Leaderboard

Started building a motor for this. L28, flat top pistons, twin hitachi SU's maybe a cam. Thought i would put the pistons on myself. Watched a bunch of videos of some rednecks doing it and it looked easy. Made a jig out of plywood to hold piston and allow the pin to pass through the correct amount to get the rod centered. Borrowed an IR thermometer from work and heated them to around 200degC Easy Gapped the rings last week. Next i will clean up a couple of cranks i have and see which one is the least wonky. Going to try something different with the head and use an uncommon combination. I put this one through the bandsaw to see how much i had to play with Hope to have time next week for crank and then assemble bottom end the week after

Bloody hell so much kindness today from you all. Anglia was supposed to have a minor bit of work done. We ended up removing gear box and prop shaft To do this had to remove exhaust (due to headers) And then reassemble. Highlights included the company The ingenuity The helpfulness Sam even panel beat my rear bumper Thanks guys

Exhaust is finally all finished fab wise. Got around to doing the rear most mounts. It's pretty rigid now and hopefully shouldn't hit anywhere as there's some quite close clearances. Pulled the cab off again to do some stuff. Started by scraping off the remainder of underseal, that took quite a few hours. Then finally got around to finishing the trans tunnel. Made the holes in the corners bigger so some patches could be welded in and then just gave all the welds a sand to tidy them up. No idea why the firewall rusts so quickly where the etch primer has been sanded off. Nothing else seems to rust much. Crappy primer maybe? Will sand it all back to metal one day anyway and use some better stuff. Fixed the rust holes in the rear cab corners. It's in pretty good condition compared to most! Seemed to be missing some photos of those rust repairs but it's all done now. Whilst the cab was off it was a good opportunity to pull off the shackles that mount the back of the cab to the chassis and give them a tidy up with new bushes. Pretty surprised at how well they've survived, the shafts that the rubber bushes go over were still shiny steel! Gave everything a sandblast and then sanded off all the edges so they're a bit nicer. They made some cool looking sparks! They're all painted now, photos to come soon.

Progress has slowly been made, first step was to sell my GTiR to free up some funds, I only got one picture of all the toys together Turns out the guy I bought the car off had a pile of parts to got with the car, a spare carb, the half bumpers, couple spare boots, and the cars original Rostyles! Sadly the lip on one is very rusted but will be saved later on. I bought another set of wheels, just because Took a photo next to my buddys Datsun and discovered why the engine gets quite hot, quite quick

Assembled the front today, mainly because I've run out of room! slammed it so my garage looks cool, it'll sit like this for a while until I've finished the Corolla. Also acquired a free 5MG, the only M motor I'd consider running. It's a possibility, they look sick on carbs/ITB's. 1st pic to prove it! cheers Matt

Got the exhaust off the floor and tweaked the pipe by the idler and took it for a fang. It goes really well! Sounds fantastic but on the loud side. Have since tidied up hoses and things but I needed a picture

https://vimeo.com/167323139 such a great video. oliver cameo at 3:10

I think this is still sitting in Nelson. Obviously not going to work with what you want but hey... I'll put it here just to give the thread some more oldschool flavour.... I was having a yarn with Pog the other day about this. Ive had similar plans for a few years.. but to build with a Bedford K series cab. This stems from not wanting to lose my legs in a head on accident involving our 4wd hiace that make me want to build a more 'solid', end of the world, truck for life. I ran it past my local certifier, A Barry no less, last year. He said that I can swap axles and drivetain from a Toyota etc onto Bedford Chassis and he can cert it. But If I lower a Bedford cab onto a Toyota chassis he cant because he doesn't have relevant ticket. @cletus will clear this up. My engine choice, based on lots of experience having owned one, will be the Isuzu bighorn 2.8 turbo. I want to build as light as possible and remain well within wof weights and as small a size as possible. If I can load sheets of ply in the tray I am happy. Will build removable wooden camper box for camping trips.

