Leaderboard

And that's all for March. More to come in April, but this baby will take me until November or December to finish as I only have about half a day a week free, so it'll be a wee while between meaningful updates. I'd love to have the subfloor finished by May. Always May EDIT: Oh, I should probably share the view that'll be from the cabin's second deck. There will be two decks, one covered and hard up against the cabin (that'll have an outdoor kitchen), but there shall also be a second deck a few meters away with an outdoor dining table. This is what that dining table will look at. I quite like it (sorry about the horizon).

It may not be every boy's dream, but I've always fancied a cabin in the woods. As luck (plus planning, decades of hard work, and some determination) would have it I now own 'some wood's. First I selected a site, and then cut down all the gorse. No trees were cut down, but some were trimmed. There may be one smallish karo tree that needs to be cut down later, but I'm trying to avoid it. UJ are kind to nature you see. What you probably can't see is how steep it is. It's steepish at least

But then I visited Steelies in the Steelies house, and realised that my '< 10sqm' cabin was going to be just too small, so I had to dig some more holes, add some piles, carry more concrete... but in the excitement I seem to have started the creation of a twin level internal access basement. Ain't no one got time for a single level external access basement. They're for chumps. Split level with internal access is where it's at. The foreground (bottom right) in this picture is where the chainsaw is in the first picture. There's heaps and heaps more digging to go

Next came digging. Lots and lots of digging. The top 150mm of soil is nice organic type stz, but beneath that is compressed greywacke dust (or something like that) which is about as soft as Danger. It can't be dug with a spade, and a mattock was far too slow and akward, so I hauled a generator up there and used an electric rock breaker. Nek munute it was time to lump up pre-mix concrete and get some piles in.

Got the red resprayed by Josh (Mr.MK1) who did a awesome job. Cant thank you enough by the way! So happy now its just one shade of red!

We are foofing about Te Aroha and Paeroa today, mainly synopsisising second hand shops then will pop through the gorge to Waihi and get the party started. Wagon going mint except for the part of touching the ground all the time.

When doing a full re-spray i always blow the car apart and paint separate.

Update 1: aka reliability/safety comes first............ Shit. Cheap cool cars are cheap for more reasons than expected. I've lost reverse 3 times now due to low ATF levels? Topping up has fixed it twice. There's a minor leak underneath (either the gearbox sump or the output housing, or of course both) but considering I've put a litre in and there's none on the ground anywhere I've parked I'm not sure where I'm losing it. Coolant has been checked and is good. ATF level is where it should be now, maybe a touch on the low side Going to pull the sump off tomorrow, check for dirty filter and crap in the ATF, otherwise any ideas? I've never really played with autos so I'm winging it. Also jacked up the corners to do my usual new vehicle check, one dodgy lower ball joint and one supremely fucked ball joint at the bottom of the idler arm. Like 20mm axial play fucked. Cheers Matt

Hey Team, Been doing a couple of little things on the bug since I'm down from Auck. Got the motor and box in a while ago but couldn't get it going. I triple checked all the wiring and found nothing wrong so I sent the computer away to be checked. Have got it back with a few changes so hopefully it goes! Have chucked a few panels on. Will hopefully get it pretty much back together and driving this week. Rad

I have to confess to making the fatal mistake of sharing a few reminiscent Wild Turkeys with Rigamortice in the man cave whilst surfing Trademe. Look what we bought……. It’s a standard 3.3 (far too flash and “modern” to be called 202) 12 port Blue motor out of an early VH Commodore. Rigamortice will love the solid state HD ignition and I won’t have to adjust the **** points every few months! Even better when I dropped its knickers and flipped it over I discovered this. With some girls you sometimes just get lucky ……. A virgin spec 3 ¼ inch counterbalance crank complete with the legendary Starfire con rods. (The legend was that when Holden chopped 2 cylinders of the Red 6 to make the Starfire 4 it was so out of balance they had to fit it with stronger Starfire rods to stop it throwing a leg out of bed when given the proverbial ‘jandal’). I’ll need to grind the mains down to accept the smaller 186 journals and some machining will be required to convert the rear seal from rope to neoprene. I’ll have to possibly relieve the block & sump for clearance and I’ll obviously need to fit the lower deck height 202 pistons but Rigamortice will love the extra stroke, cubes and counterweights. Compared to the steel 186 X2 crank (top) the difference is obvious. We also bought something else (all Rigamortice’ s fault) but I’m not letting on in case the lovely Mrs sr2 has discovered this thread..

Be there tomorrow, already have two tyres to fix and I haven't left home, will be at tyre shop at 8 fix em up and head off, slow trip with the trailer, if ya see me say hi, keen to meet OS peeps, I'm the Ol guy with the grey car.

i wish we had discussion threads for other projects... because i can see this being one i wanna look through again in a years time and i already know there will be a LOT of accolades being thrown around between posts looking good UJ!

Whoooooaaaaaar

broke my phone so this is the only pic

Intake and valve cover ready. Also finished sanding the spoiler but didn't get any photos. Will get some later when I do paint. Swap should be starting in 2 weeks, as soon as my last few bits arrive.

