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Now I need to buy a sheet metal folder to make these parts decent. I only have a vice and a chunk of railway iron to form shapes but this being structural, I need it to be proper.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING At last months' meet, we had a disgruntled resident turn up and cause a fuss. Accusing us of being unnecessarily loud and a blight on his tranquil neighbourhood. He was unreasonable and arrogant. He then complained to several of the businesses in the area and convinced other residents to also complain. We have since been asked by the majority tenant of the premises to refrain from using the upstairs carpark, though we have been unable to contact the property owner to confirm this. Even though the property owner themselves are the only party that can prevent us from using the carpark, this months' meet will go ahead BUT it will be in the downstairs carpark. DO NOT use the upstairs carpark. While we aim to sort out this issue, let's not try to agitate things any further. Also be aware that the same complaining resident may show up again. I will try to be there earlier this month so just direct him to me and I'll stand there and listen to him rant for as long as I need to. Cheers, Neal.

So if you were wondering what those things do, they are 3" travel hydro bumpstops. If there are any hidden objects hidden in the grass, whilst rounding up the cows. these will prevent occupants of said vehicle, from cranium to moldy hood lining contact. or just doing skiz cunt jumps. pretty much overkill for this truck, but while im under there..

pads welded on diff for hydro bumps. in the pic below the whole weight of the truck is on them. about 10-15mm travel left and they are super hard at this point. jumping up and down on the front of the truck, they move a little further. the first part of the travel is fairly soft, can push them down a bit by hand if put all my weight on them. Im not sure what kinda pressure they are shipped with, but they are tuneable by adjusting the nitrogen charge between 100 - 250psi. along with the coilovers, guessing im going to have to spend a bit of time getting it all to work together nicely. but should hopefully destroy the leaf spring setup out of the box . still have to fit limit straps and brake lines in there somehow..

Thanks team for another super fun day out. 12 hour round trip and just over 600km's! The little red Mazda ran beautifully and had no troubles keeping up with the Honda. Plenty of laughs, sharns and Honda jokes. Great to see some new faces and see more of beautiful Southland. (as a FYI as a Auckland, Southland is considered anything south of the Bombay Hills...) I love exploring funny little towns in the middle of no where. And who would have thought the Matron of the Nightcaps Hotel was a rotary piner! Great work, good job etc.

and after doing battle with the welder all day I got fed up and left it there. Have a patch tacked into last picture.

Moral of the story is don't leave your freshly paneled and painted old car on the lawn for a decade.

By some weird-arse miracle I started patching in the last part of the pillar I've been working on, and it was going supr sweet. My patch panel was sitting bang on, and my welds were sweet, and only half the sparks went in my hair and burnt my head. It was the best day ever. Pre bog pics shown here. So I gloated about it on spam here about how good my day was going. I was stoked; such a sweet, smooth process. Then I decided to take off some trim on the A Pillar to prime and respray it as part of the general overhaul. And of course, as soon as i pulled off the trim I found a big rusty fucking hole... Beware the jinx of Gloat

new proportioning valve with one new line to the diff flexi (other one is from teh master and thats a hoist job, so nope!) - i slotted the adjustment slot a bit more than factory so it may even have enough rotation to work with the lowered suspension now. You can also see the end of the 'new' (i mean better) hand brake cable from my parts stash featuring intact dust boots and slightly less used new pinion seal in. New Remsa pads and discs, the old discs are ok, but the old pads were very sticky from when i was having caliper leaks ages ago. Id suspect the brake issues were: - sticky pads - master was a bit grogey - maybe old proportioning valve - everything else is nice to do and i may as well since ive got the bits now The blue HEL brake lines i installed a while ago. The calipers dont leak, so Ive theft them well enough alone! Also wanged in some lower rear shackle bushes, these were the only ones that needed replacing, lucky cause i only these ones to use - i got a 10 pack cheap, they fit the 2300 too but it used 4, so 4 still left!. Ended up with quite a pile of old and crusty stuff replaced Nearly ready to go back in, Just need to bleed them now. I have a few other things on the list to do including pondering the following questions: - why does the battery keep going flat? (ignition switch needs rewiring i think) - why do the tyres keep going flat? (time to swap the rims for another set) - why does my Italian car that lives at the beach like to rust? (time to extend the garage)