1kz would have to be a winner if it was able to be converted, they go hard in a prado in my experience. For context, this is more or less what I want to achieve; Start with a double cab 4wd Dyna/Atlas, graft landcruiser/safari coil sprung axles onto it, move the rear axle back a bit so you can get a proper sized deck. No crane. Build a cabin for the back that can be jacked up and removed in a jiffy. Then it can be my forever workshop vehicle/bug out machine/camper and I will never need another vehicle in my life. I have spoken to a cert man about it and it needs a 1D class certifier, but it should be straightforward although time consuming.....

*YARN THREAD* Walking around the Kumeu car show 2015, the old man was telling how one of his mates at work had two Escorts he wanted to sell, a Mk4 convertible and a Mk1. But seeing as I was knuckle deep into turbocharging my MX5 at the time I merely shrugged it off as I didn't have anywhere to keep another project. Two years down the line I was eating a tuna steak at The Esplanade in Devonport and all of a sudden "Boy, remember that Escort I told you about a few years ago, would you like to go and see it after lunch?" "Sure why not".... you can work out the rest Beatrix is a November build 1969 Ford Escort 1300 Sport assembled in Lower Hutt. When I brought her in March she hadn't run for about 15 years and her rego has lapsed. I got the engine going with a bit of fresh fuel and some new plugs and did a few laps around the block. I then pulled her apart to have a look at what we got and got a few good surprises, Some spring adjustable front shocks 4 pot AP racing front calipers a 711M 1600 block and the biggest surprise apart from the battery tray, no real rust to speak of. The plan at the moment is, rebuild/replace all that's perished over the years of sitting still. Rebuild the engine. Reregister her. Replace the seats with something less offensive. Repaint it back to its stock color, Ford Diamond Blue.

Got a link to them on Ali? I remember seeing them on there when I was playing with a naked AZ50, but all I'm finding now is really crap mesh covers. Have found a few for decent prices second hand in Japan, but there summer holiday is cocking things up. Still mostly just waiting on parts to arrive, ordered some bits today but thanks to the summer holiday in Japan there not getting sent until the 23rd. Doing what I can while I wait though, after cleaning out my shed yet again I made up a little bracket for the coil so it's not just hanging out the side any more, finished up the engine-frame wiring connections (besides a few cable ties) and rode it around the block a few times. Also had a go at plastic welding the worst bits of the step fairing Not great, but it would do for a dirty old matt black squirt over at least. Also the GC @MopedNZ hooked me up with a lush deal on an eBay/Aliexpress chamber Just missing the headpipe as it was going to go on an old Suzuki Plan is to attempt to turn it into something like this These eBay pipes have a reputation for somewhat decent mid range and a fairly low peak RPM around 9000rpm, I'm going to end up with a longer headpipe on it than stock which will bring the powerband down a bit more, should be a good torquer rather than a top end screamer, which is somewhat what I'm after I think. Might even buy a TIG welder and attempt it myself, my accountant says a welder can be written off as a legitimate business expense since I have mowers and the trailer that sometimes need zapping up... Never used a TIG in my life, fail at mig, so might be a really bad idea lol

@RUNAMUCK It would be fucking rad though.

Just imagine that thing with a Bridgeport. I image old Barry would Come back from the grave to get you if you did that to his beloved Betsy.....

When I was helping my mate clean out his workshop I saw a random old Toyota steering wheel, I grabbed it thinking it was off an MX22 he stripped a while back but now I've had a Google I'm thinking its very likely the original KE15 one. Way better than the rusty aftermarket shitter that was there had a good look through the interior, door cards and roof lining are mint, seats are pretty much totally fucked from the sun. Will keep an eye out for decent KE20 interior in black. found the original service book, with vouchers! Hadn't even used the 48,000 km one, the dash shows 52,000 so I'm wondering if it's actually only done those km's. First owner had her until at least 2000, last rego paper showed a pensioner discount. Original tool kit was missing one spanner, and had a dirty Nissan screwdriver ive got these MX22 hubcaps which I wouldn't mind using but it turns out that 14" wheels in 4x110 only came on R100's, and people want drug money for the, these days so I may need a plan B cheers Matt

So this happened.. hopefully it will be quiet enough! Boot now all welded up also. Fuel lines next

