Leaderboard

Last piece was to fit the 3pt seatbelts to rear outer seating postions And she flew through with no issues at all!! three days before Toyota fest, was a massive mish but we made it Still have a stack of things that i want done, climate control panel is toast which i have a replacement for, rear light seals need replacing etc. Have everything there to go but will slowly get through it all and get the car to where i vision it to be.

Oh man I haven't updated this for so long. Six months ~ time fly's and all that guff. Didnt really do anything to the Hudson over the Summer. Messed about on the old 52 Buick a bit as it has been playing up but other than its all been work or play I guess.Anyway thats my lifes catch up hour complete. lets talk old jalopies & do a quick catch up on to where the Hudson currently sits. And then with luck I will pull my finger out so to speak and start updating this more regularly.I should warn you all now this might be a tad pic heavy. Photobomb you all since I plan to follow the old saying "A picture is worth a thousand words". Oh and images are all odd sizes due to camera settings at the time. dratted updates.First off the engine was put back in and tight tuck headers thrown on.Left hand side had clearance issues so we put spacers on the engine mounts raising the engine a fraction to cure the issues. Although we have clearance at the firewall it will get cut more to tidy things up and give a tad more room.Wheels on, engine in and sitting on the ground... better jump in and visualize cruising.Radiator slotted in. Happy that we modded the thing to have twin fillers and a central top outlet. Purely for aesthetic reasons really. Just hope it will work well.Was a bit concerned about the amount of space between the rad and engine at first. but once the custom fan shroud is on and other junk is in there the gap should fill up I hope.With the engine in and headers on next steep seems logical enough - fab up the front exhaust. Was surprised how easy it went. Heap of room on each side so no issues getting to the oil filter or anything else. Still is rock solid.Welded all up ready for a quick paint and fitting. H balance pipe just at the tail of the trans. the two extra out lets poking out the sides are for the lake pipes - I like the idea of them being functional if i want. Looking at the above pic and below you will note they are situated in a low spot. this is not just cus it is just where they should be body wise but also to stop the possibility of any water pooling.Shiny sh!tFirst off i will say IDIDIT sales are top blokes. Why they never just blocked my emails is beyond me. For two years one, two or 4 times a month I would email them asking when there RHD column shift steering column would be ready. Patient bunch always emailed back. After a year or so they made up a column - it failed Aussie testing as it was to strong and didnt collapse enough. Will point out NZ cert laws are also extremely tight around steering columns with only four or so aftermarket brands being aloud. Rightly so as it is a big spear that could impale you. Anyway im waffling. To cut a long story short they have now made up a RHD column shift column- although its still not on the website. Since I had to wait so long they gave me a huge discount.Was a happy boy unboxing all teh steering crap.Initial fit up. Wasn't to thrilled on how the column sat at the dash. column drop was to low(as pictured below) so decided to order in a new one. Slightly cutting up the dash but will be worth it to get it to sit up in the stainless strip more.Whilst we waited for the shorted column drop it was decided to cut up the firewall a bit more as next we would need to figure out the lower floor mount for the column that currently dangled in the air.Three double D universals will be used. Bit tight near the headers but still will be easier than some setups.Below looks closer to the headers than it really is. has near an inch I guess of clearance.Its all nice and tight no slop or wiggle and more importantly no binding.With the front exhaust and steering done its time to move to the gaping hole in the floor and firewall.Top of the firewall all buttoned up. Will get cleaned up down the track but for now at least we have an area to bolt the trans cover to. Heap of room to fiddle about on the distributor etc.Skellington framework being made up for the trans cover. Bit by floor mount will get altered as I dont want it to be incorporated into the trans cover. Who wants the bother of removing the column to get the trans cover out? Will get it all folded up. Note the columns new position up further in the dash. Tilt column so should be ace.Been teaching myself Solidworks. Designed up the fan shroud and got it cut n folded.A couple of Spall high performance fans sit on the the shroud. I figure if they are good enough to cool NASCAR and high end sports cars then they should suck air through the four core copper rad and keep the old donk chilly. The rubber flaps are for highway speeds to let trapped hot air out. Middle rivets hold a divider in place that separates each fan. Thinking here being air follows the path of least resistance. So if only a single fan is running then air would draw through the other fans opening and not through the rad. Being in separate chambers hopefully will stop this happening. So yeah thats me pretty much! All caught up with the Hudson project. With luck will be getting back to it more now its coming into Autumn.One side note is the missus has got her self a new car. Just a small grocery getter / run about. A 1956 Morris Minor split window series II coupe. Seems to be rust free and mechanically sound little car - totally road worthy and legal. Owned by a nursing home from new till the old couple who she purchased it off got it. Garaged and loved all its life.So what do you do when you get a honest survivor in good condition? Cut it up of course!TheMoose on HAMB photoshoped it doing all we asked. chop roof, fade-away fenders, skirts & lower it. Like an old 47 buick just compacted. Once the current warrant of fitness runs out (6 months) the fun begins. Oh and old 30HP factory engine will be going as well.

