Leaderboard

had a busy week and weekend, got the first couple coats of red on the car.did the bottom and the inside and dash area,pretty pleased with it, did one coat on saturday, missed a couple spots, worst thing that happened was sweat running out of my glove on the wet paint, bugger it! gave it a wipe with thinners and it came really nice on the second coat today. Got a few small runs but stoked with it. not bad for a rookie!

I have been looking around for a while for a new work truck, wanted to go old school and update it to modern running gear and some creature comforts. I didnt have much of an idea but liked the look of older Chev trucks, did some reading and looking and got to this point. Truck will be in the country mid April, it is currently running a 327 and manual gearbox, and pretty much stock apart from that. Plan is to get it complied with existing running gear then modernise a wee bit. I have an LS3 and 6L80 trans and all associated wires and mechanical stuff in my warehouse now (cart before horse) and

The road to toytafest! Here's a pic to prove i made it, will post how I got there in the coming days

Perhaps that's more of a Shelbyville idea.

Snoozin hooking me up with a sweet photo shoot for NZ Autocar magazine on both my escorts Working his magic as the sun goes down Some rolling shots to finish the shoot Thanks Richie for the opportunity , great fun

Leadfoot Time - Part 2 Sunday Sideways Here's Leadfoot from behind the wheel Caught up with Tanner in the pits who was super friendly just like everyone else I had talked to over the weekend. Top Bloke Times are in and here's mine for the weekend Prize Giving time Cheers Rod , Shelly and the Leadfoot crew for a very memorable weekend One very happy Father , Son Duo

I've loved to piss and moan about how I think these are annoying and a stupid idea. But after having a driveshaft fail at 80ish kph on the weekend, Oh boy am I glad I had these loops fitted! My brake and fuel lines would have taken a hammering if not for these - They are a good idea, even in my case where all factory parts were used within factory power levels.

Only got a quarter into it before it started raining down here. Really happy with how it is coming along and fitting. Got to hate cutting holes in brand new carpet. It's sent out as a blank

Fuck yeah, everyone needs a monorail

Good news, talked to the bossman at Laurie Forestry in Timaru and he knew exactly what I was after but it got lost somewhere between him and the yard and I ended up with decking.. thank fuck, I thought maybe I had only thought what I said and not said it. Anywhoo Allan's gonna sort of for me.. by god they're good to deal with I thoroughly recommended them if you need mac, quality product, quality service.. In other photographic news, plaster.. Freshly topcoated, and my it smells good.. Ready to sand,

I built my own triangulated 4-link for the Mercury. No tests needed, but I did use the specified sch 80 pipe (heavy car) and drilled inspection holes for the threaded ends. I did all the welding myself, including the adjustable ends. I do know the certifier through the Hot Rod club, so I guess he thought I could weld OK.

Has a good cooler, xr6 coon one. the turbo should be fine, it was in great shape when I put in on and I've never given it heaps. just make sure the cam cover vent is unrestricted and the seals will be mint..maybe take the top off that wee appletons bottle it's jammed into and leave it dangling inside it instead? I'm pretty amped youve doubled the chooch, I was too scared of cooking the back cylinder. That's the downside to running the petrol turbo manifold. If you do kill it, there's a reeeeal honey motor in the garage you can negotiate purchase of from rovers 8-D

Got the engine bay cleaned up and painted. The body is all paneled and primed now. Just about ready to paint, just a few small imperfections to tidy up and then wait for a sunny day to paint it. All my painting is just done a a outside shed I rigged up made from corrugated iron roof and plastic sides. Not perfect but defanatly better then painting outside under no cover

Mounted the solar panels on the roof and more sound deadening today. I'm really glad the van came with this TracRac Van rack, it's really well made, all aluminum extrusion and stainless. I've worked in ski shops and bike shops a lot when i was younger and have mounted quite a few racks so was really impressed with this even compared to Thule, yakima etc. They are ungodly expensive ($550 for three bars and feet) for a van ladder rack so i don't think i would have bought it if it didn't come with the van. Just some 1.5in aluminum angle for the panels.