No ladder yet, but it can't go on the back because these Chevy door hinges can't even hold up the doors when they are new. It's not bad climbing up there anyways. A company here makes heavy duty aluminum ladders that go on the side but 1. The van is already wide enough that you have trouble on narrow roads 2. They are ungodly expensive. We're on the road now anyways, so no more mods but the ones I can do with basic hand tools. Went up to New York state a few nights ago, now staying in Boston in a Walmart parking lot because none of the camp grounds around here open for the summer for another three weeks. We cooked dinner on a park bench somewhere in the city. They at least had some BBQ grills so I felt a bit less homeless about cooking there.

so got this Austin 1100 for cheap here in nelson, was going to use it for its engine and interior for the white car but turned out wayyyyy to nice and needed less fixing then Emily, so after changing the alternator, all the lamps and a new exhaust pumping the suspension back up to an appropriate height she is now ready for a wof, paint is a bit rough but I'm not fussy =D happy days of owning now 2 austins

Such a beast car! Awesome! Had to do some back stretching/yoga from bouncing in the sedan for hours yesterday... Haha. Good times

Bump stops got a good workout on some of those roads this trip, there was a few bum biting the seat moments haha poor igor in the back with no belt to hold him in his seat

after riving this all week the noise from the diff was driving me fucking mental! so swapped the diff out today ...pulled the head from the newish diff and cleaned it all up....used some brand new gear oil and repacked the bearings. also mix matched the best brake parts from both diff and adjusted them so the hand brake only takes 2 clicks......perfect. and oh so QUIET i then bleed the back brakes and the fluid was fucking disgusting ....so i then flushed and bleed all the air and water out of the front and ran some dot4 fluid threw out......much better now. i then had a play with some old cutting compound i had sitting in the garage for about a decade and combined with a buffer and sponge pad ive had since my old man sold his shop..(maybe 15+ years)....the paint is very this and i couldnt go hard out but even getting all the oil hand marks off was a bonus... looks much better now.

You know what im really excited for? Being sledged into by jason k on his harley again

Probably time for a little update on the Trumpy. So the new engine is currently being built up from an old PI motor that was lying around in a garage down south. Basic details are .40 thou over, forged pistons, Newman cam, lightened flywheel, balanced pistons/rods and rotating bits, 10:1 comp, extractors, and the EFI setup based on the old PI bodies. There is also a power steering rack and pump getting the treatment in town which will go in at the same time... Please enjoy some pictures

Nearly done the transmission tunnel. This piece of the firewall has always annoyed me by how it isn't symmetrical, so cut it out and fixed that. Just need to do something with the little hole on either side where the tunnel, floor and firewall meet. Also built the fuel tank. Drew it up in Solidworks and then lasercut it. Added a couple of baffles that located and slotted into the top. Here it's fully welded, will give it a polish or something one day. The big flange is for the pump, the smaller one is for a sender unit and the small holes are for the return line and breather. I think it's just under 60 litres. Now to figure out how to mount it.

not an exciting update today, more cutting, welding and grinding. i made my first ever patches that weren't flat pieces today too. had mad fun doing it too, Stan would draw the outline of the piece he wanted on the steel, then i'd make the cardboard template, cut out the piece with a nibbler (crazy fun to use) and attempt to bend and hammer it into a shape that resembled the original before cutting out the rotten piece. Stan would look at it, frown, give it a few taps after me spending 20 minutes on it and it looking like shit, within 20 seconds he had a perfectly shaped panel. thats experience for you. I had awesome fun learning basics of how to shape, shrink and stretch though. inimal pictures too cos the day just flew but i'll take some more soon anyway. she's looking like she might turn out alright after all. this picture really doesnt do justice to the work it took to rebuild the whole inner sill at the front, but most on here are far more skilled than me and know exactly the time and steps it takes anyway. plus with welding sparks and grinding dust all over the place i kept my camera across the workshop so it was a ballache to keep getting it. i wonder why this piece rotted out! also i've scored a sedan rear axle with lsd diff and disk brakes, i'm unsure out of what though. it was fitted to an XF sedan, did these come with rear disks? and i know i cant swap the whole thing over cos coil and leaf springs difference but does anyone know it i can swap the insides like for like? i havent started to look into it yet, but just after some info. chur. //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/54385-mighty-joes-xf-falcoon-of-filth/

Turbo pipework all welded ready to go.

