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Been having tons of adventures in the wagon. Won a few more awards. Best 8 Cylinder at 4 and rotary jamboree And my favourite, the "What the ?" award from the Automania festival. Pretty much sums up the wagon You put a V8 in what??? So, back to my adventures and what not. I decided on the spark plug cover look I liked the most so I went with just the plain black covers. It worked quite well because I had heaps more people asking what the engine is, so I guess it fools them just enough without the V8 FOUR CAM 32 badge on it Before my trips I figured I would find a new brake pedal pad, I found it a hoot that it is a dodge truck part! Looking sweet, I will have to get another for the clutch at some stage, they are both the same pad So with the engine sorted and the brake pedal sussed I went for a cruise down to feilding for the 4 and rotary jamboree. I stayed at a sweet little B&B just outside of town. Got to Manfeild on Saturday for the track day, super excited because it is the only track in NZ that I haven't done a track day on, so I can tick every track in NZ off my bucket list now. Got out on track then on the first lap disaster stuck!!! The track had been used for field days the weekend before so it was super dirty, and the car in front of my chucked up a rock, smashing my windscreen!!! I drove the rest of the lap with my hazards on and my head out the window. When I got back to the pits I gave my friend Jared (A.K.A @JoKer) a ring and got him to bring me a spare windscreen over from Dannevirke. While he was making his way over I drove down to the local glass place and got them to swap the windscreen over. I got some funny looks cruising down the main road of feilding with a busted windscreen in a V8 Avenger, it was only about 1km from the track so I just drove with my head out the windows. Made it back to the track with the new windscreen just in time for the afternoon session. As a thank you, I took Jared for a cruise around the track. It was quite a blast My favourite picture of the wagon out on the track Out on the track I had a bit of a lean backfire off throttle so I pulled the car off the track early and set it up in the show and shine, After the show and shine I found the problem was the idle adjustment screws on the back right pair of throttle bodies had vibrated up so those throttle bodies weren't closing fully, fixed it in the car park. On the way back home I stopped in at Horopito, AKA Smash Palace to get me some wagon parts. They have a few Avengers there, 2 wagons and 4 or 5 saloons. Got me a good haul of parts, got some rear bumper brackets to replace the ones I had to borrow from the 75 Avenger when I swapped to the NOS Hillman bumper on the wagon. Got me a tow bar because there is nothing cooler than a V8 Avenger wagon towing stuff, am I right?? And also a pedal box for a friend, and a new door card. Got back home and gave the bumper brackets a good sand blast Then painted them with black zinc paint The next weekend I went off to @Ned house warming down in Taupo, So I figured I would camp out in the wagon on his front lawn. I am really digging the wagon for camping. The bed mode is really comfy, so I think I might do that more often rather than staying at hotels. On the way back up I meet up with the Hillman Humber club and we did a run out to a truck museum. Pretty good turn out. We had 3 Avengers there!! Then the weekend after that I had the Automania festival!! I entered my wagon in the indoor show. I figured I should actually get a photo with the bonnet down as 99% of the time it will have it's bonnet up, because V8! I went with a nice little in car display of some of my old Avenger sales brochures. I especially like the one on the back of the drivers seat because it has all the original prices hand written and a dealers stamp on the front, it must have been kept all these years by someone who was thinking of buying one, it's either 1979 or 1980 so it's from the exact era of my wagon, and even has the van pricing on it, and that you only needed 30% deposit, rather than the 60% deposit you needed for a normal car or wagon. I also entered my 1975 Avenger in the outdoor show. It was raining all day so my poor little Avenger Panther felt very unloved while it's younger brother sat warm and dry inside (Can you tell I have a favourite child at the moment?)

So things didn't exactly go to plan with Cert. Long story short, the rules have changed around suspension. To pass with the Cressida struts and custom knuckles the car would have to pass a bump steer swing check. After failing twice I made the call to switch back to Ae86 front struts and OEM knuckles. Pulled the trigger on some Wilwood front brakes too. So finally after a couple of months of fluffing about the car is finally legal! It looks like iforce hosting has died so I'll go back and update all my photos at some stage. Anyway time to go smash some doorts to celebrate.