Chopped a bit more out the rear to get it sitting a bit flatter. picked up some 15" ssr meshies off a mate for peanuts sweet cause I can swap the centres over to my flashy 8.5" barrels too had a geez at yota fest at a couple trigger setups. photos from a 3tgte rina and look exactly like what I need. ill use the factory pulley as it's harm balanced etc etc. but for the spacer to sit flat I'll need to lathe the inside surface down and possibly tap the lip off. only needing water pump and alt I might be able to cut the front grooves off as well

The local gasket place in new Plymouth do them all the time. They use a cnc cutter thing that is usually used to cut regular industrial gaskets and they just chuck a piece if copper in and trace your supplied head gasket. I think they quoted me under $100 for a 6 pot one

Manged to squeeze in a panhard rod today. may need a few tweaks, but should work. Will leave it half finished till get the coilovers mounted, to make sure everything works together bit hectic under there, yep.

Not as epic as the kids table up there but I got epic satisfaction from this little project. We have a tiny home and it's important to free up pockets of space and remove clutter when possible (I'm not good at this) Greg popped in the other day and suggested I put TV on wall..It's been on the to-do list for ages. Measured wall and tv angles Had bracket laser cut Bend along dotted lines Draw corner of lounge and TV on table and use to get angles for steel (ends are not 45s) and weld Paint and screw onto wall Now just gotta add a po

I dunno mate, I think you need to check the ackerman angles

Well hot damn it worked Things i learnt theres enough adjustment in the gauge to shift the range +- 40 ohms for fine tuning to a sender (i.e E can be shifted from 40, down to 0 or up to 80, and same with the F) The heating wire is ovbiously bloody small, but it looks to be about 50 coils i unwound 10 of them, and spread out the remaining along the bimetallic strip. and it appears that i have now adjusted the gauge to a full sweep over 90 ohms at around 10v, which seems to be what the gauge will see i the cluster. The bench set up i used was a bit rigged

I've been chasing a crown ute since I moved to Aussie 5.5 years ago, I actually checked out a real tidy one the first week I got here but it was in Bundaberg, I was headed to Perth, and the motor was fucked, so I couldn't drive it. Seen a few come up for sale over the years but nothing local, and the few ones I knew of that were local were all either fairly rusty or there's one that's absolutely mint, with a UZ swap, but way out of my price range even if he would sell Then there was this one. I actually lived with it for about a year in a house share situation, where the house owners son had

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/53732-snoozins-79-two-point-five-s-its-for-sporty/ I did it again. The pine set in too strong and I ended up with another of the finest 4 door sedans to grace this fine earth. A Triumph 2500, this time in facelift flavour (my first post 74 example) and a sport 'S' spec model to suit. I had arranged to grab it earlier this year, and finally got around to picking it up in May, after the previous owner completed a few classic car runs/shows/etc's in it. It was originally a white car, and has been resprayed some years ago, door jambs, inside of b

Build an Incline? Timber on the up trolley, firewood on the down trolley.

Longest exhaust build ever! What a stupid idea it was to design it like this haha. So far has 5 pairs of flanges on each side if you include the ones at the end of the headers. Will have another pair after the diff as well. Got some flexi's and welded them in, as well as the rest of it. Need to put the tray back on now and see where the rest of the exhaust can run out the back. Made some mounts, after making them incorrectly to start with. Had the rubber hanging under tension where-as it should be compressing, otherwise it would most likely tear the rubber in half.

See here

Welded won't pass full stop. There was a lot of discussion on this somewhere on oldschool a couple of years ago. Also, you can buy the manual sections individually now online.

Another coat: That was with my cheapy 40L Blackridge 2.5hp compressor which can't keep up with the HVLP spray gun. So I bought this for when I do this outside (a couple of cars to do): Its 3hp, 15cfm, Ingersoll Rand pump on an old Hindin 270L tank. ALLL THE CAPACITY!

It's all finished ages ago and the owner loves it. Takes it camping etc. Has now got some posh fold out tent thing on the roof.

