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got my driveshaft back and put it in. filled it up with trans fluid and took it for a test drive. everything seems to be working fine and the trans shifts perfectly. kickdown is working shifter selects all the gears correctly i hooked power up to the overdrive solenoid and that's all working mint its like a different car. motorway crusing is lush now. no more 10billion revs at 95KPH. here's an art picture because i didn't take any of a gearbox. 2019-08-13_07-49-37 by sheepers, on Flickr

hey also, here's a technical tip for those of you interested in the finer details of auto trans setup, if you want it to not leak fluid out the bottom, do up the drain plug. you got that?

Taken it out twice - both times weather looked good and both times it totally shat itself raining. Bring on summer

Not much has happened due to me having the flu, but the weather was too good not to take the TVR for a quick blat around the block Anyone who has had Man-Flu knows how hard it is to survive a normal day, let alone a day playing with old British cars, so my freight train of progress is halted at the station for a bit, as the garage is just too cold for me to be working in (its the middle of winter, and its been horrible weather recently). Due to said horrible weather, the tiny little "first drive" mentioned in the previous post did only consist of popping down to the end of the street and back, a return trip of about 100m. Today was the first day we saw some sun, and because I heard getting some fresh air and sun is good for you when you're sick, I took this as a sign that the TVR should go for a quick run around the block. I didn't go far, only a total distance of 1km according to Google Maps, but further than the car has been driven in probably 3 years. The car was already warm in this video as technically I had already taken it around the block twice before I thought I should grab a video. It started easily from dead cold, and as you can see warm starting is pretty good for an 80s K-Jet too. I had the targa panel off but the rear section up to reduce wind noise, and even then, what a sound that Cologne makes! It surrounds you. What a silly little car to drive, but such fun. It's not all happy days. The steering wheel is way on the piss (as you can see), the brakes pulsate badly, and it seems to misfire under load at about 4500rpm. There is still work to do, but its good to know that the car is actually driveable. The new spark plugs arrived today, so I'll probably throw them in this weekend, and I'll check over the rest of the ignition system at the same time. It could also do with some more fuel as I must be burning dinosaurs at a rapid rate of knots, and there wasn't a lot in there to start with.

Oct 2011 throwback

The crazys in the workshop have been at it again....

Slow progress, because winter time insanity. Made a prototype for a new gearbox crossmember/mount arrangement. That uses much stiffer bushes and ends up with waayyyyy more ground clearance than the big standard mount. Also, if I got it cast from aluminium the entire assembly is lighter than just the rubber bush part from the standard setup. win. Not sure how to make the final version yet, but it's good to have the gearbox sitting in the right place. And have a decent set of accurate dimensions for making a proper one. Hopefully soon figure out my driveshaft and exhaust situation. I'm on the lookout for a standard 2-1 part of an Altezza exhaust if anyone's got one kicking around?

It's been a long time since i've done a post, because it's been a long time to get me motivated to install the wiper linkeages. I ended up just buying some M18 x 1.0 pitch nuts off ebay for $15, and a week later they arrived. instead of procrastinating about it for 4 months i really should have done it sooner.... Since last update: Installed AE92 FX-GT front seat belts Installed previous exhaust from old KE30 which is 2.5" to the extractors and a nice dumpy at the end Rebuilt front brakes, it's nice when they work properly. installed a new healthier 4K motor and went to a chinese carb from eBay that actually performs quite well. I will go with a weber 28/36 if I can find one but it's good for the interim New Coils, plugs, leads, fuel filter (the other new one i bought has clogged up with garbage. Not surprised) Installed 3.9 ratio diff head from a KE70 to fix it's awfully high revs with the 4.3 Fixed rust on the under chassis rail TODO: Fix brake pedal on the brake switch because sometimes it doesn't disengage Get centers repainted on the SSR Mesh's Get underside sand blasted and painted/under sealed Find center trim chrome for rear lights ugly photos. will get some nicer ones this weekend I repainted the plates with satin black paint, it looks really good, I didn't completely sand it back to the bare metal which i'm actually happy about. makes it look a bit dated in a way with some of the left over paint overtop Then I went to VTNZ. The guy loved it. He also stuck something on my windscreen.. Time to fix the small issues with the car, and drive her around for a bit. happy with how it's come out in the end, proud for a first time project of this scale for it to have come out so well. Looking forward to starting on another! Build discussion:

With raglan nats already organized I thought that would be a good target to aim to get this done by. Parked motorbikes at the back of the garage to avoid distractions for now Ordered a few bits for it this week, fingers crossed rockauto solves my brake caliper issue. and fitted a wastegate this weekend. I think the next step is put the engine in the hole and start making exhaust and intercooler piping

