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Well hopefully this is engine in for the last time but something tells me it won't be. But got powdercoated bits back today. Just sat in place because waiting on auto sparky and spark plug tube gaskets.

thanks Mrs Neil for the photo IMG_3649 by Neal OnTheTree, on Flickr

Set up the roof rack, looks pretty good but I might need to chop it more to make it a bit lower. Shifter is now higher than the roof courtesey of some free reo bar from work

So! Fitted my louvreshades: Need to clean my windows. Also mocked up a nx1600 coupe digital instrument cluster on the parts car: They look like this: Which I think is pretty badass!

A bit of a late update I had seen a full set of XYZ adjustable suspension to suit a Mitsubishi Cedia on Trademe. They were only $100 so I thought id chuck a hundy on em and if I won them ill install them on the Mrs car (Cedia wagon) A week rolls past and I won them for $100. So I pick them up and bring them to work and then I started getting Ideas. "I wonder how hard it would be to put the fronts in the Mirage?" I pulled a strut out of the Mirage and put one of the adjustable fronts in its place. I was blown away by the fact that the lower perch bolt holes were exactly the right spacing. The only difference was that the gap was 4mm wider and the XYZ use a 14mm bolt whereas the standard Mirage uses a 12mm bolt. I could have drilled out the 12mm hole to 14mm but I wanted to be able to revert back to standard suspension if needed. So I got a length of 2mm flat bar and cut 4 bits into shape. I also had some spacers made. 14mm OD and 12mm ID For the top of the adjustables I had some new camber plates made to suit These are the original camber plates on the XYZ And the new plates fitted So all that was left to do is bolt it all in the Mirage For the rear suspension I went with the 1 way adjustables I havent got a decent photo of how it sits at the moment but I am super happy with the ride height now. The front springs are a tad stiff so will look out for some softer springs. I have been using this car daily and I love it. It also appears that maori fullas like it too. Its a daily occurrence for some to yell "Chur bro" at me which is cool with me. Will upload a pic later

As you may or may not see in the video above there was oil on the cambelt. It was a bitter/sweet moment as I was wrapped that my wiring was good and the motor kinda ran, but theres an issue. This video was taken on the Monday before the OS Drag Day. At a quick glance it looked like one of the tensioner bearings was releasing oil/grease past its shield. So we gave up that night. I returned the next day and found a big pool of oil on the ground. There was a pinhole in a weld where the sump was modified. Unable to fix this in place, the motor had to come out. This was the Tuesday before the OS Drag Day. I was unable to work on it on the Tuesday or Wednesday due to work Christmas dinner and looking after kids. The Thursday before the OS Drag Day I had my good cousin Ants (owns the noisy VK Commodore) come round to help. He zapped and fitted the sump up, replaced a front caliper and fitted the motor back in the hole whilst I did the important stuff like fit the locked diff and fender mirrors. We fired it up again and still was spraying oil from somewhere on the front of the motor. I had the ol man help out on the Friday before the OS Drag Day and have one more crack. I bought some more oil seals (crank, oil pump and balance shaft). I say more because we had already replaced these during the cambelt replacement. As he started to unbolt items he found that on of the hydraulic tensioner bolts were loose. He bolted everything back up and sure enough, no more oil spray.....whoops. 9:30pm rolls around and he has the car running as best as he could. At this stage I havent even got it on the ground let alone taken it for a test drive. 10:00pm I take it for a drive around the carpark. I give it a mouthful in 1st gear and felt good. I get braver and hoon from 1st to 2nd and then it bogs and runs like balls! Like its in limp mode (no power, over fuelling) I then realise that I didnt hear the external wastegate open. I found that I didnt hook it up and the motor saw full boost which at this stage I think ive cooked the motor already...... 11:00pm I wash the car then load it on the trailer hoping that someone may be able to help me out at the strip. 12:00am Tow car home pissed off that I wont be racing. Managed to get home at 1:00am Saturday, the day of the OS Drag Day I dragged the car down to Meremere and try to start it to drive it off the trailer and it wouldnt start. We push it off and im thinking we should have kept it on. As I inspected the engine bay in daylight the problem was evident. An intercooler pipe had blown off. We clamped that back on and it fired up and ran good. Took it for a little test drive and all was ok. I managed to pass scruitineering and took it out on the strip to help dry it out which was a good opportunity to test it further. It was running great Photo credit - MichaelJFox I took it out for its first run and managed to get a 15.25 taken it somewhat easy 2nd run I ran a 14.39 - I was over the moon at this point. All I wanted was to get in the 14s. The car was running awesome. As the day went on the car performed very well. A massive contrast to how the car was running less than 12 hours prior. So all in all an awesome day. A lot of late nights payed off and I met the deadline. Many awesome people to thank Heres a vid of the fast time i managed Now to tidy it up and drive it over the summer