Yeah was a bit of a prick to jack up and align the holes, but these are sealed AGM batteries, so hopefully don't need much for awhile and can take a bit of crap. This location is actually the factory spot on Ford diesel vans. Space is a bit of a premium when building a camper so I'll deal with it. The pull out strength for a single 3/8-16 rivnut is 500lbs, which is like 2kN. I have five of them holding that tray. I'll keep an eye on them for the first few hundred miles though.

Spent a couple of hours this afternoon on the second to last phase in the cladding saga.. YAY!! Good times, not a great fan of the cca treatment lines but they should fade.. I wonder if there's something you can spray on to make them fade a bit faster..

How far is it up the hill? Rig up a pulley/whinch system. Make a track kinda like a small monorail or even twin train track setup and winch it up the hill

To be honest, I should have cut the springs in half from the get go. I cut the springs for no other reason that to make it more pleasant in the shed to look at until the coilovers go in. The right side of the car is a bit higher than the left, I will probably end up with a height similar to the higher side. Not long until the engine goes in!! I also installed my new valance courtesy of Yahoo Japan. The tape is holding the paint/rust on. I decided on a new one as the one I had previously wasn't the straightest and would require some more. Plus I didn't actu

New gaskets, and engine mocked up.

I've always been one to have a project or two on the go. Then there's the ones still in the "planning stage" i.e. they only exist in your imagination. Well there's nothing like a deadline you cannot negotiate an extension on (Christmas), and kids would have to be the toughest of all the negotiators to deal with! So when I foolishly thought out loud 3 days before Christmas about an idea I had - that may or may not work??? ...well the pressure to deliver was all on! So: String line and inclinometer dusted off Holes dug, posts in, concrete mixed and poured. Guy wi

It used to be certed and road legal with that engine, not sure what has changed since though. Probably needs some of the interior added back too I would imagine, if I had enough time I would swap a complete interior in from my spare car and get it back on the road (but not much chance of me every doing that).

Been sharing these around a bit. Looking forward to a drive in the sun and a spin of the back wheels.

I hear that a lot.

Added this sticker: Drove about 300 miles in preparation for beach hop, car ran flawlessly, drove to beach hop, car ran great again, after being here for a day or so, the want for a V8 has increased substantially, so watch this space once the weather is consistently bad enough for me to justify taking the car off the road until next summer,

New carb day!

In the weekend I fixed the divot in the roof. There was a high ridge in the back corner and at the time I decided it was more work than I wanted to do to fix it so left it. But something was crook and it got bigger after paint. so evened that out and sprayed it, also did under the bonnet, sides of bonnet and the inner guards and upper firewall. Could see the primer in the bonnet gap and it was bugging me. And GC nosco me his double sided tape so lobbed on the pillar badges. I toyed with the idea of centralising them and moving them up ala mazda, but went with the factory placeme

Gone all Roman dave science with the link setup. plugged the numbers into a calculator Tricky to get all the numbers in the acceptable range while working around the chassis, engine and wheels that need to turn. main compromise is chassis mounts on the lower links will hang below the chassis rails a bit. but still will be a touch above the transfer case x member, so shouldn't be too much drama. had to do this to get enough up travel without the links hitting the chassis rails, and also to get the roll steer numbers down. The rear is pretty text book since there wasn't re

Thanks for my sore neck..

Tridies for both cars. Both in 7" wide. Tridies added to the front. I tried to add them to the back, but the guard lips got in the way. Sheepers reckoned he'd had a little bit of experience stretching metal etc so I trundled over there. First he knocked the guard lips up using a hammer and dolly - the paint damage was inevitable, but we lucked out on the passengers side and only got a minor crack. Took it for a drive after that, to find the tyre was now rubbing on the INNER guard, near the top of the sidewall. The trusty hammer came out again, and the inners

I took some quick shots this morning before work just in case anyone crashed into it

Job done..

As promised! this is no diff, no front springs, but 100mm in rear (sitting on 100mm wooden blocks) and held up by the jack in the front (run out of blocks, but a little higher) so achievable ride height on springs in a 50 series crown. its purely for mockup, the wheels are so fucking shit, but came free with my hilux so will do for jobs like this. Definitely got me leaning towards 18's for the finished product though, but will be something a lot more traditional looking, billets would be nice but the stout taught me that I hate polishing wheels comparison hei