Finally decided to do the coilover setup in the front, after forgetting how much work the rear was. But yeh the front is going to even more work, mostly because there is so much stuff that needs to be moved and shuffled around. Unless i was to do it half assed. Had to get in and chop a few things up before i could even order the coilovers, to make sure everything was going to fit, with the coilover length i want. Turbo was the first thing in the way. cut up manifold to relocate turbo closer to engine. Manifold is done. still need to finish sorting out the airbox and exhaust. After thinking the drivers side was going to be easy, turns out the brake master was going to be in the way. Had a wilwood reverse mount pedal box hanging around, i had brought for the trueno that didn't really fit. Looks like it will solve the problem in the hilux though. should fix the brake bias issue also. Still gotta make another bracket to mount to fire wall but this is where it will sit Ends for the link setup.

Discussion Thread hi all after an epic trip to auckland i picked up a 1965 rambler classic verry tidy inside and out running the std 6 and auto lowered on charger rims just a mint tidy cruiser will upload more pics soon

so this just passed the 1 year in the shed mark and i have been plugging away at small things trying to make sure it all fits made a cut down sump using the bowl of another sump ... it was ugly welding and looked too small on capacity and leaked like a sieve so i made mk II version deeper and with new 2mm steel much easier to deal with made 1 flat plate right thru at cut line and then made the cutout and bowl for ford v8 pickup l very minor weeps on testing and i just hit it with the full POR tank sealer system to sort that out oil filter remote and oil cooler mounted and plumbing mocked up lots of little bits to sort so they dont try to occupy the same space under the bonnet

another day and another thing fixed. the heater core in these things just sides into a slot and has 2 screws holding it in....mine was slopping around and air was just blowing around the outside and not just threw the core. so i pulled it out and the foam was stuffed...and bits missing . i remeber Karl saying just put some foam around it to seal it up so i did and now the heaters awesome .

No but there was a sweet yellow Jag cruising around. I also had a sneaky play in the train....

What you have is a third generation Galant wagon, called the Chrysler Sigma in Australia or Mitsubishi Galant-Sigma in other parts. Mitsubishi did indeed make smaller bumpers for the European, Japanese and Asian markets.

Nightcaps Ohai I've never seen someone more excited seeing a sheep than Nick was...

Car passed cert. Ended up getting the factory shocks shortened and putting them in, also lifted it a little bit. Cert plate showed up yesterday, passed wof and got rego. So as of yesterday the car is road legal. Had some little rust spots tidied up on just to smooth it off. Now that I'm driving it I've find a few little bits that I need to tidy up. There is a hole where the factory handbrake lever was thats letting hot air through, one of the springs is knocking in the back under load, not sure why and I want to put factory engine mounts back in. The polyurethane ones in it now cause everything to vibrate so much.

As someone who works in advertising I find people like this offering contra for a central prop, especially with such a big company, pretty shit. front up with some cash you pricks.

so direction changed so this a bit, i have been pining an ADV bike for a while, and after talking to a few barry's about how rare a genuine R80 G/S Paris Dakar is im going to bring this thing back up to its adventure orientated globe trotting glory, with a few modern twists. The Frame will get some HPN spec bracing, the front end will be swapped for a DRZ400 front end, i may go to a repro PD single seat and probably lower the stock footpegs a bit to make it a bit more comfortable to ride standing up, and i plan to take this thing where coffee shop dwelling ADV fag barry's wouldn't usually go. I have already picked up a nice stainless high exhaust for the bike, it goes up and then sits horizontal and goes back a bit further than what i think would look nice, so its gunna get chopped a bit so the muffler section is on about a 20 degree angle similar to the HPN rallye mufflers. This is the DRZ parts bike i picked up, the forks are still conventional so have the "classic" look but are 49mm as opposed to the measley 32mm BMW forks, they also have much better springs and valving. They will be shortened by using a 75mm spacer inside, i will use a DRZ / RM wheel with the suzuki brake and caliper, just with an aftermarket bigger 320mm disc. The only problem with this swap is the triple trees have 15mm offset, compared to the massive 32mm of the BMW triples. I am looking out for some RM250/125 triples which have 24.5mm which is about perfect, because they are USD triples they will just need spacers in the fork hole to pack them out so they clamp down on the 49mm stanchions. Apparently it makes them handle soooooo much better, so looking forward to that. At this stage im still just hoarding parts before i pull it down, need to get escort out of the shed which is going as i have realized its way too fucked an i CBF250 doing anything with it, then ill have some space to rip into this thing. looks like its going to be a fun winter project! cant wait to have it done and then smash out some awesome adventures with Action Waggy!!!!!!