Managed to get the ol Bug into the booth on the weekend. Came up pretty sweet and I only put one run in.. I'll cut that off and it'll buff out sweet as apparently.. Started chucking some stuff back in tonight, just taillights and loom stuff. Will hopefully get the brakes and a few other things sorted this week and then slot the motor and box in on the weekend. Then do some skiddies. Cool

chat //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/50341-z18et1200coupes-1980-toyota-bugeye-starlet-chat/ Howdy chaps, Brought a Bugeye Starlet off a buddy 2 weeks ago because he's too flat out to fix it up. The body is pretty good which is handy but has still taken a bit of work. it's been certed with a 4age in the past which is rad but reg is dead. Plans, in order; -Whip on some paint. -Fit brakes ect -get er running -Re-vin -Slam -Cage -Race/wheelies -Rad. So far i've stripped and prepped and primed the interior, prepped and painted the engine bay, and prepped most of the body. Will hopefully finish the body this week and get it in the booth this weekend! Also got some wheels, 14x7,7.5 MKIIs.. Wanted 13's but these will do. [/url] Keep it peachy.

I bought a new toy. I've been looking for an RN30/40 for ages but I've been pretty fussy, with one of the harder conditions being that it needs a wellside. There are fuck all. Then this came up, I was like meh, extra cab, but bonus 4x4 tub and guards Plus it's got this!!! Plus it's engineered, and only cost me 3.5K. So fucking cheap. So I went to look, drove it, sounds amazing, bargained the price down a bit, then went home and organised the $ and picked it up last night. It's got a few things to sort, typical hilux rust, high beams are out, shit wiring job on the stereo etc, but it'll make a way better daily than the boring corona I'm retiring. Cheers Matt Discussion Thread

Thought I better do a write up on this. I am madly trying to get it ready for DGR in Welly on the 27th. I bought it from Hastings a couple of months ago. It was on the Tard but it had sold cheaper than I expected and I missed the boat. A couple of weeks later the bike was up again with a lower buy now. I hit buy now within minutes. I travelled to Hastings and picked it up from the nicest couple ever. The old owner had done a crap load of work to get it where it was but it just needed finishing and recomplying for registration / wof. The dude that hit buy now the first time used the 'My Mother is terminally ill and needs money' trick after wasting their time for two weeks. They were so nice and so hospitable they made me crackers with pickle for lunch and we spun a few yarns. Basically he was selling it because of a back injury and had turned his mind to restoring a car instead. This is how he got the bike ; And after an incredible amount of work, I got it like this; Take my hat off to him, a huge amount of polishing and work was done. The plastic part behind the seat is off a later version of the same model just moved forward about 6 inches. The seat was custom made and works perfectly. SOOOO, super stoked with it, I got it reregistered / WOFed and rode it for a bit. I decided to give it a birthday as the jets were standard and therefore too small since the pod filters were added. Dumb idea. This thing has cursed me ever since. Once back together it had the symptoms of an air leak and I have taken the carbs off and on at least 10 times since then. Cue new plug caps, plugs, intake rubbers, points.... argh! I busily tried very very hard to have it running right before the QCR welly meet not that long ago. I thought I better test ride it the night before and glad I did as it ran like an absolute dogggg. Boy was I pissed off that weekend, was keen as to roll in Welly and I missed an epic ride. SO, then I have been going hard for the DGR ride.

How are the cops? What's the likelihood of my WOF coming back highlighter pink?

From r30.co.jp. They were cheaper than OEM leads which were going to be a headache to source anyway. But yeah, they're all over Yahoo, old mate Alex @ MLRacing can help you get some in if you wish! Awwww bro. Is it a plus T, g? Jonny, it would have to be ludicrous enough to allow me to stash a few grand in the bank and be able to import another DR30 coupe.

As long as you have sufficient suspension travel (certifiers opinion on what this is) and the angles on the arms and joints aren't excessively retarded then yep, can get certed for under 100mm.

Beautiful

Loving this project already UJ.

Wow that is mint. Nothing better than a view of the ocean

Will just be a matter of research to find which bits to use. No need to make an easy job difficult. Its a Honda Civic so nothing is going to be rare. The distributor body may be model specific but the components inside will be generic. Why would they use one off parts for what is essentially a economy hatchback?

Consider me smitten.

Sweet wag man. If the glass is factory tinted it will have "AS3" etched into the glass with the safety standard. WOF inspector should be checking this. Check that it doesn't have extra film tint too.

A heavy duty Tanner planer / table saw machine popped up on the tard, so I'm grabbing that and will follow the advice in that thread. Will report back the results in a few weeks hopefully.

ITS ALL METALLY. Would it be a fag move to bag it? Is it possible to get a static drop under 100mm legal these days?

