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I had made a list of jobs that I needed to carry out on the Blue SD1, but I hadn't driven the car let alone worked on it for at least a month. I fired it up, fixed a fuel leak and drove it to the Oldschool Meet on Wednesday. I then spent a bit of time working on it yesterday and managed to complete a few jobs: - Cleaned the car properly (and then messed it up again by cutting wires, throwing tool around and eating my lunch and dinner in it) - Replaced the broken wiper stalk - Replaced the broken buttons on the instrument cluster - Sorted out the flickering oil pressure light (Pressure is fine, the sender was at fault) - Sorted out the red temperature light (used to illuminate at random, again a sender fault) - Fixed the buttons on the trip computer. They're pretty good now, I just push them at random for the hell of it because I'm an 80s Executive etc. Just need a car phone now. I'm putting some rear tyres on it today and possibly sorting out the horn. I removed the Air horn setup and am going back to twin electric shell horns for that low tone. Here's a shot from South Auckland Bristol with another English car: 603 by Neal OnTheTree IMG_3948 by Neal OnTheTree No more airhorns. They weighed an absolute tonne. It's a good thing I removed them though, as the car is such a lightweight performance vehicle where every kilogram helps... IMG_3951 by Neal OnTheTree Disconnected the alarm and associated wiring. I kicked the siren away in triumph but it speared off the side of my shoe and landed back in the car (sunroof was open). IMG_3953 by Neal OnTheTree IMG_3955 by Neal OnTheTree IMG_3956 by Neal OnTheTree All fixed: IMG_3958 by Neal OnTheTree

Figured out how I can crank the engine and see the timing marks at the same time.

Have been visiting my folks in Nelson, and camping in the Sounds in January. Left in the rain onto the Interislander, hauling the camping gear and kayaks. Our camping setup at Momorangi, on Queen Charlotte Dr between Havelock and Picton At Anakiwa, across the sound from Momorangi. Anyone else been to Outward Bound? I went in the early 90s. Dazzling the tourists at Pelorus on the way back. If you look close you can see bathcollector's wheels on the trailer. Car went mostly OK. I locked my only set of keys in the trunk which was a hassle. A bit of hotwiring got us mobile for a day until the locksmith from Blenheim picked the lock while it was pissing down with rain (thanks AA and Gary Ching Locksmiths). I got some more keys cut after that. Also had some fuel starvation issues which seemed to get worse over the 3 weeks. By the end I was running the electric pump full time otherwise it would lean out and stumble up hills or cruising above 80kmh. Not sure what is going on - perhaps the mechanical pump doesn't like sucking through the Carter pump? I really need to address the fuel leak before using the Carter pump all the time. On fuel leaks, after we filled up at Havelock I notice a lot of gas leaking under the drivers door. There is an old fuel return line that I had cut and 'crimped' under there that is still connected at the tank end. Apparently with a full tank (and maybe the hot weather) there was enough pressure to leak quite a bit. I crimped it up more tightly with some vice grips to stop it leaking, but will fix that better now I'm home. Was quite nice as a camping wagon, but mileage means it's only feasible on trips near home, we will likely go back to the Holden next January.

Concur.. better job, costs less..

Nah screw that, if they can do it so can any of us.

Acetone/nail polish remover.

Back to the Barley Yellow Series One SD1: We had a bit of an SD1 stripping party at the shed and removed a few bits and pieces from the car, namely everything: 493 by Neal OnTheTree I then used traditional methods of a fence post and some tyres to remove the entire front subframe, complete with engine and transmission. 552 by Neal OnTheTree 554 by Neal OnTheTree The last job was to remove the entire rear axle assembly. These cars use a torque tube differential setup with is a pain to remove compared to a conventional live axle. So I jacked the car up on one side, cut and unbolted everything I need to and then did the same on the other side. It worked and the rear end slid out without too much fuss. 556 by Neal OnTheTree 558 by Neal OnTheTree 568 by Neal OnTheTree In keeping with the Oldschool theme, my Blue Series 2 SD1 requires some brake parts on the rear. So rather than purchase new parts, I am going to rob them from the rear end I removed from the yellow car.

How great would it be to have an engine dyno at your disposal

Not mufflers as such, but check out this vid... very interesting!

