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Booked in for an ANZAC day trackday at Hampton. Cant wait! Between now and then, just giving the car a once over and making sure the brake pads/discs etc are still looking alright. Pads are maybe 2/3rds worn now, but have not had a single iota of brake fade using them. Ferodo DS2200 gets my tick of approval. While I've had everything apart, thought I'd see if these other tire sizes look feasible... Keep in mind that these pictures are shown with the tire resting against the strut, so would have to sit 10+mm further out. starting with 235/50/15 Definitely too wide! then next a 225/50/15 This might be doable! It would be awesome to run a 225 all round. Might give me a few more laps before tires start overheating. Maybe a few less laps until brakes start getting super hot though... Might need some venting if driving with semislicks. As the discs look like they've seen some epic temperatures which cant be great for bearings etc. Might repack the bearings with grease while it's all apart. Trackdays wouldnt be fun, without procrastinating about putting your car back together until the night before. EDIT: Late request by Snoozin for more graphs per post:

Well, it's making a much bigger thing out of it than it really was but for those who weren't there to witness firsthand... No, my strong impression is that the approach certainly wasn't in line with what the organisers and associated parties hoped for. And as an example...on thursday morning there was a checkpoint style setup next to a bridge on way to Tairua. They were waving over any car with a "noisy" exhaust or missing a front plate and ticketing. Was a well oiled production line. Cars were back on their way quickly with a fine in the glovebox. I have no issues with police at all. Happy to face consequences if I'm at fault. All I'm getting at is this wasn't a "poor me, I got a ticket for doing a burnout in the middle of Whanga" situation. Was a lot more calculated. This was a response issued by a party with a long association with the Beach Hop: Okay as most know I support the NZ Police 99.99% of the time. They have a bloody difficult job to do at the best of times and one that gets harder by the day. Having said that I was completely gobsmaked (as were most) at their "overtly agressive response" to a situation that didn't exist in the first place at this years Beach Hop festival. Their behaviour was nothing short of a calculated attack on the event and its participants. I have had a long association with Beach Hop, both as a participant and sponsor/supplier, and believed the event has always had a very positive & collabartive relationship with the NZ Police. Yes there has unfortunately been occassions when police intervention has been neccessary, but for the most part these were incidents involving those with no legitimate connection to the event and of a much younger age group than that of most participants. So what has changed since last year that warranted such an aggressive display by our boys and girls in blue? Why such a hard nosed approach. One could understand these behaviours if preceeding events had been problematic, but they haven't been. So I ask the question again, WHY? The police will no doubt tout this out as a "tatical success" but really their actions were no more than "police management political point scoring" and served only to further alienate a significant portion of the community and leave a blemish on an otherwise extremly successful event. One can only hope that NZ Police management will come to their senses and return to providing a more collabarative & supportive role for Beach Hop 2017 rather than again attack one of New Zealands most iconic motoring events. So this is the .01% of the time when I can't support the police and the powers that be need to know how wrong their actions were at BH 16.

was a good excuse for a long weekend away, lots n lots of sweet old cars.

Let's get Seedy's special request out of the way first. What a beaut!

Took this bit out.. Basically stripped the engine bay.. been having some colour thoughts and I'm kind of keen to stay with BRG as opposed to going back factory bronze.. offsets the s/s bits nice...

finally got all the beadlockers on after getting the rears to fit over the brakes short vid bro took on the weekend.

After meeting a local small engine fiend earlier in the year, I started dreaming again of owning a two-stroke lawnmower. I was lucky enough with the help of Richie (Snoozin), Chris_R and Neal (threeonthetree) to get this down from the North Shore to OSNATS 16: I fell hard for her looks. On the trademe auction, it was stated as having possible carb issues, and on the last night of nats Chris and Neal were ever so eager to fire her up. She runs, but only momentarily. So during Easter weekend, I pulled the carb off for a looksie and clean. No issues found with the carb. However, the two stage throttle control isnt functioning from its linkages, so next step is to remove the flywheel and explore why.

did anyone get a ticket who wasn't breaking a law? also. blowers and wires, ah beach hop

I'm a fuse Greg, could you blow me?