Finally went and got ol mate @EURON8 to ally weld the holes in the already hacked up side draft manifold so i could space the carbs apart about 4mm from where they were but without fouling on the dizzy or loosing room to seal or flow. some careful 'linishing' later Without any trimming the inner barrells will be 49mm apart, manifold spacing is 40mm, min i can get away with on the carbs is 45mm, max on the manifold is 44mm. its pretty flippin tight and doesnt add up... shaft need trimming by 3 to 4mm and the nuts thinned down a bit as well - i ended up spinning about 3 out of the vice, so i need some more M7 nuts to fit back on the venturi retainers i stole my spares from! no need for retaining washers :/ You can also see how offset the carbs are to the manifold Redrilled and tapped - had to open a old NOS packet to get a 5/16 NSP tap out that had been floating around in my grandads too box for who knows how long before that Fitting the o ring holders show where the manifold needs a smidge of smoothing, about 15 seconds with the belt file. The outer edge of the o-ring diameter is just inside the edge of the manifold face. linkage mod, toyota corolla cable from the old single carb set up to twin weber linkage, all this is sandwiched between the carbs boom AS mentioned in a previous post, these carbs came from a very hot mini, and apart from the drilled and soldered main jets, they all looked very close to what various books and setting tables suggest would be ok for 1500-1700cc engines. 32mm chokes, F9 tubes, 45 idles, 185 airs and random sized but soldered and redrilled mains I had previously ordered 125,and 135 mains so popped in the 125 to start with. old manifold off. Removed the (pretty new) old leaky mechanical fuel pump for good, and installed a factory engine blanking plate. Dumb photo cause it shows the old pump. installed and with new linkage mount and brake vacuum routing, both way better than before. Fuel hose routing will eventually be jiggled to look better (i had orignially wanted to have fule coming in from the firewalll side, but the double ended banjo is a bit long to have the hose make the remaining curve without a kink or rubbing. May try bending it a bit, or maybe just buy a bent one. Clearance is ok, but I cant install the bell mouth into cylinder 3, nor will the air filters i have fit - i will look into making an airbox - i have a Strada 125TC airbox with 'ABARTH' and a scorpion stamped on it that i really really want to make work some how but whatever, lets worry about that after! plugged the fuel in, then spend an age jiggled the timing around and carefully power filing the manifold, then trying to find the best combo of a limited ability to clock the dizzy (it fits in only two more or less fixed positions, maybe 5 degrees rotation?) and dizzy drive tooth alignment , and then it fired up and idled. and revved. Sounds good, and AFRs are ball park YAY! DOORTS!

Since 'finishing' it in Janurary, Ive put close to 1000 trouble free km on it. Theres a few things I need to sort (raise foot pegs and replace the brake pedal as its rubbed through from dragging while cornering) but overall Im pretty happy with it. Its turned out pretty much the way I envisioned it. However, I have a couple of plans for changes to be made. Id like to sort the carb issues with its original motor and get that back in, A few asthetic refinements and as I get more confident with welding maybe some wilder bars... But theres a couple of other projects under way in the shed so stay tuned

Ye gods, the parts diagrams for that stuff..... all pretty easy given that I have used your rego to get the exact illustrations, but man, they're messy. practically impossible when someone's like "I've got an 06 Caravan, and I need the left hand rear most heater pipe that connects to the hose that's got a bit of an angle on it, and that one connects to another pipe that has a couple of bends, but it's on the drivers side, but the left pie......." BTW if you need any genuine part numbers, just let me know.

wow - i dont believe it...... Top work, now push it back in the shed for another 3 years, just to be safe

Rinse, repeat. Photo album (and a couple of vids). https://photos.app.goo.gl/LH9moaASkxJuNtV8A

Links shouldn't be dead? I'll check now. edit - nope it's there https://lvvta.org.nz/documents/infosheets/LVVTA_Info_01-2009_V3_Tyre_Size_to_Wheel_Size_Compatibility_Guide.pdf Will hopefully be updating that again sometime soon. (I have the wheels and tyres standard on my desk for updating)

fyi it might be changing/have your say/buy some teddies etc @Bling

Engine crane.

