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Forgot to take pics of the rhs sill going in Lot of work in the finishing bits,getting all lights going setting headlamps on beam setter Getting interior trim in Getting the ride height rite and longchamps on for good Had the boys @JBlades and @OldNathan pushing me along to get her woffed and reged In time to cruise up together to toyota festival Still haven't finished the lower front piece of lhs rear quarter Was a pleasant surprise to get re go $28 for 6 months Did finally finish 1 week before toyota fest so had time to do some ks to iron out any teething problems

sTRANGE bED FELLOWs.our cars couldn't be any more different! finished mounting the fuel line, ended up going under the throttle tube. mounted the coil on the cooler scoop, the extra weight makes the scoop flap about, might need a couple more screws to hold the scoop now fitted up the crusty old heater boxes, so I could button up the tins. valve covers will be painted dark grey at a later date.found these little RUBBER NIPPLES at pineline, that place has everything! these block the vacuum ports on the carbs, very handy for keeping you walrus protected also.test fitted the old bugpack zorst, fuck it's shite!!get in there ya wee bugger!! guess I'd better install the rear engine bay seal.ah yeah....

Managed to find another rhf park light from Australia Also new headlight bracketry and an st grille badge thanks to @sleeektoy Took a fair bit of persuasion to align front bumper and indicator brackets Then reassembled front Looks far better than the stacked up state it was in before

I took 2x garbage phone photos before I pulled them off. As below 2017-08-16 08.27.30 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2017-08-16 08.28.47 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

More fiddly stuff while the car is away, I made up a batch of my re-manufactured / homegrown trim clips for the exterior door trims. Cut out a bunch of small pieces from thin stainless plate Drilled holes for the fasteners Shaped them all up Tapped a thread and installed the fastners 12 should be enough to replace the missing clips assuming I don't break any more re-installing the trims on the car.

Bit the bullet and tried out my sudo "paint booth" and first time painting a car, only practice was spraying my trailer so I was a bit worried it would be a water fall of runs and oranges. This is just the main body and the rear wide body jobbies. I still need to prep and paint the doors, hatch, bumpers, side skirts bonnet, guards etc. But I've got way less time to do this than I thought I had, so I wanted to at least get some paint on the body. It turned out pretty good! It'll need some fine wet sanding and a polish but I'll let it dry for a week or so. I don't know why but I find the door jams particularly satisfying. Weird. So I've confirmed I didn't waste my time and I can paint okay. Next time I'll try a metallic and see how hard I fail haha.

Haha finish for the nite with a cheeky pic of the Mazda in the background Had to get rid of it the other week Too many cars not enough shed Had enough of rust and welding now...... till next time

What about the ribs?

Im imagining Sheepers on his roof

Not much of an update. I've panelled the inside of the van with some cheap ply which came out pretty sweet. I'm hoping to stain it next week. The motors been running like a bag of dicks. I've yet to really go over the essentials but instead have picked up a spare 1300 which I'm hoping will solve everything. Hmmm thoughts on the wheels? Picked these 13x7 Cheviots up last week. Have been thinking about changing wheels lately as I'm getting a bit of rub in the rear when the vans loaded up. I think they might look OK if it sits low enough.

Cheers team. I haven't had it out of the shed again since I got back to Auckland on Sunday night, it's still rocking a film of filth from front to back... Here's a couple of photos from the journey. The only ones I took. Was having way too much fun driving it! 1991 Porsche 944 S2-20 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2-22 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