Fuck I have owned this car for a long time, and most of that off the road. Ah, project life' Anyway, Wash this face.

went drifting at a prison, snapped an axle 2 laps in. Good fun... Brought a big block 4ag for a good price. Brought some wheels on the to do list for the next drift day is - shorten diff so i can fit proper sized wheels -lower rear to nice height -make traction brackets for lower arms -new exhaust and headers -buy more wheels -stock up on 175/50/13 to run all round -fix the rear guards -new rebuild head on red top, new head gasket, water pump, cambelt etc. -new rear suspension -fix everything that is wrong

Also, this happened.

Not all the bikes were Harleys

Oh and pics of you mowing a giant dick onto Hagley park plz

Iv just linked to a random vid of theirs but they have loads. People PAY for tutorials like this- very well done and I see and hear related questions get asked so often I figured they were worthy of a thread. Watch "How to Make a Carbon Fiber Car Bonnet/Hood - Part 2/3" on YouTube https://youtu.be/YWbGx_BJVvM

Shock to the thermostat, but your to late, You give over heating, A bad name.

Just go take one for a test drive off the lot

When the event sponsors themselves are getting ticketed, then maybe things are a little tight? We had a good time overall, car went OK apart from some minor battery issues. Will sort out some pictures in a day or two.

Definitely get the steels widened. Respect to the fallen rapscallion.

?

Firstly, what's a beagle?

Yes, I need to take the diff out and remake the mounts. I will procrastinate on this issue for.... 1 more year. No wait! Two. Two more years.

Back at the rear axle, I realised I needed a rear lower tie-bracket to hold the two wishbone pivots together, so after a bit of head-scratching, cutting, drilling and grinding I ended up with these parts: Which after welding together looked like this: It's now a 4-function bracket: 1) It ties the wishbone pivots together and wraps underneath to pick up the bolt-holes on the underside of the pivot brackets. 2) The large aluminium boss in the middle is the parachute pick-up. 3) The two circular brackets on either end are for tie-downs to be hooked to (it will undoubtedly spend some of its time on a trailer). 4) it will provide a strong jacking point. Baby's going to have a fat ass! New rear arches, about 3" wider than stock. Arrived at the weekend. Whilst I was trying on the new panels I thought I'd snap a few pics: In the last one you can see a couple of gauges hanging underneath, these are Lucas gauges, probably fitted to the car in the 70's judging by the 'Lucas' logo. Hey I'll need gauges! Pulled them off and tested them (they are both capillary gauges) and they work fine, so here's the 'before restoration' photo:

I found a wee tin scoop thing in the roof of the garage that might be an option for an aftermarket catcher?

Holden Corral

Drain plug in the tank? Going to scrap? Make one

Jeeze mate, sounds like you're joining Flyingbrick in the O/S conservative party? Some of us just don't want to live in a predictable pastel coloured world where everybody meekly obeys the rules without question them.

Complaining about cops is up there with complaining about certifiers. Hopefully they introduce some legislation to keep fuckwits in tinted pedovans and the RB Army out of town too. Wow, I'm an old man now.

so reading between the lines here (cop complainers) If you're not involved with the event / have a sticker on your window / think you car will get pulled, trailer it or don't go? I think that's what the organisers would prefer (& the "Law" too) [i'm well known for missing points & things, so just ignore me]

Rattled the pontiac round as a camera car over the week. Making a one hour special for TV3 and the Beach Hop DVD. Good to catch up briefly Mr Gasser. The cops thing was interesting. Yep, not attracting attention is a good start but they were operating with a directive of ticketing missing front plates, noisy exhausts, and people riding round in pickup trays. So bit of intent there. Made it much more exciting as I discovered I was minus a warrant. Got waved through two checkpoints while they were busy so must have been crossing fingers the right way.