I'll measure your gap

I had been using a different link previously, this one, which is linked on page 2: https://www.lvvta.org.nz/documents/infosheets/LVVTA_Info_01-2009_V2_Tyre_Size_to_Wheel_Size_Compatibility_Guide.pdf I guess the document has been updated since then though. Also found it linked of this wheel site: http://ssawheel.co.nz/technical_id_69.html so I guess people need to update their links. I'm lazy so just used google and came up with the dead links. Will go via the site next time. When visiting the old link (above) the "home page" link doesn't work, so that's why I thought it was gone.

So after getting rolled by the 5.0 on the Chaly, that got its innards stripped to finish another bike. @Raizer found this in a garden in Gisborne, and pulled it from its slumber. It had been sitting under a tarp in the long grass for a while developing a killer patina while actually staying fairly complete with all OG parts, I collected it off him and dragged it home in a 12+ hour round trip from Auckland. The 'GardenCub' Its pretty sweet, fairly ratty and suprisingly solid. The externally rusty wheels were found to be immaculate internally after removing the super cracked tyres. It even had the original, matching patina legsheild. The engine was seized, the carb had an ant nest inside it and the seat base disappeared aftter the strands of foam holding the corroded base together cried enough in the trailer and scattered rust flakes all through the gorge. Id been wanting a Cub since, well, probably seeing QCR on the news / in NZPC and pined over the Peaks Mopeds type style of OG paint, maximum slam and chopped up standard bars. This had been in the corner of the shed, and over time I progressively stripped it down, washed all the gunk out of its crevices, renewed wheel bearings, freed up seized pivots on the brakes, ordered replacement cables, brake shoes, pestered @MopedNZ to find me the style tyres I wanted (He had to get his work to open an account with a supplier just for me <3), put feelers out for a few parts my bike was missing -taillight etc ( hoarded all the old stock parts people were removing to customize there cubs} all while trying to preserve as much of the patina on any externally visible surfaces as possible. I stripped and rebuilt the original engine with a new top end, all gaskets/seals, reconditioned cylinder head and got it running but had a terrible time with the carb so it sat in the corner of the shed while I was caught up with a few other things, Then the chaly got decommissioned so the motor got pulled and Chaly motor swapped into this along with a trailtech, and rewired from scratch. In my pile of other peoples discarded parts I had a spare stock ehaust, so the front of that got chopped off, muffler hollowed and a new header made from misc larger diameter stainless bends to suit the new engine. Handle bars were a spare I acquired to use as a trial for my first attempt at fab work / welding before I committed to butchering the original bars. They've been narrowed about 100mm over stock to get rid of the indicators, aswell as being pulled back and down to match the angles of the legsheild. I also remade the bar cover to follow the lines of the bars while still trying to keep them fairly factory looking in the way they tuck into the switches. I reused the original grips, slide throttle asm, speedo and switch assemblies. They're not as narrow as Id like them to be, but they're the same width as the rear rack, and have super comfortable angles. Fairly happy with them as a first attempt considering at the time I wasnt quite confident enough to go butchering and re making the handlebar mounting points. Bag and spine rack were an ebay special -rate these for chucking drinks/junk in, Legsheilds a repro thats been aged to match the bike as I couldnt bring myself to cut the OG one to fit the carb off the chaly motor, Deluxe fork cover and legsheild clamp are OG stuff pulled from my pile of parts Ive added to add to the OEM+ spec asthetic I was going for. @MopedNZ was kind enough to bring me back a set of Draft Kustom Shop Lowdown links from his previous trip to Thailand in 2018. These are sweet and give a 30mm drop over stock, but that wasn't enough for the look I was wanting so when installing them, along with fresh bushes, They also got the QCR mod done to prevent lift under braking and a couple of other custom touches to chop closer to 60mm out of the ride height to get the guard destroying ride height I was after. resulting in the front guard and fork cover being clearanced nicely by the radial tread pattern of the tyre. PERFECT. The rear got bought down to match via shortening of the factory springs/shocks. Still retains a very little bit of suspension travel which is nice.