Uhh.. Nail Polish remover that cost like 6 bucks completely removed it, and I have a nice buffing compound from when I painted my classic car

actually, a little more nail polish remover on a rag, held onto the spot for a little longer has worked wonders. clear coat still looks perfect. too bad i ran out of nail polish remover haha, but cheers for the speedy solution! clean altezza here i come

Yeah cos that lasted long...

How she sits at the moment. About to move house so not much happening.

I got the iwata w-71 kit as its genuine iwata and the only one I could find retail was 250 no tips, no cup which in my mind puts it middle of the road.. mates a prof sprayer and reckons it was a great deal so I'm haps..

I would have cracked out a razor. #lifeontheedge

Brian howatt is a magician with diffs. The guy takes LSD's and makes hydraulically actuated diff locks, and builds shit to get thrashed by trails trucks with over 1000nm of torque. If i lived in welly he would be doing my engineering for sure

Give me $20 a week and it can eat my lawn!

My dad has a place just south east of Brocks place. ten acres, and only somethimes his neighbours horse(s) Does miniture horses mean she's only a little bit batshit crazy?

Just start with a mild solvent like wax and grease remover and move to more aggressive if you need. Common single part super glue melts pretty easy. Acetone is fairly serious and will damage/stain some paint so start mild and your your way up. The clear on those is pretty hearty and should be fine though, a clay bar lubed with wax and grease can do wonders for the last stubborn bits.

i dont KNOW the answer, but i'd be trying crc myself, and move to brake clean if that didnt work, and then some strange glue remover i found with lots of benzene. Not sure those last 2 are a good idea, but crc is pretty safe on paint last time i tried and was actually quite effective at removing sticky stuff

I can do a pickup in Epsom if you need Greg. can chuck it in the shed for short/long term storage.

Say hi to Cheryl for me mof

I'm going away for the weekend and leaving shortly but I can pick that shiz up one night next week. Could be monday if it suits him? How long do you need it stored? or are you unsure at this stage?

Actually he you could apply the same theory to many things in his life, motors, diffs, marriage. This must mean Duncan is basically a munk

great meet dudes!

HI, Instead of starting a new thread, could you please just update your current one. Thanks

I saw first hand the difference between a $150 and a $700 gun by the same untrained n00b and the difference was night and day. Not saying you have to spend $700, but the job that was done with the cheap gun was rubbish and the expensive gun was mint, so at least don't get bottom of the barrel spec if you ask me...

This is the kit I bought too. Sprayed my engine bay so far and came out fantastic in 2k. For the price you can't go wrong as others have said it's more crap painting technique that most will have than problems with the gun as long as it's set up correctly. Good water trap and the right air pressure and you should be sweet

^seconded. Treat it as a challenge. I served for ages and found the nz company that used to import or make it but no go there either. Whenever I remove a screen or heater etc on an old car where it's used i collect it. It kneads and cleans up like blue tack ready to use again.

Yes fuel requirements change to keep the same afr, you can bodgily calculate HP from fuel requirements too if you know the dead time of your injectors.

This one popped up after watching that ^

Did some work tonight. Fuel pump -tick Wipers - tick, managed to save the wiper arm as they were proving hard to get. Finished off a little repair. New door hinge pins. Fixed window washers. All ready for WOF tomorrow.

Poor update but an update: Front coilovers have been ordered from Manon racing went with fortune auto Hope they arrive before I move back down to welly so I can get them welded up and crack tested before I leave rather then down there Went to Rotorua vintage car show this last sunday, there were lots of fizzing old barry's Car may be in a magazine if i can organise myself to get trim/ roofracks finished Discuss... http://oldschool.co....g/#entry1582774

Howdy, Went to the Kumeu show on Saturday for the first proper road test and she drives suuuuper smooth. Sits at 60-65mph no problem, quiet as with nice temp and oil pressure. Suspension and steering are awesome but gearbox is a bit heavy and crunches going to first or reverse sometimes. Picked up Evan on the way and tried to beat the heat. Met up with the other oldschoolers, managed a park a couple of cars away. Because nobody likes a picture-less update: Photo cred to Karljsw from the Z club. Got heaps of different folks oogling even at a more V8/American/Muzz event (more than I expected anyway). My folks also got a new pup so I thought I'd get the token "bitches love datsuns" photo: Also got time off and signed up for nats so SEE YOUS THERE AYE