Have a look at how these guys do it

5 days till gumboot HyperPak as mentioned before I purchased a Hyperpak ignition module for the timing. reasoning was price for $330 I would retain electronic ignition. (thoughts were by the time I got a 4k one and converted it to electronic it would be a similar figure and the 4age dizzy looks nicer. So when you get the hyperpak its a simple hook up. 6 wire hook up. 3 to the dizzy and the colors match (easy) 1 to negative of the coil\ 1 to ignition and positive of the coil. 1 to earth we hooked it all up and went to start the car and no spark. The Hyperpak got thermo nuclear hot and I was quite frankly shitting my self with the dead line looming. back to the instructions I checked one bit that I hadn't given as much notice of than I should have "coil should be 3 ohms static resistance is less than 2.7 ohms will cause failure" a quick check revealed my coil was in fact 1.2 ohm not enough resistance and I cooked it. I sent it back to Wayne at Hyperpac and now I must plug the guy I have read people saying that e is bad at communicating and hard to deal with I had the complete opposite with him. He emailed me and then followed up with a phone call to see I had his email he worked over easter to repair the Hyper pack that I had blown up and returned it to me quick smart. I really can not be more impressed with his service and his communication is fantastic. So got it put it back in the car (with the correct coil) and boom. Possible the smoothest idle I have seen in a carb car ever you almost want to change something to make it sound tougher. Starts first touch of the key idles without chokes on when cold and I have only reved it to 5500 but it jumps up there like its been munching on blue pills. will road test tonight and report the result. also got the dash back in and the front seats (factory ones) bolted up. All left to do is. top up radiator with coolant wheel allignment a couple wires mount chilli bin because a update isn't right with out a photo I polished it while I was waiting for the Hyperpak to return. looks great

Well the last month has been full of late nights, early mornings, massive hours and a fair few km's for the car being towed around, Made it to my deadline of Beach Hop 16 JUST. Had the car dyno tuned the week before and made 260kw ATW with only 80% throttle and a 6k redline. Need to change the TPS from a toyota to a LS1 as the Toyota wasnt talking to the ECU after 80% throttle, with this change they tuner reckons I should get around 300kw which will be a laugh, Once it gets a few revs into her it pulls so well, so much fun/scarieness ha. Greg at Midnight Upholstery worked till 6am Monday morning before having a hours sleep and heading over to put it in/finish it, we got it done by 7.30 pm to get it on the trailer and off to Whanga by 8pm. Having only driven it for about 15minutes prior to Beach Hop this week would be its first real shakedown after the nearly 4 year build. Had some minor electrical issues on Monday night/Tuesday which we got sorted by Wed morn thanks to the Auto Sparkie in Whanga. Got it done just in time to leave late for the run to Waihi Beach Hop cruise, a clear road, mint day, car load of the crew and top down with some sounds made for a epic trip. Its first real shakedown/drive which was a hell of a lot of fun and I couldnt stop grinning! Car went well for the rest of the Hop and was in all the cruises without issue! Very very happy with the end result and now its time to get legal and clock up some miles. Heres a few photos for you guys of the end result, Will be getting my brother to take some sweet shots once its had a proper clean up and we have some time! Pic courtesy of FazyLuck Interior shot Heres a pic of it and my mates 64 SS Impala also as well as a mates airbagged Commer at Beach Hop Talk some shit! http://oldschool.co....westpala/page-7

Did some stuff.. Prob the only bit of bog, regards Gary A Smith.. prob shouldn't say that, hmm I might try and resurrect this engine, only had 40km on a rebuild. Took these just to show you what I'm dealing with conditions wise in brotown.. this is just from the air out here. Merry Easter..

Could still be a thing I attend....

I very much enjoyed fiddling around with this lawnmower on the back of the ute, all while dressed in op-shop attire at Nats.

Cool man, also "long black shaft" lol.

ATF topped up? Took it for a decent drive and checked fluids a couple of times, needed a bit of a top up once it was fully warmed up but seems to be holding its level. Told the gf I was going for a 15 minute drive, ended up just keeping on going, got home 45 minutes later. So much nicer to drive now that the ball joints are fixed. It still needs an alignment, and I'm getting some detonation under load too. Seems weird for a stock motor running 98, I'll have to join the lextreme forums (or is there a better option) to see what it could be. I also swapped wheels with the crown, love the look but I gained 500 rpm at 100kph which isn't ideal for a daily so I need a better option. Steelies and Whitewalls look great on the crown though so they can stay there. Cheers Matt

It's the only existence I know.

