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So I got this beast done in time, Got to the show thursday arvo after replacing the rectifyer which drained the battery. I had a trouble free weekend except for a snapped spring that I welded back together, drove it pretty much all night and had it on show all day from thursday to sunday. It was well recived I took alot of random people for rides and it seemed to have the biggest crowds looking at it, oh and after a couple drinks it found alot of limiter. I had an interview with a magazie and got stopped while cruiseing for photos with streetmachine and a couple others so hopefully with get some sweet magazine photos and didnt quite win anything but got a consilation prize during prize giving for best contraption and the organiser wanted to give me best motorbike but wasnt allowed haha people enjoyed the terribly bumpy ride Racing against a motorbike powered golf cart Bambi fell in love with an Italian hunk

So I has been very busy putting this thing back together over the last couple of weeks. She's getting very close now After a trip down south over this Wellington anniversary weended to see the parentals in law I picked up the English that the father in law had converted to KP spec for me, can probably say that this is the only piece of Quaife goodies I am going to own in a long time All fitted in like a dream and the wheels clear perfectly, it's only 15mm wider than the starlet diff. Driveshaft needs to have 47mm trimmed off it though so that's getting done at garmac engineering in Wanganui this week. I also ordered some cheap China spec vinyl wrap to have a crack at making the decals esqe of an inverse on Paul Adams old Toyota NZ car back in the 80s. Man this stuff is a bitch to put on, watch this space

The exhaust started leaking again, the nuts holding the flange onto the manifold have disappeared. The tip is on and it (was before the nuts fell off) way less drony compared to the pipe finishing under the tray Starter is all fuxed now and at exactly the amount I wanted to spend. I pulled it out and stuck it in the vice. First think I saw was a missing screw in the solenoid cap. I pulled the end cap off as I suspected the brushes were gone due to the oil leaks but they were good. Pulled the solenoid out and apart and the problem was obvious the contact had arced out. I spun it 180 and its good as new. It was interesting that there was no oil or grease in any of the moving parts of the starter. I took out the coil connection of the starter as its not needed with the HEI dizzy. I ran a new wire with a bullet terminal as its difficult to get the wire on and tight in the car.

So previous owner debadged the lot and removed a bunch of trim. This is common as GT-R doesn't have the same kind of trim as the lower models and people try to go for this look. Being that mine is not a GT-R and not trying to be, I want to put the trim and badges back. Only problem is the previous owner covered over the holes which are typically used to hold on the badges etc Deciding what to do but I may just use tape to hold most of them on as a few of the mounting prongs are damaged anyway. Still deciding.. Also my bonnet cable is missing the handle so picked up another one of those to fit! The badges will need some restoration anyway so will need to research the best way to go about doing that. Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49704-mlracings-hakosuka/page-7#entry1646412

Hoist arrived, and on my wedding anniversary, could call it a present... Looks great, and it arrived assembled on a pallet. Given it was free delivery I assumed it would have to be put together. Would love to spend the evening hoisting things - but I'm picking there are other plans tonight...

Cert recheck occurred the other day and while I had originally been waiting to have the plate and attempted Warrant sheet etc to make this update. I am conveniently sitting in front of the tele with a cool drink and the cricket on. I have been doing a thing lately where if I come onto old school and Sheepers has made a post about progress on any of his cars, I force myself to go and do something in my garage. While this has helped me to achieve physical progress, it is detrimental to my forum presence and particularly my ability to post updates. I fitted the above parts without huge drama, I had a mare of a time bleeding the brakes up, mostly because the pedal seemed to not be improving. I had left the bias valve wide open to remove any restriction in the bleeding process and when I wound that in, the brakes were great. I basically knew that if i could lock the wheels up, It could pass the test. (it couldn't even do that before, now it can. Happy days) I think it could still do with some tweaking because it's still gets a little tail happy under heavy breaking. Also of interesting note, this is a comparison of the rear Suspension cones, new and old and how much they sag I made some heat shields, the first one was a simple affair with a couple of holes, a couple of folds and took me about 15 minutes. This is easy I thought... many swearwords and about 5 hours later the second was completed. In true fashion I left most of the rest of the stuff to the last few days, Panic ensued with the steering rack and I eventually managed to figure out a plan of attack as the suppliers were absolutely useless in bringing any help to the table. My plan involved purchasing an identical rack and taking it with me so it could be inspected and I wouldn't need to a) pull the current rack out and forfeit my standing re-check booking. I took the car to get a wheel alignment. Left it with the crowd after specifically asking whether they could accommodate the small 12" wheels. By the end of the day they rang me to then confirm that they couldn't. Day wasted. Drove across town the next day to somewhere less useless. Thanks Grey Lynn Tyreworks. Clutch was less than perfect at this stage. On the night before re-check I pulled the carb apart to clean the Jets, that went well but by the time I got it all together it was too late to start it up. Also bled the clutch up in the hope of a temporary fix to get me through Morning-of came around and the idle was high as because I didn't put it back together right. Got it there and Clint assisted in adjusting it down. Good news was that it was running smoother on the primary needles. Happy days. The test drive went well, excluding the fact the clutch slave cylinder had more or less shat itself by this stage. Remainder of re-check also went well. I have since replaced the Slave cylinder in expectation of cert plate, That way I can attempt a WOF and if necessary place an online parts order following that for any remaining parts. So to summarise, THMINI will hopefully be road legal in the foreseeable future. Who would have thought I'd ever actually finish this. it doesn't actually feel any where near finished, after driving it a little over the cert process, theres a growing list of small niggly expensive things to fix. Pic churrrrrs to come

