just don't want to fuck things by being sloppy Edit. Just phoned nzta (spoke to lots of peoplr and got put on hold lots) and they said that legally I'm not allowed to remove those tags at all SO the most fool proof way I can do this is to trailer the vehicle to a vtnz or other agent and they will remove the tags and HOLD ONTO THEM for me until I can take car back to have them refixed in position. What a load of shit.

Hey team I am new to this forum business but I thought that I'll give it a shot! The ke30 has been in the family for a good 17 or so years ever since my sister purchased it as her first car. It was pretty much standard, rocking a 3k and a four speed manual gearbox. It also had a lovely mustard yellow paint job. While in Kate's (sister) possession she had it painted ford blue, swaped out the engine and gearbox for a 4k and a five speed manual and put on a sweet set of 14" tridents. The car was then daily driven for around four years until Kate decided to upgrade to a newer car. However she could not bare to let the trusty old Rolla go so it resided on mums lawn for the next three odd years slowly but surely being eaten away by rust. When I was 14 I had finally managed to convince her to hand the ke30 down to me, cheers sis! Having no money though the best thing I could do was to get into dry storage at the old mans as it was now no way warrantable and I had already decided it was going to be a big restoration project. Many years had past until last year when I decided enough was enough! And managed to convince the old fella to make the body rust free for a few boxes of beer, he is a panel beater after all. So currently the car is now fully rust free and strait all primed up for a coat of paint this summer. I have also purchased a near complete worked 5k, was missing the block and one con-rod. I'm sure you guys can put two and two together there. I now have the block just need to get it bored out and skimmed, haven't located a set of stronger con-rods yet. Still a lot to do on the car and a long road ahead but I'll keep chipping away and keep this thread up dated!! Also still trying to figure out how to upload pics but I'll upload some when I do!

Nearly forgot... I scored an AW/AE/KP long boss kit from Richy at this month's Burgerboes, which now gives me the option of fitting an aftermarket steering wheel to the New Kid. Cheers dude! And after wanting a Twos R Us engine cover gas prop kit for ages, buying one for the previous car, and being quietly impressed by its simple yet functional design it became a mandatory upgrade for the new AW11. Also in the same shipment: a K&N drop-in filtercharger (on special) and TGP key blank (cheap). Discuss: http://oldschool.co....1-sc-chit-chat/

When I finally got the jack out and had a good look at the lower rear section of Rigamortice’s shell the panic started to set in. There was no denying how bent she was as a result of the L300’s untimely demise but my early teenage attempts at rust repairs, (galv sheet brazed with an overlap) had created a corrosive time bomb; after too long in the back yard the lower part old girl’s rear end had simply dissolved. My initial brainstorm was why not reincarnate Rigamortice as the world’s first 1947 J14 Vauxhall ute? Problem was I didn’t need a ute and if I did it would have to be certified which would involve Rigamortice and I feeling obliged to attempt to be nice again to the “angry certification men”. Despite having experience with certifying a number of tarmac rally cars, (in Targa we drive on public roads in the touring stages) having to compromise a restoration project would have been as pointless as the rules and regulations the “angry certification men” would have been trying to make us adhere to. Sitting in Rigamortice in the back yard at 2:30 am in the morning after a ¼ bottle of Wild turkey (I’m a cheap drunk) the solution was as drastic as it was obvious, I needed to find a donor shell. The next year was spent visiting smash palace, following up false leads, finding cars in dilapidated conditions, falling in love with complete cars that were crying out for original restoration and after almost giving up I was finally given a lead to a car that was for sale up North. Que the dramatic background music... "In an ordinary garage, on an ordinary suburban street, in an ordinary town, I found...... this….." Sometimes you just get lucky……….. My initial impression was that I’d found yet another original car in need of restoration until I looked closer. Although appearing to be in good condition the body panels didn’t line up properly and it was confirmed when I was told that the car had been rebuilt (obviously by an enthusiastic amateur) from a rust heap some 15-20 years ago. Sometimes you just get lucky, I’d just found Rigamortice’s donor shell and unbelievably it was even the original color. (To be honest it was more than too good to be true, it was downright bloody scary!).