Too Much fun Until this happened Great first outing in the car , a few setup issues with the pedal box and then tyres that didnt want to stay on , but overall very happy

After much fluffing about i discovered a multitude of things wrong with the car. Every wheel was hand tight. Keep in mind i towed it from Ohaupo to Hamilton Struts were loose. Hence the clunking noise Front indicators now work because i put the relay where it shouldve been. I have high beam on the left light but not the right and have no wiring for the "gti double light" grill. Was told to hook them up as just fogs or high beam. Sorted a few nitty gritty bits here and there, eg window wiper motor is replaced. NUmber plate mounts are being soaked at the moment in cocacola. Cbf doing seats so i think greg should do them and ill buy him a pie.

Do that and I'll be sure to gift it back to you and then make sure you get to unwrap your present and then eat it in front of everyone. Would be a bit stink puhuhuhuhu

Ok, so i completed fitting the turbo, and got it running. FAIL. No matter what i tried, it was getting really bad compressor surge in top gear at high load and low revs. So i pulled it all out again, and refitted the original setup to get it running for drag day. I did swap the exhaust housing with my spare, as i found a tiny crack in the one i was using. For some reason this supposedly identical part seems to be boosting and running better than it did before!? Ah well. ran it on drag day, and overall pretty happy with the results. Run 12 passes all day, and the difference between my slowest pass and fastest pass were a mere 0.27 of a second. Also managed to win the DYO competition again this year too. Best run was 14.26s @ 102 MPH which bettered last years attempt at 14.4s. I guess lesson learnt, if it aint broke, dont fuck with it!

A more "appropriate" load today, off to a TV shoot early tomorrow morning with another Mk2 in tow

So, i just wrote a massive yarn about this then my computer had a meltdown so heres a summery. I brought this off guypie while i was in hamilton for work. I did skids then pulled it apart. It is currently at the powdercoaters. plans are, wide wheels, exhaust, slam, take the loom out, eventually drop a 125cc in it, then ride it. Pics.. How i got it: How i want it to look:

Done diddly fuck for a while, took her for a WOF after the brake work and she passed _b Adjusted the rear brakes and that's been about it lately, have been too busy being a company man at the moment. For the thread, here's a pic during a spin around town the other day. Such good fun to drive.

I am bringing 3 presents. One isnt really a present, the second is only a present to a few people and even then its borderline and finally, something that is a bit lame but is extremely handy in the garage. Fizzing!

i have spent the last thirty minutes exquisitely wrapping a present.

Il be lateish, final inspection of new house. I have gift (badly) wrapped with duct tape and newspaper and a modern car (due to knee injury)

my seat turned up today. 2015-12-16_04-09-50 by sheepers, on Flickr

I feel like I am becoming the zebradude of mopeds.