Thought it was about time to have a look at my favorite DCD Weber; we go back a long way, purchased new in 1974 it was looking a little 2nd hand. Stripped it down and on closer inspection the throttle spindles showed little almost no wear and the call was made to give it a good clean and assemble with a new float valve and gaskets. Finally located a rebuild kit from MLP Carbs in Victoria, (don’t you hate it when bloody Aussies turn out to be the good guys……!). After an enjoyable evening in the world famous sr2 man cave rattling the neighbourhood with Pink Floyd playing loud and ½ a bottle of cheap (ish) pinot noir - one more job’s ticked off the list.

Just bail on it, don't need to mess with no 10 year old car throwing codes. Unless the code is a feature and you are getting it cheap because of something you know how to fix.

I think this bike is too far gone to get it back to a nice condition so i'm just going to make it reliable and thrash the tits off it haha.

Maybe, have thought about getting out but hard to actually do it, retention is very high in my team for a few reasons, last person to join the team was 10 years ago, 2 have left in that time, the last about 6 years back. 17 of us at the mo.

Thanks! I surprised myself with how that turned out, actually lol. I painted it using an airbrush with Tamiya Metallic Orange and 2k urethane clear for the clear coat.

A crook battery can make cars throw codes.

Wow, that's some real Barry ingenuity right there.

I think this thread is for 3 chassis ago. Yeah twin headlight with painted bumpers has always been the dream

No idea man, I had to google it. Most paint companies have those general use acrylic urethane top coats but not sure what the finish is like. What do you want to do with it? Generally for top coats its just base-coat + 2k urethane clear if you want metallic or a nice looking clear coat finish, or a automotive single stage 2k urethane for plain colours but they can look kinda plasticy and weird on old cars that originally had a lacquer or enamel paint job IMO.

Raised it back up to get the outer sills painted white and straightened up and a few bubbles around rear guards seam tidied up. Struts have been crack tested, camber adjustable rear subframe ready to go in with f series 3.7 clutch pack lsd. Just need to fix various oil leaks and fit 205/60 tyres somehow and then try my luck at getting it legal

Warning, gratuitous CNC usage in the following updates, readers may feel extreme jealousy/envy I have access to a waterjet at work. Triple trees sorted.

Seats done.

First time it's seen daylight in about 3 years. Have just discovered a leaky rear shock so I guess I have to throw some more $$ at it haha.

Is that your video? You spelt extended wrong I been building this. Started last weekend in between rain showers Needs roof and nesting boxes then dry weather for paint ( or stain)

finished modifying the crossmember and put it back in the car. everything's done now, fluid lines hooked up, kick down connected, shifter connected and spedo cable hooked in. just need my drive shaft back (should be Tuesday) then its test drive time. cant hook up the converter lock until i figure out how the fluid pressure circuit works which ill know when i drive it. 2019-08-10_12-08-21 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-08-10_12-08-29 by sheepers, on Flickr

Finally picked up the finished counterbalance crank; big thanks to Engine Specialties for a not cheap but a hard job well done, good value in my books-thanks guys. Crack tested, big ends ground 10 thou, main journals reduced to fit the X2 186 block, rear seal converted from rope to neoprene (once more to fit the block) and a full balance. They insisted on supplying their preferred bearing shells and how can you argue with a bunch of guys taking full ownership of their work? For an old Holden 6 junkie, this is nothing less than pure crankshaft porn!

I love rockauto. Have been fiddling about with brake calipers for the front, I had previously got some 4 pot surf calipers from pick a part but the surf disc is narrower than the valiant ones and slightly smaller diameter so I was going to have to mill the caliper slot bigger and then I wasn't sure if the pads were going to be too fat I went to cardwells to see if there was wilwood caliper that was a bolt on, and there was 1 option, but it would have needed a bigger disc and I don't think they would have worked with the wheels I have I was doing a cert on a surf the other day, and saw it had fatter discs than the one I had got the calipers off, went on rockauto, found a v6 one of the same year had the bigger discs so ordered a pair of reconditioned calipers, $25usd each and here within a week. So now all I need to do is get the disc diameter machined down 3mm or so and it will all bolt up, yuss

Weather put me off taking it to Chrome today. Took it for a hoon about town and it didn’t miss a beat. The blue 808 (mates) got a new turbo last night and was put to work on the track.

Better make sure you're there with him when he lights it up!