Get out.

Looks like i-force has pooped itself and all my images are gone. Bummer. Anyway, drove out of the garage for the first time in who knows how long to give it a bit of a rinse and rearrange the garage. Got a real ratrod vibe going on here. Out and about 1 by Thomas Addison, on Flickr Out and about 2 by Thomas Addison, on Flickr Pretty much done with stripping now, just finishing up the underside of the bonnet. This is the first thing I will paint, get some practice in with the paint gun on a big area that doesn't matter much. I've also been buying things. Found a single NOS fender mirror. These are usually astronomically priced for a pair, on the rare occasion they turn up at all. This one was surprisingly cheap and is super mint. There's one slight scuff on the side which I think will probably polish off completely. Nice. NOS mirror by Thomas Addison, on Flickr Got a cool gear knob to match my kitty cat headlights. Gear stick by Thomas Addison, on Flickr And lastly some 70s galant hubcaps. Really tidy and shiney. One has some curb scuffage, but no big deal. They came up on TM pretty cheap and I thought they make for another nice nanna spec wheel option. My current thinking is to have these, widen some steel wheels with the little centre caps and trim rings I have now and get a set of 14 inch japanese, period appropriate mags, as wide as poss without flaring the guards hubcaps by Thomas Addison, on Flickr

Certs booked - 6th of May. Are you meant to feel this nervous? it should be fine, its not a massive list of mods and its not making huge power. anxious and excited at the same time, this has been a long time coming. nearly 10 years of ownership, i initially bought this car as something to learn on.

Yep that's one of the options in the engine and drive train standard Usually required for an engine swap that is heavier than original, ie a 302 into a capri- upgrade the wheel studs to 1/2 and that matches , for example, a fox body mustang- they were 4 stud, 1/2 studs and factory fitted with a 302

At my old work we made a pair of chrome molly barrels for a pair of those reproduction cases out of solid bar, and used Ducatti pistons

I got this off Zac a few years ago, it's been sitting in storage but I'm getting the bits together so I can assemble it then it'll get sold. I bought some 0.5mm oversize NA (9:1) pistons and bearings from Rockauto. The block was bored by North Canterbury Engine Reconditioners to suit the pistons, he also decked the block and polished the crank for me. I'm converting an Evo 3 head to use the cam and crank trigger setups that some of the other 4G63s ran, I bought new sensors also from Rockauto. I've welded up the injector holes on an Evo 4 inlet manifold so I can use it with the Evo 3 head and have the throttle body facing the correct way. Still need to get lots of other bits, oil pump, sump, turbo and manifold, flywheel and clutch etc etc.

pic I had on file, can't remember how exactly they fit to engine but seem solid enough...

But we all secretly love them. I may as well try put the final nail in the coffin so I can be the one who ruined it for everyone. In all seriousness though it'll have suspension and all the required bits n pieces to be safe and legal so I don't actually see the problem. Plus a low car towing a high trailer just looks stupid. Nobody wants to be that.

Obviously that comes with a common sense clause, fitting a big block chev into a fronte would not be made ok by fitting larger studs into factory hubs with matchsticks for spindles

..which would be.. ..bad?

Not a problem. It's been super cool to learn from some one with so much knowledge. I asked him if he had any idea on how many engines he has built. His response was, "some weeks I would build two a day back in the old days, spend all weekend cleaning the casings and parts and then just build engines all week." Guy sure as hell knows what's up. Hopefully get some more stuff done tomorrow night once the fly wheel is back.