New Year-Time to go on a diet. I had always planned on keeping full interior but have come to the realization its pointless and just punishing myself when i could send certain pieces off to people who actually require them and in the process give myself a bit more power since i dont plan on adding a turbo. In the past week ive removed and weighed a few things for curiosity more than anything front seats 18.6kg each rear seat 21kg spare wheel 13.7kg sound deadening removed so far 14.2kg carpet unknown lets say 5kg =91.1kg To remove the sound deadening i used science - dry ice mixed with isopropynol This worked a treat and i highly recommend it, all you do is smash the dry ice with a hammer in a plastic bucket untill its a fine powder(carefull not to break bucket), then you poor in the isopropynol and give it a good mix, i just used a concreting trowel. It makes a kind of gel which you poor into the area with the sound deadening and let the magic happen. This video was pretty helpful Ive also acquired a pair of out of date sabelt 6 point harnesses today which will be going in with the new race seat this weekend in time for the ZCD summer matsuri amatuer day next friday in taupo!

The display works well with the power supply on the clock board I've taken a vid of it when I'm earthing out each cathode individually. The zero is on constantly because there is a missing resistor. Looks slightly better in HD https://www.facebook.com/chris.read.1232/videos/711316032336925/?pnref=story

Yeah I went to Howats. Was reasonably priced - got him to set up a new CWP and LSD centre, fitted new bearings etc. Something wasn't quite right first time around so he put it right at his cost with no dramas. Would recommend.

Thanks again for the sander Pete! This thing is slowly getting there, lots of resining, sanding, resinging, sanding, bogging, sanding...... hopefuly it will be painted in a couple of weeks.

This is cool, welcome to the weird mitsubishi owners club

I've been thinking about trying to make a different exhaust manifold, basically to try and have a longer Straight section on the runners before the first bend. There's heaps of space for it. Currently 1 runner has the bend immediately after the flange and the other is maybe 100mm or more away from the flange. Also, my exhaust ports are larger than standard and I had to die grind the hell out of the manifold to be the right size. But it steps back down to smaller diameter which probably isnt great. So it would be interesting to see what happens going up a pipe size. For interests sake thought I'd draw up some bends in solidworks and see how close I could get to drawing up an equal length exhaust manifold. In my mind it's the same process that you'd do on the bench tacking things together but a lot quicker to readjust angles. Still took ages, would take a zillion times longer IRL! I thought I might end up drawing a model that needed a zillion cuts and welds and bends to work, but it looks as though with the magic of CAD I could probably bang something together from off the shelf mandrel bends, only 3-4 parts per runner to get equal length within a few mm. Based on the test model, wtih some accurate cutting and coming up with a way to index the angles between parts from the model. Only 3 parts per runner would be required: (excuse the wonky angle blue pipe, solidworks crashed before I saved it and CBF redoing it) I reckon it looks feasible enough to spend a bit more time modelling engine bay available space, exact port spacings etc and mock something up. Anyone tried making a manifold from cad drawings before? Might pull the manifold off and measure some stuff in engine bay next time there's a rainy few days.