Thought I would try a new look 17x8 d windows looks good to me just need white lettering on the tires

Electrical issue turned out to be worn brushes in the distributor, after a solid tour of Chch looking for a replacement brush housing I ended up finding a young fella at Repco who took one look and said, you need bush set xxx, see, they can be soldered in right there. Not often you find someone at a parts store that has the right knowledge, he set me off to another branch with stock and the repair was made in 5 minutes for less than $10 Valvetrain tick investigating time...... Once again, couldn't find much, but one lashpad and rocker had a burr which I took off, unsure if it really changed much. After some more driving and a worsening sound I rechecked the gasket, turns out the new gaskets don't have reinforcement around the exhaust ports, didn't last long! Put the old one back in with a helping of sealant, so far so good. Whats really odd is the tick is most noticeable in the cabin, with the bonnet up it is there, but is drowned out by general engine noise and you'd struggle to pick it up. I'm starting to lean further towards i'm just being paranoid. The only thing I am yet to do (and probably should have done first) is check clearances when hot, that might offer a different view. Went for a hoon down Central Otago way Was a bloody good drive, midweek and late afternoon meant little to no traffic through all the fun bits, until overheating at lake Pukaki on sunset, I topped up with water and limped into Wanaka, unsure to the exact cause as it drank quite a bit of water, wasn't down on power or using fuel and the oil was all good. Turns out I had blown a heater hose and thankfully the old L series is a tough beast, a quick visit to tractor services for some tube to bypass the split hose and she was all go again. However I no longer had a heater. Calling around the usual suppliers and Nissan didn't provide any replacements, the hoses are all listed NLA so to the parts shelf I went Generic Gates hose 01-0005 covers the heater feed behind the block and a Holden commodore hose Gates 02-0912 was just enough for the return line. While in the mood, next on the list was to get the 3.5 R180 diff into place. Standard R160 top, R180 bottom. Quick check up, close enough. Out with the old In with the new. Needed a pair of sump plugs which were happily provided by pick a part and their solid collection of R180 equiped Subaru wagons. This should bring the 100k rev limit down around 3200rpm, it may be at the cost of of the line go, but the car is more of a cruiser than racer now, its worth a go. During the process I cut my hand on the wheel, not sure if its from being old or due to damage, but a new set of tyres is now on the list. Bloody happy to have found it here and not on the Lindis! Have also sorted CAD files for the badges, currently waiting on some tiny carbide end mills to feed the machine, this is so I can keep the actual badges on the shelf and not be paranoid of them falling off. Numb nuts put them in the scanner opposite which is why one is upside down!

Just tidying up all the loose ends. Added aditional brackets to the new rear soft brake hoses so that they don’t touch the diff. Venting the gas tank. Wrapping wiring. Bonnet on My rear brake diff hard line might need another flaring as I have a slight leak at one junction.

Exhaust is done for the time being. Sure we will take it off to weld up and paint in the coming weeks but this is as far as we will go on it until it is sitting back on ground. Added in the two mid/front sections of pipe. Had to off-set one slightly to get better clearances etc as it comes forward to the trans. the H will be in the next section. As for the back. Well cut the holes for where the exhaust will pass through the frame but really need the car on the ground with the bumper on to get this bit sorted. Will tidy this up next week I guess. As you can see in the below pic everything is tucked up nicely. Those mufflers are 5 inch thick. Yip the big fat mothers are sitting flush with everything else and not dangling low whilst they have about half inch clearance from muffler to heat and sound treated floor. Also started the park brake. Using a Lokar kit. The Wilwood disks at the back have a drum assembly as well for the park brake and everything just clipped together easy. Routed the cables through the frame. Used a bit of airhose to insulate/protect the cables even though they are in a heavy duty housing. Thats what the blue pipes are on the top pic. Yeah not the best looking I know but really who cares. They will get painted up and after driving will be coated in road gunk in no time. Made up a mounting plate with a access hole to get to the bolt under it. Idea is the front handbrake cable(using the stock Hudson one) will run along the inside of the outer frame to a lever we will make up next week that will attach to these brake cables. Lever so we can apply more force and thus lock those brakes up more effectively. You might of spotted the brake booster is in place. Was all very good chatting about levers etc for the handbrake but with real-estate under the car being restrictive we had to make sure both the brake booster and park break lever would fit in the same area together. As you can see – plenty of room for the rest of the park break system/lever. The placement of the brake booster worked out ace. way better than I hoped for to tell the truth. All I had thought was along the lines of ” I want it out of sight maybe hidden away under the floor like the original Hudson system.” Well how Flockie designed up the front sub frame works so well with the setup. Will bolt right up to the frame as you can see and it aligns right up with the hole in the firewall for the brake pedal assembly. Only issue was we had to cut a bleeping hole in the floor. Sigh. But what can you do? It hardly pokes through and with luck once its carpeted up with wont be noticeable. Guess I will give a run down on what im using. Hydrotech hydro boost unit. Supposed to be the bee’s knees with more stopping power than a vacuum booster. Runs off the PS pump not the engines vacuum so may free up a few HP. Has an accumulator that gives three or so full pressure presses of the pedal should a failure happen to the PS pump or something. Then the system would work like manual brakes. Then a dual master cylinder. Bore of 1.125 in./1.578 in. Have a remote cap & reservoir to throw on it so I dont need to worry about access holes in the floor and lifting carpet etc to check the brake fluid etc. More on all this latter down the track I guess. Will reposition the proportioning value under the MC instead of pointing down. Will also change out some of the hydraulic fittings to banjo’s /90’s. But yeah happy how it all mounts up & aligns up. Was thinking we might have to make big brackets to hold it in etc but how it lines up and mounts up with the frame is ace.