Yeh, apparently some other dude was going to buy it for vintage cart racing, but didn't show up, so I got it. He was a bit dark when he heard I cut it up. Bouns of old cart is low chromoly content, so easier for numpties like me to weld. Now that the utes done, I can get back to working on this.

painted roof again. while its wet you can see in the gloss how the shape looks and I'm happy with it now so this will be the final coat of primer on the roof. if i get time after work tomorrow night I'm going to colour one of the door shuts. 2015-12-14_09-53-10 by sheepers, on Flickr

Howdy Pard'ner A few more bits and pieces of progress: Powder Coated goodness. It's a nice feeling looking underneath and not thinking damn son, you nasty. Also replaced the front wheel bearings because yuck Had the front rotors skimmed. Looked like the pads have worn down at some point, I wonder what song they would play on an old record player. Also found an old WOF in the sun visor. Might be good proof for the plates? And the ones I know you're probably here for... All complete and ready for re-reg just waiting to hear from LTSA about the plates. Hasta la Vista, BABY Hoping to be ready to potentially take her to Nats if time off is approved

Few more pics, Had to redesign the remote after the first run, Originally it was designed to be in the off position at 6oclock ,standby at 9, throttle from 9 to 4, but I kept accidentally shutting the engine off when throttling down. So I added a 2nd switch, the top switch is power and bottom one is standby/ run so the throttle is now adjustable on for the entire range of the rotary knob, all I need to to to shut down normally is turn the throttle to minimum and throw the4 bottom switch to standby which lets it stay powered for the cooling cycle. Here's a couple of pics of the unit on it's own, it's designed to be added to any healing cruiser and just uses the seat bolt to attach. and the final touch, the tank stickers ,thanks to Bangbug for printing these off last minute.

Specialty cars in matamata Dave green

Oh hey look at this...am I late for the September meet?

Give darren at revolution a call 09 8184739.

You could learn a thing or two from these guys: Based solely on their precise haircuts, they know how to (w)rap

I have 3 wrapped things in the car, but they are all for preassigned people... Navneal and brockzila are the lucky recipients of my gifts. Come find me!

They were designed specifically to be tightened and loosened a lot, which makes them ideal for use on hoses that get taken off a lot.

haha what else do you have stashed....

they are painful to buy but they do work really well, and you can get black for most fittings so colour isnt so bad. You need to be quite selective about which angle fittings to buy but it works out well in the end. As someone who is dedicated to getting the best out of his car, you should appreciate the good flow characteristics of the large bend radius haha I have them on my fuel system and they work well being constantly tightened and loosened

Also, what's the deal with AN- fittings? As best I can tell: Pros: -??? Cons: -Bulky and ugly, usually come in gross colours -Harder to take on/off than banjo bolts -Sometimes need two connections at a single end, so more things to potentially come undone -Need huge radius on hose bends -Risk of a hose slipping out? -Hard to know when they're tightened correctly / overtightened I guess they're the easiest option when you need a lot of custom lines, but ergh I hate the idea of using them. I've got them on my oil filter relocator currently. I'm pretty hesitant to use them for anything fuel related, especially on connections that need to be done up and undone a lot. However it looks like it might be the only option if I want an adjustable FPR.

Wow!!! Awesome. Would be a sweet engine in a tiny car too.

had amazing success with a set of fucked R888s. 205 50 15s. things that i didn't know when i first strapped a set of semis to my car, they are wider at the tread that an exactly the same size road tyre so if your guard clearances are right on the limit they will touch/rub. the side walls are stiff as fuck so your car will dive all over any undulations in the road if you drive on the street with them. my ones were fucked but they had so little grip in the wet that it was frightening. anything over 50Ks and you were going to die. i drove from AK to taupo on them and apart from diving into any slight surface deviation in the road they were fine. it didn't rain, thats why I'm still alive to tell the story.

Bring kids. Someone brings Chees every month

good, good. yeah my fz was the same, my record was about 55km/h no mods and a whole lot of weight reduction. even rarer of the F series is the FY50, never seen one in nz tho. those wheels look similar to the Honda chaly wheels, are they three piece? you should look at yahoo jp auctions for some wide wheels, come in sweet sizes

nice score! what are your plans for this? restore or rat it out? I had a chance to buy one of these from a local scooter mechanic but it needed too much work and parts were hard to source. do these have the two speed g box?

I WANT IT! That's lush man! What buy/sell groups on FB are you in for scooter bits?