So after many months of looking - including (failed) bidding on sight unseen cars 9 hours away from me, mincing around car yards and looking at more rust than I care to remember - I finally pulled the trigger and purchased one of these fine automobiles. Reasons being: - It was local in Auckland. - The Toyota tax wasn't too extreme. - It was ratty, showing it had been somewhat legitimately repaired. Anyway, what I purchased is a 1985 HJ60 high roof model, not sure which trim level but it has the 'power pack' interior with central locking, power windows and sunroof, A/C, rear passenger heater. It's powered by a 2H 3980cc straight six diesel engine and an H55F 5 speed transmission. It also has a working PTO winch on the huuuuuge front bumper. Initial impressions of the truck is just how big it is, it's massive! Especially compared to my usual modes of transport, the Austin 1300 or Nissan Sentra Sportwagon. The paint is rough but it shows where work has been done. There is filler but it is mostly fresh metal underneath. Looking up the D pillar I can see some rust at the roof seam, I've acid treated this and will address it at some point. There are also a couple of small patches of rust in the rear inner wheel arch and under the rear seat floor. Will apply wax to the body to preserve the patina. Driveline wise the P/O had the engine reconditioned (receipts provided) and the owner prior to me did the cylinder head after the HG blew between no. 2 and 3 pistons. This was caused by the head not being torqued down evenly. The front hubs were also rebuilt by him after a WoF fail on oil leaks. The gearbox is a little noisy, I believe this is the input and/or output shaft bearings. Kits for this are available ex-Australia. Probably caused by towing - it lived in the Waikato towing horse floats for a while. Have not tested the 4wd system properly yet. Anyway, overall I am stoked about my new truck! Diesel and 4wd is all new to me. Planning to daily this if practical. The conveniently most appropriate stickers applied - thanks @Archetype! Also thanks @MichaelJFox for assisting in collecting this tank. Discuss:

For a few years I've been pondering how to use the very available and cheap filing cabinets as tool chests. Obviously they are too deep to be a good use of space. Possibly the best way to do it would be to get several identical ones and mod the drawers so you have one cabinet with many drawers With this in mind I went and got two not matching ones and set about cutting up a tool chest I already have because it was more work. Paid $2 for this Because I want to replace these useless steel on steel trays So pull a drawer out and strip it down If I had 2 matching cabinets I would have just had offset drawers down one side and some small shelves on the right. I didn't so I decided to do extra work and shorten, narrow, and chop top all the drawers to have 2 equal columns Everything will be riveted except for one long side which is stitch welded back on the base. Double up the steel on the front panel for strength and so I don't have to replicate the bends at the top. (I really should have made a bender first I guess) Perhaps the welds will improve by the last one Again, as the drawers were different I have done extra work so they will like the same. I won't use the original handles, will set the drawers back far enough to clear some handles, which I will make to match the britool top box With them fitting something like this I cut the old centre rails out but the side ones are in there really well. So will have to get some more cutting and grinding disk's. The file rails cut short enough all right and will just need to rethink some stops I plan on 4 equal size drawers on top and then Il rethink the bottom area when I get to it. Either a couple of big deep drawers or just a space to jam some plastic tool boxes

Yay 2.0 and 5 speed arrived yesterday added bonus modified sump for escort came with the deal. So the puzzle is coming together, few more parts to gather before the conversion takes place though

Bit of black paint for the ducting. The fibreglass piece should be done this week, then there's only a couple of jobs to do before going racing!

so, jam jars filled with the correct gas and your sensors dangling inside them, a bunch of cheap slimy electrical tape, SHAZAM?!?! i know, brilliant.

The Power Board had these with a double cab, You might be able to find one of their old cabs to swap. These trucks are pretty good/simple from memory. http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/trucks/other/auction-1388698858.htm Look at the price!

Pic for thread

That noise comes from a well tuned set of pipes. It will have a good set of headers and a merge or crossover pipe so you hear both banks in harmony. This car is a V8 but gets the same kind of howl: Although all this is irrelevant to this thread because hopefully this motor will end up in a boat with zoomies.

Gay

you can basically build the ugliest type of cab and make it look fully legit with appropriate military paint, add ons like snorkle, light bar, bull bars and the staunchness these can create. ugly but functional = easier to build. ideas...