I'll messure the gap when I get home tonight for you guys.

Sold the old van, woooo! New one was a relatively cheap upgrade, but will take me longer to pay off based on fuel cost savings. I like driving it a lot better anyways. TInted the windows, and made a window blank/insulation panels for the rear side windows beside the mattress. 5 layers including the last of the foil backed stuff on the sheet side. Got a few dog hairs in the glue >:| Fiat shelf and and new tints in the background looking cosy baby one for the shag, pile, port, hole thread Tested in the most gruelling environments as proven by the following two photos: the background of this family facebook photo from my Aunties 60th and this picture of a road sign and another silver van project TO DOs - new mattress, oh god my back - cheap water pump is shitty, need a self priming one - ventilation - this van is way warmer but also stuffier than the old one with the fancy interior, roof liner and side panels - want to find a slider window for the window behind the drivers side ideally - wheel alignment + get them to wind up the front torsion bar about 10-15mm (more on drivers side) as the tyres rub on big bumps and has quite a soft spring rate (i did this on the old van and it handled much better) - boost gauge

Will be vented out the bonnet when I get the rest of the ducting done

old fuel tank. new hotness tank

@Testament runs R888's on his Fiat 124 and has done quite a few Ks on them. They'll blow away any road tyre in performance and will be fine for a weekend car. They can be a bit noisey, but otherwise are great.

Bay...Bee.....Saab do-do-di-do-di-do.... Not much of an update, but thanks to the dynamic duo (aka @Carsnz123 and @JustHarry) Agnetha is now back safely tucked up at home. She is now up on stands at the front end and, with Haynes in hand, I have started disassembling the front suspension. Or at least I was until I ran out of tools and talent (will be on the scrounge for a breaker bar this week...and possibly some spanners). Oh, and the bonnet and front grill are now elsewhere to facilitate access to the donkey. If any one is interested, I have for sale some of the bits I no longer have a need for: Theres a suspicious amount of road gravel in this car....

They've been on for about three years and I think I've done about 10 on it.

The car is also running the full return fuel pickup now too Zinc plating was only $5

Soooooo. About 3 weeks ago. This happened.

Meanwhile i also bought a dish, some nylon plumbing fittings, vinyl hose and an electric tap + pump. With all that and a pile of left over materials, and a basic idea of form i came up with this A small storage shelf, and everything mocked up. I couldnt find any stainless bowls in my (very low) price range that looked likley so ended up with this bluey enamel baking tray. What a flipping mission to drill through the enamel for a plughole with a holesaw - blunted two of my cheap shitty set - ended up wazzing it with the jigsaw, and ended up dropping it and chipping the edge. I was looking out for some cheap (retro) formica for the bench top on trademe, but In keeping with the low budget build, i remembered i had this left ally sheet over from the big 'sign of the times' trailer, with a bonus factory smooth edge and fold. All pooped up and screwed on. Needs a going over with a scotch pad on a grinder to polish it up a bit but pretty happy with how it tuned out. And in, plus the inverter (laptop charger) 20l Water tank and pump ready to be plumbed up (need 2m of 10mm ID vinyl hose) , plug waste exits via the old ash tray hole. With the coolant lines and ducting it was a hell of a fishing exercise to get the 20mmID pipe out of teh factory hole on the inside of the sill. Its just hanging there like all the old vans as we only use the sink for teeth brushing, hand wash and the mrs to do her contacts, but there is a lot of room under the floor for a waste tank to be installed, or pop a bucket under if required. And added a bit of an electrical board to better keep track of my addons, should make it easy to install solar in the future too. This battery is a bit dead too (pretty new looking base model Bosch, but wont hold a charge above 12.5v ) , so when the old van sells ill splash out on a fancy new one Still no boost gauge installed.