Right hand drive conversion?

nvmyvl that would be awesome, they're not deep, just from cups rubbing against them etc... Invite for Shed tour/ regulars I know : This thing needs a workout, Shed coffee's in a couple of weeks time, weekend morning/afternoon better? Kempy

The plans I have have got wetback options. They have a 20mm copper tube entering into the bottom of the burn tube (longer burn tube more like the first one pictured on here) just above the old disc brake, it runs up the center and exits out the top beside the flue. Apparently one tube runs a modern style radiator 1.8m long up to 5m away from the burner. Could fit a few wetback tubes in there and run your hot water cylinder plus a few radiators in the house while the main unit heats the workshop, Everyone wins

sorry for late reply, have been uber busy. these ones ^ look like they would be ok. the ones mentioned in the newsletter that are no good, are adjustable- basically a threaded bar that you use 2 jam nuts to hold the tie rod end on, so it can be 80mm away from the steering arm, which is a cockup for a number of reasons

I expext this to come out as a thai spec drag scooter thanks

Also while talking to Tom/VG about pick up, he mentioned that he had the bones of a scooter that he may sell, so a deal was made and I added this beast of a AZ50 to my collection It's got AN125 suspension front and rear, a good engine and a live rego, so once I figure out the wiring it'll be a goer. At this point the plan in my head was to put the engine/suspension/plate onto the ZZ and the ZZ front end onto Sandy's SJ, had thoughts of a simple swap taking a couple of hours max, more on this soon... Today's effort = 399.9k round trip to go pick them up Fairly lightweight trailer, Altezza still didn't like towing it uphill. Got the scoots back to Gisborne with no issues, unloaded them into the shed and even though I really wanted to go home and eat I just had to have a bit of a play. Well it turns out that my plan up there isn't going to work quite as I had imagined, as it turns out Suzuki decided to change things up a bit with the AZ50, the 2 bikes have completely different frames and engine mount locations, no chance in hell of bolting the AZ engine into the ZZ Figured in that case I might as well try to just get the ZZ going, hooked up a battery, flicked the key on, pulled the brake and pushed the starter = nothing. Fitted the kick start which ominously was in the helmet hole and tried to kick it over, nothing, no engagement, grabbed the fan and tried to turn it by hand, it locks up every turn and clunks a lot, no sign of compression and a metallic jingly rattle from the variator side...I do believe it's fucked! Also the brake disk is bent, and the front wheel has a ton of play, so might not even be able to use the front end on the SJ. The plan now = 2000 Suzuki AZ50 ZZ Frankenscooter/Aliexpress special! Think naked Honda Ruckus style like VG had started doing, but with the finest (read cheapest) LED lights, air filter, exhaust and anything else that catches my eye that Aliexpress can provide! And with me attempting to wire it all up results should be hilarious! Also as I don't have a welder there is likely going to be a LOT of cable ties and creative bolt on bits involved... Hopefully I'll be able to salvage at least some bits off of the ZZ to use on it. Check back tomorrow for progress and what I find when I start stripping the ZZ. For those of you that made it through my rambling attempt at a build thread have a gold star TL;DR? Tough.

Asked around a few places locally, but haven't found much more than a Passola needing a coil "at least" and a crashed Jog -I may still buy both to combine. So I turned to trademe, where I came across a complete Sepia ZZ being offered as a parts bike, which I snapped up as I was thinking it can't be that bad... Note the "spoiler" instead of a carrier rack and the high stop light Suzuki was so proud of they emblazoned the front with a sticker telling you about it haha I mentioned it in spam the other day to see if any one would be able to get it at least closer to Gisborne from Tauranga and if Mr. Grumble would be keen to store it a couple days if I could get it to Whakatane. As it turned out he was going to Tauranga a few days later (Friday just gone) and would be able to pick it up for me as well as store it! Sounds like it was an interesting area to pick it up from too. So yeah BIG thanks to VG for picking it up!

I haven't updated this for a few weeks but there has been quite a bit happening in the background, my rear calliper mounts have been made, they are getting a small bit of machining done but I should have them back this week, my 3D printed steering arms have also been done and are due to arrive in the next couple of days but this is a picture of them I have a plan for checking the amount of toe change which I will work through once they arrive. I have also made new engine mounts and a new crossmember that sits a bit higher And how it will sit I have test fitted it and it is all looking good so I will get some paint on it then get it all mounted up and finally I had some new wheels arrive old one on the left, new one on the right they are Koya BN-Teks, pretty much look identical to the ones I had but without all the bolts. So these ones have a load rating on them so are good for cert. Bit of a shame that I can't use the old ones but there were some other issues around those anyway which these fix as well.

On their way mate. Here's a couple of pics with the stainless all polished up and after a couple of coffee's made. Still have the final decals and brass nameplate to go on as well as the flexible steam wand, various bottom section covers and somehow polish the scratches out of the perspex cup holder on the top. I like the bottom section left black as you see it now with the under body showing so I'm pondering painting the stainless covers black... ( the covers you see with 'FAEMA" written on them in the first phoyo on page one)

Here is the engine after I cleaned and painted it.