So Cazz's old man picked up a coffee roaster. It's all in parts, it's a big bastard and it looks like a chooch crossed with a horror movie. Here's what it's supposed to look like when it's in working order: We're unsure what brand and/or make it is but it's similar to a 60-100kg Probat roaster (the biggest commercial version you can get). We're also unsure if everything's there too! The roaster was in a fire and tucked away in storage for the better part of 10 years which adds to the choochiness. Here's some detail shots: So keen to get grubby with this. THE PLAN: Figure out what brand/model it is, clean it all up, buy/replace parts as needed, put it all together, chooch some coffee and sell it on to some hipsters. So next update will include heaps of wire wheelin, acid dipping, rust fixing and broken bolts! Woo!

Keen for "Escort Yourself" and "BM Werks 2002" blend of coffee.

When it's finished, can I leave my job/society and come live in your cabin as a hermit.

Well . . . the Civic made it into the auto sparky, although not without protest. Half way there, in heavy traffic, and sure enough the engine died. I was just rolling to a stop in the queue of cars, so I let it stop before trying to start it again - fortunately after 10 - 15 seconds of cranking (and giving it plenty of throttle) it started again, but it wasn't happy about it. The engine was running very rough, wouldn't idle smoothly, and I knew if I took my foot off the throttle it'd just die again. So I kept a few revs on the clock and after a few moments it settled down again, and I got to the auto sparky without further incident. Fingers crossed it's easy enough to fix!

The chevette has now done a wedding (My sisters) . . . and still going strong . . . when its not killing condensers. So trying to work out why, why why. I have a new Bosch coil, and the unit the suppliers computer said it required was an external ballast coil. Got it home and I cant see an external ballast resistor unless its hidden in the loom? Anyone able to confirm? I don't really want to install it if its the wrong one so I can return it for the correct one. I will read the manual tonight. and try work out myself but if anyone is a vox nerd drop us a line Have done other stuff too: Re-cored radiator New Dizzy unit from UK Ram-flow air filter Cleaned up SU Carb Replaced Water plump And its running better than ever, when the condensers are not failing. I really should lower it and get steels widened!

It's next week ish. I was thirsty for an answer. shhhhhh This is what a shitty picture of an open thermostat looks like, one step closer to being water seals. Step 17 is to buy largest fan you can find and gently place it onto the radiator. Magic! I'll see what adhesive foam I have and try seal the edges as best I can. Tomorrow I may even see how much it doesn't fit.

Is screwdriver part of TRD package or nah?

Passed the wof It started getting a miss once it warmed up on the way home which continued to get worse i assume its the ancient coil given up. I turned it off and now it realllly runs like crap. back on the tow truck and back to hamilton a much more comfortable way to travel an old one to start off with

Bench seat conversion, not easy as it sounds in practice I'm currently converting my ms110 to bench seat and column change, also means I have to change handbrake set up, alothuhg I am pretty sure your model crown will already have foot applied hand brake anyway On mine I have to swap out floor sections to work for my hand brake and shifter. Probably easier on this model as said tho. Cool car, as I said in the trade me auction, I might have some idler bushes that I got from toyota for like 12 dollars, however I ended up just swapping mine with a parts car I had at the time. So rad ass Also spotted my old black one when cruising back from Leeboes Wedding in Napier os sat, shits looking good