So have managed to progress with this some more! Got it all back from painter Doors all on lined up not perfect but will wait till front guards are on Fitted all new door rubbers and window guides Got the motor In Swapped over the end T piece of the steering collumn to the shorter power steering one from a ms110 And fitted it back in car Found out the auto and manual pedal boxes are the same manual just has a mount for pedal so I just removed the clutch pedal and refitted as this will be auto. Painted the brake booster and fitted the new Nissan pajero brake master. That's all for now! Exciting times

"Test Drive" turned into blasting around in it for large parts of the afternoon, reckon I've done about 45 miles or so. Brakes are fine and it goes pretty hard (for what it is). Handles really nice and is no way stock in the springs & shocks department. Tweaked the timing a bit and it's just rattling a little under heavy load, I'll try some octane booster tomorrow that will sort it out hopefully. It was blowing oil smoke for the first 5 miles but a couple of hot & cold cycles seems to have freed the rings up a treat. Haven't revved it beyond 4 grand yet but it feels pretty strong. Over all I'm pretty bloody chuffed with it, it's a really nice car. Bit of a clonk in the drivetrain but it only sounds like a UJ. Water pump bearing's a bit wobbly and it needs a new rad cap but it held temperature & oil pressure despite some enthusiastic driving. Vids for your entertainment... What ? Skid you say ? So, it's all good. Gonna do the wheels bronze and paint the rear panel black between the lights but apart from that, roll on summer.... * Also, side-sharn.... About 5 years ago I was chatting to the in-laws neighbour about cars. Started telling him about the Hako and he said " Fucking Japanese shit, I'm not interested in those useless bits of crap". We popped round to Carols folks earlier and the neighbour drove by as we were leaving. He fucking loved the Skyline, was all over it and asked if I wanted to sell it. I ignored him. Silly bugger.

(too harsh?)

This is the infosheet for design approval, effectively you are wanting custom IFS, so will need to be assessed via the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) https://lvvta.org.nz/documents/infosheets/LVVTA_Info_01-2016_LVV_Custom_Independent_Front_and_Rear_Suspension_Approval_Application_Guide.pdf Background:The NZ Hobby Car Technical Manual (HCTM) requires that any custom independent front or rear suspension (IFS/IRS) assembly obtains approval from the LVVTA’s Technical Advisory Committee. This includes any situation where an original equipment (OE) IFS has been transplanted into a different vehicle and where its OE suspension arm pivot-point locations have changed to non-OE locations, or where the relocation of any geometry-critical pivot points has taken place, thereby altering the suspension systems pre-set geometry.

Another job done. Number plate mounted off a old drag pipe exhaust mount. Going to re do the rear Indicator mounts and have them each side of the taillight instead of just under the seat Will work on that this weekend. Got some more Harley pipes on thier way which should be enough bits to get these Cocktail shakers connected to the motor. Quite keen to see how your pipes mate up to your motor @Lord Gruntfuttock. This slide the pipe over the exhaust port and clamp idea is shit

Cert plate would need updating to match the mods to the car.

NaN

I can pop in after the physio next Tue as that is just around the corner from the Kamo one, if nobody has checked by then.

Slam trailers like that are what will end up causing trailers to require certification.

Hahaha excellent! I really need to update the thread. Not much has happened but I've been accumulating parts.