I missed my old white 944. I really, reeeeaaaally missed that car. The cash from that helped us into our first Auckland home. But I always said I'd get into another once we got comfortable with the mortgage and sorted a few things out, and I squirrelled together a few bucks on the side where I could, helped out by my photojournalism moonlighting. Even though the last car was an 8 valve NA base spec car, I'd always wanted an S2. For those playing at home, the basic differences are a 2.5l SOHC vs 3.0l DOHC, slider calipers vs 4pot Brembos, better suspension and bigger ARB's on the S2 and a bunch of cosmetic differences. I'd been eyeing this particular car up for a few weeks on Trademe. It was priced high and I always thought, "I'll wait until it comes down a bit." I waited. It came down slightly, but not really enough. And there the price stayed. And stayed. And remained. In the end I thought, "bugger it I'll have a crack," so called the number on the listing and named my budget, asking if I was in the ball park. The answer came back affirmative. So from then I enlisted the help of a Porsche-savvy mate, Tony, to scoot down and check the car over for me. At this stage, it's worth mentioning the Carjam report came back fairly positive. The current owner, (in his 70's) had owned the car for 11 years travelling around 250km per year in it over that period. Yeah, 250km. So the car's km sat at a pretty-low-for-a-944 127,000km. Great start. When Tony first queried an inspection, he was denied on the grounds that it was raining, and the car never goes out in the rain. A positive, sort of I guess. The sign of a fastidious owner. Anyway, after an excruciating week followed by a weekend of waiting to have this thing inspected, Tony flicks me a text with "call me now, seen the car" after lunch on a Monday. The assessment was brief but positive. I'd sent through this massive Barry-spec checklist of things that commonly turn to custard on 944's, after the rollercoaster ride I'd experienced trying to sort the wheat from the chaff while buying the white one. Most of it passed muster - a few minor problems, but the car checked out soundly - well, more than soundly - and the summary was, "it's a fuckin' sweet car, you'll be hard pressed to find another one this good." Decision made. So I called up, negotiated a price and a deposit to hold the car for a few weeks while I awaited a quiet weekend to pick up was sent through the ether. Now - the car had some pretty gaudy stripes on it. Orange, with a PORSCHE font in the negative space as a cut vinyl stripe down each flank. Furthermore, it had a bright orange window strip across the top of the screen. This was never going to do, but I was assured it didn't appear to be too old, and the vinyl wasn't of great quality so confidence was high that it'd peel off easily. In fact, I'd already decided that it would be resigned to the bin before I'd breached the Christchurch city limits. So the pick-up weekend rolled around, George (@Esprit) and I boarded a plane and set off bound for the shaky city. The flight itself was pleasant, smooth and some great sights of the setting sun over the Canterbury plains as we descended - but it wasn't without trepidation, as I was about to commit the most money I have ever laid down on a car by some margin. Spending big sums of money isn't something that sits well with me, but hey, this was one of the dream machines so I probably shouldn't let the opportunity slip by. But believe me, I agonised, tried to rationalise my decision beyond "I want it because I have wanted one for years" and even suffered cold feet over the whole deal. Tony picked us up in his Mini Cooper something hatchwagon thing with one rear door that opens backwards and a supercharged whatsit in the front. Either way, it was quite compact and made cool whizzy-doorty noises from the front bit and went hard for what it was. We ended up at the doorstep of John, the then-owner of the 944 and his son Simon, who I dealt with through the Trademe classified. John was one of those super nice older blokes, with the utmost passion for his car. I made some cursory checks in the dim light with the aid of an LED torch, just to make sure I was going to go ahead with the sale as John proudly pointed out the hard-to-find bits that were still intact on the car, as well as detailing his maintenance schedule, and aversion to driving the car in the rain for the last 11 years of ownership. As I said, a guy with a legitimate infatuation for his pride and joy. As an added bonus, a wee zipped-up bag full of 944 specific books and memorabilia came as part of the deal, how cool is that?! Stepping inside to sign the paperwork the discussion turned to motorsport, and Porsches in general. I started to feel a little bad, as John's eyes were definitely tearing up at the prospect of his pride and joy being driven away, but then the excitement of finally being able to own what I deem the best of the 944 bunch finally had us saying our goodbyes, and soon enough we were crawling down the driveway in the dark. Then we had to turn back as I left my sunglasses behind. Because you know, it was dark and I'm a Corey Hart kinda guy. 15 minutes later, we drove into another internet-acquaintances shed (we will call him Terry the Italian car tragic) where a heat gun was supplied and the decals came off with minimal persuasion and zero damage to the underlying paint. Bonus. Dinner was served, yarns were had, beers were downed and before you know it, it was 6am the next morning and we'd crawled out of bed and poured ourselves into the 944's confines for the journey north. The trip was swift, but ultimately uneventful. Stops were limited to food and/or tea and coffee, aside from an overnight stay with @Bullitt in which George and I both managed to empty the fridge of any thirst quenching, fermented grain, hopped, fizzy beverages and I built a gigantor feed of nacho's for all present. More sharns followed and then we departed early in the morning, making a servo rendezvous with another couple of far north friends who were making the same journey back in a just-purchased EF8 Honda CR-X. How rad! Anyway, the rest of the trip was fairly unremarkable. You know. Standard North Island scenery. Farms. Mountain and tussock. More farms. Large body of fresh water. More farms. Even more farms. The odd passing lane. Some more farms and then traffic jams and rain. But hey, what a way to get to know a car, and also find out all of the little foibles that are going to make life an OCD hell for the next short while. For now, here's some shots of the car as we departed Christchurch in the early hours. I'll outlay some plans and discuss the experience, as well as all of the flaws this particular car has that I have already started to rectify. Thanks for reading my massive sharn! 1991 Porsche 944 S2-5 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2-7 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2-13 by Richard Opie, on Flickr TL;DR - bought a poor-man's Porsche and drove it from Christchurch to Auckland.