Made quite a bit of progress on the rusty hole othis week hole made a lot bigger had a few people at OS Nats say that they wished they had the tools to do body work, and that i must have some mean ones. Ah, no not really! my grandads hammers, some gilbow shears and a vice. oh and cut of wheels and flap discs! But ill show you how i do it. mmm whats another for pirate treasure? This is my template. Yum for small bits like this (whicn is most rustwork usually) just picked apart, cut off the rust and remake, Use cereal boxes as template material as it bends like metal but is easier to cut and trim. Once the carboard fits without forcing it, transfer it to steel repeat the folds, trim till it 'falls' into place this is the boot floor corner - bit of a wiz with teh power file and thats ready to be stuck on This is the basic process but a bigger simple shape template made and sheet ready to cut- i use some Gilbow shears i got at a second hand shop, they are great. sheet being folded, on a bit of I-beam. Just tappy tap tap with the hammer, all of a sudden it will be done. For small bits i use the vice, but man I wish i had a folder, much neater (and quicker!) valance section nd a bit from the base of the d pillar remade from "templates" valance etc ready to weld underneath also tapped in the stenthening indent by clamping the edge on the i-beam and using a cold chisel, You could make a template to tap around too, but meh it was a square. Again just tappy tap tapperoo till its suddenty done.

Hi people, I would like to title this post: The success of rubber and the failure of man. Last trackday at Taupo - I only got a handful of laps and managed a 1:56 which is a new personal best! So I knew the car had some more time in it with a bit more practice. This thursday just gone, I gave it another attempt. With some better lines, I managed to scrub a whole extra second off my time, I was super chuffed with that! One of the differences to last time though, is more negative camber in the front (going from 0, to -2 degrees) So the car was feeling great, the initial turn in was superb. I was feeling suuper confident, doing some kamakaze runs into the sweeper which I overcooked a few times trying to brake too late... And then for the first time at a trackday this happened... Woops! I had a huge lockup, and flat spotted my front left tire down past the tread level. It felt like I was driving on a cube, not ideal. So off I go to the local tire shop. "Hi, do you have any 205/50/15?" "Sorry dont stock these" "wtf? Shit." "Try the place around the corner" Off to the second place, same answer... nothing in stock.... shit shit shit. until... "Oh, I've got some second hand semi slicks though" "Go on" "Two R888s for $60 fitted" "Done deal!!" Frigging amazing! So I get them fitted on the front wheels, then smug face back to the track. After running out of people to smugface to while telling my story, head back out... Very mindful that I'd have a lot more grip up front but still the same out back... So I wound out a bunch of the rear bias. Out on track... Holy shit! Sector times keep tumbling and tumbling, GPS is showing going faster and faster through sectors. Life is good I had a few... err.... incidents while getting used to the different grip level Getting more confident on the brakes... Sector times dropping like crazy... And theeeennnn.... Smoke coming from the front left, brake fluid smell and a knocking noise... shit I hope this isnt the wheel hitting the caliper or something. Back to the pits... I take the wheel off, and all is well. What made that noise and smoke then? Oh... Oh fffs. GNNARRRRR! My first experience with semis, over in about an hour because I noobed the braking again. All smugness instantly erased from my face haha. My fastest lap was only 0.2 seconds quicker than road tires, because it was hard to string a whole lap together without having the rear of the car come loose with the grip imbalance. Regardless, I was absolutely fizzing about how well the car ran. The 8000+ rpm rev limit now has just brought the car alive. I called it a day, and headed back down to the tire shop with my tail between my legs. Feeling like an absolute noob for wrecking the tires they fitted about an hour ago. "So, ahhh... I wrecked one of the tires, my bad. Do you have anything like a 195 or 185 that I could get home on? Just a normal road tire" "Yeah I think we've got some 185s here, same deal as before... $60 fitted" "done deal!" While he was taking the semis off, he said "Oh yep, this one is flat spotted pretty bad! Leave this one with me, and take one of these others so you've still got a good pair" Holy crap, could an experience with a tire shop possibly get any better? So with my car amazingly intact, and a decent pair of second hand R888s in the boot. I head off for another 2 days of tootling around the central North Island, as pictured below. Smashed through a few tanks of gas, with the engine running like an absolute dream. Ran 90% of the time with cruise control on, and enjoyed the scenery. I made it back to Auckland in one peice with no major issues. Best trackday experience ever! Big thanks to Tom / Testament for helping me out over the weekend.