At work . That's not even the track, that's the testing ring. Down the hill, there is 2.3km of paved private glory. I'm not going to lie, I've managed to score about the best job, in the world, ever. Yesterday I fixed a Ferrari 458 Challenge racecar (minor electrical fault). Today I spent the day fitting aftermarket race suspension to a Lotus 340R. It's the bizzaro world, and I'm going to ride it out for all I can.

In a rare moment of lucidity, I realised the poor old girl lanquishing in the shed under a pile of parts and gathering dust had just celebrated her 45th birthday. She has been parked after overheating a couple of years ago and being put in the 'too hard' basket and forgotten about - apart from my girls who love playing in the 'big car' in Dad's shed. Despite having umpteen other projects on the go (plus wife/kids/work/sports) I decided I needed something else to spend time/money and to skin my knuckles on. Shit pic but it reflects the loss of dignity of the old girl being parked up and used as a bench... It is a factory 302 Fairmont, C4 with column change and fold down seat between the buckets. Had her since I was 18, and despite the mistakes of youth, I still have original 2 barrel carb, manifolds etc tucked away. Now, I could just sort the overheating issue and drive her, OR I could take the chance to pull the engine, tidy up 40+ yrs of use, and add some fun bits while I'm at it - so she can gather her skirts and keep up with the brash young tarts of today. Seeing a 2T engine hoist on sale at The Toolshed with free delivery made my mind up, so I ripped into it last night...

Cats out of the bag then eh? Thus my strong words that FSAE is the best thing I've done, ever, period (except meeting Laura and getting married, yaadaa yaadaa yaadaa). If you get the chance, get involved. The people are Awesome. The competition is Awesome. The cars are Awesome. This job is a unicorn, and so far it's every bit the dream I was hoping it would be. I did get another job offer out of being involved with FSAE. Not automotive related, and more 'conventional', but still an amazing graduate position. The opportunities are out there. Get involved. Do it. Also, that article makes David seems marginally arrogant. He's really not, he's a bloody smart dude, and knows what he wants, which we're there to help him achieve. He's got a good sense of humour, and is a car nut like the rest of us. One of the other guys that has come on board was working on his supercharged MX5 in the workshop this evening, and David was right there alongside, talking car shit with us. Good times.

Coming up good man. Ditch the red oil cooler though. Looks whack-a-doodle.

*waits for people who read Stuff and/or UC Engineering FB page to put 2 and 2 together* I won't give it away but you have quite possibly nabbed the best graduate position in the history of the world! I still remember Prof. Pearse (taught Acoustics in the Mech dept, unsure if he's still there) telling me FSAE was a waste of time because most participants take 5 years to get their degrees without any major additional benefits from having done it, and that UC did not support a team starting up. That was my first year in 2008, so I really hope he's humbly eaten his words after seeing UCM's success. PS, if you guys ever need a Project Engineer, let me know

I'm interested in how you zinc plate?