So last Saturday i headed out to the v-dub shoppe to make a start on my engine. Paul was kind enough to work late and help me out. This is my engine and everything that is ment to go with it. inc the two boxes on the floor. I get all the bitch type jobs, clean this, clean that, and yeah clean that as well. so start with cleaning the crank. a little scotch in the cleaning tub and then we rinse it off with hot water. want to know why we use hot water? well hot water evaporates and doesn't leave any residue and wont rust. unlike cold water. now that that's done onto the casing. his has been machined out to fit the larger barrels and pistons to make it a 1776 so yeah lets crack it open see how many peaces of raw material i can find. oh hello. this stuff has gone everywhere. see if you can spot the peace tucked away here. that little peace of silver on the oil pick up is what you are looking for, well now that they are all cleaned up out side to wash these down with cold water. cause these are not steel and they wont rust away. hey presto we looking good now. 1st things 1st. dizzy gear in. i didn't snap a photo of this but here is one off the net. with that lubed up and in place the dizzy goes in over top. while i was putting that in Paul was putting the bearings in and making sure they lined up and marking them to make our life easier for when the crank slides in. i have also slid on 6 little rubber gaskets over the main bolts. bearing 1st. cam gear next, with some heat slid on over and sitting in place with its key way in next is distributor drive gear. my key way was a little lose, luckily we were in the right place and a few steps to the left was a container with a bunch of them in, found one that fitted better. some heat on this and on it went. bearings for the rods and on they go now. no photo of this stage my hands fill and doing other things but lets drop that on in in she goes and lined up Pauls pink dots and dropped the cam in as well.so far the only things out of the old engine are the gear peaces on the crank and the dizzy, even the dizzy drive was in a pile of other parts to the left of me that Paul just pulled out of old stuff. The rods and cam are from another purchase of parts i ended up with including the bearings and all the gaskets.Next Paul swears at his employees for leaving his gasket goo with out a lid and we put some goo on the casing and he drops the other side of the block on. finds some nuts that should come with the casing and he torques them up. its bloody handy having a store room the size he has, off i went find myself some lock nuts, re stock the draw in the engine build section. they get thrown at the engine and torqued up but to a smaller amount. sump on and well bake to the store room to find some dome nuts for the sump plug and the mesh for in side that, and a stud kit for the fuel pump, oil pump and a few other things. actually here is a photo of the kit, thanks google ahh while this was up side down we also dropped these in. which i learnt the other day is a duel pressure relief, vw casings come out duel and single, only early ones come out single. ended up watching a YouTube video of how it works and where they are. if you want to learn here is the video i watched it was a pretty good Saturday learning and building the new engine. last night i headed in and done some more work. removed all the head studs while Paul was on the phone and cleaned them up, he then came down and gave me some shit about how i didn't get the fly wheel and shims ready for him, few seconds later he had them, he worked out the end float and put some shims in allowing some small amount of thou. he was also trying to calculate out loud and man that shit was confusing as fuck to me. with that all sorted i now have the fly wheel and we are off to get skimmed and it has a really nasty lip where the rear main seal would usually sit so ill take that to geophfey and get him to take the lip off that. all in all shes been a great few days so far.

Still plodding away, got a pair of Slam Specialties RE5s for the front, would of likes to run the larger RE6s up front but they're a bit marginal for clearance on the diameter front and I'd rather not risk having a bag rubbing on something. Hot glue gunned some mounts together, all designed to be bolt in: Full Squash (onto factory bumpstops), followed by full droop - looking like I'll need limiting straps at full droop to stop all the weight hanging from the bag. Back when this was at the panel beaters I made a day trip with Ned to Mercworx is Tirau in search of a new boot, as mine was full of cheese. took a punt on one that had a dent in it but look solid. Finally got around to getting it blasted and primed at Autoblast and, other than coming back in the wrong primer and having a couple of dents in it, it looks ace - not a spot of rust in it. New one on top of old one: Have started seam sealing the underside, started with the front left wheel arch. Initially tried masking up the lines to give a cleaner finish but have decided that isn't worth the effort; a finger swipe gives the best outcome. (as an aside when Wurth say their seam sealer is 'brushable' they're using that term very optimistially) Hopefully have the underside seam sealed by the weekend touch wood.