There are lol to be had for sure

Many of those old cars actually came with remote brake boosters fitted as standard.

chur matt, might bring the red truck out for a strop/drop hayhole and his bobber off after the meet

Stripped the China carb for a nosey earlier, can't find anything bad about it besides the enricher feels a little bit loose when fitting it to the carb, but it still seems to seal fine so it should be mint as. Thought some of you at least might be interested in having a look inside an NZ$20 carby And the $15 torque driver I don't know about any of you, but I'm actually rather impressed with both! Oh and I've still got a few surprises up my sleeve...

Ed if you need assistance with mounting belts in the rear, PM me I can show you how to mount the plates and stuff, it's pretty easy to do and cheap if you do it yourself

You could explain that the M engine was designed by toyota to have a safety release valve when excessive hp is developed, thus protecting the driveshaft from failure.

Very small next to the mk2

Jason managed to turn my "buck" (read: bucket and piece of wood) into a part that will hold the filter and funnel air towards the air box. the filter fits like a glove! Test fitted with some big hose: Gave it a wash and a paint. I didn't want to sand it too much because I hate fibreglass dust and don't have any masks at home, so it can stay rough . The setup has turned out good enough for now. I'll re-visit everything next time the engine comes out.

Jeeez, and I was thinking you were some kind of rust demolishing god for getting from rusty mess to metal in like... a week!

I think Google may have saved me here. I somehow managed to find bill of landing details with a few minutes of creepy googling.

FC joke took longer than the last time! Ha!

Great write up, even greater FC!

We can order ribs for you. you will probably get there before they are ready

Buy this instead, it's smaller and therefore much more practical for your 600m section. http://www.trademe.co.nz/business-farming-industry/farming-forestry/tractors/up-to-50-hp/auction-1344190107.htm @cletus and @smokin' joe should look into it too.

Yes. Although a certifier can approve something outside that in some circumstances.