Last piece of the puzzle finally arrived. Now I have all the parts I need to hiff the coupe back together and on the road again. Still hunting those elusive ASCD sensors, but they aren't mission-critical. Also, I had an interesting discussion with some car restoration foamers recently about DR30 prices and their collectibilty - thanks to frenzied blog exposure in the last 6-12 months the market outside of Japan is finally waking up to the fact these Skylines are now worth buying, and apparently a generous offer to purchase my coupe may be coming my way in the near future if they can't find any suitable examples elsewhere. Huh. We shall see. I really doubt I could be persuaded to sell, unless the figure is in fact ludicrous. Was to be expected from how Skyline Japan (C210/211) prices skyrocketed overnight a few years back, I suppose. Trust me to be 11 years ahead of the cool crowd though! Discuss: http://oldschool.co....ns-dr30-wedges/

Friends crown looks absolutely stunning on 14s, but he's got the shape before yours. Possibly some inspiration?

have a look at the end grian of the lengths. ensure they don't run the same way when you glue them up. how long are the lengths ?

Hi temp RTV has never failed me........

Long weekend and made it into the shed each night after dinner to tackle the engine Borrowed a bottom tap to clean up the threads and took my time checking and rechecking there was enough room to torque down the head, only just there, but just is enough! With the engine back together and running next stop was to check the valve clearance, while up in Matakana a month back I called in to see Azzurro who lent me some shims and the right tool for the job For laughs, here's my attempt at the valve bucket tool, next to the real deal After all the messing about I really only changed one shim, but it was pleasant having the right tools! Conclusion: Two running, road legal Ladas, or is that Ladii?

Laser cut copper They will last forever and are reusable

I love the stationary engine blokes. They stand around their old chuffers in funny hats, discussing ancient technology and admiring each other's contraptions - often wearing tweed and smoking a pipe. Something to aim for...

Easier to hammer in the nail jobbies?

I used dashboard restorations . Perfect job. Looks factory. Even redid it for free after the courier snapped it. Wasn't cheap, even for a simple rx2 dash , but I had previously had one retrimed in leather and it looked very average. I'm sure a rx4 dash wouldn't be cheap , but they are the best looking dashboard ever.

North, south, east, and west. I do it all baby This is made from part of an old house in Te Awamutu. Must be native, the sides are rather hard. The rest I ripped down from beams using a circular saw

A couple of weeks ago I went and grabbed a paint sample from the owner of this s1 rx2, all going well it is currently being matched. These turned up on a facebook page and I owned them within five minutes! I'd been looking for a while but they didn't seem to come up for sale often. I paid a third the price of the the last pair I saw for sale so I was pretty happy. A badge I was missing turned up today in the post. On the lookout for a factoryish radio now if anyone has one? Next update might be it painted? Fizzing after going to Leadfoot and REunion.

Pine Engineering for all your pining needs.

Managed to paint the inside yesterday, was a bit of a slag cause it was super windy so had to do it in the garage with no lights and the door shut.. Turned out pretty good though so I'm happy! Today I just mocked up a TRD wing and painted a few bits! Hopefully will get this in a buddys booth on sunday.. Also tried to get off all the super rough spray paint that some winner had painted the dash in.. Turned out the solvent I used took the paint off easy as.. And the factory coating off the dash too.. So If anyone has a spare dash around let me know! Rad

Did a wee bit of stuff tonight, thought I had the bonnet sorted, was pretty dang wavey. So put some primer on which showed up about 4 little dings that I somehow missed.. So will do a bit of cheesin' on it tomorrow! Got both gaurds ready for primer, will do that tomorrow. Hopefully will give the inside a scuffy and and hit it with some green on wed after work, then I want to have the body all ready to hit by the weekend! I need to get this thing done in a few weeks before I head up to Auck so I'm pretty flat out on it! Rad.

Episode 3 Well, I quite like the look of yellow headlights, spent ages trying to find one here or in Europe where they seem to be used a lot. No luck. Then I stumbled upon people using this I saw Supercheap sells the same line however only ever advertising red/blue/silver. I tried my luck today and found a can. Then did it Before; After 4 coats; I'm not 100% on the idea, I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the headlight is massive. Well it will do for DGR, will look at smaller options another day. Pic showing seat action (which still operates on factory hinges / clip) ;

Episode 2; I had me some Krylon metal flake cans and a blank canvass - naturally I hit it. Krylon first, what absolute crap to spray, it took me ages to work out that basically the can needs to be shaken constantly to get the glitter to come out. Then I went waaaaaay to heavy before realising my heavy handedness. It felt rougher than 40 grit sandpaper when I had done!!! Cue friendly painter who clearcoated at least 5 coats! He laughed when he saw how much glitter I had hit it with. I felt like a douche but he said he would clear coat it for me and see how it goes. Then I rubbed it back, and rubbed it back again with 800grit wet. Plenty of runs when it was sooo thick with clear! I decided to use some custom stickers so printed out some off an internet pic that I loved. Then I got Archetype (shameless plug shout out to his custom vinyl!) to make the pictures into some stickers. Archetype put up with my perfectionist ways and could not be happier with final vinyl. Then stickers made, I applied them and went back to painter for final 2 coats of clear. Mind = blown. The level of sparkle is freakin insane in the sun; Stay tuned for episode 3

At time of posting I had 616 views, that's neat! Picked up the motor in the weekend. runs like a dream. doesnt sound like it in this video but it ran nicely. Garage Floor Run Up

few bits I've picked up.

courtesy of Mutiny - some pics from Mazfarm days