That was a mystery nut until pretty everything else was back together lol.

Double cab 4b powered isuzu nkr. Slam dana front diff and a divorced transfer case. Sorted. You can get double cab nks/nps sometimes but not often. Diffs and transfer cases on the nks/nps range are strong as. We have plenty of customers that run huge floatation tyres and overload the fuck out of their trucks and the only dead trans/diff stuff I've seen is due to no oil or running in 4wd on the road for weeks in end coz they were too cheap to buy a vac solenoid for $200 (cost the dude two diffs and a transfer case in the end hah) Isuzu current model nps aren't too bad for space. See plenty of lads over 6' driving them happily. V electronic tho but that shut doesn't give much issue. Even the dpfs. BUT they can be deleted these days. A+ would own.

Baart she is assembled sans alternator That comes back this week Then it's wof time

you should just convert it to LD28+T and never open the bonnet again.....

Got to the go ahead to modify so a few pie-cuts and welds and the exhaust was clear. got it running last night after figuring out which of the various hose tails was the fuel inlet, and blocked the (anodised purple) vac block off as I have no brake booster, and finished the exhaust and a little more tidying today, drove out of shed. the throttle cable is lacklustre and I need to come up with a nicer bracket. Got a good bark to it, quite funny watching it jiggle away at idle. Will need to readdress the exhaust as now it's a lot closer to the floor in one spot and the idler is almost touching

Drilled out the spot welds to separate the two parts of the firewall panel. The smaller panel needed to come off for access the weld the bigger one on. Removed the remains of the old firewall. And removed the brake, clutch, pedal box and steering column. And scraped some shitty old seam sealer off. Removed the battery shelf to make more room. I think I will bare metal the engine bay cause all the paint is fucked, then seam seal all the joins cause most joins are not sealed and the stuff that is is horrible tar stuff. Found some more rust after removing the radiator.

Thank you again guys

Prepare for a let down of an update... The exciting update turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment. Over the last couple of weeks I've been inspired by @yoeddynz 's Viva and I've decided I want to put the mazda klze v6 into the escort. I did some quick measuring up using dimensions I found online and it looks like it will fit (tightly mind), with some small modifications. I want to put an rx8 six speed gearbox behind it because it is very similar in length to the ford type 9 and puts the shifter in the right spot. There's a guy in the UK that makes adapter plates to out the rx8 box behind all sorts of motors and it's a fairly well documented swap. So that's my new plan; find a kl motor and an rx8 box. I started by looking around for an rx8 box. They're hard to find and the ones on trademe are wanting $1250! The whole reason people started putting these boxes into escorts was because they were cheaper than the seirra type 9s! So for now I'm just going to keep a lookout for wrecked rx8s with either the 5 or 6 speed because they both have the same bellhousing bolt pattern so any adapter plate I make or get made will fit both and I can upgrade a 5 speed if I find a 6 later on down the track. Then I started looking into where to get the engine from. Luckily I found this on trademe. It's a Mazda Capella wagon jap import with the 200hp higher compression klze engine in it. The ad said the gearbox was dodgy and would probably needed replacing but I won't need that. Most importantly, he only wanted $900 for it and it was only in Auckland. I figured I'd drive it home babying the gearbox, pull the engine and sell the rest as parts to end up with a fairly cheap motor. That was the plan anyway... We got down there this morning to find that what he meant by dodgy gearbox was actually a completely non-functioning gearbox that wouldn't pull it away from the curb. Poo. That said, the engine sounded fine and the rest of the car looked really good so the new plan is to find out how much it will cost to get it transported home and as long as it's not too bad I'll truck it back up north and set about stripping it for parts. I'm undecided whether to throw the pinto in for the first while so I can still drive it while I build up the v6 and get it organised, or whether I should put the v6 in to begin with so I can do all the fabrication on it at the same time. At the moment I'm leaning toward the second option but I also really want to get in it and drive it as soon as possible so it's a hard choice. Feel free to give me any suggestions or advice on this mad new development here:

Mint truck. I want to see something being crushed with that PTO winch, they're awesomely powerful. Before you Newtech fill the rust holes with the mesh from a fly screen door and/or pop rivet some roof flashing over the holes. That's the approved method as far as I can tell.