SV2 was bought with the intention of becoming my new tow vehicle, to replace my LDV 400 "police van". I went and got a quote for a towbar to be made for it, and was a bit shocked at the price of $1000 so I thought, "bugger that, I will make one myself" I really wanted a detachable towbar, so I scoured trademe and found a NOS Westfalia kit for a Subaru, which was rated at 1800kgs. I bought this, and set about chopping it into small pieces. In the end I used only the gooseneck, receiver, and a section of the square crosstube. I drew up some templates on autocad for the side and centre brackets, printed them out and a bit of a test fit, then sent the drawing to the shop to have them cut out of 10mm steel plate on the waterjet. The main side brackets needed a couple of kinks to follow the chassis rail,and then another test fit before welding, and they fitted a treat. Got my fabricator to weld them up for me, my welding is okay, but needed the skill of someone really good for this job, as failure is not an option! A can of black Hammerite and looking better: gooseneck and receiver fitted: And installed, still need to make a mounting bracket for the electrical connector: Now you see it: Now you don't And what better way to test it than find one of the most expensive race cars in the workshop, put it on the trailer and take it for a drive 30 minutes across town! Van towed beautifully, and has plenty of power for the job. All up, I came in a few hundred dollars shy of the price I was quoted to make a crappy fixed towbar, and this included me buying a 50mm gooseneck as well, because the kit came supplied with a 1 7/8" gooseneck. So I am a very happy chappy : )

Wow, just realised I haven't updated my build thread in awhile, A lot has happened since April haha. Fitted my choice new E street heads Also fitted some new Comp Cams roller tip rockers All back together now = happy

Got this back on Friday.... Ran out of gas 100m down the road hahah Cheers Highlux for being the saviour Days off work are Sunday and Monday so got some trim on yesterday morning before some commitments in the afternoon Am very stoked on how it came out Has developed a fuel problem so will check everything is all good in the metering unit tomorrow night, spent two hours today with the old guru on pi stuff here in Tauranga today has told me what to look for and sorted me out for parts with a troubleshooting book he put together so hopefully get that done tomorrow and put the rest of the trim on If we get it done tomorrow with minimal costs involved will be ordering coilover parts this week tooooooooo, very excite Plus roofrack is being built this week ready to put on the car on sunday we decided on something along the lines of this made out of stainless that fits in the existing holes from the last roof racks

you say that (and you are probably right) but how cool is what he has achieved with what he has available in both practical and i-t skill and some kiwi ingenuity ? higher trap speed says his method is working and no amount of dyno time would solve his traction issues anyway . also pretty rare and very cool for him to document both his successes an failures as honestly as he does (most dyno shops dont do that either) disclaimer; I have never met Roman and personaly I prefer points , condensors and carbs

Considering the foul weather that was about today, in which Hannah and I got caught out in whilst out bke riding, the day turned out great and the meet was another goody! Cheers to those that came along. Great spot for it and some more new cars along including a very rare in NZ Mk1 Granada coupe. V6, in brown, with brown vinyl roof and brown interior. SWOON The storm clouds looming on way home over mt Cambell. Luckily while it looked like Nelson it self was getting hit hard we had nothing but hot sun

i had a go at drag racing this just for a laugh. it actually did a skid but i don't have any photographic evidence of it….. it is slow but i was happy to break the difficult 20 second barrier. 2015-12-13_10-54-19 by sheepers, on Flickr

I'll never forget that wild off the clock run at rangi woods nats chasing 10 5 and fresh. Slamming the bridge at breakneck speed

THIS IS THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN

this would be better induction setup for it if you want to legitimately call it a supervan

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Bump steer and camber measurements with the Toyota knuckles installed. It looks like the top balljoint really needs to come in from underneath to help the camber curve and a drop on the steering arm balljoint to reduce the bump steer. There is also scope to lift the steering rack 5 mm which will help.

just spent the last couple days reading that! cheers. Found this guys though another fourm, kinda steampunk shit, I like it. http://www.thechopperunderground.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=52612&page=1 his blog http://www.selectedgrub.blogspot.co.nz/search?updated-max=2014-01-17T18:12:00-08:00&max-results=100&start=21&by-date=false kiwi! how fuckin bad ass is this!