Wow. Crikey. Its been a while aint it. July was the last post. A few things have been done since then so I better get typing. First off. Come February we will have owned the land for two years and it will be 14 months since we moved out to it. Its settled in nicely and we are getting a good feel for the seasons and all the little things that happen out here when they change. Starting to get to know the locals quite well and have had lots of work coming into the workshop from just word of mouth which is awesome. Hannah is working a summer season job down at the beach front and when thats over we will be doing a flyer drop around the valley and surrounding areas to put out to people that they can get many sorts of engineering/repairs/bike repairs/advice on cats/great coffee from us* *my coffee aint that great.. In the start of spring I spent a morning going about the land taking photos. I tried to compose them as close as I could to the original photos we took as we cleared the land. Some are ever so slightly off. This was because things have changed so much that even I struggled to work out where the original photos were taken! I'm pretty happy with the resulting before and after collection so I'll put them right here. I have tried to list them from the drive way entrance and then heading down the drive to the north end of the property. The driveway entrance.. heading up the drive.. The highest point of the driveway.. I like this one.. looking down the driveway. Such a difference. Next up- one of the 5 old caravans that got taken away. This one was surrounded by lots of junk/scrap steel etc. Now just trees and some sweet old gates we saved. The mountain bike track I started heads in just around there. These next ones are looking out from about where the cabin veranda is.. Looking back towards where the cabin is now. Thats my brother duncan trying to locate where the Gravely mowers might be. We found them a few months later. and now.. Hannah wondering WTF... This next one is from the first night we stayed over to check the land out. We had pushed the driveway gorse down by throwing the van into 4wd and just driving over the top. Here down at the north end I was just laying back in the grass chilling and imagining what the area could be like. There is now a bit more parking area.. The following morning of the first night Hannah chilling in the morning sun with a coffee. We didnt really know what this area was going to be like in two years time.. This is it. you can see we kept the little Kanuka to the left. Its thriving now! The main yard was not much of a yard back then.. This is better !... Our first morning.. two years later.. I'm really glad I took so many photos before we cleared it all. Its great to look back at. Moving on to recent times. Not long before xmas this happened.. https://youtu.be/uaAHS96LGP4 We had been wanting rid of that 70 plus year old bugger for ages and its so good to see it gone. Shane (sideways sickness) and Greg (64Valiant) came round and got to see some of it heading to earth. Then we had a nice BBQ. Big thanks goes out to Shep for chopping it down. No way would I be doing that job. For starters I dont have chainsaw with a metre long bar! Nor the skill or experience. It was great fun just helping out and watching. We have many more big pine trees to come down over the next couple of years but this one was the one I wanted gone now. The view afterwards is heaps better!!!. Plus we now have a sweet as 8 metre high trunk to build a cool viewing platform on one day Before.. After.. Then for the end of the year we thought we had better crack on and finish the bathroom before my brother came over to stay. We needed the shower going for him so we got stuck in and finished it just before xmas eve. It still has some little finshing touches like light switches, extra lights, better prettier shower head, hand rail up the steps etc but its pretty much done. It works really well however I reckon we'll get a new califont for winter as the old Palomar is a bit small on heating capacity. We'll see. The compost toilet is working really well and still doesn't smell. Ive not yet even wired in the fan. Happy with that. Its taking about 3-4 months to fill a bin. Will put in a third bin soon and then start a secondary outside composting area away up under the eucalyptes just to be safe. The bathroom lights and shower pump are running off the cabin solar panel setup too and we have run wires to add a couple of outside lights to light up the pathway from the cabin to the bathroom. I just have to make some lights yet. Anyway.. some photos of the new bathroom ... We moved all the various piles of gorse and Kanuka into one place to chop too. Here you can get an idea of the amount of Gorse we cleared.. We have also started a vege garden and although a bit late its going well. Its certainly not a massive affair like our neighbours but we'll learn and it'll get bigger/better. The strawberries all going mental and its great to have 4 or 5 fresh strawberries on the cereal in the morning. Our fruit orchard trees are growing well and seem pretty happy. We'll plant heaps more this winter. The olive tree seems happy as so we'll plant more of them along the driveway. Finally Hannah spotted an old picnic table offered for free down at someones holiday home so we grabbed that. I told the owner we had been after one for ages so he was stoked it was going to be used. It looks the part and is an ideal little spot to chill. Thats it for now. I hope you enjoyed it. Im pretty damn happy with it all and now the rush is sort of over (for a bit) we have both finally been enjoying more of a summer recently of just swimming and cycling. Next big plan is the mezzanine floor in the workshop but that will be a winter thing. Then more cabins! Oh and bike tracks. Oh and spa pool. Damn...

Not much of an update, but ready for Hot Rod Festival tomorrow: P.S. I wish the car looked this good in real life.

Sick man, congrats. Also, yeah, your exhaust sounds weird. I still have the stocker on mine, I hope it doesn't sound like that... Also, how did you resist not hooking some o's on that pad you started and stopped at?!

LEGALITY! Today I booked the z in for a vin at Nostalgia Motors in Hamilton expecting to come back and find two or three non-compliances (not that I could find any, but they can be super picky) I got a call at half past three saying she's all good to go and she "flew through" the vin! I buzzed her over to VINZ to get rego and plates confirmed and we're legit. $140 odd for a year's rego sounds alright to me. Looking at carjam, the last time she had rego was August 1990! Obligatory sticker photo: That's 8 months from buy to fly. Only two months over schedule but the critical deadline was the Kumeu show so no problemo. Special thanks to OS'ers Cressy (Nick), Evan (Evan), 64valiant (Greg) and Miniman76 (Hayden) for their input. Pumped!