As I submitted that last post there was a knock at the door, another courier with a parcel from China this time New torque driver with both straight and curved slots and a 19mm variant of the stock carb, which at first look over is hard to tell its a fake, it's that well made!! Way bigger throat and slide than the stock Dio carb that's on there! Aliexpress FTW haha

we gonna rock down to electric avenue...please please work!spent several hours of my life making these air cleaner spacers.now looking not quite as homemade, still need holes for studs on top of the crabs.played mix and match with the fuel inlets on my old single dell, twins now both the same fittings with one side blocked off, so the line will come up though the firewall, to the left carb then over the the right hand side.got the linkage working nice and fitted the sparkplug wires.test fitting the old k&N off the single, new ones will be the taller ones I think.so close!

time for some panelvan particularisation! put the motor back together with the supposedly recon head from aforementioned engine collection, im no expert but looks a lot nicer, can still see toyota logo stamped on valves, rockers move a bit more freely etc, used oem gasket and the arp headbolts and pushrods from head-donor, and lower thermostat-holder thingy from the old head. I laugh now but when I fired it up, immediately a loud & terminal sounding knocking resounded, after extensive jerking about turned out to be the valve cover needed to be .027mm to the left to stop a rocker tapping it! Is now running like a dodgy 70s sewing machine, i.e beautifully. Also put the windscreen in, used the ol string trick which quickly devolved into the "steal missus good crochet-hooks and use them like tyre levers" when my crappy string broke. Used swearwords as lubricant. This led to the revelation that the windscreen wipers are in fact still operational, in all of their glorious 2 speeds (one of those speeds being "off") Have some more bodging in the works so should have another update soon

36+1 trigger setup seems to be working good so far. nice smooth rpm plot. Was attempting to check the tune, but fun ended pretty quick. above is a part throttle run, just to check the new trigger setup works thru the rpm range. more than half throttle and the below happens.. Its had a hard life. originally was in my trueno Have also moved the battery to the rear. in an attempt to move the weight rearwards and lower down. I put those ugly spring covers on. as the roost off the front wheels was pumping the whole spring full of a grass/mud combo

yeah g'day. so i spun a yarn at work saying i needed a wagon and something to move me furniture and go camping with. along came a chap with a friend who had 'this old wagon chilling at his place'. One thing led to another and i was dragging this old Crown wagon out of a tree. It's been sitting for 3 years, hasn't been turned on and is pretty well dormant. I chucked a fresh battery into it and she ticked over first try. Won't idle but i'm open to theories as to what would cause that - seems a bit trial and error at this stage. Will need a few parts here and there, but as it's a Crown, she's packed with lush interior and random knobs and bits all over the place. 'Royalty'. Anyway, here's pics. How it looked after we pushed it out of the tree situation. Weta for scale I need one of these if anyone knows a guy that knows a guy etc cheeky spot of rust that'll need sorting How she's chilling currently. Can't open the front passenger door either, so if anyone has any ideas, gizza yarn my way. Cheers.

I hope you still have the Meisters kicking around from your old one?

All seems good. A successful trip to swapmeat and now Taihape on Sunday. Temp gets to halfway up the Vinegar Hill and big long Mangaweka climb. Thanks for all the advice people.

Sweet find. Let's see the orange decals please

I'm all set. Flights booked (to Christchurch), leave approved etc. Any Chch folks going? @- i5oogt - @427carguy @SamBam @Cullen @Brdflu @76rolla_gurl @RWB etc

Your thinking about it all wrong.... 600m Oh the limitless possibilities.

Ain't that the truth! Thanks heaps for your help. That's reassuring. I'll throw some money and jump through some hoops and see where it goes! Cheers!

There will be ways, there is an alternate documents forms here. This gives you "permission" to register something if you are missing any of the vitals. Basically, you just write your sob story, and someone, somewhere has a read and is all "Yeah/Nah" and gives you a piece of paper allowing the NZTA agent to add it to the system without any further questions. I doub't for something like your bike, that they'd give a shit. You have most of the paperwork. So will probably be sweet. But won't know until you have dumped 184 bux at the form however. There's a checklist in the form of things you need. Have to provide photos, and an offical entry compliance person must physically sight the frame and engine numbers. You have half of it, if the dude can't find bill of lading, then you will need to use the above form, and it will probably be sweet. Its such a fucking grey area, god damn the whole NZ vehicle registration system is so Michael mouse. All depends on the mood of the womble you get on the day. And nobody you speak to has any fucking clue what they're doing, or what the process is. A shame really. Its not rocket appliances.