More boring but important stuff.. cleaned/painted and "rebuilt" the rear calipers 2nd Caliper was also full of that cancer stuff handbrake lever works properly now pushing the piston out further than before Gave the hubs the same treatment and put in new bearings. Trying to just have everything ready to just bolt in and go, hopefully after work my mrs kp sunroof turns up and will go out and try bolt the hubs etc on till the front brake lines are made. Big mission to get it ready for Toyota fest but will try!

I had a 2 litre auto one for work for a while. that was a hungus turd Replaced it with a BA wagon and everyone was all HOMG FALCON GUZZLER USE ALL THE FUELS Falcon used less fuel due to not WOT all day just to get anywhere. Also weirdly the van used to send me to sleep quite often. Have not ever had it happen since. TLDR GLWS

Something from a van with a van box sounds like a good idea. 4y A15 12a Drill port.

I have a 225 chrysler slant 6 hoarded away , have had ideas of putting it in an old style commercial vehicle. Might be too wide unless stood upright though. 245/265 hemi 6 Ford pre crossflow 6- 170/200/250

Previous owner provided me with a few snaps taken of the van after it had been blasted. Apologies for the grainy quality. The body was amazingly solid for an old British van. Zero rust holes and just a patch of bog in the back door from a previous repair. The bog was removed and the door was beaten back into shape.

I made an object with no real purpose: It uses old plumbing from my house renovation, a leftover sink plug, a bit of decking timber, leftover varnish that Barry really should have thrown out etc. I somehow managed to fit the mechanism from a dimmer inside that bowl part and connect it to the red valve knob, but the connection is flimsy due to my first attempt failing. The first kid to use it will break it. I'm giving this creation to my brother as a gift, to take up space in his house and make his wife complain. I have learnt a bit from making it, which will allow me to do a better job when I make myself something similar. =)

Smashed some seats up for it today. Brings the grand total to $0.00

I wanted to get my nephew a toy garage for his birthday as he was starting to play with toy cars. I used to have one as a kid and thought it was the bees knees. Had a look around but everything was plastic. So I decided to make one myself. CAD Strengthened everything so if the little guy wants to jump on it then he can. Final product. I painted on some toilets and an exit sign on the side. It also has another garage door on the back, like the front, for easy exit.

And then this happened. Engine started rattling at idle while I was working on tune. Found some metal on top of the piston. Pulled the head and found it had dropped a hardened valve seat. Damage was very minimal due to it happening at idle. The engine had always been a heavy breather since I bought it so decided to freshen it all up. Bore was worn and was already at .60thou so I had it sonic tested and got it taken out to .90 thou. Crank was ok so fitted new bearings. Reused the Kent 234 camshaft as that was all ok. Fitted a NOS dual row timing chain. Had my worked cylinder head overhauled with new guides and hardened seats. Plus he opened up the ports a bit more. Currently almost all back together and ready to put in. Engine came back at 1690cc and 10:7 to 1 compression. Should go much better.

Our South Island trip was 100% AWESOME, as is the South Island generally, which is great because our mission was partly holiday, partly visiting family and friends, and part reconnaissance for a future move to Dunedin. Definitely keen, wont be happening tomorrow but the brain cogs are certainly churning on it. The map below is from the googs, but it only allows 10 destinations per 'trip', and so doesnt show all our diversions, side trips and backtracking. By my reckoning (odo before and after) we drove closer to 4500km, which at 13-14l/100km wasnt exactly cheap motoring, but the cheap accommodation more than made up the difference!. Some pics from the trip that feature van 1st stop, 1.5hours from home, Raglan Stop 2, Raetahi, was a good test! Our coldest night was -6^C in St Arnaud But worth it! Somewhere down south. We paid, promise! Tekapo Orari Gorge Kidd Bush Reserve, Lake Hawea. Lucky we only have a small camper van Kaikoura This was a bonus extra nightin the South thanks to the ferry cancelled due to the weather. Whatamango near picton which is a bird santuary, saw lots of odd birds, heard a couple more too, Was only pissed cause I drove away from great waves at Mangamanu to make the cancelled sailing, and got the text once we got to Blenheim. And picked up a 'small pop top camper' at the port in Wellington to tow north for @Otodat, van handled it fine, just chugged even more gas (got up to 18l/100km!) Anyways, van was a champ, no dramas at all, except for the (factory) interior lights not working now. Would have been a pain if there wasnt extra lighting already, but there was, so meh i do have some plans for a few tweaks to the interior, but its making whats pretty good already even better.