HI, I remove the black stuff with my waterblaster with the spinning head on it. It will blow holes in your boots that strong. For the anodes I using iron rod, but I read somewhere that titanium is the best to use. Titanium is what is used in the salt cells of the pool chlorinators. I have tested the titanium anodes from my old salt cell, and this is going quite good. You don't get the build up of the dark brown sludge on your anodes. Today I went to local pool man to ask him if he can save the old salt cells for me, if he is replacing them for his customers. I also diy zinc plate my bolts, nuts and bumper brackets.

Well, in this update there is a Kent in pieces Many pieces... Pulled the free (and allegedly running) engine apart on Sunday. It wasn't good. But it was free, so i'm certainly not complaining. Almost worthy of Hemi's Mechanical Fails thread. It's picked up no.3 and there's some melted spaffage and reasonable sized lips on that bore. However it may be saveable.. I think that no.4 has got wet at some point when the engine was out of the car/in storage, it should clean up OK. The rest of the engine seems alright, aside from large amounts of oily gunge everywhere, I don't think an oil change was something it saw often. Ah well. Will consider where to go from here and update accordingly

another cool day in the shed. 2016-01-25_06-11-53 by sheepers, on Flickr i fitted up the front bumper and its sitting fairly well. just need to figure out what colour to paint the grill and i can put that in too. 2016-01-25_06-12-04 by sheepers, on Flickr 2016-01-25_06-12-16 by sheepers, on Flickr 2016-01-25_06-12-24 by sheepers, on Flickr oh, and i also painted the scuttle panel bit that goes between the wipers. 2016-01-25_06-13-04 by sheepers, on Flickr

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 .

Please make expressions of interest for a casual farm based sausage fest some time in the next few months. Date to be confirmed. Could be as soon as Feb, where the days are long and hot, or some other time. Come to the sunny Eastern Bay of Plenty, 15 mins out of lovely Whakatane. Flat clean grass if you like to camp, a few beds and floor space if you prefer indoors, a shipping container if you're Manu. So yeah, cook sausages, walk around, look at wildlife I suppose, touch a tractor or two. Let us know you're thoughts and ideas for this event. EDIT: AIMING FOR EASTER WEEKEND. Stay as little or as long as you like. 25-28th March.

I'm not sure where/who that is but yeah, please don't burn my things. There is an open air fire ban until I think the start of May I suspect. A well contained drum fire would probably be OK, but not burning the bush down is a big priority. Mate, its pretty smooth sailing up there now, the GSR and AE86 glide up like a dream. Hrmm, there is a single garage size concrete pad under an avocado tree. Its got poop and tractor components on it right now but might be suitable for that purpose.

Start by throwing the people on the fire, then move on to their stuff.

Good call. This was a major source of oil consumption on my fleet of T5 Volvos, but the system on those things was complex. Just been doing some investigating and the subie has a very simple system. So I just took the valve off and it was functioning but not sealing closed. Blew the crud out with carb cleaner and its now sealing perfectly. Guess I'll wait and see if there is an improvement. I can live with a litre every 2k like it was, but every fill up is getting ridiculous.

Tractors to the rescue

I think you will find if you start chucking other peoples stuff on the fire, you will end up thrown on the fire.

Did you try bunta at brake and clutch? He's usually pretty well priced?

haha. Its really not that hard a job, we have all the benders and flaring gear at home so just a matter of unbolting the old lines, using them as a pattern to bend up the new ones, flare the ends, back in the car job done. Just ordered the new seal kits for the calipers, theyre about double the price I was expecting so I shopped around and they didn't get any cheaper. It is weird that the lines were so rusty, the bulk of the thing is in really tidy nick. It has an ugly black paint patch on the passenger side, the previous owner had sent it to the panel beater to get a small repair done, and after he finished it, the PB cut the corner on his workshop and made an even bigger dent where he had just repaired...

as miserable as concentric slaves make life when pulling/installing your motor, they are essentially free secondhand and have a nicer action?

There are both cable and hydraulic bellhousings for k-t and there is also an outfit that makes a hydro to cable conversion thing I believe. There was a post on Club-K last week I believe, let me see if I can find it on my phone

Things are changing again! No pics today but all the same, after going for a wof the other week I ended up with quite a list of things to fix. Thankfully now it's down to only a couple, it's just the tail lights and number plate lights that arnt working and I still need to make the breaks better, but other than that it's all ready. I'll also be changing the color again before nats as like everyone told me Im not as fond of the brown and cream as I first was, but this time I'm going to spend a little more time on it so it looks legit stay tuned!

Wats nats? Nah, whatevs. Easter is fine but it'll probably rain like a mo'fugga.

