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yea sorry this build has gone faster than my spare time to write out the next post. so for the mean time i would like to show you what you can achieve in 11 days after work doing a few hours here and a few hours there. A huge thanks to Paul. now dont worry i will go into detail on what we have done and how i went about it all, but i feel the need to show you guys and gals this. Cheers team, we might just be driving George the kombi over the Easter & Anzac break.

North Shore Rotary Club present a 1995 Workshop Coupe (as it has only 2 doors). Back in December old mate rot808 and I bought a workshop on the North Shore for a bit of classic rotary storage, which is great because families get excited to free up their garage space but realistically it means we can now buy more Mazdas. It's a tilt slab studio spec thing with only 2 doors for less whores (maybe why the brothel unit shut down opposite us but thats another story). Based in a group of 13 or so units which keeps the bodycorp and maintenance down heaps, the neighbours are great because from the ones we have met they have classic cars, two units are mechanics, and one races Targa. Built in '95 most the other units were converted to mezzanine all the way through, but ours in one of a couple left standard with a smaller mezzanine, and more room for cars. Even 3 phase for eventual hoist storage options. The upstairs is a fair size for office/lounge area and for collection of naked lady supercar pics. The funny story about the pics is that we won the Ferrari one and was one road away from collecting it as a man brought out the Lambo one to side of road. We immediately stopped and did a u-turn to ensure it was free. It was "after 10 years in the garage my wife told me to choose between topless lady Lambo or bottomless lady Porsche", so after admiring the other choices we chucked in the Lambo and went off to pick up the Ferrari. Functionally it can host 2 Mazda's, and tightly 3. Cleared out for overseas adventures it can host 4 (thanks to our specific bathroom measurements to not exceed two Mazda's door to door) and the 5th Mazda can of course be hosted with eventual hoist but we don't own 5 (... yet) Rocked up to meet the ex-owner of the workshop in my car, to find out he owned RX7's and the guy over the road has an FC outside his too. Bonus features not listed in sale agreement are weekend rotary burnouts - did not realise this, quite happy with the outcome. So we grabbed some workshop toolboxes and shelves to act as a kitchen for an industrial theme. Even added the slam bike for a feature, and $3 plants which I eventually forgot to water and they RIP'd. So it's come a fair way in 3 months considering it's a blank canvas to try design. The bathroom was extended out with help from Mr Ryan Fels, and I left him and rot808 alone too long and they made a ridiculous small door under the stairs with handle at bottom (it's all functional now though so great job guys). Then I taught myself how to gib-stop & subsequently developed stronger language skills. My mate Leonard (the fridge) was $10 on Trademe, won before we even had the workshop, but didn't check location… so down to Tauranga and back for one of the best purchases… second only to the fabulous Rothmans cigarettes dairy sign which required pick up and storage by the lovely Danger Dane until we could fly it home. So now that it was all painted and ready to go, we had the idea to invite a concrete grinder in to take off the paint I had just applied. Forward thinking does help these situations but anyway. These 2 guys came over from a company called Auckland Concrete Grinding and worked for 3 days perfecting the floor, grinding it back around 3mm and coating it with a couple layers of penetrating sealer and coater that smells like Tolene, to become water and stain resistant. Thankfully we don't own British cars so didn't need another 3 protective coats. The results are far more impressive than we thought, we assumed a light grind would just be a lighter grey finish with none of the speckles visible but they did an amazing job. Even got the back wall coated to act as a splashback. Before, During & Afters: So that's the basics of the downstairs for now, and after sorting out the plumbing and wiring downstairs we will then start to tackle the layout. First point of confusion how to lay things out... Will be updating some of the projects as I get time, feel free to follow along and give recommendations etc.