Got the intake all done with a K&N filter, looks pretty good I think. Took a guy for a drive that knows transmission things up the road and back and he reckoned the trans was sweet, shifting how it should, just the engine was massively down on power. Tried to diagnose the problem myself but I couldn't really figure much out. It was throwing error codes for the secondary throttle and knock sensors. Discovered the secondary throttle sensor was only used for traction control so I didn't need to worry about that one. Was hoping the knock sensors were just reading high because the timing was out, so I took it to Danny's Autos in Palmy to go on the dyno and see if they can tune it and figure out what's wrong. They got it on the dyno, they were just bringing it up to speed and fuel started pissing out everywhere. One of the fuel hoses going up to the fuel rail split, don't know if it just happened or if it's been like that for awhile, but we never noticed any fuel in the valley before, where as there was heaps in it then. So off came the intake and manifold to replace it. Whilst they had that off they had a look at the knock sensors and they had seen better days. The wiring pins were pretty corroded and the casings were cracked. They sourced some new OEM ones and chucked them in. They also found one of the breather hoses had a split, as well as one of the igniter modules was only firing 1 of 4 cylinders on that one side. So basically this has only been running on 5 cylinders all this time. Thought it didn't sound quite right haha. The steering rack also decided to start leaking power steering fluid out of a place the fluid shouldn't be. Beach Hop was the next week and the rack had to be sent to Auckland to be rebuilt. Managed to get the engine back together and drive it home on the Tuesday night and pull out the rack to be sent off on Wednesday. Luckily they got around to rebuilding it fairly quick and sent off again so it arrived first thing on Friday morning. Got a different igniter module from the wreckers off a SR20 and it ran waaaaaay better! Chucked the rack back in Friday morning and took it for a WOF, passed with flying colours, so went and got some rego and now it's all legal!!!! On Friday/Saturday the fuel pump must of came out about a dozen times, half of which were on the side of the road. Went for a bit of a drive and the fuel pump kept dying for some reason, thought maybe the wiring in-tank was a bit dodgy, replaced it all and soldered every connector, that didn't make much difference. Discovered that if I gave the pump a good smack it would start back up pumping a bit more fuel or just die completely. Decided to get another fuel pump from Repco and chucked that in. Turns out the brand new "genuine" Walbro pump I got off ebay was shit. Went sooooo much better again!! Took it to the 4 & Rotary Jamboree show and shine at Manfield on the Sunday and took home the Best Commercial Piston trophy. Then on the Monday took it back into Danny's Autos to get dyno'd. Made 100kw at the wheels which I thought wasn't quite right (should be closer to 200kw?), but he reckoned it was running right and just the reading wasn't that accurate, he had trouble getting into 4th, kept changing down, so had to do it in third and that was maxing out the dyno's rolling speed. It had good consistent 02 sensor readings. Took it up to Beach Hop on the Wednesday. Had no issues other than getting some brake fade through the windy bits between Waihi and Whangamata, we think there must of still been some air left in the lines. After that happened I was changing it manually between 2nd and 3rd gear through the windy bits, rather than just leaving it in drive as it engine brakes way more. Survived all through Beach Hop, including going up to Whitianga, Kuaotuna and Onemana as well as cruising up and down the main street lots, the rear bumper took a few scrapes, I think it needs some titanium stripes underneath! I think it was one of the cars that got some of the most attention. Managed to get all the way back down to Marton, then when I was overtaking up a hill, noticed smoke coming from under the dash, so quickly pulled over and checked it out. The transmission sump had either smoke or steam since it was raining coming off of it, also smelt very burnt and the oil was quite dark. My parents caught up and we decided to just keep driving. I then noticed it was revving at 3500rpm at 100km/h, where as it's usually around about 1800rpm. It was only changing from first into second gear and that's it, if I took my foot off the accelerator it would drop straight down to idle. It was a slow drive home from there at 70km/h. Next couple of days I pulled the trans out, pulled off the sump and it had quite a bit of metallic build up at the bottom and just smelt very burnt. I guess it's always been slipping, as to why it didn't make much power on the dyno. Dropped it off today to get a quote on being rebuilt, so hopefully it's not too bad. It used about $400 worth of petrol over Beach Hop, which I think worked out to be 15 l/100km. After driving it for about 1200km I have decided the seat definitely needs redoing, it's way too hard, would also be nice to sit a bit lower and further back as well. Also the accelerator pedal has your foot at too much of an angle back, so gets sore rather quick. Shouldn't be too hard to fix as the seat changes should help and just modify the pedal a little. Also the door latches + door seals are terrible, takes way too much effort to get them closing right. A softer door seal might help, and you can get bear jaw latch kits that are basically a bolt in thing for these which might be the go when I have the spare money.

Man this bike gets my pine on.

First brand new wheels I've bought since ages ago. Only other time I have was some Performance Superlites which must be 15+ years ago now. Jebus...these years...fck. Anyway, photos of things that I think are cool: They have covers, cool... They are Enkei RPF1 17x9.5 +18, so light its crazy. On the car, I STILL need to bolt that guard down properly. Miles of brake clearance which is always an issue with these Nissan 4 pots. But quite close to the coilovers. I guess I'll find out if it touches once tyres are on. Maybe camber will help if needed. Tried a 5mm spacer and its a bit better. About 5mm better, finger for reference: I need to check how many turns the wheel nuts go on, if I use 5mm spaces I might need longer studs.