That's the weekend before nats. Busy few weeks coming up. Maybe Easter would get a few people keen to trip from further away?

EOI also, as long as you don't decide to have it before 22 Feb. First and second weekends of March are also out for me Maybe the weekend of the 27-28 Feb?

Posted 18 July 2014 - 09:43 AM well what project, being too many years. today it many go into primer. got to get err done. whole drive train is changing. out with to six and in with some cubes. Posted 16 February 2015 - 10:24 PM looked so good in the first photos, wish I had just done one bit at a time. the thing has been a major project. Four years and still not even in paint!! But have changed my mind on the whole driveline, suspension everthing is coming out. bit of a shame as i have poured a bit into that six. will post a vid of that running before i try to sell it. Posted 16 February 2015 - 11:07 PM have gone too far with this now to turn back, sold the diff off about 9 months ago. which is a shame cos i need it for another car. just got to put the hours in on the body to get it finished. is mostly in primer. just blocking it back as we speak. have the paint which is like the green in the pics of the xy sedan. going to paint it myself. but before that will rip out that crossflow and box for something alot bigger. be happy to get my money back for the intake,cam, roller rockers etc. not to sure if it will be manual or auto yet, the manual i have with the engine i have in mind would need a remote clutch master cylinder, which is a hassle. Posted 04 April 2015 - 09:39 PM all righty then back into this piece of shit, have 10 weeks to finish it ready for the winter drag series at fram autolite dragway in meremere auckland, can i do it? hell no err yes. not much to do- paint it, build a engine, notch the front towers, put it back together, get a cert have sold the cross flow engine, will keep the T5 as a spare for the xf ute, diff is long gone. let the work begin, UFE, on 05 Apr 2015 - 12:09 AM, said: oh this is real mate, no tv bullshit here, just me and the cat. well have been working about 4 hours a night since the last update and looks like i have gone backwards. really is the body were most of the work is still left to do, emailed a young car painter down the road from were i work to see if he was interested in painting the wagon, outlined what was wanting from him and what products were being used on the car, have not got a reply yet, could have put him off i think. he is going to paint it just does not know it yet. also emailed the company that i get my pacemaker headers from and was told 8 weeks and $1230 for a set of 2" cleveland headers. cant wait that long so looks like will be making my own. ,weather is turning to shit here for the rest of the week so may not be able to do much priming, still got to pull the crossflow out for the new owner. got a bit of cutting and welding do in the engine bay, about time for a new vid i think?? Members 170 posts 0 warning points Locationnew zealand Posted 27 April 2015 - 01:41 PM heres some pics of were the car is at the moment Posted 27 April 2015 - 02:26 PM HOLE [url=http://s1056.photobucket.com/user/guidohatzis1/media/020_zpsl3rtqro9.jpg.html][/url gone to get gas torcth. Posted 27 April 2015 - 07:49 PM bigger hole plate 90% fitted, template was no were near the correct shape, Posted 28 April 2015 - 07:25 PM just some final grinding and this side should be done for fitting, ended up cutting no were near the template, not sure if they updated their template with something better. pretty much used the whole plate, bit short in a couple of places . Posted 30 June 2015 - 09:08 PM heres a few pics of the towers welded in, plus a few of the dummy engine in place for mockup of parts etc. at the moment the engine has no sump bolted on, next step is to fit one to see if that clears the rack. my plan was to chop up a new set of pacemaker headers but they look like they may hit the rack when fitted. so if that is the case then will make my own 2" headers to suit. lots of fun not. not to sure if the ram will stay?? think it is abit much?? diff is also in, ended up going with a 3.7 tru trac.

Do like me some tubular meats

No hoist (thought it may have arrived) but got a bit done. Jacked her up and removed headers (sound but need painted) drained and removed radiator and hoses, starter motor and clips/pipes/wires etc. I cleaned up a few bits, 40-odd years of gunge washed off with petrol and a brush - I'll check bearings/brushes etc and paint these before returning them. I was going to leave the trans in, but there are a few drips underneath, might be just as easy to pull them out as a unit and separate to work on. The guts are pretty much ready to come out, we'll see how things go...

Sweet, just get a 1.4 and that's a quality cheap setup. Get some spare panels and learn how to dial it in now.