Took me a few days to get organised then I went and picked it up on Sunday, was helping my mate move out of his workshop too so it turned into an eleven hour day pretty quick. Was still mega stoked, I didn't really believe it was happening until we were unloading it at my place

Nice project! Looking forward to see what you come up with when its time to turn them to aluminium. Took me probably 50 castings to get my process reliable so expect some setbacks. Well worth it in the end though!

The nkr's seem expensive, and I do not have millions to spend... Plus I like having a decent project on the go, it keeps me sane. The other option I have thought about is a 80 series landy or lwb safari, removing the body and either mounting a cab or building a cab from scratch for it. The advantage is that the running gear is all sorted, you just need to work out the pedals and steering stuff. Plus if you built it from scratch it could have sweet Russian military styling... How hard can it be?

Finally work is about to start on the body again. Greg from R3 Fabrications is going to complete it. Dropping it out next weekend and full steam ahead.

yeah diesel laurel in background, wasn't for sale they were still daily rocking that one lol, and its a MS111, 2.6 auto weapon

Sick. I've been looking a these recently too, pondering whether to get one, fuck me they're still spendy though.

I know that too. Mitsubishi trucks are OK they don't have SOHC 4G63s in them etc. Any truck 6000kg GVM and under can be driven on a class 1 license but will require a COF if it's over 3500kg GVM. Buy a proper truck, lengthen the chassis and make a four link for the axles? Then you'll get the good commercial diffs, hubs, motor and gearbox. You'll get the option of an easy to fit PTO for a tipper or cane etc. My 2c.

And here she is tucked away in until I've got some coin to throw at a motor and whatever else she needs for rego. Needs a good cut and polish, I know a guy who's pretty talented at bringing old paint back so I'll have a chat to him and see what he recommends. Hopefully the paint is savable, I like the thought of owning a 49 year old car with original paint

Before I did that, I removed the underseal used as seam sealer, so I could located the spot welds. Underseal...Dicks. I used petrol, a rag and a 3M paint removal thingy on the drill(on go slow so I didn't spray it everywhere). My choice of solvent was possibly not a fantastic idea cause I had to put all the rags outside and vent the gara...bedroo...kitche...lounge, by opening all the doors for a while, to clear the fumes.

Apparently there is a Tesla being dropped round to our office tuesday for a couple of hours. We are getting to take it for a strop round Clevedon. I will be able to Barry on with some knowledge.

There isn't a minimum amount of clearance, just can't ever touch. Surprising sometimes how much flex/ movement / growth there is under hard use on some vehicles. I did a cortina once that had enough disc- caliper clearance when cold but after a few hard stops the brake disc grew enough to rub the inside of the caliper

Sick Body Roll

This is going to be the single greatest "why the fuck would you do that!? And if you must, why didnt you do it the sensible way using xyz part?" project and im loving it p.s. solidworks had their lawyers send an email telling me to stop using their cracked software and pay them $12,200, so i might join you in learning fusion 360

Picked up my BRM 4 spokes today fully refurbed. Thanks to Nigel & Dan from Manukau Auto & Tyres for the top notch workmanship as always. You want your classic wheels restored these guys are the best.

Haven't done a whole lot besides plan, or try to at least. Im pretty lost as to how I want to do things, but I'm meeting up with the guy who's got my old sedan so I can measure it up and discuss buying next week. I picked up the guards that came with it today, bolted them on for a look, but they're pretty rough. Hoping the sedan ones are usable, I know one was good and one had a big dent but was rust free, but still way better than the ones I've got. I'm also pulling out the diff and planning on chopping the front of the ute chassis off, will put it on casters so I can store it in the side of my carport while I sort out the sedan chassis, replace all the steering bits, bushes etc, and set the motor up in it. Once I decide on a motor. This post is worthless without pics!!! update tomorrow with mockup slam on wheels pics. Only got shitty 18's at the moment, but should give an idea of what I want height wise cheers Matt

Bugger all progress apart from restoring the door handles. More parts to go to the powdercoater and zinc plater man this week.