Few more details of stuff. Decided I needed a collapsable flagpole.... searched around on the internet a bunch for something that didn't suck, then realized I already owned the perfect thing. For those here who aren't back country skiers... it's an avalanche probe, essentially a thick tent pole with a spike on the end. I just cable tied the flag to it and it all folds up and rolls into the sleeve it comes in. Perfect. Changed out one of the grommets for a sport climbing bolt hanger so I didnt have to unthread the cam buckle strap every time. Yes... I realize it isn't a rated carabiner and the bolt hanger should pull down ... Window nets that rebecca made. There is also a big one for the side doors. The strip magnets don't hold for s#!%, glad I have the circle ones. The rear ones also are bolted through the hinge. Little ties to hold them up. Cargo net in the back. The tan bag is our sleeping bag. For anyone who wants a bada$$ two person backpacking bag I'm a huge fan of the Nemo Tango Duo, it allows the two of us to carry one less bag and weighs no more than one normal bag, 800fill down and backless. The window nets and flag pole live in the cargo net as well when not being used. The flags were brought to me last month from a friend who was in India. Some pics of the roof in use Needed a place to stand so I stole this idea from someone on Expedition Portal to use cut down ute loading ramps. Now I need to figure out what to do with the second ramp since they are only really useful in pairs... freebie if you pick it up to anyone who wants it. Had the van out for its first shakedown overnight run at Cunningham Falls State Park. We were the only people there. It of course rained, but I was very very happy with the ARB awning, we were still able to cook outside. Also took it out to a local horse race last weekend, Maryland Hunt Cup. The tailgating area was full of yuppies so I picked the coolest looking guy I could to park next to. The other guys van was more of a tail gaiting rig, he pretty much spends all weekend driving between porting events, but he did have a removable bed platform. He had only finished it a few months ago so we chatted a bunch about our builds, cool guy. Lots of TV lots of sound Lots of batteries Lots of amps and lots of air for an air horn

Almost 2 years little van has been busy done a couple of Gumboot rallies with all of of the greatness of 49hp then the motor gave up 1.3 xflow they go forever sometimes . Motor finally died so put the old sport engine into this to help it get a little more power so fancy rebuild a few extra engine bits and what can it do ???? drive line has a fair bit of work to match loads to update

So Manfield finishes up... And I'm enjoying doing superlap and the camaraderie between competitors. Buuut everything else in life was starting to feel a little stale. I have been daydreaming about moving to the South Island for the last few years, but I'm not a planner person... I figure if I wait until I have a plan, I will never do it. So I made a bold move - To just hand in 30 days notice at my IT Manager job, with no idea what I'm going to do next. I knew this meant sacrificing the remaining rounds of Superlap, and would probably lead to some hard times financially and otherwise. But it was just what I felt was necessary. All I knew was that I wanted to move out of Auckland for a while and start on a fresh page after some tough times over last year or two. A few days after this, I see an ad pop up on facebook... "Remote Dyno tutor/manager at HP Academy in Queenstown" Awww hell yes, could that be any more the ideal career/city change, at exactly the right time?! I applied for the job - and got it Then not long after, thanks to Bigfoot, I had some accommodation sorted too. It was the most low effort career/city change ever! Within the course of a week it went from my family probably thinking I was a bit of an idiot for quitting my job without a plan. (and a fair bit of doubting myself as well) to, "God damn it you're a jammy bastard Dave" To anyone who has along the way thought "David why not just take your car to a tuner instead of wasting your time doing all of these stupid tests/graphs/etc" Well, all of these things that I've done were a major contributing factor towards me getting the job. So there's probably some motivational message there about following your dreams or something. But end result is I'm pretty happy right now, and working at a company where drawing graphs and looking at datalogs etc is par for the course. Which is bloody exciting. So I packed my echo full of essential stuff and drove on down to start a new way of life down here. So far so good! Keeping some relevance to this thread though - My Carina is still back up in Auckland. It's packed full of "want but dont need" items, it's ready to hit the road as soon as I've organized a place down here that has a garage to store it in. I've been learning so much from Andre and the team, it feels like getting an apprenticeship from one of the best engine tuners in the southern hemisphere. I feel like I'm only just smart enough to be on the cusp of understanding some of the stuff Andre talks about. But I think I know just enough, that he doesnt feel like it's a waste of time explaining things to me. I expect that by the time I've got the Carina down here, I'll be ready to redo my tune from scratch using the new knowledge and tools now available to me. Cant wait! A new southern chapter of graphs, nerdiness, and awesomeness awaits the Carina. The next post in this thread, when the time comes. There will be graphs, oh yes, there will be graphs.