So got a bit distracted with local rotary travel and a rotary storage workshop. First things first, I priced up materials for re-upholstery and bought some tools and foam before realising nobody would just do a stitch job basically wanted all or nothing. So we went to Stephen's old mate who offered a completely mind-boggling irresistible cash price job, so took him up on that offer. He even had the exact fabric. Got the rears back already and they needed completely re-doing due to the heat damage cracking the top piece and subsequently shrinking the fabric elsewhere. So meanwhile we've been busy fiddling around stripping it out completely of wiring, brake lines, and most of the underseal except that one spot over the tunnel that you leave until last and when last comes you go 'why on earth did I leave the worst bit til last' so you just never ever touch it again... someone want a job?? Mostly it's in great condition, although once we finally ground off the welds holding the guards to the body (first WTF moment) we found the RHS front had significant damage as bad as to completely crumple the crush tube and crease the engine bay. The damage is a bit of a financial set-back and obviously means a bigger job for compliance, so it did then require blasting and prep to be repaired. Bonus find this time round, a charming ring down in the door panel over the lock. As things go, I had it set up and masked off to blast myself, and then the compressor died. So after looking around I found C.A. Levien in Henderson to give the underneath, inner guards, engine bay, windscreen channels, and rear quarter rust patches a blast. Yes, everything except the great patina and heinous tagging. (my least favourite side, with BB gun dents and what appears to be acid damage). Even the sandblasters they thought it was hilarious to save the patina, but they made such a huge improvement on the car it actually looks purposeful now. Highly recommended, they even stored it away in it's own shed. The rear quarters were only 5% worse than expected, the underneath is absolutely fantastic, and the weird panel under rear windscreen that was mysteriously primer is happily not bog and is solid steel. Kyle was kind enough to take and send me some pictures of the process too: So after a year of ownership it was transported off again on Monday to it's new temporary home. Thankfully we found an old school repairer who will be able to save it without us finding a new front cut. From what I understand, he will cut from firewall and slowly pull the front back into original shape, beating out the creases. While it's there I may gain the fucks needed to finish off the underseal and chuck some durepox over it but probably won't. He'll also be teaching me a mix of painting and airbrushing to get the touched quarters back to their patina best. And I'll pull apart the twin dizzy to see what the options are. That's all for now folks.

Barn door update. I've been away so much lately that this took a backseat. Anyway, a few more hours spent on getting it done this afternoon Ready to stain and hang on the wall.

Wow. Had this thing a year and not even used it. Wheels are still off it. So rusty i cant bring myself to bolt them on (although they are perfectly usable) Today i got this message "Len here . George just got a nzta letter in the mail about ownership. Can you ring him when your free xxxxxxxx he also found the Fergie grill" What does this mean?!? Plates are still live? He told me they werent. Dunno how farm stuff works. The bare metal with peneteol looks great. Just a few streaks of rust from where i didn't put on enough peneteol. One year (nearly) outside in the elements so im super impressed!!!!!

Hi I managed to find a full engine gasket set from the us so I've ordered one of them which will turn up next month.. Have been cracking on with putting the interior back together I'm needing a few trim clips/door card clips I guess they look like P shaped? Also the plastic circles that slot into the inner door skins so will see if can purchase some new ones. Cheers

I agree. Enjoy this part where things are free/just time. Please dont be drawn over the tracks to the wrong side with this car. Keep it oldschool. Similar warning I had to give Mason when he started to veer off track and things were approaching this....

Yep. Just checked, your rego is still active. Go do some skids up main street.

Got them early currently they are in the motel room with me.. too paranoid to leave in back of ute, lol.

New taillight mount that not intergrates the indicators

Quick bulldozer shit post. I went to use it a few months ago and the oil light was flickering, turns out the fuel pump had split it's diaphragm and emptied the fuel tank into the sump. No biggie. I wanted to make an oil filler that didn't require taking the body work off to fit more engine oil. The fuel pump mount proved to be ideal and a trade me electric fuel pump now pumps the fuel. Worked out good so I tidied up the drive to celebrate.

which brings me to introduce the final piece of art, "Rom3yz zhit xox":

I looped the heater on the crx and filled the tank. I took it for a doort out to piha and everything went well. I need some brave pills and lots more seat time to get better. No scrapes on most things now which is good and no annoying drone at 80-100 which is even better. Its still pretty raspy but it is a Honda... The old headers used to hit that lip of concrete going into the garage and the new ones aren't anywhere near Oh @mjrstar the iat (the few times I checked) stayed around 30 degrees and after sitting for a bit crept up to mid 40s

Next year. Not doing one this year.

@64valiant when is your next open day? Lol

Sweet!

thanks to everyone who turned up

Thanks man! Well, thats the big tick done - WOF Complete! Failed as expected but only on the reflectors and he had some on deck so brought those off him. Happy with that result I rode it home from the mechanics which was approx. 15 minutes on the highway. Initial thoughts are it feels small.. A bit like a gorilla on a rollerskate haha Felt good at 100kms an hour. It's got a "speed" light that comes on at around 85kms an hour which is a big red light.. Thats got to go because even though I know about it, it still makes me heart skip a beat thinking there is an oil issue. Needs a good clean, a couple little things here and there but otherwise it's a cool little bike! The "build" isn't over yet. I've just brought a new house which has a garage (woop!) so i'll be able to get it up on a lift and have more room to work with which I am super excited about. Cheers to all tho have followed so far and have been interested in the process so far - appreciate it

Drivers door complete and only the boot lid to go and body work finished. Still trial fitting parts etc and once done it is off for the final blast and prime then off to paint.