It could have been the plugs, and if it was I'd say that's the way it was when Brad got it. It could also have been a bunch of other things, definitely not worth dwelling upon. I did about 50k's in it this afternoon, and apart from the high idle (around 1500rpm) with a slight burble, it's been faultless . Oil pressure was great and temp was rock solid (although the factory temp gauge is shit-house, I'll have to de-linearise it). The thing is so damn responsive it's hard to keep out of boost. I just want to keep driving it, but I've had to come to uni to get some work done... Still, I live about 35 minutes from uni, so I've got the drive home to look forward to . I think I'll tidy it up further, fix a bunch of interior squeaks and rattles and enjoy it for a couple of weeks.... But the (hopefully tasteful) mods are coming

This has got to be one of my favourite threads on OS at present. What's the plans for the revival? Bring it back to its former 70s/80s glory or start again and go with today's trends? Here's hoping the former

Lol one of those tags seems to read Front butt

yeah those look like a no- go to me, the design looks poor- the caliper through bolt nuts rely on the weld to secure them, the bracket itself looks to me like it bolts in one point to where the backing plate bolts to the spindle, which is probably ok, but then to secure the other end it relies on a flat bit of steel welded to the main part with no gusset etc, looks like it would flex/crack ect. Avoid. welding is allowed on a caliper bracket but must be TIG and NDT and the design of how it all works is important

I'll have you know, its pink!

if the top of the engine moves 25mm yours engine mounts are rubbish tbh. ain't no 572 BBC

I just unbolted mine and dropped it down and drilled new holes . No one every asked and got Mesh covers for the trumpets from Burtons . Prob of no use to you though

How long are your trumpets?!?!?!

Booster delete plate, appropriately sized master cylinder and alter the pedal ratio to help?

Spent a good couple of hours trying out two different sets of gauges I have and trying to figure out if my fuel and temp sender were both simultaneously shagged, if the wiring was, if the gauges are, or if some other mad shit was happening. Conducted a heap of tests eliminating variables and have pretty much concluded it's the new "totally working fine mate" sender I bought a year or two ago and the temp sender, which might be the wrong one (there are 4 that 'fit' but not all work). But am going to double check with the wizards on the Ozzie Ford forums. Took the fuel tank out, which was a prick because it was half full. filled three gas cans, and tipped the rest into a bucket to find it was brown with rust. so that got hosed out and about a half a cup of rust fell out. pissed me off as i used some hippie rust thing a while back. fuck the hippies. have a POR kit waiting to do one night this week. Got underneath and scrubbed and painted some more of the underside to tidy up the surface rust. Still some more to do but happy with a decent amount of progress.

Got the spotties on today woop Woop! Bloody bright too which I'm happy with.

Got into the bottom of the A pillar, I need to make it fill in the red line! IMAG0389 this is the foot well under the front of the floor, I think I will need to roll it over again and remove this right across to the other side and get a new one folded up. Luckily my old mate from school owns a sheet metal shop and can pretty much manufacture anything from sheet. IMAG0388 The new sill and guard seem to fit ok, but I will need to brace the door opening before I move it and check it hasn't opened up while sitting there. The red tape on the sill is about where I will cut it to match up with the new rear guard. IMAG0387

Ended up going back to the wrecker and raiding the last of the supersallon bits off the car .i now have a full factory black interior and various bits of more chrome.also scored another diff and housing which i will convert to disc brake and a estima diff that bolts straight in.My short shifter from oz turned up and reduces the shift by up to 50% looks and works great on the newly reconditioned w57.motor is now in the hole.just need to fab up some engine and gearbox mounts.sump misses the cross member and steering linkage but the front damper pulley is touching the sway bar.Am i aloud to cut and add in a new section?. ITBs clear everything which was my main concern,and shell be tight up where the radiator goes. Cube short shifter

Correct yes you aren't able to run injection. The Injection manifold does however offer more torque over the flat plane style ea-eb manifold. You can run a distributor, however in instances of a big whack the distributor gear can fall off - which also drives the oil pump - things can quickly go south. Caps and rotors are prone to jumping and breaking, so I've opted to go for the ECU ignition only - rev limit, stronger spark and turn key reliability - well thats the intention anyway. Yes also have to run the stock exhaust manifolds.

Installed some adjustable arms in the rear and camber plates in the front. Had to make some custom top plates for the front, since the stud spacing wasn't correct. Which was weird since they were meant to fit AE101's. The stance is much better now, looks awesome from behind. Spent the most in one go on this car a few days ago. Hopefully the stuff arrives next week.

Wow; they are as rare as rocking horse shit in NZ and he's got two of them! The Big 6 was rated at 20 RAC HP as opposed to the J14's 14 RAC HP. They were very classy cars in their day, you need to blackmail, bribe, intimidate, etc. your friend into letting you have one.