Whoa, a whole new year! 2016 is shaping up to be a pretty exciting one, automotive wise. Just want to put down the thoughts here on 2015, and what I'll be doing with the RX7 in 2016. The end of 2015 was pretty awesome. We took our FSAE car to Melbourne for the Australasian competition, kicked some ass, and had a bloody good time. We came third overall, which for a team that has only been competing for three years, is unprecedented. I'm a bit biased, but I reckon we had the fastest car on the day, just not quite enough luck! But that's racing. That's me, getting my hands dirty fixing up a slight issue with the brake over-travel switch. My role in the project was the electrical system, I ran a Link Fury ECU, a Nautech PDM, and a MoTeC C185 Dash/Logger. I designed, spec'd and constructed a fully sealed and shrunk loom using all the good gear, as it was on the universities dime . The electrical system was rock solid reliable, which was my own personal goal for my part of the project. I also undertook a lot of the engine tuning... Tuning a turbocharged single cylinder raciing dirtbike motor with an aggressive cam is not something I'm looking forward to ever having to do again. Very very pulsey and lots of challenges to overcome. We got a great result in the end though, with lots of mid-range to top end grunt which is what we really needed to meet our goals. Shame it still sounds like a lawnmower, hah. Car is a full carbon monocoque, with a very effective aero package. Weighed just shy of 200kg's, made just over 40kw's (all the air has to pass through a 19mm restrictor). If anyone out there reading this is at uni, and has an opportunity to become involved with FSAE. Do it. It's a massive commitment, a huge time-sink and extremely addictive, but I met some awesome guys, and got two fantastic job offers out of it. The one I've taken is a real unicorn job, I wont say much about it, as I don't start till the 11th, but it's automotive related, and will provide opportunities that I wouldn't have dreamed of a year ago. On to the RX7! I've been using it as a daily fore the last three months, and it's been great. Not as thirsty as I was expecting, better than my old 81 L200 sport (but that really needs another tickle up). I've replaced a few interior pieces to tidy it up further; new door skins, speakers, stereo, steering wheel, etc. Reverting as much as I can back to stock mazda stuff as I find tidy pieces. It's got a pretty decent oil leak from the rear of the sump. It's on my immediate list to fix this week. The turbo's are also on the way out, particularly the secondary, as it's a bit smokey. Something has gone wrong in the sequential setup, and the boost pattern is a bit intermittent, I'll hunt down that issue too. I've got a couple of good condition spare turbos pulled apart, and will get some rebuild kits for them on the way. They have a different type of front seal to the other hitachi turbos, so the kits are a bit more expensive than I'd like, but still not massively expensive. I've got a replacement downpipe to go on, and I'll build a decent exhaust for it while I've got the turbo's off. I bought a cheap shitty stainless muffler off the tard a few months ago, because it has awesome twin tips on it. I'll cut them off and use them on a decent muffler. Will make the exhaust look pretty factory from the back, but with slightly larger tips. Should look cool . According to teh interwebzzz I can expect boost control issues once I modify the exhaust. I'll port out the factory wastegate system, and hopefully that will help out. Cross that bridge when I come to it . Happy new year, 2016 is going to be a kickass one .

This is running well good and getting dailyed everywhere retail has wrecked me so no holiday to get all the shit done but me and my mate have made up the tricky bit of the roofrack and bolted it up today all it needs is new fasteners and a rubber gasket so it can be all done up... Still need to do the runners which will be in the new year This is them Next update should hopefully involve coilovers Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49975-connors-pi-wag/#entry1582774

I have just gotten the car back from the panel beaters, and the team at Friend & Wistrand (Palmerston North) have done a fantastic job overall. Colour matching wasn't necessary as the car uses the original colours. You wouldn't know where the areas that they touched up so very pleased with the results. Not the greatest of photos, but here are the photos that Steven (Person in charge of my car) sent through to me, feel free to have a look I decided it would be nice to take a photo of the ol' girl on top of a hill in one of my parents paddocks, now i've lost the panda in the foliage.

Oh God what have I done!!!!!!! Change Thread to my name? Horror in store

The Rover blew a small hole in an old cooling system hose, making a mess as all the pressure in the cooling system sprayed radiator stop-leak everywhere. So I went to Pick-a-part and got a Falcon hose to chop up to mend poor Rovie. By now, the cooling system is so pressure-tight that I'm concerned something very inconvenient could happen, such as an explosive heater core rupture. Time to put a bullet in the big six. Ideally at this stage I would find a cheap V8 manual SD1 for sale with the body beyond saving.