Quick summary, it sat unused for several years while I was at uni (ta mum) and I got her going again when she turned 40 (cheap rego). I ran it for a while but it started randomly overheating - had radiator checked, new hoses, thermostats, water pump etc etc and with no evidence of a blown gasket/cracked head and with new kids I sort of just gave up... Bored .30 thou over Holley 600 vac sec Edelbrock RPM Air gap inlet Pacemaker headers MSD dizzy I'm thinking I'll pull the donk, remove the stuck coolant drain plugs and flush the block, and rather than dick around with the cast heads I'll chuck on some alloy heads and roller rockers. Will mean I'll lose the factory look under the bonnet but the MSD has already sort of done that. Will update when hoist arrives and I've made some progress...

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?

Acetone/nail polish remover.

Yeah give Duncan a call, and do the opposite

Yeah cos that lasted long...

I shook V8Pete's hand. Clammy but I'll always remember the first time.

From what i've heard it was more like demented cat lady trying to ruin it for everyone spec', but that's only what i've heard.

bits painted. 2016-01-19_08-00-47 by sheepers, on Flickr 2016-01-19_08-00-19 by sheepers, on Flickr

/spam. Car from work today

I had some tyres that needed to be removed from the car because they had cracks all through them, surprised they hadn't blown out! Luckily I had some already from other wheels. All different brands/models because I like to live dangerously. Also the sizes slightly different (two 175, two 185) so put the 185's on the rear, naturally. While I was under the car I had a look at the rust and repair places that will need to be fixed up. Some really awesome Japanese typical body panel repair jobs involving urethane, silicone, cardboard (or plastic) and metal tape. Just the usual. The good thing (but maybe expensive) is that inner/outer sills are available as well as a couple other common failure points as repair parts. Not genuine Nissan of course but a couple restore companies are reproducing them which is excellent. They were all like this, and also had cracking inside the tread too. New (old) tyres on.. I think there are some from China and some from Korea, quality. So much room for activities. Bit of a shitty look at the stainless exhaust. It's loud. Hmm those could be a problem. I had a feeling it was on cut springs after driving it. The rear actually is captive so that should be OK, but the front is no bueno, will look at upgrade options because the shocks look pretty average too. Looks like a bolt missing from there... and interesting exhaust hanger situation. Talk: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49704-mlracings-hakosuka/page-6#entry1631496

Picked up this Nardi woodgrain wheel for a price I couldn't resist as was looking for something larger than the Momo that was on there in order to see the gauges properly (couldn't see water temp, somewhat important). With a bit of fettling it's on, and looks perfect. Feels really nice to hold, I've never had a woodgrain wheel before. Also took this opportunity to straighten the boss as the previous owner for whatever reason had the wheel on a slight angle which bugged me to no end. Now I need to get some repair parts for the centre console to get it back to it's former glory. When I took that photo from the driver's seat it reminded me of this one I took a little over 3 years ago at Rocky Auto: It was never a matter of IF I would own one.. but a matter of when! Discussion: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49704-mlracings-hakosuka/page-6#entry1627841

With a sunny day like today I thought it high time I got cracking on with some easy stuff. Plugs and leads is something even I can do.. of course needed a bit of coffee to get the brain working. Yipes, this coil's seen some shit. Lucky I have another on the way. In typical Japanese fashion the engine bay is super dirty. I forgot to take an after but the bonnet is now significantly less lubricated. Installed new NGK leads and plugs. The lead to the coil was a bit long as you can see, just cable tied it out of the way of the radiator fan more than anything. I love how the leads are numbered for idiots like me! One of these things is not like the other haha. Who's good at reading plugs? How does it look? After I changed the plugs/leads it was running like a bag of dicks missing and shit so I took off the dizzy cap and the points were super corroded. Bit of sandpaper and it runs mean now but I've got another cap due to arrive any day now anyway. Also took a quick vid on Instagram, so much excitement and noise to get to speed limit. It's a real event! https://instagram.com/p/9uxtRrmbK4/?taken-by=mlracing_alex Tbh I'm just beaming cause I did a thing and it made a difference Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49704-mlracings-hakosuka/page-4#entry1609566

Ordered some seat covers from the states and got Greg (64 Valiant) to fit and trim them to the seats. Before in not too bad condition considering. Vinyl was really brittle and hard. After! The lighting isn't great but you get the idea. Make-shift solutions are often the most comfortable... okay maybe not this one. I'm really happy with the colour match. Big ups to Greggles for his work.