Note to self: Wheels like this.

Made a bunch of progress the last two days. I'm using cam buckles and ratchet straps that I've shortened to hold things in. I'm using a cheap grommet kit so I can bolt the straps in. The kit actually works quite well, it's a little punch and a driver/anvil to set the grommet. Here is one holding my table. Got the interior in. This is the last panel to go up behind the driver's seat, these are the wires for the solar and lights. Roof to the factory head liner. Bed platform in. AC and DC plugs on the back of the bed. View under the bed, the box on the left is where the 26 gallons of water sits. Above that is the electronics. Side door View of the water pump up against the wall next to the tank. Held down with some shortened ratchet and cam buckle straps. Wish I had taken more pictures of this area but we were making progress. Switch and plug panel from the front I've got almost all of my wiring done and the inverter and solar charger mounted but I'll wait till I've tidied all the wires up to take pictures of that.

Chassis end panhard mount. Yep the drag link goes through the middle of the bracket Ive given up on the whole offroad thing. going stance spec still got about 3" of droop and 2" up to go. need a forklift. likely have to go softer on the front springs, will see what happens once all the junk on the tray goes back in the engine bay

failed hard, cant get bolts out of cross bar. yeh the towers look ugly from the top, but wont see them once done v2

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.

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 wires, main cable tensioned and clamped (that sentence sounded flippant-ly easy... this was a challenge) I had three bits of wire rope. The longest was 50m, so this became the bit between the two posts. I then machined up a connecting rod for each side, that hooks up to the guy wires. Complicated solution...but it enabled me to get the longest span with the free wire rope I was given. Its designed to slip, so tension remains the same in all components. I used basic trigonometry to calculate the forces involved. But if my theory is true, then it should all be good. So I'd call it a success. Now 4 months old and still working well Kj

And a waaaaayyyyy over engineered gas cap. But come on, its sexy eh! My OCD kicked in and I even domed the top because it looks better that way. Kj

Nothing too exciting going on with this. just working my way through all the stuff in the way, to get the extra up travel. Driver side engine mount got chopped off and new one made higher up to clear the top link. Alternator had to go as well. will use a fwd bracket to move it up. a new inlet on the water pump should make it work with the rwd pump. Last thing giving me drama is one of the steering links and the the sump. if can get another 30mm clearance between the 2, this will be max up travel on bumpstops. kinda lost count but got around 3 inch more up travel than the leaves other than that just been welding... bottom chassis link mounts are on for good. i forgot to drill the lightweight hole in this one. Crossmember was way too much to weld with tig, and was to lazy to drive an hour to my old boys to use mig. Arc it was. still got a little work to go on it

Today's effort. New (half finished) gearbox/transfer case cross member. Lower links don't agree with the old one. new one will have a tower for the upper link with some adjustment holes. +50mm shocks look pretty short.

Its started, hours of grinding. Lower links. the tube adapters were for some usa spec "dom" tubing. machined them down a few mm to fit sch40 1 1/2 pipe. Have cut all the existing mounts off the diff and tacked the lower link mounts in place for test fit. will do the same with the top link before finishing and welding them. Lower link chassis mount, will be trimmed and braced more, as they will likely get a bit of a hiding Its kinda working. lower links look like they will be ok. still trying to find some more up travel. easy way would be to run the truck at a higher ride height, but want to make it work at stock height, to keep it stable as possible. current things spoiling the fun are: sump, alternator, engine mount and the floor..

Wow. So much has changed with this. I'm just going to drop these here for now. Ignore the block of wood the gauges are on. Not sure what I'm going to do there yet.

Glad it ended up in the garage. The first few photos looked like it was off to pick a part.

step 4 place valiant in the garage so remedial work can begin

step 1. look at poor neglected valiant

Playing with apps on the phone

Pretty much done! Ready for Brits at the beach this weekend in Whangamata. Will sort the storage of kitchen things like plates and food out as I go. Keep missing out on double beds on TM so might be on a single. Found the Escorts towbar under the house, sanded, painted and fitted this week. Wired the car for a trailer, worked first time. Now fingers crossed the Escort will tow it there and back, the camper doesnt fall to bits, and the line of surf chicks waiting to get in cause problems in the motorcamp:)

Dragged it outside for a photo. Have stripped all the trim, door, lock, mudguards etc off and started clear coating. Lots of sanding and filling first.