Been slack on the starlet side of the shed. Abit of love today however.. So ba falcon carpet + knife + kp starlet =this haha I mean its not perfect but aloooot better. Also took for a quick drive think alternator is on its way out. One thing off the list another on hahah

so yea. legal as. and now that is legal again it time to start doing all the illegal mods to it that i want to do. first up was installing an adjustable brake bias valve because i wasnt happy with how the brakes were before and im going to be putting a disk brake diff in it soon and ill need it for that. second was installing a smaller steering wheel. 2019-07-06_05-04-31 by sheepers, on Flickr then it was time to lower the front a bit because i wasn't happy with how it looked so the front springs got a mikita haircut. now its sitting much better. 2019-07-06_05-04-40 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-07-06_05-04-49 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-07-06_05-04-58 by sheepers, on Fl next will be painting the hood lining i think. its a fucked grey/mostly stained colour now so i think ill dye it black.

2019-06-19_01-30-25 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-06-19_12-40-53 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-06-19_12-40-43 by sheepers, on Flickr

anzac day progress. been feeling pretty good lately with the old back, im down to half my pain killers (except for today where i took some after breakfast because leg was turbo sore) so with that in mind ive been doing a bit more on the coupe. today i installed new inner and outer tie rods, new upper and lower ball joints and a second hand but pretty good pitman arm. i also topped up the steering box with Molly grease which has made quite a big difference. lets be honest, the steering on these things is pretty hard but its slightly less shit now. i have a power steering box to put in this which ill do after compliance. i dont have a bracket for the pump if anyone has one for a square port 4M.... so with that done i decided to go for a drive. the longest drive ive ever done in it, about 5Ks around the neighborhood. went up to westmere then down to the beach. this thing goes so well. the suspension is fucking ace, it dosent rattle or vibrate, the auto is smooth and changes perfectly and the motor hasn't turned to shit yet. the radio works and the heater /fan all works mint too. its fucking ace. and your not gong to believe this but it did a skid turning right onto the main road! ive got a few little things to tidy up but then its on to compliance!!! 2019-04-25_04-50-20 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-04-25_04-50-11 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-04-25_04-50-03 by sheepers, on Flickr

Cheers Alex - I need to somehow clear coat the metal parts as I don’t want to encourage the rust back to it haha. Patina - you just can’t buy it

Some more progress. One thing I have learned from the job I do, is sometimes it's better to pay for someone to do stuff instead of having a go and making a hash of it myself. Both front floor pans had some rust on the top side which I don't have the skill, gear, or patience to do a nice job of. @RXFORD/ Matt at tin tricks in east tamaki is a friend of mine, he picked it up and fixed the floors, while it was there he deleted the heater motor and hose holes in the firewall and made a new part of the inner guard which gets rid of an ugly bit where the battery box used to live, and made it match the other side. My photos are a bit ham but I'm stoked with how it turned out

Another new/old Trademe score was a late 50’s “Miles Master” fuel pressure regulator, (SU’s need only a few lbs of fuel pressure). I was going to use a modern conventional 3.5 psi regulator but how could you resist both the packaging not to mention the sales pitch; and how could a mere mortal question the 30 day money back guarantee? Have to point out that both Rigamortice and I were somewhat let-down with the discovery that there was no ‘free set of Ginzu steak knives’ included in the transaction, but we just keep falling in love with this stuff. It’s history.

The initial plan was to replace the Spindles and Spindle Bushes and then re-kit the carbs but I managed to track down 3 new/old stock HS6 carbs for a fraction of the price – sometimes you just get lucky! The guy I bought them off even threw in a carb balancer and a Colortune Kit to sweeten the deal, there’s some good sorts out there.

Some six months or so ago, after considerable research, (drunken chewing of the fat with our mates) and in depth self-analysis, (a Bottle of 101 Wild Turkey) both Rigamortice and myself came to the inevitable conclusion that the ideal carburation solution for the new 208ci “186 X2” had to be the period correct set of 3x 1¾ HS6 SU carbs on the vintage Speco manifold. We will however run the motor in and get the dodgy legals done with the tried and proven Weber DCD setup. (Anyone after a triple set of 40 DEOCE’s and a 9 port manifold – just ask). I did a quick dummy assembly with a spare motor for a bit of man-cave decoration.

I Beat down to the bakery this morning for some pastries and a fizzy pop. M E Gale, the original beater.

And vinegar for de rusting fiddly bits

Sadly some projects just pan out... My xv1000s clutch is getting worse and my van needs some attention and havnt done amything really with starlet... So sad to say shes gone to a new home.. Hope gets more use. But atlest can now afford to fix my bike properly