in prep for the south island trip i pulled finger and attached all this junk to the roof doggo approves subject to test drive mrs reckons "its ok, i guess" fuck yeah, its ok

Specs! As i said earlier its an se spec ae85 body Full black interior and all genuine Trueno floor mats Started its life with the old 3au and an auto slush box behind it. Then someone in japan wanted 86ness but loved the body so someones gone all out and swapped out the entire driveline right down to the accelerator pedal and looms. Everything... im amazed and happy Theres a couple of teltale signs where they have added in fuel line brackets and rear sway bar mount holes but besides that and the lack of oil pressure gauge youd never tell. There are zero oil leaks...couldnt believe it, i checked the oil..golden, checked the air filter...brand new oiled k&n, checked the radiator fluid...solid toyota genuine like red. Kms say 130,000 would like to say the engines done that many kms by how mint it runs but never really sure. Wiper cowling panels been replaced with a carbon fibre item which is sweet! T series open diff, that i checked in a certain manner.. lol T50 gearbox Ae86 front brakes Stock suspension Only real mod was the watanabes, nardi and catback exhaust which is too big for my liking

Finally on the ground. image below for an idea on air up height. And air out. Note it will have side pipes that will make it a tad lower still. A+B=Fun.

Not much of an update really as I have been working over the last weekends. Have decided not to run the spacers and will get the rims either altered if possible or two new rims made up. Some people on some sites I post say just grind the calipers but dont really want to go attacking the expensive 6 pot behemoths. Also think I would need more than the two or three mill most people say should be fine. No idea how they look inside so dont want to go putting holes in them. new shocks arrived and fit up nice. Air our low height is the same but max air up is wayyy higher. like above stock standard hudson. oh tires are all bolted up at the back as well as you can see. other than that fiddled around with the brakes a bit. Need to take all the brake line off to flare it but did a few smaller bits. Did nice little piggie tail loops from the MC to prop valve. Word is they help with line flex & vibrations. We did a straight line then a piggietail. I wasnt sure what I liked more. the clean look of the straight line or the more fancy loops. went for the loops in the end as you can see. Didnt take long just hand bent around a socket, pulled apart all even then flared. What do you guys think about looped lines?

Time for an update as more nutting out, shelling out, figuring out and cutting out has been happening. Starting off with the driveshaft. I wanted a two piece. Front will be locked static from trans to center bearing. then I wanted a slider second section due to airbags changing the length by over an inch of the second section. Had looked at a heap off options and discarded them all. Jag, Holden, Land Rover, HiAce, 4WD and list goes on. Sure I could get a dirty old thing & get it cut up and balanced. Recondition it. but in the end it was decided that everything else is new under the car & I like the piece of mind knowing a custom made one to my engine and requirements should last with any abuse thrown at it. Besides the car will be to low to want to go feking about with driveshafts ever again. Aint cheap to get all new components and shaft made up but its made for a nailheads low rev high torque and not a high rev/hp BBC/Ford. Now this was not some over night decision. Spent weeks solidly thinking about options and going to wreckers & talking to those in the know around the country. Heck the drive shaft had been sitting in my mind from the start & Flockie had been thinking it over from the time he got his hands on it. You will note in some old pics various driveshafts laying about. learnt a heap and Fraser the chap who made it up at Circle Track Engineering in Christchurch NZ was a top bloke to deal with. Showing us abut the shop & explaining everything. Next step was to get the darn thing in the car. Original plan was to bolt up the center bearing in the Hudsons cross brace where the old shaft ran. Whats that saying about best laid plans of mice and men… Basically the bearing was a lil to tall to get in the hole with no cutting and of course a tad to wide to also allow the exhaust. No biggie when you come armed with a cut off wheel right. Tunnel Mark1. Keep the Hudson one piece design and C- notch the top for the exhaust. As you can see. Not the best looking solution (yes I know who will ever see under there anyway right). Also not that strong really even though it was done in 6mm plate. So scrapped that idea. Tunnel Mark2. Goal: make it stronger whilst tucking everything up more & allowing more room for the exhaust. Cut out the whole first idea. Measured & welded up some box section that is way stronger than what originally was in place. Drilled and tapped the center to mount the bearing straight up to the body thus getting it up further. As you can see much more room and a much tidier looking structure. Trim off the ends and added top plats to mount a 6mm plate that will add further strength to the overall area whilst adding an area to mount the exhaust from. With the driveshaft mounted it was time to start thinking exhaust. Will carry that on in the following post. Pretty stoked how its all fitted up and Flockie did a great job fabricating it all up. Stronger and more room than stock Hudson.