Hide them

without scaffolding shit. 2017-08-11_10-34-01 by sheepers, on Flickr 2017-08-11_10-34-11 by sheepers, on Flickr

Go a bit more done over the weekend.zapped those door window winder things for 24 hours in the elecro-bath, came up pretty good!this process is just amazing! check it out!got the winder mechs painted and in.went and found all the seats and stuff, this is were it's been hiding for the last near ten years!got the VHT vinyl paint onto the door cards, one can used, will need more for the back seat, it says it works on fabric also, so I might do the fronts to match.I was kind of expecting the seats to be moldy or full of rat shit or cat piss, but they're as clean as when I bagged them up, which saved a job. Darrell helped me out AGAIN cleaned up the ol carpets and bung em in.big ugly rubber mats coz daily driver can still see my ass print! haha.not bad seats, if you squint they almost look like recaros. get in that hole you!door cards ready, spent a bit of time last night getting the window glass to work nicely, so soon.door scrapers, polished sunroof rails and door glass sills.sunroof mech, really in need of a full body off resto as well.all still working well though.cover has seen better days.top of the front bow.back and front together, getting them both drip stripped, hopefully there will be something left?? I imagine these are the most expensive parts on this pile!And!Front bumper and runningboards as well as seats and carpets! god damn it's almost a car!kids had to take it for a spin when they got home.

I'm not interested in them. My motor is worth to much to risk on cheap Chinese radiator.

In that case I would spend the money and get another brand new copper one. I got one when I did the V8 transplant into mine for $400 cash from a radiator guy I know reasonably well. Reason I say that is I'm not a fan of the aluminium ones. Unless you get a good brand then they all seem to be made of shitty grade alloy and welded together with fairly average welding. To answer your question, I'll give you my opinion, Fenix used to be pretty good but they had a shake-up in their business about a year ago (rumour is they were not making enough money or something) and I heard they resorted to bringing in the same shit radiators flooding ebay/trademe and the like then just slapping their name on it and putting them in a Fenix box. I have no first hand experience of this but it is what I've heard on the grapevine.

Once the necessary welds were cleaned, everything underneath from the firewall back was blown out, scrubbed, etched, tarred and painted. As always, all hollows were sprayed with 2pot epoxy stuff and then cavity wax. Have since put it back together and used it again. Come at me wof man. //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/52065-bmxnz11s-81-escort-van/

Last repair to do on the passenger side was the rear section, behind the wheels. The bog here was over 15mm thick in places. Fucken rough. As it goes with chasing rust, this ^^ soon turned into this. The outer and inner skins were rooted where the dirt and shit had been sitting for years. New inner skin was sused. Then the outer was made, including around the back behind the bumper. And before it was hit with the rattle can. Short story, the passenger floor annoyed me so I replace the entire lower half of the van. Tomorrow I'll put it back together and drive it for a week before I replace the drivers rear wheel arch section. When is enough, enough?

I really have no idea why I didnt change these when I noticed them putting the motor in this car Lazy probably, just lazy And replacing my silly near new China fuel pump. With a new new china fuel pump, this time straight from china for $80 less. I do wonder if it was a result of poor priming why the other pump sounded like a grinder. Have borrowed a syringe off a guy I know. going to use that prime fuel pump first. Splendid

..Just in time for the british car show. Hardly touched it since, just been driving it most weekends. I'm Dan and thats my story.

The rear sill was next. No surprises here. A new sill was made in the folder. Weldy weldy. Grindy grindy Because of the slope of the carport I wasn't able to jack the back up and made it a c*** to weld and grind underneath. Oh well, it ended up pretty good anyway. Again all this was primed and had epoxy sprayed in the sill once it was welded shut.