The body was looking a little sad so some panel work was called for and a coat of burgundy paint. Near this time I was ignominiously excommunicated from the Auckland chapter of the Vauxhall Enthusiasts Society for the then unforgivable transgression of “automotive blasphemy”; (i.e. modifying an “already perfect” Vauxhall). Rigamortice loved doing skids with her new motor but the Vanguard diff ratio was far too low and the stud pattern was different to the HQ pattern on the front. When the novelty of doing one wheel burnouts on 15” skinny cross-ply tyres finaly wore off I found a 3.3 HD Holden rear end, fitted it with the larger HQ drum brakes and changed the stud pattern by welding up the old stud holes in the axel flanges and re-drilling them. The old girl was starting lift her skirts and haul arse well (for 30 years ago) and it became obvious the 1930’s style lever action rear shocks were struggling with the additional power and traction so out came the rear end again so I could convert it to telescopic shocks. With a little tweaking of the new suspension I had a car that was happy to be pushed hard and was comfortable with 3 times the original 48 BHP. The only issue was that the standard under floor single circuit 1” master cylinder was having difficulty with the HQ disc/drum combination. I was running a dual Hydrovac booster system with a VH40EL on the front and a VH44D on the rear and despite fitting both boosters with matching “complex” (dual acting) control valves the combination still felt clunky and lacked feel. When late one night I caught myself designing an external control valve system that could operate two boosters simultaneously I knew that drastic action was required and in desperation the following morning, I attacked the driver’s side firewall with an angle grinder…… I mounted an XA Falcon pendant style pedal box and rebuilt the firewall to accommodate an XB Mastervac and dual circuit master cylinder. At the same time I converted to a hydraulic master/slave cylinder clutch combo. Finally the car felt balanced and a joy to drive- problem solved! After a series of small but interesting and exciting fires Rigamortice had to be completely re-wired and I ditched the generator in favour of a ‘modern” alternator. A good mate turned up with a rare (at the time) Yella Terra head he’d procured from his neighbour and it proved to be the ideal combination with the X2 cam, the pacemakers and the DCD Weber (I tried a 350 Holley but it just used more gas and never idled properly). With a little tuning Rigamortice was starting to get a reputation for being a lot quicker than the old tart looked……… love those "one wheeler peelers!"........ One month (and a number of instances of unintended, deliberate, sustained loss of traction) later the Nissan gearbox shat it’s self into shrapnel. I found a W40 Steel case 4 speed Celica box (very sexy in its day) and modified the Holden bell housing to accept it, problem was the main cross member sat where the new gearbox needed to be. I jacked the old girl up, put her on axel stands to keep the chassis straight, pulled the front seats out and cut the whole floor out from the B pillar to the fire wall to expose the chassis. I welded in a piece of 4” RHS to form a new cross member, cut a section out of the original cross member to accommodate the new box and extended the original inside chassis rails. A new floor made from 16 gauge Zintex was welded in and a pair of Triumph 2000 front seats were fitted. Rigamortice had yet another new lease on life.

Thinking of starting a company called 'Rough As Audio'

I finished off the radio today, I couldn't find the converter so I had to wait for another to arrive but the bluetooth is all hooked up now. Also managed to put the radio dial back in after some pissing around. I gave the cabinet a clean with some pumice free handcleaner and 0000 steel wool as recommended by the internet, it came up quite nice. All set up and working Has been pretty cheap and easy to do, bluetooth unit is a $20 unit off trademe, amp is a TA2020 from ebay, couple of bucks for some rotary switches and 12v to 5v dc-dc isolated converter also off ebay, power socket and 3.5mm jack from Jaycar and the car speakers, power plug and other miscellaneous bits I had sitting around.

A friend bought an old Delica in Auckland, did a fit out and shipped it to Canada. He is currently in Alaska about to turn around and drive to Brazil... to http://overland.dikastro.com/

This I want to build one and create an out of control oil fire

Thought i better start a project thread for my latest toy... Its a 1980 Series 1 RX7 SA22C Brought it off one of my mates who has owned for 6+ years, he had lost interest in the car scene Has barely seen the road in the 6 years that he has owned it..so i plan to changed that Brought the car on Saturday with a non working clutch, luckily we live right next door to each other so just pushed it over.. Washed of the thick layer of dust and gave it a vacuum to see what i was working, over all its in pretty good condition, few little pieces missing but the important parts are there... Found a little bit of rust in the doors and some surface rust in other places but nothing to major... Ended up fixing the clutch on the Sunday, charged the battery and went for a spin last night..reminds me of a hopped up 2 stroke dirt bike (Cars running a 12a J-port) Need to do a few things for a WOF Bleed Brakes Fix some rust Buy some bulbs Hope for the best Discussion //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/44345-d1rty6s-1980-rx7-rice-rocket/