I have been a busy boy these passed few weeks. Been trying to get her ready for the Toyota Festival in Cromwell. The plan originally was to use this engine and strap a nice big air compressor on it for some psh psh noises but the turbo won't be here in time so I have had to rip the engine out of the KE25, order some headers and some nice trumpets and drop that motor in instead.... in to the engineers this week, wire and tune next week. lets hope all goes well! Least I can retain my current cert with this setup so that's a positive F series diff with mounts to suit AE86, open diff however I will get an Altezza LSD down the line Finally rolling again. put my super deep dish rims on and gave her a wash. hasn't seen the sun for 6 months so well in need of a clean!! I bought some Vertex Bumpers (front, back) so thought I should probably do something with them. The front one went on with some chopping of the fiberglass and persuasive pushing it around Looks quite nice, but I thought. Na shit no, can't drive this thing around. Need to paint them asap On went the high fill primer and the lacquer paint (1:1 ratio with thinners, factory paint code colour) Mask and paint black Paint went on a bit thick than what I had hoped but I sort of like it because it makes the bumper still look 'plastic' in a way. I will still buff them, they'll should still come out quite nice Whilst the bumper was off I thought I should upgrade the fuel pump to a 255LPH walbro Hmmmmmmm, looks like japman in japan-land has already done something with the pump. Since it has no markings on it to say what it was I replaced it with my Walbro just to be safe Old -> New -> Bumper went on I didn't get photos of painting the front bumper but here it is looking much better Ripped the old motor out, ripped the new motor out of the KE25 and here she is Very happy with the look of the car. I need to make a bracket up to pull the pumper in a bit by the guards but that is a 5 minute job All I can say is.. please by nice to me engine and give me great things Discussion https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49929-pbaines-1985-ae86-corolla-levin/

Did a round headlight conversion. I forgot to take a pic when it had square eyes. A mate scored me a grille for $40 at a swap meet which I had plastic welded to repair 2 small cracks and then painted in Satin Black. Same mate who is also a auto sparkie got me some new 7 inch semi sealed round lights. He also relocated the battery to the boot and tided up the dash wiring for me. Got some light retainers from Palmside and modified the square buckets to take these. At the same time I removed the chrome and plastic bumpers and fitted up some front 1/4 bumpers and a fiberglass rear that got the satin black treatment also. I eventually plan to remove all the chrome work and do it in black.

Got a replica Rally wheel from Palmside for my birthday.

Well, been a while. Much has happened with no photos taken. Man i'm awesome. -Have Willwoods in the front, man what a difference! -Have an alloy radiator in the front -Have a new windscreen as the one in it decided to shatter to pieces on the way home from Toyotafest at Hampton downs. 6 hour drive with A/C on full blast, myself and my girlfriend wore helmets the whole time with bugs exploding on our helmets. Cheers to the OS boys who stopped on the way back! I've got some photos somewhere that I will add sometime. These photos are courtesy of.. ahh..... 0MEGAH|HAGEM0 ? just did some cropping and visual edits for aesthetics. Toyotafest 2017 @ Hampton downs. Super happy with the car, once the narrow tyres warmed up it was a weapon on the track! Got it sideways a few times with a grin ear to ear. More track days are required. Due to come -Vertex body kit which will have to be painted

Playing with apps on the phone

Progress is far slower than it should be, but hopefully a lot more happening on it soon.

I have just gotten the car back from the panel beaters, and the team at Friend & Wistrand (Palmerston North) have done a fantastic job overall. Colour matching wasn't necessary as the car uses the original colours. You wouldn't know where the areas that they touched up so very pleased with the results. Not the greatest of photos, but here are the photos that Steven (Person in charge of my car) sent through to me, feel free to have a look I decided it would be nice to take a photo of the ol' girl on top of a hill in one of my parents paddocks, now i've lost the panda in the foliage.