Budget shelter nearly finished. We had to add 4 more ribs today to get the iron to sit better. Aesthetically its quite poor. Practicality, and budget wise it's very good.

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

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 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.

Nah wont be ready, the painter fell through so its still in bits. I'm helping on the day so will be there anyway. I'll make it run and drive over easter all going well.

Made this at work.

You mean these?

Already found RX2TMR is available

Wheels came off and the tractor got relined shoes, new clip things and a few seals (only two of the seals in the photo.. the easy axle ones) was shit as i have the outer axle seals but no tools (or motivation) strong enough to pull the bearings off. The most time was spent getting the rhs wheel off (holy hell nuts were tight) and adjusting everything to get correct pedal travel. Also.. note the yellow string. No idea how iothers do it (i do know there are special pliers) but string is GREAT for stretching springs into place. Pulling down is the best as ya just pop ya foot into the loop. And it stops this

Cleaned up the new guards and managed to remove the old guard remains (that took hours of splitting nuts and pounding out the rusted in bolts. while rain has ment painting outside cant happen. Also look at this mean chainsaw that came with the tractor.

Im pretty good at assembling these starters now. Had an issue with the new component not sliding nicely on the shafts spline without binding. Took about an hour with a diamond hone to get all the rubbing spots down..one by one. Then engaged the coil with jumper leads and set the pinion throw using flathead and jam nut on side of starter. This is so that when at max throw you arent loading the fork and pinion up into the end of the snout. Installed the starter, made sure there was no water in any of the fuel lines/filters, emptied the intake air cleaner (it was FULL of water) and... She fired into life after about 4 revolutions. First time in quite a while and it only took a few seconds for it to have zero smoke and run SUPER clean Then i stood back and put thr hood on. I havent finished with thr side panels and grille yet. Then back into the shed i wire brushed and penetrolled the underside of the hood and then hammered out the big dents up front. Ill get it better later (probably never will)

Went and met a super awesome barry in Thames who actually rebuilds starters and alternators. This guy is the ONLY person I'd spoken to who had any idea about my starter problems. He had a replacement part on the shelf for $140 and was happy as to show me all of his NOS spare parts and impossible to find bits and pieces. Every other person tried to sell me a new starter! I'd highly recommend him to anyone with old electrical stuff that should work but doesn't.

same with toyota, nissan, mazda diesels. the works. all jap diesels have problems with heads cracking or whatever, apparently. seems only the mitsis have held on to this stigma. it's actually pretty sweet as it makes pajeros, which are packed with lushness, much cheaper than ANYTHING else. If they're looked after, then they'll likely not give you issues. I've now had two mitsi diesels. both 4d56. one turbo, one not. no problems. the turbo one i used to give a cunt of a life, but i never neglected to service it, and never neglected the cooling system. when you do, in any vehicle, then that's when you'll have problems. from my research before i bought a v6 paj (for my own reasons, however, i might have been better with a 4m40 one in hindsight) I found that 4d56t gen 2 pajeros were only worth passing on due to their underpoweredness. when the 4m40 is on offer, they have a shit tonne more grunt, and therefore are the one to go for. when they were new (you could buy them in nz) they were the most powerful 4cyl 4x4 diesel on offer. toyota was pissing round with it's non turbo 3l 4runners, and nissan had rusty terranos. isuzu/holden had the not_quite_grunty_enough 4jg2-t. that was it. the 4m40 had the most grunt in it's class. the bad points on 4m40s seem to be: -timing chain. although seen as more reliable than a belt, a lot of them get mega timing chain stretch when around 150km. I'm not sure how many break but it's noisy as shit and detrimental to power as it fucks with the valve, and inejctor pump timing. -egr system playing up: shit just stops working as it should. make a blanking plate to block it off but leave it all in situ so it wont throw any codes on teh later ones. -glow plugs are a consumable: some people have to change them once a year or you get missing/white smoke on startup. seems to be the norm for even the 4d56 family, though. should be $80 max and is as simple as doing sparkplugs on any petrol engine. that's about it. keep the cooling system in good condition and service it regularly and she'll be right. I'm not sure how they go for cranking fuel (and boost to match of course) for more neddies but i'm sure you'll find something. apparently they like a nice free flowing exhaust. what doesn't, though. I went for a v6 as they're cheaper than diesel versions to buy and the rego and rucs i thought might not *quite* work out cheaper with the km i do. truth is, it would've been far cheaper to run, even taking these into account had I gone for a diesel. I can't complain at the power delivery of my v6 though. pulls like a bawse from idle. even in fairly deep soft sand I rarely bog down enough to need to change down until like 1200rpm. bulldozer engine spec hah. if you're getting an LWB then diesel would definitely be the way to go.