Not sure what I can add to what has been posted so far but with brakes the rule of thumb is invariably ‘bigger is better’. As previously stated increasing the rotor diameter while retaining the original calipers (and pad area) will in most cases improve braking simply through the point of friction being further away from the center of the hub (i.e. more leverage). You will also increase the speed differential between the rotor surface and the pads which in turn will generate more heat (i.e. increased stopping power). To break (excuse the pun!) it down to its simplest form, any friction braking system is a two stage process; 1: the conversion of kinetic energy into heat and 2: the dissipation of the heat. For the 2nd part of the process using a larger rotor gives a significant gain by increasing the surface area where heat transfer (metal to air) takes place. Be aware that you will be increasing un-sprung weight, there could be a shift in brake bias and a change in pad material, and fluid type may need to be considered. My own personal opinion is that for street driving there is possibly another gain from the larger mass of the rotor increasing the ‘heat soak’ capacity of a braking system in an emergency, single application scenario, (i.e. an emergency stop). I don’t have any hard data to back this up but would love to look at it further in a controlled environment. Hope this helps.

Been up to heaps more adventures in the wagon. Went down to Leadfoot Festival. There was a sweet Cortina wagon there. My wagon always gets mistaken for a Cortina so I couldn't help but take a photo of the two, what do you think? I can see why some people get confused, especially with how rare the Avenger wagons are. Went camping at Wagnats in the wagon so did a last minute run to the camping store with the roof racks on The funnest thing happened while I was at the mall. Somebody left a flyer for Seniors morning tea at the movies, along with her business card for a seniors taxi service. I found this freaking hilarious because I was going for that sleeper look. She probably thought I was an old grandpa going up to do my weekly shop in my old Avenger wagon with roof racks. I checked the whole car park and there wasn't any other flyers so I totally fooled her with the sleeper wagon Packed up the back of the wagon for camping. Tons of room for everything. Set up my camp site. The bed mode worked awesomely and just brought a little sun shade to go over the back of the tailgate. Brought a spare wall for a tent that I could use as curtains to keep the car cool. So many cool wagons The camp ground was by a big river. Had so much fun, camped out for 5 days. You can see the wagons in the top left of the photo. On the way back I got to test the "Service Due Soon" warning on my dash. It pops up after 4,500km. Once it goes over 5,000km then it will change to say "Service Immediately" Next up it was time to do a bit more engine bay cleanup. I know what you are going to say, the engine bay already looks tidy as but I still wasn't 100% happy so I pulled off the rocker covers so I could vapour blast them. The inside of the rocker covers have baffles on them which needed to be removed. With the baffles and seals removed they were ready to vapour blast The old baffles where riveted in so I had to grind them off and tap the rocker so we could screw the baffles back in. While the rocker covers were away I could do a bit more work on the car. Brought a New Old Stock Hillman bumper. One last look at the old Chrysler bumper vs the Hillman bumper. You can't really see how much smaller the hillman one is in photos but IRL the Hillman one looks tiny. Removed the old bumper. It was a bit of a pain with all the fuel system and exhaust in the way New bumper looks amazing!! Got the rocker covers back from the vapour blasters. They look amazing Screwed in the baffles using heaps of Loctite Put the rockers back on and the engine is looking super sweet Also at the same time I finally got that dent removed from the bonnet, and I painted the bonnet pins body colour, what do you guys think? at first I was unsure but it has grown on me. Also got the dent on the engine bay repaired, fulled in a few more holes and repainted the engine bay. Took the car out to the Brit and Euro show. It was a good day, hung out with the Hillman Humber club. On the way back, getting on to the motorway they have these traffic light, straight in to a 100kph zone, so you start side by side like a little drag strip, lined up beside a modern 911 turbo from the show and was neck and neck with it. Still amazed how quick the little wagon is. Lastly I got some new tinted windows. Looks pretty sweet now, they aren't as dark as they look in photos.

Oh boy! I have been super busy, going everywhere in my wagon so sorry for the lack of updates but here we go. So this last weekend I entered my car in the 4 and Rotary Nationals. I wasn't sure how well it would do because it is just my little Avenger wagon, up against all these wicked show cars. Going in to the event I thought maybe I had a shot at best V8, but that was all I was hoping for. At the prize giving they called out the best V8, which went to a V8 Silvia. So I figured I wasn't going to get any awards. Then they called out Best 1970-1989 in the Piston Class and it was my little wagon!!! Being super stoked with that I went up and got my trophy. Then they called out Best Piston Conversion and it was me again!! At this point my mind was well and truly blown because there was some seriously nice competition at the show. It was the first time I have entered any of my cars as a show car, and to win two awards was absolutely amazing. Here's a shot of the wagon at the show. I also went to Caffeine and Classics, and the Orewa beach show. So quite a busy weekend. Now jumping back in time a bit. Back in December I went to the Oldschool.co.nz drag day and had a total blast. I was doing 13.2 runs at 103.66MPH here is a onboard video Here is one of my time slips We had a nice little Avenger get together. My two Avengers and Billy was also drag his stock Avenger, sadly his diff did not like drag racing much and his spider gears broke Later in the day Hamish turned up in his Avenger Then we went and did some group photos For the dial your own racing I dialed in 13.2 but I missed a shift on the first run and didn't get through. Lots of rubber on the old back guard A few photos from Facebook at the drags. https://www.facebook.com/DCGPhotographyNZ/ And https://www.facebook.com/rotationals/ In other news, finally got round to Dynamatting the boot. And I'm going to Wagnats in a week so I will be camping in the back of the wagon so I tried out the "Bed Mode" it works really well. Tons of room for a twin airbed Went to the Kumeu hotrod show a couple of weeks ago and brought a sweet roof rack for when I go camping. I found it at the swap meet there, I went specifically looking for a roof rack and only found one and it was the perfect size!! So busy couple of weeks, off to leadfoot festival this weekend, then Wagnats camping in the wagon!! Discussion

WOOHOO!!! FRAK YEAH!! SHE IS ALL ROAD LEGAL!!!!! I'm going away to the South Island next Wednesday so it has been a mad rush to get it finished in time. Still a little list of things that I want to finish of but it drives really nice. I took it for it's first proper drive today and it is such a fun car to drive, stupidly quick and OMG does it ever sound amazing!! Got the cert plate back today, passed with flying colours. Here is the cert plate listing all the mods Got it's warrant of fitness. And registration First night back at home Here is a before shot, I love how you can barely tell I put the V8 in it. Such a sleeper. The big back wheels are pretty much the only thing that gives it away, they look so cool. Back in the garage with my other cars Other little updates. Painted the centre caps of the temporary front wheels. Doesn't actually look too bad now that it is all murdered out. Swapped over the front bumpers. The early Hillmans used a much smaller bumper than the late model Chrysler's. They don't bolt straight up, you need to drill a couple of holes then after that it bolts right up. You can see a good shot of the old bumper in the before photo above. Finished mounting the brake bias valve.

Been working on the wiring. Finished the body loom. Went from this To this Started on the fuse box and relays Did new connectors for the digital dash. I used nylon braided sleeving for everything Also finished the backbone of the engine loom. The rest I will do in the car so I can work out the exact cable length I need. Link ECU all mounted Also got some new brighter bulbs now that I have some relays and better wiring. I went for 60/55W Halogen H4 with a P45T base. Should be quite a bit brighter than the old 45/40W incandescent bulbs

Went and had a look yesterday, the doors are now less self draining than they were before, with the lower door skins having been fitted and the lower frames replaced on the front 2 doors. However the self draining capabilities of the boot floor have increased substantially since last featured Have new sills on their way from Germany at the moment, I think they will be the last repair panels I'll buy in, everything else that's needed will need to be made here. Also I got called out the other night with who I have/haven't given thanks to in previous posts. An Honorary mention must be made to @Ned for storing the car for the 4-5 month period between it getting blasted and going to the panel beaters.

At the very least those crap slam trailers won't be on the road any more.